"Don't worry, I have time"
The Time Thief
, is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fanfic written by Reading4HalfMyLife.
Set in an alternate Universe where Twilight Sparkle and Starlight are married, their daughter, Astral Plane is caught in a time loop, endlessly repeating the same four days over and over again.
The Time Thief is a story that goes into things like anxiety, guilt, regret, and character development, which is all surrounding the strange mystery of why Astral is in these loops.
Also known for it's interesting characters, strange shippings and realistic view of things, the Time Thief is without a doubt one of the most fascinating fanfics out there.
—
The Time Thief provides examples of:
- Action Duo: Misty and Anarchy are absolutely this
- Aloof Big Brother: Alchemy to Astral, Eclipse to Anarchy
- Adorkable: As well as Twilight, Astral Plane is definitely this or at least she was with her anxiety and forgetful ways. She is thrilled to learn how to teleport.
- Amusing Injuries: Averted. it's all taken very seriously when Astral and her friends die
- Anger Born of Worry: Twilight and Starlight when Astral skips school
- Break the Cutie: ASTRAL PLANE
- Broken Bird: The downward spiral of suck eventually breaks Astral down, to the point where she has to get medication for depression
- Batman Gambit: It is very much implied that the loops are a byproduct of an ongoing one
- Berserk Button: Don't ever doubt Misty Rose
- Birds of a Feather: It is made clear that even though Misty and Eclipse rarely hang out, their similiar personalities make it so they hit it off easily
- Similiarly, Anarchy and Astral also get along through their shared annoyance at their friends antics
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The situation Astral is in-over time, as her issues grow, her morals shrink
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Eclipse and Misty Rose
- Breather Episode: Most of the chapters are this. The dark chapters are far outnumbered by the lighter ones- which include pranks and other hijinks
- The Chessmaster: Whoever put Astral into the loops is implied to have something planned for her
- Chosen One: Astral is implied to be this, why is unknown
- Cerebus Syndrome: Oh, yeah
- Character Development: Astral begins the story as a clumsy, forgetful and socially awkward filly who is implied to be a goody two shoes and has very little magic. Now she is a cynical, jaded preteen with extremely powerful magic and has no trouble bending the rules or manipulating others
- Composite Character: Misty Rose seems to be a fusion of Sherlock Holmes and [[Psych Shawn Spencer]]
- Cool Sword: Aegis
- Cosmic Entity: The Gods
- Day in the Limelight:
- Deadpan Snarker: Eclipse, Anarchy and Starlight. Astral also get in on it in later chapters.
- Despair Event Horizon: Astral has this after her friends die
- Disney Death: Apple Jam, Butterscotch and Astral all get this treatment- the loops stop them from dying
- Dissonant Serenity: In Loop 23 Astral reflects on the many deaths she has faced in these loops, and goes into detail describing one of them, and sounds poisitively serene.
- The Dreaded: Ebony is implied to be this
- Establishing Character Moment: All of the next gen get one;
- Astral is shown to be shy, quiet and forgetful in her first scene
- Misty Rose is jut as energetic as her mother, and just as enthusastic
- Apple Jam attempts to rope the others into a harebrained scheme
- Butterscotch shuts down said scheme almost instantly
- Eclipse is directly called an arrogant prankster
- Anarchy' first ever introduction shows how stoic she is
- Fate Worse than Death: Astral is trapped in a time loop
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Justified nobody remembers Apple Jam and Butterscotch's death, except for Astral herself, who is traumatised
- Generation Xerox: Astral looks a lot like Twilight
- Gory Discretion Shot: Anything gory is usually glossed over
- Guile Hero: Astral is becomming this. Eclipse is already there.
- Heroic BSoD: Loop 23.
- Hero-Worshipper: Astral worshipped her mothers, and felt she fell short in comparison, especially in the magic department
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: The CMC
- Anarchy and Misty (possibly)
- Eclipse and Astral (possibly)
- Hidden Depths:
Word of God says that Butterscotch, a cheerful friendly colt, has depression- Misty Rose's father, Blueblood, cheated on her mother, Pinkie, and when they divorced he gained custody of Misty's twin Rosemary. Misty hasn't seen Rosie in years.
- Hope Spot: Just when it looks like others can join Astral in the loops Jam and Butterscotch die
- Hot-Blooded: Apple Jam
- In Mysterious Ways: Why is Astral stuck in the loops? Who put her in them? Why are they giving her their magic?
- New one now- what is Pinkie Pie?
- Insufferable Genius: Alchemy is implied to be this
- Misty Rose is confirmed to be the smartest member of the Next Gen, and really does not like it if you start doubting her
- Misty Rose is
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Eclipse to Astral, Anarchy to Misty
- Info Dump: Astral does this to others when she explains the loop
- Jerkass Gods: Ebony and Loki are both this, though Loki is just kind of smug
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Eclipse, Alchemy and Astral
- Kick the Dog: Astral gets this a lot
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Astral decides to pick up some hobbies . . . mainly, parkour, karate, fencing and Bladecasting
- Living Emotional Crutch: Eclipse to Astral
- Mama Bear: All the mane six, but extra focus on Starlight and Twilight
- Manipulative Bastard: Astral slowly starts to become one, manipulating others for her enjoyment.
