History Fanfic / TheRiseOfDarthVulcan

* PainfulPesona: Ted ([[TomTheDarkLord who becomes the emponymous]] EvilOverlord) spent the years between starting high school and present pretending to be a stereotypical JerkJock, despite being as nerdy as they come. He lets this other side come out strictly on Halloween since it's "socially acceptable" to spend hundreds of dollars on a Halloween costume, but not cosplay. A single bad night ousts him as a nerd (and worse, everyone thinks he likes [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic a certain little girl's cartoon]]), which sparks the plot.

** Celestia hopes that by summoning heroes from Earth, they can find a way to beat Ted/Vulcan, as they hope that someone from the same world will be familiar enough with Ted's mindset to be able to at least help them understand and make their own counter tactics themselves to deal with him.

* SorcerousOverlord: Ted/Vulcan

* YourWorstNightmare: Thanks to a book Twilight wrote on Sombra's reign, Vulcan is able to teach Dodger how to create "Nightmare Mists" that take on the form of the worst fears of whoever is exposed to them, which he keeps stored in his top hat (which Vulcan nicknames the Hat Full of Nightmare).

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: There's a couple of examples between Diamond Dogs and ponies. Dogs have no problem with slavery, don't quite seem to grasp ponies are herbivores, and see burying the dead as weird and disgusting (they burn their dead). That last one is mostly pragmatism, however -- as Runt explains to Vulcan, graves take up room that could be used to dig for gems.

* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Ted, who wanted to [[spoiler: get revenge on Luna for using dream-magic to spy on him and discourage similar actions in future]] took a pill he knew would give him dreams similar to a bad narcotic trip and would call up every dirty thing Internet ever produced. [[spoiler: Luna]] was subjected to an entire night of NauseaFuel and couldn't even eat her favored ice-cream because of an infamous meme drilled into her skull.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: How Vulcan takes control of the Diamond Dogs, which is standard practice for their society.

* RescueRomance: Mixed with AsskickingEqualsAuthority and played for laughs -- [[spoiler: as per changeling society, since Vulcan not only dominated Chrysalis in battle but saved her from some plunder vines conjured by Sombra, she's now fixated on him as a potential mate]].

* UncannyValley: InUniverse, Vulcan discusses this trope and how it's at play for him in Equestria in general.
** More specifically, this is also his reaction to [[spoiler: Chrysalis' attempt at taking on human form]].

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Ted crossed the line of no return when he (maybe accidentally) killed Dragon King Torch.]]

* TheWildHunt: A thestral custom rather than a Fey one. The entire tribe plus Luna chase down a large creature and vampirize it. They once mummified a Hydra doing so. The custom was stopped when Luna was sent to the moon and the thestrals exiled.

* SoldierVersusWarrior: Leo and Vulcan respectively during their brief fight with Vulcan being a CombatPragmatist that is willing to avert MookChivalry if it means getting an advantage over his opponents, while Leo is a WarriorPoet that adheres to HonorBeforeReason and sought to fight Vulcan one-on-one. [[spoiler:Naturally, Leo loses the battle; though not before getting a few good licks in on Vulcan in the process.]]

** Ted himself started as this and hasn't really stopped for some things. He expected the ponies to be such wussies that they'd think an ineffective villain like Gargamel from ComicBook/TheSmurfs was an epic level villain, and so would fold if he scared them. Among the Epic Level Villains in the world where Equestria is are a MadeOfEvil [[EvilOverlord Dark Unicorn Overlord]] that enslaved his own people, an [[EldritchAbomination Avatar of Chaos]], and a possibly OmnicidalManiac [[MadGod Mad Moon Goddess]]... WhatAnIdiot comes to mind. Let's just list several other ways in which he is wrong genre savvy...

* SupernaturalIsPurple: Vulcan is shown to constantly weep purple and green fire, not unlike Sombra.

** [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E25TwilightsKingdomPart1 Lord]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 Tirek]] eventually shows up and tries to ManaDrain Ted... and gets a BoomHeadshot death for it.

* BigNo: Filthy Rich, when, after all of the worrying he has done, [[BreakingSpeech he is led]] [[OutlivingOnesOffspring to believe]] that [[DespairEventHorizon Diamond Tiara is dead]].

--> '''Darth Vulcan:''' This is a bunny rabbit. ''[holds up [[SilentSnarker Angel]] [[WhiteBunny Bunny]] for all to see]'' It is a device for [[PetTheDog turning carrots into love]].

