Fanfic / Adopted Displaced

Adopted Displaced, also known as the My Little PWNY-verse, is a crossover fanfic series by Tatsurou, combining My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic with a variety of different series. The central concept is that My Little Pony characters have somehow been reduced to infancy (with few memories of their past lives) and transported to an alternate universe, where they are raised by one or more of that world's natives, with their presence leading to significant changes in how certain events play out. Eventually, they return to their native version of Equestria, usually with their adoptive families in tow and sporting highly unusual abilities. With only a few exceptions^{Spoiler alert} Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody come from the same Equestria and arrived in different time periods of the same alternate world, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were sent from their Equestria to their other world as a group, the titular "Adopted Displaced" all come from different Equestrias.

Active or completed installments

The series currently consists of twenty-five stories based around twenty-five characters^note By the time it's done, the main timeline — not including "phase 2" works — will feature approximately 35 stories based around up to 33 characters, and those numbers may increase depending on what Tatsurou decides.:

• Note: The following list is in order by publication^note with the exception of three fics that are each direct sequels to a previous fic.

• Fortresshy: The Nine Fathers — Fluttershy is raised by the protagonists of Team Fortress 2. ^Complete Published May 29, 2014; completed August 28, 2014.
  • Fortresshy 1.5: For(t) Pony — A direct sequel to Fortressshy: The Nine Fathers, following Fluttershy in Equestria. ^Complete Published April 15, 2015; completed May 3, 2015.
• The Sparkle in his Eye — Twilight Sparkle is raised by Ratchet of the Ratchet & Clank series. ^Complete Published August 31, 2014; completed March 10, 2016.
• On the Corner of Straight and Narrow — Trixie Lulamoon is raised by the title characters of the Sam & Max series (with Max as father and Sam as uncle). ^Complete Published October 10, 2014; completed June 18, 2015.
• You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter — Pinkie Pie is raised by Kratos of the God of War series. ^Complete Published October 12, 2014; completed April 30, 2015.
• Dante's Little Apple Surprise — Applejack is raised by Dante of the Devil May Cry series. ^Complete Published October 13, 2014; completed August 6, 2015.
• Batmare Beyond — Rarity is raised by Bruce Wayne/Batman (retired) of the DC Animated Universe. ^Complete Published October 15, 2014; completed April 29, 2015.
• The Technological Technicolor Technomare — Rainbow Dash is raised by Tony Stark/Iron Man of the Marvel Universe. ^Note Mostly based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with parts from other versions as well.^Complete Published October 16, 2014; completed April 11, 2015.
• Another Hatchling — Spike is raised by Samus Aran of the Metroid series. ^Complete Published May 2, 2015; completed September 8, 2016.
• The Merc With the Moth — Queen Chrysalis is raised by Deadpool of the Marvel Universe. ^Complete Published May 3, 2015; completed August 27, 2015.
• There's Nopony I'd Rather Be Than Me — Nightmare Moon is raised by the title character of Wreck-It Ralph. ^Complete Published May 6, 2015; completed September 10, 2015.
• Wily's Wittle Wub — Vinyl Scratch is raised by Dr. Albert Wily of the Mega Man (Classic) series. ^Complete Published August 10, 2015; completed November 2, 2016.
  • Melody of the Future — Octavia Melody is raised by the title character of the Mega Man X series. ^Complete Published August 11, 2015; completed May 30, 2017.
  • Denouement Duet — epilogue for the Megaverse trilogy, depicting Vinyl and Octavia's respective returns to Equestria.^Complete  Published June 2, 2017; completed June 9, 2017.
• Heart of the Dragon General — Princess Cadance is raised by General Iroh of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. ^Complete Published August 31, 2015; completed April 7, 2016.
• Sons of Damas — Shining Armor is raised as the brother of Jak from the Jak and Daxter series. ^Complete Published September 14, 2015; completed December 29, 2016.
• Three More Things! — The Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo) are raised by Uncle Chan from Jackie Chan Adventures. ^{In progress}  Published April 11, 2016.
• Dressed to Steal — Coco Pommel is raised by Sly Cooper of the Sly Cooper series. ^Complete Published August 20, 2016; completed May 21, 2018.
• Order and Chaos — Discord is raised by Sheogorath/Jyggalag of the The Elder Scrolls series. ^Complete  Published November 6, 2016; completed March 8, 2017.
• My Little Killing Machine — Gilda the Griffon is raised by GLaDOS of the Portal series. ^Complete  Published January 2, 2017; completed March 20, 2017.
• Mother X: Father — Moondancer is raised by Giegue of the Mother series^Note Series canon consists of three games: MOTHER/Earthbound Beginnings, MOTHER 2/Earthbound and MOTHER 3; a fan game, MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance is set between games 1 and 2. This fic will be set after MOTHER/Earthbound Beginnings and cover both MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance and MOTHER 2/Earthbound..^{In progress}  Published March 14, 2017.
• My Own Wings — Sunset Shimmer is raised by Team Star Fox of the Star Fox series.^Note The exact continuity has yet to be identified, but Star Fox Adventures will be part of it.^{In progress}  Published June 13, 2017.
• The Rock in the Gulch — Maud Pie is raised by Leonard L. Church of Blue Team in the Red vs. Blue series.^{In progress} Published August 16, 2017.
• Three Kittens, Two Unicorns, and a BANANA! — Tempest Shadow is raised by Gru, his adopted daughters and the Minions from the Despicable Me film series.^{In progress} Published May 28, 2018.
• Dragon Ball Zeeyup! — Big Macintosh is raised alongside Gohan in the Dragon Ball Z Abridged series.^{In progress} Published September 11, 2018.

Planned works — main series

The author has revealed the following future stories as a part of his canon storyline (to be started once he finishes some of the current fics; information subject to change) in his blog, on DeviantArt or in author's notes in-fic:

• Apple Far From the Tree — a side-story to Dante's Little Apple Surprise that depicts Applejack's years attending Death Weapon Meister Academy, Youkai Academy and Kuoh Academy.
• Celestia's Log — Princess Celestia is raised by Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Shadows and Light^Note Or possibly Between Darkness and Light — King Sombra is raised by Cecil and Rosa of Final Fantasy IV.
• The Little Angel — Derpy Hooves is raised by Kei and Yuri of the Dirty Pair Flash OVA series^Note which is itself a remake of the original anime.
• DRGN — Dragon Lord/Princess Ember is raised by Team RWBY (primarily Weiss and Blake) in the RWBY series.
• Starlight Falls — Starlight Glimmer is raised by Stan Pines in the Gravity Falls series. As of its announcement, it will be a standalone story in the style of the PWNY-verse, but depending on reader reception, it may or may not be incorporated into the main PWNY-verse.
• On Wings of Fire — Spitfire is raised by Pit and Palutena from the Kid Icarus series.
• Diamond Deceiver Tiara — Diamond Tiara is raised by Morrigan Aenselade in Darkstalkers (with a good canon relevant explanation for how DT ends up with 'succubus' powers). It was announced as a possible project on May 1, 2018.
• Silver in the Screen (working title) — Silver Spoon is raised by Kirito and Asuna in Sword Art Online Abridged. It was announced as a possible project on May 1, 2018.
• My Little PWNY — the grand finale, in which all of the Adopted Displaced are brought to a single universe to team up against a single, powerful enemy who has been identified as a powered-up Tirek.

Planned works — Phase Two

The author has revealed the following future stories in his blog or within his other stories. Due to divergent timelines, they will ignore (and be ignored by) the events of My Little PWNY, and be released after that story's completion (Apple Far From the Tree is also slated to be released during this time period):

• Fortresshy 2 — set after the events of Fortresshy 1.5.
• Power Pony Harmony Rangers — set after the events of The Sparkle in his Eye and focused on Sunset Shimmer and other characters from the human side of the Crystal Mirror.
• PWNYverse: The Cutting Room Floor — an anthology including all the ideas and snippets Tatsurou had for stories that, for whatever reason, he never used.

The series has inspired spin-offs by other authors, but those stories are not considered canon and are thus not covered on this page. They are, however, included in the "Inspiration Manifested" folder of the Tatsurou's PWNY-verse group on FIMFiction.

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This fanfic series contains examples of:

General

• Alternate Timeline: The climax of Order and Chaos reveals that all of the other fics are set in splinter timelines created by Discord, the Daedric Prince of Madness and overall Daedric King, in order to counter an enemy of his own, unwitting creation.
• Amnesiac Hero: While with their new families, the Equestrian protagonists don't usually remember much, if anything, of their lives in Equestria. The old memories tend to come back when, or shortly before, they themselves return to Equestria. Subverted with Tempest Shadow though, who is shown to fully retain her Equestrian memories.
• Badass Adorable: Every Equestrian character quickly becomes this trope.
• Big Bad: A powered-up Tirek turns out to be the ultimate villain of the setting, and all the other timelines were created as a means to give the heroes the power they'd need to counter him.
• Cosplay: Most of the stories have a chapter set at Halloween. Most characters go as someone from already existing media.
• Crossover: The whole point.
  • Besides the obvious, though, there are additional crossovers between various other series besides the ones listed. As an example, Dressed To Steal doesn't just cross over with Sly Cooper, but also includes the canon of DuckTales, Darkwing Duck and SWAT Kats.
• Cuteness Proximity: Happens with every Equestrian character as a baby to varying degrees.
• Daddy's Girl: All the female Equestrian characters who are raised by a male get fiercely attached to their father figures and can get very possessive. Granted, they can also turn into Shippers On Deck for the relationships they want their dads to have, since the best way to make Daddy happy is obviously to find him the right Mommy as far as they're concerned.
• Death by Adaptation: Tirek gets killed off in five stories. The protagonists responsible: Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity's Nightmare side and Shining Armor.
• Door Stopper:
  • As of this post (dated April 24, 2016), there are more than 1.2 million words across all of these fics, surpassing the combined length of the core 7 Harry Potter books (1,084,170 words). The series later crossed the 2 million word mark on May 19, 2017. (As of June 9, 2017, there are eighteen complete stories with a total of 1,731,695 words between them, and three incomplete stories with 297,581 words between them, for a total of 2,033,395 words across the entire series.)
  • The Sparkle In his Eye alone also qualifies, being the (as of its completion) longest single story in the series, with 323,143 words total (for a comparison, that's just over 66,000 words longer than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).
  • The complete Megaverse trilogy (Wily's Wittle Wub, Melody of the Future and Denouement Duet) is even longer, at 377,451 words total.
  • Three More Things hit 150 chapters and surpassed 200,000 words on September 28, 2017, making it officially the second longest single story in the series at the time. And it's still in season 2 of 5.
• Happily Adopted: Every single one of the Equestrian protagonists finds a new, loving family in the world they've been taken to.
  • In some universes, the Equestrian protagonist of the story induces adoption of other characters into their new family such as Octavia and Axl (mother/son), Coco and Guila (mother/daughter) and Twilight and assorted (it's...complicated).
• Heel–Face Turn: Quite a few villains, though by no means all. On the Equestrian side, King Sombra gets it in Heart of the Dragon General, Sons of Damas and There's Nopony I'd Rather Be Than Me.
• Honorary Uncle: Several of the Equestrians have them as part of their new families.
• Mama Bear / Papa Wolf: All of the parents, both male and female, are very protective of their new children. Attempt to harm them at your own peril. (Even if said kids are fully capable of kicking bad guy butt on their own.) Uncle Chan even namedrops the "Papa Wolf" trope at one point.
• Novelization: The video game-based stories tend to bear a close resemblance to these, albeit with Equestrian characters added. The Equestrians, however, have a strong impact on how these stories play out thanks to their abilities.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Used by pretty much all of the young Equestrians. It's extremely effective.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The protagonists are absolutely adorable at their youngest.
• Secret Other Family: The majority of the Equestrian protagonists have their original Equestrian parents and their new, adoptive parents, with the former as their secret other family, though they don't remember said birth family for most of their lives until around the time of the reunion. Fortunately, when the new families meet the old, it tends to work out (though not without some awkwardness at first).
• Spared by the Adaptation: Quite a few of the series have this. See their own entries for details.
• Tangled Family Tree: Once My Little PWNY begins, this happens.
  • Firstly, due to his relationship with Maud, Church is technically related to Kratos and the entire Greek pantheon.
  • Then the Apple Clan itself, with the Sparda bloodline, the Chan bloodline and the Son bloodline being connected.
  • The Chan bloodline also is connected to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, meaning that Batman and Iron Man are related by Rarity and Rainbow Dash as well.
  • Rainbow Dash is also the Daedric Prince of Destruction due to killing Mehrunes Dagon, meaning Discord and the other Daedric Princes are related to her.
  • Pinkie might be related to the Apple Clan, combining the two twisted family trees.
  • Pinkie's romantic relationship with Sanguine (which originated in Order and Chaos, and will stick in the fused timeline of My Little PWNY according to Tatsurou) makes her an in-law to Discord and by extension to the other Daedric Princes. Including Rainbow Dash and, through her, Rarity and Applejack's respective extended families.
  • To make this even more complicated, Rarity is implied to end up in a relationship with Spike in a few stories, meaning that Samus Aran is guaranteed to be in the fold, as well as Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadance, bringing Ratchet's family tree, Jak's family tree and the Fire Nation's nobility into the fold.
  • And to make things even more difficult to figure out, no one knows what other connections will form during and after My Little PWNY, potentially leaving room for further tangling and confusion for all.
• Took a Level in Badass: While none of the characters were weak in their native Equestrias, they grow even more skilled and powerful as a result of their time with their new families. Coco Pommel from Dressed to Steal is one example, going from the Shrinking Violet fashion designer she is was in the show to a very skilled thief that has taken on some villains by herself and is still a rather skilled fashion designer to boot.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: People usually aren't too surprised by the appearance of a talking, colorful pony (or dragon, griffon, changeling, whatever). Sometimes justified with disguising magic (the CMC have a chi spell that directly enforces this), and sometimes because the setting contains plenty of other oddities that they don't stand out too much.

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The Trained Six fics (listed alphabetically) contain examples of:

Batmare Beyond (Rarity)

• Best Out of Infinity: The epilogue sees Bruce and Luna playing chess. They have 64 stalemates by chapter's end.
• Clark Kenting: Rarity realizes she runs the risk of being identified as the new "Batman" if she lets herself be seen, as she's the only known unicorn on Earth, and plans to avert this using magical illusions. However, when she does get photographed in costume and printed in the newspaper, no one makes the connection despite Rarity being in another photo (from a Wayne funded charity auction) on the same page, in more or less the same pose and with the same facial expression. This leads her to declare that, "The entire population of Earth are morons!"
  • Bruce gives a surprisingly sound explanation for why this is possible, quoted below (part of the omitted portion of the text referencing the Trope Namer).
  "Magic...several ancient cultures had beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies surrounding masks. The idea of the use of the masks was that, in donning it, you became the entity the mask represented, leaving your normal identity behind. My own experience has since revealed that those ancient cultures had a great deal of powerful magic at their disposal. It could very well be that there's some sort of magic behind that concept of masks suppressing your true self, bound in the very weft of Earth's magical field...one that protects those who don masks — metaphorical or otherwise — to protect people."
• Sex Slave: Besides having her be her "does-anything-I-tell-her" pony, Suri used Coco as this. Rarity is so disgusted she sics Nightmare on Suri.

Dante's Little Apple Surprise (Applejack)

• Butt-Monkey: Credo, a little. When he tries a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, he's none too happy to find the rest of the gang already used that one.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Dante and Vergil spend time fighting and arguing instead of paying attention to Griffon. This makes him quite unhappy... before he finds out they're the sons of Sparda.
• Demon of Human Origin: Or Equine Origin in this case. Apparently, Geryon the Hellish Horse is actually Applejack's birth father given a new demonic identity.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Tirek identifying himself as being from Tartarus, and therefore a demon, makes him have one of these once Applejack decides to just kill him and reveals she's of Sparda's blood in the process.
• Familiar: Applejack manages to acquire one: a Thunderbird she dubs Griffon.
• Happily Married: Dante and Lady. Later, Vergil and Trish. And Nero and Kyrie.
• Honorary Uncle: Dante's brother Vergil, to Applejack.
• Interspecies Romance: Subverted. Applejack takes a humanoid form to go to high school, but the actual humanoid boy she grows a crush on refuses to date a pony when he finds out she is one. She replies by... blowing up the school.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Applejack delivers a rather scathing one to Agnus. In the theatrical fashion the cutscene before his fight is associated with!
• Shipper on Deck: Agni and Rudra to Dante and Lady, surprisingly.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Vergil would be this, if Devil May Cry 5 didn't reveal that he was alive all along.

