History Fanfic / TheFlightOfTheAlicorn

* [[spoiler: NoBodyLeftBehind: After Windlass' TakingTheBullet moment, all that's left of her is a mist of fading crimson sparkles.]]

* [[spoiler: TakingTheBullet]]: After the final showdown between Rarity and [[spoiler: Windlass, a maddened Procyon [[LoveMakesYouEvil aims a gun at Fancypants]], blaming him for [[BodyHorror Windlass' fate]]. Just as he pulls the trigger, Windlass jumps in front of Fancypants to save her beloved. It's unclear as to whether or not it was a conscious decision or a purely instinctive reaction on her part.]]

* DragonWithAnAgenda : [[spoiler:Windlass is under Procyon's command, but in truth she's only using him for her own aims and actually suggested the plan in the first place. She's also a DragonInChief, considering she's a LOT more dangerous than he is.]]

* FancyDinner: Blueblood's family holds one of these, including a {{BastardlySpeech}}, followed by a {{PatrickStewartSpeech}}, and of course [[spoiler: a murder]].

* FancyDinner: Blueblood's family holds one of these, including a [[BastardlySpeech]], followed by a [[PatrickStewartSpeech]], and of course [[spoiler: a murder]].

* AlwaysMurder : [[spoiler:Chancellor Ninetalons]] is old and very stressed. Surely his death is just bad luck? Yeah, we didn't think so either.

* BottleFairy: Rarity, at least according to Blueblood. [[spoiler: She is quite drunk in the second chapter, and does hard liquor more than once later in the story]].

* ChekhovsGun: To prove that the different airship racers have stuck to the assigned path, each team must stop at specific waystations and pick up a special marker from each site. The first is an apple from Sweet Apples Acres in Ponyville. The second is a string of pearls from the coastal city of Gallopoli. The pearls are said to have a little magic that makes them good luck charms for those at sea. The third is a flower called the Badge of Courage to be retrieved from the jungles of the Impenetrable Lands. [[spoiler: When Rarity and Blueblood are left stranded in the jungle together, the pearls save Rarity’s life by warding away various waterborne predators while the Badge of Courage flower turns out to have potent medicinal properties that save Blueblood’s life from a potentially lethal infection. Even the apple turns out to have some significance as Blueblood uses it to say farewell to his crashed airship and his failed revival of the Alicorn's Cup]]

* FancyDinner: Blueblood's family is holding one of these including a {{BastardlySpeech}}, followed by a {{PatrickStewartSpeech}}, and of course [[spoiler: a murder]].

* GirlyBruiser : Rarity’s physical fitness is brought up several times, especially in comparison to some of the other high class ponies in the race. She points out that her father isn’t a Duke or CEO, he’s a Gym teacher, and he taught her well.

* HealingPotion: The Badge of Courage flower.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident : [[spoiler:Chancellor Ninetalons totally unsuspicious death by heart attack, Rarity’s fall from a air ballon and Prince Blueblood’s sad crash during a storm are all totally accidents, honest!]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure : Chancellor Ninetalons is old, tired of conflict, and the only Griffon who isn’t a jerk. Fancy Pants too, though events occasionally cast doubts on this.

* SteamPunk: There are prominent elements of steam-driven technology, not the least of which are the zeppelin-style airships involved in the race. Besides owning a personal airship, Fancypants also possesses a steam-powered carriage. Fancypants mentions investing heavily in steam engines as he considers them to be a necessity for expanding Equestria since distant settlements will be deprived of the magilectric grid (see “MagiTek”)
* ThemeNaming: We are introduced to three more zebra characters: Zolo, Zinzi and her son Zipinoru (also known as Zips) who like Zecora from the show all have names beginning with "Z"
* {{Unkempt Beauty}}: Rarity spends most of the fic minus her makeup, and although Rarity herself tends to be self-conscious about it, no one else doubts her beauty.
* {{Unobtainium}}: Although pegasi can manufacture cumulus clouds for producing weather, the stratus clouds used in constructing their homes are actually quarried. Rainbow Dash's father found a massive deposit of stratus clouds in the mountains along the Equestrian-Griffon border. The pegasi are now almost entirely dependent on this deposit of stratus to build cities like Cloudsdale. However the griffons claim the Equestrian cloudmining amounts to little more than stealing their resources and is also scaring away the wildlife they hunt. This leads them to lay claim to the area the ponies are settling on and threaten to expel them from what they say is rightfully their land. To further complicate matters, Rainbow's father has recently passed away and without his mediation, contentions between the pegasi and griffons rise. [[spoiler: The conspirators take advantage of the tinderbox between Equestria and the griffon eyries over this contested region to try and trigger open war between the two nations]]
* WorldBuilding: And how! In addition to exploring modern Equestria’s steampunk/magitek, we gain insight into pegasus-griffon relations, learn a little more about zebras, are introduced to the camel race and information about pre-Equestrian times. Furthermore, the course of the airship race travels across Equestria’s borders and to the edges of the known world. [[spoiler: While we do get to see the coastal Gallopoli on Equestria’s southern border and the jungles of the Impenetrable Lands even further south, Rarity’s journey is interrupted when she is thrown off her airship MakesSenseInContext]]

