Line #55 FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/canterlot_s1e01.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Pictured: An Empire built upon a throne of lies and deceit.]]
3
4	->''"With the help of secret sources and Larry who lives in a box behind the donut shop, I have pieced together a history that no pony had dared to even think of."''
5
6	''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/126866/equestria-a-history-revealed Equestria: A History Revealed]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfiction written by Hoofry Poneigher.
7
8	University of Canterlot student, Loose Change, has finished her magnum opus on the history of Equestria that Celestia doesn't want you to see. Revealing the true lies and the lie-truths behind the Celestial regime, the "threats" to Equestria, and all that is known of Equestrian history, Loose Change illuminates the path to truth for the (in her words) ungrateful halfwits who are too blind to see the light.
9
10	A glorious essay whose sources mainly revolve around the words of a hobo she befriended and the hidden clues on the bottom of Doritos bags; much to the dismay of her professor, Loose Change uncovers her version of the "untold truth" of Equestria, no matter how nonsensical and absurd it may be.
11
12	This story is presented as an utterly ridiculous retelling of the entirety of Equestrian history, written as an essay from the point of view of a crazed pony historian who is arrogant, conspiracy-obsessed, and most likely just all-out insane. From time travel to intergalactic space orgies, this story presents a view of Equestrian history that will certainly be remembered. It is also hilarious.
13
14	Not to be confused with ''FanFic/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria''.
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16
17	----
18	!!This fanfic contains examples of:
19
20	* AWizardDidIt: Used by Loose Change to [[HandWave handwave]] the historical issues regarding Clover the Clever and Starswirl the Bearded.
21	* AdHominem: Loose Change tends to resort to this when talking about actual historical experts. It's even referred to in text, albiet with the name [[PunnyName Ad Poninem]] instead.
22	* AliensAreBastards: Apparently, aliens were behind the [[spoiler:creation of Discord. He was allegedly born through an alien intergalactic space orgy, which they only did for kicks]]. According to Loose Change, aliens are very kinky.
23	* [[invoked]] AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The entire fic is practically built upon Loose Change's version of this, with varying hilarious results.
24	** Celestia is not a benevolent UniversallyBelovedLeader; she's secretly at the head of every conspiracy in Equestria's history.
25	** Twilight Sparkle isn't the ChosenOne or a certified genius; she's a complete sycophant who only has the position she does because of kissing Celestia's flank. [[spoiler:Though Loose Change only says that because she's jealous.]]
26	* AnalogyBackfire: Happens at least once every few chapters, in which the narrator's poor analogies end up backfiring in her face and ruining the points she was trying to make.
27	* AncientConspiracy: Practically the entire concept behind the fic, in which supposedly everything in Equestrian history has a massive conspiracy behind it. In the very first chapter, Loose Change says the entirety of this Equestrian conspiracy stretches to Pre-Equestrian times to the present day.
28	* AssociationFallacy: This fallacy is directly responsible for Loose Change's reasoning of the Elements of Harmony being powered by dark magic. As [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Elements represent a good pizza]], and pizza is cooked by baking. Baking cannot be explained. Do you know what else can't be explained? [[InsaneTrollLogic Dark magic.]]
29	* [[invoked]] AssPull: In-universe, as Loose Change does this a few times in her essay.
30	** The ending to the fic's version of the Hearts and Hooves Day legend certainly qualifies as this, when near the end [[spoiler:a giant ponyeating dragon suddenly descends upon high and burns every pony alive in the kingdom.]] But it's [[PlayedForLaughs played for laughs]] though.
31	** Most of Loose Change's theories seem to fit into this, only occasionally having evidence often as a result of overanalyzing or her jumping to conclusions to justify her claims. Directly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when she states herself an explanation she provided seemed rather asspullish. She doesn't fix it though.
32	* AudienceMonologue: Loose Change sometimes directly speaks for the audience, using the reader as a voicebox for rhetorical questions. However, the way she instantly shoots them down with extreme prejudice makes one wonder why she even chose to do this in the first place.
33	* BenevolentConspiracy: Loose Change's insane ramblings aside, it's hinted that she discovers some inkling of truth behind the regime and alicornification in Chapters 11 and 12. However, the subtext behind the conspiracy clearly implies its purpose was for the greater good of Equestria, [[spoiler: as it prevented the complete collapse of the nation after the defeat of Discord, and restored stability to the nation by creating a central leadership figure for the ponies to believe in]].
