Dark Fic / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

For something devoted to a lighthearted colorful show, the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom (heck, the My Little Pony fandom in general) is filled with Dark Fics.

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• An Apple Sleep Experiment starts with Twilight giving Applejack a potion so that she can work more with less time needed to sleep. It works better than expected. Applejack finds that the potion won't wear off and that she can't fall asleep. She soon starts going insane and hallucinates that other ponies are Filthy Rich trying to steal her farm, leading to Applejack murdering several ponies (including possibly accidentally killing Apple Bloom). It ends with Twilight refusing to reveal her role in Applejack's outburst, with her reasoning being that others can't know what she's done because she's a princess. She instead lets Applejack take full blame and lets her rot in jail.
• Several Ask a Pony blogs depict a darker, often horrifying, alternate Equestria:
  • Ask Jappleack revolves around an offensive jerkass version of Applejack, and laid the groundwork for what would become the infamous PONY.MOV.
  • Ask Pinkamina Diane Pie has an even more psychotic Pinkamina than usual, with Scootaloo as her cheerful sidekick.
  • Discorded Whooves stars a dark and sarcastic version of Doctor Whooves.
  • Motherly Scootaloo is a Coming of Age Story where Scootaloo becomes pregnant at thirteen.
• Asylum (Daemon of Decay) is a fanfic where Twilight wakes up in an asylum with others telling her that her previous life was All Just a Dream. She doesn't believe them and believes that she is stuck in a dream world.
• Bittersweet deals with the aftermath of Pinkie Pie dying from complications of diabetes.
• Despite its cheery tone, Bubbles is a story about a filly being abused by her mother for simply having special needs. She's almost murdered twice by said mother at the end.
• Butterflies starts with Fluttershy inviting Pinkie Pie into her cellar where she keeps butterflies. It turns out that Fluttershy is a Serial Killer who feeds ponies to larvae. She even killed Pinkie's girlfriend Rainbow Dash. To make it worse, Fluttershy isn't feeding corpses to the larvae. She surgically implants them into living ponies and lets them get eaten from the inside out alive.
• Chaos Is Very Good is not only dark, but Mind Screw at its finest.
• Chemistry depicts a darker version of Cadance being the Goddess of Love. It's gotten to the point of sex addiction and an overly active libido. Cadance is especially attracted to someone she shouldn't be: her sister-in-law Twilight.
• Coping is an Equestria Girls fanfic where Sunset is addicted to over-the-counter medication.
• The notorious, infamous little number called Cupcakes, in which Pinkie Pie gleefully tortures and mutilates Rainbow Dash to death, all while retaining her Genki Girl spirit. Its popularity led to a swarm of copycat fics with a similar premise (albeit with different characters), such as Sweet Apple Massacre, Rainbow Factory, and Cheerilee's Garden.
  • The fan sequel The End of a Nightmare continues the story and explores the psychological damage everypony felt since Rainbow Dash's death a year earlier.
  • Party of None is based on the same plot (written with Cupcakes in mind) and has the same basic idea, but it isn't as violent (Pinkie Pie doesn't kill her here, and it has a better ending. In fact, with the exception of Rainbow being a little shaken up and her hair being ruined, it ends pretty much the same as it did canonically in "Party of One".).
  • Rocket To Insanity is a Recursive Fanfiction that treats Cupcakes as a recurring nightmare RD has, that eventually drives her to murder Pinkie in a fit of paranoia.
• In Dear Princess Celestia I Hate You, Twilight gets PMS and sends a letter to Princess Celestia, claiming she hates her and that Celestia abused Twilight as a filly (although that may not be true since Twilight was drunk at the time).
• From Doctor Whooves – The Series, "Along Came a Spider" has Zecora get a serious disease and be in danger of dying. She survives, but still.
• Perhaps the most notorious and extreme of these dark fics is the Fall of Equestria universe. In it, a nation of rapist, misanthropist caribou invade and conquer Equestria, turn every mare into a sex slave, and every stallion into a rapist. This universe is so widely hated that many fanfic writers have written counter-fics in which the ponies revolt and kill the caribou.
• Fallout: Equestria is immensely darker than the show it's based on. Featuring the aftermath of a magical apocalypse, mutated monstrosities, murder, rape, cannibalism, racism, attempted genocide, fates worse than death, its darkness is matched by its length as it is one of the longest fanfics in the Friendship is Magic fandom (eventually surpassed in both word count and darkness by a spin-offs like Project Horizons and Murky Number Seven) leading to it being also one of the most well known. A plethora of other spin-offs continue the darkness the original created.
• Friendship Is Tragic is a lovely look into a darker future of the mane cast.
• Friendship is Witchcraft is an Abridged Series-esque reimagining of the series where Twilight is a narcissistic Villain Protagonist, Fluttershy is a cult leader, Rarity is a Shell-Shocked Veteran, Applejack has been let off scot-free despite committing various war crimes, Pinkie Pie is a Stepford Smiler whose parents died when she was a filly, and Spike is a Butt-Monkey who just wants to be appreciated by the closest thing to a family that he has. It's all Played for Laughs, albeit dark laughs.
