Fanfic / The Catacombs of Zalgo

"It is been said, confronting emotions at its peak shall conquer one's self in life. However, when they are faced with an even greater level of emotions beyond one's intuition, the spirit shall crumble in defeat upon its overwhelming wake.

In the history of Equestria, Equestrians lived in true peace and harmony. The nature of fear and violence has always been reduced to a minimum point to where Equestrians feel confident and at peace. However, outside the Equestria borders, a greater evil surrounds the ever-lasting tranquility of the land. For soon, the childish creatures shall endure the true meaning... of fear and horror."

The Catacombs Of Zalgo is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fanfic that crosses over with the Creepypasta/Internet meme Zalgo (and some droplets of Cthulhu) by Nintendoboy1000.

After the defeat of Discord, the main six decides to take a pleasant stroll outside of Ponyville. But unexpectedly, they were all knocked out and been seized by ungodly creatures they've never seen before. With Fluttershy now awoken in a dark and terrifying dungeon, she's been unexpectedly saved by a rude yet courageous human whose only purpose is to bring vengeance on his adversary. Now, the two unlikely allies teamed up with each other to confront what lurks deep within these hell's tombs while Fluttershy keeps questioning herself. What has become of her friends? Who is this mysterious human? What place is she in? Only time will tell... when he comes.

The story can be read on Fanfiction Dot Net here, on Fimfiction.net here, and on Deviantart here.

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This story contains examples of:

