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"You will not call me Twilight. My name is Nihilus."

"Go to your friends. Look them in the eyes, talk with them, laugh with them, and tell me if lifting a duster is more magical than what you feel, truly feel, in your heart. Friendship is a force, Twilight Sparkle.
"Love. Wonder. Happiness. Titan has none of these things. If you allow him to take ours, then you give up our only advantage. If we are going to win, it will be for our intangible virtues, not brute force. Magic, real magic, the kind that I use to raise the moon, cannot be fought."

The Immortal Game is a completed My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic written by AestheticB.

Long ago, in the magical land of Equestria, there lived a powerful King and his dark Queen. Immortal and ignorant, their end came at the hooves of their daughters, Celestia and Luna, who sought to build a better future for ponykind.

Now ponykind's old gods have returned.

Twilight Sparkle is trapped inside her own mind, slave to a cruel and impulsive consciousness built from everything she is not. Powerless and voiceless, she must find a way to stop the being that calls itself Nihilus from destroying everything she holds dear.

Luna is tasked with assembling the remaining Elements of Harmony in hopes of freeing their leader. For if ponykind is to have any hope, it is in Twilight Sparkle. And if Twilight Sparkle is to have any hope, it is in her five friends.

Facing her father in mortal combat, Celestia must do everything she can to ensure that ponykind has the tools to survive before she falls. With inevitable defeat bearing down upon her, she makes the first move in the oldest and deadliest game known to creation.

This was once named Ponies Make War but the author has since renamed it, explaining the reason for doing so in this blog post.


This fic provides examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Does not even begin to describe Esteem's relationship with Rarity, let alone Titan and Terra's with Celestia and Luna.
    • Or Titan's with Terra, for that matter.
  • Abusive Precursors:
    • To say Titan and Terra's initial reign over Equestria was nightmarish would be a major understatement. Their current rule is even worse.
    • On the other hand, Titan's first wife Harmony did care about her subjects. Enough that Titan eventually killed her for ignoring her duties to protect them from Discord in favor of saving ponies.
  • Action Girl: Well, mares. Most notably Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Luna, although Pinkie and Fluttershy have their moments as well. Twilight becomes one after her personalities merge back during her confrontation with Titan's avatar.
    • Twilight's mother Starlight counts as well — until the Mane Six meet up with the Loyalists, she and her husband are the only ones who really stand a chance against Esteem in a fight.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Rarity’s blade, Vorpal. Rainbow Dash gets a sword like this later on.
  • Achilles in His Tent: Following Nihilus' defeat and her promotion to Rebel Leader, Sparkle not only refuses to fight, but withdraws into herself, spending no time with anypony else that doesn't involve planning battles. When Titan accidentally re-fuses her personalities, she makes it clear that she's back in epic fashion.
  • Actual Pacifist: Sparkle is literally unable to bring herself to attack anything, even puppets.
  • Agent Peacock: Esteem. He has long, curly red hair that is noted as looking 'feminine', an eye for fashion he shares with his daughter, and a vain streak a mile wide. He's also the most terrifyingly efficient warrior working for Titan and thinks he looks pretty bathed in his enemies' blood.
  • Airborne Mook: The pegasus puppets.
    • The flying monsters that are part of Titan's army during the Battle of the Everfree, primarily harpies, though there is at least one siren in the mix.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Empyrean's death is rather sad, given that he was forced to be a villain in the first place, is powerless when he dies, and is killed by his own father.
  • The Alcoholic: Sir Unimpressive, who is never seen without a flask of whiskey. Twilight at one point wonders where he keeps getting it refilled.
  • Alliterative Name: Nihilus Nix Naught.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
    • Nihilus attacking Ponyville in her initial assault on the Mane Six.
    • The Puppets and Royal Army invading the Loyalist base in the Canterlot undercity.
    • Terra attacking Ponyville again as punishment for the Loyalists retaking Canterlot.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Each of the Mane Six has certain traits that make them a monster to face in battle. Twilight's trait? To use all her friends' abilities at once.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Very strongly implied to have happened between Applejack and Rarity when they thought Titan's storm would wipe them out during the Battle of the Everfree. However, it's hard to say for sure, since the storm made it impossible to actually hear anything, which is rendered in the narrative as them having to lipread.
  • And I Must Scream: Twilight. She’s unable to stop her Superpowered Evil Side, Nihilus, from trying to kill her friends.
    • Also Rainbow Dash when she is subjected to the Insanity and forced to help Nihilus kill her friends.
    • A flashback shows Order seemingly subjecting Discord to this after declaring himself Titan. As canon shows, he eventually escaped, with this story implying that Titan's original defeat by Celestia and Luna is what enabled it.
  • Animalistic Abomination:
    • Discord's creechlings from the flashbacks definitely sound like they fit, going by their description.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Wrong, who is Rainbow Dash subjected to the Insanity.
    • Terra is revealed to have started out as this after being subjected to the same spell.
      "They never could run fast or far enough before I lost control."
  • Arch-Enemy: Sir Unimpressive and the Cadet are an interesting example, in that they only fight twice (and we only see the second fight), but they see each other as their greatest enemy. There's also an inverted example of Unknown Rival in play, as they apparently already have a prior history that Unimpressive was completely unaware of.
    • Titan and Discord were this back in the day, which is why Twilight recruits Discord's help near the end.
  • Archnemesis Dad/Evil Matriarch: Titan and Terra to the Princesses.
    • Esteem to Rarity.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Sliver of Darkness; the object responsible for Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon and Twilight's into Nihilus.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: A recurring element in the story. Three notable ones are Unimpressive to the Cadet, Rarity to General Esteem, and Twilight to Titan.
  • Ascended to Carnivorism: Esteem indulges in eating meat, which is an anathema to most ponies.
  • Asshole Victim: Prince Blueblood nearly gets his tongue cut out in his only appearance.
  • As You Know: Used to show what's happened during the Time Skip, as the Cadet uses these exact words to start a briefing with Esteem. And the narration takes a moment to lampshade this trope, as it points out that yes, Esteem does already know all this.
  • The Atoner: Princess Luna.
    • Twilight, following her release from Nihilus' control.