• The Friendship Test Starlight kidnaps the Mane 6 and forces them to take a series of “tests” that involve mutilation, poisoning, and other types of psychical torture.
• In Harbinger, Equestria is brought to its knees by a sudden Zombie Apocalypse, and the Mane Six (accompanied by a great many side characters) are forced to trek through their ruined nation in search of survivors and a safe haven. By the end, most of the pony race, including many major characters, is killed off, with just a few hundred survivors building a new civilization in the ruins of Fillydelphia. The story ends on a hopeful note, but boy, do they ever have to go through hell to get there.
• Heavenly Turmoil, where Celestia is psychologically tormented by Discord to the point of being driven batshit insane. Also manages to work in some pretty hefty Mind Screw, with later chapters making it increasingly hard to tell what's real and what's in her head.
• The Immortal Game involves Celestia and Luna's Eldritch Abomination parents showing up to conquer Equestria and leading to an extensive War Fic. Among other things, the story includes Rarity's father turning Twilight Sparkle into a Blood Knight Superpowered Evil Side by pushing an Artifact of Doom through her eye, said Superpowered Evil Side mind raping Rainbow Dash into her servant and trying to kill the other Mane Cast, Celestia being tortured by her own mother, Twilight becoming a Broken Ace and subsequently seeing Celestia as a Broken Pedestal and calling her out, and ponies dying all over the place.
• The Anon-a-Miss fic Last Light has Sunset being Driven to Suicide by the bullying she's received. She succeeds and the sequel involves Twilight and Celestia arriving to find out more about her death.
• A "the only cure is something terrible" story is The Love of a Baby Dragon. Twilight has a disease and the only cure is the soul of a dragon, so Spike gives up his soul, which kills him.
• Memories of Days Long Past has Twilight discovering, through magical means, that life before Celestia's rise to power was quite brutal.
• Millennium (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) regards the rise of a lovecraftian human, prepared to reduce the world to nothing.
• The Monster We Made is an exercise in minimalist horror. Each chapter with the exception of the last two is only 1000 words in length, but boy does it pack on the dark. The plot features the darker side of Twilight's transformation into an Alicorn, as she brutally slays each and every one of her friends. Each chapter makes you live the last moments of a different pony, so be prepared for some major Tear Jerker moments.
  • By the same author, Where Black Stars Rise puts Twilight Sparkle and Prince Blueblood in the path of Hastur the Unspeakable. What ensues is battles with evil cults, madness, and an exploration of Carcosa.
• The story My Little Slave has Fluttershy kidnapped and turned into a sex slave. Then it turns out to have been a rape-dungeon roleplay scenario, initiated by Fluttershy herself. Even with that knowledge, some of it is still more than a little squicky.
• The Nuptialverse:
  • The Queen Chrysalis-focused side story "Metamorphosis", which explains not only the changelings' origin but how Chrysalis had aided Discord in taking over Equestria and murdering the founders and other opposition (including Celestia and Luna's family), in gory detail.
  • Families is an odd example, as Darth Link 22 did not plan it as one, but so many readers found its themes of Scootabuse and anti-Celestia rebellion so at odds with both its prequel Post Nuptials (a post-"A Canterlot Wedding" character study and reconciliation fic) and the show itself that they basically forced him to add a Dark tag.
  • Subverted with the sequel Direction, to which Darth added a Dark tag at the beginning (angering readers again) before rethinking it, declaring that the story would not get that dark, and removing it.
• In Old-Fashioned Remedies, Apple Bloom gets a strange disease so Zecora is forced to rape her because that's the only cure.
• Pages Of Harmony can be noted for many of the same sort of reasons as The Secret Life of Rarity. Involving Twilight brutally murdering her friends to get their Elements, it is extremely disturbing and graphic, full of Mind Rape, Ax-Crazy Twilight (and Rainbow Dash as a result of said Mind Rape) and very detailed scientific procedures, and thus is NOT for you if you can't handle that. Note this one is considered an Old Shame for the author nowadays and has been stated to get a complete reboot at some point in the future.
• Paradise is an origin story for Celestia and Luna starting from their births. It's not overtly dark, but it has darker moments than in canon for added realism. For example, the sisters were born back when Earth ponies were little more than normal horses living in herds. They learned about death early on when one of their friends was killed by wolves.
• The Path of Absolution: Punishment starts with literally the entire cast bullying the CMC into suicide over the events of "Ponyville Confidential", and it only goes downhill from there. The fic has two endings, one an Earn Your Happy Ending, and the other a Downer Ending where the Mane Six perform a Senseless Sacrifice, leaving their friends and loved ones alone and traumatized. The sequel is even worse.