• Aloof Big Brother: Jack's brother, Jared, was mostly apathetic to him, yet was the only one close to a benevolent presence in his life by basically raising him. Subverted when it's revealed Jared's apparent kindness was pragmatic.
• Abusive Parents: Jack Armstrong's parents. Under the belief of him being the Avatar of Zalgo, they didn't give him one bit of love or attention. It went far enough for their memory to be his most dangerous Berserk Button.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight express varying levels of sympathy for their Zalgo counterparts' miserable states. Twilight briefly believes what her counterpart has to say and gives herself to her mercy, and Applejack prays for her counterpart's peaceful rest after her Disney Villain Death.
• Antagonist Title: Also doubles as The Place, since it's the name of the set of dungeons that Fluttershy and co. must escape from.
• Ancient Tomb: The titular setting; a pretty terrifying example for the trope that mildly crosses over with Eldritch Location.
• Big Damn Heroes: Celestia comes to the Mane Six's aid in Chapter 21.
• Bait-and-Switch: While entering the Illusion Quarter's first bit, the Room of Horrors, the group is greeted by the friendly laugh of Pinkie Pie and it seems at first they'll be reuniting with another one of the Mane Six. Then, Jack points out where they are and, while remembering something, Rainbow Dash panics. Turns out this Pinkie is part of a recurring nightmare of Dash...
  • Another one on the very next chapter, but with the opposite switch: A green-eyed Applejack appears and, suspecting it's just another one of the Illusion Quarter's tricks, Fluttershy regretfully allows Jack to shoot her down. He aims at her hat instead, killing the creature that was controlling her and revealing that, after all, she was the real one.
• Big Bad: Zalgo.
• Berserk Button: The Room of Rage, one of the Psychological Torment Zone's of the Catacombs, presses the berserk buttons of the unfortunate ones that come across it. In particular, the manifestation of Jack's one, his Abusive Parents and the priest that baptized him, are dangerous enough that he has to warn the ponies of it beforehand.
  • A minor one, but Fluttershy innocently asking if Jack had any friends or family briefly sets him on a silent rage against her before he remembers she's barely aware of what he went through.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Non-romantic example ( unless you count the alternate ending's confession) between Fluttershy and Jack Armstrong.
• Back from the Dead: Twilight is brought back from the dead in Chapter 16.
  • Jack dies earlier in the Final Battle thanks to Zalgo, but Am Dhaegar briefly brings him back to life to finish Zalgo off. In the canon ending, he once again is revived, but this time in a pony body due to his human body becoming too broken to live on.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • "Chapter 16 - Friends". Jack finally let go of the bitterness of his past, learned about The Power of Friendship, and solidified his friendship with the Mane Six. However, instead of letting them help him fight Zalgo, he sends them back to Ponyville with a scroll originally meant for him. The Mane Six are overjoyed to be back home... except for Fluttershy, his closest friend.
  • The story's two endings have shades of this. In both of them, Zalgo is finally defeated, and his scroll is safely kept away for the benefit of the entire world, but Jack has to make a Heroic Sacrifice to make it be possible. The canon ending is more on the sweet end of the spectrum, as Jack's soul survives in the mortal plane despite his suspicions, but he has to adapt to a new pony body, and Aero survives. The alternate ending has Jack being Killed Off for Real and Aero performing his own Heroic Sacrifice to power up Celestia and allow her and the Mane Six to escape, but at least Am Dhaegar grants Jack the chance for one last conversation with his friends.
• Bad Future: Zalgo's Twilight Sparkle claims she and the others are the Mane Six from the future, after losing to Zalgo. While it briefly convinces the real Twilight, whenever or not it's true is left ambiguous.
• Big Good: Am Dhaegar.
• Byronic Hero: Jack fits most of this trope's characteristics.
• Body Horror: A frequent favorite of this fic, down to dead body descriptions to monster descriptions.
• Big Sister Instinct: The Room of Horrors plays on Rarity's fear of being unable to protect her little sister, Sweetie Belle.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Illusions of the Room of Desire. They at first look helpful and pleasant (except for the imp that holds Jack captive), but when they are rejected, they reveal themselves to be as demented as the other illusions.
• Bungled Suicide: Jack comments that he tried multiple times to commit suicide due to his anger at his life, but never succeeded.
• Break the Cutie: Every single one of the Mane Six gets broken by the horrors they witness. Notable is the usually-The Pollyanna Pinkie Pie's reaction.
• Big "NO!": Zalgo's last words as he's sealed in the scroll.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 1 ends with someone entering inside Fluttershy's cell. Turns out that its the story's Deuteragonist, Jack Armstrong.
• Cain and Abel: Jack and Jared. Jared framed Jack as The Antichrist to keep Graniteville busy enough to let his powers grow, bringing suffering for Jack, and is ultimately opposed to him as Jack is actually The Chosen One.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: Played with. Jack teleported the Mane Six out of the Catacombs despite Fluttershy's protests against the idea. While the others quickly moved on, she was guilty and lonely over Jack's story, and she convinces Twilight to go back to the Catacombs to help him and Aero appears to guide the Mane Six there.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, while on the Construction Quarter, witness a Zalgo-fied cultist ripping out an old man's heart and eating it. It is enough to make the former cry and almost vomit, and the latter nearly go Leeroy Jenkins on them before Jack stops her.