    • The epilogue reveals that Fluttershy is trying to help Terra become this, whether she wants to or not.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: King Titan's battle style is to stall for a very long time, studying the opponent's technique — and then crushing the opposition in seconds once he's sure he has every eventuality planned for. He defeats the Princesses that way, and pulls it off on Twilight Sparkle too, but thankfully Twilight has an ace in the hole...
  • Ax-Crazy: Nihilus in spades. Terra as well.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Happens many times. During the Battle of the Everfree, Twilight does this with each of her friends, moving from one to another when needed.
  • Bad Moon Rising: The moon turns red in an early chapter, which according to Rarity is an ancient sign that Equestria is at war.
  • Badass Boast: Twilight's big line:
    Twilight Sparkle: I am Twilight Sparkle, and I am the end of war.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: During the battle of Canterlot, Applejack does this in her fight against General Esteem.
  • Battle Couple: Twilight Sparkle's parents.
    • Flashbacks show that Twilight's ancestor Astor Coruscare and her lover Valiant were the most dangerous warriors in Titan's army short of the alicorns themselves.
  • Battle Cry: Rainbow Dash coins one for the pegasi:
    Rainbow Dash: Thunder and lightning!
    Troops: Wings and steel!
  • Battle in the Rain: A significant portion of the Battle of the Everfree, though the storm is pushed away by the pegasi well before the battle is over.
    • The storm gets moved to Canterlot, which just so happens to end up the site of the final duel between Titan and Twilight.
  • BFS: Equinox. Most unicorns have around 9 pieces to their blade. Sir Unimpressive is trained for ten years and has an amazing thirteen. Rarity and her father General Esteem (the most powerful mortal warrior alive) both have fourteen. Astor Coruscare, the most powerful unicorn in history, is implied to have twenty. Twilight Sparkle? Twenty. Fucking. Seven.
    • It also has the added benefit of serving as a focus for the Elements of Harmony.
  • Big Bad: Titan.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Considering the premise of the story, it's to be expected that there are quite a few of these.
    • In the third-to-last chapter, Fluttershy does this with a dragon!
  • Big "NO!": Nihilus lets one rip when Twilight retakes control of her body long enough for the Elements of Harmony to be used on her.
  • Blood Knight: Nihilus and Esteem both fit this trope quite nicely.
    • And so does Sir Unimpressive, to provide a more heroic example.
    • Astor Coruscare too, as shown in the flashback as she happily slaughtered Luna's army at the war. Hell, her blade is named Sangrophile, a blood lover.
  • Black Swords Are Better: Singularity, King Titan's blade.
  • Blood Is the New Black: Esteem 'spreads' a helpless pony all over himself and Rarity. Then he apologizes for not considering that the color doesn't go with her mane, like it does his.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Rainbow Dash after Nihilus implants a spell called the Insanity into her mind that constantly tears at her sense of self, resulting in a nigh-amnesiac assassin who divides her time between hunting down the Mane Six and begging them to run.
    • Titan inflicted the Insanity on Terra to turn her from a nurturing goddess into a monster.
  • Brainwash Residue: Although Dash is freed from Nihilus' mind control, she's still subconsciously compelled to obey Twilight Sparkle.
  • Break the Cutie: The Mane Six.
    • Pinkie Pie gets hit hard by this after she thinks that Wrong!Dash killed Fluttershy, and again when Terra destroys Ponyville.
    • Twilight has to watch her Superpowered Evil Side torture her friends and later comes to the realisation that Celestia was manipulating her.
    • Rainbow Dash gets Mind Raped into hurting her friends.
    • Applejack has healing Earth Pony magic. Awesome. She's traumatised by the amount of Body Horror she's had to heal. Not awesome.
    • Fluttershy has lost her connection to the animals.
    • Carousel Boutique, Rarity's dream and her home, is burned down.
  • Break Them by Talking: A unicorn's (or alicorn's) blade can be rendered unusable if the wielder loses conviction, so this trope turns the tide of battle several times:
    • Sir Unimpressive did this to the Cadet by playing on his urge to be Esteem's favorite and bringing up Rarity.
    • Celestia managed to disarm Astor this way when she tried to kill Luna.
    • Twilight shooting down Titan's authority, saying he has no right to make himself King of the World, before stating he never had a place in the world he created, which is why both his immortal family and all of ponykind defied him.
  • Brick Joke: In the first scene, before everything goes to hell, Rainbow Dash makes an Accidental Innuendo about Fluttershy's dancing. Much later, after breaking free from Nihilus' mind control to save Pinkie Pie, she makes another one about the latter situation.
  • Broken Ace: It's established right at the beginning of the story that Twilight is, in addition to being Celestia's prize student, the most powerful unicorn alive (and by the end of the story is practically a god), but that just ends up making her a target for the villains and later leads to her being appointed leader of the Loyalists. The stress of all this practically drives her insane and leads to the Broken Pedestal below.
    • Flashback shows that Twilight's ancestor, Astor Coruscare, was also this. As a result of her Tyke Bomb upbringing, she was an immensely powerful unicorn, invented many types of war-magic, and was a brilliant (if ruthless) commander. But she was also a very amoral, sociopathic mare who was constantly seeking Celestia's approval.
  • Broken Pedestal: Twilight eventually realizes that Celestia was manipulating her for years, subtly training her to be warrior and Rebel Leader in case she was ever deposed. This shatters Twilight's image of Celestia, and she ends up hating her for it.
  • Brother–Sister Incest:
    • Titan doesn't appear to have a problem with forcing Luna to marry her brother.
    • Terra was originally married to her own brother, before he and her mother both died and Titan forced her to marry him.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Happens to Celestia twice. First, she's completely stripped of her power at the beginning of the story, and only gets it back near the climax. Shortly thereafter, most of her magic is drained again, leaving her only slightly more powerful than the average pony. This wears off in time for the Final Battle.
    • Also happens to Empyrean, Terra and Titan, though only Terra lives longer than a few minutes afterwards.
  • The Caligula: Does it even need to be said at this point?
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Rarity.
    • Once Celestia is restored, Twilight rips into her, calling her out on her manipulations.
  • Cast from Hit Points: At one point, an alicorn throws a punch so hard that the bones in the leg they punch with completely disintegrate and have to be rebuilt using their omnipresent Healing Factor.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Dash fought the Insanity so much that she's able to subconsciously fight off any other attempts to control her mind, such as the siren during the Battle of the Everfree.