Fortresshy: The Nine Fathers/Fortresshy 1.5: For(t) Pony (Fluttershy)

• Affectionate Nickname: Fluttershy comes up with one for every member of the RED team so she can easily call for one or another: Big Daddy (Heavy), Boom Daddy (Demoman), Bang Daddy (Sniper), Poof Daddy (Spy), Dadenji (Engineer), Daddiem (Medic), Daddy Sir (Soldier), Big Brother (Scout), Mama (Pyro).
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: At one point, the following threat is made, via letter:
  Saxton Hale: Disobey me in this, and I will hunt you down, break every bone in your body, feed you to the reanimated corpse of my pet yeti, and kill you until you stay dead. And then you'll be fired.
• Blood Knight: Given the setting, and the ubiquity of the respawn, Fluttershy has absolutely no problems with killing any opponent in any way, no matter how gristly. In the finale of TNF, she slaughters her pony friends over and over again, thinking it's all in good fun. The princesses later modify her memories of it so she won't be traumatized by the realization of what she's done.
• Brought Down to Normal: Discord outside of Equestria, sort of. He can't use his chaos magic for fear of damaging reality too severely but can use it internally to heal himself.
• Chekhov's Gun: In BLUtiful Disaster part 1, Miss Pauling says of the suitcase with the cake in it, "You could beat someone to death with that suitcase and the contents wouldn't shift so much as a nanometer." Next chapter, it's Fluttershy's first go-to weapon against BLU Spy, and she nearly beats him to death with it. As promised, the cake turns out to be completely intact when the case is opened.
• Crossover: Gets minor ones with Super Mario Bros., Discworld, and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
• Disaster Dominoes: In the BLUtiful Disaster arc, Fluttershy manages to wipe out the entire BLU team in this way.
  • First she beheads the Demoman with his own sword...
  • ...which trips the trigger of his sticky bomb launcher...
  • ...which fires bombs randomly, blowing up the Pyro, Soldier, and Medic...
  • ...and then she hits the trigger of the Soldier's rocket launcher, taking out the Sniper...
  • ...whose rifle falls so she can step on its trigger, scoring a headshot on the Heavy...
  • ...whose body knocks over the Engineer's sentry gun so that it kills him...
  • ...after which she chops off the Scout's arm holding his scattergun and kills him with it...
  • ...and finally the sword goes flying and impales the Spy through the chest.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Fluttershy uses one (borrowed from Demoman) to dispatch the BLU Spy as her very first kill in the BLUtiful Disaster arc. He lets her keep it, and she starts using it as one of her melee weapons.
• Head Desk: Should anyone accidentally reference Fluttershy's home series, Engineer invokes this trope. Happens with other meta references as well.
• Hidden Depths: Pyro is an excellent cook, Spy displays a considerable degree of sewing talent, and Sniper likes to watch birds and sketch while up in the lookout tower.
• Master of All: Fluttershy has mastered all nine classes and has a flawless kill record.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Narrowly averted in "Explosive Intervention". While an extremely drunk Demoman is mixing up some explosives, Fluttershy knocks over a barrel and gets doused in the contents. He freaks out, unable to remember what was in that barrel or how to neutralize it, but a comment from Engineer leads him to realize that it was just a batch of scrumpy he'd been brewing. The incident shocks him into cutting back sharply on his drinking.
• Shout-Out:
  • When BLU Spy first arrives, Fluttershy starts beating him up and ultimately kills him, though not permanently while crying "Not the Mama!"
  • When Fluttershy starts her combat training, Spy gives her a pin shaped like a stinging butterfly, telling her, "You will float like a butterfly...but sting like a bee!"
• Stay in the Kitchen: Jokingly referenced after Fluttershy starts referring to Pyro as "Mama".
• The Swear Jar: The team sets one up in an attempt to keep the bad language under control when Fluttershy is around. Even so, it tends to fill up quickly.
• Take a Third Option: At the end of The Nine Fathers, Celestia and the rest of the Mane Six find themselves in a no-win situation: either leave Fluttershy with the team and risk having Equestria's magic collapse, or almost certainly get killed in a battle to take her home. Luna breaks the deadlock by buying the team out of their Mann Co contracts and hiring them to work for her in Equestria.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Most of the team is much nicer after a few years of raising Fluttershy.
• Visual Pun: At one point, Demoman has prepared mistletoe. It's a literal missile with a human toe attached.

The Sparkle in his Eye (Twilight Sparkle)

• Adaptational Badass: The Galactic Rangers in Up Your Arsenal become these upon the request of Ratchet, Clank, and Twilight, who decide to improve their equipment and training while en route to Tyhrranosis. As a result, the Rangers are able to mow down Nefarious' troops with little effort.
  • Also, the original RYNO, which Twilight upgrades to be able to carry a total of 200 rounds of ammunition, in turn drastically reducing the price for buying said ammo from Gadgetron.
    • Its successor, the RYNO IV, gets the same treatment when Twilight gives it an ammo regenerator that recharges the device using ambient energy.
    • While Aphelion was already a very capable starfighter, 117,000 Zoni give her extensive upgrades that make her even more dangerous than she was before.
• Adaptational Expansion: The reason that Angela doesn't have a tail is that she deliberately cut it off so she could hide from Tachyon. Also, as it turns out, her mother actually knew Ratchet's own mother, Vashiir Gyro.
  • Aphelion, who was originally just an abandoned Lombax fighter, is now revealed to have been once the ship flown by Ratchet's father Kaden. She is also revealed to be an experimental fighter, developed as part of Project Angel Seed, which gave her not only artificial intelligence, but also an artificial soul. This, in turn, allows her to think and react like an organic pilot at the processing speeds of a computer.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Ratchet's four female love partners are just as much into one another as they are to him. Twilight turns out to also like both genders — she's dating Nefarious, and in the final arc expresses attraction to Sunset Shimmer as well. Celestia's reaction to this is priceless. Not a one of these characters were shown to be bi in the source material.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Twilight is the creator of the most powerful and dangerous weapons in the universe, the RYNOs.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Twilight manages to understand how Nefarious's Unwilling Roboticization weapon works after seeing the effects once, causing everyone there to have a Jaw Drop.
• Born-Again Immortality: Philomena's child with Celestia has this ability, burning up and being reincarnated as a new foal without any memories of their past life, with an added factor that they can change pony type and/or gender every time it happens. In their current life, the child is Sunset Shimmer.
• Bring My Brown Pants: A common reaction to Twilight's more destructive moments.
• Call-Forward: After having trouble with the RY3NO and its final form, the Rynocerator, during the "Arsenal" arc, Twilight then uses it as the basis for the next iteration of the line, the RYNO IV. However, after finding it to be much more powerful than she'd anticipated upon testing it during Nefarious' invasion of Kerwan, Twilight decides to dismantle it and scatter the pieces of the plans throughout another galaxy.
• The Clan: Twilight has a big adoptive family. It starts with just Ratchet as her father, but by the end of the Future Trilogy, she has four mothers (Clank, Angela Cross, Sasha Phyronix and Talwyn Apogee — the latter three of whom are in a romantic relationship with Ratchet and one another), her "aunt" Aphelion (a spaceship built by Ratchet's father), three grandparents (Ratchet's parents Kaden and Vashiir, and Clank's creator/father Orvus), an honorary grand-uncle (Alister Azimuth, who was Kaden's best friend and as good as a brother to him) and her adoptive brother Qwark. By the end of Into the Nexus, she's added Vendra Prog and Vendra's brother Neftin, who become Nefarious' adoptive children and, in Vendra's case, one of Ratchet's love partners. And by the end of the whole story, she's added Starlight Glimmer (daughter), Sunburst (son-in-law), and their foal Sunstar (grandson).
• Cool Starship: Aphelion, who, after the Zoni repair her, gets some serious upgrades. In addition to improved weaponry and systems, she also has the space inside her fuselage warped so that she can contain a variety of other features, including a swimming pool, a sushi bar, and even an obstacle course. The upgrade even gives her the ability to transform into a robot and the power to manipulate quantum energy.
• Disney Death: Cronk and Zephyr during the "Nexus" arc. As a result of Captain Darkwater's curse and Twilight's status as a Space Pirate captain, they become Pirate Zombie Robots.
• Embarrassing First Name: Nefarious' turns out to be Mervin, which is why he goes by his surname.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the section pertaining to All 4 One, Nefarious not only knows of "The Evil Overlord's list" and follows it to a tee, he helps out in Susie's village when villagers were cooking a toxic creature. He uses immobile versions of Twilight's "SPARKLER Environmental Clean-Up Mechs" to keep his bases clean and reclaim resources from toxins. Even the Fongoids of Zanifar were treated respectfully, even though they were imprisoned. As he said himself, "There's a difference between evil and heartless."
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Qwark prefers to go by "Captain" or his surname, due to having both an Embarrassing First Name and Embarrassing Middle Name — his full name is Copernicus Leslie Qwark. When he reveals this, he adds "Now you know why I prefer to go by 'Captain'."
  • Twilight later gives him a nickname that he also happily responds to — B.B.B.F.F., or "Big Brother Best Friend Forever".
• Eviler than Thou: The Cragmites were so terrified by the Loki that their genocidal actions were provoked by a desire to make sure that there were no lifeforms that the Loki could use as hosts.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Twilight inherits Ratchet's knack for inventing things from an early age, and ultimately goes on to create some of the universe's most dangerous weapons, including the RYNO guns and the Zurkon the Bearded robots, among other things.
• Gender Bender: Celestia's pet phoenix Philomena temporarily turned into a male pony and slept with her after Nightmare Moon's banishment. Their child has a chance of changing gender every time they die and reincarnate via a burning day.
• Hammerspace: Aphelion's Zoni upgrades gives her one that is contained within her fuselage, allowing her to become much more spacious on the inside than out and contain a crazy assortment of features that she didn't have before.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Unusually for this trope, Clank delivers such a threat to Nefarious the first time he's impressed enough by Twilight to consider eventually romancing her.
  Clank: "Harm one hair or circuit on her, and I will kill you...even if I have to make you choke to death on my last functioning servo to do so."
  • Years later, when Nefarious has actually told Twilight he's interested and she's willing to give it a try, Clank reminds Nefarious of that threat, and tells him to consider it back in play if he breaks her heart, then adds an extra level. Nefarious, who still has nightmares about that original threat, actually whimpers after Clank finishes his new one:
  Clank: "Oh, and that's after she's done whatever she's chosen to do with you to vent her own despair, and utilizing my own time powers and the Great Clock to maximize the amount of time I'm able to make you suffer before your very essence degrades from excessive quantum strain."
  • Shining Armor also tries it, until Nefarious tells him about the threat Clank gave. Shining Armor decides he can't top that.
• Interspecies Romance: Ratchet with four of his five partners (Angela is the only exception, being a Lombax like Ratchet); Twilight and Nefarious; Celestia and her phoenix Philomena, which resulted in the birth of a pony/phoenix hybrid who's been effectively reincarnating every burning day. Their child's current incarnation is Sunset Shimmer.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Celestia's reaction to finding out about all the crazy things that Twilight has done prior to her return to Equestria is to buy all the cider on Applejack's farm, from which she gets flat-out wasted in some subsequent chapters.
• I Want Grandkids: When she meets Nefarious and learns of his relationship with her daughter, Twilight Velvet has just one word for him: "Grandfoals". And she makes it clear this isn't a request.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The "4-Gotten" (All 4 One) arc, which features Azimuth and Twilight taking the place of Ratchet and Clank in the game's story as they navigate the planet of Magnus together with Qwark and Dr. Nefarious.
• Overly Long Name: Qwark, who adds two surnames to his original over the course of the story. After being formally adopted into the family, he becomes "Copernicus Leslie Qwark Sparkle" (with "Sparkle" also becoming the surname for both Ratchet and Clank), and after learning Ratchet's original family name, extends it to "Copernicus Leslie Qwark Sparkle Gyro".
• Pass the Popcorn: Nefarious makes a batch in preparation for watching the others have their final battle with Tirek.
  • Also Zephyr in "Tools" when Twilight and Talwyn start arguing about who's copying who.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Sunset Shimmer is the latest incarnation of the child of Celestia and her phoenix Philomena.
  • Rainbow Dash is Daring Do/A.K. Yearling's long-lost daughter.
  • Pinkie Pie is the daughter of the Plumber.
  • Aphelion is the "daughter" of Kaden, who not only owned the ship, but also was the head engineer of Project Angel Seed, the project that led to her creation.
• Resurrective Immortality: Phoenixes in Equestria, such as Celestia's companion Philomena, can undergo a "burning day" in which they die and are revived with full health. Philomena's half-pony child, conceived with Celestia, has Born-Again Immortality instead. In its current life, that child is Sunset Shimmer.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Clank once jokingly suggested that Twilight more or less give the RYNO Bottomless Magazines by allowing it to absorb ambient energy, only for Twilight to not only take it seriously but have a clear idea on how it could work. Clank is a bit unnerved.
  • Also a Brick Joke when Twilight reveals she's made an ammo regenerator for the RYNO IV during the "Tools" arc.
• Sex for Solace: Celestia eventually reveals that after she had to use the Elements against Nightmare Moon, a close female friend of hers turned themselves into a stallion to comfort her, resulting in Celestia becoming pregnant. The friend was her pet phoenix Philomena, and their child eventually — several lives later via Born-Again Immortality — became Sunset Shimmer.
• Shout-Out:
  • Twilight and Dr. Nefarious are both fans of One Piece. Nefarious in particular is a fan of the character Whitebeard.
  • Chapter 206 has Twilight using one of Goku's lines in the Frieza saga of Dragon Ball Z Abridged:
    Twilight: "Don't talk to her that way...Sunset Shimmer!"
    Sunset: "And if I don't?"
    Twilight: "Then I'm a deck you in the schnoz!"
  • Chapter 213 contains one to the fic Biomom, with both revealing that Rainbow Dash is Daring Do/A.K. Yearling's long-lost daughter.
  • 222 has Pinkie, Spike and Nefarious paraphrasing the opening to the cartoon version of The Magic School Bus.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Twilight, Ratchet, and Clank confront Drek on Veldin, Twilight interrupts Drek's Evil Gloating with an angry rant that involves tearing into his planet-building scheme, and by the end of it she gets so angry she unleashes a spell that turns Drek into a chicken.
• Sneeze Cut: When Qwark wins the election that makes him the President of the Solana, Bogon, and Polaris Galaxies with Twilight as his running mate, he promises that he'll always consult her before making any major decisions in office. Cut to former Qwark fanboy Stuart Zurgo shuddering before posting on a villain forum that he gets the feeling that his plan to destroy Qwark was foiled by "a tiny pony that didn't even know you were trying to be villainous."
• Spared by the Adaptation: Ace Hardlight, who escaped the self-destructing DreadZone space station by switching himself out with a Hard Light copy of himself after killing Gleeman Vox.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • When Qwark realizes that Darkstar, the Nightmare form of Twilight, is linked to Twilight and that the latter takes any damage inflicted on the former, he dashes in front of Ratchet before he can unload a RYNO II salvo into it and fully deplete her armor.
  • Nefarious does this to save Twilight from being possessed by the Loki, only to be saved by Qwark.
• Tangled Family Tree: One of Twilight's "mothers" is also the adoptive daughter of Twilight's boyfriend, making her Twilight's future stepdaughter.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: During the final confrontation of the first arc, Twilight angrily calls out Drek before accidentally firing a spell that turns him into a chicken.

  Twilight: "Shut up! Because of you, I've spent the last three weeks shuttling from planet to planet trying to save the galaxy! I've had my childish illusions shattered, been left for dead, and seen the worst the galaxy has to offer! And now I'm cold, I'm wet, I'm cranky, and I can't even perfect a simple transformation spell! And on top of that, you've wrecked who knows how many planets through sheer stupidity! Whatever your reason for trying to build a new planet, buying a barren one and terraforming it to perfection would have taken under a week and cost a twentieth what you have to have paid to do all this, not to mention what you did to Pokitaru! And now you're giving me a headache! So you! Do not! Get! To talk!"

• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: This is why, by the time it gets halfway through the Arsenal storyline, Ratchet, Twilight and co are steamrolling through just about everything that comes after.
  • Most notable instances during the Arsenal arc include not only the curb-stomping of the Tyhrranoids during the Rangers' assault on their homeworld, but also Twilight tricking Courtney Gears not once, but twice! The first time, she tricks the pop star into thinking she captured Clank with the robot's stunt double while the real one controlled Nefarious' copy Klunk. The second time sees Twilight make Courtney believe that Nefarious was going to betray her by planting and removing a fake bomb from her, making the pop star back out of supporting the doctor's plan altogether.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Cragmites were, at least partially, motivated on their campaign of destruction to deprive the Loki of hosts.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Qwark's powers work based on belief — as long as he's convinced to the depths of his being that he can do something, he can, literally warping reality to make it happen. The effects range from letting him punch ghosts to healing himself. This ability utterly terrifies both his friends and enemies, but since it works to their advantage at times, they don't try to convince him otherwise.