  • Fortunately, that's not the only death we see being described in Chapter 4. We also see another cultist chainsawing a fawn's throat. Imagine what was going on in Fluttershy's head...
• Contagious Laughter: Mood-regenerated Pinkie's laugh is enough to make the other ponies laugh, and even usually-serious Jack laugh, making him learn about the pink pony's Element.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Downplayed, then Subverted, and then Double Subverted. At first, the monstrous green lindworm proves to be a big threat, but the Mane Six manage to get a few hits on it. Then, Twilight manages to defeat it by tossing it into the distance. But just when we think it's over, three more brute creatures appear and TRASH the Mane Six.
• Cooldown Hug: Fluttershy and Jack share one after the latter learns what a hug is.
• Determinator: Fluttershy becomes determined to try and save her friends, even if she has to endure a terrifying catacomb and its terrors and, to a minor extent, a Jerkass human as her companion.
• Darker and Edgier & Bloodier and Gorier: The major tropes this fic runs on, at least on the MLP: FiM behalf.
• Death Glare: Fluttershy gives her trademark Stare on Jack to get him to help her on the Rescue Arc. Not only it works, but he actually feels an emotional recoil after staring back at it long enough.
• Defrosting Ice King: Jack. He starts off the fanfic by being a mostly-one-sided teeth clenched ally to Fluttershy and the Mane Six, being annoyed by them and solely being driven by his Revenge. Learning about the values of The Elements of Harmony slowly breaks his shell.
• Deer in the Headlights: Poor Fluttershy becomes too scared to move while the rest of the Mane Six fight the lindworm in Chapter 1. Not even Rainbow Dash shouting at her to get out of the way is enough.
  • The same happens when she and the others meet the Soul Devourers. Likewise, Jack yelling for her to go is not enough to make her move.
• Dem Bones: Aero Le Spectrum (nicknamed Boney by Pinkie), a painter who was captured long ago and experimented to be a skeleton stallion. He's also a Fish out of Water.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Jack explains to Fluttershy he doesn't like being called mister after saving her from the chains and introducing himself.
• Downer Ending: Chapter 14 ends with the group only being able to mourn Twilight's death. Subverted when the next chapters fixes it.
• Divine Intervention: Am Dhaegar helping Jack come back to life to stop Zalgo. Celestia helping the Mane Six fight Zalgo partially counts as well.
• Dark and Troubled Past: At first, he only tells Fluttershy how he was a forced member of the Cthulu-focused Religion of Evil that lived in R'lyeh before Zalgo personally came and transformed it into his Catacombs, while sparing Jack from the fates he inflicted on the other cultists. It goes way deeper than that, though, complete with Abusive Parents, having his role secretly being misunderstood by birth, which caused his entire hometown to hate him and, by his words, plan to execute him on his tenth birthay, and a Cain and Abel situation he only grew aware of really close to the fanfic's finale.
• Devour the Dragon: Played with, but Zalgo essentially does this to his Avatar, Jared, to come to the mortal realm. And it's described in great detail.
• Death Trap: Right at the beginning of Chapter 5, Rarity has to be rescued from one with a sawmill that threatens to rip her in half. Two of them, actually. Thankfully, Fluttershy's experience with Rainbow Dash's phony manages to tip her on who's the fake one.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed variation. Jack doesn't understand why Fluttershy is being nice to him instead of frightened/angry, despite what he put her through. This leads to the pegasus explaining the first Element of Harmony to him, Kindness.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Illusion Quarter's illusions of Fear and Desire eventually start to attack themselves, sparing the heroes from them. Jack's Abusive Parents end up shooting down Faronael, Fluttershy's Room of Desire illusion, but set sights on their hated son, and would've succeeded in bringing him down if it wasn't for the ponies saving him at the last second.
  • Part of the Zalgo Mane Six end up doing the same Self-Disposing Villain variation of it. Zalgo Rainbow Dash headbutts Zalgo Fluttershy and brings them both down the abyss, and Zalgo Rarity turns on Zalgo Pinkie by wishing for her organs, allowing Pinkie to take a chance at their distraction and push them off.
• Eldritch Location: The Catacombs; of Mordor variation.
• The End of the World as We Know It: A part of Zalgo's desires.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Jack reveals he has a scar of "The Eye of Eternal Darkness", Zalgo's symbol, on his abdomen. It was inflicted by the archbishop that baptized him, Herald.
• Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Subverted. The bits of flesh stuck on Pinkie's flesh are dissolved by Mi-go's digestive system and, if Jack didn't save her, she would've quickly become its meal.
• Glamour Failure: The phony Rainbow Dash and Rarity have transparent eyes. This is the biggest tip the protagonists have while saving the real ones.
