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Just your normal reformed ex-unicorn and friends.
Seven Days in Sunny June, a joint project by Shinzakura, BlueBastard and Flynt Coal, is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic, and the second phase of BlueBastard's Berylverse, set after the events of A Hairy Problem and A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball.

Weeks after her defeat at the hands of the humanized Princess Twilight Sparkle, the one-time pony Sunset Shimmer is working towards making herself a better life. But in an unexpected chain of events, she ends up in a situation that not even her new friends - Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie - can get her out of... nor really do they want to. As if that's not enough, Principal Celestia's firmly against the whole deal.

But maybe if Sunset Shimmer sticks around, she'll get more than she bargained for — for good and ill...

    Main stories 

    Sidestories 

By in-universe chronological order:

  • The Three Sunrises (complete) - prequel set after the events of Equestria Girls and ending just as Book I starts.Note 
  • Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want (complete) - interquel set between chapters 4 and 5 of Book I.Note 
  • Treasure (complete) - interquel set during the Christmas holiday in Book I.Note 
  • Shake It Off (in progress) - interquel that follows Vinyl Scratch and Cloud Kicker after their move to Detroit in the wake of the Vibe incident in Book I.Note 
  • The Apple Tree (complete) - interquel set during Sunset's trip to LA in Book I. Note 
  • Protection (complete) - interquel set during Sunset's trip to LA in Book I. Note 
  • How Great the Outcry (complete) - interquel set in Equestria at the same time as Protection, dealing with the events in Lonesome Dove.Note 
  • A Hairy Problem (complete) - interquel set right after Sunset's trip to LA in Book I. Note 
  • Downtempo (complete) - interquel with a framing story set during Book IV, but mostly consisting of a flashback to the same time as Sunset's trip to LA in Book I. Note 
  • A Mother's Duty (complete) - interquel set in Equestria at the same time as chapter 2 of Book III.Note 
  • Three Nights at Freddy's (complete) - interquel and crossover with Five Nights at Freddy's set during the events of Book III.Note 
  • Shards of Darkness (complete) - interquel set in Equestria during Book III.Note 
  • 7DSJ: The Knife's Edge (complete) - side-story to Book V.Note 

    Recursive stories 

Shinzakura has also approved a set of Recursive Fanfiction, written by Former Unicorn, Flash Frame and The Quiet Party:

  • You Are the Woman by Former Unicorn (complete) - set during Book I and about Compass Rose, a girl trying to win the heart of Sunset Shimmer. Note 
  • Crazy Love by Former Unicorn (in progress) - follows the relationship between Compass Rose and Boysenberry. Note 
  • Innocence Lost by Flash Frame (complete) - follows the story of Sweet Pea after Book III. Note 
  • Broken Down in Sunny Town by Deverer and The Quiet Party (in progress) - follows the story in the wake of the Vibe incident. Note 

The story continues in The Golden Age of Apocalypse.

The Berylverse as a whole has its own FIMFiction group.


The story contains examples of:

    open/close all folders 

     Altogether 
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: The series regularly makes use of this trope, with its version of some of the characters vs. their canon personalities being like night and day.
  • Author Appeal: Shinzakura really seems to enjoy using really big and fancy words.
  • Door Stopper: Phase One and Phase Two of the Berylverse contain a total of twenty-three stories; between them, they add up to more than 1,200,000 words. And three more Phases are still coming (one of which has already released its first story, with two more announced).
  • Trilogy Creep: The project was originally planned to be just three books, but the addition of over a dozen side-stories and the decision to split Book III into two due to both length and tonal shift led to this. Then the final chapter of book IV ended with the announcement of Book V: The New Frontier.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: With its "Real Life-meets-magical-realism" take on high school life (including story arcs based on actual incidents), it's definitely not anything like a John Hughes take on high school, much less anything like the canon material.

     The Three Sunrises 
  • Abandoned Warehouse: Where Sunset lives. At the end of the story it's torn down, leading directly into Book I.
  • Boyfriend Bluff: A bunch of guys try to pick up Fluttershy, with or without her consent. Sunset Shimmer appears and poses as her hyper-aggressive girlfriend. It works, though it takes Sunset pulling out an (illusionary) gun to get them to back off.
  • Brutal Honesty: Pinkie doesn't intend it that way, but Sunset gets the message. Certain revelations in book IV about Pinkie's true feelings for Sunset at this time makes one wonder if it was entirely innocent after all.
    Sunset: "I did what you guys know: I picked on people, bullied Snips and Snails into doing my homework for me, kicked dogs, smacked kids and was generally the worst person on Earth."
    Pinkie: "Oh, that’s not true, Sunset! You’re not the worst person on Earth, because you’re not a person – you’re an alien in disguise, so maybe you’re the worst thing on Earth, but not the worst person!"
  • Call-Back: Vice-Principal Luna tells Sunset about the time she went through a self-destructive Goth Phase.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Sunset's reaction after falling right back into bed with Flash out of desperation. The Tears of Remorse kick in shortly afterwards.
  • Prequel: The story is set the weekend after the original Equestria Girls and ends at the beginning of 7DSJ Book I.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: Sunset Shimmer.
  • Titled After the Song: Not only is the story named after a song by U2, the first four lines of the song make up the chapters' titles.