The Technological Technicolor Technomare (Rainbow Dash)

• Alien Invasion: The Skrulls invade in chapter 14. The Avengers fight back.
• Alliterative Title: The title, naturally.
• All Animals Are Dogs: Rainbow Dash adopts a baby Zilla (though not referred to as such in-universe), named Zuki. The name turns out to be a Shout-Out to another young Godzilla.
• All Just a Dream: The events of chapter 19, in which Pepper gives birth... to Scootaloo. Who then eats Rainbow's head.
• And Then What?: Rainbow Dash asks Ultron 19 what he'll do after he achieves his goal of becoming perfect — what if he doesn't like it? Her words, and some more that follow, result in his Heel–Face Turn.
• Appropriated Appellation: During her fight with the Wreckers, one of them starts referring to Rainbow Dash as "Iron Mare", and some of the civilians pick up on it too. During the Skrull invasion, she finally accepts it in place of "Technological Technicolor Technomare".
• Aura Vision: Rainbow Dash can see the gamma aura that Hulk and Zuki have. This helps her Spot the Imposter when a Skrull tries to infiltrate the tower disguised as Bruce Banner.
• Berserk Button: Rainbow Dash gets ticked if someone flies faster than her. Hulk gets ticked off if anyone tries to hurt Rainbow Dash. Tirek discovers this in the epilogue.
• Beta Couple: Ultron is mentioned as dating Maud Pie in the epilogue.
• Big Eater: Zuki eats its own weight in fish every three days.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Rainbow Dash shouts (or at least whispers) "It's time to Pony Up!" every time she activates her armor, even though it's not needed.
• Chekhov's Gun: It's mentioned early on that Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom gives off the same energy wavelength as the Mandarin's rings. In chapter 21, he finally shows up to investigate. And performing a Rainboom while holding the rings proves the key to allowing Rainbow to return to Equestria.
• Child Naming Request: After Tony and Pepper have married and are expecting their first biological child, Pepper agreed to let her and Tony's adoptive daughter Rainbow Dash choose her baby brother's middle name. Hence why his name is "Howard Awesome Stark". It's noted that Pepper will never live this down.
• Comedic Spanking: The epilogue has the Hulk spanking the stolen magic out of Tirek. While wearing his Mrs. Doubtfire outfit.
• Comically Missing the Point: Played with — after the flashmob incident (when the Avengers all wound up dressing in drag and singing in public), the next day's headline is "Avengers Show Wholehearted Support of Rainbow Pride Day".
  Tony: "Did you know about this?"
  Rainbow Dash: "Well, if they were all so eager to meet me, I could hardly stay away, could I?" (Said jokingly, implying that she knew exactly what he meant.)
• Disney Death: Rainbow Dash's power release that destroys the Skrull armada and apparently results in her death. Three days later, she calls them from the moon, where she's just barely hanging on.
• Face Palm: Nick Fury's reaction to the flashmob moment below is to bury his face in his hands.
  Fury: "What the hell are you thinking, Tony?"
• Flashmob: The Avengers unwittingly start one when Hulk (in drag) sings "I Feel Pretty" as he dances down the sidewalk (with Thor and Captain America as backup singers), with the others (also in the clothing of the opposite gender) doing their own versions afterward. Then a whole bunch of people wearing the stereotypical clothing of the opposite gender join in and perform all the musical numbers of West Side Story, the women singing the male parts and the men singing the female parts. Then the entire group goes on to do other musicals, including Hulk singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
• Fusion Dance: Tank and Zuki fuse when Zuki crosses into Equestria.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Rainbow Dash is just as good with creating and upgrading her armor as Tony.
• Groin Attack: Rainbow Dash gives one to Hawkeye after one of his bedtime stories gives her a nightmare. Zuki gives Fin Fang Foom one with his radiation breath.
• Happily Married: Tony and Pepper become this partway through the story.
• Heavy Sleeper: While she normally wakes up pretty easily, Rainbow Dash apparently once slept through an AIM assassin tossing a grenade into her bed. When it went off, she armored up automatically and blasted him out the window... all without even rolling over.
• Heel–Face Turn: Ultron 19, courtesy of Rainbow Dash.
• Heroic BSoD: Most of the Avengers have one during the time that Rainbow Dash is believed dead.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Both Rainbow Dash and Tony nearly perform one, Rainbow Dash to destroy the Skrull armada and Tony to get her back to Earth when he finds out she's alive. Both are saved when Odin shows up.
• Homeschooled Kids: Rainbow Dash is pulled out of kindergarten and homeschooled because the other students are unable to concentrate on their work and want to spend the entire time petting her, which she doesn't appreciate. Fortunately, Tony is able to figure out a lesson plan that works for her.
• Honorary Uncle: Nick Fury, to Rainbow Dash.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Rainbow Dash does this with Ultron 19 after befriending him. Consequently, the Avengers are all stunned when they walk in to find their old enemy is in their home and is brushing Rainbow's mane.
• Interrupted Declaration of Love: Variant — Tony is about to propose to Pepper when Thor shows up to challenge him to combat, due to Rainbow Dash having heard that Pepper needed to know Tony was ready to be an adult; consequently, she sent Thor to "make Tony a man". Fortunately, Pepper is very understanding of the whole thing after Rainbow Dash explains, in no small part because Tony did go through with the proposal.
• I Reject Your Reality: Rainbow Dash's reason for using a transformation phrase is because it's her promise to herself that someday, she will change the world so it is fair and just, and is possible to save everyone.
• I Regret Nothing: Not said verbatim, but after Rainbow Dash has gone into orbit and destroyed an entire Skrull armada, Tony ends up going into space to rescue her, only to realize a critical error he's made after he's up there. Soon after, as they're about to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and Tony tells Rainbow Dash to kick off him in order to slow her own fall, Rainbow tells him she knows he won't survive reentry and asks why Tony is planning to give up his life to save hers. Tony answers "What father wouldn't?", fully expecting these to be his last words. Luckily, Odin shows up and saves them both.
• Killed Off for Real: Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom in one of the last chapters.
• Lethal Chef: Thor cannot make coffee. Of any kind. It's apparently the only thing that gives him trouble though.
• Life Energy: Rainbow Dash built her suit to run off her unique bio energy, since the energy from Tony's arclight generator causes her pain when she tries to use it. Unfortunately, she doesn't naturally generate enough energy moment to moment to power the suit and her natural abilities. Tony solves this problem by tweaking the arc batteries to absorb the energy she generates but isn't naturally using up, and modifies the suit to run off the batteries instead of Rainbow herself.
• Living Battery: Zuki absorbs various types of energy and radiation, including solar (meaning he can recharge just by napping in the sunlight) and atomic energy.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Played with in that the reveal is made to people who aren't part of the family: Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse who serves as Odin's steed, is Luna and Celestia's father (their respective mothers are Private Pansy and Clover the Clever), and Discord is his brother.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Rainbow's reaction when she realizes she's crippled Wrecker, resulting in her fearing that she comes from a race of killers. Tony helps her realize that she comes from a race of warriors, and promises her training with Thor to help her with her fighter's instincts. Nick Fury assigns Captain America to help train her for the same reason.
• Not So Above It All: Even Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., will squeal like a love-struck fangirl over how adorable Rainbow Dash is. But only in the privacy of his own office, with all recording devices turned off.
• Phlebotinum Muncher: Hulk is able to eat the energy given off by a Sonic Rainboom.
• Powered Armor: Iron Man has it. Naturally, Rainbow Dash winds up with her own suit.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: After Rainbow bisects a guy with a blade-lined wing, Tony figures she must have come from some kind of warrior race.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I. Am. Iron Mare!"
• Rapid Aging: Mandarin is subjected to this in the trip to Equestria, leaving him a desiccated corpse.
• Scary Surprise Party: Rainbow Dash freaks out when she wakes up one morning and finds everyone missing, believing they might have been killed or kidnapped while she was asleep (the horror video game she'd been playing the night before didn't help). Then she looks out the window and sees them setting up her birthday party. She lets Tony have it over this at first, but forgives him.
• Shout-Out: Many, including Mrs. Doubtfire, Nanny McPhee, Mary Poppins, West Side Story, Silent Hill, Independence Day, Looney Tunes, Dragon Ball, and The Transformers: The Movie.
• Spit Take: Pepper nearly does one when she's trying to not laugh after Rainbow Dash asks if Tony would "be okay if you walked around naked?"
• Summon Bigger Fish: In the epilogue, Rainbow Dash calls for the Hulk to handle Tirek. Hulk has a... creative way of doing so.
• The Power of Friendship: Results in Ultron 19 pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
• The Swear Jar: Tony gets one so he'll learn to watch his language around Rainbow Dash. By the time Pepper takes Rainbow shopping for the first time, there's $350 in it.
• Title Drop: When JARVIS questions the validity of the superhero name Rainbow gave herself. It happens again later, during the Skrull invasion.
• Unplanned Crossdressing: Tony and Pepper wake up when they hear Hulk and Ultron arguing, get dressed in a hurry, and run into the other room... only to discover that not only are Hulk, Ultron and Captain America all in drag, they accidentally put on one another's clothes instead of their own. They wind up joining the others in going out for a walk while still dressed in the wrong outfits.
• Weaponized Exhaust: A literal example during Rainbow Dash's fight with the Wrecking Crew — she kicks one in the face with both rear hooves, and flares her rear repulsers right in his eyes.
• Where's the Kaboom?: Hulk is confused when Rainbow Dash flies straight upward at incredible speeds, and yet it doesn't trigger her Sonic Rainboom. Turns out she'd set it up so the energies would be absorbed into her armor's batteries for later use.
  Hulk: "Where is kaboom?" ... "There supposed to be ear shattering kaboom!"
• Wholesome Crossdresser: The Hulk spends much of the story in drag (including a French maid's outfit, or one that makes him look like Mrs. Doubtfire) after Rainbow Dash decides he's her nanny. Later on, the entire team and family gets in on it for a morning walk.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Tony and Pepper's son is named Howard Awesome Stark. It's noted that Pepper would never live down agreeing to let Rainbow choose her baby brother's middle name.

You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter (Pinkie Pie)

• All Women Are Lustful: Pinkie Pie and Calliope, surprisingly.
• Animated Armor: Calliope, Kratos' deceased daughter, takes up residence in a suit of armor in order to rejoin and fight alongside her father and adoptive sister.
• BFS: Pinkie briefly switches a Persian siege ladder with Cloud Strife's Buster Sword, which Kratos kills the Persian King's Basilisk with. Cloud, meanwhile, beats Sephiroth to death with the ladder.
• Blood Knight: Kratos, obviously, but also Pinkie Pie; she has no compunctions about cutting down her foes by the number. Justified that she is a properly raised Spartan warrior, and also subconsciously aware that she's in a game.
• Casanova Wannabe: Pinkie Pie would like to have sex with gorgeous male horses, but not one horse in the world of God Of War will have anything to do with her. After returning to Equestria, she finally gets to have sex with Big Mac.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Pinkie and Calliope versus Ares. The only reason Kratos has to intervene is because Pinkie could end up destroying the world with her Reality Warper powers otherwise.
• Double Standard: Kratos Really Gets Around with tons of women, though Pinkie Pie understands her father only does it for sexual needs, not love. When Kratos overhears his daughters discussing sex, he's uncomfortable thinking about it. Apart from when Pinkie sleeps with Big Mac back in Equestria, however.
• Everybody Hates Hades: Subverted. Hades is a pretty nice guy, and so are Persephone, Thanatos, and Charon- once Pinkie gets through to them by being, well, Pinkie.
• Everybody Loves Zeus: Zeus is a lot more friendly than he was in God Of War canon, largely thanks to Pinkie Pie serving as the entirety of Olympus' Morality Pet, and thanks to Kratos never opening Pandora's Box in this timeline.
• Face Death with Dignity: Clotho, when Pinkie shows her a vision of what the future will be like without the Fates dictating it. She asks only to look upon that vision one last time before Pinkie kills her.
• Fake Defector: In the final chapter, Discord is revealed to be this, having pretended to join Tirek. His real goal was to get Tirek strong enough to be a real challenge for Pinkie Pie going all out. Their fight was his and Kratos' birthday present to Pinkie.
• Fluffy Tamer: Pinkie and Calliope tame a couple of Cerberi with belly rubs and Pinkie's cupcakes. Pinkie even names hers Fluffy!
• Food as Bribe: Pinkie uses her cupcakes for this. It works on pretty much everything, including mortals, immortals, monsters and the souls of the dead.
• Glasgow Grin: Pinkie carves one into Tirek's face while beating the daylights out of him in the last chapter.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Pinkie uses a gorgon as a living weapon in Pandora's temple at one point.
• Immune to Fate: Pinkie Pie, natch. And everyone whose life she gets involved with. The Fates can't even perceive her with their mystical abilities, and it terrifies them. They're right to do so, as she eventually shows up to kill them all.
• Innocent Innuendo: Hades makes one when he and Persephone request a bite of Pinkie's "delicious, moist cupcake." She thinks he's propositioning her. Aphrodite, of all people, has to straighten out the mistake.
• Irony: In order for the Olympians to settle their Divine Conflict without killing mortals, they engage in Mud Wrestling on Pinkie Pie's recommendation. The first two Olympians to try this? Artemis and Hestia, two goddesses well known for being embodiments of Virgin Power.
• Kissing Cousins: Pinkie sleeps with her cousin Big Mac after returning to Equestria. Kratos approves, if only because Big Mac actually outlasted her in bed.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Pinkie and Calliope acquire more than a few supplies from their enemies, both alive and dead.
• Lighter and Softer: The entire God Of War series, thanks to Pinkie Pie.
• Lust Object: A couple of centaurs are this to Pinkie, who exclaims "Hell~o, half human nurses!" the instant she sees them. They promptly scream in terror and disembowel themselves.
• Orgasmically Delicious: Pinkie's cupcakes, at least for Artemis and Hades.
• Puff of Logic: While in Pandora's Temple, at one point Pinkie tries to use this technique to make certain things disappear. She stops after Calliope points out that Pinkie herself is the most impossible thing there.
• Punctuated Pounding: Pinkie Pie when she's beating up Persephone for trying to interrupt Kratos' bonding time with Calliope.
  Pinkie Pie: Don't! Interrupt! Our! Family! Bonding! Time! Bitch!
• Rage Against the Heavens: A rare example of the gods themselves doing it. Olympians and Titans team up to besiege the Sisters of Fate and free themselves from their control, but they let Pinkie Pie have first bash at the Fates. She wins.
• Reality Warper: Pinkie Pie, per baseline.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Pinkie explains the concept to Zeus, and later Kronos, and they realize the mistakes they've made as a result. This leads to a much happier ending for both.
• Shout-Out: Among other events, Pinkie sings part of the "Up, Down Touch the Ground" song from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh while in Pandora's Temple. Shortly afterward, Kratos' sleep-talking reveals he's dreaming that he is Pooh.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Charon and Persephone in Chains of Olympus; Callisto, Deimos (Kratos' brother), Erinys and Thanatos in Ghost of Sparta; and pretty much every hero and deity who would have died in God of War II and God of War III, save for Ares and the three Fates. Oh, and Aegaeon doesn't die, either.
• Stable Time Loop: Pinkie unwittingly sets the events of the story in motion, in more ways than one. First, by stuffing Pandora's box in her mane (after Ares' demise), she leaves it accessible to a small creature who opens it, releasing the power inside. That power flies through time and space, and while making a few stops along the way, finally strikes Pinkie in Equestria, not only merging with her but transporting her into the past, to where Kratos will eventually find her. Also, her actions in Greece led to the Titans eventually leaving Earth to forge new worlds elsewhere in the universe... including Equestria itself.
• Supreme Chef: Pinkie's cupcakes are sufficiently delicious to sway even immortals to her side. Kratos starts to wonder if the gods giving him his missions are doing it just so Pinkie will leave cupcakes for them. Becomes the subject of a Brick Joke between Artemis and Hades later on, starting in "The Temple — Part One" and paying off in "Changes":
  Artemis: That cupcake was so good, I think I just came.
  Hades: Oh, I so see what you mean, Artemis! I think I just did, too!
• Thunderbird: Zeus rides one of these to the temple of the Fates. What a Thunderbird from Native American Mythology is doing in Ancient Greece is never brought up.

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The Not-So-Bad Guys fics (listed alphabetically) contain examples of:

Order and Chaos (Discord)

• Authority in Name Only: What Twilight reduces Hermaeus Mora to once she defeats him. The once great Daedric Prince of Knowledge is now a lowly assistant to an Alicorn, subordinate to an owl and a dragon.
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Pinkie Pie uses this to get the Heart of Sanguine.
• Fate Worse than Death: Discord was able to come up with one to gain all of Molag Bal's souls: a combination of immortality, immobility, and insomnia.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: At the end of the story, Discord discovers that his mate Vaermina has given birth to infant versions of Celestia and Luna... right after Discord has sent the grown-up Celestia and Luna off to separate timelines.
  • Also, Malacath reveals that Spike is a son of Alduin, and Spike in turn reveals this to Chrysalis once her invasion plan comes around back in Equestria.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Discord unwittingly sent Tirek someplace where he could get a lot of power. This leads into his having to fix the problem he caused, by creating twenty-two splinter timelines where others can gain the power they'll need to counter this new Tirek.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Molag Bal is of this opinion towards Mehrunes Dagon, which is why he's not happy that Rainbow Dash killed him instead.
• Origins Episode: This fic turns out to be the origin for all the Adopted Displaced stories, as their twenty-two timelines were created by Discord, who needed to use the energies of an entire coalesced timeline to unlock the full potential of each of the Elements of Harmony. He also splintered off a bunch of extras to bring together "extra muscle". Once all of them come to an end, they'll be woven back together into a single timeline in order to battle Tirek after he comes back, since Discord had unwittingly sent him someplace where he could get a lot of power.
• Precision F-Strike: Hermaeus Mora's response when Twilight demotes him to an Authority in Name Only Daedric Prince, basically her number three assistant, subordinate to Owlowiscious:
  Hermaeus Mora: An owl? I'm subordinate to a fucking owl?!
• Shout-Out:
  • Chapter two mentions Sheogorath's breath being "so baited he'd already caught three Wailords and a Gyarados with an Old Rod".
  • Chapter six includes several references to the Elmer Fudd cartoons.
  • At one point, Discord turns his father into Shego from Kim Possible. Sheogorath says, "I feel like there's a joke here, but I'm too angry to see it." Doubles as a Stealth Pun: Sheogorath, Shego-Wrath, get it?
  • Chapter seven includes lines from the song Never Had A Friend Like Me.
• Top God: After coming into his full power, Discord declares himself the Daedric King. Most of the Princes go along with this, and the few who don't he beats in contests at their own skills, proving his superiority to them.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Zig-zagged with Sheogorath and Discord, who both have plenty of wacky and serious moments between the two of them.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Rainbow Dash unwittingly inherits the position of Daedric Prince of Destruction when she kills Mehrunes Dagon.

The Merc With the Moth (Queen Chrysalis)

• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: How do you stop a reality-warping, regenerating Changeling Queen? With a reality-warping, infinite-health-cheating Spartan Pinkie Pie from another story. Of course, the fight will never end since neither can be stopped. They're okay with that.
• Honorary Uncle: Wolverine, to Chrysalis. She calls him "Uncle Fuzzy".
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Luna's plan to defeat Chrysalis. She has intentionally avoided mentioning it or even thought about it just so Deadpool or Chrysalis wouldn't find out through medium awareness. That it also made proper use of this trope was just an added bonus.