34	* BitingTheHandHumor: Loose Change directly belittles her professor, and swears at him a couple of times in-text. Her professor is supposedly marking the essay in its completion.
35	* BlackComedy: Some of the jokes can tend to be pretty dark, especially as it seems that Loose Change doesn't have much of a conscience when regarding some of the darker sides of Equestrian history.
36	* BlackAndGrayMorality:
37	** The supposed "good" Equinus Republic is a clear example of this, as some of their actions have very clearly questionable morals.
38	** Loose Change is just as equally guilty of this, as she seems to agree with the Equinus Republic's logic most of the time.
39	* BlackMagic: Baking, as it is inexplicable (to Loose Change), must be dark magic, which is equally inexplicable. Therefore, pizza is the result of black magic. And as the Elements of Harmony are equivalent to the elements of a good pizza, the elements must also be powered by baking, and therefore the Elements use dark magic.
40	* BlatantLies: Used numerous times in her essay, from purposefully misciting sources, to Loose Change's ridiculously implausible theories. At one point, she does admit that she was making stuff up as she goes along. She unfortunately doesn't see the problem in this.
41	* BrickJoke: Loose Change makes a statement about a conspiracy that is a complete AssPull. A few chapters later, she comes up with another conspiracy which contradicts the first one, which she notes. However, she doesn't go back to fix it.[[invoked]]
42	* CaptainObvious: Many obvious things are sometime restated in-text by the narrator or even in the bibliography.
43	* ChewbaccaDefense: Used very often early on, especially in Chapter 4, in which Loose Change attempts to confuse you so much with similar terms and insane logic that you just have the accept the confusion and move on, despite it not making a lick of sense.
44	* CircularReasoning: Invoked by Loose Change, in which she states that if Celestia was willing to lie about the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant first, then she would be willing to lie about the Hearts and Hooves Day legend too, as she would have experience in lying. \
45	But if she lied about the Hearts and Hooves Day legend first, then she would clearly also lie about the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant, as it held much greater significance. The whole exchange is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded even further]] when she states that ignoring that, she reached a new shape of thought, one [[StealthPun without a point,]] so she says to make a loop back to the original point of the paragraph.
46	* CloneArmy: Cloning seems to be [[YourAnswerToEverything Celestia's answer to everything,]] according to Loose Change. Apparently she used the Mirror Pool to clone an army to fight Nightmare Moon and just kept cloning them up until the present; CloneDegeneration means that the current ones (the Royal Guard) are kinda useless. The difference between Luna's appearance in ''Friendship is Magic'' and ''Luna Eclipsed'' is because Celestia pulled YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness on the real Luna and sent her back to the moon, replacing her with a clone. The social awkwardness is again because of Clone Degeneration. Pony Joe's name change to Donut Joe is because he was complicit in [[ItMakesSenseInContext Celestia handing over the true dark magic Elements to the Mane Six via donuts]], so Celestia [[HeKnowsTooMuch killed him]] and replaced him with an (again imperfect) clone. Cadance is another clone of Celestia, who used a TimeyWimeyBall to get her to 'ascend' from a Pegasus to prevent a pegasi revolt (And yes, she's pink because of CloneDegeneration). Chrysalis was the perfect clone, created by accident when Celestia was [[LethalChef baking a cake]] (of course, her default form was twisted and buggy, but details).
47	* CloneDegeneration: The Celestia of Loose Change's imagination just can't seem to make a perfect clone. Her CloneArmy that she used against Nightmare Moon was good in the beginning, but a millennium of repeated cloning has rendered their modern version (the Royal Guard) useless. Clone Luna was extremely socially awkward and had a different mane than the original. Clone Pony Joe went by the name Donut Joe. Cadance was pink. Loose Change holds up Chrysalis as the perfect (if accidental) clone, but she still looks like a changeling.
48	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Happens many times with Loose Change, who ignores obvious information right in front of her to go off on a tangent on some minuscule, trivial thing. On the few times she does manage to potentially discover some kind of conspiracy in Equestrian history, she instead over-analyzes something meaningless, such as when she was convinced that word choice in a certain quotation was suspicious, and spent three paragraphs analyzing of the use of the word "hellfire". [[spoiler: She concludes it meant an evil fire.]]
49	* ComplexityAddiction: Loose Change's version of Celestia seems to do a lot of manipulation for her 'pro-friendship agenda' even when she has the necessary ponies under mind control.
