YMMV / Surprise Trilogy

For the sake of not having the YMMV section filled with spoiler tags, all spoilers will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned

• It Was His Sled: Considering the fame of Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) and the reputation of Pinkie having a psychotic Split Personality (or just being psychotic per se), the plot of the first comic, Party of One, is not much of a surprise when it comes to what happens next^note Even the page's image shows the killings plus the two personalities in each corner. However, as revealed by the next two comics, there is actually a subversion to this in the form of Pinkie having five personalities instead of two, and Pinkamena Diane Pie actually NOT being the evil one and instead being the original and timid one^note which makes sense, considering that is actually her full name, and becomes her fun-and-parties Pinkie we all know in the show once she sees the colours of the rainbow made by one of Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainbooms, with the Genki Girl Pinkie Pie being an alternate personality just like the other four. The evil twisted personality takes the form of Diagnosis, who is revealed much later in the story.
• Fridge Brilliance: The name of the second and third comic are Surprise and Diagnosis: Surprise, as well as the trilogy in general and one of Pinkamena's personalities. "Surprise" is the name of one of the G1 ponies that was the main inspiration for the creation of Pinkie Pie, as well as one of the first lines of her as a nod to said character.
• Fridge Sadness: In Diagnosis: Surprise, Dr. Psyche says that Pinkamena, the original personality, is also one of the weakest of the five "sisters" (four, in that moment, because he didn't know about Diagnosis at the time), and that she lets Pinkie, one of the strongest, to take more control of her body. Pinkamena developed DID because of a trauma she and her sister Maud suffered when they were kidnapped by a serial killer in his house and witnessed a lot of horrors. Pinkie is a Genki Girl who represents the element of Laughter and just wants everyone to be as happy as her. Pinkamena letting her take control of her body in public would mean that she doesn't want anyone else to suffer from sadness like she does because of that incident.
• The Woobie: Being a really dark fanmade series of MLP, it's no strange there would be these (a big amount, actually).
  • Poor, poor Fluttershy. Out of all her asshole "friends" who mistreated Pinkie, she is the only one who doesn't say anything bad to her and is even with the group when they apologize to her. (In other words, she is the only one of the Mane Six to act exactly as her Canon counterpart.) She even has a sick pet to take care of, only to become one of the many victims of Diagnosis (who, let's not forget, is in one of her dear friend's body). Even though Diagonsis doesn't try to do much with her, Fluttershy still dies painfully and slowly, complete with a Glasgow Grin on her face.
  • If Fluttershy is already a heavy case, Pinkie Pie herself is an even heavier weight. You think her "friends" mistreating her was bad? Well, guess what: it gets even worse during the events of the next comics. To be more specific, the one who is mistreated is Pinkie, that is, one of the personalities of Pinkamena, the original pony, and this was the least bad thing that's happened to this personality. She, Pinkamena and Candy are all woobies here. Summarizing as much as possible, Pinkamena Diane Pie developed this Split Personality disorder because of a trauma she and her sister Maud suffered when a serial killer had them captive when they were children. During this, she saw how he tortured one of his "pets" gruesomely, the same pony she and Maud builded a connection with. The killer then forced Pinkamena to slay her. After that, she hugged her decapitated head as a Tragic Keepsake. The sisters stayed in the house for at least two days before they finally escaped. Pinkamena had to be treated with a psychiatrist and was doing mostly well until years later, when the events of Party of One happened. Diagnosis made a slaughter and put the blame on her AND her "sisters", including poor Pinkamena, Candy and Pinkie, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with her killings. Pinkie (you know, one of the most joyful and funniest personalities) is, for the moment, probably the second personality to suffer the most in the trilogy after Pinkamena. Besides the aformentioned bullying by her "friends", she had her tail cut out, her hind legs broken, was beaten with a bat like a piñata to the point of breaking her ribs, her horsehair was ripped off from her head, one of the sides of her lips was sliced, was temporarily set on fire, and then had some of Diagnosis' victims' names carved in her body with a knife, while still conscious, all during her torturing session by Princess Luna, the latter thinking she was the killer; and she stayed in that same body even when she and her "sisters" got separated by Discord. She's now just as sad and worried as her other two "sisters". And Candy, the more childlike of the five, was captured by the royal guards and interrogated and beaten by Shining Armor, to the point of bleeding from the mouth. Thank goodness Solemn intervened in time...All in all, the poor three "sisters" are probably the most afflicted in the story, and they're still running to not get captured alive or dead by the guards and Luna.
  • While Solemn Force is part of the royal guards, it's said time and time again by them that he's just a rookie. Yet he sees and lives through so much suffering during the series that you can't help but feel sorry for him, especially since he's such an innocent do-gooder character. From the moment he's introduced in Surprise, he's the guard who had to keep an eye on Pinkie (previously Diagnosis) from the inside of her cell... only to witness the horrendous and outright inhumane way she's being tortured by Princess Luna. He begs Luna to stop, but it's for nothing. Pinkie even tries to reach him for help, only to be stopped by Luna. The poor guy is just crying from horror. And then Luna just tells him to "man up" and to go get rid of the body when no other guard will see him^note Luckily, she later comes to him to apologize for her mistreatment of him. And, on top of that, he then secretly discovers Pinkie is still alive. And that's just the beginning. Throughout the rest of the comics, he's being indirectly threatened with death by Luna, blamed by her for not making sure Pinkie was dead, being hurt in the eye for a plan to capture Pinkie, and in general puts his life in danger frequently to save his group of friends. While there are some Funny Moments coming from him being mistaken as a casanova and once being the only one falling chin-first to the floor when Candy teleports the group to a safe place, Solemn is a poor Nice Guy who just can't take a break, and even blames himself for not being as brave as other guards and considers himself unworthy as one.