Line #65 Webcomic/TheShadowShard


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_shadow_shard__cover__by_emositecc_dc2m7gh_9.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Cover drawn by emositecc of deviantart.com]]
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5	'''[[https://www.deviantart.com/dsana/art/The-Shadow-Shard-Page-1-688636365 The Shadow Shard]]''' is a {{Fan Webcomic\|s}} drawn and written by [[http://dsana.deviantart.com dSana]] on Website/DeviantArt, based off ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
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7	The bond between Twilight and Spike cannot be broken.
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9	Not without help.
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11	When visiting the Crystal Empire, Spike is forced to rethink his place in Twilight’s life, while ponies struggle to deal with the awakened darkness that feeds on the worst fears.
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13	----
14	!!''The Shadow Shard'' provides examples of:
15	* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Twilight. [[spoiler:Even if she doesn't think herself a mother at first.]]
16	* AccentuateTheNegative: Inspired by [[Literature/TheSnowQueen The Snow Queen]], the umbrum shard in Spike's eye makes him see only twisted and bad memories.
17	* AlmostKiss: While speaking alone Starlight and Sunburst slowly lean in and nearly kiss until [[MomentKiller Spike interrupts them]]. [[spoiler:Subverted when their second attempt is successful.]]
18	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: When Starlight says how much it hurt her when Sunburst left for magic school and never wrote her, she shouts that she loved him and did all her evil acts afterwards because of him.
19	* AnotherDimension: Luna fights Sombra to protect the dreams in the dream dimension.
20	* ArcSymbol: Dripping water represents [[spoiler: Sombra eroding everyone's heart and mind with his magic]].
21	** "Drop by drop even the strongest heart will erode."
22	* ArtifactOfDoom: It is feared that Sombra's horn is one of these, which is why Twilight is asked to help destroy it. [[spoiler: It is, but not for the reasons they think.]]
23	* BatmanGambit: Sombra manipulates Spike into succumbing to greed and going after the Crystal Heart.
24	* BigBad: [[spoiler:King Sombra]]
25	* TheBigDamnKiss: [[spoiler:After Sunburst and Starlight [[LoveConfession confess their love for each other]], they embrace in another kiss before combining their magic against Sombra.]]
26	* BlackMagic: Umbrum, Sombra's magic fuelled by fear, hatred and despair.
27	* TheBully: Young Spike is bullied by Canterlot colts for being a dragon.
28	* BullyingADragon: What the Canterlot colts and indeed the upper crust ponies' behavior towards Spike can be seen as. Even as a baby, Spike is much stronger and more resilient than ponies twice his size, can absentmindedly shred solid rock with his claws, and breathes fire. It's only his gentle personality that keeps him from punishing his tormentors.
29	* TheCorruptor: [[spoiler:How Sombra is exerting his influence on Spike.]]
30	* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the TV show, the comic gets pretty dark at some points. The nightmares are pretty disturbing and the violence is much more intense, including [[spoiler:Spike scratching Twilight, which leaves a visible mark on her left cheek]].
31	* DeflectorShields: Just like [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E3AFlurryOfEmotions in the series]], Flurry Heart puts a bubble shield around herself when she's scared.
32	* DispelMagic: [[spoiler: Starlight removes her own cutie mark to prevent Sombra from casting spells while he stays in her body]]
33	* DreamWalker: Luna watches Twilight's real dream.
34	* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: Spike and to a lesser degree, Starlight
35	* EnvironmentalSymbolism: The cold blizzard that threatens the Empire.
36	* EvilMakeover: [[spoiler:Spike's eyes look decidedly more lizard-like and less gentle when Sombra is more actively affecting his mind.]]
37	** [[spoiler: When Sombra fully possesses Starlight's body, her cutie mark becomes overall darker and the purple star of her cutie mark becomes red.]]
38	* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Sombra's magic weakens the Crystal Heart, causing the blizzard to rage over the Empire.
39	* FantasticRacism: The Canterlot elite are very rude to Young Spike simply because he is a dragon. Their treatment gets worse after he [[spoiler:calls Twilight his mommy]].
40	* GoodColorsEvilColors: As with the show, the good ponies tend to be lighter, more gentle colors, while [[spoiler:Sombra and his magic]] have a decidedly sharper, darker color scheme. This becomes more obvious as [[spoiler: Spike is further infected by Sombra's power, his brighter colors darkening]].
41	* GrandTheftMe: Revealed to be Sombra's ultimate goal with infecting Spike with his darkness. [[spoiler: The plan is detailed when Spike's mind is so subsumed by beastial rage Sombra can't control it. Not that he doesn't use that to hurt Twilight Sparkle. And then he instead uses Starlight's love for Sunburst to do this to her instead.]]
42	* GreenEyedMonster: Starlight seems jealous of Sunburst and Twilight when Sunburst says they are writing a book together and talks about how much he has in common with her, until she finds out Twilight asked for his help simply because he lives close to the Crystal Empire's library.
43	* HostageSituation: A benign example with [[spoiler:Spike's egg]]. It seems the Princesses took it to ensure the peaceful behavior of the original guardian of the Crystal Heart. Whether or not this is the whole of the situation or just what [[spoiler:Sombra]] is showing remains to be seen.
