History Recap / TriptychContinuumGoosed

* KillEmAll: What happened to the geese who were caught outside the Empire when the barrier originally went up. The story suggests that the griffons, who would normally respect a fierce fighting animal enough to start breeding it for meat on their ranches, deliberately ate them out of existence. Given that griffons ''breed monsters for their primary meat source'', the fact that they didn't seem to feel the geese were worth the ''trouble'' may really say something.

* NumberTwo: In order to get her leading the mini-herd, Mayor Mare tells Applejack that she's this to the Bearers as a whole. Rarity later points out that Applejack [[WhatAnIdiot believed a politician who was saying something in order to achieve her own ends]]. However, it's also noted that there are times when Applejack ''does'' take charge, particularly when a practical solution is called for, and the others wind up asking her to lead on this one.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: After Applejack notices the geese having extreme stomach distress following the theft of a meal from [[LethalChef Mr. Flankington's restaurant]] and that other birds are retreating from their sick fellows, she hatches a plan to get the rest of the Saddle Arabian Grass out of the pegasus' greenhouse and serve it to every possible bird in the settled zone, to see if she can get all the healthy ones to flee from an incomprehensible contagion. And in the meantime, Mr. Flankington will fly over Ponyville and feed the birds what remains of his pantry stock. What she doesn't consider is that she's taking a "food" item known to wreak havoc on ''pony'' biology and giving it to the creature with the world's "single least efficient digestive system." Upon returning to Ponyville with the freshly-prepared grass, she gets to see the results, which are... somewhat acidic. And while she's still trying to reconcile the failure, [[FromBadToWorse the geese steal]] [[UpToEleven and begin consuming the fresh supply]]. Cue SanitySlippage.

* FeatheredFiend: The Crystal Geese are vicious, gluttonous, and highly territorial birds. They also spread Styrofoam everywhere thanks to their incredibly inefficient digestive systems. It's telling that the names other races have given them are distinctly unflattering. Even [[FriendToAllLivingThings Fluttershy]] can't get them to calm down (and she's befriended a ''bear''). Makes sense, since they're based on Canada Geese, which some people would agree are a RealLife example.

* SpeciesLostAndFound: Everything within the borders of the Empire qualifies. A significant number of Crystal Geese were originally caught outside the barrier, but... well, see above.

->"But... nopony's seen them since about two years ''after'' the Empire was cut off. Some of them were outside when it happened, and they went..."
->She peered closely at the thick book.
->"...'suspiciously extinct.'"
->Rainbow moved closer.

* {{Misblamed}}: All over the place. Applejack originally ''and [[SeenItAll instinctively]]'' questions [[DoomMagnet Apple Bloom]] to see if the Crusaders did something to bring in the first goose. Both Fluttershy and Applejack wind up blaming themselves for the geese returning because if the Empire hadn't been freed, there might not have been a migration. (Which kind of assumes the ''other'' option was to have it declared an enemy power, followed by blasting it off the map -- but without Twilight present, the others don't necessarily understand every detail of how the banishment spell originally worked, and the last barriers didn't come down until after Sombra's defeat.) Rainbow counters this as soon as it comes out, but it doesn't stop Mayor Mare, who [[ExactEavesDropping overheard]] Fluttershy tell the others about the geese being from the Empire, from [[{{Blackmail}} blackmailing]] the Bearers into helping with the post-migration cleanup, or else she'll tell the townsponies just where the issue came from...
** [[WordOfGod Word Of Fanfic Author]] is that Mayor Mare was trying to get any degree of control back, even a petty one, and recognized that it wasn't so much about what she personally believed as what she could get the townsponies to fall in line behind: part of a political special talent can be the ability to anticipate and partially direct herd mentality.