     Book I 
  • Abandoned Warehouse: Where Sunset lived until it was torn down, leading to a major change in her life.
  • Abusive Parents: The parents of Midnight want her to party hard using alcohol and cocaine, despite being 16, just so that she could recover and make a comeback in her adult career. Even more disturbing when kept in mind that Midnight is apparently not having trouble in her career.
  • Action Girl: Applejack (the human one) is a practitioner of Tae Kwon Do and those she's fought tend to regret it.
    Gilda: That bitch Applejack kicks like a fucking horse!
    • Bon-Bon, also a martial arts practitioner (though the author doesn't reveal which style) also qualifies.
      • Revealed in Book III to be Vovinam, a Vietnamese Martial Art.
  • Adaptational Explanation: Minor issues from EQUESTRIA GIRLS are given this treatment.
    • (Princess) Twilight Sparkle was seen sleeping in the school library for the night. Where was Sunset Shimmer staying while she lived on Earth? An abandoned warehouse. Its demolition leads to the events of the story.
    • How was Sunset Shimmer able to fit it so seamlessly? A runaway with the same name disappeared years earlier and so the unicorn was able to take over her identity. Played for Drama now, as Sunset now wonders what will happen if the true Human Sunset Shimmer finds out someone has been using her identity.
    • After having a mysterious student briefly pop in and out of the school for three days, Principal Celestia had to backdate a lot of exchange student paperwork. This got exceptionally strange given that the "exchange student", an alien from another dimension, seemed to have taken the form of her best friend's daughter.
    • What kind of person would Flash Sentry had to have been to date such an openly manipulative and mean person like pre-reform Sunset Shimmer? We find out the bad way later.
    • How did Sunset know about Vietnamese porn star Sweetie Drops and her likeness to Bon-Bon? Her ex-boyfriend Flash probably had some of SD's video "performances".
  • Adaptational Villainy: Flash Sentry and Blueblood, to the point where it seems like the authors have something against them.
  • Affectionate Parody: Rainbow Dash confesses to having a weird dream where she's the singer of a Canadian pop band... and she doesn't even like pop music!
  • Alternate History: EQG Earth is a lot like Real Life Earth, strange hair and eye colors and names notwithstanding.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: invoked As Shinzakura pointed out, groups of cross-school criminal organizations like The Club actually do exist, complete with a couple of "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer examples. He does the same thing with Octavia's genetic chimerism.
  • Apocalypse How: After Sunset briefly considers destroying the second mirror, she has a dream in which doing so caused a Class-0 on Earth, and a disaster on Equestria that possibly killed billions, as well as Celestia (possibly causing a Class 5 or 6), killing Human!Twilight and leaving Princess!Twilight as one of the few Equestrian survivors, who only lived because she fled through the mirror to Earth. Sunset wisely decides to choose another course of action.
  • Artistic Age: Like the source material, played with; Sunset, though in the body of a sixteen-year-old human girl, is actually a unicorn mare closer to thirty.
  • Artistic License – Biology: Although Sunset's ultra-rare blood type does exist, it is more commonly found in ungulates than in primates... though the percentage of how few people in the US have it is true.
  • Art Shift: Unlike the canon EQUESTRIA GIRLS designs, the supplied artwork shows real skin tones and more realistic body proportions.
    • Shinzakura has been quoted repeatedly as saying he's happy to not do artwork where "people look like they're dipped in food dye."
  • The Atoner: Significant in Sunset Shimmer, who started out as a Fallen Princess and by the current chapter has become the Lovable Alpha Bitch.
    • In a lesser case, Vinyl Scratch, whose Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds moment note  was stopped. Later on, she confesses to Sunset that she needs to make up for her error. A subsequent direct apology to Octavia does not go over well.
    • Similar to the above, Noteworthy, for being too much of a Dirty Coward to stand up against "The Club" earlier.
  • Batman Gambit: Sunset gives Pinkie a box full of Mildbon Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, each one filled with more chocolate and sugar than needed, knowing Pinkie would eat them all as soon as she could. The resulting sugar high would quickly result in a sugar crash that would cause her to fall asleep during her first flight, and cause her to avoid anything with a grain of sugar in it during her second flight.
  • Be All My Sins Remembered: Sunset is not willing to forgive herself because of all the actions she performed between arriving on Earth and being deposed by Princess Twilight Sparkle.
  • Big Eater: Sunset easily finishes off a XXXL Fatburger, fries, and large caramel shake. One would think she eats like a horse.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The immediate descendents of Musica Allegra ("La Musica") have been pretty much traumatized by having a legendary ancestor. Dysfunctional Family doesn't do the level of issue justice.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Flash Sentry. Not only was he dating Sunset earlier, he was also going out and having sex with Blossomforth at the same time.
  • "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Suri Polomare.
    • Though not as prominent, Blueblood against Vinyl Scratch.
  • Breather Episode: February 8, where the girls have a sleepover, weekend movie marathon, and impromptu gaming session.
  • Broken Bird: Octavia was willing to give Vinyl Scratch a chance to be friends when she first showed up as her date, despite not being homosexual. When she realizes that Vinyl successfully dosed her with a date rape drug, she is furious at her, even when Vinyl tries to make amends later.
    She was suddenly silenced as Octavia delivered a stinging slap, loud enough to ring through the relatively empty corridors of the airport terminal.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Filly Funtasia exists in this universe, and inside that story exists the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: The story starts out with Sunset Shimmer trying to fit into her new home following My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, goes though an arc concerning a mind control date rape drug, then moves onto a He vs. She game videogame tournament that interrupts the girls' slumber party to Sunset wondering there were other Equestrians that appeared on EQG Earth and end with Twilight suffering nightmares which seem like A Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Sunset buys a book on an Italian alchemist who was taught magic from a black unicorn which came from a mirror. Twilight finally reads it in chapter 11.
    • Another mirror portal is revealed in Chapter 13, and judging by its descriptions, is similar to the IDW comic which doesn't transform those who travel through it.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: A mention of a black unicorn teaching dark magic from a mirror. It's revealed a few books later that said unicorn was King Sombra, and the descendant of the human he taught magic to becomes the Big Bad of Books III and IV.
    • Come chapter 11, Octavia's ancestor, "La Musica", is mentioned early on. Toward the end of the chapter, a long-lost portrait is revealed and Sunset immediately notices several clues suggesting La Musica may have been an Equestrian native turned human, like herself.
  • The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Velvet, a professional child psychologist, fails to see her own daughter suffering and writes it off as being in a rebellious phase.
  • The Conspiracy: The Club.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Lyra believes that unicorns actually exist.
  • Cool Big Sis: Sunset Shimmer finds herself growing into this role with the "Eightmazing Eight" (herself, the Humane Six, and Octavia Melody)
  • Cruel Mercy: Sunset does nothing to Flash even though he cheated on both her and Blossomforth and used a date rape drug on human Twilight. Why? Because since Blossomforth is pregnant and her father is a pastor, he's now forced into a Shotgun Wedding and has to take responsibility for the child.
    • In a more vindictive way, Suri to Blueblood.
  • Culture Blind: Sunset Shimmer. Despite living in the human world for a few years, she has not seen many popular movies such as Star Wars, Star Trek, The Matrix, The Last Unicorn, etc.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Sunset threatens Noteworthy with the following:
    Sunset: “You and your group of fucking idiot buddies put my sister with my ex-boyfriend. If he touches one hair on her body, I will force feed you half this fucking van, understood?”
    Noteworthy: “And the other half?”
    Sunset:Do you know what an enema is?
    • Her threat to Vinyl Scratch also qualifies.
  • Determinator: If it means saving the people she cares about, it's fair to say that Sunset will face down the issue... no matter what.
  • Discontinuity Nod: Sunset Shimmer refers to Flash Sentry as "Brad".
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Human Twilight Sparkle says that she'd make a bad magician.
    • Screwball tells Sunset about a guy she dated in high school who never learned Spanish, joined the Air Force, got stationed in Spain, and now has trouble speaking Spanish with his Spaniard wife and in-laws.
  • Dumbass No More: Derpy, who, at least on Earth, is a genius (and not the ditzy kind either).
  • Elevator School: Canterlot High shares a combined campus with an unnamed junior high school. As Sunset has been on Earth for four years, it's implied that she attended the junior high first, which is how the high school staff is aware of her bad attitude by the time she moves onto ninth grade/freshman year.
    • Also unusual in that the two schools run some joint events (dances, for one.)
  • Ethical Slut: Cloud Kicker, when she balks at Vinyl Scratch's plan to seduce Octavia while the latter is under the influence of drugs.
  • Expy: Almost all the AHP characters are expies of characters from All-American Girl (Shinzakura).
    • One of the weirdest examples ever: in 7DSJ, Sandalwood is a sheriff's deputy, which is an alternate universe version of the Sandalwood in AHP (which is a perfumer), which is in turn an AU version of AAG's main character, DJ Martinez (whose birth name is Sandalwood.) Essentially, Shinzakura has created the first and third degree versions of the character.
      • In fact, the Sunset Shimmer of this fic could be considered a mirror expy to DJ Martinez herself. DJ/Sandalwood grew up in an entirely alien world from the time she was a child, not knowing what she was and where she came from, and doesn't want to acknowledge the part of her that's a pony because that would dishonor what her parents taught her about being human. Sunset Shimmer, on the other hand, knows exactly what she is and where she came from, came to an alien world as an (relatively young) adult, and Sunset is perfectly comfortable straddling the worlds of human and pony and would probably make it publicly known were it not for the potential danger.
  • Famous Ancestor: Musica Allegra/"La Musica", for Octavia and her side of the family. All but confirmed to be another dimensionally-shifted Equestrian.
    • Rainbow Dash is descended from Commander Hurricane, who was a World War II posthumous Medal of Honor awardee.
  • Gamer Chick: Vice Principal Luna, judging by how good she is at Titanfall. Rarity also demonstrates competence at Super Smash Bros.
    • Also Pinkie, who apparently carries an Xbox 360 around for "XBox360 emergencies." The result of one such "emergency" is an impromptu Skullgirls tournament.
  • Going Native: Sunset, to the point when she feels homesick, she thinks about San Palamino, not Equestria.
  • Happily Adopted: Zig-Zagged with Sunset Shimmer. She looks like she really loves her adoptive family, but also has problems about, among other things, whether or not she should reveal her real identity.
    • A more formal version is (human) Scootaloo, who was abandoned by her birth mother when she was five, and found and subsequently adopted by (human) Rainbow's family.
  • Happily Failed Suicide: Minuette, who slashes her wrists after she finds out she was "used" in an orgy while drugged. Fortunately, her parents rush her to the hospital in time.
    • Twilight, who walks into traffic as a result of her nightmares, but is saved in the nick of time by Sunset.
  • Happily Married: Discord, whose marriage is an unfortunate Secret Relationship, as the revelation would likely ruin his "hard-partying" rock star image.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: Spike towards Rarity after she beats him at Super Smash Bros..
  • Hope Is Scary: Sunset is more scared about the future because she has a loving family and caring friends, because now she actually has something to lose.
  • Hidden Depths: La Musica, an ancestor of Octavia and a legendary musician in her own right, is suspected by Sunset Shimmer to also have been a pony.
  • High School AU: Though to Sunset, who now considers it home, is Equestria the AU?