There's Nopony I'd Rather Be Than Me (Nightmare Moon)

• Affectionate Nickname: Ralph and Vanellope refer to Nightmare Moon as "Moony". It becomes her actual name after the Split-Personality Merge of Luna and Nightmare Moon.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: Nightmare Moon, upon returning to Equestria, assumes she's in just another game (specifically, the one she originated from) and confuses the locals with her game-based terminology. She eventually realizes the truth — that she's in a user world, not a game — and suffers a Heroic BSoD in the process.
• Back from the Dead: Turbo respawned after his defeat in the movie, due to being technically still a part of Sugar Rush, and is back for Revenge.
• Badass Crew: The Anti-Virus squad, formed after the Cybug invasion and consisting of characters from the various games, dedicated to protecting the arcade as a whole from viruses and other things that threaten the safety and stability of all games.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Ralph takes this to heart, remembering what happened the last time he made a wish. Fortunately, his new one, for someone who could come with him when he relaxes after games and help make his house a home, turns out much better.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Turbo plans to have a Cybug eat Nightmare Moon and assimilate her powers, then he'll eat it and do the same thing. It backfires, as she assimilates the Cybug's own powers and becomes their Queen instead.
• Captain Colorbeard: After losing his rank in the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Blueblood winds up joining a crew of pirates and renames himself Blackblood.
• Cool Car: Aside from the standard racers, there's also "Dream Eater", the racer Nightmare Moon builds for her first race in Sugar Rush, and "Bull Dozer", which was specifically made for Ralph.
• Disney Death: Happens to Nightmare Moon herself during the hacker's attack. She gets better when the group returns with the viral source code, though it's a close call. During the same arc, Zero sacrifices himself to save the rest of the group from another virus when they go after the hacker, but survives by assimilating its code.
• Dueling Hackers: A hacker later revealed as Sid Phillips from Toy Story sends a worm into the arcade's systems in chapter 19. Wily and his associates fight back.
• Easter Egg: Wily programs "Easter Egg" code blocks into various games to allow Nightmare Moon to be playable in them, so arcade-goers will assume she's meant to be there. Consequently, they also eventually assume that she's a secret advertisement for her own game, coming soon. Much later, a new feature becomes available in all of the games, allowing characters to cross over as playable characters on a regular basis, including Ralph and the Bull Dozer in Sugar Rush.
• Elemental Powers: The Elements of Harmony grant these, on top of their baseline powers, due to the setup Nightmare Moon prepared to make things more challenging for the heroes. Kindness is "nature", Honesty is Earth, Laughter is Fire, Generosity is Water, Loyalty is Air, and Magic is Light.
• Evolution Powerup: Nightmare Moon has three stages, and undergoes sudden transformations into her more powerful second and third forms, rather than aging normally. The first evolution occurs during the battle with Turbo, the second when she's being healed from the damage she took from Sid's cyber-attack.
• Eye Scream: After losing his rank in the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Blueblood loses an eye during the events that led to his being recruited to join a crew of pirates.
• Friendly Enemy: Most of the game villains are this, and Nightmare Moon follows their example.
• Heel–Face Turn: After his failed cyber-attack on the arcade, Sid Phillips changes his ways, winds up working for ENCOM, where he helps bring down the MCP offscreen and becomes the first human to be digitized, allowing him to enter the arcade via the 'net and apologize to the sprites in person. Later, Chrysalis is recruited to work for Nightmare Moon, and stays with her even after her Split-Personality Merge into Moony. Sombra also apparently did this off-screen, as he's part of the group that defeats Discord.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Turbo's plans to get revenge by assimilating Nightmare Moon's code backfires on him, big time. Later, Discord gives her copies of all the games from the arcade, along with an ENCOM Realizer. This allows her to release Ralph and his friends from the games, who defeat Discord.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Played with, when Dr. Wily cries out "She's alive! She's ALIVE!", then says he'd "have lost my mad scientist's certification if I didn't say it".
• Intrepid Merchant: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, the Flim-Flam brothers fill this role.
• Leave Him to Me!: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, when Nightmare Moon discovers the populace is planning to stop the Element-bearers before they can get to Nightmare Moon, she invokes this trope because she thinks they're supposed to defeat her, and outside interference would make that impossible.
• Loophole Abuse: In the final chapter, Moony makes a deal with Discord that she won't assist Celestia or the Harmony Bearers in defeating him. She doesn't say anything about not defeating him on her own afterward... or about not assisting anyone else who goes up against him.
• Mecha: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, the Cutie Mark Crusaders break into the castle in a wooden tank. Later, when it's used against the Elements via remote, Fluttershy uses her plant-control powers to convert it into a rabbit-themed mecha under her control.
• Mythology Gag: In the planning stages of the original film, Dr. Wily was meant to be a member of Bad-Anon. In this story, he's since joined up after a Mega Man 3 game was installed in the arcade.
• Not Worth Killing: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Fancy Pants points out that while Nightmare Moon's way of taking power was questionable, she's made sure things stay much the same as they were, and her reign "has not been stained by terror or murder". And while she'd get rid of a pain by killing Blueblood, he isn't worth changing her methods for.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Sid Phillips helps bring down the MCP. Later, while Twilight and co. were busy getting the Elements, Nightmare Moon prevents an invasion of Changelings, and turned them to her side.
• Pen-Pushing President: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Nightmare Moon leaves the heroes to "level up" in order to be strong enough to face her. While she's waiting for them to finish their mission, she spends much of her time doing paperwork and answering petitioners.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Most of the game villains are this, and Nightmare Moon follows their example. This is especially evident during the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, where she acts evil, but really doesn't do any harm when not directly facing the heroes.
• Pirate: After losing his rank in the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Blueblood winds up becoming one when he takes the helm and saves their ship from a storm.
• Read the Fine Print: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Nightmare Moon takes advantage of an old clause, added by Clover the Clever, to strip the nobles of certain legislative abilities. She also used it, even without realizing it, to strip Blueblood of his rank and associated privileges.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Nightmare Moon is this: she treats her new subjects with respect, and things aren't that different from when Celestia was in charge. Aside from Celestia being in a cage that's just as comfortable as her personal quarters. She remains as such after being defeated, when she and Celestia change Equestria into a Feudal Republic and take up new positions as its President and Vice-President-for-life.
  • Fancy Pants is also one, willing to step up to prevent Nightmare Moon from killing Prince Blueblood. Not that she was actually planning to, but Fancy Pants's words gives her a public excuse not to do so.
• Rule of Funny: During the "Nightmare in Equestria" arc, Nightmare Moon has imprisoned Celestia in a cage. After she suffers her Heroic BSoD, Celestia leaves the cage to comfort her; the others quickly wonder if this means she could have left it at any time, but Pinkie says it would only work when it was funny for her to do so.
• Secret-Keeper: Stan Litwak, owner of the arcade, eventually begins to suspect that the game characters are truly alive, not just non-sapient code, but keeps this to himself. He's officially let in on the secret in chapter 19.
• Shout-Out: Nightmare Moon's very first lines are a rephrasing of Rita Repulsa's famous opening statement. She uses part of it again upon returning to Equestria.
  • Numerous games, both from the original film and otherwise, appear in the story. These include Mega Man 3, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Eye of the Beholder, Soul Calibur and others.
  • The "Nightmare in Equestria" arc references One Piece ( Apparently, Blueblood watched too many Neighponese cartoons as a child, and is a fan of Equestria's version of the series.), the Kobayashi-Maru test, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
• Spin-Offspring: Nightmare Moon, as Ralph's adoptive daughter, while Zero (originally from the Mega Man X series, but present due to the Marvel Vs. Capcom game being installed in the arcade), refers to Dr. Wily as "Dad" (he's actually Wily's last creation in their original series). Fix-It Felix and Calhoun later have a daughter, Tara Gum, who is introduced to the arcade-goers via Sugar Rush.
• Split Personality: Nightmare Moon has always been a split personality of Luna's. Their discovery of this, along with being zapped by the Elements of Harmony, leads to a Split-Personality Merge after she's defeated.
• The Night That Never Ends: After her first growth spurt, this becomes an automatic feature in the games when Nightmare Moon is playable. She also enacts it in Equestria when she returns, but has it set up so the moon is directly in front of the sun and serving the same purpose as the sun's own rays, averting the negative side-effects that would normally come about from Night Eternal.
• Why Didn't I Think of That?: Wily has invented new armor for the Anti-Virus squad. After Ridley wears it to test out how much damage it can take, Calhoun asks why she isn't the one wearing it, since they're in her game, meaning she'll just respawn if she takes lethal damage. Wily admits he hadn't thought of that.

Three Kittens, Two Unicorns, and a BANANA! (Tempest Shadow)

• Be Careful What You Wish For: Tempest takes Discord up on his offer to "turn things back" so she can make a better first impression. He does it by reverting her to infancy and sending her into the Despicable Me universe, where no one knows of her.
• Crossover: In addition to the obvious ones, Megamind appears and is revealed to be an old friend of Gru's. Roxanne, Tighten and Minion appear as well.
• Heel–Face Turn: El Macho makes one after Tempest gets through to him.
• Hive Mind: The Minions have one called the Overthought, which links their thoughts and increases their intelligence and productivity. However, it's incomplete due to lacking a Hive Queen to tie everything together, which is why they keep searching for a master to lead them. Tempest turns out to be mentally perfect for the role.
• Play-Along Prisoner: It's made pretty clear that Lucy and Roxanne are just screwing with their captors, a Villain Team-Up between Vector and Tighten, and could have escaped even without the Minions and Minion coming to the rescue.

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The Supporting Characters fics (listed alphabetically) contain examples of:

Another Hatchling (Spike)

• Adaptive Ability: Dragons can, as an involuntary reflex, rewrite their own DNA in order to adapt to their environment if they have enough energy. This includes his general growth (including of his muzzle, which grew to resemble a pointed beak, and his claws), wings, gills (and better control of his tail for propulsion), the ability to breath in space (see below), immunity to acid and an organ that granted him various alternate breath weapons. Best of all, he doesn't lose these abilities between (or at the start of) missions, unlike Samus.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: One of Spike's adaptations, courtesy of eating a Leviathan Core, is an organ that lets him do this: It "uses the ambient energy of stellar radiation — anything from stardust to solar flares or ship engine residue — to convert carbon-dioxide into oxygen, while the carbon left over is redirected to the flame sacs to burn for excess energy, to replenish what is used in the process."
• Bedmate Reveal: The last scene of the fic has Twilight waking up to discover Samus in bed with her. She doesn't seem to mind too much.
• Big Eater: Spike's body can rewrite its own DNA in order to adapt to its environment if he gets enough energy. Hence, he eats a lot in order to get that energy, even if he didn't always know why. Phazon is especially good at supplying the extra energy he needs.
• Body Surf: Spike apparently dies in the destruction of Dark Aether, but the Luminoth spirits there create an exact replica of his old body and transfer his mind and soul into it. This is the only time it happens to him though.
• Breath Weapon: In addition to his original ability to breathe fire, Spike acquires a variety of other breath weapons, including freezing breath (via Rundus), electricity (via Gandrayda) and Fazite breath, which is antithetical to Phazon.
• Brick Joke: In Chapter 25 when Samus first sees the Luminoth, she muses that if it was constructed by the Chozo, they had probably left a Heal Beam so she could heal the damage done to Spike from the initial trip to Dark Aether. In chapter 138 Gandrayda gives Samus an arm cannon module that Pinkie got from the Chozo Ghosts. It turns out it's a Heal Beam. However, due to the damage she took to her power suit, she does not have enough energy tanks to use it, and it goes unused for the rest of the fic.
• Clone Army: At one point, it's mentioned the Space Pirates wanted to do this to Spike via Capture and Replicate. They didn't succeed.
• Comically Missing the Point: Pinkie Pie doesn't understand why everypony says "woof" when they see Spike's new appearance, thinking they're just pretending to be dogs. Until chapter 139, when she finally gets it.
• Deader than Dead: Ridley's final fate. His bloodstone, the core of everything that he is, is devoured by Spike, his light purging the darkness within it once and for all, erasing Ridley for good.
• Dragon Rider: Samus rides Spike into battle at times after he becomes a Giant Flyer. Ridley claims he's debasing himself by doing so. Spike disagrees.
• Extreme Omnivore: Spike can eat just about anything, including Phazon and most of the enemies he and Samus face (though he doesn't always enjoy the taste). This is explained as his digestive system being able to convert anything he eats into a form that can be absorbed and utilized by his systems, fueling his adaptive growth.
• Face Palm: When Spike ate a Sheegoth's brain and realized he liked it, he asks Samus if this makes him a zombie. This trope is her response. It reappears on other occasions as well.
• Fastball Special: Spike is told by Samus to throw her in her morph ball form at Quadraxis during the Aether story.
• Giant Flyer: After gaining wings and size-shifting, Spike can become one.
• The Gloves Come Off: Spike gives one to Ridley in the final battle. Right before achieving his final form and defeating Ridley for good.
  Spike (telepathically): "My friends are brave, and to a certain extent foolish. No matter how unmatched they are, they'll fight... because that's who they are. ...but I have a different problem. From that first gulp of Phazon on Tallon IV... and even before then, I've lived in a world of shimmering glass, bright lights and pretty colors with as much structural integrity as an illusion. Even before I found my way to Samus, I had to suppress my nature to the fullest extent to keep from hurting my friends... and after that first taste of Phazon, I've had to suppress my power to the utmost and still hold myself back all I could to keep from shattering something — or someone — I loved.  Think about how much control that means I have. Think about what it means when I let go... against someone like you, who can take it!"
  Spike (aloud): "Let me show you what I'm really made of!"
• Grand Theft Me: The Ing Emperor does this to Spike. Samus managed to break him free of it.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Spike literally rips Ridley in half during their final battle on Tallon IV. In mid-air.
• Head Desk: Spike does it during his recaps when someone points out something he could have done differently, including in chapter 64.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Spike regains health and energy by eating his enemies, including Phazon.
• I'm a Humanitarian: During the "Other M" recap, Spike reveals he once ate a man who wanted to hunt him, and mentions he has no problem with the idea of eating his old friends after they're dead... because it would preserve their essences within himself, as happened with Squishy. The others relax after he reassures them that he's in no rush to do so — the longer he has with them while they're conventionally alive, the better.
• Interspecies Romance: On top of Spike's crush on Rarity (which she seems to be returning after they meet again) and Gandrayda's crush on Spike, there's many other ponies who appear to be interested in Spike after his return, and Twilight and Samus, who wake up in bed together in the final scene of the story.
• Kill It with Ice: On top of Samus's Ice Beam and Ice Missiles, there's Spike's Ice Breath, gained during the mission to Bryyo. Metroids are especially vulnerable to this.
• Literally Shattered Lives: One of Samus' preferred fighting methods is to freeze and shatter her enemies, especially when facing the Metroids (who are very vulnerable to ice).
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: While not voiced in exactly these words, this is Samus' reaction to the idea that Ridley might have been interested in mating with her:
  Samus: "Let's not finish that sentence so that I never have those mental images, thank you very much," (...) "I'll well admit to being open-minded when it comes to interspecies relationships — Spike, Gandrayda, Rarity, and whoever else springs to mind — but leave Ridley out of that equation, especially when it comes to me!"
• No Ontological Inertia: Killing a Leviathan Core destroys all Phazon on the planet where it landed.
• Not What It Looks Like: Spike healed Gandrayda of her Phazon corruption by literally sucking it out of her via mouth-to-mouth contact and replacing it with his own fire. Samus walks in on the end of it, and Spike says the Trope name in response. Unusually for this trope, Samus immediately figures out what he was really doing, but still teases him about it.
• Pass the Popcorn: Discord does this a lot for himself while listening to Spike and Samus's story. Fluttershy makes him share.
• Power Limiter: Spike's armor helps him control his strength, in part because he's adapted to much heavier gravity.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Spike, in chapter 66: "And I! Am! CHOZO!"
• Running Gag: The fact that almost everyone says "woof" in Spike's presence, even on the other side of the mirror, is outright acknowledged by the author. The last instance? Twilight... but this time in reference to Samus, whom she's just found in bed with her.
• Scars Are Forever: The scars from Spike's first fight with Ridley became infected due to exposure to orange Phazon shortly after. While the Chozo spirits were able to heal him and could actually have removed the scars, he chose to keep them so they'd serve as a reminder that no matter how strong he gets, he isn't invincible.
  • Likewise, Rundus still has the scars from the wound that killed him in canon, kept as a reminder.
• Shout-Out: Kyoma Demons are name-dropped in chapter 16. Many more shout-outs appear throughout the story, including The Transformers: The Movie.
• Sizeshifter: Spike gained this ability as a result of his adventures, developing an early version on Tallon IV and mastering it during the mission to the Pirate Homeworld.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Rundus, Ghor and Gandrayda in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Squishy still dies in the conventional sense in Super Metroid, but it turns out his spirit literally lives on within Spike and has been able to communicate with him since their arrival in Equestria. The android MB, AKA Melissa Bergman, survives the events of Other M and has a Heel–Face Turn in the process. Adam survives the events of that same game in his human form rather than being forced to resort to Brain Uploading.
• Suicide by Cop: Rundus tried this when the Phazon corruption was close to fully taking over him. Fortunately, Spike and Samus managed to save him.
• Swallowed Whole: An adult Sheegoth did this to Spike once. He promptly killed it from the inside out. And ate its brain.
  • Samus later blew up the Queen Metroid from inside after letting it swallow her.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Happens to the SA-X as it's on the verge of death
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: By eating the Phazon processing core (and the Phazon Seed it had absorbed) of from Rundus and Ghor's Phazon Enhancement Devices, and absorbing the Phazon from Gandrayda's body, Spike gains their powers: Rundus' ice abilities (which he then uses to seal Rundus' wounds), Ghor's machine empathy (which he then uses to at least partially repair Ghor's cybernetics), and Gandrayda's electrical powers.
• Wrote the Book: Turns out Spike literally wrote the book on a certain subject. And it's one of his friends who points this out (with Twilight immediately asking why he didn't mention it sooner and where she can get a copy):
  Twilight Velvet: "It's one thing to know your grandson is built to eat other creatures," (...) "Quite another to wrap your head around him writing the 'Gourmet Predator's Guide to the Galaxy'."
  Anthony: "That's actually still the fifth best seller, last time I checked."
• X Called; They Want Their Y Back: While Spike and Samus are recapping the "Another M" mission and get to the part when the group runs into "Little Birdie" for the first time, Fluttershy instantly figures out it's cloned from Ridley and will be growing into a new version of him. A number of jokes follow that compare him to one of the titular characters from Gremlins, including "The Mogwai called, they want their schtick back."