    • It's mentioned several times that the best way to defeat a bladecaster is to break their spirit, which makes them lose control of their blade. This is how Sir Unimpressive defeats the Cadet, Celestia disarms Astor, and how Twilight defeats Titan.
  • The Chessmaster: Celestia.
  • The Chosen One: Twilight was the culmination of a lineage created by Harmony to inherit her power and defeat Titan.
  • Climax Boss: Nihilus. She is the primary threat for roughly the first third of the story, and it is only after her defeat that Luna and the Mane Six can focus on taking the war to Titan.
    • Esteem and Terra both go down in major battles/turning points as well — the former marks the retaking of Canterlot, while the latter sets the stage for the Final Battle.
  • Co-Dragons: Nihilus and Esteem. After Nihilus' defeat, Esteem takes on full Dragon duties.
    • Terra has shades of The Dragon as well, though she doesn't do much for most of the story. Though following Esteem's death, she steps down into the role.
    • There's a literal example during the Battle of the Everfree, as Titan appoints command of his army to Exakktus the Black, the oldest and most powerful of all dragons. At least until Fluttershy talks him into switching sides.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Inflicted on the depowered Celestia by Terra, her own mother.
    • Titan tortures Sparkle for personal information he can use against Celestia.
  • Les Collaborateurs: All the nobles and soldiers who side with the royal family after Titan takes over. Though it should be noted that aside from Esteem and the Cadet, who joined for power (and the former's respect in the Cadet's case), this is presented more realistically than most examples — many, like Captain Crunch, only sided with Titan out of fear and the belief that they had no other choice.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: Pinkie Pie can dodge an attack before the opponent can think about it. It turns out to be an inherent ability of an arcpony, a previously thought extinct sub-race of ponies.
  • Combat Pragmatist: When General Esteem fights Twilight Sparkle, he distracts her while an Avatar of Titan backstabs her, and then he gloats to her about how foolish of her it was to think that she could just face him in single combat and save the day.
  • Control Freak: Titan, even back when he was Order.
  • Convenient Coma: Twilight ends up in one after Nihilus' defeat, and doesn't wake up until after the Time Skip.
  • The Corruption: Discord's MO back in the day — he'd turn ponies into mindless, hideous creatures called creechlings who the Royals wouldn't hesitate to Mercy Kill. And this ended up including Terra's brother/husband, the original Empyrean.
  • Cosmic Chess Game: The eponymous Immortal Game referred to by Celestia and Titan at points in the story.
  • Crazy-Prepared: In the entirely possible event that Titan can withstand the Elements of Harmony, or that they don't all even live long enough to use them, Twilight has a backup plan. His name? Discord.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: God-mode Twilight Sparkle versus anypony who isn't Titan (the real Titan; the Puppet avatars don't count).
    • Nihilus' first fight with Luna, as the latter was severely weakened at the time.
    • Esteem vs anypony in a blade fight who isn't Rarity, Twilight's mother, or Twilight herself.
    • Terra delivers one to everypony during the second battle of Ponyville but they keep fighting, and eventually reignite the Elements of Harmony to even things out.
  • Curb-Stomp Cushion: Celestia can barely slow down Titan when he arrives, let alone defeat him, and knows it. She can, and does, not only insure Luna's escape from Terra but shape the wreckage caused by her beating to spark Nihilus' disloyalty.
  • Cutting the Knot: When Twilight announces that they need to get inside the Citadel, Rainbow Dash asks if she's going to use a spell to open it up. Twilight responds by blasting a hole in the wall.
  • Dark Action Girl: Terra, Nihilus, and Wrong.
    • To some extent, Astor Coruscare. She was scarily competent and vicious commander of Celestia's army in the past.
  • Dark Fic: And how! War Is Hell, the corruption of ideals, Rage Against the Heavens and Rage Against the Mentor, Mad God predecessors, mass war, brainwashing...
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Luna, especially in later chapters.
  • The Dead Have Names: Pinkie lists the names of all the ponies killed in Terra's attack on Ponyville when stating her reason for voting to kill her when she's imprisoned.
  • Death Faked for You: After Nihilus is defeated, the world at large thinks Twilight is dead. And while she's recuperating, Luna and the other Mane Cast members do nothing to counter those rumors, in order to keep her safe.
  • Death Glare: The Stare becomes this literally when Fluttershy uses it on Puppets — apparently, it works by bending a pony or animal's will, but since the Puppets don't have any will of their own, it burns through them instead.
  • Decapitation Presentation: During a series of flashbacks to the life of Astor Coruscare, her lover presents her with the head of one of the most powerful dragons to ever live, as part of his "knight's quest" — as engagement's gift. Weird couple.
    • Discord does this with Empyrean's head at one point, in order to mock Titan.
    • Twilight does this with Titan's head to show that the war is over.
  • Deity of Human Origin: Twilight and Fluttershy.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Nihilus Nix Naught? Somepony's got a zero fetish.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Twilight crosses it on the eve of the Final Battle, as she deduces that they don't have a chance of winning. Luna (actually Celestia in disguise) gives her hope with the speech that the page quote comes from.
  • Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Part of Nihilus' flaws as a minion is that she's a complete inversion of Twilight — up to and including Twi's ability to focus on a goal, meaning she often gets distracted by new ways to torture her targets — giving them time to escape.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Rainbow Dash kicks Titan's avatar in the face. It doesn't do much, but it distracts it long enough for Luna to slice it in half with her blade.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Twilight managing to nearly kill Terra during the second battle of Ponyville. Then Terra heals and proceeds to return the favor.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Despite her important role at the beginning of the story, Nihilus is the first major antagonist dispatched, bridging the way to greater battles and war.
  • Disney Death: Fluttershy and Rarity.
  • Divide and Conquer: This is how Titan was imprisoned in the first place. Terra had gotten angry when Titan ordered her to stop creating new creatures, resulting in a long war. At the end of it, Celestia and Luna lured the two of them into the same place, then let them fight it out. When it was over, they surprised Titan, paralyzing him long enough to construct a prison.
  • The Dog Bites Back: There's shades of this when Rainbow Dash breaks free of the Insanity and goes apeshit on Nihilus.
  • Drunken Master: Upon seeing that his arch-nemesis, the Cadet, is tearing through a crowd of innocent refugees and obviously needs to be confronted, the first thing Sir Unimpressive does is swig down the rest of his whiskey. Then he goes and kicks the Cadet's ass.
