Twilight the Terrible is a completed My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction by RK_Striker_JK_5, the man behind The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds. The fic's premise is during her fateful exam at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, an alternate Twilight Sparkle took Celestia's power for her own, and became a tyrant. When her Nightmare Moon appeared, she sent Nightmare Moon to canon Equestria. Now Nightmare Moon must team up with the Mane Six to stop Twilight The Terrible.
Read it here
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This fic has examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Mayor Mare of the alternate universe is competent, driven, cares for her ponies, and shows no hesitation in being willing to punish raiders. Dash asks if they can take her home with them while Twilight says that this Mayor Mare is someone she'd actually vote for.
- Adapted Out:
- Because the Apples didn't want to risk bringing a new baby into this harsh world, Apple Bloom doesn't exist.
- Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy don't show up in the Tyrant universe. It's implied that Fluttershy may have died, while it's speculated that Pinkie never left the farm.
- Anti-Villain:
- Nightmare Moon, who is determined to save her Equestria from...pretty much the same fate she had planned for it.
- Twilight honestly wants to return Celestia to normal and restore the natural day/night cycle. It's just that she doesn't know how to use the power she absorbed from Celestia to do so.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Nightmare Moon's stated goal is to bring about a world where it is night forever. Thanks to the Tyrant Filly's screwup, she gets to see exactly how bad that would be.
- She also seeks to have her sister lain low, but she gets it in a way she openly cries out that she doesn't want.
- Averted later on; once Twilight is beaten, Nightmare Moon gets exactly what she's wanted: to be as loved as (if not more than) her sister, as she's the one who brought back the sun (well, technically it was her distracting Twilight with Luna while the Elements ended the threat, but she was the one to gather them).
- Bittersweet Ending: The sun is raised, and the Eternal Night is lifted. That doesn't stop all the ecological devastation done to the Whitetail Woods, that Fluttershy is missing, Pinkie Pie is nowhere near Ponyville, there's no chance of the canon Elements of Harmony forming, and Nightmare Moon has declared That Man Is Dead for Luna. Not to mention all those who died in a Twilight World, the psychological scars, and the hit on the population.
- Crapsack World: The world in which Tyrant Twilight rules. The sun and moon are stuck at the horizon in perpetual twilight; crops fail to grow, ponies have to bundle up against the cold, and all of this is ruled by a little filly who, according to Nightmare Moon, wields Celestia's powers with all the grace of a dragon. Oh, and to top off this layer cake of terribleness, the harsh conditions and general anger among the surviving population is drawing back the Windigoes.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Let's just say that Nightmare Moon didn't stand a chance in her first battle against Tyrant Twilight.
- The "Battle" between the Pegasi Raiders and Nightmare Moon involves her tanking several lightning bolts that have no effect on her, then blowing up all the clouds, then putting everyone who's trying to fight her to sleep.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Fluttershy, when she fell off that cloud, didn't survive hitting the ground. That said, it doesn't state directly what happened to her- the author purposely left it vague.
- The Oranges, in Manehattan, died in a riot after the Tyrant Filly took over. There is no indication that they died in canon.
- Death World: A world where the night lasts forever would actually be a terrible idea. It's freezing cold all the time, most of the plants are dying out, and the ponies are willingly destroying their forests and animal friends to stave off the cold just one more day.
- Endless Daytime: As a result of Tyrant Twilight having yet to figure out how to move the sun and moon. This has turned her Equestria into a wasteland. It's a variation, though- while the sun is up constantly, it's also constantly at the edge of the horizon. So instead of the "burning desert" that this would normally cause, it means that there is enough sunlight for some plants to grow, but not nearly enough. As a result, Equestria is a cold land where barely anything grows.
- Enemy Mine: Nightmare Moon has to team up with the canon Mane Six and Luna.
- Enfant Terrible: It appears Tyrant Twilight hasn't aged since taking Celestia's power.
- Forced Transformation: Twilight, as in canon, turned her parents into plants. Unlike canon, they've been stuck that way for the last seven years.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- During Twilight's Magic School tryout, she accidentally drains all of Celestia's power, trapping the land in permanent twilight.
- Because the conditions were so harsh, Ma and Pa Apple decided not to try to bring another pony into the world, meaning that Apple Bloom doesn't exist. They're also alive, as it's too cold for the floods that killed them in the main universe.
- Fluttershy didn't survive when Rainbow Dash knocked her off that cloud in her Cutie Mark story, though the author says that that's more a case of
Shrug of God than outright death. - Pinkie Pie never left the rock farm.
- Applejack stayed in Manehattan for much longer, as it wasn't safe to travel after the Sonic Rainboom and the Tyrant Filly. Because of the subsequent collapse of the government, she was taught mathematics and culture by the Oranges, before Aunt and Uncle Orange were killed by a riot.
- Force Field: Apparently, Ponyville is defended by one in this timeline.
- Guile Heroine: Princess Luna. Her approach for dealing with Nightmare Moon is to steer her on a path that ensures that she realize that her eternal night would cause similar damage to Tyrant Twilight's Endless Daytime.
- Heel Realization: When Nightmare Moon and Luna talk in the dream realm, Luna finally uses truth to have her alternate self see the folly of her eternal night.
- Heroic BSoD: Fluttershy's not exactly happy about how the woods near Ponyville has been devastated.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Tyrant Twilight's dilemma. She can't figure out how to use the power that she absorbed from Celestia, which has resulted in the aforementioned Endless Daytime. The fact that Twilight refuses help ("Why would I need help?") makes it worse for herself and everypony else.
- The Multiverse: The Tyrant Filly world is a parallel reality to the canon universe.
- Official Couple: In the new world, Trixie and Big Macintosh have been together for the past three years.
- Other Me Annoys Me: Neither AJ or RD entirely enjoy their other selves, with Tyrant Applejack having spent time in Manehatten after the rainboom and thus picking up on her aunt and uncle's mannerisms, and Rainbow Dash's tyrant self becoming a Cloudsdale raider whose best friends are Gilda and Lightning Dust rather than Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The former come to an understanding when AJ finds out that the Oranges died during a riot, while RD doesn't quite make peace with her other self, but does admit that she needs to apologize to Twilight now that she realizes how much being with the others has changed her.
- Put on a Bus: Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie (the local ones) don't show up in the story. Granny is confirmed to be alive, but she retired since Johnathan and Martha Apple didn't die in this world.
- Saying Too Much: Rainbow Dash accidentally has this happen when they confront Tyrant Twilight thanks to magically enhanced hearing.
- Spanner in the Works: Nightmare Moon was all set to go down to Equestria and get her revenge on her sister. Unfortunately, seven years earlier, a little filly stole all of Celestia's power, making said filly able to control the Sun and the Moon and able to easily curb stomp Nightmare Moon.
- Spared By Adaptation: Martha and Johnathan Apple, Applejack's parents. Since it was far too cold for it to flood (which caused their deaths in the original timeline), they're still around.
- That Man Is Dead: Even after Twilight is beaten, Nightmare Moon refuses to be called "Luna" again, instead sticking with "Nightmare Moon," (as she is no longer the person Luna was).
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Nightmare Moon seems to think that she and Celestia were supposed to have an epic duel, and is surprised when she sees a filly Twilight with her sister's powers instead.
- Wham LinePinkie: Lyra, it's me, Pinkie Pie!Lyra: Who?
- What If?: This is the premise behind how Tyrant Twilight became what she is now; during the exam, she accidentally absorbed Celestia's power.
- As a side effect, we get to see what the results would be if Nightmare Moon's plan of eternal night were to come to pass.
