Webcomic / Friendship Is Magic

A Fan Webcomic that is based on and shares the same name of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic drawn by Chilean artist Mauroz.

The series takes place in an Alternate Universe where all the characters are humans. Twilight has just started high school when she receives a package from her archaeologist older sister Celeste. All it contains is a tiara, a odd disc with five symbols and a note telling her to put the tiara on. Twilight does so and meets the spirit of Celestia from Equestria. Celestia explains her memories are fragmented and she doesn't know how she came to be in such a state. She does, however, remember two grim prophecies; an individual will cast the world into darkness, followed by a being who will then spread chaos across the land. The only thing that can stop them are the Elements of Harmony. Twilight must find out who has the power to wield them and convince them to join her crusade - a task made more difficult by a person calling herself Luna, who will do anything to stop the Elements from activating, among other incoming evil forces.

The comic is currently being hosted on DeviantArt with volunteers helping to translate it to English once a new comic is released.

And before anyone wonders, no, it was not inspired by My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. The comic actually predates that movie's conception.

You can start reading it from here.

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Friendship is Magic has the following tropes:

• A-Cup Angst: Rainbow has some of this. It's tied to her often being confused for a child, even in her flashback.
• Adaptational Heroism: The Flim-Flam brothers are unrepentant con artists who haven't shown any redeeming qualities in canon as of season six. Here, they are shown to be amusement park owners who run a fairly legitimate business and are also good parental substitutes to Trixie, whom they took in after her parents died in a bear attack. Christopher has to brainwash them to make them kick poor Trixie out of the park so he can convince her to become a Carrier of Sin.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Applejack is one of Twilight's closest companions and very open with her feelings in the canon. Here, she is a cold, aloof, Lonely Rich Kid who outright rejects the idea of friendship due to an incident that ended up killing her Only Friend.
  • Sweetie Belle is manipulative and borderline mean-spirited to Spike at several points. Almost giving Diamond Tiara a run for her money.
  • Bright Mac, while being Spared by the Adaptation, became a much colder individual following the death of his wife. In addition to being racist against those of the Buffalo tribe, he is much harsher and colder when it comes to raising Big Mac and Applejack, forcing the former to abandon his dreams by threatening to make the much younger latter run his business despite her being Just a Kid, Applejack is shown to be terrified of him enough to denounce her Only Friend Winona if only to avoid his ire, and cares more for making sure Applejack mingled with the important guests on her own birthday.
• Adaptational Wealth: The Apples are actually quite wealthy in this incarnation due to their apple business apparently taking off. When Twilight comes to Applejack's house to talk to her, she's shocked that she and her family live in a mansion.
• All There in the Manual: The artist posts designs of characters who have yet to appear on their account, like Trixie, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lyra and Bonbon, the Doctor, etc., before they make their official debut. He also tends to release scenes depicting future confrontations.
• Alternate Universe
• Animesque: Although they characters are mostly loyal to their counterparts in the show, they all have many of the standard anime tropes to their personalities. That, combined with the art style, makes it feel very much like a manga.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: Applejack tries to do so to Rainbow Dash when the trinket Haze gave her starts amplifying her negativity to the point she becomes a mindless attacker. AJ doesn't quite pull it off, but she is able to subdue Rainbow long enough to rip the trinket off and destroy it.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Rainbow (Initially), don't try and make friends with Fluttershy. Also, don't call her a kid or make fun of her height.
  • For Fluttershy, don't mention anything related to meat (eating meat, hunter animals, ect.) around her.
  • For AJ, don't threaten Apple Bloom or her family. And don't try to be her friend. And don't try to hook up with her brother.
  • Don't damage "Steve Magnet"'s mustache. You might not live long enough to fix it.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Pinkie is by far the most lighthearted of girls, and states she'd rather have fun than fight. But if you hurt her friends, she becomes the most dangerous member of the group. Pinkamena flat-out tortures and attempts to murder Haze, and would've succeeded had Twilight not snapped her out of it. It's rather telling that all the other fights stopped because both sides were utterly terrified of her.
