History FanFic / TheImmortalGame

* IronicEcho: "Titles are important" is practically Esteem's CatchPhrase. Twilight shoots this back at him during the FinalBattle by pointing out that [[spoiler: while he may be a General, she's a ''Master'' General]]. Similarly, he gives her a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech when he thinks he's beat her, and later she gives a similar one to him right before [[spoiler: killing him]].

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Rarity is said to resemble her father, General Esteem, in looks. Not that it's a point of pride for her, as he's her ArchnemesisDad.
** At the FinalBattle, [[spoiler: it's revealed that one of the reasons why Titan always hated Celestia is because Terra unconsciously made Celestia look like her mother/Titan's first wife, Harmony]].

[[caption-width-right:280:“You will not call me Twilight. My name is Nihilus.”]]
-> "Go to your friends. Look them in the eyes, talk with them, laugh with them, and tell me if lifting a duster is more magical than what you ''feel'', truly ''feel'', in your heart. Friendship is a ''force'', [[spoiler: Twilight Sparkle]]. \\\
“Love. Wonder. Happiness. [[BigBad Titan]] has none of these things. If you allow him to take ours, then you give up our only advantage. If we are going to win, it will be for our intangible virtues, not brute force. Magic, ''real'' magic, the kind that I use to raise the moon, cannot be fought.”
-->-- '''Princess Luna [[spoiler:(actually Celestia in disguise)]]'''

Now ponykind’s old gods have returned.

'''NOTE''': This was once named ''Ponies Make War'' but the author has since renamed it, [[http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/25624 explaining the reason for doing so in this blog post]].

* AbusivePrecursors: To say Titan and Terra's initial reign over Equestria was nightmarish would be a ''major'' understatement. Their current rule is even ''worse''.

* AbusivePrecursors: To say Titan and Terra's initial reign over Equestria (in the backstory) was nightmarish would be a ''major'' understatement. Their current rule is even ''worse''.
** [[BenevolentPrecursors On the other hand]], [[spoiler: Titan's first wife Harmony (Terra's mother), did care about her subjects. Enough that Titan eventually killed her for ignoring her duties to protect them from Discord.]]
* ActionGirl: Well, Mares: Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna most notably, although Pinkie and Fluttershy have their moments as well. Twilight too after [[spoiler: her personalities merging back during her confrontation with Titan's Puppet avatar.]]
** Twilight's mother Starlight counts as well -- until the Mane Six meet up with the Loyalists, she and her husband are the only ones who really stand a chance against Esteem in a fight.

* ActualPacifist: Sparkle is ''literally'' unable to bring herself to attack anything, even Puppets.
* AgentPeacock: Esteem. He has long, curly red hair that is noted as looking "feminine," an eye for fashion he shares with his daughter, and a vain streak a mile wide. He's also the most terrifyingly efficient warrior working for Titan and thinks he looks pretty bathed in his enemies' blood.
* AirborneMook: The Pegasus Puppets.

* AllYourPowersCombined: Each of the Mane Six has certain traits that make them a monster to face in battle. Twilight's trait? To use ''all'' her friends abilities at once.
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: ''Very'' strongly implied to have happened between [[spoiler: Applejack and Rarity]] when they thought Titan's storm would wipe them out during the Battle of the Everfree. However, it's hard to say for sure, since the storm made it impossible to actually hear anything, which is rendered in the narrative as them having to lipread, which doesn't really confirm anything for the reader.

** Also Rainbow Dash when she subjected to [[MindRape the Insanity]], and is forced to watch as Wrong tries to help Nihilus kill her friends.

** Discord's creechlings from the flashbacks definitely sound like they fit, going by the description.
** Titan and Terra are more powerful versions of this, Titan especially. Their children also have shades of it by simple genetics, even though they are nicer.
** [[spoiler:Twilight is starting to go down this road as well]].
* ApologeticAttacker: Wrong (Rainbow Dash subjected to [[MindRape the Insanity]]).

** Titan and Discord were this back in the day [[spoiler: which is why Twilight recruits Discord's help near the end]].

* ArtifactOfDoom: The Sliver of Darkness, the object responsible for Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon, and Twilight's into Nihilus.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: A recurring element in the story. Three notable ones are Unimpressive to The Cadet, Rarity to General Esteem, and Twilight to [[spoiler:Titan]].

* AsYouKnow: Used to show what's happened during the TimeSkip, as the Cadet uses these exact words to start a briefing with Esteem. And the narration takes a moment to lampshade this trope, as it points out that yes, Esteem does already know all this.