50	* [[invoked]] ConfirmationBias: One of the many biases that Loose Change is guilty of, and one of the more prevalent ones throughout the work. She directly goes out of her way to ignore information that contradicts her claims, and even directly states a few times that the rest of the "idiot historians" can be right occasionally, given that they match her beliefs. Her terrible reasoning skills in her essay, however, are PlayedForLaughs. If something supports her theory that Celestia is an evil tyrant, no matter how much Loose Change has to twist it to be so, then she'll happily put it in her essay. Consequently, anything that Loose Change finds that works against her theory is outright ignored, handwaved away, or dismissed as lies. [[spoiler:All of this is because Loose Change is DrivenByEnvy that she's not an alicorn, and really wants to be one.]]
51	* ConspiracyKitchenSink: It's what Loose Change most certainly believes in. Whether or not it has any truth to it is up to debate and the reader's abject trust in the narrator. Hints at conspiracies are present in between the lines, but they certainly are not to the extent Loose Change would like them to be.
52	* ConspiracyTheorist: Loose Change and Crazy Larry definitely qualify. Loose Change believes that everything is tied to Celestia being a secret dictator.
53	* CrazyHomelessPeople: Her friend, Crazy Larry. It's even in his name. It becomes a problem when Loose Change seems to ignore most legitimate historical sources in favor of the words of her friend.
54	* CreatorsApathy: InUniverse, Loose Change has a very lax approach to essay writing, getting drunk towards the end of Chapter 3, not wanting to write any more praise for Princess Celestia, instead inserting her self-authored haikus in their place, and literally admitting to lying to her professor and cursing him in-text (while he is supposedly marking it).
55	* CruelTwistEnding: The end of the Hearts and Hooves Day legend certainly qualifies as this. The fact that this was supposedly the canon legend that the CMC read on the show only makes the point that much more diabolical. The name of the book itself should have tipped somepony off, as it was supposedly titled "How the Sea-Pony Wished Upon a Star and Unknowingly Started Racial Prosecution Under An Emergent Fascist Regime: A Collection of Filly’s Tales and Legends That Start Off Whimsical But End in Destruction and Death".
56	* {{Demonization}}: Loose Change tends to demonize Celestia much more than she deserves, even in comparison to actual evil, and Loose Change calls Celestia's logical and rational decisions the work of pure stupidity and wickedness. Loose Change seems to go out of her way to demonize Celestia every time she gets, even when in subtext, it is made clear that Celestia is one of the few good guys.
57	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Loose Change definitely does this a few times. A source in the bibliography is literally titled, "Redundant Things Are Redundant, and Other Truths".
58	* DitzyGenius: Despite Loose Change's apparent entrance into the supposed prestigious University of Canterlot, she is shown to be almost excessively stupid with gaping holes in logic. Somehow, despite this, she still is able to write an essay of more than sixteen thousand words with proper spelling and grammar. However, she most likely just barely got by in her classes overall, given her unprofessional demeanor.
59	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: Spike is TheDragon to Celestia, and it's through him that Celestia manipulates the Mane Six (a term Loose Change does use in her essay, although she doesn't know why).
60	* DracoInLeatherPants: [[invoked]]Loose Change does her best to prop up villains who historically opposed Celestia. Her logic is stretched to the breaking point in doing so since those villains were [[MadGod Discord]] and [[TheNightThatNeverEnds Nightmare]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Moon]], but it's not like logic has ever bothered Loose Change before.
61	* DrivenByEnvy: Loose Change, being an Earth Pony, can never have magic powers, so she devotes most of her essay towards bashing those who do. Upon writing about Twilight Sparkle's ascension, Loose Change gets a HeroicBSOD.
62	-->''Because literally anypony would be better to ascend than that foo’, Twilight. What, I’m not jealous of her or anything. I don’t have a seething hatred for her after she stole my rightful position as Celestia’s star pupil and heir.\
63	It’s not even Twilight herself (...) I just hate her for what she has.\
64	What she does.\
65	What she is.''
66	* [[invoked]] EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Everything is a symbol. Even certain word choices from ancient sources. The fact that she can find and actively searches for meaning behind everything ties in with her Conspiracy Theorist nature. It also makes for a very entertaining essay.
67	* {{Expospeak}}: Loose Change clearly had access to a thesaurus when trying to make herself sound smart. The sentence just ends up being mostly unintelligible.
68	%%% This isn't a trope. Maybe {{Dissimile}} fits?* OverlyExtendedAnalogy: Loose Change uses this all the time to explain her theories, tying together two unrelated things and using it as proof of their relation to each other.