• Green and Mean: The monstrous lindworm that attacks the Mane Six in Chapter 1. It even later comes back as Fluttershy's worst fear in the Room of Horrors.
• Gender Flip: Zalgo was of ambiguous gender in the origins. Here, he's a male.
• Hell: When you get someone (namely, Jack) comparing the former house of a Cult of a Religion of Evil that performed horrible experiments, now transformed into the titular lair of the Big Bad, with the house of Satana himself, then you know Fluttershy and company are in big trouble.
• Holy Burns Evil: To get through The Necropolis Quarter's guardians (The Soul Devourers) safely, Jack has to use a Christian cross with Jesus Christ emblazoned to repel them.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: Minor, but when Applejack calls him out, Jack screams to the ponies that he never wanted to save them before describing how he was never loved. It doesn't stick long, however.
• Hated Hometown: Jack hates his hometown, Graniteville, due to the fact that nearly everyone there hated his guts.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Fluttershy in the prologue. The narration details how she blames herself for being a coward not only to her friends but to herself, the guilt she feels for her period under Discord's control, and the deep-down guilt for being unable to help Discord.
• Heroic Second Wind: During the Final Battle, after Celestia's speech, the Mane Six gain enough will to fight back against their Zalgo counterparts and eventually win.
  • Jack comes back to life in time to speak the spell to finish Zalgo off, not only because of his willpower but also because of Am Dhaegar's influence.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Downplayed, but Rarity prioritizes Jack's bandage use on Fluttershy's hooves instead of her wound. This teaches Jack the trait of Generosity.
  • Another Downplayed example, but Jack uses the only teleportation scroll he has, originally meant for himself, to send the Mane Six safely back home, just so he won't put them at risk. He also proclaims to them that he might not be able to come back alive after defeating Zalgo.
  • By the time of the finale, his own prediction comes true, as he shortly succumbs to his dead body's injuries after pulling his body back from the dead to seal Zalgo. In the alternate ending, it's played straight as he's Killed Off for Real, and in the canon ending, it's Subverted as he did survive, but had his soul be moved to a new pony body.
  • In the alternate ending, Aero sacrifices his life energy so Celestia can teleport everyone away.
• Hope Spot: In Chapter 1. See the Curb-Stomp Battle example above.
• I Work Alone: Jack's usual mode of operating. At least, until he met the ponies.
• Invincible Villain: Zalgo's goons and whoever gets killed in the Catacombs. All of them regenerate due to Zalgo's influence shortly after being killed, so the only thing the heroes can do is kill them once and bail.
• Late to the Tragedy: Subtle, but gradually the Mane Six's members arrive really the nick of time and barely manage to rescue each other, eventually culminating on Twilight dying way before they reach her and the rest having to retrieve her soul to bring her back.
• The Load: Fluttershy heavily believes herself to be this in the beginning.
• Limited-Use Magical Device: From Chapter 9 onwards, Jack uses scrolls with spells that usually depend on his blood and enchantment words to succeed, and are one-time use.
• The Mole: Discussed in Chapter 8; Applejack suspects that Jack might be working for Zalgo's goons. Ultimately though, it is Defied.
• Mouth of Sauron: Jack's initial description of "the Avatar of Zalgo" somewhat fits this trope, as they'll be the one to sing their master's world-ending song.
• Manly Tears: Jack finally sheds these after recounting his backstory to the ponies.
• Mood Whiplash: The first two chapters (Chapter 0 and Chapter 1) are this in spades, especially the latter.
• Multiple Endings: Downplayed. The story only has two endings, and what changes on them is the outcome of the Final Battle. In the official ending, Jack's soul is transferred to a pony body and he can finally start a new life in Equestria. In the alternate ending, he's Killed Off for Real.
• Mythology Gag:
  • After her minor "Eureka!" Moment and regaining faith in her friend's survival, Fluttershy decides to give Jack the Stare to comply him to help on rescuing her friends.
  • During the group's exploration of the tombs, parts of the Zalgo Invocation's lyrics are cited by a mysterious whisper. It even gets commented by Jack during the first time.
  • In his backstory, Jack saw the Sonic Rainboom that reunited the Mane Six, and it guided him to a city where he began to live under the bridge.
  • Zalgo was responsible in this fanfic for corrupting Luna into Nightmare Moon.
• Ominous Fog: The Catacombs has lots of these.
• It's Personal: Jack Armstrong feels that Zalgo ruined his life and entrusted himself with defeating him. Even after he truly cements his friendship with the Mane Six, he decides to send them back to Ponyville instead because he feels This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself.
• The Pollyanna: Double Subverted. After regaining consciousness, even Pinkie is shown utterly broken by the horror she had to endure. Then, the others begin to burp the blue gas they used to survive the Plague Quarter and her Quirky Curls come back and so does her laughing attitude.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Fluttershy begs for Jack to not die.
• Psycho Lesbian: The Spitfire from the Room of Desires is revealed to be this.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Am Dhaegar-fueled Jack right before connecting the Zalgo-sealing scroll to Zalgo himself. Also counts as his human form's last words