• Big Brother Mentor: What Soarin was to Rainbow Dash before she met Fluttershy.
• Blackmail: Soarin openly uses this on Spitfire and Fleetfoot. He even admits that's what it is.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Many of the monsters the group face due to the Discord jewels.
  • Rainbow Dash, thanks to a cursed medallion. Fluttershy manages to snap her out of it.
  • Christopher brainwashes the Flim-Flam brothers after they refuse to give up Trixie to him.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: After giving Applejack a Pie in the Face, Pinkie notices how ticked off Applejack is and looks directly at the readers, telling them it's better not to see this scene, and moves the panel away before Applejack beats the crap out of Pinkie.
• Calling Your Attacks: Done by all the main characters after they transform.
• Canon Character All Along: Zigazagged. Descent is an O.C. Stand-in but later, when he and his sister are defeated, he reveals himself as the canon character Flash Sentry from the Equestria Girls movies.
• Cassandra Truth: When Twilight recruits Rarity as the Element of Generosity in Chapter 2, her and Spike (who is spying on them at the time) don't believe her story about the Elements of Harmony. The skepticism doesn't last long because Twilight demonstrates her powers to prove her claims, and then a serpent shows up and attacks them.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • A friendship version, but Dash is very protective of Fluttershy and refuses to let her talk with anyone, least of all Twilight's growing group since she thinks they'll take advantage of her. Dash mentions this happened before with some popular girls, who bullied Fluttershy to the point where she was nearly Driven to Suicide. Rainbow assumes this is the case again because why else would someone of Rarity's popularity suddenly start talking to Fluttershy? This becomes a problem later on when the group needs Fluttershy to activate her Element and sparks distrust in Dash. Shortly before activating her own element though, she drops this idea so that Fluttershy can be happy.
  • Ironically, Dash would later have this pulled on her by Gilda who later becomes evil thanks to the same trick Haze pulled on Dash. Though in this case, it's jealously over Dash having made new friends since they last met.
• Cool Big Sis: The reincarnated Celestia is this for Twilight Sparkle.
• The Corruptible: Rainbow is targeted by Luna as the Element of Harmony she wishes to induce a Face–Heel Turn in, with growing success but is successfully averted at the end of chapter 6.
• Cute and Psycho: Pinkamena's first move after taking over Pinkie's body? Attempting to impale Haze with giant shards of ice. It gets worse from there.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Fluttershy was bullied heavily, causing her to nearly committed suicide. Luckily, Rainbow was passing by and talked her out of it.
  • Luna. Though not all of it has yet to be revealed, part of her past had her as a Carrier of Sin.
  • Pinkie is hinted to have one based on drawings connected to the comic which lead to the creation of her much darker alter-ego, Pinkamena.
  • Applejack refuses to make friends due to an incident in the past that broke her trust in them. When Twilight tracks down her house, she finds it's a mansion and comes to the conclusion the "friends" she had in the past likely just were so due to her wealth with the only true friend she had dying and Applejack blaming herself for not preventing it.
  • Descent/Flash Sentry and Nightingale were involved in an accident that rendered them crippled (The former was rendered blind while the latter was paralyzed from the waist down), only regaining their abilities by joining Luna.
• Darker and Edgier: In some aspect to the original series it's based on, harm is much more likely to befall the characters, fights are a given with the protagonists having to engage in combat a lot more directly (i.e. actually hitting their opponents with fists, feet and spells), and death is a very real threat during the battles. The backstories on a few of the girls likewise lean into this as well and character flaws are much more pronounced which lead to many heavy consequences when they act on them.
• Determinator: Rainbow Dash, quite naturally. When she and Applejack fight, Dashie just shrugs off her injuries.