  • Dual Wielding: Twilight with both Equinox and Vorpal, after Rarity is nearly killed.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After suffering brainwashing, corruption, and multiple brushes with death, the heroes ultimately prevail, defeat Titan, and are able to rebuild.
  • Elite Mooks: The Unicorn Puppets.
  • Enemy Civil War: In the Back Story — during Titan and Terra's original reign, she eventually tried to usurp his position, and they fought for (possibly) decades, until Celestia and Luna got so tired of all the pointless death and destruction that they stabbed both of their parents in the back and sealed them away.
  • Enemy Mine: Allying with Discord against Titan. Celestia describes the situation as "better the devil they know".
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In his own sick, twisted way, Esteem actually seems to care about Rarity.
    • Terra (and Titan too, before he snapped) also loved Harmony (Terra's mother and Titan's first wife), and the original Empyrean (Terra's brother/first husband and Titan's son).
      • Back when Titan was Order, he seemed to have a soft spot for his family, as he softly joked with Harmony or decided to keep the dandelions when 12 year-old Terra asked him to.
    Terra: Whatever being had taught Terra how to use magic, whatever being had so softly joked with Harmony, he was gone now.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: All of the main villains have this to varying degrees.
  • Evil Counterpart: Terra is this to Fluttershy, as revealed in her backstory. And Fluttershy's status as Terra's Good Counterpart is increased during the climax, when Fluttershy uses her powers as an Eraterus to become the new "Princess of the Forest", and takes up Terra's crown of thorns.
  • Evil Overlord: Pretty much how Titan rules his realm.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Titan ultimately decides that the main "problem" with ponies is their free will, which allows them to defy him, and resolves to remove it once he's crushed Twilight and the Loyalists.
  • Eye Scream:
    • It must not have been a pleasant experience for Twilight to have an Artifact of Doom shoved into her eye.
    • She returns the favor, albeit with a regular (and big) piece of glass, when she's killing Esteem.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Downplayed. While Order became King Titan after his son's death, he was already a Control Freak who was willing to wipe out dandelions simply because they didn't fit with his order. And that's not getting into a Noodle Incident which implied the extinction of a race of hyenas.
    • Played straighter with Terra, who Titan used the Insanity on.
  • Fighting from the Inside:
    • Dash struggles with the Insanity, trying to resist it's control over her. It doesn't go well until Fluttershy uses The Stare, which weakens the Insanity enough for Dash to break free.
    • Twilight also fights Nihilus passively by providing her bad information and distractions whenever possible, but it isn't until her friends are all in a position to defeat her that she can resist long enough to provide them help in the form of the elements.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: General Esteem, widely recognized as the greatest bladecaster in the world — when Titan grants him a boon in exchange for his loyalty, he chooses eternal youth.
  • Final Battle: The Battle of the Everfree. Though the actual final duel between Twilight and Titan is fought in the ruins of Canterlot.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: Terra is an extremely twisted form of the "Mother Nature" archetype. Her role consists primarily of exterminating species so as to preserve Titan's "natural order".
  • Glass Cannon: Rarity. Although not as fragile as other resistance members, thanks to the Elements of Harmony. She's noted several times as less robust than her friends and often needs constant protection when she's attacking the enemies (which she'd done so very well thanks to her weapon).
  • The Gloves Come Off: Celestia gives a brief speech after regaining her power.
    "Centuries of boiling water for tea when I knew that I could boil the seas. Of lifting quills when I could lift mountains. Of breaking wax seals when I could break anything I please. My power is too much for this world. But it isn't too much for you, is it, Terra? Now I get to find out what I'm really capable of. No lives to save, no plans to make, nothing to hold me back. I am divinity unleashed."
  • God and Satan Are Both Jerks: King Titan is hardly any better than his ancient enemy, Discord.
  • A God Am I: Said by Luna, before her fight against Nihilus in Cloudsdale. (It's perfectly justified, what with her being a god.)
    • After the same fight, Nihilus wonders what defeating a god makes her.
    • And of course, there's Titan and Terra.
    • Ultimately subverted with Twilight Sparkle. After fully tapping into the power of the Elements of Harmony, she realizes that she's essentially become a god herself. The subversion comes from the fact that she's horrified by the idea, and decides that nopony should have that much power.
      • Double Subverted when Twilight is transformed into an alicorn by Harmony's magic and admits that by every definition of the word, she is a god now.
  • Godzilla Threshold: That's all you can really call it when the group recruits Discord.
  • Hammerspace: Twilight/Nihilus' null-space
  • Hannibal Lecture: Terra is very fond of these whether she's the captor or the captive.
  • Healing Factor: All Earth Ponies and Fluttershy seem to possess this in varying degrees, Applejack's in particular seems to be rather powerful.
    • This is also the reason Alicorns are so damn hard to kill. Their regenerative abilities are so strong, the only way to defeat one is to constantly barrage it with repeated damage (employing force that would kill lesser beings hundreds of times over) in an attempt to dry up their considerable magic stores.
  • Heel–Face Turn:
    • Exakktus is talked into turning on Titan by Fluttershy.
    • Terra also eventually gives up on her hate, but only after Titan is defeated.
  • Hellish Pupils: Nihilus gets a glowing red iris around a slitted pupil where Esteem drove the sliver through her eye.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. Twilight throws herself into Titan's free will-removing spell in order to disrupt it, fully expecting to die in the process. Instead, she absorbs the remnants of Harmony's power and is transformed into an alicorn.
  • Heroic Second Wind: During the battle of Canterlot castle, Twilight gets gutted by both Titan's avatar and Esteem, and it looks like it's all over. Then, Twilight uses the link between the bearers of the Elements to tap into Applejack's Healing Factor, and she gets back up.
    • During her final duel with Titan, he verbally dismantles every reason she has for fighting, which allows him to slowly overpower her. However, before he can kill her, she realizes his Fatal Flaw despite all his talk of a "natural order" he has no place in it — and forces him to realize it as well, which breaks him completely. This allows her to strip his power and finally kill him.
  • He's Back!:
    • Rainbow Dash breaking free of the Insanity in order to save Pinkie, performing a Sonic Rainboom in the process that restores her normal coloration.
    • The personalities of Twilight and Sparkle being fused back together, and the true Twilight Sparkle emerging from it, proceeding to curbstomp all of Titan's forces arrayed against her.