* LastVillainStand : Rarity tears apart the final tatters of Windlass's plan in the final chapter, leaving her surrounded by guards and abandoned by all her allies. Her reaction is to note that she could still easily win by killing everyone present personally, and works up through taking out almost the [[OneManArmy entire cast]], a serious Villainous Breakdown when she realises Rarity is more powerful than her, a suit of steampunked PoweredArmor, a HeroicRROD, some VillainousValor and a OneWingedAngel transformation for luck. [[TropeOverdosed Phew...]]

* TakingYouWithMe: Arguably, Tempest's motivation for starting a war that is planned to cost Equestria the contested Snowmane mountains (and the associated [[ItMakesSenseInContext cloud mines]][[hottip:*:See the Unobtanium entry below]]) is to see how many gryphons he can kill in the losing war to revenge his (presumed) dead wife.

* AncientArtifact: The Heavenstone or the Adamas Firmamentum is a massive diamond that can store and amplify unicorn magic as well as enable a unicorn to cast spells at considerable distances. It belongs to the bloodline of Princess Platinum and has remained in their family’s care all the way to the present day. Before Celestia and Luna, unicorns would willingly contribute their magic to the Heavenstone, and in doing so give their ruler the power necessary to move the sun and moon. After the Royal Sisters emerged and the unicorn royal family lost much of their power and prestige, the Heavenstone also fell into disuse and was locked away in the ancestral home of Platinum’s family. [[spoiler: Until recently when Blueblood’s brother Procyon steals it and Windlass turns it into a superweapon.]]

* {{BFG}}: Rarity and her allies manage to steal a prototype weapon called an Automatic Repeating Cannon which is described in a word as being “pony-sized”. Considering the “firesticks” which are used by the griffons appear to be based on real-world flintlock weapons and can only be fired and reloaded twice a minute, a weapon like the ARC that can fire half a dozen shells a second is truly devastating.

* HiddenVillain : [[spoiler:Procyon is apparently the mastermind behind everything, but unlike the other villians he doesn't get any motive rants, major apparences or even a speaking role. All we know about him is Bloodblood's description, where he points out how unlikely a mastermind he is. Eventually he turns out to be a [[OutGambitted mere tool]] of the real big bad.]]

* MeaningfulName: Windlass is introduced as a sailing engineer, and a windlass is a piece of equipment aboard ships. [[spoiler: But she's also a young unicorn mare with a knack for manipulating the weather, making her Wind Lass.]]

* {{Unkempt Beauty}}: Rarity spends most of the fic minus her makeup, and although Rarity herself tends to be self-conscious about it, no one else doubts her beauty.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Commander Tempest and General Karroc are working together, but both have vastly different goals and both hate each other.]]

* HiddenVillain : [[spoiler:Procyon is apparently the mastermind behind everything, but unlike the other villians he doesn't get any motive rants, major apperences or even a speaking role. All we know about him is Bloodblood's description, where he points out how unlike a mastermind he is.]]

* BalanceOfPower: Khufu’s justification for supplying weapons and technology to the griffon General Karroc centers on this idea. Karroc convinces Khufu that Equestria’s rising economic and technological dominance, growing population and territorial expansion will inevitably lead to armed conflict with the griffon states. The griffons would ultimately lose such a war and if not wiped out entirely would be doomed to a slow death as their society steadily declines into nothing. Khufu, having witnessed the near-destruction of his own people, agrees to help provide Karroc with the resources necessary to put the griffons on equal technological footing to Equestria to deter any aggression by ponykind. Unfortunately Khufu did not realize General Karroc is more than a little {{Ax Crazy}} and is planning to use those weapons to start a war rather than deter one.

* HiddenVillain : [[spoiler:Procyon is apparently the mastermind behind everything, but unlike the other villians he doesn't get any motive rants, major apparences or even a speaking role. All we know about him is Bloodblood's description, where he points out how unlike a mastermind he is.]]

* ThemeNaming: We are introduced to three more zebra characters: Zolo, Zinzi and Zips who like Zecora from the show all have names beginning with "Z"

* UnkemptBeauty: Rarity spends most of the fic minus her makeup, and although Rarity herself tends to be self-conscious about it, no one else doubts her beauty.

* DevelopmentGag: The show's original plans for Blueblood to be a duke rather than a prince are worked into the fic by having him actually '''be''' a duke, and explaining that "Prince Blueblood" is in fact a hereditary title held by his family's eldest son.