69	* [[invoked]] FanonDiscontinuity: Interestingly subverted. Despite the subject matter promising a change in what is known in Equestrian history and the absolute madness surrounding the narrator's theories, because the show never revealed much regarding its history, if one was to accept Loose Change's conclusions at face value, it would still fit within the confines of the show, albeit giving it a very weird backstory.
70	* FantasticRacism:
71	** In an in-universe example, it does seem that the binds of racism do run deep in Equestria, and they do cause social and political unrest a few times.
72	** Loose Change herself has a severe case of this. Her worldview goes like so: Earth Ponies (SuperiorSpecies)> Pegasi (DumbMuscle)> Unicorns ([[FantasticRacism racist]] [[HypocriticalHumor lesser beings]])> Alicorns (unicorns who found a way to get wings and used it to become [[VillainWithGoodPublicity villains with good publicity]])> Non-pony species such as griffons and minotaurs (scum)
73	* FeigningIntelligence: Loose Change tends to be more about having the appearance of knowledge rather than actually having any knowledge of her own. And even that doesn't work most of the time. It doesn't help that the fic is supposed to be her academic essay that's she's submitting to her university, and any hopes of her maintaining academic professionalism and integrity are gone by Chapter 2. She still maintains that she's "smarter than the rest of those traditionalist historians", despite clear evidence that she's not.
74	* FreedomFromChoice: Loose Change states that Celestia had indoctrinated such a thinking into Equestrian society as a whole. Of course, she then sees it as her duty to re-educate the reader of the "truth".
75	* FreudianExcuse: PlayedForLaughs. Loose Change suffered ParentalNeglect from her drunk mother and DisappearedDad (he got struck by lightning while climbing a lightning rod trying to get better theta-ray connection with aliens). Her greatest dream as a filly was to join Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but they rejected Loose Change because she wasn't gifted, nor was she a unicorn. Loose Change took it badly and blamed Celestia, which is why Loose Change hates her and [[IrrationalHatred demonizes her]] in the essay. Loose Change's FantasticRacism is motivated by [[DrivenByEnvy envy.]] As an earth pony, she will never have magic, and is very envious of those who do. She copes by trying to convince herself that Earth Ponies are superior to unicorns, and thus she has no reason to be jealous. It isn't really working. It's clear from the way Loose Change writes her essay that she's incredibly jealous because she's so bad at hiding it.
76	* FunWithAcronyms: The real-life author tends to do this sometimes. Not all of them seem to have meanings, such as the "'''C'''elestia '''W'''ater'''m'''elon '''F'''riendship '''S'''urprise", but others, such as the '''U'''nited '''R'''oyal '''I'''ndomitable '''N'''ational '''E'''questrian forces have obviously been carefully crafted together. Strangely enough, it seems as though nobody in-universe realizes the unfortunate acronym of the latter, with the narrator only noting that it seemed excessively extravagant and longwinded.
77	* GovernmentConspiracy: According to Loose Change, everything is a government conspiracy. They've been sending her subtle signs of their history to toy with her. Little do they know, Loose Change is going to reveal the "truth" to the world, whether the world wants to hear it or not.
78	* HandWave:
79	** Literally invoked when Loose Change says that most flaws in logic can be handwaved by the work of wizards/magic, which is admittedly somewhat justified, given that they do live in a world of talking horses and magic unicorns.
80	** She repeats the same thing regarding inconsistencies in history, handwaving it off as the work of time travel.
81	* HereWeGoAgain: In the final chapter, Loose Change states that she's already planning her sequel: ''Equestria: Future Predictions Unleashed!''
82	* HeroicBSOD: In chapter 35, after writing on Twilight's ascension to a princess, Loose Change starts to type in capitals, screaming that "[she] doesn't have to take this!" One page break later, she's noticeably calmer, having had "a good hard cry". She continues to write the essay because it's cathartic.
83	* {{Hypocrite}}: Loose Change accuses the social theorist Pure Blood of being a racist when his book (on the subject of achieving equality among the races) lists unicorns first, calling him "unicorn scum". She then points out how the only thing she hates more than racists are hypocrites.
84	* HitlerAteSugar: Invoked in a way. Loose Change reasons that she doesn't understand the scientific process behind baking a cake, and therefore, sees it as something that cannot be explained. She also reasons that dark magic cannot be explained. Therefore, baking must be a representation of dark magic. [[InsaneTrollLogic It gets worse from there on out.]]