" L-L-Leave... m-my... f-friends... alone..."

• The Power of Hate: The Room of Rage is especially driven by this, using the victim's targets of hatred (for the ponies, Discord, Gilda abusing Scootaloo, Trixie, and Blueblood). It's also hinted to share its energy with the two previous Illusion Quarter rooms.
  • The Room of Rage manifestation of Jack's most hated thing, his parents and the priest that baptized him, is dangerous enough that he has to warn it to the ponies, pointing that it'll kill them all if they take too long to escape the Illusion Quarter.
• The Power of Friendship: As the Mane Six are reunited, Jack slowly learns about their values, breaking the cynical, jerk shell his Dark and Troubled Past brought him; Fluttershy shows kindness to him despite his behavior, Rainbow Dash stays to face the horrors for her friend's sake, Rarity prioritizes Fluttershy's bandaging over hers, Applejack shows sincerity in her belief that Jack is Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, Pinkie finds a situation to laugh about among the horror she and the others had to endure, and finally Twilight's return brings the Friendship and Magic to a unison.
• The Psycho Rangers: Zalgo summons evil counterparts of the Mane Six that are much more depraved than their Discord selves to fight them. Like their Discord selves, they embody their virtue's specific counterparts.
• Psychological Torment Zone: The Illusion Quarter is split into three of those, which Jack explains that was formerly used for interrogation and torture. There are three of them.
  • The Room of Horrors preys on the victim's worst nightmares.
  • The Room of Desires preys on the victim's desires.
  • The Room of Rage preys on the victim's Berserk Button's.
• Please Wake Up: Fluttershy says this to Jack's dead body in the alternate ending.
• Quirky Curls: Double Subverted. When they find the true, unconscious Pinkie in The Plague Quarter, her hair is down. When she regains her consciousness and sense of fun, however, they immediately poof up.
• Race Against the Clock: Rarity's rescue. The passage of the Room of Rage is also this in a way; Jack points out that avoiding the fog is impossible and they have to race to get the key before his illusion appears.
  • The Final Battle is also this, as Zalgo's mouths open in sequential order and Jack and the ponies have to stall for time for the seventh to open and for him to become vulnerable.
• The Reveal:
  • In Chapter 10, Jack reveals his Dark and Troubled Past in detail: his entire hometown, except for his Aloof Big Brother, hated him for apparently being the Avatar of Zalgo, and he had to survive largely on his own. On his tenth birthday, the day he was supposed to be executed, his hometown burned to the ground, and, following his brother's advice, he ran away. His mind was broken during his walk by Nyarlathotep's words until he came across a city in which he began to live under the bridge for four years until it was corrupted. Then, he was taken in Cthulu's cult and worked for them before Zalgo's true Avatar destroyed them and ended up goading Jack into doing his revenge.
  • In the hilariously appropriately named Chapter 19, "The Truth", lots of reveals are given. First, the origin of Am Dhaegar, which leads to the origin of Zalgo, and the origin of the Avatars of Zalgo. Not only it but there's also a prophecy of the return of Am Dhaegar, the only one that can oppose Zalgo. Then, it turns out that it's not Jack that's the Avatar of Zalgo (he's actually Am Dhaegar's Avatar), but his Aloof Big Brother Jared, who reveals that they are actually twins, and Jared framed Jack as the Avatar of Zalgo to keep Graniteville's townsfolk busy while his power grew, culminating on him destroying it. Then, Jared reveals that he intentionally captured the Mane Six to make them meet Jack and awake the light within him.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Lots of the villains in this fanfic love this trope.
• Red/Green Contrast: Our protagonist's (Fluttershy's pink hair, Jack's green shirt) main visual contrast.
• Rescue Arc: Fluttershy's initial main goal while traveling in and enduring the horrors of the tombs is to rescue the rest of the Mane Six.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Due to reasons that are gradually developed as the story goes on, Jack initially wants solely revenge on Zalgo for ruining his life and by the time he debuts he doesn't care about anything else, even if he dies while trying to do his revenge.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Inverted and Played with. Fluttershy and Jack are more Protagonist and Deuteragonist and Fluttershy is the nice, good-hearted hero to Jack's ruder and tougher hero.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Applejack delivers one of the What the Hell, Hero? variety to Jack, after having enough of his selfishness and attitude.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Pinkie Pie from The Room of Horrors is a walking reference to the infamous Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles). The fanfic's story is also a recurring nightmare of Rainbow Dash.
  • Cthulu and other H.P Lovecraft stories are part of the story's backstory lore.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: While the entire fic is extremely grim and dark, especially considering that it's about MLP FiM characters having to endure the horrors caused by an Eldritch Abomination, the canon ending is pretty optimistic. Sure, it has its shades of bitterness, but Jack gets to live by having a pony body and can coexist with the friends that changed him for the better, unlike in the alternate ending where he's Killed Off for Real.
• Speak of the Devil: In Chapter 3, Jack advises Fluttershy to not speak Zalgo's name, unless if it's within his presence or his catacomb, as horrors happen otherwise.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Jack considers love and friendship emotions that betrayed him and that he can't understand due to his Dark and Troubled Past. The ponies rebuking that attitude with Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers! is what kickstarts his development for the better.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Downplayed a bit for the trope's average, but Jack's definitely this compared to the nearly squeaky clean language ponies.
• Spot the Imposter: To save Rainbow Dash and Rarity, Fluttershy and Jack have to figure out which is the real deal and which is an impostor posing as one of them (the impostors are given thanks to their transparent eyes). The latter's especially dramatic, as it is a Race Against the Clock where the one that is left behind ends up dying by a sawmill.
• Skewed Priorities: Rarity gets saved from imminent death? Her biggest worry? Her coat being ruined by the blood. It especially gets on Jack's nerves. Subverted when Rarity prioritizes Fluttershy being bandaged first.
• Swallowed Whole: The Mi-go does this to Pinkie Pie in Chapter 12. Thankfully, Jack saves her from her fate while going on Mi-go's mouth himself.
• This Cannot Be!: Zalgo's reaction over his doom-sealing scroll.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: More one-sided (at least until Rainbow Dash joins in), but Jack is not that willing to help the ponies escape the Catacombs at first, even after receiving the Stare from Fluttershy. He puts rules for the partnership, while nonchalantly claiming that if he dies she'll be on her own, and initially only cares about doing his Revenge, or dying trying to.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Jack feels that it's his burden to defeat Zalgo, even after learning about The Power of Friendship from the Mane Six. That's why he sends them back to Ponyville with a teleportation scroll instead of letting them help him.
• Taking the Bullet: Jack takes an attack meant for Fluttershy from the Soul Devourer that noticed their presence.
• Taking You with Me: Zalgo attempts to do this to the heroes in Load-Bearing Boss style.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The Character Development of Jack. As he and Fluttershy venture deeper into the titular catacombs and rescue the yellow pegasus' friends, he learns about the values of the Elements of Harmony and becomes a more selfless guy.
• Undying Loyalty: Fluttershy decides to follow Jack in the Catacombs to save her friends, even if it means facing its horrors. Same to the Element of Loyalty herself, Rainbow Dash, once she learns about the rest's situation. The latter's speech about it makes Jack learn about that value.
  • Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash try to stay behind for Fluttershy's sake after the Room of Rage imprisons her in chains.
• Voice of the Legion: Zalgo himself, plus anyone under his influence, speaks with this, represent by bold and italic letters. And so can Jack once Am Dhaegar channels himself on him to put an end to Zalgo's reign of terror.
• We Can Rule Together: After Jared reveals every truth behind Jack's life, he offers for him to join him in a Fusion Dance so their essences can become one again and they can have the power of a god, giving Jack the life he was supposed to have.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As shown in Chapter 3, Fluttershy has hematophobia (fear of blood).
• Wham Line:
  • In Chapter 2, Jack's line as he reacts to Fluttershy's worry over needing to save her friends (the five other Mane Six), revealing this won't be any similar to the previous ones.