* CallBack: A few.
** Fluttershy wonders if the initial goose who's camped out at the Acres is being so mean because of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E2ElementsOfHarmony another thorn]]. Applejack darkly reasons that being able to charge that fast means his feet are fine.
** After Applejack reaches the library and discovers the usual librarian has left town for a few days, Rainbow declares Spike to be [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E2TheReturnOfHarmonyPart2 the new Twilight Sparkle]]. Which Applejack actually goes along with, reasoning that even if Spike can't ''use'' [[MagicAIsMagicA unicorn magic]], he's been around Twilight long enough that he has to ''understand'' a lot of it. This comes in handy later, as he's the one among them who knows ''exactly'' what to do about [[PowerStrainBlackout magical overexertion]].
** Rainbow decides there's no point to [[Recap/TriptychContinuumStupidDirectionFace freezing]] the geese out if they can get through the weather around the empire.
** Fluttershy, while listing some of the hardships which the Bearers have to go through, says that she shouldn't have to do a ''lot'' of things. The context points towards this being a reference to [[Recap/TriptychContinuumFiveHundredLittleMurders Five Hundred Little Murders]].
** Towards the end, Applejack wishes Twilight was in Ponyville, in the hopes that she might be able to use a working which would just clean up the entire town in one casting. Pinkie notes that the ''other'' option is to have the spell merge all the [[InsistentTerminology styrofoam]] into a single giant monster which then attempts to ''eat' the town -- then remembers that they [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E10SwarmOfTheCentury sort of did that one already]], only without the giant monster part.
** Upon hearing that one of the many names for Crystal Geese is 'airasprites', Pinkie gets out her instruments again. It doesn't go so well.
-->"MUSIC!" Pinkie proudly announced, and marched towards her chosen audience.
-->Twenty seconds passed.
-->And then a pink blur shot past them, instruments falling away in every direction as a trio of hissing geese snapped at her curly tail.
-->"CRIIIIITIIIIICS!"

* SolidGoldPoop: Initially, Rarity has hopes of collecting the Crystal Geese feathers that they shed so copiously, as their combination of exotic value and inherent beauty makes them material she could use to potentially produce extremely valuable clothing. Events conspire against her plan and in the end, she declares the feathers to be substandard and worthy only of [[Recap/TriptychContinuumSonicRainbigot Barneigh's]].

** [[spoiler: Then they realize the next stop is the GRIFFON EMPIRE!]]

* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Twilight could have solved this, probably. Or at least made it much easier. Conveniently? She's absent for most of the story.

* TakeThat: After a while, you might start to get the impression that the author doesn't ''like'' Canada Geese. Of course, judging by some of the reactions in the story comments section, the author has plenty of company... in fact, all of the names for them either directly referenced in the story or used as chapter titles were originally suggested by people in a blog that Estee put up before the story was written.

* TakeThat: After a while, you might start to get the impression that the author doesn't ''like'' Canada Geese. Of course, judging by some of the reactions in the story comments section, the author has plenty of company... in fact, all of the titles for them either directly referenced in the story or used as chapter titles were originally suggested by people in a blog that Estee put up before the story was written.

* SolidGoldPoop: Initially, Rarity has hopes of collecting the Crystal Geese feathers that they shed so copiously, as their combination of exotic value and inherent beauty makes them material she could produce extremely valuable clothing. Events conspire against her plan.

* PrecisionFStrike: In Chapter Four, Pinkie spends some time reading off alternate names for the Crystal Geese in the background of the scene, eventually reaching "Grey-Winged Shitbuckets." It took nearly forty stories, but somepony in the Continuum finally got an actual curse word in.

* SpeciesLostAndFound: Everything within the borders of the Empire qualifies. (A significant number of Crystal Geese were originally caught outside the barrier, but... well, see above.)

* TakeThat: After a while, you might start to get the impression that the author doesn't ''like'' Canada Geese.
** Judging by some of the reactions in the story comments section, the author has plenty of company.

* NatureIsNotNice: Especially when it's in the form of an invasive species of territorial birds.

* FeatheredFiend: The Crystal Geese are vicious, gluttonous, and highly territorial birds. They also spread Styrofoam everywhere thanks to their incredibly inefficient digestive systems. It's telling that the names other races have given them are distinctly unflattering. Makes sense, since they're based on Canada Geese, which some people would agree are a RealLife example.