85	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Reading between the lines of Loose Change's essay will reveal that this is her motivation for writing it. What she wants, more than anything else, is the ability to use magic. But as an earth pony, she can't use it. The essay is her measure of getting some small measure of vengeance against the ponies who "stole" the power of magic from her.
86	* IJustWantToBeYou:
87	** Deep down, Loose Change really wants to be Princess Celestia. The fact that she isn't and will never be anything like Celestia is what drives Loose Change to demonize Celestia in her essay.
88	** Loose Change also hates Twilight Sparkle for becoming an alicorn princess, though Loose Change desperately tries to deny it while [[NoExceptYes making it very clear through her writing that she's incredibly jealous]].
89	* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Loose Change's bashing of Celestia and Twilight is rooted in her envy of them. Likewise, her justifications in hating unicorns and pegasi are because they have magic, and she doesn't.
90	* IgnoredEpiphany: Loose Change admits in Chapter 35 that her essay makes Twilight out to be worse than she really is, and that jealousy is colouring her narration. One "good long look at [herself] in the mirror" later, she... continues to write, her words just as vitriolic and racist as ever.
91	* InUniverse: This entire story is written in-character by the character herself in her own state of mind, in-universe.
92	* {{Infodump}}: As a historical academic essay, this is prone to occur. Of course, given Loose Change's strange ways of thinking, the accuracy of these infodumps are sketchy at best.
93	* InsaneTrollLogic: Loose Change uses this in spades. Often used throughout the text to explain what logically should not make sense.
94	--> While [Starswirl] was researching his time spell, in the past I might remind you, he could have traveled back into the past (but he was in the past as I reminded you), therefore [[spoiler: allowing two of him to exist at the same time.]] In order to avoid confusion, he [[spoiler: adopted the time clone as his son and named him, “Starswirl the Bearded”.]] Of course, the [[spoiler: time clone would age much slower because of [[AWizardDidIt de magicks,]]]] so this Starswirl the Bearded, (who we shall name Starswirl the Bearded, to avoid further confusion) was able to rise to obscurity in the Pre-Classical Era and live up to the early Classical era a century later. It makes perfect sense.
95	* InsufferableGenius: Subverted in that the main character certainly sees herself as one, but she's mostly just insufferable. She at one point "humble brags" that she rated 79 on an IQ test, and the doctor called her "special". She views this as a point of pride, not being aware of how the IQ test's scale works.[[note]]For those that don't know, an IQ of 100 is considered average, and 80 is the minimum for being considered "normal" in intellect.[[/note]]
96	* [[invoked]] InUniverseFactoidFailure: Loose Change fulfills this trope in spades. She does do research, but she blatantly ignores what is stated in favor of her own opinions, going as far as to cross out sections of quotes that
97	[[ConfirmationBias don't agree with her view]].
98	* ItMakesSenseInContext:
99	** Most of the conclusions reached by Loose Change, without context, are extremely absurd. Of course, with her jumps in logic and insane overanalyses, even with context, it doesn't help matters too much.
100	** The Equinus Republic fell due to the ponies of government having [[spoiler:a great big orgy]]. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It makes sense in context.]]
101	* JustIgnoreIt: Sometimes Loose Change takes this approach when citing sources that clearly contradict her own theories. At her worst, she demeans the opposing author's intelligence, and crosses out the offending text with a strikethrough.
102	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Loose Change considers herself a prophet of academic knowledge, spreading the truth to the hapless readers as she sees fit. In actuality, most of her knowledge comes from her [[CrazyHomelessPeople crazed hobo friend]] and her conspiracy-rattled mind.
103	* LampshadeHanging: The real-life author tends to lampshade some of Loose Change's more erratic behavior, and even makes a few digs at their own writing.
104	* LemonyNarrator: This fanfic takes a unique approach to its writing style. Not only is the narrator a character in the story in her own right, it can be argued that she is the only character. Other than the glimpses of history that can be gleamed from quotes and references from other ponies, Equestria's history is mostly seen through her eyes. It is through the journey in the eyes of this clearly not-all-there pony that the story becomes comedic.
105	* [[invoked]]LessDisturbingInContext: Loose Change says genocide sounds all well and good. It makes sense in context; it was just the way she worded her sentence. She seemed to be aware of this however, and went out of her way to ask the reader not to quote her on that.
