Fanfic / Intriguing

Intriguing is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by Purple Patch and in The Rejuvenationverse.

After the events of You Shall Go To The Gala, Countess Glass has been forced to leave Derpy alone, but that doesn't mean she and Cascadius can't plan and prepare for their next move. Meanwhile, Fancy Pants and Fleur have fallen in love, a dangerous occupation when one of you is a powerful politician, and the other has made an enemy of Nitpick Glass.

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This story contains examples of:

• Action Girl: Several of them develop from the models and photography crew, including Fleur.
• A Lady on Each Arm: How Blueblood enters the story.
• Amazon Brigade: Photo Finish's fashion crew, after Fleur and Fancy Pants are attacked.
• Ambadassador: Apparently Fancy was one in his youth.
• Ass Shove: Cumbersome gets a red-hot poker, courtesy of Tinny, and an earlier conversation about how they 'Do not like it up em'
• Attack of the Political Ad: A major component of the plot for the second act, as the Glasses attempt to smear Fancy Pants.
• Attempted Rape: Nitpick attempted to sexually assault Fleur in the theatre where she worked. After she becomes Fancy Pant's marefriend (and thus in the same social circles as Nitpick), he tries again. Fortunately, Fancy Pants is able to intervene).
• Badass Crew: The staff of Briefly Manor repel an attack lead by Sir Cumbersome.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Fancy Pants. Master duelist, impeccably dressed.
• Badass in Distress: Fancy Pants for most of the last act.
• Big Damn Heroes: Several times by several characters. First by Fancy Pants when Nitpick attempts to rape Fleur again. Later Carcassonne rescues Fleur, using her shields to give them time to Outrun the Fireball, and after they're cornered again Cadence and the 3rd Palace Grounds Platoon perform a Gunship Rescue. Celestia and Sunset Shimmer to the residents of Bittsburgh. Photo Finish also pulls this off, rescuing Hoity and Blueblood with a cadre of flash-bulb wielding supermodels. Beware the Silly Ones indeed. Finally, Fleur rescues Fancy Pants from Cascadius
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Nitpick is not blackmailing Fancy Pants, merely 'encouraging him to retire'.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Like Derpy before, Fancy Pants attempts this to protect Fleur.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Photo Finish and her crew are strange, but effective in their field. And when they get threatened, they become quite scary.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Both Fleur and Fancy struggle to reveal their true feelings for each other. They get better.
• Cardboard Prison: Averted. Countess Glass' house arrest is very strictly enforced.
• The Cavalry: The 3rd Palace Grounds Platoon resues several heroes, including Fleur, Carcassone, Photo Finish and several others. The 2nd Platoon also wraps up the attack on Briefly Manor, although Aunt Bloomers and the staff had already done most of the work..
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Cascadius finds this distasteful, but engages in it at the request of his employers.
• Consummate Professional: Cascadius being this leads to friction between him and Countess Glass, culminating in him taking control of the operation at the end of the story.
• Covered in Kisses: How Shining ends the story, panicking about how he can't show up for drills like this and asking Cadance how to remove the lipstick.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: How Photo Finish gets the assistance of Cringeworth.
• Destination Defenestration: The fate of the Emir in the prologue.
• Dirty Old Man: Nitpick Glass.
• Disney Villain Death: Cascadius, inflicted by Fleur. He survives.
• The Ditz: Prince Blueblood.
• Doing It for the Art:invoked Photo Finish and her crew are motivated by art. This causes friction with the more profit-oriented sectors of the industry, but despite their quirkiness, they've stayed in business, if only just.
• Dragon-in-Chief: How Cascadius ends the story, sick of the Countess' meddling screwing up his plans to do what she hired him for.
• Dynamic Entry: When Fancy Pants interrupts Nitpick's Attempted Rape of Fleur. Later on, Photo Finish drives a carriage through a wall to rescue Hoity Toity.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Blueblood may be a Lazy Bum, Dirty Coward and an idiot, but when Fleur launches her distress signal he realises he has to fix his betrayal. Of course, he's still a coward, so he goes to get Fancy Pants rather than acting himself.
• Evil Gloating: Nitpick's desire to indulge in this ruins his plans to smear Fancy Pants, as he gives enough warning that Fleur is able to counter his plans.