44	* IWantMyMommy: [[spoiler: After Twilight suddenly vanishes from his MentalWorld, Spike tears up and calls after her "mommy"]]
45	* InterruptedDeclarationOfLove: Sunburst tells Starlight that he wrote her a letter when he went to school but didn't send it because he was embarrassed and knew she was mad at him. Starlight asks what was in it and Sunburst almost tells her he wrote that he loves her, but is [[MomentKiller interrupted]] by Twilight rushing in.
46	* KissOfDeath: [[spoiler:One of Starlight's nightmares is her visiting Sunburst while he sleeps and kissing him, then begins to slowly kill him with dark magic as he struggles, while saying he was right to be afraid of her. She wakes up before anything happens to Sunburst though.]]
47	* LoveConfession: [[spoiler:Sunburst finally confesses his love to Starlight before the final battle with Sombra.]]
48	* LoveMakesYouEvil: Starlight blames Sunburst abandoning for her decent into becoming a villain, shouting that she loved him and he never even wrote to her. Sunburst responds that that kind of attitude is why he never wrote, since she was always a bit unstable and dangerous.
49	** [[spoiler:Sombra eventually uses this to [[GrandTheftMe gain control of Starlight's body]], using his magic to trick her into believing Sunburst was telling her he was in love with ''Twilight''.]]
50	* MamaBear: Twilight [[spoiler:when Sombra tries to possess an awakening Spike.]]
51	* MentalWorld: Twilight teleports inside Spike's mind and finds it to be corrupted by [[BlackMagic Umbrum]]
52	* MomentKiller: Happens a bit to Starlight and Sunburst.
53	** Spike accidentally interrupts them when they are [[AlmostKiss leaning in for a kiss]].
54	** They end up doing it to themselves when [[spoiler:Starlight makes Sunburst tell her why he never wrote to her after he went to magic school ''immediately'' after finally sharing a passionate kiss with him and trying to get him to invite her to his room]].
55	** Sunburst encourages Starlight she can successfully cast a dangerous spell and apologizes for what he said the previous night by [[MotivationalKiss kissing her on her forehead]]. They slowly start [[AlmostKiss leaning in towards each other again]] and Sunburst [[InterruptedDeclarationOfLove almost tells her what he once wrote to her in a letter]], but they are once again interrupted when Twilight runs into the room screaming for Starlight.
56	* MotivationalKiss: [[spoiler:Sunburst kisses Starlight on the forehead when telling her he believes she can successfully cast a dangerous spell, and as an apology for her overhearing his doubts about her the previous night and how he argued with her.]]
57	* MysteriousParent: Dragoness who laid Spike's egg [[spoiler: whose heart was turned into the Crystal Heart]]
58	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Played with. Sombra's horn is already leaking dark magic into the Crystal Empire, hence why Twilight had been called to deal with it, so it had to be dealt with. Unfortunately Twilight's first attempt resulted in the horn breaking instead of being destroyed, with a piece lodging itself into Spike, starting the current problem.
59	** [[spoiler: Twilight telling Spike that she's breaking her promise to him and sending him away is what fully causes Spike to lose control of himself.]]
60	* NightmareSequence: Present throughout the comic due to [[spoiler:Sombra haunting everyone's dreams and manipulating their memories via the magic from his horn]].
61	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Starlight Glimmer wonders if her stint as a villain is why it seems Twilight is holding her at arm's length. [[spoiler: This may have something to do with the nightmares sent by Sombra.]]
62	* OrwellianRetcon: The comic was initially set in the same universe as the artist's previous webcomic, "Webcomic/LeftBehind," which depicted Starlight as having an [[AbusiveParents abusive father]]. After the season 8 episode "The Parent Map" aired, [[OutdatedByCanon showing that Starlight's father was NOT abusive]], however, the artist rewrote parts of this comic to remove references to "Left Behind." On the other hand, this is downplayed a bit, as none of the pages that were rewritten had been drawn and published yet before they were rewritten.
63	* PoorCommunicationKills: Twilight ignores Spike's first attempts at discussing his dreams and later it is Spike who refuses to talk to her.
64	* PhysicalScarsPsychologicalScars: Twilight [[spoiler:when Spike slashes her cheek in anger]].
65	* PurpleIsPowerful: Sombra's umbrum magic is purple.
66	* ShutUpKiss: [[spoiler:Starlight tells Sunburst to shut up before planting a deep kiss on him.]]
67	* SoulJar: With shades of LeakingCanOfEvil. Sombra's horn is his connection to Equestria, and the Crystal Empire specifically, and the conduit through which he's working his magic.
68	* {{Telepathy}}: Twilight casts Star Swirl's telepathy spell to access Spike's MentalWorld.
69	* TragicKeepsake: The Crystal Heart is this for its orignal guardian. [[spoiler: So is Spike's egg. They're both remnants of his mother.]]
70	* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:Spike becomes a literal one after Sombra's magic corrupts him.]]
71	* XanatosSpeedChess: Sombra adjusts his plans when he can't control Spike, and instead tries to corrupt Twilight - and finally [[spoiler: successfully gets hold of Starlight's body.]]

Context Webcomic / TheShadowShard