This is a trilogy of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfics written by John Perry,
- In Legion of Gloom
, the antagonists from six episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 1 band together to seek revenge on the Mane Cast: Prince Blueblood, the Great and Powerful Trixie, Gilda, Photo Finish, the Diamond Dogs and... Pinkie's imaginary friends, though none of the others can explain how they got there. Their plan consists of kidnapping Rarity, Applejack, Spike and Pinkie Pie (by her imaginary friends, leading to much confusion from the others), bringing them to Froggy Bottom Bog and ransoming them to the others. When Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy show up to rescue them, an epic battle ensues - and is cut off when Prince Blueblood accidentally hits a button initiating the Story Termination Sequence. Twilight then wakes up from a dream, much to Derpy's irritation. - In Enter The League of Fanons, the Legion of Gloom return and ally themselves with a new villan, The Author, and embark on a plan to steal the Elements of Harmony. Meanwhile, Doctor Whooves and Derpy investigate the Mane Six's blocked memories of the previous battle, and bring them to Trotswood, a Canterlot agency staffed by the League of Fanons - The Doctor, Derpy, Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia and DJ Pon3. In a climactic confrontation in the tunnels beneath Canterlot Castle, the Doctor thwarts the Author and the Legion's plan by converting the Elements into energy and calling upon the Elements of Fiction, wielded by the League of Fanons. The Author is destroyed, and while the Legion of Gloom are transported away, harmony is restored to Equestria.
- In Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the Mane Six are taken over
by popular fanfic interpretations of themselves - Pinkie Pie has become a serial killer, Twilight is in love with The Great And Powerful Her Royal Highness Princess Trixie (she married Blueblood in the last chapter), Fluttershy is taking care of a monster, Rainbow is declaring her feelings for Applejack, Rarity is in a relationship with Tom, Princess Celestia is a troll, and now Derpy has a daughter that she doesn't remember. And then the TARDIS gets hijacked - by Tom, who reveals that the Doctor is responsible for the disastrous blending of reality and fanon - he formed the League of Fanons, creating tears in the fabric of space-time, which spread beyond repair after he informed the Mane Cast of the existence of fanons. Faced with this knowledge, the Doctor is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice to restore reality...
These Fanfics contain examples of:
- All Just a Dream: The first story, though it's retconned later.
- Bittersweet Ending: Reality is saved, and Derpy is happy to be travelling with the Doctor and their daughter, but the League of Fanons can never return to Equestria, and are forced to say goodbye in a fashion similar to "Doomsday".
- The Cameo: Derpy describes herself as such in the first chapter. She describes herself as a Running Gag in the second.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Especially in the last two chapters.
- Cerebus Retcon: The Running Gag about Pinkie's imaginary friends appearing without explanation, when it's revealed that they have powers similar to the Weeping Angels, though they're not really any scarier afterwards.
- Genre Blind: The Doctor doesn't realise he was in a Parody Self-Insert Fic until after the Author is defeated.
- Lampshade Hanging: Constantly.
- Lemony Narrator: Especially in the early chapters. Chapter 3 of Legion of Gloom begins with a lengthy passage revealing that the Legion of Gloom each represent an element in opposition to the Elements of Harmony - specifically, the Diamond Dogs represent the Element of Nastiness (for Kindness), Blueblood represents Sorrow (for Laughter), Photo Finish represents Greed (for Generosity), Trixie represents Falsehood (for Honesty), Gilda represents Betrayal (for Loyalty) and Pinkie's friends represent the Element of Insanity.Mind you, I’m only telling you all this because I thought it sounded cool. There’s no magic or powers involved with these elements, like with the Elements of Harmony. And none of the characters in this story know that these elements even exist. I’m only telling you this because it makes the Legion of Gloom sound way more intimidating and unified than they actually are – the elements have absolutely no effect on the events of this story whatsoever. I’m sorry if you were expecting something awesome to come out of all that text, I just thought it would sound neat. My apologies to anyone who got their hopes up, and I hope this doesn’t effect your enjoyment of the rest of the story.
- Medium Awareness: The Author, the Doctor and Tom, plus the League and the Main Cast eventually.
- Running Gag: Two, both of which get old very fast, with heavy Lampshade Hanging to that effect.
- Characters constantly asking where the sack of flour, the bucket of turnips, the ball of lint and the stack of rocks came from.
- Trixie's ever increasing name - during Enter The League of Fanons, The Author casts a spell that forces everyone to refer to her by her full name. By the last chapter, she is The Great and Powerful Her Royal Highness Princess Mayor Supreme Ruler of the Moon Trixie, just in time for the spell to be removed.
- Stable Time Loop: Early in Enter The League of Fanons, Twilight brings up the conversation she had with Derpy at the end of the first story, when she called out the author for ending it by revealing it all to be a dream. Derpy remembers none of it, because she has it at the end of that book.
