You're about to die.
This annoys me.
This annoys me.
Seeing the Pattern
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by Aegis Shield.
When Pinkie Pie's asleep, Pinkamina awakens. Using the clues provided by her alter-ego's Pinkie Sense, Pinkamina sets out to prevent the accidental deaths of Ponyville's citizens. As if her limited time to act wasn't problem enough, she also has to contend with a love-struck stallion, the ire of the Royal Pony Sisters, and the fact that all of these disasters may not be so accidental after all...
Also has a sequel: Seeing the Pattern 2: Death Take You. A third story was originally conceived but the author has since abandoned those plans.
Tropes common to both stories:
- Aborted Arc: The third story, which was intended to center around Pinkamina's career as the new Grim Reaper, was scrapped when Aegis ran out of ideas for it. So it went to the "Scrap Pile" story.
- Balancing Death's Books: Saving ponies who were fated to die has cosmic consequences.
- Good Is Not Nice: Pinkamina is grouchy, sarcastic and anti-social. She’s also waging a secret one-mare war against Death.
Tropes in Seeing the Pattern:
- Big Damn Heroes: Since Pinkamina only gets five clues in her Race Against the Clock, she has several of these moments.
- Black Dude Dies First: Played with; Zecora is the first fated victim but Pinkamina saves her.
- Doing Research: Deciphering the Pinkie Sense takes a lot of work.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Pinkamina’s mane is straight, Pinkie’s mane is curly.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Averted, it's Pinkie who has the Pinkie Sense. Pinkamina doesn’t have access to it. She also has no clue how the Party Cannon works even though she can summon it.
- Literal Split Personality: Occurs when Pinkie returns from the dead as Surprise.
- Race Against the Clock: The Pinkie Sense warnings Pinkamina has to decipher occur with decreasing frequency as the victims death gets closer. She starts with five days, then four, until the last warning occurs on the day of death.
- Rescue Romance: Somewhat, Lickity was already attracted to Pinkie before Pinkamina saved him.
- Screw Destiny: Pinkamina's determination to change the course of ponies' fate is point of the story.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pinkamina loves saltine crackers.
- The Unchosen One: Pinkamina's crusade is strictly self-imposed, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
Tropes in Seeing the Pattern 2: Death Take You
- The Chessmaster: In order to give Pinkamina a fighting chance against Death, Celestia travels back in time and blesses an ice cream scoop.
- Enemies with Death: The Grim Reaper doesn't take kindly to Pinkamina's interference.
- The Grim Reaper: Pinkamina's opponent in the second story is no longer figuratively the Grim Reaper. Now it's literally the Grim Reaper, who's annoyed by her interference with destiny.
- Take Up My Sword: By defeating The Grim Reaper, revealed to be Applejack's dead father, Pinkamina ends up with his job. The third story would have centered around this, but Aegis ran out of ideas for it and scrapped it.