** [[spoiler: The epilogue shows that Fluttershy is trying to help Terra become this, whether she wants to or not.]]
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: [[spoiler:King Titan's battle style is to stall for a very long time, studying the opponent's technique - and then crushing the opposition in seconds once he's sure he has every eventuality planned for. He defeats the Princesses that way, and pulls it off on Twilight Sparkle too - but thankfully Twilight has [[BreakThemByTalking an ace in the hole]]...]]
* AxCrazy: Nihilus in spades, Wrong as well.

* {{BFS}}: Equinox. Most unicorns have around 9 pieces to their blade. [[spoiler: Sir Unimpressive is trained for ten years and has an amazing thirteen. Rarity and her father General Esteem (the most powerful mortal warrior on the planet) both have fourteen. Astor Coruscare, the most powerful unicorn in history, is implied to have twenty. Twilight Sparkle? '''Twenty. Fucking. Seven'''.]]

* BigBad: Titan

** [[spoiler: Astor Coruscare too, as shown in the flashback as she happily slaughtered Luna's army at the war. Hell, her blade is named ''Sangrophile'', a '''blood lover''']]

* BloodIsTheNewBlack: Esteem "spreads" a helpless pony all over himself and Rarity. Then he apologizes for not considering that the color doesn't go with her mane, like it does his.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Wrong, Rainbow Dash after Nihilus implants a spell called [[MindRape the Insanity]] into her skull that constantly tears at her sense of self, resulting in a nigh-amnesiac assassin who divides her time between [[ImplacableMan hunting down the Mane Six]] and [[ApologeticAttacker begging them to run.]]
** [[spoiler:Titan inflicted the Insanity on Terra to turn her from a nurturing pony into a monster.]]

** Pinkie Pie gets hit hard by this after [[spoiler: she thinks that Wrong!Dash killed Fluttershy]].

** Applejack has healing Earth Pony magic. Awesome. She's traumatised by the amount of BodyHorror she's had to heal. Not Awesome.

** Carousel Boutique, Rarity's dream, is burned down.

** Twilight shooting down [[spoiler: Titan's authority, saying he has no right to make himself King of the World, before stating he never had a place in the world he created, which was why both his immortal family and all of ponykind defied him.]]

** Celestia [[spoiler: managed to disarm Astor this way, when she tried to kill Luna.]]
* BrickJoke: In the Mane Cast's first scene (before everything goes to hell), Rainbow Dash makes an AccidentalInnuendo about Fluttershy's dancing. Much later, after [[spoiler: breaking free from Nihilus' mind control to save Pinkie Pie]], she makes another one about the latter situation.
* BrokenAce: It's established right at the beginning of the story that Twilight is, in addition to being Celestia's prize student, the most powerful Unicorn alive [[spoiler: (and by the end of the story is [[PhysicalGod practically a god]])]], but that just ends up making her a target for the villains, and later leads to her being appointed leader of the Loyalists. The stress of all this practically drives her insane [[spoiler: and leads to the BrokenPedestal below.]]
** Flashback shows that [[spoiler: [[GenerationXerox Twilight's ancestor]], Astor Coruscare was also this. As a result of her Tykebomb upbringing, she was an immensely powerful unicorn (surpassed only by Twilight herself), invented many types of war-magic, and was a brilliant (if ruthless) commander. But she was also a very amoral, sociopathic mare who was constantly seeking Celestia's approval.]]

* ImAHumanitarian: Nihilus [[spoiler: ''ate Celestia's ear'']], though aside from that there aren't any other signs of this trope being in play.
** Not entirely true on the last part, as we never properly get to see if Esteem....'indulges' after a kill, and it never says if he DOESN'T partake of pony flesh.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Depending on how you look at it, Twilight's "God Slayer" outfit might count, with her wearing a piece of the night sky on her body. (Then again, since it's designed to never come off, this might get a little awkward after the war).
** [[spoiler: Spike thinks it looks silly.]]

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Empyrean. He really has no clue how to run Equestria or fight the Loyalists, and it's clear that Esteem hates having to work for him. [[spoiler: It makes his death at Titan's hooves even sadder, really.]]

* InternalReveal: After [[spoiler: Nihilus' defeat]], Equestria at large believes Twilight to be dead, until she (and the rest of the Mane Six) hook up with the Loyalists.
* IronicEcho: "Titles are important," is practically Esteem's CatchPhrase. Twilight shoots this back at him during the FinalBattle by pointing out that [[spoiler: while he may be a General, she's a ''Master'' General]]. Similarly, he gives her a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech when he thinks he's beat her, and later she gives a similar one to him right before [[spoiler: killing him]].

