Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / My Little Denarians

Go To

My Little Denarians (also available at FF.Net) is a The Dresden Files/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic crossover fanfic by Chengar Qordath. After the events of Forever!, a previous short story in which Harry accidentally summoned Pinkie Pie to his kitchen, her brief presence on Earth turns out to have major repercussions: Nicodemus learns of Pinkie Pie and by extension, of the possibility of travelling to various fictional universes through the Outside. His team of Denarians arrives in Equestria just at the start of the second season, making the episode go off the rails in hope of bringing Discord to Earth. Now, to save both worlds, Harry must save the mane six - not just from the effects of Discord's brainwashing but from the corrupting influence of the black coins...

Now complete.

Compare and contrast The Dresden Fillies.

Although all effort has been taken to mark spoilers appropriately, the fanfic is set after the Dresden book Ghost Story and Late Arrival Spoilers may slip by. Be warned.

There is now a oneshot sequel. Titled Dresden Gets Schooled (FF.Net link), it is set after Cold Days and places Harry in the events of Equestria Girls.

That, in turn, has gotten its own multi-chapter sequel: Dresden Rocks. As the name suggests, Harry's involvement has sent the events of Rainbow Rocks Off the Rails when the Sirens cross over from the Equestria Girls universe to his own. Complete as of July 20, 2015.

My Little Denarians provides examples of the following tropes (Sequels have their own sections below):