  • Identical Grandson: Actually an identical daughter in this case, as Posey and Fluttershy look so much alike that the only meaningful difference between the two is Posey's slightly taller height and Fluttershy's slightly larger chest. They look so much alike that one character comments that they look more like siblings than mother and daughter.
  • I Have No Son!: In her dreams, Sunset sees Princess Celestia as declaring this, and that Sunset must be punished for spurning her love.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Sunset has a particular phrase she's been meaning to use for quite some time when getting into a fight:
    Sunset:“If you so much as touch her, I will introduce you to the fucking wrath of a Goddamn pissed-off-as-Tartarus alicorn. Your ass is going to be Discord and I’m going to be all six fucking Elements of Harmony. I’m going to rampage on you like the Princess did against the Minotaur Invasion of 957. I WILL BREAK YOU LIKE SHE BROKE THE ENTIRE CHANGELING ARMY AT SADDLEBACK RIDGE, AND I WON’T FEEL AN OUNCE OF REMORSE DOING IT, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?
  • Karma Houdini: Zig-Zagged with Blueblood, as while he escaped the charges of rape, Suri Polomare uses her knowledge of this fact to blackmail Blueblood into staying with her.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The only people who know what really happened the night of the Homecoming Dance are Sunset, The Humane Five, Principal Celestia, and Vice Principal Luna. All the rest know is that Sunset lost the crown for the first time, and that there was an explosion.
  • Magic Mirror: The Mirror of Cavalcanti serves as a Cool Gate transit point for Sunset to return to Equestria.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Sunset's dreams. Are they simply concoctions of her mind, or is there more to them? It starts leaning towards the "magic" side when the dream version of Princess!Twilight Sunset sees has the same crown Twilight started using after giving up the Elements back to the Tree of Harmony, something Sunset didn't know about.
  • Melting-Pot Nomenclature: A bunch of names that sound really hippie (well, this is California we're talking about here) right next to perfectly normal ones, creating a real Aerith and Bob situation; e.g. Spike (normal name), Shining Armor (not normal name), Twilight Sparkle (half of that's a normal name) and Octavia Melody (both of which are normal names.)
    • Explained by Shinzakura as subversion of Real Life Theme Naming, as detailed here.
      Shinzakura: "Take for example, the name Robert. Its origin is French, for 'bright fame'. Bright Fame definitely sounds like a pony name, doesn't it?"
  • Mind-Control Device: A group of boys from the local high schools get a hold of a drug with mind-control properties. Things do not go well after that.
  • Mistaken Identity: During her less-behaved period, Sunset intentionally ruins Bon-Bon's life by spreading rumors that the Vietnamese-American girl is living a double-life as Vietnamese porn star "Sweetie Drops". Needless to say, Bon-Bon is not happy.
    • Makes it even worse when it's revealed that Sweetie Drops lives in Hong Kong and in no way could actually have been Bon-Bon... not that any of the boys hitting on Bon-Bon ever did their research. And of course the fact that she's in a relationship with Lyra.
  • Mythology Gag: A few, and likely growing:
    • Twilight and Octavia attend the Zacherle Academy for Girls note , an elite private school for girls. Similarly, Blueblood attends Zacherle Academy's equivalent for boys, the Muenchinger Institute for Young Men. note 
    • While enroute to visit Cheerilee, her sister crashes her car just outside of Colton.
  • Mundane Object Amazement: Sunset flies in an airplane for the first time in chapter 11.
  • Naked on Arrival: Sunset. She's a little miffed that Twilight got clothes.
  • New-Age Retro Hippie: Trixie's mom, Harmonic Convergence - to the point that she even runs the town New Age store.
  • No Communities Were Harmed: From the descriptions, Canterlot, San Palomino, Sunnytown, and Equestria County somewhere either in California or Oregon. Same goes for Ponyville and Cloudsdale, which are mentioned, but also hinted that they are not in Equestria County.
    • Shinzakura has said in his notes that the "Brentwood Museum" is just a renamed version of the Real Life Getty Museum, probably renamed in order to keep with the MLP naming scheme.
  • No Indoor Voice: The cheerleaders refer to a loud Pinkie Pie as the "Royal Canterlot Voice", with the Royal being short for "Royally Eardrum-Shattering."
  • Non-Indicative Name: Despite the title, the story starts out in (based on hints and the calendar dates) October 2013 and goes chronologically over the next few months (book 1 ends on the last day in May).
  • No Social Skills: Twilight (and to a lesser degree, Octavia... but not by much) has almost none of this, especially when it comes to affectionate displays with her "sisters" - to the point that it becomes Incest Subtext.
  • Older Than He Looks: Sunset is actually around thirty, yet her human body is about half that age.
  • One-Steve Limit: Broken by (the assumed presence of) the pony and human casts. Also for the names of towns and schools.
    • More directly broken by (human) Octavia ("Tavi") and her cousins Octavia Philharmonica (goes by "Octy", though Tavi does not know this) and Octavia Van Clef (better known as Fiddlesticks.)
    • There's also the case of Shining Armor's partner on the CPD (and in later books the FBI) Sandalwood, who's based on the protagonist in Shinzakura's other series, All-American Girl (Shinzakura). Not to be confused with the male Sandalwood who goes to Canterlot High.
  • Ontological Mystery: When Sunset Shimmer suspects that La Musica was another Equestrian who came to EQG!Earth and was also turned into a human, this kicks into overdrive. How did she get here? Why did she stay?
  • Only Sane Man: A few cases.
    • Octavia, Ballad, and Fiddlesticks refuse to get involved in the Dysfunctional Family Circus that Ballad's mother (and Tavi and Fiddle's grandmother, by extension) has been orchestrating.
    • Ironically, Screwball, whose Earth counterpart is a level-headed rock musician and is trying to protect her younger sister Midnight Moondust from their parents' destructive career plans for the latter.
    • Sunset seems to be the only member of the family really concerned with Twilight's recurring nightmares. She believes that the others are being influenced somehow though.
      • The final book I chapter reveals that they think it's residual side effects from the Vibe.
  • Parents as People: Octavia's parents want the best for their daughter, even if they can't get her point across clearly, such as when they explain their plans to move to Paris, though they're leaving her behind to stay with her aunt and uncle... though they don't quite explain that part.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Sunset goes out of her way to prevent this from happening to Octavia when her parents say they were considering going to join a Paris symphony.
  • Punny Name: Why is the town called Canterlot? It was originally called Camelot, but was changed to Canterlot after the rise of horse farms in the area. The name stuck even though they have moved east to Ponyville.
  • Race Lift: Happens whenever the ethnicity of one of the human characters is discussed, since the film didn't deal with that.
    • Rainbow Dash is Hispanic.
    • Fluttershy is 1/4 Japanese.
    • Minuette is African-American.
    • Based on the description, Gilda is likely African-American.
    • Bon-Bon is Vietnamese-American, and even has a Vietnamese first name to go with it (Bon-Bon is actually her middle name.)
  • Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Shows up time to time, e.g. calling the unicorn "Almathea" instead of "Amalthea".
  • Real-Place Background: Canterlot and Equestria County are stand-ins for the Real Life city of Redding and Shasta County, California. While not outright stated as so, it is confirmed by statements the author has made both in comments (see below) and in-story (State Route 299, which passes through Redding). As for the Interstate in question, I-5 runs the length of the state, including through the center of Redding.
    • In-Universe, Canterlot also shares Redding's original name of Poverty Flats; in both cases, the name was changed due to complaints by railroad barons.
    • Other nearby towns of Weaverville and Arcata are mentioned (the latter being next to Eureka, CA in Humboldt County, which is replaced in-story as the City of Horseshoe Bay in Klamath County.)
  • Related in the Adaptation: This happens to numerous human characters.
    • Sunset is taken in and pretty much adopted by human Twilight's family.
    • The Spike of this world is human and Twilight's little brother.
    • Octavia Melody is also Twilight's cousin.
    • Likewise, Octavia has cousins of her own on her mother's side: Screwball, Midnight Moondust, Octavia Philharmonica and Octavia Van Clef, the last also going by the nickname Fiddlesticks.
      • The author has stated in a Google Hangout interview that the idea for three Octavias came from three stories giving the character radically different personalities, thus making this an In-Joke.
    • Scootaloo is Rainbow Dash's Happily Adopted little sister.
    • Like Spike, Angel is human in this world and Fluttershy's little brother.
    • Rainbow is descended from Commander Hurricane.
    • Crackle is Suri Polomare's half-sister by her father's mistress.
    • Screwball and Midnight Moondust are sisters, and both are second cousins to Octavia.
    • Blueblood and Flash Sentry are cousins.
    • Pinkie Pie is the niece of Carrot and Cup Cake (Cup is Pinkie's mother's sister).
    • Coco Pommel is Fancy Pants' little sister.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Blueblood uses his father Quorum's connections as a US senator to help escape his charges. This is not without consequence. See everything related to Suri
  • Shapeshifting Lover:
    • Sunset Shimmer to Flash Sentry as was told in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. Played for Drama since Sunset only thought the change was cosmetic, and later is horrified to realize that she could have gotten pregnant. Given that the change wasn't entirely complete (her blood type as a human is one that is eerily similar to that of equines, her hearing remains in the upper range of equines, etc.) it could also be a light case of Body Horror as well.
    • Judging by the number of descendants she has, La Musica - if she was a pony after all.
  • Shout-Out: The county's disciplinary high school, the Equestria County Alternative High School for At-Risk Students, is located in the run-down suburb of Sunnytown. Due to the school's brutalist architecture, lack of sports programs or afterschool activities, or even a school mascot, the disciplinary high school is disparagingly referred to as "The Blanks".
  • Shotgun Wedding: Blossomforth has one upcoming after her high school graduation, thanks to Flash Sentry.
  • Siblings Wanted: Though initially very aloof towards her foster family, Sunset immediately grows very close to both her foster sister Twilight and Twilight's cousin Octavia (who was mostly raised by Twilight's parents and practically also a sibling.)
    • To a lesser degree, due to her actual age, it's hinted that Sunset has a very filial relationship with the other members of the Humane Five.
  • Spanner in the Works: If it hadn't been for Noteworthy's change of heart and Sunset's Big Sister Instinct, The Club's plan to use the Vibe on Twilight and Octavia would likely have worked (Rarity's cold medicine protected her).
    • As mentioned above, Rarity's use of her cold medicine on her date inadvertently protected her from the Vibe due to an ingredient in the formula.
  • Spotting the Thread: Used a few times:
    • Octavia and Twilight are starting to pick up that Sunset is hiding something big due to the way Sunset and the other members of the Humane Six talk about certain issues.
    • Sunset Shimmer suspects that La Musica was Equestrian based on the fact that the musician's works sound very much like Equestrian musical works, including the Equestrian Royal Anthem and other songs from Equestria.
  • Take That!: Midnight Moondust's "career advice" from her parents sounds a lot like the failed careers of former Real Life teen idol celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and others too numerous to count.
  • Titled After the Song: The fic seems to be named after a Jamiroquai song, as indicated by a comment Shinzakura made, as well as a visual joke in the story's poster.
    • Chapter titles seem to come from songs as well.
  • They Would Cut You Up: One of the reasons Sunset doesn't want to reveal her true nature.
  • Unstoppable Rage: When Flash taunts her about being his girlfriend after using a potent date rape drug on human Twilight Sparkle, Sunset breaks a wall with her bare hands.
  • Vague Age: Averted. Shinzakura and BlueBastard have given definitive ages for the girls (Sixteen, as of the start of Book I.)
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Comes up in conversation between Sunset Shimmer and the rock star Screwball (whose real name is Summer Violet).
    Screwball: "Hell, you can even call me by my real name if you want".
    Sunset: “I thought your name was Screwball.”
    Screwball: “Who names their kid Screwball? It’s actually a stage name, just like Screw Loose uses – only Discord and Freebase use their real names."
  • Woman Scorned: Suri Polomare. She knows what Blueblood really did to her, and is now using it to leverage her social status. One would almost feel sorry for him.

     Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want 

     Treasure 
  • Accidental Murder: Due to a faulty part in their car, which was recalled a month later, Cornflower crashed into another man's car, killing him. It turns out that by doing so, she inadvertently stopped him from shooting up an airport, saving a lot of people.
  • Due to the Dead: Despite his death being the result of a faulty car part, Cornflower still visits the grave of the man she accidentally killed.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: A major theme.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Pinkie's grandfather disapproved of his daughters' goals in life, feeling them to be a waste of time. While Cloudy Quartz ultimately gave in and gave up her dreams of being an Olympic ice skater, Cup refused to surrender her desire to turn professional with her baking.
  • Interquel: Takes place during the winter period of 7DSJ Book I.
  • In the Blood: The neurological disease Pinkie was born with runs in the family, having killed one of her aunts when said aunt was nine.
  • Irony: Cornflower's Accidental Murder kept the man whose car she hit from shooting up an airport.
  • The Jailbait Wait: Fluttershy's would-be boyfriend Puppytails decides to wait until she's eighteen before they seriously pursue their relationship.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Scootaloo finds out that she has an older brother and an older sister that she never knew.
  • Mythology Gag: Surprise is Pinkie's paternal grandmother.
  • No Communities Were Harmed: From inference, it's stated that Cloudsdale is in the US state of Nevada.
  • Parental Neglect: Scootaloo's birth mother neglected her to the point that it bordered on abuse.
  • Titled After the Song: Titled after the album, actually. The individual chapters are titled after the album's songs.