106	* LethalChef: Apparently Celestia created Chrysalis while trying to make a cake. [[UnreliableNarrator If Loose Change is to be believed]].
107	* LiteralMinded: The narrator certainly fits this well. She tends to analyze minute details behind word choice in an attempt to find some hidden meaning. However, this is not always the case, as sometimes she ignores the literal meaning for a more symbolic one. She really tends to go either way depending on what supports her way of thinking the best at the moment.
108	* LogicalFallacies: Loose Change is the walking embodiment of this. All of her conspiracy theories are twisted, bent, and outright broken multiple times thanks to her gigantic leaps in logic.
109	* LovePotion: According to Loose Change, this was used by [[spoiler:Discord en masse to cause the downfall of the Equinus Republic, culminating in a giant orgy from the ponies in parliament. It is meant to be taken as gross and with as much questionable validity as it sounds.]]
110	* TheManBehindTheMan: Apparently Celestia has been behind most significant events in Equestrian history, even the ones she wasn't in control of. Of course, given this claim is made by Loose Change, it may not stand true in-universe.
111	* MasterRace: The narrator props up her own earth pony race as the superior race while demeaning and insulting the pegasi, unicorns, and especially alicorns. [[spoiler:As seen by the in-universe text in history and in biology, it seems as though earth ponies are actually slightly inferior. And really, Loose Change is saying most of the things she's saying because [[IJustWantToBeSpecial she really wants magic powers, but can't have them]].]]
112	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: Loose Change often forgets the point of her metaphors, or worse, gets lost in her train of thoughts, and continues on with the metaphor as though it was the point itself.
113	* MixedMetaphor: Loose Change directly [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the fact that she mixes up her metaphors. Not that she cares too much.
114	* {{Narcissist}}: Loose Change perceives herself to be the best historical essay writer alive. She's also very self-centered and seems to care mostly about herself.
115	* NoTrueScotsman: The narrator thinks she is the only legitimate historical essay writer, and dismisses all of the works of real pony historians as false. She even calls herself the one true historian in Equestria at one point. Of course, Loose Change defines "historian" not as "someone who studies history", but as "someone who studies history and agrees with me."
116	* NoodleIncident: When discussing the [[spoiler: supposed orgy that brought down the Equinus Republic]], the narrator states that a reason why such an event was kept quiet was most likely to prevent a resurgence of [[spoiler: the orgy craze from ten years ago]]. While it sounds as though such an event would be ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, the way it is so casually thrown in there makes one wonder what the backstory to that event must have been.
117	* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer:
118	** Played straight in the essay's abstract and several times throughout the essay. Though given the essay is about conspiracy theories, it is somewhat justified.
119	** Subverted later on when the author reveals [[spoiler:she's been making up most of her essay as she goes along]]. It's okay though; [[FalseReassurance she crossed it out.]]
120	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: The narrator interrupts the big climactic [[LastStand Battle of Canterlot]] right before it begins so she can take a quick bathroom break. Once it cuts back, [[PlayedForLaughs the battle had already ended.]]
121	* OutWithABang: Literally, in regards to the [[spoiler: mass orgy that caused the downfall of the Equinus Republic]]. The author even makes a pun about it.
122	--> And so [[spoiler: the Equinus Republic]] went out not with a whimper, but with a bang. Several of them probably.
123	* PlayedForLaughs:
124	** The entire concept of the fic is played for laughs, as a parody of the professionalism expected from a historical essay.
125	** Most of Loose Change's logic and pride are played for laughs as well. However, as the story continues, it seems as though even certain elements of Equestrian history are naturally funny, and as such, invoke this trope too.
126	* ProductPlacement:
127	** In a Stealth Pun as stealthy as getting hit by a truck, Loose Change invokes this trope with the word "Hot Topic", which is of course followed by a tiny "Buy MLP Shirts Today!"
128	** Directly referenced in the bibliography as [[spoiler:a message paid by the Hot Topic corporation]].
129	* PunnyName:
130	** Loose Change, Hoofry Poneigher and most of the authors listed in the bibliography all have unashamedly punny names.
131	** At a point, the bibliography has a field day with crystal puns before promising to stop.
132	* {{Retcon}}: Loose Change has a habit of crossing out sentences as soon as they disagree with something else she's saying. It only points out her alterations of facts even more.
133	* RevengeFic: Even through all of Loose Change's blatant hate and bias against Celestia and her regime, what is presented clearly demonstrates that Celestia was more than competent in ruling the nation than Loose Change would have you believe. It gets to the point where some chapters and facts were simply written to get some comeuppance against Celestia.