* FailureHero: Practically ''nothing'' Celestia has tried in the story to stop Ted has actually succeeded. Contrast with her canon portrayal, whose plans have a way of ultimately working out. Or the author's ''other'' works, where they also get some actual success every once in a while. This is likely a result of the [[DeconstructionFic deconstructive]] nature of the fic. It probably doesn't help that the show's writers [[InMysteriousWays deliberately make it vague]] whether or not she is [[TheChessmaster a chessmaster]] [[GambitRoulette or just really lucky]].

** By the time Luna realized that she was dealing with a teenager with trust, authority, and anger issues instead of a bloodthirsty warlock [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique she could beat up]], it was too late to make amends or explain their actions. [[BreakingThemByTalking She got]] [[HannibalLecture a brutal]] [[BreakingLecture retort]] [[AHouseDivided in turn]].

* PlayingWithFire: Vulcan [[SimpleYetAwesome likes to resort to]] KillItWithFire several times (even if it [[NoSell didn't pan out]] [[AntiMagic against Big Boss]]), he also fireproofed himself; Shining Armor's shield is a confined space, Shining Armor [[OhCrap is not fireproof]]. Do the math. Shining only survived because [[EvenEvilHasStandards Vulcan]] is a pragmatic villain that didn't want to kill him to prevent extreme retaliation against him.

* SympatheticPOV: Ted's mostly sympathetic because he's the POV character in a good number of chapters. Without that look into his mind, he's basically a city-wrecking, kidnapping, filly-drowning, house-burning jerk wielding a dangerous ArtifactOfDoom who keeps insulting everyone not on his side. The company he keeps isn't helping matters: the Diamond Dogs (slavers), the Changelings (emotion eaters who recently attacked the capital), and the outcasts and criminals of Equestrian society. It gets worse when you put together the clue told by Cadence back when he was captured regarding his actual mental state and the specific wording regarding his origin story used by the author. [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness Much]] [[MaskOfSanity worse]].

* WrongGenreSavvy: When Darth Vulcan first enters Ponyville, Rainbow Dash immediately goes on the offensive and attacks him. She presumed with his hostile nature and [[ObviouslyEvil malevolent-looking]] [[DarkIsEvil dark outfit]] that he was like other villains. She was right, but attacking him without letting him get a word in resulted in him hating the ponies. Then again, he ''already'' hated them even before he ever met them, and wasn't interested in civil conversation at all.

* BreakThemByTalking: Vulcan is good at this. He even admits that it's his one real talent. He does this to [[spoiler:Princess Luna]] (twice, one of them unintentionally), a curious [[spoiler:Royal Guard soldier]], [[spoiler:Chrysalis]], and even left scratches on [[spoiler:Celestia's]] self-confidence. Yeah, he's good.

* DarthVaderClone: Justified. Ted was wearing an actual Darth Vader costume gone medieval, and admired his character.

* ScaryImpracticalArmor: Ted's outfit. The official artwork makes him look more like a Chaos Space Marine rather than a DarthVaderClone.

* BigNo: Filthy Rich, when, [[AdultFear after all of the worrying he has done]], [[BreakingSpeech he is led]] [[OutlivingOnesOffspring to believe]] that [[DespairEventHorizon Diamond Tiara is dead]].

* DeconstructorFleet: Vulcan tears into quite a few things about the show AND the fandom, from the ways ponies live, Diamond Tiara's continued behavior as a bully and the many, many stupid decisions by the Princesses, and many a fanfic plot that makes no sense even within the confines of what is shown in the show. And he's not afraid to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tell the Princesses about his observations.]] The story itself deconstructs quite a few other tropes:

** [[spoiler:Most of Vulcan's fight with Leo consists of the StrongAndSkilled Leo completely demolishing the UnskilledButStrong Vulcan, [[RealityEnsues more or less exactly the outcome one would expect when a person who only pretends he knows what he's doing faces someone]] who actually ''does'' on even terms. Vulcan ultimately wins, but more due to dumb luck and a single mistake on Leo's part than anything he himself did.]]

* MoralMyopia: Ted acts like he's justified in everything he does to the ponies just because they beat the crap out of him in their official first contact, ignoring the fact that he was trying to act the part of an over-the-top Evil Villain out to coerce and terrorize the ponies, thinking they wouldn't fight back, for not other reason than [[ItAmusedMe his own amusement]], but instead they reacted to the presented threat like the real deal [[RealityEnsues as might happen in real life]]. Also Artful Dodger; [[spoiler: he is angry at Luna because of her using him as a mole against his will, while ignoring the fact that she wouldn't have picked him if he wasn't the kind of bitter jerk that would have willingly sold out to an enemy of the country for a cut of the pie.]]