     Shake It Off 
  • Alpha Bitch: D'Aguanno Private School has its own in the form of Tequila Sunrise
  • The Atoner: Vinyl's desire to make up for her role in the Vibe incident is what drives her to help the group of girls she and Cloud befriends.
  • Broken Pedestal: Kicky's ecstatic to find that her musical idol, Tequila Sunrise, is a fellow student at the D... until she meets her in person and finds that Tequila's a brutal Alpha Bitch who hates Kicky and Vinyl's new friends.
  • Dramatic Irony: Cloudkicker thinks Vinyl is crazy for thinking Octavia will send Teenage Assassins after her. To be fair, SIREN only started to become prominent in Book III
  • Interquel: This story starts near the latter half of Book I.
  • Expy: The group of girls Vinyl and Cloud befriend at their new school all possess traits similar to the Mane 6.
  • Mythology Gag: The girls attend the D'Aguanno School, one of the most elite private schools in the country. note 
    • Several characters in Shake It Off are named after G1 and G2 characters.
  • Titled After the Song: Named after a Taylor Swift song.

     The Apple Tree 
  • A Day in the Limelight: The story is one for Applejack, who won a poll for what character the author would feature in his Christmas Special
  • Expy: Summerfree's magical form bears many similarities to Gaia Everfree
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Applejack to her cousin Summerfree when the latter goes full One-Winged Angel.
    Applejack: Ah can see there's a little bit of the old Summerfree still in there somewhere... and Ah'd like her back.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Jade Lily was Starswirl the Bearded's apprentice, who used his mirror to travel to the human world while it was still in its alpha stages, resulting in her being displaced in time as well as space. This would actually make her closer to ten-thousand years old.
  • Shapeshifting Lover: It turns out that Braeburn's girlfriend Jade Lily is not only a unicorn from Equestria, but was Starswirl the Bearded's apprentice.
  • Tough Love: Applejack gives her cousin Summerfree a taste of this which sets off their magic battle.

     Protection 
  • Cannot Spit It Out: After years of taunting Sunstone doesn't know how to tell Noteworthy she actually does love him romantically.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Even after Minuette lets Noteworthy know she's mad at him for being involved with the Club, he still tries to pursue a relationship with her.
  • Happily Failed Suicide: Carrot Top/Golden Harvest tries to shoot herself. Fortunately, Derpy catches her and talks her down.
  • Hated by All: Pretty much everyone at CHS hates Noteworthy now. Minuette's friends even try to frame him and beat him half to death to keep him away from her. Minuette herself is horrified when she sees what's going on and yells for them to stop.
  • Interquel: This takes place during the latter half of book I.
  • Kissing Cousins: Noteworthy's cousin (technically first cousin once removed) and older sister figure Sunstone has been in love with him since they both hit puberty, though he's oblivious to it.
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: Admittedly, Derpy wears them more for vision correction than not, but she's brilliant and wears glasses, so...
  • The Atoner: Noteworthy.
  • Titled After the Song: Like The Three Sunrises, this is titled after a song by Massive Attack and the chapter titles are taken from song lyrics.

     Broken Down in Sunny Town 
  • Loser Son of Loser Dad: Rundown feels that he's going to end up just like his old man, a former doctor who is now serving time in prison for child pornography.

     How Great the Outcry 
  • Anyone Can Die: Averted. By the climax, nearly the entire town including Twilight Sparkle are taken by the curse, but all of them turn out to be fine in the end.
  • As the Good Book Says...: an aversion from Titled After the Song, where the title comes from a The Bible quote.
  • The Cameo: one of the soldiers in the contingent that Twilight and Raspberry bring along is Private Sunny Side, who has a major roll in I Against I, Me Against You, a fic by the same author.
  • Creepy Basement
  • Facial Horror: The demon pony/Razz's father's face is horribly burned and disfigured.
  • Flies Equals Evil: The interior of Raspberry's ruined farmhouse is coated in flies.
  • Personal Horror: the curse is fueled by Raspberry's pain and guilt at having murdered her father, and was sustained in the meantime by the negative emotions of the Lonesome Dove townsponies.
  • Spooky Photographs: Again, all over the remains of Raspberry's farmhouse.
    Something crunched under Twilight’s hoof when she stepped into the next room. She looked down and saw a pair of ponies looking back up at her from within a small picture frame. A large, burly earth pony stallion was lovingly holding an earth pony mare with a bulge in her belly. A web of cracks on the glass frame distorted their faces, making their smiles seem twisted and unnatural.

     A Hairy Problem 

     Downtempo 

     You Are the Woman 
  • Incompatible Orientation: Compass Rose is a girl who secretly loves Sunset... but Sunset doesn't swing that way, and lets her down gently when she finds out.
  • Interquel: This takes place during the latter parts of Book I.
  • Titled After the Song: Titled after a hit by 70's group Firefall.
  • Unrequited Love: Compass Rose loves Sunset from afar.
    • And has one of her own in Boysenberry. They're a couple by the end.

     Crazy Love 
  • Age-Gap Romance: With Berry having successfully chased after Rose, the latter takes her girlfriend out on a date.
  • Cosmetic Catastrophe: Berry tries to avoid one by asking Sunset to help her with hers, much to the latter's chagrin.
  • Fille Fatale: Berry chased after Rose, not the other way around.
  • The Illegal: Berry, her brother and her father are all illegal immigrants ... much to said father's worries.
  • Titled After the Song: Titled after a hit by 70's group Poco.