134	* {{Rewrite}}: The narrator unashamedly rewrites history and facts to suit her goals and interests. At one point she [[spoiler:even admits to it, but it's not as though she sees anything wrong with it.]]
135	* SecretPolice: According to Loose Change, Celestia has all sorts of different secret police crews.
136	** Loose Change fears the dreaded Fallacy Police. Apparently they're watching her, waiting for her to slip up. Good thing for her, Loose Change reasons, that [[BlatantLies she's had no faults in logic in her essay so far]] so she should be fine. But given the absurdity of the statement, it stands to reason that their existence is highly questionable.
137	** It is hinted that Celestia might have had a secret police during the Classical Era. But the name that Loose Change gives the organization, "Celestia Watermelon Friendship Surprise", casts doubt into this validity of this claim.
138	* SeriousBusiness: If there's one thing that Loose Change never lies about or stretches the truth on throughout the entire essay, it's her passion for history; she genuinely loves it, and her writing makes that clear. It's just a shame she doesn't share such a passion in logic or professional academia.
139	* SexSells: With regards to the [[spoiler: fall of the Equinus Republic]], Loose Change's reasoning behind why Celestia had to keep such an event quiet was that if [[spoiler: ponies realized that democracy led to sexy orgies, they would totally support it]], or at least pay bits for it.
140	* ShoutOut:
141	** "Loose Change" is the title of a prominent 9/11 "truther" film which says that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were a plot by the US government to attack its own citizens. The character named as such in this story is also a conspiracy theorist.
142	** A "fiery temptress of fire" named [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Ponyta]] is briefly mentioned at one point.
143	* SidetrackedByTheAnalogy: Happens multiple times in the story. It makes you wonder why Loose Change goes out of her way to make analogies in the first place.
144	--> So it might be best to take this source with a pinch of salt. And maybe a little Parmesan. Oh yeah. That’s the stuff.
145	* SkewedPriorities: The Equinus Republic demonstrates this by [[spoiler:banishing all of its political critics to Tartarus, the Pit of Monsters]]. Loose Change justifies their opinion by stating that they couldn't [[spoiler:allow the critics to stay, or they would lower national pride. And then what would become of all the money they poured into the Equestrian Games?]]
146	** Loose Change then points out that if the [[spoiler:money on the games was wasted, it might as well been used for some stupid, like [[ComicallyMissingThePoint feeding the starving population]].]]
147	** It seems like this trope seems to fit the Equinus Republic in general, as they spent weeks debating the simple creation of a road before throwing out the [[DemocracyIsFlawed case altogether]], while approving the abolishment of penalties for homicidal evisceration in less than an hour.
148	* SmallNameBigEgo: Loose Change sees herself as a better historian than any other pony, despite still being a student at the University of Canterlot. Apparently she has sold some of her previous essays as books, but [[spoiler: they're obviously not doing too well, given Loose Change has to blatantly advertise them in-essay]].
149	* SpeculativeDocumentary: This entire fanfiction is practically a written version of this, only with more leaps in thinking and InsaneTrollLogic.
150	* SpeculativeFiction: Loose Change often speculates on things that might have occurred in history. However, she does have the common sense to point out she has no evidence of such a thing occurring, and it's mostly just her speculation. Nonetheless, she reasons that because it makes sense in her mind, then it must be true anyways, so she'll just present it as truth.
151	* StealthPun: The author seems to love doing this even more so than the actual writers of the show. If there's a word that can be substituted for a horse pun, you can bet it'll be used. Not even the bibliography is exempt from this. The sources are chockfilled with bad puns too.
152	--> "Ravished by civil wars up the ass (no pun intended, the deciding battle was fought on Donkey Doodle Peak), and ''saddled'' with the responsibility of repairing the broken nation, the new griffon government desperately needed supplies and help."
153	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Invoked by Loose Change when she states her biography of King Sombra was not at all copied off from [[PunnyName Ponipedia]]. She still italicizes the source like it was properly cited though, bringing it to even greater attention.
154	* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: Due to Loose Change's take on time travel, and method for dealing with the Starswirl inconsistency, this tends to happen a bit throughout the essay.
155	* TinfoilHat: Crazy Larry and Loose Change have them to block out the sun rays (which Celestia is obviously using for some nefarious purpose). Loose Change's deceased father was also named Foil Hat.