    • Celestia regaining her powers, and taking the fight to her parents.
    • And then there's everyone when they manage to reignite the neutralized Elements of Harmony to use against Terra.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: The reason for Sparkle's pacifism is that she's afraid that she'll start enjoying violence, and become no better than Nihilus. When her mind fuses back together, Twilight Sparkle realizes that was foolish — she is nothing like Nihilus, and will never let herself sink so low.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Luna, though it gets better the more she fights alongside the Loyalists.
  • Hope Bringer: Twilight Sparkle.
  • How We Got Here: Chapter 14 starts with Titan conversing with Celestia while simultaneously torturing Twilight. The rest of the chapter explains how he came to be torturing Twilight.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Titan and Terra both firmly believe that Ponies are naturally vicious, violent creatures, and the paradise that Celestia created is a falsehood.
  • I Am Not My Father: Rarity
  • I Call It "Vera": Unicorns and alicorns name their blades, usually reflecting the wielder's personality and/or talents. Notably, alicorn blades are usually named after astral phenomenons, and Princess Luna gets somewhat pissed when Twilight Sparkle calls her sword Equinox.
  • I Have No Father: After calling him out, Rarity effectively disowns Esteem, and shows no signs of having a problem with the possibility of having to kill him and is far from upset when Twilight does just that.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Nihilus eats Celestia's ear after taking over Twilight Sparkle.
    • General Esteem is said to 'indulge' after a kill.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Twilight's Godslayer outfit includes a piece of the night sky on her body. Then again, since it's designed to never come off, this might get a little awkward after the war.
    • Spike thinks it looks silly.
    • Becomes a moot point when the outfit is incinerated in the process of Twilight becoming an alicorn.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Empyrean. He has no clue how to run Equestria or fight the Loyalists, and it's clear that Esteem hates having to work for him. It makes his death at Titan's hooves even sadder, really.
  • Insistent Terminology: Titles are very important to some of the ponies.
  • Internal Reveal: After Nihilus' defeat, Equestria at large believes Twilight to be dead, until she and the rest of the Mane Six hook up with the Loyalists.
  • Ironic Echo: "Titles are important" is practically Esteem's catchphrase. Twilight shoots this back at him during the Final Battle by pointing out that while he may be a General, she's a Master General. Similarly, he gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech when he thinks he's beat her, and later she gives a similar one to him right before killing him.
    • After being stripped of her power, Celestia refuses to answer to her mother's mocking nickname of "Sunshine". When Terra sees that Celestia has regained her power, she's so shocked she can only choke out her name, to which Celestia smugly replies, "Call me Sunshine".
    • When Terra is imprisoned by the Mane Six, she tells Fluttershy that she performs cruel acts because "It's what I do. It's who I am." When Fluttershy shows her an act of kindness anyway, she replies to Terra's inquiry as to why with the same line.
  • It Has Been an Honor: Just before the final charge in the Battle of the Everfree, Twilight says this to her friends. Well, in the roundabout, slightly messed up way that fits her new personality, anyway.
  • It's Personal: Naturally, Rarity's rivalry with her father Esteem. Though that ends up taking a backseat to Twilight's vendetta against him, the stallion who turned her into Nihilus.
  • Jerkass Gods: Titan and Terra don't really care much about for their subjects.
  • Karmic Death: Esteem, who forced the Sliver of Darkness through Twilight's eye as she begged for mercy, is killed by Twilight pushing a sliver of glass through his eye while his attempts at begging for mercy are cut off by Twilight forcing his mouth shut.
  • Kick the Dog: Esteem mocking Twilight's parents about how he turned her into Nihilus.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Esteem threatening to cut out Prince Blueblood's tongue.
  • Kill It with Fire: Averted. Celestia tries to incinerate Terra, but Titan intervenes before she can finish the job.
    • Averted again during the second battle of Ponyville; Twilight tries to kill Terra with a beam of concentrated molten iron, but only manages to wound her before running out.
    • Subverted during the Battle of the Everfree. Exakktus breathes enough fire at Titan to melt him down to his bones, but he's so dang indestructible that he's easily capable of killing Exakktus.
  • The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Rainbow Dash for Spitfire.
  • Knight Templar Parent: Esteem had already intended to bully Blueblood into being a figurehead ruler for Canterlot while Titan was away. He only threatened to cut out Blueblood's tongue when the idiot made lewd comments about Rarity.
    • He also physically and emotionally abused Rarity during childhood, and then tried to justify it by saying he was making her strong and "superior." The guy's a real piece of work.
  • Lady of War: Rarity.
  • Laser Blade: While unicorn bladecasters have to forge their blades, alicorns create theirs out of pure energy. Celestia wields a Flaming Sword, Luna's is made of cold moonlight, Terra's blade is green energy and Titan's edge is a dark void.
  • Last of His Kind: As it turns out, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are part of — and are possibly the last — of very rare, naturally evolved, pony subspecies that Titan ordered destroyed for not fitting in his design.
  • Last-Second Chance: After stripping Titan of his power, Twilight offers him a chance to live as a mortal, and maybe one day atone for all he's done. He opts for a suicidal final charge.
  • Last Stand: The Battle of the Everfree is an interesting play on this trope. By this point, Titan's lost all of his top lieutenants and his ability to create Puppets, and the Loyalists are assaulting his Citadel. However, he still controls the monsters of the forest, which all combined vastly outnumber the decimated Loyalists. On top of that, he's preparing to enact a spell that will strip the world of its free will, so Twilight and the others know that they have to finish the war with this last battle, or they lose everything. So really, in a way it's a Last Stand for both sides.
  • Legacy Character: Empyrean turns out to be one; he was modeled and named after Titan's first son, who was also Terra's brother/husband.
  • Little "No": A trademark of King Titan is coldly saying "No." as he No Sells everything the ponies throw at him, including the Elements of Harmony. This is satisfyingly turned on him when he realizes that Twilight Sparkle is overriding his spell.
    “No,” Titan whispered.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: When Nihilus is defeated, her floating fortress falls apart.
  • Look Behind You: Sir Unimpressive does this to some Puppets at one point. Since they're mindless, it works.
  • Magic Knight: Any of the bladecasters, unicorns who've learned to weaponize their special talent.
  • The Maker: Harmony.