     Book II 
  • Alternate Tooniverse: To Sunset, after having lived for half a decade in the gritty reality of Earth, the paradise that is Equestria seems a little off.
    "In the human world, in the first year she’d been trapped there after fleeing Celestia through Platinum's Mirror, Sunset had noted just how the landscape of Equestria seemed to be taken from the fanciful illustrations in human fairy tales. Now that she finally saw Equestria again through appreciative eyes and not on industrially-printed paper, it truly was like a fairy tale in how just in the distance, beyond the edges of the Everfree, sat a small hamlet of civilization."
  • Backstory: In chapter 7, we learn more about Sombra's past.
  • Blackmail: What the gang theorizes that the mirror's being able to replay the moments a person who has passed through it regrets most likely would have been used for by Sombra.
  • Brutal Honesty: Twilight regarding the early years of Celestia's rule being filled with many mistakes, like Discord and Sombra. To be fair, Celestia asked for bluntness.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The events of A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball are briefly mentioned a few times.
    • Luna is overjoyed to hear that the play traps (and slide) still work in their old castle.
    • Twilight mentions the various mistakes Celestia made early in her rule, like Sombra, Sable Loam, Discord and Nightmare Moon.
    • AJ recalls her encounters with the Flim Flam brothers.
    • Lyra mentions the Breezies to Octavia.
    • Pinkie mentions Luna's Dream Walker abilities.
    • Sunset is upset that when she uses her Badass Boast in Equestria, Razz doesn't understand it, meaning she wasted it again!
    • Chapter 12 is pretty much a giant Continuity Nod, showing Sunset's history and bullying ways (along with her defeat and her life post-reformation).
  • Didn't See That Coming: Princess Luna's existence threw Sunset completely for a loop.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Sunset admits in hindsight that her plan was pretty stupid.
  • Dramatic Irony: Sunset repeatedly thinks briefly that Luna has no Equestrian counterpart. This is even after she saw Vice Principal Luna disguise herself in her old Nightmare Moon persona.
    • In fairness, Luna was using just the NMM wig, and not her full get-up (the story states she was in a sun dress, but her NMM attire was a gothy-punkish look.)
    • Raspberry Beryl mistrusts Sunset Shimmer due to her past as Celestia's student and dabbling into Black Magic.
  • Dream Walker: Pinkie mentions Luna can do this to Sunset. Luna mentions to Celestia that she has difficulty with Sunset's dreams because they are only partially like a pony, implying that Sunset, at the subconscious level, is becoming completely human.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Sunset gets a glimpse of her dam in a vision near the end. Come Book V, Sunset's dam is properly introduced as Rising Star.
  • Easily Forgiven: Celestia to Sunset, despite the initial impressions given in Chapter 2.
    • As of the rewrite, Celestia is much more suspicious of Sunset, and doesn't forgive her until the third final chapter
  • Epic Fail: Sunset's attempt at using an invisibility spell to follow Raspberry Beryl.
  • Fridge Logic: In-Universe, Sunset realizes that the mirror in the Crystal Empire apparently violated its own rules regarding when passage is possible between the worlds.
  • Happily Adopted: Although it has't been made official on paper, due to the fact that Raspberry is a legal adult, she considers Ascot and Cashmere to be her parents.
    • Twilight compares Razz's family to her big sister relationship with Spike.
  • Identical Stranger: Save for their color schemes and cutie marks, Sunset Shimmer and Raspberry Beryl look identical, a thought which does not make the wayward mare very happy.
    • The Equestrian counterparts to EQG!humans, in Sunset Shimmer's eyes. Pinkie Pie is not the niece of the Cakes; indeed, she states that she's more closely related to the Apples. Octavia Melody is not Twilight's cousin.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: Sunset accidentally reverts to her human form while still in Equestria briefly. Considering she was only trying to create an image of her human self, it might not be as involuntary as believed.
  • Intrigued by Humanity: Lyra, obviously. For a lesser degree, Sandalwood.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Sunset is out of the loop on a lot of things, like Princess Luna's existence, for instance. She's also out of touch with how technology in Equestria has advanced while she was gone. Played for Drama considering Razz, which hurts her impression of Razz considering the dark magic affecting human Twilight.
  • Magic Mirror: Unlike the Cool Gate appearance of Cavalcanti's Mirror, the one on the pony side looks far more sinister, with images of Celestia, Luna, Nightmare Moon and Faust bound in chains held in the hooves of Sombra.
  • Misplaced Retribution: Spike, blaming Sunset for being turned into a dog in the human world (something Sunset had no control over), sends a letter to Princess Celestia, who immediately sends guards to arrest Sunset.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As it turns out, Razz is accidentally responsible for Twily's condition, due to the events of How Great the Outcry.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Sunset compares her own experiences with Diamond Tiara's in order to reassure the filly.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Twilight asks Razz to help train her dark magic defenses, but when Sunset sees it, she assumes Razz is attacking Twilight! To be fair, Twilight goofed on the shield spell and make Razz's attack more dangerous than it was meant to be, causing her to be knocked out.
    • To be fair, all of the Mane Six and the other ponies are trying to keep Sunset from finding out what Razz was involved in, which is not helping her paranoia.
  • Power Limiter: It turns out that Sunset's power has been limited for years.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: Diamond Tiara. Trying to treat the former targets of her bullying decently is difficult even for her.
  • Sinister Surveillance: Sombra made it so that the mirror could record the memories of those who passed through it and play them back, focusing on these kinds of moments (like Sunset's bullying past and demonic form), presumably for Blackmail.
  • Stranger in a Familiar Land: Sunset Shimmer strongly feels like this in Equestria.
  • Spotting the Thread: The princesses notice that the mirror had Nightmare Moon separately from Luna.
  • Teleportation with Drawbacks: Sunset has to use tiring teleportation to get out of the room the mirror is in in Equestria.
  • Unperson: The punishment of Sombra's father for poisoning his wife in a failed attempt to assassinate Queen Faust.
  • Wrong Context Magic: Sunset, after briefly thinking about the matter, realizes that the mirror she used in the film shouldn't have let her pass through when she did. Apparently, it's a side result of Sombra's mirror.

     A Mother's Duty 
  • Awful Truth: Luna lets Celestia have it over the latter's reaction to Sunset permanently returning to the human world.
  • Bizarro Universe: After seeing what humans look like, including her alternate universe self, Twilight Velvet pretty much thinks of Earth as this way.
  • Brutal Honesty: Luna lets Celestia know that she should have told Sunset openly that she wanted to be a mother to her.
  • Interquel: This story is set between the end of Book II and the eventual start of Book III.
  • Interspecies Adoption: Discussed by Celestia and Twilight Velvet, and identified as being against the law in Equestria, barring "mitigating and emergent circumstances", which "shall only be considered on a need by need basis". Celestia herself admits that she didn't write the law and should have checked more closely before it was made official; the only reason she hasn't changed it since is because it would be seen as a "gross abuse of the law" and a conflict of interest, since it would have cleared the way for her to adopt Sunset Shimmer, or Twilight Velvet and Night Light (as the parents of her personal student) to officially adopt Spike (though it's implied she's gonna fix the issue now that Velvet has brought it to her attention).