* PityTheKidnapper: Attempted by Diamond Tiara while she's held hostage by Vulcan. [[HilarityEnsues The typical result]] of this trope is averted when Vulcan's response is to escalate D.T.'s humiliation and mistreatment until she couldn't take it anymore. [[LampshadeHanging Vulcan later says that this trope doesn't really work]] [[RealityEnsues in real life, for the reasons he had just demonstrated]].

* RealityEnsues:
** Vulcan convinced himself that because of the "TV-Y7" nature of Equestria, there wouldn't be any death as a result of the wanton destruction resulting from his actions. He's horrified when he realizes that people, specifically HIS people, really have been dying.
** [[spoiler:Vulcan has no idea how to ''actually'' fight and is pretty much totally dependent on his magic and weapons, Leo ''does''. When they fight and Leo's immune to Vulcan's magic and can match his weapons, Vulcan gets completely demolished and only wins because of one mistake on Leo's part.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Diamond Tiara's time as Vulcan's captive gave her [[NotSoDifferent insights into his tendency to plan around belittling his enemies]], which coupled with her [[TheStrategist knack for organization]] [[spoiler:and [[TookALevelInKindness newfound humility]] leads to her [[TheDogBitesBack advising the Princesses with near perfect accuracy on what Darth Vulcan's next move may be]].]]

** Artful Dodger has no good memories of his mother's sleazebag lovers who basically just used her and then abandoned her constantly. It's implied they were all criminals of some sort due to how often the guard came to Dodger's childhood home due to implicating his mother as an accomplice; Dodger, JustifiedCriminal that he may be or believe himself to be, ''is'' [[NotSoDifferent an unrepentant petty thief and repeat offender]], and there has been no indication that he ever tried going legit, while some of their sexist attitude might have affected him seeing as he went and called Eiderdown a concubine when she wasn't really supposed to be more than just his personal attendant by his own words.

* FamousLastWords: According to Luna the most common last words by dark warlocks who couldn't remember that just because their armour was unbreakble didn't mean 'they' were unbreakable, were...
-->"Haha, thou shalt never defeat me, for I am wearing my invincible magic arrrrgh."

Problem? It turned out to be a replica of the Alicorn Amulet from the show. Even bigger problem? It actually WAS the Alicorn Amulet from the show. Ted gets sucked up in a portal and sent to Equestria after everyone accuses him of being a closet brony.

And because he makes a terrible first impression on the ponies, Rainbow Dash immediately attacks him. This leads him to discover that he's gained dark powers from the amulet.

** Ted himself started as this and hasn't really stopped for some things. He expected the ponies to be such wussies that they'd think an ineffective villain like Gargamel from TheSmurfs was an epic level villain, and so would fold if he scared them. Among the Epic Level Villains in the world where Equestria is are a MadeOfEvil [[EvilOverlord Dark Unicorn Overlord]] that enslaved his own people, an [[EldritchAbomination Avatar of Chaos]], and a possibly OmnicidalManiac [[MadGod Mad Moon Goddess]]... WhatAnIdiot comes to mind. Let's just list several other ways in which he is wrong genre savvy...

* MoralMyopia: Ted acts like he's justified in everything he does to the ponies just because they beat the crap out of him in their official first contact, ignoring the fact that he was trying to act the part of an over-the-top Evil Villain out to coerce and terrorize the ponies, thinking they wouldn't fight back, for not other reason than [[ItAmusedMe his own amusement]], but instead they reacted to the presented threat like the real deal [[RealityEnsues as might happen in real life]]. Also Artful Dodger; [[spoiler: he is angry at Luna because of her using him as a reverse mole against his will, while ignoring the fact that she wouldn't have picked him if he wasn't the kind of bitter jerk that would have willingly sold out to an enemy of the country for a cut of the pie.]]

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler: Artful Dodger is an unwitting one, as Luna plants a psychic backdoor in his mind before he escapes prison and uses that to spy on Vulcan's forces. Dodger is horrified and angry when he realizes this.]]

* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe, Rainbow Dash is a little touchy about anypony bringing up that she provoked Darth Vulcan by [[LeeroyJenkins assaulting him]] when he walked into Ponyville and demanded to know where he could find Twilight.

* LeeroyJenkins: Rainbow Dash's first reaction to Darth entering Ponyville was to clock him on the head. Darth did start a riot by entering Ponyville, and had all the makings of an evil villain, but [[NeverLiveItDown Rainbow Dash caused a lot more problems with her actions.]]