Dragon Ball Zeeyup! (Big McIntosh)

Dressed to Steal (Coco Pommel)

• Adaptational Heroism: Penelope is the Black Knight and working for Le Paradox as per canon. However here she realized her mistake but is now being blackmailed into continuing to assist and is utterly miserable about it. Fortunately for all involved, she is eventually freed and happily rejoins the Cooper Gang.
• Alternate Timeline Ancestry: In the final arc, Seft succeeds in murdering one of Sly's ancestors, which would normally end up causing a paradox. However, the goddess Wadjet eventually finds a suitable substitute for the father of Slytunkhamen I: Haras, the son that Sly and Carmelita conceive and birth during their time in the past, whom they have no choice but to give up so he can be adopted into the Pharaoh's clan like Slytunkhamen I's father was in the original history. The pair are heartbroken, but understand the necessity... especially when a reformed Clockwerk vows to stay in the past and watch over their line for as long as he lives.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Coco gave Clock-La the immortality she wanted, then pushed her immobile form into a deep ocean trench.
• Big Eater: Murray's large appetite (due to his being a hippo) is a running gag.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: When Sly and Coco rescue Roichi, the latter is impressed with Coco's skills and asks if Sly has betrothed her to anyone. Sly is horrified, saying that Coco is only 13. Roichi then scolds Sly, asking if he has no care for his daughter's reputation and virtue and stating that if he waits too long, there won't be any good matches and Coco will become an old spinster. Coco lampshades the stark contrast between the time period they're in and the time period she grew up in.
  • Done again with Henriette and her piracy. When Sly is horrified that she's got no qualms killing, she points out that in her time period, you can't show mercy towards enemies if you want your family line to continue. That said, she seems pleased Sly and Coco have the option to show mercy where they're from.
  • Cara Cooper's father being a social climber who pressured her into marrying a wealthy suitor after convincing her Klaw had betrayed her when really he had sent the owl on a Snipe Hunt is recognized as painfully plausible by Carmelita.
• Demoted to Extra: In the Sly 3 arc, Demitri isn't recruited or even sought out. Instead, after recruiting Penelope, the Gang check on Mrs. Ruby over in St. Canard as a favor for Muggshot, and she winds up joining instead.
• Exact Words: Le Paradox not realizing this is the reason his plan backfires. Namely, he needed the cane of the latest member of the Cooper Line. When he attempts to use Sly's, the machine begins to break down. As Penelope furiously points out, adoption counts, meaning that Coco is a the latest member of the family.
• Gender Bender: Coco inflicts this on General Tsao upon defeating him. She states that it is capable of wearing off, but only once he learns his lesson.
• Gingerbread House: Discussed briefly in chapter 3. Hansel and Gretal is Murray's favorite fairy tale, and when he tells it to Coco (and apparently to other people), he amends the ending so the title characters take the house with them as snacks after dealing with the witch.
• Heel–Face Turn: Clockwerk's efforts to ensure that only he defeats the Coopers ultimately lead into a full-blown one of these.
• Honorary Uncle: Bentley and Murray to Coco. T-Bone and Razor become this in the fourth game's story arc with Penelope being a genderfliped version.
• Hypocrite: Cara Cooper's father's reasoning about Klaw/Clockwerk being unfit made sense when it was about him being a penniless orphan but the whole Interspecies Romance thing is pure garbage given that the only reason the Cooper family had any kind of title was because Henriette married a kitsune and had hybrid children, one of whom he descends from.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Klaw, the owl who became Clockwerk, would have been fine living out this trope, being a friend to Cara, supporting her marriage to another and being Honorary Uncle to the son said marriage produced. Unfortunately for everyone, Cara's husband got her killed and Klaw snapped.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Immediately after Coco blasts Tsao away in a fit of Rage over his Misogyny, she asks Bentley to fake a message from him to his men, informing them that his Sister, who likes to pretend she's a great Warrior, is visiting to "boost their Morale". Of course, Tsao has no sister, but his men don't know that, nor do they know what Coco just did to their Leader...
  • Cara Cooper's father sabotaged her relationship with his student Klaw, who worshiped the ground she walked on, so he could marry her to someone who would be able to raise the Cooper family's rank in society. Said "proper" suitor got Cara killed and both he and his father-in-law caused the creation of Clockwerk because Klaw was so infuriated.
• Mathematician's Answer: Used during the Cooper Gang's raid on the Isle O'Wrath, home base of Sir Raleigh of the Fiendish Five.
  Sly: "Can you use a scan of the [treasure] key to locate two more?"
  Bentley: "Does Murray have portion control issues?"
  Murray (indignantly): "Hey!"
  Coco: (giggles)
• Not What It Sounds Like: During Bentley's lesson on the intellectual part of being a thief, he discovers that while Coco's natural spoken language mirrors the English of his world, the written doesn't so he begins a writing lesson. He starts to wonder about how she's going to hold a pencil but then sees her holding the pencil in her mouth, manipulating it with her tongue. This prompts a comment of "Huh; what a talented tongue...", which naturally makes Sly, who was passing by and only heard the last words, freak out until Bentley clarifies.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Seft, in the final arc, deliberately tries to create a Reality-Breaking Paradox by killing one of Sly's ancient Egyptian ancestors before he can have children after becoming a Fell God, so he can destroy the world and continue in others after Apep rewards him for awakening him.
• Omniglot: Coco is able to read, and likely speak, in at least English and Irish and knowing her parents, probably has other languages at her disposal.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • Clockwerk has this attitude towards Sly, vowing that if he couldn't end Sly's legend, nobody else will either. Even if it means he has to help Sly recover from the memory loss he suffered as a result of his battle with Dr. M.
  • Negaduck has an interesting version when he appears: he's vowed to surpass the legend of Darkwing Duck, and won't allow anyone else to harm Darkwing or his family in their civilian identities.
• Original Character: Seft, the scorpion antagonist who brought Coco to their world and the overall Big Bad of the story.
• Parents as People: Sly and Carmelita both act as Coco's parents while maintaining their dynamic from the games of being on opposite sides of the law. This results in even more strain between the two as they try to raise her right.
• Scary Scorpions: Seft, the Big Bad of the story.
• Stable Time Loop: The reborn Clockwerk watched over Sly and Carmelita's son after they were forced to leave him behind in ancient Egypt to maintain the timeline, and then his descendants before he finally died a couple of generations after Henriette. Then, after Klaw created the device that would be twisted by his anger at Cara's father and husband for getting her killed, the inactive frame fell onto him, the Chip sliding into its slot and turning him into Clockwerk, who would then stalk the Coopers for generations out of a desire for revenge for the death of the woman he loved.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Coco admits that she has a great deal of sympathy for Muggshot after learning his backstory. This doesn't raise her support of his actions one bit though.
• Take a Third Option:
  • Sly can't stop being a criminal, and Carmelita can't stop being a cop. Nor can Sly become an official criminal informant, as this would require him giving up contact information that, if found by Seft, could lead him to Sly and Coco and put them in danger. But he can work with Carmelita by becoming an anonymous informant, tipping Carmelita off about the criminals Sly and his gang go after, giving her the appearance of still going after her while they're really both targeting another crook.
  • Also, later on, Coco has to take a sort of written exam wherein every question she gets wrong, she's knocked down a point. How does she ace it? By never answering a single question.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: This is Sly's reaction when his ancestor Rioichi Cooper starts flirting with Coco, since she's legally the elder raccoon's many-times-removed great-granddaughter. Fortunately, after Coco introduces herself, Rioichi realizes his mistake and apologizes.
• Tragic Villain: Clockwerk was twisted by hatred when the woman he loved got killed due to her father, who had tricked him away so he could get her to marry someone he though more suitable, which turned the Heart Chip he had made to use the love he had for her into the Hate Chip and when the inactive Clockwerk frame (brought to that era via a Stable Time Loop) fell on him...

Heart of the Dragon General (Princess Cadance)

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Zuko's more honorable qualities are with him from the start of his search for the Avatar, thanks to his cousin Cadance serving as a Morality Pet.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Having to kill her cousin Azula is a heartbreaking decision for Cadance.
• All Your Powers Combined: Cadance's Alicorn nature allows her to eventually bend all 4 elements. The only reason she doesn't qualify as a second Avatar is because she's not human.
• Ascended Extra: Jin from the Earth Kingdom ends up becoming Zuko's second girlfriend, and eventually, along with Mai, his joint wife.
• Death by Adaptation: Admiral Zhao is drowned by a Kraken before he ever reaches the Moon Spirit, whereas The Legend of Korra reveals that he was imprisoned in the Fog of Lost Souls instead.
  • In Avatar canon, Azula is still alive by the end of the series, but she's not in good mental condition. Here, Zuko accidentally destabilizes her chakras, causing her to have a Super-Power Meltdown that will end up blowing up her body by the time Ozai decides to level the Earth Kingdom. Cadance, therefore, has to painlessly kill her cousin.
• Disproportionate Retribution: More like Disproportionate Preemptive Measures. The Ocean Spirit learns Admiral Zhao plans to kill his mate. What does he do? Send a Kraken to sink the entire Fire Nation Navy, instead of just drowning Zhao alone.
• Evil-Detecting Baby: Cadance takes an immediate dislike to her "cousin" Azula, hissing at the girl and snapping at Azula's hand when the Fire princess tries to demand possession of the little pony.
• Fan Disservice: Azula and Cadence fighting nude? You'd think that would be sexy, except Cadence is a horse, and Azula is A)Ax-Crazy, B)scarred from her inner fire leaking through her skin, and C) in danger of exploding because of her destabilized chakras, so Cadance has to kill her.
• Femme Fatalons: Azula kills a Fire Nation soldier who has outlived his usefulness by sticking her poisoned fingernails into his back.
• Friendly Enemy: During the period she actually is the Gaang's enemy, Cadence is very polite and sweet, even allowing Aang to stroke her wings and fuss over how amazing she is in their first encounter.
• Heel–Face Turn: Cadance enables this for King Sombra.
• Kraken and Leviathan: The Ocean Spirit sends a Kraken to sink the entire Fire Nation Navy before Admiral Zhao can kill his mate. Cadance narrowly manages to save Zuko and Iroh's ship.
• Mercy Kill: Azula's final fate. With her chakras damaged and filled with the power of Sozin's comet, when it passes, she's unable to control her powers and begs Cadance to save her. At this point, all Cadance can do is make her death painless.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Zuko decides not to side with Azula at Ba Sing Se, and shoots her with lightning to subdue her instead. Good decision, right? Except not. Turns out, Zuko's lightningbending destabilized Azula's chakras, so that she can't control her own bending anymore, and when Sozin's Comet arrives, Azula's not only having a Villainous Breakdown, but a Super-Power Meltdown too. And Cadance has left it too late to heal Azula's damaged mind and body, so she has to carry out the aforementioned Mercy Kill. Which means, well done, Zuko. You unknowingly caused your own sister's death.
• Outliving One's Offspring: At the start of the story, General Iroh has outlived his son, Lu Ten. By the end of the story, Iroh's brother Ozai has outlived his daughter, Azula.
• The Owl-Knowing One: Wan Shi Tong himself teaches Cadance airbending.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: To many a fan's shock, Ozai starts off this way. Then the slope hits...
• Restrained Revenge: Since Ozai can't bend anymore after he lost the ability watching Cadance bend Sozin's Comet to a halt in mid-air, Sokka thinks that he's going to try making Aang regret ever sparing him for the rest of his life. It doesn't help that Ozai then pops out from behind the throne brandishing a lighter and shouting "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!!"
• Ship Tease: Iroh and Celestia have some of this while playing a board game at the end of the story.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Jet, whose suspicions of Iroh are derailed before he can get in trouble with the Dai Li. Combustion Man also gets this by virtue of never even appearing and thus never winding up in the situation that led to his death in canon. Also Yue and the Moon Spirit, because the Ocean Spirit sends a Kraken to drown Zhao before he can even reach the Water Tribe.
• Spoiled Brat: Azula naturally.
• Stress Vomit: Cadance's response upon learning that the Ocean Spirit is sending a Kraken to drown the entire Fire Nation naval fleet.

Mother X: Father (Moondancer)

• Literal Split Personality: Giegue, who had already begun suffering from a case of split personality as a result of his life on Earth, eventually uses his PSI powers to physically (despite knowing that he'll drastically damage his own psyche in the process) split himself into two beings in order to continue to function: one who keeps his original name and is driven purely by logic, and the more human Niiue, representing his innocence and capacity to love, and becomes Moondancer's guardian in the absence of his original self.
• Mercy Kill: Alinivar has to do this to an Ultrasaturn who turns out to be the Mr. Saturn who accompanied him before he fought Giegue and was chosen by the Apple.

My Little Killing Machine (Gilda the Griffon)

My Own Wings (Sunset Shimmer)

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Krystal, who joins the Star Fox team when they put out an ad for a babysitter for the young Sunset. Her arrival allows Star Fox to get a better understanding of Sunset's abilities, and even provides some support for the rest of the team in the "Star Fox 64" arc from aboard the Great Fox. As a result, her role in the Adventure is modified so that she was on a mission to the Dinosaur Planet and went missing, prompting Sunset and Fox to go and investigate.
• Centrifugal Farce: Sunset goes through a G-force testing machine as part of the entrance process at the Academy, but her magic reinforces her body to the point that she doesn't even feel the machine going from 0.5 Gs to 300 Gs as fast as it's capable of doing so (she was listening to music with her eyes closed). When the supervisor finds out, he tells the operator to pretend he didn't see anything and marks Sunset down as not needing G-Diffuser implants.
• Honorary Uncle: Falco Lombardi, to Sunset (somewhat to his disappointment, since he was hoping she'd see him as her father figure, though he accepts it).
• If Only You Knew: When the team first meets Sunset and wonders where she came from, Falco sarcastically states that she's from "Pony Planet, where unicorns like her control the sun and moon and pegasi make the weather."
• Interdimensional Travel Device: The Crystal Mirror, which Sunset fled through as in canon. Except due to a case of Phlebotinum Breakdown (brought down by someone shooting it with a spell at the exact moment she hit the mirror), it not only sends Sunset to the wrong other dimension, it reduced her to infancy.
• Magitek: Slippy figures out how to convert the Great Fox and their Ar-Wings to run on Sunset's naturally released magic.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: James McCloud appears to his son as a spirit, guiding him on the flightpath out of Venom after Fox defeats Andross.
• Playing with Fire: Sunset's magic is naturally attuned to fire, which has the useful side effect of protecting the Great Fox (which now runs on her power) from the heat of a planet that never moved past the molten rock stage of planetary formation.
• Power Incontinence: Sunset can't control her magic at first, which she's always leaking into the environment around her... except because the Lylat System is inherently non-magical, she winds up reabsorbing her power and causing it to build up to dangerous levels, until Krystal figures this out and releases a great deal of it into a nearby sun. With her help, Slippy figures out a means to absorb that power so she won't have these dangerous buildups and power surges.
• Rage Against the Heavens: In the very first chapter, Fox McCloud is angry over the loss of his father, feeling the older man's actions did no real good for him or anyone, and dares whatever higher power is out there to show him there's something worth fighting for. That's when an infant Sunset Shimmer pops out of a nearby mirror, along with her books and papers.
• Shipper on Deck: James McCloud is this for his son and Krystal, as his spirit makes clear when he appears to guide Fox out of Venom after the younger McCloud has destroyed Andross, telling him not to keep Krystal waiting too long before making a move.

On the Corner of Straight and Narrow (Trixie Lulamoon)

• Dark and Troubled Past: Trixie's is revealed in chapter 36 through a movie projector giving off eldritch energies, which forces her to dream of the worst moments from her past in Equestria: her mother's Death by Childbirth while delivering Trixie herself, her father bringing home a new wife to help take care of her, his own death, and her stepmother abandoning her to an orphanage, where she was shunned by the others for not being an Earth Pony, almost immediately afterward.
• Dungeon Bypass: Trixie is able to bypass huge swaths of the games' more tedious puzzles with a combination of magic, wit and weapons-grade cuteness. (The same thing goes for most other ponies to some degree.)
• Honorary Uncle: Sam, to Trixie.