     Book III 
  • Adaptational Heroism: The Tirek of Earth... Dear god the Tirek of Earth...
    • There's also Sombra and Sable Loam, who are the Principal and a teacher respectively at "the Blanks."
  • Adaptational Badass: Sonata, Aria, and Adagio.
  • Action Girl: Sonata steps in to pound into the dirt a girl who tried to attack Twilight.
    • Then later in the chapter Adagio steps in and takes down two armed guards protecting the house where Blueblood is about to commit The Vibe Disaster, Part II.
  • Anti-Villain: The Dazzlings, who are potrayed as much more sympathetically then they were in Rainbow Rocks.
  • Behind the Black: The war between the SIRENs and the Canadian government is what drives the Dazzlings to Canterlot.
  • Big Bad: Divine Right.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: It's revealed that the Tirek of Equestria will also be this.
  • Broken Pedestal: Crackle finds out about the Vibe, Suri, and Blueblood
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: One of the SIRENS performs this on a high-ranking member of Arrowhead.
  • Continuity Nod: Sweet Pea and Melancholy Rose (Scootaloo's biological sister) reappear from Treasure.
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Discord and Posey decided to live separately because of the paparazzi, among other reasons, though they're still married and see each other occasionally.
  • Disappeared Dad: Fluttershy's. Little is known about him beyond the fact he left their family. He's later revealed to be Discord, Sunset's favorite musician.
  • The Dragon: Cantata Blast, the leader of the SIRENs.
  • Dumbass No More: Sonata Dusk is a zigzag between this and Genius Ditz. While she is clearly much smarter than her canon counterpart, she's still ditzy enough that it's unclear how much of it is just an act.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Octavia feels jealous of Sunset being closer to Twilight, especially as Octavia had not believed Sunset when she said Twilight had problems. Since her subconscious referred to Sunset as "that newcomer", something Octavia herself doesn't believe she'd call Sunset, it remains to be seen whether it's a darker part of her mind or something else.
  • Happily Adopted: Sunset, if informally. It's made official as part of a birthday present to her.
  • In the Blood: Divine Right, who as the descendant of Baldisare de Calvacanti believes that it is his heredity power to take over the world.
  • May–December Romance: Sable Loam is only momentarily shocked to learn that Celestia is 56 while he's 31. It doesn't phase him from saying he still wants to take her on a date the following weekend. For her part, Celestia seems eager to pursue a continued relationship as well, going so far as to refuse dessert the next day in the interest of keeping herself fit and attactive, much to Luna's shock as apparently Celestia has never skipped out on desert in her life.
    • Also, Luna's boyfriend Moonshadow is in his early-to-mid twenties while she's 52; his mother freaked out when she found out Luna was older than her.
    • To a lesser degree, Sombra and Chrysalis, considering he was 15 and she was 12 when they first had sex.
  • Mood Whiplash: The first chapter ends with someone using the Vibe from Book I to rape a young lady.
  • Multiversal Conqueror: What Divine Right wants to become.
  • Not So Harmless: Divine Right appears to be an amateur meddling in forces beyond his control, but he also has actual magic.
  • Race Lift: Crackle is half-Chinese on her mother's side.
  • Rebuilt Pedestal: Fluttershy reconciles with Discord and begs him not to give up his music career for her selfishness.
  • Related in the Adaptation: In addition to the characters mentioned earlier, Book III has the following additions:
    • Coco Pommel as the younger sister of Fancy Pants.
    • DISCORD of all people is Fluttershy and Angel's Disappeared Dad.
    • Tirek is Fluttershy's godfather.
  • Sanity Slippage: Octavia suffers from this, which culminates in her killing an owl which Twilight takes care of.
  • Sympathetic P.O.V.: While the SIRENS in Canterlot appear in a better light than Les SCARS, some of the other members perform some questionable actions.
  • Teleport Spam: At one point, Sunset casually suggests that she take Rainbow and AJ to lunch six hundred miles south in Los Angeles via repeated chain teleport. While impressed, Rainbow reminds her friend of the consequences of that if anyone found out.
  • Theme Naming: For the most part, all SIRENs are named after musical terms.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: It's not immediately clear that the early segments with SIREN and a megalomaniac are relevant, but the revelation that they are is a major plot point.

     Three Nights at Freddy's 
  • Alternate Continuity: Though some of the details in the story did occur, the canon explanation is that Les SCARS were wearing the robot suits and nothing magical was involved.
  • Anger Born of Worry: the Soeurs are angry that their charges risked their lives instead of coming to them.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted, at least for Aria. She's shown in Three Nights at Freddy's buying a ton of arrows at a sporting goods store.
  • Crossover: The 7DSJverse meets FNAF. And not in a good way. For the animatronics, that is.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: No matter what the animatronics throw at the girls, they're still no match for increasingly heavy weapons that Adagio, Aria and Sonata bring to bear.
  • Interquel: This takes place during book III, before Sonata starts working at Sugarcube Corner.
  • Living Weapon: The narrative confirms that every SIREN is one, due to their training regimen. CSIS and Les SCARs wanted to take it even further, but Uncle Poutine put his foot down, and was killed for it.
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: All three SIRENs.

     Shards of Darkness 

     Innocence Lost 
  • Continuity Nod: To both Treasure and Book III.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: The final fate of Tripwire in the last chapter - Sunset, now an alicorn, appears in his jail cell and sends him to Tartarus, while making it appear as if he hung himself in his cell.
  • Expy: Lemon Tart is supposed to be one for Lemon Zest from Friendship Games, as the Lemon Zest in-universe was/will be killed by Divine Right.
  • Real-Place Background: The story takes place in San Francisco.