• Driven to Suicide: As a child, Fluttershy was bullied so badly she tried to walk off a bridge. Rainbow Dash saw her and managed to save her in time.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Mane Six and other characters have mostly been given dark or tragic childhoods. Twilight issues run along the lines of being anti-social and being a Stepford Smiler, Applejack has abandoned friendship altogether, Pinkie Pie maintains a happy demeanour to forget her childhood, Rainbow Dash was a Clingy Jealous Girl with few friends, and Fluttershy tried to commit suicide.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Sunset Shimmer shows up at the beach during the Hydra battle, secretly lending her aid to the girls. She already has a tiara of her own, which she can use to open portals. Christopher tries to confront her but she leaves through one before he can get any answers.
• Elemental Powers:
  • Light 'em Up: Twilight
  • Blow You Away / Green Thumb: Fluttershy
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Rarity
  • An Ice Person / Making a Splash: Pinkie
  • Blow You Away / Shock and Awe / Magnetism Manipulation: Rainbow Dash
  • Playing with Fire: Applejack
• Everyone Has Standards: Trixie may blame Twilight for all her problems but even while Brainwashed and Crazy, she can't bring herself to kill her rival.
• Five-Token Band: Both the Mane Six, their families, and the Carriers of Sin are of multinational makeup. The reason this isn't an example of Multinational Team is that none of these origins or their multi-ethnic nature have been plot important yet.
  • For The Main Six:
    • Twilight and her siblings Spike and Celeste are of Japanese descent.
    • Pinkie Pie and her sister Maud are of Israeli descent.
    • Rarity and her sister Sweetie Belle are of French descent.
    • Fluttershy and her mother are of Venezuelan descent.
    • Rainbow Dash and her mother Windy Whistles are of Russian descent.
    • Applejack and her siblings Big Macintosh and Applebloom are mixed-race, their father Bright Mac and Grandmother Granny Smith being of Germanic descent, and their mother Buttercup/Pear Butter being of Native American descent.
  • For the Carriers of Sin:
    • Spike is of Japanese descent, with possible western heritage.
    • Trixie is of Norwegian descent.
    • Gilda is of Russian descent.
    • Luna, who a former member, is of Indian descent.
    • Christopher, Edward, and "Cheese" are of, as of yet, unknown nationalities.
• Flashback: The second half of chapter 5 goes into detail on Dash's past and how she met Fluttershy.
• Genki Girl: Pinkie, naturally.
• Genius Ditz: Pinkie, in spite of her personality, is pretty good in all her classes.
• Groin Attack: Pinkie does this to a monster they're fighting, which knocks out the Discord jewel controlling it.
  • Likewise Applejack to one of the thugs attacking Spike and Fluttershy.
• Happily Adopted: Spike into Twilight's family.
• Happily Failed Suicide: Fluttershy was bullied so heavily she tried to end her life by walking off of a bridge. Luckily Rainbow Dash was there to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment, pulling her back and talking her out of it. Soon after they became friends, with Rainbow becoming Fluttershy's personal Bully Hunter.
• Healing Hands: Fluttershy and Rarity, though Rarity does it by giving up some of her own energy.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Soarin' and Spitfire. Rainbow Dash notices it, and taunts the older girl with it.
• Heel–Face Turn: Descent/Flash Sentry and Nightingale are implied to have pulled this at the end of chapter 6.
• Hidden Depths: Rarity, who in this version is the Student Council president and and one of the "popular girls". However Twilight and Pinkie find out she helps out at a soup kitchen after school and she's not as shallow as she looks.
• Hypocritical Humor: In the first page, Dash rams right into Twilight and dismisses her complaints about it. She then get knocked over by Applejack and Dash naturally complains about it.
• Ineffectual Loner: Applejack, due to a unknown event in which her trust in friendship was broken. It's heavily implied that they took advantage of her wealth and that the one true friend she had either died because of her or Applejack tried and failed to save her.
• Instant Expert: Pinkie manages to get a handle on her power very quickly much to Twilight's chagrin.