Sons of Damas (Shining Armor)

• Heel–Face Turn: King Sombra, who usurped control of the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor manages to impress him with his Black Knight form (being connected to darkness while also achieving Alicornhood), and then the two get drunk and bond over common experiences, including being used as weapons by others. It's cemented when Shining Armor reunites him with Radiant Hope, his lost love, who is overjoyed to have him back.
• No Periods, Period: Averted for most characters with Keira as a notable exception; her Green Eco Sage nature has rendered her unfailingly fertile (so much so that she and Jak can't have sex at all until they're ready to have kids because she will get pregnant) but also prevents her from having to deal with periods.
• Reaching Between the Lines: Shining Armor is able to zap Errol, who's currently hacked into their holo-projector's transmission. A flabbergasted Errol lampshades the trope.
  Errol: "How did you manage to shoot me through a communication transmission?" (...) "That's impossible!"

The Rock in the Gulch (Maud Pie)

• Bizarre Taste in Food: Maud's favorite flavor of ice cream is Tabasco-maple-avocado.
• Bullet Seed: In chapter 25, Maud eats part of a gun (including the magazine) then spits the bullets out at high speed.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Tucker and Ferdy's children are named this way (it's tradition for her people) — the older is "Two-Ponies-Wrestling" (Caboose didn't realize what was actually going on), and "One-Man-Bucket", short for "One-Invisible-Man-Throwing-Bucket-of-Water-on-Two-Ponies". (They're shortened to "Twerp" and "Mob" respectively.)
• More Dakka: After Maud takes a bite out of Agent Texas' gun (magazine and all), Caboose picks her up and turns her tail like a crank while saying "Dakkadakkadakka..." Maud proceeds to spit out the bullets at high speed, eliciting this response:
  Texas: "...that is the most adorable minigun I've ever seen. That's fucking awesome."
• Pass the Popcorn: When Church shows off the Silly Will he set up in his absence, after the first two items are read off, Maud promptly pulls out a bucket of popcorn and offers some to Texas, who happily accepts.
• Person as Verb: Tucker's name eventually becomes a verb for being shot in the dick. He is less than amused by this.
• Silly Will: Church set up one of these for himself while he was stuck in the past. It turns out to be a Shout-Out to the Muldoon's Will skit.

Three More Things! (Cutie Mark Crusaders)