"Fluttershy, hate to break it to you. By now, your friends are probably dead or being slaughtered. This is no ordinary place you're treading in."

• In Chapter 10, as Jack calms down from his fury and sadness and Fluttershy asks why his life is so miserable.

"Those... shadowy demons we faced in the Illusion Quarters. They... they were my parents."

• Wham Shot:
  • In "Chapter 0 - Prelude Towards Madness", Fluttershy spots a silhouette evoking the Dark Is Evil and Red Eyes, Take Warning tropes. And then it begins to talk to her about "his" arrival...
  • In "Chapter 1 - A New Threat", the green lindworm appearing and roaring at the Mane Six. The indirect debut of Jack Armstrong right at the end can count as well.
  • In "Chapter 9 - Battling Against Insanity", The Room of Rage manifests the priest of Jack's hometown, who proceeds to sacrifice the ponies' manifestations on the Room of Rage to summon Jack's Abusive Parents, who begin to torture his mind with cruel words. From the same chapter, everyone must run from part of the previous room's manifestations, PLUS Jack's parents.
  • Twilight Sparkle's dead body in "Chapter 14 - Lamenting".
• When She Smiles: At the end of Chapter 10, Jack finally smiles with sincere happiness. The narration describes it as his first time doing it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Applejack points out that Jack, for her, is the most coldhearted person she ever met.
• Yandere: The illusions of the Room of Desires can't handle rejection and will actively pursue their victims, even if one of them rejects their proposals.
• You Are Not Alone: Applejack reassures Jack of it after he doubts the ponies' kindness towards him, making him learn about her trait, Honesty.
• You Are Too Late: In Chapter 14, after a heartfelt moment with Jack, the group hears Twilight's scream and immediately rushes to help her. Unfortunately, she has already been sacrificed by one of the few remaining Cthulu cultists...
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The rooms of the Illusion Quarter play this trope on any of their victims.