• Interrupted Suicide: Fluttershy once tried to kill herself by walking off a bridge before Rainbow saved her.
• Le Parkour: Rainbow's main hobby and aspiring profession as well as the practiced form in Wonderbolt Academy and the Shadowbolt team. Soarin in particular focuses on this in comparison to his teammates.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Zecora tells Twilight to pack for the trip to purge the remaining Tantabus traces out of her while she teaches Rarity how to sense for the Discord Jewels. Fluttershy then asks what she and Rainbow are supposed to do. Zecora says that they're not needed right now so they can head back home.
  Rainbow Dash: Great... We're always treated like side characters.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Twilight's spirit adviser tells her that a river dragon is very sensitive about its river hair, so Twilight (thinking it was a hint about how to Attack Its Weak Point) instantly slices off half of the mustache. This naturally makes the dragon angrier, and earns Twilight a Dope Slap for her troubles.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Pinkie does this at one point during the showdown with Haze. Anyone who's familiar with Pinkie's quirks on the show knows that having her hair down and loose is a very bad thing.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Applejack is revealed to be one due to her family's apple business. But she refuses to make friends as it's implied the ones she had in the past only did so due to her wealth and the loss of a friend Winona Strongheart who sacrificed herself to save Applejack from a puma and has blamed herself for ever since.
• Magical Girl: As the girls are reincarnations of their pony counterparts, they get magic powers by channeling their previous lives, generally through mystical tokens.
• More than Mind Control: Christopher's modus operandi. When he finds a candidate for a Carrier of Sin, he preys on their insecurities until they cross the Despair Event Horizon and join him.
  • Christopher took advantage of Luna's memory loss and manipulated her emotions in hopes of turning her into a Carrier of Sin, which is why she's so angry at the people who should be her friends and family. As Celeste notes, Luna was only told bits and pieces of their past, purely negative, but none of the positive.
  • Christopher contacts Gilda in Siberia and tells her Rainbow is in danger, anticipating that Gilda would feel hurt and betrayed over Rainbow no longer needing her. He then reinforces her belief she needs to become stronger, and convinces her that the other Elements are endangering Rainbow, leading Gilda to join in an effort to get her back.
  • After Forcing the FlimFlam Brothers to disown Trixie post her loss to Twilight, he enforces her belief that Twilight ruined her life, while revealing Twilight's knowledge of magic being the cause of her victory in an effort to bolster her damaged pride, causing Trixie to desire revenge and learn magic herself, giving him the opportunity to offer his assistance. Giving her a Discord Gem also helps.
    • After the Magic Duel, Trixie asks Christopher if he used magic on the FlimFlam Brothers in order to get rid of her. He admits that he did, but he lies and claims that they really did want her gone; his magic just made them go through with it.
  • Spike's joining has been confirmed, and has been made clear how it will happen. He currently possesses the Ruby Heart the Architect warned Spike to avoid, and has a Zecora Imposter confronting Spike. As the Ruby Heart is depicted as being embedded in Berserker!Spike's chest, the cause of his joining is all but certain.
• Ms. Fanservice: With the characters redesigned as high school magical girls, this is a given. The majority of it involves Pinkie Pie.
  • Applejack has numerous panels where we see her striped panties and matching bra in Chapter 4 during her fights.
  • Rarity often suffers Clothing Damage during battles.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It's hard to say but it's implied that Applejack eventually realizes that Twilight did want to become friends with her and Applejack's indecisiveness nearly caused Twilight's death just as it did Winona Strongheart.
• Mythology Gag: Plenty to the TV show such as Spike's baby outfit, Pinkie's "combat" outfit, and the Ruby Heart's role in Spike's joining of the Carriers of Sin.
  • Prior to dyeing her hair rainbow colored, Dash had blue hair much like Firefly. The shade more closely matches her pony coat.