• Actually a Doombot: After Valmont cuts off their partnership, Daolong Wong starts using magical copies of himself to carry out missions while he hides in the Shadow Realm.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Valmont never undergoes his Villain Decay from canon, and even becomes the Demon Sorcerer of Light. It's revealed in the Book of Ages arc that this is a direct result of the Crusaders' presence averting the events of "Through the Rabbit Hole", as their influence led to Jade deciding not to use the Rabbit Talisman that day and thus never traveling back in time and altering his past.
  • In canon, Hsi Wu never displayed much magic besides his flight and Voluntary Shapeshifting. Here, he's a lot more skilled.
  • In the new world where magic is commonplace, at least, Tohru's mother is a powerful magic user, and knew that Valmont was a criminal from the start, having figured that Tohru would be drawn into crime eventually and figured that Valmont was better than the Yakuza.
• Adaptational Early Appearance'':
  • Daolong Wong becomes associated with the Dark Hand early in season 2, during the Demon Portals arc, far earlier than his canon debut a few episodes after the "Demon World" arc.
  • Downplayed with Ratso's nephew Rocko. In canon, he wasn't even referenced until season 5; here, Ratso calls him on the phone in the "Jade Times Jade" arc, though he doesn't appear in person.
  • In canon, Strikemaster Ice and his gang didn't appear until late in season 4. Here, DJ Fist (the silent strongman of the group) appears in season 2's "Rumble in the Big House" arc after his father is recruited to help with the Dark Hand's mission to release Xiao Fung from his portal, and the entire gang appears in the "The Powers Unleashed" arc, having been recruited as Daolong Wong's new Dark Chi Warriors in place of the Enforcers.
• Adaptational Name Change: Karl Nivor's name is changed to Carl Nibor, keeping the pun based on 'carnivore' and ironically making his last name simply 'robin' spelled backwards.
• Allergic to Evil: The CMC feel burning sensations when they come in contact with demonic creatures or someone who is demon-possessed.
• And I Must Scream: As payback for his actions at Po Kong's gate, when Valmont uses the Book of Ages to rewrite the world, he traps Wong's mind so he can only watch his counterpart from Demon World, who is Uncle's apprentice.
• Animorphism: Just like in canon, Captain Black accidentally turns himself into a frog while experimenting with chi spells.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  • Captain Black is called out on his refusal to believe in the magic Uncle insists the talismans contain since he sees Audrey, a giant walking Venus Fly Trap that communicates by singing, and Cumolo, Scootaloo's pet cloud that not only can gather and shoot lightning but is also a handy transport in a pinch, on a regular basis and accepts that they exist and are exactly what they appear to be. In fact, he is apparently the only skeptic still among the Section 13 crew by the time of the Shendu battle in Hong Kong.
  • Jade has trouble believing in Santa Claus at first, until the others point out all the other weird stuff in her life.
• Ascended Extra: Bai Tza, who had all of one episode as a main antagonist (plus a brief appearance in the Cold Open of the next; all her other appearances were as part of a group) in canon, is here made the first demon sorcerer to be released, and becomes a major supporting character for the villains, even being Promoted to Love Interest for Valmont.
• Badass Santa: As the living embodiment of Elemental Good Chi, when Santa is at his full power on Christmas Eve, he's one of the strongest Physical Gods in the setting, able to scare off actual gods and bend the rules of magic to do whatever he wants. He also packs a shotgun in case of emergencies and is all but stated to be Old Man Henderson, or at least his reincarnation. And to top it off, his wife Heather is the reincarnation of Hastur.
• Berserk Button: DO NOT try to harm members of Jackie's family, or it'll probably be the last thing you ever do.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Jackie hides a deep pool of anger and bitterness beneath his outer layers of kindness and gentleness — it's only his self-control from years of training that keeps him from becoming a monster. However, pressing his Berserk Button makes Jackie mad enough to nearly commit homicide.
• Both Sides Have a Point: The argument that Tiger!Jackie and Pussycat!Jackie have. Pussycat is correct that Tiger isn't being empathetic enough with the girls and that they shouldn't be recklessly exposed to the darker side of the world before they're ready. But Tiger is right in calling out Pussycat for dumping all of his negativity on him and also correct in his insistence that they need to get the girls ready to face the darkness instead of coddling them.
• Born Lucky: One Section 13 agent has a Class 5 "luck bloodline" which means that things go his way when things get serious.
• Born of Magic: Both Tso Lan and Hsi Wu spontaneously emerged due to magical events. Hsi Wu, for example, was born from a storm caused by an uncontrolled Dark magic discharge.
• Brick Joke: Near the beginning of the story, Uncle calls Sweetie Belle "Qilin" in a reference to ancient mythology. When Jade arrives, she does the same thing.
• Call-Forward:
  • During the early years, Uncle recalls "that one student who'd been expelled after Fireball's prank had exposed his studies of dark magic". It later turns out he's referring to Daolong Wong, though he was unaware of the villain's identity at the time.
  • Narration late in the "The Chosen One" arc references the "Shadow Oni", whose leader is an ally of Daolong Wong and whom he thinks of calling on as a last resort. This foreshadows the future appearance of Tarakudo, the lead villain of season 4 of the parent series.
• Calling Your Attacks: Hak Foo. Uncle retaliates with the following after delivering a Groin Attack:
  Uncle (deadly serious): "Papa Wolf pulls no punches."
• Celestial Bureaucracy: The Jade Council, the assemblage of all the gods in the setting (Good, Dark, and Wild), which work together to preserve the Balance Between Good and Evil and reign over all the magical laws of the worlds.
• Challenge Seeker: Hsi Wu, who only sought to Take Over the World with the other members of the Brotherhood because he knew that doing so would mean that he could encounter a number of beings who would count as a Worthy Opponent.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Combined with Foreign Cuss Word in the Sheep Talisman's arc, which concludes with Shendu "spouting curses in various dead languages that hadn't been dead the last time he'd had a flesh and blood body".
• Company Cross References: The early chapter "Crazy Customers" has references to three of Tatsurou's other fanfics:
  • When Seras appears, she pets Scootaloo, and explains her focus on her as "There's just...something about her," ... "A...certain kinship. I can't really explain it." This references Daughter of Darkness, in which Seras is regarded as Alucard's daughter and Scootaloo is his daughter.
  • Riku's appearance is in reference to Equestrian Hearts.
  • Sebastian Michaelis refers to Scootaloo as "My Lady", and when she objects, saying "I'm no lady!", he comments "Perhaps in another life...", in reference to the then-upcoming fic Yes, My Lady.
• Composite Character: The Monkey King is the chaotic/evil persona of Sun Wu Kong.
• Crossover: Besides the obvious core concept of the story, characters from several other series make appearances as well.
  • In the "Crazy Customers" chapter, Uncle's shop is visited by a blonde vampire looking for her Master's sword (Seras, from Hellsing), a silver-haired young man searching for a green cube (Riku, from Kingdom Hearts), and a certain demonic butler (Sebastian Michaelis, from Black Butler).
  • The Rat Talisman lands in a Cthulhu Mythos book, creating a facsimile of the entity that nearly grows powerful enough to summon the real thing. Also, Santa is the reincarnation of Old Man Henderson.
  • On the flight to Bavaria to search for the Pig Talisman, a man keeps asking Audrey, who is disguised by a mustache, if he knows Mr. Mumbles, and on the way back, he's annoyed by the fact that the factory was destroyed before he could get revenge on it for mislabeled lactose-free chocolate that wasn't, and is calmed down by his pink-haired girlfriend.
  • After the whole Shendu being destroyed and everyone knows about magic but thinks it's normal thing, Captain Black ends up conferencing with Jake Long from American Dragon: Jake Long, Negi Springfield from Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Kinomoto Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura and Lucoa from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.
  • While on a "stopping a demon from being summoned in Hollywood" trip, the Chan Clan meets up with Ray-ray Lee, who is representing his sister, who, despite all the world's alterations, still can't leave Orchid Bay.
  • The "Tale of the Demon Tail" arc involves David Xanatos and Goliath from Gargoyles as a business partner to Valmont. Xanatos shows up again during the denouement of the Demon Portals arc, as does Oberon.
  • Some of Issei Hyoudou's children go to Jade's school.
  • Spawn and Ghost Rider appears as the caseworkers assigned to negotiate the Demon Sorcerers' possible parole/commuting.
  • Sonata was, at one point, trained by Mr. Popo. Not the canon one — the terrible one from Dragon Ball Z Abridged. And she was an apt student, to the point that he had to seal her new skills with a trigger word: Pecking order.
  • Mirage is the leader of a cult to Sekhmet, planning to use those affected by the Cat of Khartoum as sacrifices to her.
  • The Chans meet Mei-Ling along with the Jiangshi from canon, and later go to reunite her with her sister. During said reunion, they meet Alucard, Integra, Walter and Father Alexander Anderson.
  • The Men in Black (K and J specifically) show up at the end of The Chan Who Knew Too Much.
  • Captain Black gets to fight several of the characters from Mortal Kombat and kills Shao Kahn in combat in a way that permanently kills him.
• Crossover Relatives: Bai Tza is mentioned to have three Siren daughters — D'gi, A'ri, and S'na — who were exiled after she herself was sealed. The author has confirmed, even before their names were revealed, that her children are Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk.
• A Day in the Limelight: The "Re-Enter the J-Team" arc gives heavy focus to Captain Black, who almost singlehandedy defeats Shao Kahn and prevents him from invading Earth and forcing it to abide by the rules of Mortal Kombat.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • For a given definition of "death" — the events of "The Eighth Door" cause Jackie to destroy the Pan'ku Box, with its powers absorbed by Balance Breaker.
  • Tchang Zu is killed and "returned to the cycle of reincarnation" by Spawn upon his Redemption Rejection.
  • Bartholomew Chang is killed offscreen by Shang Tsung, who was using him to allow Shao Kahn to invade Earth and force it to abide by the rules of Mortal Kombat.
• Demon of Human Origin: Tso Lan offers to transform Valmont into a demon, possibly a replacement for Shendu as the Sorcerer of Fire, as payment for his services to the Brotherhood, and out of respect for Bai Tsa's love for him. At the end of the Eighth Door arc, his rage at Bai being banished back to the Netherworld causes him to become the Demon Sorcerer of Light.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • Tohru, Audrey, and Apple Bloom manage to defeat the Rat Talisman's facsimile of the real Cthulhu by combining their power and defeating him in a fistfight.
  • Tohru manages to knock Dai Gui out with one punch. In the Demon World arc, his counterpart easily tosses him out when he goes to complain to Po Kong about how (thanks to his Bad Boss tendencies) many of his subjects have left his lands for hers.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Some of the Demon Brotherhood truly care for one another and others.
  • Bai Tza's greatest desire is to be reunited with her long-lost daughters.
  • Xiao Fung cares enough for Tso Lan to agree to share some of his prison time with him.
  • Tso Lan is willing to do whatever it takes to make Valmont into a demon so he can become a permanent member of their group since Bai Tza truly loves the man.
  • Po Kong and Bai Tza are close enough that Po Kong's main desire, once freed, is to attend her sister's wedding, and isn't willing to do anything to jeopardize her chance to do so. She ends up banishing herself as a desperate gambit to both save the Crusaders from Daolong Wong, because she knows how fond her sister is of them, and to save Bai herself since, having been a Siren before becoming a demon, Bai is in serious danger of dying from the spell Wong is using to draw from their powers.
  • Hsi Wu, in the days before he was imprisoned, was very close to Emeraude, the girl he was a bonded familiar to ( to the point where he viewed her as a sister), and is close enough to Bai Tza to willingly ask her for help in making Jade happy.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Argued between Hsi Wu/"Seymour" and Jade when Hsi creates a character for a game that he describes as Chaotic Evil, but like him, has standards and a sense of decorum, which Jade argues to mean that it should be Chaotic Neutral instead. Later, before summoning him as her Familiar, she brings it up again, saying that he's more Lawful than Chaotic with how important he considers his personal code.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The second Shendu realizes that the Rat Talisman could result in Cthulhu being summoned fully, he orders the Enforcers to do anything they can to help the Chans stop it from happening, even if it means having to forfeit a chance to get the Talisman.
• Familiar:
  • Audrey III is a Dryadic Familiar for Apple Bloom.
  • Hsi Wu eventually agrees to become Jade's familiar, and it's revealed he was one for her past identity Emeraude as well.
  • During the case hearing for the five Demon Sorcerers who are still imprisoned, Dai Gui begrudgingly agrees to become someone's familiar, since it's the only way he'll be freed from the Demon Netherworld.
• Fertile Feet: One way Apple Bloom's Earth Pony magic manifests itself. However, due to her lack of control over it, she can't turn it off, forcing her to ride around on her pet plant or to hitch a ride on Scootaloo's animated cloud most of the time to avoid direct contact with the soil. This is no longer a problem after the Harmony wave and her earning her Cutie Mark.
• Flying on a Cloud: Cumulo, Scootaloo's pet animated cloud that serves as a mode of transportation for the fillies, mainly Scootaloo (since she can't fly) and sometimes Apple Bloom (who can't walk on the ground without causing plants to sprout and grow around her hooves).
• Fountain of Youth: Daolong Wong has apparently magically de-aged himself back to his teen years more than a dozen times in order to prolong his life.
• Friendly Enemy: Valmont accidentally turns himself and the Chans into this by talking about how they can't be sure that the Demon Lords deserved being sealed away and even if they did, it's entirely possible they're no longer a threat. By the time the Demon Portal saga is over, it's hard to even call them enemies anymore.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Quite a few characters have them, as a result of constant exposure to magic letting their consciences manifest. Notably, they're not a case of good vs evil, just opposing aspects of the person in question's personality. And in an interesting touch, the shoulder people can all see each other.
  • Jackie's are the Light (known as "Kitten") and Dark (known as "Tiger") versions of himself that he splits into whenever he uses the Tiger Talisman.
  • Jade's are a version herself in white robes (called "Saint") who represents her calmer side, and a mini-Queen of the Shadowkhan (called, fittingly enough, "Queen"), who represents her wilder, more reckless traits. And it turns out that Saint is actually her past life Emeraude, acting as a Spirit Advisor once Jade becomes the Chosen One.
  • Viper has Domestic Viper (her as a housewife) who represents her more laid-back personality, and Adventurous Viper (her dressed as Catwoman) who is her wilder and mischievous side.
  • Uncle has a mini-version of his normal self and one in more casual clothes who acts like his more energetic and youthful Dog Talisman-powered self.
• Good Hurts Evil: Contact with good chi infused creatures, such as the CMC, is very painful for creatures aligned with darker chi.
  • Ratso lampshades this when Wong tells the Enforcers that he and his Dark Chi Warriors cannot touch the Pan'ku Box because of its Good nature, pointing out that it seems like a design flaw, given that Good magic beings would be his most common foes.
  • Bai Tza can touch them in her human form because she based it off of her original Siren form, which means that her Siren Wild magic acts as a buffer. She still can't touch the Box though, since it's keyed directly to the Brotherhood members.
  • Luna (Tso Lan's daughter) can touch them without being hurt since, being half-human, she's immune to that sort of thing as long as she isn't actively committing an evil deed.
• Groin Attack:
  • Uncle does this to Hak Foo as part of his Let's Get Dangerous! moment.
  • Jade delivers one to the Monkey King within moments of meeting him.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: This becomes a Running Gag for Jade regarding her relationship with Hsi Wu, along with "I'm not his Mistress", due to her position of authority over him as her familiar, and she can even tell when someone is calling him her boyfriend from miles away. She eventually ditches the boyfriend one after getting over her denial of her feelings in the Chosen One arc.
• Head Pet: Sweetie Belle especially has a habit of sitting on Uncle's head when she's very young. The others do it too sometimes though Apple Bloom does this more than Scootaloo, especially when somewhere Audrey can't give her a ride and therefore prevent her from having her Green Thumb powers make every plant under-hoof sprout into full growth.
• Heartbroken Badass: Without Bai Tza at his side, something he knows will be the case when time restores itself to normal, Valmont has nothing to really keep him going.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Valmont sets up Tchang Zu's release to be a part of a movie in order to allow him to be released legally, but in the process of doing so accidentally ruins any chance of things going peacefully with the Chans, though with that member of the Brotherhood, it was probably going to fail anyway.
  • Tchang Zu is defeated when he blasts Scootaloo into the upper atmosphere with his demonically-charged lightning, which draws the attention of Raijin, who imbues the pegasus filly with some of his power, allowing her to defeat and banish him, especially since he refuses to listen to Valmont and withdraw before its too late.
  • The monk looking for the Scroll of Hung Chao in the Lotus Temple is foiled because, after Luna (not the Equestrian Princess) met the gang in the library, she removed any scrolls with actual power, and those without innate Moon Magic cannot touch the scrolls unless the Temple is in the real world under the light of a full moon. And since the monk's greed would prevent him from asking for help from any visitors for fear of them taking the power he craves, and keep him from leaving until he found what he's looking for, he's essentially going to be the Guardian for a long time. Luna isn't exactly bothered that someone who sought to use magic for gain is trapped by their greed.
  • Hsi Wu developed a spell that allowed the Demon Sorcerers to combine their abilities, which was used by the Immortals as part of the process of banishing them. He cast a spell on it so no mortal eyes could see it afterwards, but Wong managed to find Mirmir's eye and uses it against Hsi, Bai, and Po Kong.
  • The Demon World arc came across because of Wong's obsession with attacking the fillies for magical ingredients, for which Valmont made Wong's counterpart Uncle's willing apprentice, while the original Wong is fully aware of what's going on, but unable to do anything.
  • Valmont, as mentioned below, tells Wong how his actions not only cost him a shot at rare materials and a chance to get one up on Uncle by asking the fillies for them and paying them back for it in favors, like amusement park tickets, but cost him any access to Valmont's resources and earned the enmity of a newly ascended Demon Sorcerer of Light.
• Hour of Power: 364 days of the year, Santa Claus is a Class 6 on the Super Weight scale, but on Christmas Eve he goes up to a Class 1, which is Physical God level, above the level of the other Class 1s, even, and enabling him to bend the laws of magic to his will.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • Audrey III may be tame (and relying on Apple Bloom's magic as his primary food source), but he is still a Man-Eating Plant, albeit confining himself to those who are evil. Especially if they threaten Apple Bloom. It's all but said out loud that he ate the Yokanawa crime family in the Mother of All Battles arc.
  • The demoness sealed in the Armor of the Immortals is one of these, and will eat any she does not find worthy of the armor.
• I Know Your True Name: When Jackie tries to address Valmont by his first name and suddenly realizes he doesn't know it, Valmont informs him that in the old timeline, only his mother knew his true name. In this new timeline, he's taken magical precautions, magically locking it away in his own mind, making it impossible for anyone to know it (and thus use it against him) unless he spoke it.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: The robes Jade gets as the Chosen One, which can transform into any other outfit she wants.
• Killed Off for Real:
  • Tchang Zu, the only one of the Demon Sorcerers to have this fate, is killed and forcibly returned to the cycle of reincarnation when he makes it clear that he has no desire to change his ways and will remain evil.
  • Captain Black kills Shao Kahn of Mortal Kombat by being prepared. He used Balance Breaker and it not only removed all of his abilities to cheat death but returned all of his stolen abilities back to the cycle.
• Kirin: When the CMC appears on the doorstep of the Chan household, Uncle is wonderstruck at such a good omen as being visited by an infant ki-lin — meaning Sweetie Belle. When Jackie protests that she's a Western unicorn, not a Chinese ki-lin, Uncle replies that "unicorn" and "ki-lin" are simply different languages' names for the same species of magical beings.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Valmont, on multiple occasions.
  • When he sees the Chans have the upper hand, Valmont calls for a retreat, though Tchang Zu refuses to listen and is subsequently defeated and banished.
  • When Dai Gui refuses to follow their agreement and is knocked out by Tohru, Valmont makes no effort to stop the Chans from banishing him.
  • When he realizes the consequences of his meddling with time, Valmont backs down and allows the others to restore the timeline. He's even fully willing to accept the Jade Council's judgment and punishment for his actions. He even references the trope:
    Valmont: "I'm ready to fold."
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Hak Foo threatens Uncle's little girls... he quickly learns just how bad an idea this is.
  Uncle (deadly serious): "Papa Wolf pulls no punches."
• Light Is Not Good: Valmont becomes the Demon Sorcerer of Light in the climax of The Eighth Door.
• Literal Split Personality: The Tiger talisman, as usual, causes this if split. Something similar happens when Jackie and Viper pull on the Monkey King's legs at the same time, splitting them into their shoulder people personas, while the Monkey King is split into himself and Sun Wu Kong.
• Lovecraft Lite: The entities of the Cthulhu Mythos exist here, but so does Old Man Henderson (he's Santa BTW), and Tohru, Audrey, and Apple Bloom manage to combine their abilities and fight off a facsimile of Ctulhu before the real thing can come a-knocking, and there are other beings and forces dedicated to keeping him and his fellows at bay. Valmont even devises an "Elder Trap" that can capture them and turn them into a source of magical power in the Demon World chapters.
• Monster Progenitor: In this universe, Dai Gui is the first Minotaur, Labyrinthos, turned into a demon as punishment by Poseidon, his father, for seeking conquest.
• Named Weapon: Balance Breaker, which Jackie gains when his Yin and Yang fuse back into one while each is holding an electric sword normally used by the Dark Hand. Their swords also fuse through the Tiger Talisman's magic, giving it its powers. It later absorbs the power of the Pan'ku Box, allowing it to open and seal demon portals.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jackie's furious reaction to learning that Jade's been banished to the Netherrealm, destroying the Pan'ku Box and using its power to send all the other Demon Sorcerers back to their prisons, leads to Valmont undergoing demonic ascension and triggering the Demon World arc.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Aria and Adagio apparently have a problem with this (though at least they admit it), yelling at Sonata if she tries to interrupt them when they're shouting at one another. This habit has gotten them ambushed thirty-seven times, and every single time Sonata could have warned them but didn't because she knew she'd just get yelled at. It's also mentioned that when they tried giving her a code word to use in emergencies, in an effort to try and avert this trope, they discontinued its use after she kept just using it to point out fast food places.
• Not So Above It All: Upon finding out that Nibor was going to eat Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, Captain Black notes it's a good thing that he wasn't on the helicopter transporting Nibor or he would have been tempted to drop the man in shark infested waters.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Santa plays dumb when Wong kidnapped him, pretending not to know what chi was, among other things.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Audrey can somehow pass as human with just a false mustache.
• Pass the Popcorn: A goblin named McKettle makes his living by magically showing up to provide people with popcorn during amusing moments.
• Power Levels: The magical community has a series of official power level classifications for all beings, organized from 10 to 0:
  • Class 10: Fully mundane people with no magical capacity.
  • Class 9: Those with latent magic, but only able to use it to maintain the natural balance of the world, like the Minish and Nature Spirits.
  • Class 8: Inherently magical, but have no way to express it.
  • Class 7: Inherently magical, and able to use that magic at will. Includes griffons, manticores, salamanders, and pixies.
  • Class 6: Inherently magical, with the ability to project their magic as projectiles or spread it to others. Includes weaker Fae, vampires, were-creatures and Santa Claus (364 days out of the year).
  • Class 5: Those with the ability to wield the magical fields, i.e. witches, warlocks and sorcerers.
  • Class 4: Magical hybrids and exceptionally powerful magi, like Uncle.
  • Class 3: Immortals, such as ascended humans, Demon Sorcerers, Archangels, and Arch Fiends.
  • Class 2: Demigods, which can be classified as those whose power rivals a god's, those who have divine heritage, or actual gods who have been kicked off the Jade Council and stripped of much of their old rights and privileges (though maintaining their full power).
  • Class 1: Gods. All, whether they be Good, Dark, or Wild, are members of the Jade Council. The exception is Santa when he's at full power on Christmas Eve when he's strong enough to bend the laws of magic to his will and is more powerful than any of the gods.
  • Class 0: The Creator and Beast Ragnarok, who can respectfully will things in and out of existence with a thought. One of the major concerns of the Council is making sure that no one else ascends to that level of power and tips the balance between the two.
• Power Limiter:
  • Audrey acts as one for Apple Bloom's Fertile Feet powers, helping her keep them under relative control (it also helps that she can ride around on him to avoid touching the earth or dead wood). This stops being necessary once she gets her cutie mark and gains control of her powers.
  • In the Demon World arc, while Jade finds herself with the Mark of Tarakudo and in an older version of her "Queen of the Shadowkhan" form, and control of the Ninja-Khan, she has a Harmony magic sigil around the Mark that seems to keep it under control and prevent it from affecting her mind as it did in canon.
  • When the remaining five Demon Sorcerers are having their case reviews, Po Kong is informed that her actions while released would normally allow her to be set free and her criminal record expunged, but the world as it is can't sustain a free demon of her size and appetite. Consequently, she agrees to have her power siphoned off into one of these (which she'll be allowed to keep on her), letting her be sealed in a human form (it was previously established that because of her size, she was the only one of the eight who was unable to assume a human form on her own).
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Hsi Wu, when he realizes that a newly demonized Valmont has violated the magical No Man's Land of Australia.
  • Santa, of all people, as part of Pre-Asskicking One-Liner to Daolong Wong. Though he somehow manages to pronounce it as Symbol Swearing.
• Priceless Ming Vase: In one chapter, Scootaloo knocks over and breaks one in Uncle's shop. After he sweeps it up (and to reassure the CMC that it's not a big deal), Uncle says there's millions of Ming Vases around the world being broken.
• Redemption Rejection: Tchang Zu refuses to change his ways during the parole hearing, so his soul is forcibly returned to the cycle of reincarnation.
• Reincarnation:
  • The Chosen One is reincarnated every time he or she dies.
  • When the Demon Sorcerers have their parole hearing, four of the five are given second chances. Tchang Zu alone makes it clear that he has no desire to change his ways, and so is forcibly returned to the Cycle of Reincarnation by Spawn and Ghost Rider.
  • Santa Claus is revealed as the reincarnation of Old Man Henderson. His wife Heather Claus is the reincarnation of Hastur.
• Reincarnation Romance: Subverted — while Hsi Wu and Jade are becoming a couple in the present day, he had a Like Brother and Sister relationship with her past incarnation as Emeraude.
• Required Secondary Powers: Unfortunately for Apple Bloom, as a young foal, she has yet to develop any that will keep her Green Thumb power (which causes plants to sprout wherever she walks, even bringing dead wood back to life) under control. She finally does get them after she and the other Crusaders earn their Cutie Marks.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Those at the "eye" of the Harmony effect that destroyed Shendu, like the Chans, Tohru, Black, Valmont, and the Enforcers, remember the reality before magic became commonplace.
• Santa Claus: The man himself shows up as an extremely powerful and benevolent being of good chi, and although his powers do have limits, preventing him from granting the fillies' requests to the letter, he still manages to grant them quite satisfactorily in the spirit.
• Sneeze Cut: Jade is able to tell when someone is saying that Hsi Wu is her boyfriend from hundreds of miles away, even calling Viper to give the He Is Not My Boyfriend line.
• Sneeze of Doom: Inverted. At one point, Tohru gets a cold, and his sneezes send thermometers across the room. When this happens, he tracks his temperature.
• Soul-Cutting Blade: Balance Breaker can cut a target's aura and throw off their internal balance, making it very useful against magical foes.
• Speaks in Shout-Outs: Audrey III speaks almost entirely in song lyrics.
• Stating the Simple Solution: After Daolong Wong tries to attack the Crusaders for the purpose of harvesting rare magical components — leading to the complete ruin of the Dark Hand's master plan, and the alternate timeline — Valmont points out that he could just have asked for the stuff and paid it back in favors.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Santa's role apparently prevents him from killing, which is the only reason that Wong survived his kidnap attempt once he got lose and got access to his full power.
• Title Drop: At the end of the very first chapter, and throughout the rest of the fic — fitting, seen as it's Uncle's catchphrase in the show.
  "AIYAH!" Uncle screamed out, desperately covering his ears. "Three more things!"
• Top God: At the top of this setting's divine hierarchy is the duo of The Creator and Beast Ragnarok, in a never-ending war with each other. One of the main purposes of the Jade Council (who are just below them power-wise) is to make sure a third such deity never comes into existence, as doing so might lead to it siding with one or the other, disrupting the balance and leading reality into chaos.
• Villain Has a Point: Valmont at one point makes the argument that whatever their crimes, the Demon Sorcerers don't deserve to be trapped alone in the Netherworld for all eternity. Jackie finds his argument not without point and notes that the reason the Box is able to open the portals at all might be to basically offer the Demons a chance at parole.
• Walking Shirtless Scene:
  • Jackie has to take his shirt off for the anti-Demon Sorcerer runes the Crusaders know how to apply to him.
  • Minotaurs, male and female, tend to go around shirtless.
• Was Once a Man: Variant — Bai Tza was once a Siren before achieving demonic metamorphosis, while Dai Gui was originally Labyrinthos, the first Minotaur, before transforming. Played straight by Valmont, who transforms into an elemental demon of light in the climax of The Eighth Door.
• Weak, but Skilled: Hsi Wu is the weakest of the Demon Sorcerers, at least in part due to the fact that he's the youngest (at least of those that were born demons, Bai Tza is younger than he is) and demons apparently are Stronger with Age in this universe, but that just means he's the most creative at using the power he does have, withdrawing when he encounters a problem, studying it from all angles, and finding either the most efficient or fun way to rip it to shreds, pushing the limits of magic to understand the "why" instead of just accepting that 'this is how it works'. One of his first goals after getting his tail was to find science textbooks, especially ones on chemicals and gas formations. Tso Lan has a good deal of respect for his abilities, which touch into the elements of several of his siblings in some way or another, citing to Valmont a time when he defeated a group of mages and warriors with Anti-Magic by stripping away the Earth's magnetic field to expose them to unfiltered solar radiation.
• Weirdness Censor: The CMC have them, in the form of amulets that convince people nearby that they are perfectly normal and uninteresting and not worth paying attention to, even when they're obviously doing magic things. People with sufficient magic talent (such as Tohru and El Toro, the latter owing it to constant exposure to the Ox Talisman for many years) can see through... often with hilarious results, as the girls tend to take their "disguises" for granted a lot of the time. Self-training can also let people see through it, such as Viper and Carl Nibor. At the end of the Talisman hunt, when Shendu is destroyed by the power of Harmony, the wave of magic overloads their pendants and destroys them, carrying the effect across the entire world. As a result, the world's entire Muggle population now knows of and thinks that magic is normal, but nothing to be concerned about.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Shell Game arc certainly qualifies. Jackie's canon temper issues not only come out earlier but are revealed to be based in a Dark and Troubled Past that hints at being the reason he was raised by Uncle. This development completely upends the earlier tone of levity and shifts it squarely into Darker and Edgier territory.
  • The Eighth Door arc ends with Valmont becoming the Demon Sorcerer of Light.
• Who Is Driving?: The conclusion of the ''And He Does His Own Stunts" arc has all five human characters and the fillies in the back of their vehicle, when Viper suddenly wonders who's driving. Cut to Audrey, wearing a cowboy hat and mustache and singing "On the Road Again" as he steers them through traffic.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The Shell Game arc introduces Carl Nibor, who plans to eat Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo due to his literal appetite for members of rare and/or endangered species.
  • The Jade Times Jade and The Eighth Door arcs have Daolong Wong attacking the fillies, viewing them only as "rare magical ingredients", and Tchang Zu attacking Jade when she's accidentally brought into the Demon Netherworld by Po Kong (she was aiming for Wong but missed and couldn't stop herself when he teleported away), who does not approve of either attack.

