The End of an Era is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fixfic written by StacheHand and is meant to be a retelling of the Grand Finale due to the author having issues with the original story.
The day of Princess Twilight Sparkle's coronation, her ascension to ruler of all Equestria, has arrived! But what was meant to be a beautiful day of celebration turns into the greatest disaster in Equestrian history. Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow and the shadow of a past enemy have been hard at work turning pony against pony and studying the ultimate power of Grogar's Bewitching Bell. Grogar himself has acquired an artifact once thought to be kept away from the wrong hands (or hooves) forever, hoping to use it for an important purpose, but is blissfully unaware of the evil tetrad's deception. Or so they think...
With the Horses of the Apocalypse attacking everywhere, the world's mightiest defenders, including the Council of Friendship, will have to step up and protect the people. Will their rainbow lasers light the sky and win the battle like they always have, or will the diplomacy of their non-combatant allies be the key to restoring unity to the broken equine societies and saving all creaturekind?
The story can be read here
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The fic is now complete as January 12, 2024.
The End of an Era provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Grogar is even more powerful than what he was implied to be in the show. Even without his Bewitching Bell, he is strong enough to overpower the bell-empowered Cozy Glow and Chrysalis and even Tirek in his final form. Also, his bell has abilities it never displayed in the show, such as mind control, protection spells, and the ability to create and control shadows, monsters and zombies.
- Big "WHAT?!": Thorax shouts this when he learns they are changelings still loyal to Queen Chrysalis in his hive.
- The Corruption: Grogar's malice magic works like this. Its described as a toxic force which corrupts and transforms anything it comes in contact with.
- Darkest Hour: The villains have conquered Equestria, Princess Celestia is heavily injured and out of commission, all of the ponies tribes are divided from the villain's manipulations, the Windigos have returned because of the disharmony from the three tribes and they're slowly turning Equestria into a frozen wasteland. Twilight and her friends are becoming exhausted from their constant traveling and being attacked by monsters. All of their allies are either captured or separated from one another and Twilight herself has lost both her horn and wings from Grogar's attack on her. Heck, one of the chapters is even called Darkest Hour, Minute and Second.
- Death World: Equestria has become one due to Grogar corrupting Equestria's core which is slowly killing the land and turns the sky crimson red. Not to mention all the monsters roaming around. Even worse is the Windigos have returned and they are slowly turning Equestria into a frozen wasteland.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Oh Yes. After all the hell they went through, Twilight and her friends definitely deserved it.
- Easily Forgiven: Twilight, while not trusting Cozy Glow after what she's done is willing to give her another chance after hearing the Cutie Mark Crusaders vouch for her and learning of her role in the Horses defeat. It's zigzagged in the final chapter as she is seen imprisoned next to a colt and filly according to a newspaper.
- Downplayed with Discord as while the others may have forgiven him, Twilight sentences him to community service and help clean up the damage Grogar and his monsters caused without using his chaos magic. He accepts the punishment as a way to atone for causing the problem in the first place.
- Evil Counterpart: Aurora Eclipse. She's supposed to represent what Starlight could have become if she hadn't accepted Twilight's friendship.
- Evil Knockoff: Aurora Eclipse is an evil copy of Starlight Glimmer created from the log that was once Mean Twilight and a strand of Starlight's hair found by Grogar. She is described as an echo, a copy of someone who had a different personality.
- Face Death with Dignity: Grogar doesn't scream or yell as his body crumbles to dust but remains calm and keeps his composure.
- Fixfic: This fic fixes many issues the author had with the series finale.
- Each of the chapters is split into four parts and is the equivalent to one episode each.
- Grogar's Bewitching Bell has many other powers apart from its Mana Drain ability. It can create and control shadows, protect the user, and create and control monsters.
- The Legion of Doom has been renamed to the Horses of Apocalypse.
- Each member of the Horses of Apocalypse use the Bewitching Bell to upgrade themselves into getting more powerful forms and abilities.
- Cozy Glow doesn't use Grogar's bell to become an alicorn. Instead, she becomes a new Pony of Shadows allowing her to morph her body into different shapes and create copies of herself to confuse her opponents.
- Aurora Eclipse, an evil clone of Starlight Glimmer was made to serve as King Sombra's replacement in the group. She used the power of Grogar's bell to become an alicorn instead of Cozy.
- Queen Chrysalis expands her shapeshifting abilities which allows her to transform into anything she wants and can split herself into multiple copies.