• My Greatest Failure: Applejack blames herself for Winona's death after rejecting their friendship, only to immdediately regret it afterwards and chase after to their hangout where a wild puma attacked and Winona sacrificed herself to save Applejack, which caused Applejack to close her heart so that no one else could become her friend and get hurt because of her.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Nightingale rebuffs Descent's wanting to do a Heel–Face Turn by reminding him that Luna healed their crippling injuries: they OWE her their Undying Loyalty. Not that Descent jumps back on board, but it's clear Nightingale needs more convincing.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Gender flipped. Applejack does not take kindly to Twilight crushing on Big Macintosh. Apple Bloom on the other hand thinks it's cute.
• No Name Given/Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The name of Twilight Sparkle's spirit adviser isn't given (only nicknamed The Architect of Equestria), but it's quite blatantly Lauren Faust's pony avatar.
• O.C. Stand-in: The Shadowbolts are creations of the show but were one-shot characters that were created from Luna's power that didn't have any personality, only made to slow down the Mane 6. Here, they're actually given names (Descent, Nightgale and Haze) and are more of a threat. Descent and Haze prove to be subversions in that Descent is the codename for the canon character Flash Sentry, and Haze is actually a changeling with the name Edward sent to spy on Luna. Jury's out on Nightingale being a Canon Character though.
• One Degree of Separation: Even before the group was to come together as the Elements, it's repeatedly shown that the girls all knew of each other on some level, even outside of attending the same school. Applejack in particular has connections to them via her family, as Applebloom is friends with Spike and knows Twilight due to regularly visiting their apartment, and Big Mac is old friends with Soarin and Spitfire, the former of whom acts as an older brother figure to Dash and Fluttershy.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Not surprisingly, Rainbow Dash.
• Past-Life Memories:
  • Zecora is implied to still have all her memories from Equestria.
  • Celeste remembers her life as Celestia, but is keeping most of that information to herself.
  • Applejack is bombarded with these when she witnesses Twilight's fight with Trixie. The sudden appearance of memories that aren't necessarily hers causes her to have a Freak Out.
• Poor Communication Kills: The end of chapter 3.
  • Luna is being manipulated by Christopher through her fragmented memories, causing her to mistrust Celeste.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Soarin' gets Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to try this on Spitfire, in order to let Rainbow take part in a competition. Somehow, it fails to move Spitfire.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Shadowbolts.
• Refusal of the Call: Twilight tries to convince Applejack to join the group but she refuses because her past "friends" were only interested because she was rich. To AJ, friendship should be for selfless reasons and not just for the sake of convenience. While she's right that one of the reasons Twilight wants to be her friend is to activate the elements, she is so jaded from this belief that she doesn't even bother to give Twilight a chance when she states she genuinely does want to be Applejack's friend. Flashbacks of their previous selves' friendship and adventures almost convince her during Twilight's duel with Trixie but a reminder of Applejack's My Greatest Failure scares her off.
• Reincarnation Romance: Shining Armor and Princess Cadence are already together when the story starts, by Word of God.
• Secret Test of Character: Christopher never expected Trixie to actually control a Discord Jewel. He just wanted to see how well she could resist Discord's influence.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Word of God revealed a group of villains known as the Carriers of Sin, each member serving to counter the Elements of Harmony. Luna (Wrath) was a member but quit to pursue her own agenda, while other members are slowly recruited by the Lust Carrier and implied servant of Chrysalis, a man named Christopher. Trixie (Pride), Gilda (Gluttony), and Spike (Greed) are all approached by him after he prays on their insecurities and subsequently given one of the Sin gems, while the Envy Carrier, Haze/Edward, has already joined. The Sloth Carrier currently remains unknown, but artwork is implies he is Cheese Sandwich.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Pinkie Pie fights a monster at the beach in just a bikini. Even after being informed that she is actually in her bra and panties, she doesn't seem all that concerned. Pinkie even walks into a room stark naked in full view of her friends and Spike, not even bothered by their obvious discomfort. She just wanted their opinion on which fig leaf she should wear for her Eve costume.