156	* TheMockbuster: Talonzania's sources seem to be guilty of this, ripping off other publishers and books, as seen in the Bibliography.
157	* ThePowerOfFriendship: Subverted. Loose Change doesn't believe this at all, and actually takes the real world's message of the show as a part of [[TheConspiracy Celestia's "pro-friendship agenda"]]. This is problematic as most of the major conflicts in the show are solved by friendship. But she finds another way to [[InsaneTrollLogic interpret this instead]].
158	* TheRemake: In a [[SidetrackedByTheAnalogy lost analogy]] Loose Change calls Equestria under Celestia a remake, and goes into a brief reviewer style rant against the flaws of the film.
159	* ThereAreNoCoincidences:
160	** Loose Change believes this to the point of using InsaneTrollLogic to justify her theories.
161	** In Chapter 10, Loose Change reveals that she was motivated to write this essay because [[spoiler:she found a Celestia-shaped Dorito chip and was convinced it was a sign, invoking this trope]].
162	* TheoryTunnelvision: The main RunningGag of the story is the Narrator being so driven to attach anything that goes wrong in history to [[HistoricalRapSheet the theory that Celestia is to blame]] that all kinds of historical evidence and common sense are [[IRejectYourReality outright rejected]].
163	* TooDumbToFool:
164	** Used to explain how the earth ponies didn't fall for "Celestia's lies" like the pegasi, because they were mostly amazed by the fact they had working outhouses. Subverted in the sense that the narrator plays it up as a sign of their superiority.
165	** Loose Change seems to think she subverts this trope by seeing the clues of conspiracy that she thinks Celestia hides in history. But most of the time she's just [[ConspiracyTheorist overanalyzing]].
166	* TragicBigot: Loose Change hates unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns. Especially alicorns, in fact. But it's revealed that Loose Change is DrivenByEnvy because she wants magical powers, and can't have them. Coupled with bad school grades despite a passion for history, along with a very bad home life, the fic still treats Loose Change as sympathetic, if very misguided.
167	* UnreliableNarrator: Loose Change is, without a doubt, one of the most unreliable narrators to ever be featured in a fanfiction. Her tendency to present her conspiracies as fact is both disorienting and highly amusing as well. But it is this nature of hers that the entire concept of the fic centers around. It is possible to get a glimpse of actual Equestrian history through her eyes, wading through the enormous fallacies and insane conspiracy theories she presents. But the fic mostly consists solely of Equestrian history as seen through her eyes, whether the reader wants to accept it as accurate or not.
168	* UnwittingPawn: The Mane Six, if you believe Loose Change. According to her, Celestia made a deal with Nightmare Moon to stage a confrontation, give them the Elements of Harmony (which were fakes, as Celestia reformed Luna with the ''real'', dark magic-powered elements). She then gave them the power of the real elements through doughnuts (apparently the only chance she had was at the end of ''The Best Night Ever'') and used MoreThanMindControl to set up [[ConflictBall friendship problems]] in order to prop up her lie about ThePowerOfFriendship.
169	* ViewersAreMorons: She certainly believes the readers are morons, and that it is her duty by writing this essay to "enlighten them". She also directly calls them stupid a couple of times in the essay too. But it's not that the readers are actually morons, but rather she thinks so [[{{Narcissist}} strongly about herself]] that compared to her [[BlatantLies genius intellect]] they simply can't compare.
170	* VillainousGlutton: Loose Change wastes no opportunity to portray Celestia as obsessed with cake, to the point where she accidentally created Chrysalis because she was just that desperate for pastry.
171	* WellIntentionedExtremist: According to Loose Change, Discord is an example of this, at least when compared to the [[BlatantLies "ultimate evil"]] of Celestia. Given she says this at the end of a chapter describing all the suffering that occurred during his Age of Chaos, this [[UnreliableNarrator makes her claim very questionable]], especially when Celestia's regime doesn't seem to do anything as obviously destructive as his.
172	* [[invoked]] WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic: It seems Loose Change needs to learn this, as she picks apart benign things and events for evidence. So far, she has analyzed: the wordchoice of select sources, what rocks can represent, cited a cereal box, and made [[spoiler: a far-fetched leap in logic to relate Celestia to Italian food, when a cooking book mentions "the elements of a good pizza"]]
173	* WildMassGuessing: Done in-universe. Loose Change often resorts to this when she has no explanation for certain events, or even uses it as evidence for her explanations themselves.
174

Context FanFic / EquestriaAHistoryRevealed