---

The Megaverse trilogy contains examples of:

Wily's Wittle Wub (Vinyl Scratch)

• The Ahnold: Guts Man's personality.
• Armed Legs: Charge Kick, gained from Charge Man, grants this.
• Bedmate Reveal: An odder variant. Bubble Man, when he's first activated, finds Wily (a "wrinkley old dude") and Vinyl ("a filly barely out of diapers") looking at him, and is disappointed — he says he was hoping to see either "A total babe", "Or maybe a rockin' dude".
• Calling Your Attacks: Bright Man does this. After acquiring his weapon, Mega Man does it too.
• Can't Believe I Said That: After using a water-based attack to defeat Bright Man, Mega Man tells him, "Looks like you're all washed up now!" Then he does a doubletake and says this trope.
• Cool Big Bro: Wily builds Forte to be this for Vinyl.
• Cool Bike: Rush and Treble can both turn into one.
• Curbstomp Battle: Skull Man completely destroys Mega Man after he destroys all of Cossack's robots. And then proceeds to directly reference Undertale.
  Skull Man: "GEEEEEET DUNKED ON!"
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: During game 1, Wily threatens Mega Man like this if he wakes Vinyl from her nap. It works.
  Dr. Wily: "Vinyl's down for her nap, and if you wake her, I will personally tear you limb from limb, hook your head, CPU, and personality core up to a potato battery to keep all three running, and make you watch a remix of Teletubbies, Batman & Robin, and My Little Pony Newborn Cuties endlessly!"
  • Air Man does his own version later.
  Air Man: "The Items belong to Vinyl. Make sure you return them to her. If you don't, I will feed you your own limbs with marinara sauce and oil."
• Downer Ending: Rock, Kalinka and Dr. Light are all dead, Prometheus and Skull Man have taken up residence on Mars with others who fled Earth to escape the war that's broken out, and Vinyl, having left for Equestria with Wily, Forte and some others, has shut down everything ever connected to the World Wide Web as a parting shot to those who caused all this. However, there's still hope: three capsules remain containing three robots and one pony — X and the infant Octavia Melody, Zero, and Axl — who will play a vital role in Melody of the Future.
• Equippable Ally: By Mega Man 6, Rush has been upgraded to combine with Mega Man.
• Erudite Stoner: Wood Man's personality.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Metal Man's personality (especially in Freak Mode) proves to be too scary for Vinyl, so Wily deactivates him. This also prompts his surrender to Mega Man.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: How Elec Man speaks. Even when he's not directly quoting Shakespeare.
• Foreshadowing: Proto Man's multiple personalities are first mentioned in the first arc of the series. It comes into play during the events of Mega Man 8.
• Friendly Enemy: Dr Wily to Dr Light and Mega Man. He believes in conquering the world for beneficial reasons, and considers Thomas Light to still be his best friend — albeit one who stands in the way of his goals. He's surprisingly respectful of Mega Man and tends to surrender rather than fight once the latter reaches him. Several of the Robot Masters are willing to talk it out rather than fight, or present Mega Man with puzzles and other challenges. And Dr Light is willing to turn a blind eye when Wily steals the Robot Masters in the first place, since employing security or the police would just get them harmed anyway.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Wily gives one ("Vinyl Scratch Wily...") in the Mega Man 3 arc.
• Fun with Acronyms: The First Annual Robotics Tournament. When he hears the audience laughing and takes another look at it, Wily wonders why he didn't see it sooner.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Vinyl, who easily designs and builds weapons, Robot Masters and pretty much anything she can imagine.
• Head Pet: Vinyl likes to ride on her new dad's head. It's actually where he first discovered her. Eventually, he tells her she's getting a little too big for this, and she responds by offering to build him a new spine so his neck can still handle her size.
• Heroic BSoD: Mega Man suffers one over how far he want in trying to arrest Wily in arc 5, threatening Vinyl to get the man to come peacefully. He is utterly horrified at this, and begs Dr. Light to order him to destroy himself.
• Honorary Uncle: Dr. Mikhail Cossack to Vinyl. She calls him "Uncle Mickey".
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Mega Man can't destroy himself unless ordered by Dr. Light, who refuses to do so even when Mega Man begs him. Wily, on the other hand, programmed his robots so they could shut themselves down in order to not carry out an action that's truly unbearable to who they are. After learning this, Mega Man has Dr. Light install the same thing in himself.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: A lot of Dr. Cossack's Robot Masters were programmed while he was under the influence of several exotic substances from his high school reunion. Also lots of flipping through Kalinka's movies, games and anime, and programming in whatever made him laugh. Wily even refers to this as "Lots of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' programming".
• It's What I Do: Variant in that someone else says "It's what he does". Specifically, in the start of the Mega Man 8 arc:
  "Dad, Albert builds eight new robot masters to change a light bulb," Mega Man countered dryly. "It's kinda his thing. Unless there's something more, I'm pretty sure we can ignore it."
• Kill It with Fire: Namedropped when Mega Man breaks out a flamethrower in response to Toad Man doing a certain... impression.
• Loophole Abuse: The Mega Man 2 arc ends with this. Mega Man points out he has to stop Wily, not arrest him. That means that by interfering in Wily's plans while letting him go, he's still achieved his mission. The three Robot Masters in his way, who have orders to fight him in order to guarantee Wily's escape, decide this makes sense and are prepared to let him through. Then Wily himself shows up with a third option: he's surrendering.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Rush, introduced in the Mega Man 3 arc, to Mega Man. The wolf robot Treble is created as a similar companion to Bass.
• MacGyvering: Vinyl made a functional sonic disruptor out of Wily's stereo.

• Noodle Incident: If "Albert...why do you have a unicorn clinging to your head?" is the third strangest thing Dr. Light has ever asked Dr. Wily (as of the start of the series), what were the first and second strangest things?
• Only a Flesh Wound: Magnet Man treats having his arm break off like this. Mega's first response is that as a robot, he doesn't ''have'' flesh.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: "Mr. X" and "X-P0N3", Wily and Vinyl's disguises in the Mega Man 6 arc. Mega Man is the only one who can see through it. Wily himself lampshades this when he comments that "I'm as stunned as you that no one's seen through it yet."
• Pass the Popcorn: Wily, Vinyl and the Robot Masters like to treat Mega's adventures like a cross between a movie and sports night, including snacks. Dr. Light joins in when he finds out.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Vinyl and Kalinka do this in stereo to get Dr. Cossack to cooperate with Dr. Wily's plan in the Mega Man 4 arc.
• Read the Freaking Manual: For one of the Robot Masters' fights, Mega is given a packet of instructions for safely crossing what's effectively a minefield. He apparently didn't take the hint in the very first instruction — ''Read all clues before attempting to solve” and tries to solve the math in each clue as it comes up. After the time limit runs out and he sets off a bomb on his very first step onto the field, he reads the packet again to see what he missed and finds that Clue 544 is “Ignore clues 2 through 543.” Then clue 545 gives the actual solution.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the Mega Man 2 arc, Quick Man and Bubble Man ditch the fight to go surfing, leaving a note and their respective weapons for Mega Man.
• Shout-Out: Chapter 4 contains the command sequence that gave birth to Freakazoid!. It becomes the key to activating their "Freak Mode".
  • Several Robot Masters have personalities that are this: Heat Man's is based on the Hulk. Needle Man's is based on Wolverine. Top Man's is Marvin. Pharaoh Man's is the animated Jackie Chan. Toad Man is a mix of Hexxus and Dr. Frank N Furter. Bright Man is Gru (and a convenient Mettool does a Minion impression during his fight with Mega Man). Ring Man is the title character of Naruto. Dust Man is Igor. Drill Man is the protagonist of Dig Dug. Skull Man is Darth Vader. Forte is Ranma Saotome. Gyro Man is Derpy. Charge Man is the White Rabbit. Blizzard Man is Mr. Freeze. Original character Web Man is Venom. Centaur Man is Mister Ed. Junk Man is Wreck-Gar. Slash Man is a Sandslash. Shade Man is Count Von Count. Sword Man is Inigo Montoya. Search Man is Elmer Fudd. Tengu Man is TFS Perfect Cell.
  • Vinyl's Wub Masters also have this: Sewer Gator is the Crocodile Hunter.
  • Protoman once read The Cat in the Hat to Vinyl. She liked it a lot.
  • Shadow Man references Naruto in his debut (predating Ring Man, who has Naruto's actual personality).
  • Vinyl whinnies and lightning strikes when Metal Man is named in the Mega Man 4 arc. Forte eventually points out to Vinyl that she's been causing the lightning, making her happy.
  • Wind Man quotes the Hulk when defeating Skunk Man:
  Wind Man: "Puny god."
  • At some point, Vinyl gets her own Sonic Screwdriver.
  • Mega Man shouts "Boot to the head!" when attacking Wave Man with the Charge Kick ability.
• Sneeze Cut: When Wily remarks that "Nobody here would be repairing Shadow Man.", Vinyl has one of these.
• Speaks in Shout-Outs: Flash Man does this, using song lyrics (and actual singing) to communicate.
• Split-Personality Merge: Blues and Protoman, as a result of their battle with Duo, merge into one: Prometheus.
• Stay in the Kitchen: One of the taunts that Yamato Man uses against his opponent Merkava in the First Annual Robotics Tournament.

• Take That!: Vinyl comments that Yu-Gi-Oh! stopped being interesting to her after Pegasus.
• Taking the Heat: Wily does it in Mega Man 3 when he finds out Vinyl's behind the current take-over-the-world scheme, just to make him proud of her, deciding to steal Gamma to give himself some credibility when he claims he was the mastermind all along.

• The Worf Effect: Mega Man realizes Vinyl's deliberately trying to invoke this trope with him during the Mega Man 5 adaptation, setting him up to look strong by defeating relatively weak Robot Masters and then facing the ninth, which will be much stronger.
• Whoopee Cushion: Vinyl uses a variety of them to play The Star Spangled Banner at the First Annual Robotics Tournament.

Melody of the Future (Octavia Melody)

• Adaptation Name Change: In canon, Sigma's robotic wolf is named Velgauder. Here, it's named Classic instead.
• All Your Powers Combined: In the last fight of the X7 arc, Axl reveals he's copied ALL of the various weapons that X, Zero and Octavia had acquired from the Bosses from the previous arcs. He then proceeds to use them all together to curbstomp Sigma.
• Batman Gambit: When it's revealed Redips is Sigma, he proceeds to say he arranged for the X8 arc's massacre to occur precisely so he could use the massacre as part of his scheme to label them Mavericks; where this Trope kicks in is that he went so far as to manipulate events behind the scenes after the X5 arc so the heroes could become parents, knowing that the next major Maverick threat after their children were born would trigger Mama Bear/Papa Wolf tendencies. Furthermore, the Maverick Hunters who implicitly side with the heroes in the face of their slander is working to Sigma's schemes as well; he was counting on everyone else, all the people who don't know the heroes anywhere near as well, to believe him, which would ultimately result in a rift between both camps that could escalate into a war.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: This quote from Zero when discussing his plans for his first date with Iris:
  Zero: "So I'll pick you up at six for dinner, hit an eight o'clock movie, ten o'clock duel with your brother, and I'll have you home by eleven, that work for you?"
• Butt Biter: In the Mega Man X2 arc, during X and Octavia's encounter with Agile en route to Bubble Crab, he tries a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner... and is interrupted when Classic chomps his rear. X and Octavia are both rather amused.
• Curbstomp Battle: Tends to occur to any Maverick who isn't talked down (even happens to one or two who are battled but aren't slain), but special mention goes to the X8 arc. Because X and Zero became parents prior to this arc, they view the threat posed to their kids by Sigma's machinations to be high-enough priority to stop holding back. It becomes even more ridiculous when they get to a Light Capsule, who readily agrees with protecting the children and thus gives X, Octavia and Axl massive upgrades all at once; at one point they destroy a boss so hard they don't even acquire the weapon associated with them!
• Happily Married: X to Alia, and Zero to Iris. Their double wedding is held in the interlude between the X5 and X7 arcs. Soon after, it's also revealed that Prometheus (the former Protoman) is married to a robot named Armatige, and has three sons with her.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The end of the X8 arc hints that Colonel Redips is being set up as the next Big Bad. Then the finale of the Command Mission arc reveals that he's been Sigma in disguise the whole time. Especially jarring given that Redips was acting as a villain all on his own in the original game.
• Honorary Uncle: Zero, to Octavia.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While the Mavericks in the X8 arc had to be taken care of, the fact that X, Zero, Octavia and Axl completely slaughter them with far less mercy than almost every Maverick they battled before comes to bite them in the ass; toward the end of the Command Mission arc, Redips uses footage of the incident (plus some Manipulative Editing of the most recent events in the CM Arc at that point) to paint the four as Traitorous Mavericks who appear to think they're too powerful to obey the Law any longer.
• Only a Flesh Wound: X taunts Vile with this after he shoots off the enemy Reploid's arm during the X8 arc. Vile angrily replies that he doesn't have flesh. Doubles as a Call-Back to Mega Man's fight with Magnet Man in Wily's Wittle Wub.
• Precision F-Strike: In the X5 arc, Axl says this when CiCi tries to get the Orbiter Engine.
• Real Men Wear Pink: X's Piano Adapter.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Vile realizes the heroes are too powerful for him to beat, he basically books it.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Almost all the Mavericks that would normally be fought and slain in the games live.
  • X1: Since all the X1 bosses were former Hunters, X and Octavia manage to talk most of them down, with the few exceptions being bested and captured for imprisonment/rehabilitation. Velgaurder's also spared and even becomes Octavia's Support Unit (though he's called Classic instead).
  • X2: Three of the Mavericks are former Hunters, so X and Octavia exploit this to talk them down, from recruiting Storm Eagle for Overdrive Ostrich to bringing Boomer Kuwanger for Flame Stag, while with Magna Centipede they just talk him into obeying an "order" from Zero that prompts him to teleport to HQ and turn himself in. The only ones explicitly killed are Wheel Gator and especially Bubble Crab (who makes threats about Octavia that prompt X to murder him in a rage); Wire Sponge is befriended due to being a Manchild, Morph Moth is taken out in secret by CiCi (due to them knowing each other), and Crystal Snail is curbstomped but not stated as being killed or captured.
  • X3: All the Mavericks were all being mind-controlled by the very thing Doppler claimed rendered them immune to the Maverick Virus, which Maverick Hunter HQ figured out and managed to devise a countermeasure to use on each one, freeing them. In particular, Boomer Kuwanger goes on a solo mission to confront Gravity Bettle due to being his brother, while Zero helps confront Blast Hornet due to being his superior. The only boss who dies is Crush Crawfish, as a result of suffering a psychosis that came back full force when he was freed from the mind control, rendering him a wreck and begging for a Mercy Kill. Doppler also manages to live through the ordeal, having been similarly victimized then freed from the Mind Control.
  • X4: This winds up being one of the two biggest examples of this Trope for the story, as Octavia not only helps devise a way to mitigate the disaster of Sky Lagoon's crash, but also uses her power of verbal manipulation to browbeat/guilt trip Colonel before he can leave and convince Repliforce to begin their coup. As a result, the plot of X4 never even happens, and the entirety of Repliforce lives (including Iris); the few non-Repliforce bosses and characters are quickly taken care of (Split Mushroom winds up at CiCi's mercy before he's turned over to the proper Authorities, Magma Dragoon's sabotage of Sky Lagoon is swiftly identified and he's arrested before he realizes what happened, Cyber Peacock gets found by Iris who curbstomps him with her superior Net-oriented capabilities, and Double's attempt to infiltrate the Maverick Hunters is caught out and he sings like like a bird when confronted) and X confronts and utterly decimates Sigma while he's waiting at the Space Port to hitch a ride to the Final Weapon.
  • X5: At first, many of the X5 Mavericks are slain out of mercy due to the Viral Infection being incurable; the only ones who aren't killed are The Mattrex (who hid among the lava of his hideout so he never got infected), Dark Dizzy (who displayed an odd reverence of Zero to the point where he obeyed him) and Axl the Red (who turns out to be another case like CiCi and Morph Moth)... And then during the interlude after the X5 arc's over, Gate reveals that with Zero's assistance, he'll be able to revive the Reploids who died during the X5 arc, so all the X5 Mavericks are resurrected without their viral infection.
  • X6: In an interlude between the X4 and X5 arcs, X, Zero and Octavia are prompted by Alia to give Gate's lab and research a look as part of Official Maverick Hunter business. Since they do so and give him a good opinion, he doesn't get shunned by the science community, at least not to the Face-Heel extent that he did in canon. Combined with his creations assisting the world during and after the X5 arc, he never has any reason to turn evil, so the plot of X6 never happens and he and his creations live.
  • X7: Wind Crowrang is the only one of the initial X7 bosses to die; the other seven are bested and detained instead of killed. Tragically, Red sacrifices himself in an effort to assist the heroes, so he perishes as well.
  • X8: Subverted with a disconcertingly high intensity; not only did all 8 Mavericks get slain, they were barely given an option to surrender. Specifically, they were given only one instance of mercy, and the INSTANT they turned it down, they were annihilated with extreme prejudice. Special mention to Earthrock Trilobite, whom Octavia exploits a rule in Hunter Protocol to shoot him dead without even the offer of surrender.
  • Command Mission: About the only members of the Rebellion Army to die are Silver Horn and Botos, who were both pricks anyway; Dr. Psyche is defeated but isn't mentioned again afterward, though he most likely was left alive. Wild Django is detained upon defeat, Mach Jentra is convinced to surrender and flee and Incentas isn't fought at all; furthermore, due to revelations about Force Metal and the decisions made as a result, Epsilon isn't even fought, nor is Scarface, and the two of them plus Ferham live passed the CM arc. Lastly, for non-boss examples, minor NPC Aile is prevented from making a Heroic Sacrifice (though it's more of a Stupid Sacrifice) by X when they first meet, and when he's on his deathbed later on, Axl comes up with a plan that fully restores Aile's crippled body, not only letting him live for years to come but even regain his legs.
• Tangled Family Tree: Axl becomes Octavia's adoptive son, and thus X's grandson. Then it comes out that he's Rock and Kalinka's son, and that Rock considers X to be his little brother. This means that Axl is technically X's nephew, and by extension Octavia's cousin. He's more than a little confused about this for a while, but finally decides that regardless of what he calls them, they're still family.

Denouement Duet

• Back from the Dead: Thanks to the matter/energy conversion engine that was the basis of the Master Abilities, and the Variable Weapon System in the Busters, Wily is able to resurrect every single Robot/Wub Master who'd ever died in the world conquest attempts or the attack on Rock and Kalinka's wedding.
• Stable Time Loop: Vinyl and Octavia's respective returns to Equestria turn out to be the very thing that sent their younger selves to the Megaverse in the first place.
• Tangled Family Tree: Axl's gets even more complex when he learns Vinyl and Kalinka were like sisters, and Vinyl and Octavia decide to officially begin a relationship... meaning his aunt is now dating one of his moms. This also makes Wily one of his grandfathers and Zero his cousin.