  • Mama Bear: Don't mess with Twilight, or you'll have her parents coming after you. Especially her mother Starlight, who, before Rarity hooks up with the Loyalists, is the only pony able to match Esteem in a sword fight.
  • Master Swordsman: Esteem. As he notes that Rarity is the strongest bladecaster he's ever met other than himself, Rarity may fit this trope as well.
  • Meaningful Name: Astor Coruscare's name can be roughly translated as 'Twilight Sparkle'. Fitting, considering they're related.
  • Meaningful Rename: Titan was originally named Order, but changed it when he snapped from the fallout of his war with Discord, and went from a strict but well intentioned ruler to the monster we've seen in the rest of the story.
  • Mercy Kill: As flashbacks show, this is the only thing to be done for Discord's creechlings, since there's no way to return them to normal. Then Terra had to do this to her brother/husband.
  • Messianic Archetype: Due to being Celestia's prized student, Twilight has a reputation like this among the Loyalists, which causes their ranks to swell after the Internal Reveal that she's still alive. And after her He's Back! moment, with the awakening of her true power, she really starts to live up to it.
  • Mind Hive: Celestia can split her mind into at least three separate consciousnesses, each able to concentrate on a different train of thought. Twilight also acquires this skill after being freed of Nihilus, and Terra implies Titan has the ability as well.
  • Mind Rape: The Insanity does this to Rainbow Dash whenever she even thinks about resisting one of Nihilus's orders. Or remember she's Rainbow Dash.
  • Mook Maker: It seems Terra's primary job is to create Puppets, which Titan doesn't seem capable of. Following her loss of power, Titan is forced to use the monsters of the Everfree as his army.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Twilight Sparkle gets a moment like this when Titan's torture forces her fractured mind back together.
  • Mythology Gag: Out of the Mane Six, the first two to use another race's abilities are Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who use pegasus and earthpony magic respectively. This hearkens back to their original G4 designs which in turn were based off of two G1 characters. And as a cherry on top, immediately afterwards we get:
    Pinkie: Surprise.
  • Named Weapons:
    • A lot, many of them meaningful. Rarity's Vorpal, Celestia's Zenith and Luna's Nadir, Unimpressive's Vindictive, Titan's Singularity, Terra's Exogenisis, Esteem's but initially Valiant's Carsomyr, Astor Coruscare's Sangrophile and Twilight Sparkle's Equinox.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Titan puts Sparkle in such a bad situation it forces her to reintegrate her minds.
    • Terra's assault on Ponyville, which serves no strategic goal and is only to hurt her enemies emotionally, ends with her losing her godhood and the Elements of Harmony re-ignited.
    • Titan activating the Citadel enables Harmony's last gambit, transforming Twilight into an alicorn and creating the only opponent capable of matching him in strength.
  • Never My Fault: Titan blames ponykind for the deaths of his wife and first son, even though Discord was responsible for the latter, and he himself was responsible for the former.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Since there is a war going on and all, naturally no one's holding any punches. Still, that being said, the key fights always seem to be a bit harsher than most of the others.
  • No-Sell: Applejack is able to do this due to a combination of her strength, her Healing Factor, and her armor (especially after Twilight enhances the latter).
    • Both Titan and Terra have a spell that neutralizes other ponies' magic including the Elements of Harmony.
  • Not What It Looks Like: After Applejack and Fluttershy end up sharing a bed for the night, Rainbow Dash walks in on them the following morning lying on top of each other. She quickly leaves the room, and Applejack just as quickly follows after to explain.
  • Offing the Offspring: Titan and Terra have no problem with doing this as proven when Titan kills Empyrean for failing him.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We never see how Twilight defeated all of Titan's avatar after her minds fuses back.
    • The battle between Valiant with the help of Luna and the dragon Firkraag was also offscreen. He won, and the dragon's head is used to propose to Astor Coruscare and make his new blade, Carsomyr.
  • Off with His Head!: How Twilight finishes off Titan.
  • The Old Gods: How Titan and Terra are referred to at a few points in the story.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: Nihilus' floating citadel.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: Apparently one of Harmony's earliest creature designs involved flaming hyenas. Though the "flaming" part may well refer to the way the alicorns exterminated them.
    Harmony: You always bring up the hyenas...
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Sir Unimpressive and the Cadet.
  • Only Mostly Dead: Rarity is fatally wounded by Titan during the Battle of the Everfree, but Twilight — newly transformed into an alicorn — is able to preserve her long enough to save her.
  • Orcus on His Throne: All of the royals. Empyrean stays in the palace, officially ruling in his father's name, but never fights the Loyalists himself until the Mane Six burst into his throne room and depower him (which is justified by him being young and having no knowledge of combat). Meanwhile, Titan and Terra are off "restoring order" to their creation and torturing Celestia, and don't fight the protagonists directly except at the very beginning of the story and during the climax, though Titan did intervene a few times via puppet avatars.
  • Order Is Not Good: Titan, though he also had shades of this when he was Order.
  • Order Versus Chaos: King Titan, the enforcer of Order, is opposed to Discord, the spirit of Chaos. This is an interesting example where both are evil. Although Titan used to be Lawful Neutral.
  • Paint It Black: Nihilus starts out looking exactly like Twilight, but eventually ends up looking like the picture above. In a faster example, when Rainbow Dash is subjected to the Insanity, it turns her coat black and her mane and tail gray.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Twilight's rather brutal killing of Esteem would be a Moral Event Horizon if he didn't totally have it coming.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: All of the Alicorn Princesses are Physical Gods who wield tremendous power, enough for each of them to be a One-Man Army individually. Terra and Titan, the parents of Celestia and Luna, are even more powerful than their daughters by virtue of being older Alicorns. Twilight becomes a goddess of Magic during the final battle with Titan, who loses against her.
  • Physical God: All the royals, obviously. Also Twilight, once she fully taps into the power of the Elements of Harmony and obtains her friends' abilities. And then again when she gains Queen Harmony's power.
    • And then she drains Titan dry of power, effectively becoming twice as powerful as him.
    • You probably wouldn't suspect sweet, timid, little Fluttershy of having the potential to become this. You would be wrong.
  • The Power of Hate: It's the only thing Terra was left with after being subjected to Titan's mind control spell. Now she hates everything - average ponies, Celestia and Luna, and even Titan himself.