• Shipper on Deck: If the Christmas 2014 bonus art is canon, Pinkie ships Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
• Ship Tease: Pinkie seems to have a thing for Descent/Flash Sentry, to the point of flirting with him mid-battle.
• Shout-Out:
  • Soarin' would like you to know he is ''always'' serious, and do not call him Shirley.
  • Pinkie's Superpowered Evil Side (Pinkamena) is basically a Bloodbender. It helps that it's played very much for Nightmare Fuel.
  • Pinkamena herself is one to the common Fan Theory of Pinkie turning psychotic when her hair goes down, made famous by the infamous "Cupcakes".
• Spared by the Adaptation: Though they haven't appeared in the comic yet, Applejack mentions that her parents, Bright Mac and Buttercup, are currently running her family's business overseas. The episode "The Perfect Pear" all but reveals that they are quite dead. Big Mac later elaborates to Twilight that Bright Mac is indeed alive, but Buttercup passed away after giving birth to Apple Bloom, with Bright Mac becoming much colder and cruel as a result.
• Spirit Advisor: Twilight gains one at one point, in the form of the Fausticorn, though due to her control of powers it's just a chibi-looking pony. Though she explains once Twilight gains more of a hold on her powers, she'll be much more impressive.
• Split-Personality Takeover: When Pinkie gets angry enough, her Pinkamena side takes over and starts trying to kill her enemies. Once she reverts to her normal self, Pinkie becomes disoriented.
• Starter Villain: As with the show, Luna is the first threat Twilight faces. Unlike the show, she doesn't undergo a Heel–Face Turn nor is truly defeated. Rather she's banished to a secluded island and sealed in a barrier to give Twilight time to find the other Bearers of Harmony and build up their power so they may be ready for her in the next encounter.
• Superpowered Evil Side: In the show, when Pinkie's hair deflates it means she's depressed. In this comic, when Pinkie's hair deflates it means that a psychotic alter ego has taken over, who has no problem using her water powers to break arms and crush people to a bloody pulp.
• Take a Third Option: While trying to convince Rarity about her element, a dragon is sent to attack the pair. During the fight one of its whiskers is cut short which sends it into a bit of rage. Rarity comes to realize they don't have to destroy it and instead fixes the whisker with her magic which is enough to get it to stop its rampage. Doubles as a Mythology Gag as this also happened in the series two part opener.
• Taking the Bullet: Pinkie does this to protect Fluttershy from one of Luna's monsters. She gets better.
• The Tease: Pinkie shamelessly flirts with Descent. After narrowly surviving Pinkamena's attack, Haze muses that her powers felt like those of a succubus, something that confuses him greatly.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: The Mane Six can't do it in here, as according to Haze/Edward their Element will disconnect from them by itself should this happen. However, the impostor!Zecora reveals that Zecora lied about this to the Mane Six in an effort to spare them from the pain of killing someone.
• To the Pain: Pinkamena really enjoys inflicting pain.
• True Love's Kiss: Implied. Rarity had to kiss Berserker Spike to make him calm down, or the accumulated energy of Spike's constantly powering up would explode the island and even more. While, independent of his form, Spike's love for her doesn't change, Rarity felt her heart accelerate as the make out went on...
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Supplementary material implies that's how Spike and Rainbow's friendship ends working.
• Yandere: Dash under Luna's influence. Gilda also follows this trope.
• Wizard Duel: After gaining real magic, Trixie challenges Twilight to a duel with formal rules. They are contained in a barrier that prevents them from leaving and damages them if they don't follow the rules. They take turns attacking and turns have a time limit. They take damage if they fail to damage their opponent during their turn. Trixie wins in the end by turning Twilight's own attack against her.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Applejack's fighting style.
• You Don't Want to Know: Fleetfoot's response when asked what it was that Soarin' said to get her and Spitfire to agree with him.

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