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Esteem, who forced the Sliver of Darkness through Twilight's eye as she begged for mercy, is killed by Twilight pushing a (very large) sliver of glass through his eye while his attempts at begging for mercy are cut off by Twilight forcing his mouth shut.]]

* LadyOfWar: Rarity

* LastOfHisKind: As it turns out, [[spoiler: Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are part of -- and are possibly the last -- of very rare, naturally evolved, pony subspecies that Titan ordered destroyed for not fitting in his design.]]

* MeaningfulName: Original Character Astor Coruscare's name can be roughly translated as 'Twilight Sparkle'. Fitting, considering the former was related to the latter.
* MeaningfulRename: Titan was originally named Order, but changed it when he snapped from the fallout of his war with Discord, and went from a strict but well intentioned ruler to the monster we've seen in the rest of the story.

%%* MightyGlacier: Applejack

%%* {{Mooks}}: The Puppets

* NotNowKiddo: The moon turning red.

** And both Titan and Terra have a spell that neutralizes other ponies' magic [[spoiler: including the Elements of Harmony.]]

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: We never see how Twilight defeated all of Titan's Puppet Avatar after [[SplitPersonalityMerge her minds fuses back]].
** The battle between Valiant [[spoiler: with the help of Luna]] and the dragon Firkraag was also offscreen. He won, and the dragon's head is used to propose to Astor Coruscare, and [[spoiler: make his new blade, ''Carsomyr'']].

* OrcusOnHisThrone: All of the royals. Empyrean stays in the palace, officially ruling in his father's name, but never fights the Loyalists himself [[spoiler: until the Mane Six burst into his throne room and depower him]] (which is justified by him being young and having no knowledge of combat). Meanwhile, Titan and Terra are off "restoring order" to their creation [[spoiler: and torturing Celestia]], and don't fight the protagonists directly except at the very beginning of the story and during the climax, though Titan did intervene a few times via Puppet Avatars.
* OrderIsNotGood: Titan, though he had shades of this [[spoiler:When he was Order.]]

* PaintItBlack: Nihilus starts out looking exactly like Twilight, but eventually ends up looking like the picture above. In a faster example, when Rainbow Dash is subjected to the Insanity, it turns her fur black and her mane and tail white.

** [[spoiler:And then she drains Titan dry of power, effectively becoming twice as powerful as him. One troper on Website/SpaceBattlesDotCom did the math and her power would make {{SUPERMAN}} look like a weak child.]]

* ThePowerOfHate: It's the only thing Terra was left with after [[spoiler: being subjected to Titan's [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mind control spell]]]]. Now she hates everything - average ponies, Celestia and Luna, even Titan himself.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Captain Coconut Crunch]], who performs a HeelFaceTurn when she realizes the Loyalists have a chance of winning, and ends up being unceremoniously killed by Esteem.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: [[spoiler: As a final "screw you" to Twilight before his death, Esteem tells her her killed and ate Spike. Turns out, Spike was just in the dungeon the whole time.]]
** During the timeskip, [[spoiler:it was thought that Luna was either unable or unwilling to save Twilight Sparkle when she [[MercyKill put Nihilus down]]. The Loyalists consider a martyr up until the instant she walked into their headquarters.]]

* ShooOutTheClowns: Well, [[CloudCuckoolander Pinkie's]] still involved, so this trope isn't in full effect. However, the CMC are quickly removed from the story after a quick mention as they're shipped off to safety, thus allowing the story to focus on the more serious characters.
** Spike also disappears pretty quickly. His absence is played for drama with Twilight, who has to work through her parental concern for him in addition to the rest of her issues, but he doesn't play much importance in the plot. [[spoiler: Until, of course, he is found alive. And then becomes even more unimportant to the plot than before.]]

** For the original title: ''Ponies Make War'' is the name of a book of war magic written by one of Twilight Sparkle's ancestors, and the phrase itself is dropped a few times.

* TookALevelInBadass: Rarity is the most notable, though most of the mane cast take a few levels themselves.
** According to the author, all of the Mane Six will take multiple levels in badass, yes even Fluttershy.
*** ''Especially'' Fluttershy, judging from her [[BigDamnHeroes grand entrance]] at the climactic battle of Everfree. [[spoiler:She rides into battle in the grandest badass form imaginable, using the largest, oldest, and most powerful dragon in Equestria as her personal steed, only for her to reveal herself as a [[PhysicalGod Physical Goddess]] complete with gravity defying hair and a version of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Rarity pronounces her terrifying. Even Twilight is struck speechless.]]