• The Pony POV Series is on the Earn Your Happy Ending side of things, and ultimately a lot of circumstances have improved from what they were at the beginning... but there is a long list of good reasons why this version of Discord is considered the most horrifying the fandom has ever produced. In a bit of irony, its revealed that the Shadows Who Make, Watch, and Rule's (otherwise known as the Writers, Readers, and Hasbro) collective dark side is personified in Nyarlathotrot, the Spirit of Horror, Tragedy, and Grimdark. As a result, Nyarlathotrot is basically a Mad Artist who views making worlds where Dark Fics take place as his duty and an art form. Thankfully, the other deities, especially Amicitia, keep him in check and step in to save his worlds.
• The Pony Psychology series features the cast struggling with mental breakdowns, UST and other issues after the Grand Galloping Gala.
• Prince Charming, in which Rarity gets so pissed at Prince Blueblood, that she decides to create her own boyfriend in her shop. Gosh, what could go wrong? The two-part sequel is even bleaker. It involves Pinkie Pie, murdered at the end of the first episode, coming back as a Revenant and mindbreaking the "mane" cast.
• Popped is what Cupcakes could've been if Sgt. Sprinkles hadn't written it as a joke. Popped is darker, edgier, and legitimately scary. Oh, and Pinkie is in the victim's chair in this one.
• The Secret Life of Rarity depicts Rarity as a Serial Killer dating back to a self-defence killing in her foalhood, though she's portrayed as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, as she clearly hates that she has so little control over herself, as well as the impact she ultimately has on her friends and family.
• In the fan video Smile HD, Pinkie Pie gets electrical superpowers and goes insane, killing Rarity and severely injuring Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Fluttershy then beats her up and Pinkie Pie gives Fluttershy a nosebleed, then the planet Equestria is on blows up.
• Solitary Locust is the story of Twilight seemingly turning herself into a changeling via use of changeling magic. It includes detailed descriptions of injuries - including Twilight's horn nearly being ripped off of her head when she is attacked by a mod - as well as thorough physiological issues with many characters.
• In Step Right In and Start Again Starlight Glimmer undergoes a Fate Worse than Death where she is stuck in a time-loop that can't be stopped. She has no memory of what occured in the previous loop, and the loop restarts daily. Eventually it gets to the point where she is the last remaining living thing in the blank, pitch dark universe however she doesn't know how she got there.
• The flash game Story of the Blanks is somewhat unusual among dark fics, as despite being significantly darker and more gruesome than the show, it sticks pretty close to its themes and tone.
• Sun Princess is a Death Fic about Winona from her POV.
• Today, Tomorrow, and Forever leans towards drab rather than true darkness. In it, Derpy's daughter is put in a foster home because she's considered an unfit mother due to her disabilities.
• Downplayed for Translations Gone Wrong: Some of the misheard lyrics are dark, but the series is usually comedic.
  • From "The Perfect Stallion": "Would you please die?"
  • From "Meme Seed" (Babs Seed): "Ellen has to die"
  • From "Can I Do it On My Own?": "Knock a girl out and sell."
• T.R.O.T.T.E.R. - Shadow of Cheernobyl, based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, takes the ambient horror and brutal violence of the games further.
• Twilight Revised is an alternate universe where Nightmare Moon wins the initial confrontation with the Elements of Harmony. She does it by using More than Mind Control and a side of brainwashing on Twilight Sparkle. Multiple characters are Killed Offscreen and the entire story is told from Twilight's very distorted perspective.
• Vampiolence is a darker take on the "Vinyl Scratch is a vampire" fanfics, where Vinyl finds herself and Octavia in danger when her vampire father comes back to her life.
• When the Bough Breaks deals with a topic fiction usually overlooks: it is about Cadance having a miscarriage. Cadance and her husband Shining spend the fic grieving.
• In The Writing on the Wall, Adventurer Archaeologist Daring Do explores a seemingly cursed Ancient Tomb. It's actually a forgotten storage facility for radioactive waste.

• Occasionally, there is an alleged "Literal Music Video" of a song that is really more "mostly literal but with a few crazy interpretations" music video, and some of these crazy interpretations can be pretty dark.
  • In the one for Celestia's Ballad, Celestia claims that Twilight died and went to purgatory.
  • In the one for This Day Aria, Cadence is apparently depressed rather than plain sad.
  • In the one for Becoming Popular, the scene where Rarity is looking at a surrealist painting of flat ponies is interpreted as her wondering why they're flattened and agreeing to cremate them. There's also the lyric "I use Jedi powers to control your thoughts" and it ends with Rarity being too sad to work on the gown.
  • In the one for The Smile Song, Pinkie Pie calls two foals losers and her ride she gives them is interpreted as a dangerous kidnapping, Pinkie Pie's father is an evil scientist, and the background ponies feel unimportant.
  • In the one for Babs Seed, the "soda guy" is in pain and Babs is described as "psycho".
  • In the one for Winter Wrap Up, Pinkie Pie is on meds and has "mental scars", Applejack is sad, Twilight thinks she will stand in place forever and asks to be brought food, Rainbow Dash claims to be "mind-controlling" the birds, and Rarity describes the food they're giving the forest creatures as their "only" food and tells them not to kill the mouse with dust.

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