     Book IV 
  • Adaptational Badass: The Zephyr Breeze in this series (or at least his human counterpart) is basically the opposite of the one we got in the show: He's got a job and he's actually good at it, doesn't constantly impose on his parents and sister, and is generally much more competent than his canon counterpart is. Really, it's to the point where he almost reaches In Name Only status!
    • Shinzakura has said this Zephyr is pretty much In Name Only, given that we know that just like in real life, there are more than one person with the same name (see: both Bon-Bons); plus, this Zephyr has a younger sister named Fluttershy...that lives in Atlanta.
  • Arc Words: "This has been willed where what is willed must be", which is a reference from The Divine Comedy.
    • The teasers' quotes have also pulled directly from The Divine Comedy as well.
  • Artifact of Doom: Divine Right seems to have several of them: a longknife (actually a sword) said to have belonged to a mysterious mage (possibly Star Swirl), a spear that belonged to Charlemagne, a bell, and a songsheet. The knife is for killing and draining virgins' blood. What the rest are for? Who knows?
  • Art Shift: With the release of the first teaser for Book IV, Shinzakura has redesigned the artwork to look like photorealistic humans with MLP hair and eye colors.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: Divine Right messes up his plan to summon Grogar, and gets Chernabog instead; the very demon that possessed Sunset in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.
  • Call-Back: Octavia's Genetic Chimerism comes back.
  • The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Similar to the situation in Book I, Velvet does this in Book IV with Octavia in the balance.
  • Continuity Nod
    • From Treasure, the store where Rarity bought the christmas gift for her grandparents is where one of the dead girls is found.
  • Cosmic Chess Game: Near the end of the book, it's shown that Queen Faust appears to have been playing one of these with the eyeless man for quite some time, and now Sunset Shimmer and her friends and family are major pieces in their game.
  • Darker and Edgier: Compared to the others, there's an overall darker tone to the story. This includes:
    • Tirek steals the magic of ponies as he did in the Season 4 finale... but then kills them.
    • Divine Right is sacrificing virgins to summon Grogar to obtain ultimate power, with which he intends to Take Over the World, which he believes he was born to do.
    • Octavia Melody's insanity is because her unborn twin is an amoral psychopath and is wresting control away from her.
    • Pinkie confesses to Sunset that she was once raped and impregnated by the group that eventually became the Club, and aborting the pregnancy when she found out. The trauma eventually led to her nearly committing suicide.
  • Deadly Prank: Sargasso tries to scare his ex-girlfriend by pretending to be the serial killer. It gets him killed by a watching police officer.
  • Disney Death: Sunset Shimmer herself is seemingly killed in a Heroic Sacrifice at the story's climax, but is brought Back from the Dead by Queen Faust in the final chapter... as the Alicorn of Earth.
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • The boyfriend of one of the murdered girls goes mad, and jumps off a balcony to be Together in Death.
    • In chapter 19, Pinkie confesses that she was once on the edge of the same, until her friends talked her out of it, pointing out that if a girl like Sunset could change, there was something worth living for. So she did.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: The Black Ops SIRENs behave this way even before they get augmented by the super serum.
  • Expy: Torch Hammer is one to Skolas from the "House of Wolves" DLC of Destiny.
  • Fighting from the Inside: Octavia is stuck inside her own body when Melody takes over.
  • Grand Theft Me: Melody, Octavia's unborn twin, takes over her body, due to jealousy over being absorbed in the womb.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: The mysterious eyeless man, who starts appearing in later chapters as a malevolent force with an apparent history with Queen Faust.
  • Hate Sink: Divine Right, to such an extent that one commenter compared him to Dolores Umbridge... after a long description of the kind of punishment he deserves.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the end, Sunset Shimmer sacrifices herself to save her human counterpart.
  • Identical Stranger:
    • Shimmer is mistaken for Sunset on several occasions. First in Canterlot by Flash Sentry and two other girls. Second, in San Francisco by Sweet Pea.
    • Likewise, Shimmer's mother Princess Solaire is a complete lookalike of Celestia, save for the former's short hair.
  • I Know Mortal Kombat: Principal Celestia knows how to shoot from the times she played video games with her sister.
  • Incompatible Orientation: Pinkie Pie admits to being bisexual and having fallen in love with Sunset. Sunset, who is straight, can't return those feelings (and Pinkie knows it), but does still care about her.
  • King Incognito: Shimmer and her mother Solaire, both princesses of the Bonaparte dynasty, would rather be normal people.
  • Love Interest:
    • It's revealed that Sandalwood has always loved Shining Armor, but she's never had the courage to admit it. She joined the Navy to get away from him and her best friend Cadance, but now that she's back... it's gotten worse.
    • In chapter 19, Pinkie confesses that she's bisexual and has secretly been in love with Sunset for a long time. Sunset, fortunately, isn't upset by this, though she can't return those feelings.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Octavia has a dream where she meets her ancestor Musica and her unborn twin, "Melody". Turns out to be magic as the former tries to prevent the latter from taking over her body.
  • Meaningful Name: Prince Divine Right believes that, as a descendant of both Baldesare di Cavalcanti and Napoléon Bonaparte, it is his "divine right" to Take Over the World and rule it as a God-Emperor, and intends to use Grogar to accomplish this.
  • Missed Him by That Much: Sandalwood almost has a chance to catch the killer... but fails to arrive in time to save another girl, one she knows. To add insult to injury, the killers drive right past her.
  • Necessarily Evil: The CSIS agent Changeling (that's his name, not his species) considers Blackthorn's ALICORN group to be this in dealing with the SIRENs, especially as their leader makes no effort to disguise his intents to kidnap Sable Loam and Celestia, kill the former, and rape the latter.
  • Noodle Incident: Pinkie Pie makes mention of Sweet Cicely to Sunset Shimmer, who did something back when she was an Alpha Bitch to hurt Pinkie Pie's romantic life. Ceases to be one in chapter 19, when Pinkie tells Sunset in detail what happened.
  • Social Darwinist: Tirek is one. When he hears about how the Black Garden was purified, he feels disgust.
  • Tarot Motifs: The serial killer - actually Divine Right - uses a tarot card motif, both when a girl is captured and when she is killed and her blood drained.
  • Race Lift: Twilight's family is revealed to be half-Hispanic, and she identifies as such. This allows the work to play with Latino Is Brown as the darker-skinned Rainbow Dash (also Hispanic) is surprised to find that Twilight's family is Hispanic as well.
  • The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Captain Cantata Blast has completely lost sight of what SIREN's war against CSIS and Les SCARs was for.note  Now she just wants to kill those that want her dead, and then rule the world beside Divine Right.
    • Averted with the reveal that Cantata was the one who ordered the hit on the Admiral, lying to the rest of the SIRENs about it to manipulate them to her side.
  • Third-Person Person: Tirek speaks like this.
  • Virgin Sacrifice: Divine Right drains the blood of virgins into a cask. If the blood of a non-virgin is placed into it, the blood shoots out and becomes acidic.

     Book V 
  • Alternate Timeline: And how. The result of Faust playing with the Timey-Wimey Ball for Sunset's sake.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted. Razz, now stuck in a human body, gets to experience the same thing Sunny did - switching from the estral cycle to the menstrual. The results are just about what you expect.
  • Expy: The seniors that Twilight, Octavia and the triplets meet in the revised timeline are based on the main characters of Magic Knight Rayearth.
    • Given that Phoenix Temple's name is a transliteration of Fuu Hououji's, it's also a Shout-Out.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: The eyeless man and his cult, the Ordo Duodecim, remain a menacing presence in the background. Additionally, a yakuza organization with powerful magic of their own called Setsuma Rengo-kai is introduced. Then there's the reveal that Chernabog is Not Quite Dead and that one of Sunset's friends may inherit her power one day.
  • Related in the Adaptation: The first chapter, set sixteen years ago, reveals that in this new timeline, Adagio, Aria and Sonata are actually Twilight's cousins by adoption, having been taken in by her maternal uncle Everblue Sky and his wife Lotus Garden after their birth parents' deaths. After the deaths of Lotus and later Everblue's second wife Softspoken, he winds up surrendering custody of them to Twilight's parents when the girls are all nine.
  • Ret-Gone: Boysenberry, Compass Rose's girlfriend from the original timeline. Sunset is horrified when she figures this out.
  • Separated at Birth: In the new timeline, Pony!Sunset is now believed to be Human!Sunset's twin (and later triplet) sister, who was supposedly stillborn but was actually stolen by the nurse and raised by her until they left one day, forcing Sunset to fend for herself and live on her own until she was found by Shining Armor. However, those who remember the original timeline still know the truth about her actually being from Equestria.

     The Knife's Edge 
  • Ancient Conspiracy: Jade has been reading up on a secret society of potential magic users in Ancient Rome called the Ordo Duodecim which may still be operating in the present.
  • Continuity Nod: In a way, the whole story is one to 7DSJ: The Apple Tree as it follows up on Jade's (and a little of Braeburn's) life after the events of that story. Iris then mentions in Jade's battle with her that it was the events of that story that attracted the Grandmaster's attention to Jade.
  • Evil All Along: Again, Iris.
  • Eye Scream: How Iris is punished by the Grandmaster of the Ordo Duodecim
  • Greater-Scope Villain: The Ordo Duodecim and its Grandmaster, implied to be the same eyeless man feuding with Queen Faust in Book IV.
  • I Have Many Names: How Iris describes the Grandmaster of the Ordo Duodecim.
    Iris: He has many names for he is Legion.
  • Meaningful Name: Both of Jade's friends, Shrinking Violet and Iris Nightshade have flower themed names. Violet's name is indicative of her shy personality. Both of the flowers that comprise Iris' name are beautiful but highly poisonous, indicative of her true nature.
  • Real-Place Background: Takes place at Michigan Tech University.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Code Break. Turns out that's all he's actually guilty of.
  • Virgin Sacrifice: Much like in Book IV, this is the apparent motive for Violet's murder.
  • You Have Failed Me: The Grandmaster of the Ordo Duodecim does not take kindly to failure, as Iris learns.


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