  • Psychic Link: It turns out that the Elements of Harmony grant one to their bearers, and the Mane Six end up using this to their advantage during battle.
  • Put on a Bus: Discord is mentioned to have left the dimension shortly after his battle against Titan, and is never seen again.
  • Rage Against the Mentor: When they're reunited, Twilight really tears Celestia a new one, calling her out for all her manipulations. Celestia tries to mend things between them, but Twilight points out that the way she's doing it is just another manipulation.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Applejack gives a rather simple one to Esteem when they meet for the first time:
    "Ah know knights and generals. You're just a jackass."
    • Esteem himself gives one to Twilight when he thinks the villains have won, telling her that she was foolish to think she could win, and that all she'll be remembered for is failing. When Twilight kills him, she gives a similar speech about how all he'll be remembered for is his treachery.
    • Twilight gives one to Titan, of all ponies, breaking him just long enough to defeat him.
  • Rebel Leader: Twilight's parents seem to have been, if not the leaders of the Loyalists, then at least among them. Until the Mane Six hook up with them, and Twilight hesitantly accepts Luna's decision to appoint her General of the Armies of Equestria, which makes her leader of the Loyalists by default.
    • It turns out that Celestia was subtly training her for this position should the need ever arise, something Twilight resents her for, though she really gets into the role once her mind heals.
  • Rebuilt Pedestal: When Twilight realizes that it was Celestia, not Luna, who comforted her the night before the Final Battle, she realizes that Celestia really did love her despite the manipulations. This allows her to forgive her.
  • Recursive Fanfiction: Chapter 12 and up of The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments take place during the events of this fanfiction (even though chapter 12 is really an April Fools' Day chapter).
  • Red Baron: After her He's Back! moment, Twilight Sparkle takes up the title "The Godslayer", to serve as both a symbol of hope for the Loyalists, and a figure of fear for the Royals.
    • Rarity becomes known as "The Dragonslayer" when she takes down the green dragon during the Battle of the Everfree.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Captain Coconut Crunch, who performs a Heel–Face Turn when she realizes the Loyalists have a chance of winning, and ends up being unceremoniously killed by Esteem while protecting Twilight.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: As a final "screw you" to Twilight before his death, Esteem tells her he killed and ate Spike. Turns out, Spike was just in the dungeon the whole time.
    • During the timeskip, it was thought that Luna was either unable or unwilling to save Twilight Sparkle when she put Nihilus down. The Loyalists consider her a martyr up until the instant she walked into their headquarters.
  • La Résistance: The Loyalists.
  • Revenge by Proxy: Titan sends Terra to destroy Ponyville after the Loyalists retake Canterlot. As Luna puts it, it's not about winning, it's about punishment.
  • Rogue Protagonist: As suggested in the picture and mentioned in the picture's caption, Twilight Sparkle but only for about the first third of the story.
  • Rousing Speech: Twilight gives one to the Loyalists right before the Battle of the Everfree.
  • Royal Brat: Prince Empyrean, who — as Esteem is quick to point out — is just a petulant child who happens to have the power of a god.
  • Shock and Awe: As she takes a few levels in badass, Rainbow Dash learns to use this pegasus power at will.
  • Shout-Out: For a while, the duel between Twilight and Esteem plays out just like the one between Holmes and Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
    His advantage: Experience. Our advantages: Power. Mobility.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: One chapter of the Pony POV Series has Amicitia/Twilight engineer things so Empyrean isn't killed by Titan.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: During the second Battle of Ponyville, while Terra is beating the Mane Six and Luna into the ground, she's also ranting about how survival is all that matters, and doesn't understand why they're fighting her even though they have no chance to beat her. They shoot her down simply:
    Terra: What could possibly be more important to you ponies than survival?
    Fluttershy: Friendship.
    • This is immediately followed by Terra stating that she's still more powerful than all of them and trying to finish them, only to be stopped by the previously-neutralized Elements of Harmony reigniting.
      Terra: I have more power than all of you combined. Against me you have nothing. No weapons. No magic.
      (Attempts to kill Twilight, but the Elements reignite, blocking and then immobilizing her)
      Terra: No! That's impossible!
      Twilight: Hadn't you heard? Friendship is magic.
  • Shut Up, Kirk!: Titan to Twilight, repeatedly during the final battle. Twilight eventually gets through to him long enough to Stare him down, break his will and claim his power.
  • The Social Darwinist: Titan and his disciple Esteem.
  • Split Personality: The minds of Sparkle and Twilight.
    • Split-Personality Merge: Titan's torture causes Sparkle to accept Twilight's offer of fusing back together, and the real Twilight Sparkle emerges as a result.
  • Squee: Rainbow Dash's internal reaction to Spitfire asking her to sign her goggles is Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh.
  • The Starscream: Nihilus only follows Titan's orders as an excuse to hunt down the Mane Six and get her hooves on the Elements so she can use them to overthrow him and place herself on the throne.
  • Straw Nihilist: Terra would appear to qualify, as she believes that the only purpose in life is to survive, and that any other goal is meaningless.
  • The Stoic: Twilight becomes this after her Split-Personality Merge. From then on, the only times she shows emotion is around her parents, the other Mane Six, and occasionally Luna. She gets better after the Final Battle.
  • Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: When Nihilus captures the Element bearers and is trying to take the Elements from them, Rarity threatens to slit her own throat with a diamond (that she hid in her mane) if she doesn't release the others. Nihilus agrees, but the point ends up being moot anyway.
  • Storming the Castle: The Loyalists attacking Canterlot castle. By the time it's done, they've retaken the castle, Empyrean and Esteem are dead, Celestia's power has been restored, and Titan is pissed.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Rarity is said to resemble her father, General Esteem, in looks. Not that it's a point of pride for her, as he's her Archnemesis Dad.
    • At the Final Battle, it's revealed that one of the reasons why Titan always hated Celestia is because Terra unconsciously made Celestia to look like her mother/Titan's first wife, Harmony.
  • Suicide by Cop: It's implied that Titan knew that charging Twilight after losing his power was suicide, but that he wanted to go down fighting.
    • Similarly, upon facing an opponent he could not hope to defeat or escape, Esteem promptly tells her a lie certain to provoke her into a murderous rage.
  • Supporting Leader: Luna for most of the story, especially after Twilight is appointed leader of the Loyalists. During the Battle of the Everfree, she shares the role with Celestia.