• Exact Words: If a mercenary is paying you for passage with an ancient dagger, don't tell him to 'Throw it over'.
• Foil: Aunt Bustle Bloomers to Countess Magnifying Glass, both are fearsome matriarchs of noble families who care about the reputation of their houses, but while Countess Glass is abusive and self-centered, Aunt Bloomers genuinely cares about Fancy and is a Reasonable Authority Figure that knows when to stop pushing.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Fancy Pants.
• Gold Digger: Blueblood thinks that Fleur is this and offers a friendly (for him) warning to jump ship before Fancy's reputation is ruined.
• The Good Chancellor: Fancy Pants is promoted to this, in practice if not in title, gaining the position of First Minister, a role last held by Star Swirl the Bearded
• Heroic BSoD: Fancy Pants after Nitpick blackmails him to dump Fleur and abandon his political ambitions.
• Heroic RRoD: Fleur, after she casts through a containment ring to help Fancy, suffers from severe magic exhaustion that would have killed her had he not been able to provide immediate medical help.
• Hot-Blooded: Carcassonne. It hurts her political campaign sufficiently that she resigns her candidacy just before the story begins.
• In Vino Veritas: Exploited by Hoity Toity to discover Nitpick's plans.
• Loud of War: Courtesy of Vinyl Scratch, and able to disable large groups of mooks via Sensory Overload.
• Mama Bear: Fleur's mother.
• Mr. Fanservice: According to Word of God, the 3rd Palace Grounds Platoon is made up of semi-canon love interests for Twilight, and commanded by Shining Armor, so many of them fit this.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: Hilariously done when a Mook gets Knocked Out Mid-Sentence, Fancy Pants chooses to believe he was saying 'Oh Dearie Me'.
• Never Found the Body: Cascadius, after being thrown off a building.
• Never Mess with Granny: Grand Duchess Bustle Bloomers is cornered by some Mooks. Next thing we know, the only one still conscious is busy trying to escape from Horatio.
• No One Could Survive That!: Cascadius is believed dead by the heroes after his multi-storey fall.
• Older Than They Look: It's a plot point, Fleur looks like she could be (just) underage, but is actually 26, but an attempt to discredit her relationship with Fancy Pants is made on this basis.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Photo Finish is able to tell that there is something wrong with Fancy Pants' break-up letter to Fleur, and expresses her displeasure.
• Pædo Hunt: The Glasses attempt to exploit this against Fancy Pants using (completely real, and innocent in context) photographs of him and Fleur. Ultimately ruined when Fleur gets herself published in a fashion magazine, along with her real age (26). Thanks to Equestria's strict anti-defamation laws, it would then be illegal to even imply something untoward was happening.
• Papa Wolf: Fleur's father.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!
• Relationship Upgrade: It takes most of the story, but eventually Fancy Pants and Fleur get there.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Tombola disobeys Fancy Pants to save his relationship with Fleur.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Bloodhound's response to Cadence becoming involved.
• Shipper on Deck: All of Fancy's staff and most of Fleur co-workers. Becomes a plot point when Fancy Pants is forced to dump Fleur, and the modelling crew come up with a Plan to fix it.
• So Proud of You: Aunt Bustle Bloomers towards Fancy, in the end.
• Sword Cane: Part of Fancy Pants' outfit for the fundraiser.
• Sympathetic Magic: Cadence is able to use this and The Power of Love to turn Fancy Pants' monocle into a Tracking Device.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nitpick is the recipient of several, including one by Prince Blueblood.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Ponyville takes care of its own.
• Tragic Keepsake: Fancy Pants' monocle.
• Undying Loyalty: Fancy Pants has a very loyal staff, mostly hired after they resigned from Invitro Hall in protest.
• Upper-Class Twit: Nitpick and his cronies, as well as Prince Blueblood.
• Violent Glaswegian: MacTrowel. Handy for dealing with the paparazzi.
• War for Fun and Profit: Cascadius quite happily murders a former employer in order to force a region into civil war he can profit off.
• We Need a Distraction: Cascadius sets the city of Bittsburgh ablaze to force Celestia to leave Canterlot for a while.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Timber Spruce, and, due to him successfully convincing Flash Sentry it's crucial to the plan, Flash Sentry briefly as well.
• Younger Than They Look: Fancy Pants looks older than his actual age (30).

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