- Lord Tirek uses Grogar's bell to transform into his final form rather than his third form as seen in the show. Also, he is gains the power to heal himself and his comrades.
- Grogar is very real and not Discord in disguise. Here it is revealed as the Father of Monsters, Grogar was responsible for creating Discord and thus he is Discord's father.
- King Sombra having a different voice and personality was a result of Came Back Wrong and being revived as a Revenant Zombie.
- The villains went around deceiving well known ponies such as Miss Cake and Sunburst as the author felt the deception worked much better rather than lying to some no name ponies.
- The Cutie Mark Crusaders are the ones to give the Rousing Speech to their respective races as the author felt it was more impactful to hear it from well known ponies instead of Sandbar and two no named students from Twilight's school.
- Hypocrite: Everyone chews out Discord over doing nothing to stop Grogar and his group from attacking Equestria. But when Grogar appears and attacks Discord no one bothers to help him, believing he's merely pretending to be hurt to motivate them into getting their fighting spirit back just like what he did with King Sombra.
- Last of His Kind: Scorpan mentions he and Tirek are the last members of their species due to their kingdom destroying themselves.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Discord goes through this after everyone chews him out over his poorly thought-out plan to give Twilight confidence.
- Everyone goes through this for not believing Discord when he was in danger and being tortured by Grogar.
- Mythology Gag: Grogar being imprisoned in the stars is a reference to Cosmos, a villain from the IDW comics.
- Lord Tirek traveling around in a midnight chariot is a nod to his G1 counterpart doing the same thing in his chariot of darkness.
- No Ontological Inertia: When Grogar is defeated, his castle and all the zombie ponies he created crumble to dust.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Discord tries to pull this off asking how his plan to test Twilight any different from all the times Princess Celestia tested her. Celestia responds she never intentionally put Twilight in danger and always made efforts to protect her whenever she could.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The zombie ponies are the result of Grogar using his malice magic on innocent ponies to corrupt them into his servants. They're more like monsters rather than undead beings.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Both Fluttershy and Discord insult Lord Tirek for being a helpless weakling who can't do anything by himself and has to rely on others to help him.
- Cozy Glow receives one from her fellow associates who mock her for thinking they were her friends. Lord Tirek tells her creatures who work together doesn't make them friends. Queen Chrysalis and Aurora Eclipse are much more spiteful with their insults. Both of them calls her annoying for her self important attitude and tell Cozy she acts like a whiny brat when she doesn't get her way. Even Grogar admits Cozy doesn't contribute much in the grand scheme of things and any important job she had can easily be done by anyone else. Cozy is so hurt by these comments she's reduced to tears.
- Redemption Rejection: Scorpan offers Tirek a chance to start over though Tirek rejects the offer believing that accepting both friendship and love would be nothing but a disgrace to him.
- Revenant Zombie: King Sombra was revived as one to explain his change in personality.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Grogar was sealed in the stars when he was defeated by Gusty the Great many moons ago. He was able to escape from his banishment when Cozy enacted her plan to remove all the magic in Equestria.
- Super Mode: Heart Rainbow Power is a form the Mane Six gain when they realize the true power of the elements is the faith they had within themselves. Twilight's wings and horn are restored while Twilight's friends gain alicorn-like features: Rarity's unicorn horn becomes longer, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash get much larger wing spans and Applejack and Pinkie Pie get metal horseshoes.
- Taken for Granite: This is the ultimate fate of the Horses of Apocalypse.
- Title Drop: One is given at the end of the prologue.The ultimate battle for the fate of Equestria, and the entire world, is drawing near. Everything the heroes and villains have been through has led up for this grand event. What item of great power does Grogar seek, and will Twilight really get the happy ending she earned? Whomever stands victorious when the dust settles, it will mark... The End of an Era!
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After being injured and infected by Grogar's malice magic, Twilight becomes more nasty and spiteful towards her friends.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone is furious with Discord when they learn he was secretly spying on the Horses of Apocalypse and deliberately allowed them to attack as a final test for Twilight to see if she really has what it takes to become the ruler of Equestria. Twilight is upset at this as she admits she hates fighting and only did so previously as she had no choice in the matter. Even Fluttershy who is his biggest defender is disgusted with his actions saying all he did was put the lives of everyone in danger.
- Would Hurt a Child: Aurora Eclipse after stealing the Crystal Heart and brainwashing all of the citizens in the Crystal Empire leaves Flurry Heart behind to be buried alive by the snow storm.
- You Have Failed Me: This is the reason why Grogar refuses to bring back King Sombra.