    • Rainbow Dash takes charge of the pegasi troops during most battles, especially the Battle of the Everfree.
  • Talking to Themself: Twilight Sparkle ends up doing this a lot after her mind splits in two.
  • Terms of Endangerment: Nihilus likes to call Twilight "kiddo." Twilight soon returns the favor, several times.
    • Terra teasingly calls Celestia "Sunshine." Celestia retaliates by calling Terra "mom."
  • That Came Out Wrong: Becomes a Running Gag with poor Rainbow Dash, who keeps accidentally saying things that make her sound like a lesbian.
  • That Man Is Dead:
    • Nihilus Sparkle referring to the old Twilight Sparkle.
    • Also how Terra refers to her original, kind self. She even goes so far as to say that even if there was any of the old her left buried inside her, she'd gladly destroy it.
  • There Was a Door: Rarity says this verbatim when Applejack smashes through a wall, just a few feet from the perfectly good doorframe she destroyed.
  • This Cannot Be!: Terra's reaction when Titan dies.
  • Time Skip: After Nihilus' defeat, the story skips ahead a month, and after a couple of chapters bringing various plot threads together, subtly skips ahead roughly two weeks for the Final Battle.
    • After the Final Battle, the story skips ahead a few more weeks to show how everyone's adjusted to the post-war world and are rebuilding. Then the last scene skips ahead an unspecified amount of time (at least long enough to rebuild Canterlot in full) to show Alicorn!Twilight's coronation.
  • Title Drop: For both of the story's titles:
    • For the original title: Ponies Make War is the name of a book of war magic written by one of Twilight Sparkle's ancestors, and the phrase itself is dropped a few times before becoming a battlecry.
    • The "Immortal Game" is how Titan and Celestia refer to their Cosmic Chess Game.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Rarity is the most notable, though most of the main cast take a few levels themselves.
    • Fluttershy gets a huge one in her grand entrance at the Battle of Everfree. She rides into battle in the grandest badass form imaginable — using the largest, oldest, and most powerful dragon in Equestria as her personal steed after having transformed into a Physical Goddess, complete with gravity defying hair and a version of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Rarity pronounces her terrifying. Even Twilight is struck speechless.
  • Torture Technician: Terra seems to be this when she's not busy creating Puppets unfortunately for Celestia.
  • To the Pain: A subtle example, but Discord's threat to Titan during their confrontation qualifies:
    "I'm going to make you feel, old friend. I'm going to make you feel everything."
  • Trash the Set: By the time the story's over, both Cloudsdale and Ponyville have been wrecked, a large portion of the Everfree forest has been burned down, and Canterlot is in ruins (with Canterlot Castle itself being completely obliterated).
    • However, the epilogue shows them rebuilding, with the final scene being set in a restored Canterlot.
  • Treacherous Advisor: General Esteem was this to Celestia.
  • Try Not to Die: Just before they storm Canterlot castle, Twilight orders Sir Unimpressive not to die, as a contingency plan (specifically, he can lead if she dies).
  • Tyke Bomb: Twilight Sparkle was subtly trained as a general and resistance leader from the age of eleven, just in case the whole Elements of Harmony thing did not work out against Nightmare Moon.
  • Unfortunate Names: One of the Loyalist commanders is a pegasus named Noble Steed. When he introduces himself, he comments that he doesn't know what he did to his parents when he was only a day old that they decided to punish him by giving him that name.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: When the Mane Six defeat and depower Terra, they vote to spare her life. She mocks them for it and calls them weak.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: During their final duel, Twilight deduces that Titan never bothered to learn how to fight beyond a basic level, since he's just so powerful he can normally just obliterate whatever's in his way. This is subverted when it turns out he had been holding back in order to analyze Twilight's fighting style; he proceeds to gain the upper hand once he starts fighting seriously.
    • Twilight herself in terms of bladecasting, due to only having been introduced to the concept a short time before she needs to fight with it. As such, she uses it more like a blunt tool for quickly killing those weaker than her than an effective weapon for dueling with equals. This is no longer true after she becomes able to tap Rarity's knowledge of bladecasting.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Terra comes off as this in her flashbacks, until... well, see Cry for the Devil.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Nihilus completely falls apart (not that she was all the stable to begin with) after Rainbow Dash breaks free of her control, and it's revealed she didn't manage to corrupt the Elements as she thought she had. In the end, she's left a terrified wreck begging Twilight to spare her, which obviously doesn't happen.
    • Empyrean totally loses it when the Mane Six break through his defenses and enter the throne room and tries to incinerate them only for the Elements to neutralize his attack to depower him.
    • Titan briefly loses his will to fight when Twilight manages to Break Him By Talking; however, after Twilight beats him he seems to have recovered, and is completely stoic
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Esteem chooses to flee rather than fight Princess Luna (fitting, her being a Physical God and all). He also tries to escape when he realizes that Twilight is too powerful for him to defeat. Twilight intercepts and kills him.
    • Discord sticks around just long enough to temporarily reduce Titan's power — giving the heroes a chance to prepare for the Final Battle — and then flees. Luna implies that he left the dimension altogether.
    • Terra runs away from the newly repowered Princess Celestia.
  • Villainous Rescue: After Titan neutralizes the Elements of Harmony, he attempts to kill Twilight, only for Discord to show up and save her.
  • Villains Want Mercy: Nihilus ends up begging Twilight for mercy, but doesn't get it.
  • War Fic: Used to be right there in the title.
  • War Is Hell: You better believe it!
  • We Can Rule Together: Esteem tries this with Rarity. She refuses and proceeds to call him out.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Cadet has this attitude towards Esteem. Sir Unimpressive uses this against him in their fight.
    • Empyrean has shades of this as well.
  • World's Most Beautiful Woman: Terra is an extremely beautiful goddess. Too bad she's evil and on Titan's side.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Following her loss of power and imprisonment, Terra pretends to have an emotional breakdown in order to lure Fluttershy close to her cage so she can try and kill her.
  • You Have Failed Me: When Empyrean is stripped of his power by the Mane Six, Titan doesn't hesitate to kill him.
  • Your Head Asplode:
    • How Titan kills Exakktus.
    • Twilight does this to Titan in turn during their final duel. It barely slows him down.


Alternative Title(s): Ponies Make War

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