* UnfortunateNames: One of the Loyalist commanders is a Pegasus named [[PunnyName Noble Steed]]. When he introduces himself, he comments that he doesn't know what he did to his parents when he was only a day old that they decided to punish him by giving him that name.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Nihilus completely falls apart (not that she was all the stable to begin with) after Rainbow Dash breaks free of her control, and it's revealed she ''didn't'' manage to corrupt the Elements, as she thought she had. In the end, she's left a terrified wreck begging Twilight to spare her, which obviously doesn't happen.]]

** Twilight [[spoiler: (recently turned into an alicorn)]] does this to Titan in turn during their final duel. It barely slows him down.

* ApologeticAttacker: Wrong (Rainbow Dash subjected to [[AndIMustScream the]] [[MindRape Insanity]]).

** [[spoiler: Titan briefly loses his will to fight when Twilight manages to BreakingLecture him; however, after Twilight beats him he seems to have recovered, and is completely stoic ]]

** RebuiltPedestal: [[spoiler: When Twilight realizes that it was Celestia, not Luna, who comforted her the night before the FinalBattle, she realizes that Celestia really ''did'' love her despite the manipulations. This allows her to forgive her.]]

* IncestIsRelative:
** Titan doesn't appear to have a problem with forcing Luna to marry her brother, or [[spoiler: himself being married to his daughter.]]
** [[spoiler: And Terra was originally married to her own brother, before he and her mother both died and Titan forced her to marry him.]]
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain[=/=]MinionWithAnFInEvil: Empyrean. He really has no clue how to run Equestria or fight the Loyalists, and it's clear that Esteem hates having to work for him. [[spoiler: It makes his death at Titan's hooves even sadder, really.]]

** Spike also disappears pretty quickly. His absence is played for drama with Twilight, who has to work through her [[AdultFear parental concern]] for him in addition to the rest of her issues, but he doesn't play much importance in the plot. [[spoiler: Until, of course, he is found alive. And then becomes even more unimportant to the plot than before.]]

* [[BarehandedBladeBlock Barehoofed Blade Block]]: During the battle of Canterlot, Applejack does this in her fight against General Esteem.

* [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Deity of Pony Origin]]: [[spoiler: Twilight and Fluttershy.]]

* [[HumanoidAbomination Equinoid Abomination]]: Discord's creechlings from the flashbacks definitely sound like they fit, going by the description.
** Titan and Terra are more powerful versions of this, Titan especially. Their children also have shades of it by simple genetics, even though they are nicer; [[spoiler: Twilight is starting to go down this road as well]].

* MamaBear[=/=]PapaWolf: Don't mess with Twilight, or you'll have her parents coming after you. Especially her mother Starlight, who, before Rarity hooks up with the Loyalists, is the only pony able to match Esteem in a sword fight.
* [[MasterSwordsman Master Bladecaster]]: Esteem. As he notes that Rarity is the strongest bladecaster he's ever met other than himself, Rarity may fit this trope as well.

* [[HumansAreBastards Ponies Are Bastards]]: Titan and Terra both firmly believe that Ponies are naturally vicious, violent creatures, and the paradise that Celestia created is a falsehood.

* [[PersonOfMassDestruction Pony of Mass Destruction]]: Goes hand in hand with the above.

* [[HesBack She's Back]]: Rainbow Dash [[spoiler: breaking free of the Insanity]] in order to save Pinkie, performing a Sonic Rainboom in the process [[spoiler: that restores her normal coloration]].
** [[spoiler: The personalities of Twilight and Sparkle being fused back together, and the true Twilight Sparkle emerging from it, proceeding to [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]] all of Titan's forces arrayed against her.]]
** [[spoiler: Celestia regaining her powers, and taking the fight to her parents.]]
** And then there's ''everyone'' when [[spoiler: they manage to reignite the neutralized Elements of Harmony to use against Terra.]]

* ThereWasADoor: Rarity says this word for word when Applejack smashes through a wall, just a few feet from the perfectly good doorframe she destroyed.

* [[ThatManIsDead That Pony Is Dead]]: [[spoiler: Sparkle referring to the old Twilight Sparkle]]
** Also how Terra refers to her original, kind self. She even goes so far as to say that even if there was any of the old her left buried inside her, she'd gladly destroy it.

* [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman World's Most Beautiful Mare]]: Terra.

* YourHeadAsplode: How Titan kills [[spoiler: Exakktus]].
** Twilight [[spoiler: (recently turned into an alicorn)]] does this to him in turn during their final duel. It barely slows him down.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In his own sick, twisted way, Esteem actually seems to care about Rarity. Likewise, Terra seems to genuinely love Titan.