- Morph Weapon: Bladecasting. It allows them to swap between being a sword, or shards. The shards are like gems. It's made out of pure magic.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Astral's reaction to Apple Jam and Butterscotch's deaths
- Nerves of Steel: Astral develops these. Apple Jam already had them.
- Nice Guy: Anarchy, Butterscotch and Mimic are this. Astral used to be this.
- Not Afraid to Die: Astral Plane
- Nothing Is Scarier: No explanation is given as to why Astral is in the loops, and that doesn't exactly strengthen her tenous grip on sanity
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Eclipse, as a child, did a lot of crazy things
- Oh, Crap!: Astral, Butterscotch and Apple Jam, in the face of a Manticore
- Older Than They Look: Astral is a lot older now, and is basically a teenager in a preteens body
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: How Eclipse realizes just how badly the loops are affecting Astral
- Parents as People: Twilight and Starlight are trying, but it's clear how hard it is
- In the first chapter alone, Starlight messes up and makes her daughter late to class
- Neither of them can help Astral and feel incredibly helpless for that
- Person of Mass Destruction: Astral is implied to be this
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: There are quite a bit of these
- Astral is the blue to Eclipse's red
- Anarchy is the blue to Misty Rose's red
- Butterscotch is the blue to Apple Jam's red
- Alchemy is the blue to his younger sister Astral' red
- Anarchy is the blue to Eclipse's red
- Though it's not explicetly stated, it's implied Misty's twin Rosemary is the blue to her red
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Starlight, Twilight, the Princesses
- Sanity Slippage: Astral Plane
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Ebony was sealed off . . somewhere by the Gods
- Sherlock Scan: Misty Rose can do this, to the point where she is, in universe, called a mini Fetlock Hooves
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: With a story set in Equestria, a land all about friendship and loveand loyalty we end up seeing this scale an awful lot, since Astral is going through all this alone
- Ship Tease: Eclipse and Astral get this treatment. So do Misty and Anarchy.
- Shown Their Work: The answer the author uses for the maths question is right, as is the way they do it.
- Astral shows common symptoms of PTSD and depression
- The author, in that same chapter, makes it clear that not everyone is so obviously depressed the way Astral is, and they often hide it well
- Stealth Pun: Butterscotch and Apple Jam. Butter and Jam. Apple Scotch.
- Stepford Smiler: Astral, duh
-
Stuck in Their Shadow: Astral gets this a lot. The author spends a lot of time breaking this trope down- Firstly, Astral Plane is an introvert and has anxiety, but, being the daughter of a Princess and two of the saviors of Equestria, she gets a lot of attention. This causes her a lot of stress...
- Secondly,Astral is nowhere near as clever as her mothers. She is often portrayed as forgetful, clumsy and is about average in everything
- Finally, Astral is not a brilliant mage. All her magic is coming from someone else and her magic is implied to be below average for a unicorn. The mix of all three has led her to have some self esteem issues.
- The Stoic: Anarchy is this. Astral is becoming this.
- Stress Vomit: Astral has it in early chapters when she thinks she broke the loops
- Survivor Guilt: Astral
- Teleporters and Transporters: Astral loves being able to do this
- Token Minority: Not so much. In terms of sexuality, Astral is confirmed to be straight, as is Eclipse and Jam, Misty Rose is bisexual, Anarchy is demisexual and Butterscotch is asexual and panromantic.
- As well as that, in the chapter where Astral is diagnosed with PTSD and depressiontv trop the author makes it clear that their not being stereotypical, and that Butterscotch also has depression.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Astral
- Trauma Conga Line: Hooo boy, let's take it step by step, shall we? first, Astral finds out she's repeating she same few day over and over again, which is fine at first, but then things start to get repetitive, and she starts to become detatched. Then, her best friends, Butterscotch and Apple Jam are killed because of her, and she is left traumatised, especially when she goes into school a couple of loops later to see them fine and well. Then she dies, so many times that she becomes apathic to death. Finally, she discovers that the magic that was given to her is in fact killing her. Jeez, no wonder the kid had PTD
- True Companions: Averted, at first. After their deaths, Astral can no longer stand to be around Butterscotch and Apple Jam. However, she does befriend Eclipse, Anarchy and Misty, and starts to hang out with them instead
- Unexplained Recovery: Astral upon dying
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Astral appears this way, but she's actually much older than she looks
- Anarchy is younger than Eclipse, but appears to be much smarter and more grounded
- With Great Power: Astral is dying because of it
- Xanatos Gambit: Astral is implied to be caught in the middle of one