  • Accordion Man: Discord's powers include cartoon invulnerability. Harry also contemplates how cartoon invulnerability could be used, like for example, surviving the backlash of a certain powerful ritual spell.
  • Action Girl: Nearly all of the Mane Six at one point or another, but Rainbow Dash and Applejack especially. And Lash.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal:
    • Harry notes with dismay that his stay in cartoon-land may have changed his thinking process somewhat.
      Harry: Wait... why am I thinking in alliteration? Being in cartoon-land is really starting to mess with my brain.
    • Also used by Pinkie (of course): "Chilly Cherry Chocolate Chive Chili!"
  • Aliens Speaking English: Played with. Apparently Equestrian can be any language the show has voiceover for.
  • All Stories Are Real Somewhere: A basic premise of the plot is that fictional worlds are real. Lampshaded by Harry, who wonders if his world was just made up "by a long-haired guy named Jim".
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: Lash by proxy. She is a nephilim, with all of Lasciel's memories of having comitted genocide on her kind.
  • Apologetic Attacker: The ponies profusely apologize to Cadence while they tie her up and gag her to delay her return to the guards.
  • Armor-Piercing Question:
  • As Long as There Is One Man: Invoked when Harry makes Trixie, Cheerilee and some of the other ponies stand up in defiance of Discorded Celestia, encouraging the unaligned to stand with them.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence:
    • Lash is offered a chance but refuses, instead accepting a Power Limiter, so she can stay on Earth and help Harry.
    • Also sort-of how Lash defeats Lasciel. She explains that there is only room for one soul in the coin, and that, by replacing Lasciel, and thus killing her, Lash has gained her powers and angelic status. She turns it down, however.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Apart from unicorns, who can use telekinesis, ponies really aren't made to wield lightsabers.
    • Harry diagnoses "giant demon hellfire dragon" transformations as these, contrasting with Nicky's more low-key but practical Living Shadow.
  • Badass Boast: At one point Harry intimidates a demon by listing all the Denarians he has killed since the beginning of the story. He notes that not all of what he said was necessarily true, but adds to the intimidation factor anyway.
  • Bad Liar: Applejack's inability to lie gets referenced a few times.
  • Batman Gambit:
    • Discord pushing Celestia's Berserk Button so that she exhausts her powers trying to hurt him and can be easily captured. Note that he did have enough raw power to do it the hard way - it was just more fun to use trickery.
    • Harry's plan for defeating Nicodemus - hope a Scheherezade Gambit manages to hold Nicky off killing him long enough for Sanya to run him through. Which also depends on Sanya still having enough fight left to do so.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: As soon as he learns about the possibility of travel between worlds, Harry wishes for a chance to visit Star Wars. By the end of the story he gets his wish and as it turns out, almost getting beheaded by Darth Vader is the high point of this trip.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Discord casually stomps on Celestia's long enough to distract and kidnap her.
    • Nicky having Derpy shot makes Harry boil with rage. Immediately following that, Jenkin's death at the fangs of a Denarian-possessed rabbit, and Nicodemus' casual mockery of it makes Harry abandon all pretense of snarking and scream right into the phone that Nick is "fucking dead."
  • Beyond the Impossible: Everyone thought that it was impossible to destroy a Denarian's coin, leaving Harry shocked when Lash's victory over Lasciel results in just that happening.
  • BFG:
    • The mega party cannon. As well as the party artillery. And party bombs. Taken up to eleven with a party heat-seeking missile launcher.
    • Several Denarian cultists bring 50-cal machineguns with them.
  • Big Damn Heroes: First it was Lash to Evil!Harry, then Rainbow to Harry, then Rainbow to Pinkie Pie, then Rainbow, again, and so on and so forth. Even the primary OC gets a turn.
    Harry: Stupid Element of Loyalty...I swear, she was like a younger, less wise version of me. Well, she was like me if I’d been a magical female cartoon pegasus.
  • Blood from the Mouth: Rainbow Dash after a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Applejack/Magog. It was as serious as it looked.
  • Blown Across the Room: A mutual case between possessed Fluttershy and Harry. Only instead of a room, it was across an entire mountain.
  • Bob from Accounting: One of Harry's Imagine Spots contains "Bob the cultist", an unfortunate servant of Nicodemus forced to watch and rewatch the first season of ponies to gather intelligence on their targets.
  • Bring News Back: Before going for a really desperate plan, Harry persuades Lash to leave the group and warn everybody in case he fails.
  • Broken Bird: Twilight has a severe case of PTSD after returning from the moon. She's even more timid than Fluttershy.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Celestia, after being hit by Harry's Friendship Nuke. Fortunately, it will only take about a week for her full power to return, unlike Luna who had to take a full year to recover after being healed by the Elements of Harmony. Unfortunately, a week is more than enough time for Discord and the Denarians to turn Earth into a crater.
  • Brown Note:
    • Harry has a bit of a Brown Note when he sees Discord swimming in the Outside instead of hanging around Equestria.
    • Also occurs when Harry sees something really, really terrifying. Like an angry Discorded Celestia.
      Harry: If I pissed myself in terror because of a girly pony princess, I would never live it down.
  • Buffy Speak: In chapter 26, "Even without pain as a factor I was limping more than... something that really limps a lot."
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Derpy. She is every bit as ditzy as she looks, but that means she can get away with any level of Obfuscating Stupidity - and being a postmare allows her to go almost anywhere without looking suspicious.
    • She is Luna's personal spy for the resistance, who believes a variety of equipment means different flavors of muffins.
  • Bystander Syndrome: When Harry and the girls get back to Earth, this is pretty much the main reason no one else except Lash, Rashid the Gatekeeper and Sanya do anything to help. To clarify, it would be perfectly possible for one of the All Powerful Bystanders to help, but the cost to do so is so high, it is better to wait for some other sucker to pay the butcher's bill.
  • The Caligula: Discorded Celestia and Possessed Cadance. They try to paint Luna as this but no one wants to believe it.
  • Call-Back: In chapter 26 Harry pulls the same "punt car at villain" move he used back in Dead Beat.
  • The Cameo: While moving between worlds, the characters briefly encounter Deadpool, Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) Pinkie and Littlepip. Pinkie Pie herself seems to have making random cameos as a hobby. Cupcakes stops being a cameo in Chapter 21.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: All over the place. Parodied with possessed Harry.
    • Lash ponders if this is Harry's way of fighting back, since he normally has more than enough savviness to be a nightmare.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Fluttershy in chapter 15 shows that she still knows how to use the Dragon Shouts.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Harry in spades, just like in canon. Also with Rainbow Dash.
  • Closest Thing We Got: Rarity briefly being pressed into service as a medic because she knows how to make stitches, and Luna planning to take Twilight's place using the Element of Magic.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: Harry when he becomes a Jedi in the Star Wars universe. Technically all the Denarians have this too as they became Sith, but them actually having centuries to millennia of training in real sword fighting keeps them from fully letting go and using it, giving Harry the edge.
  • Combined Energy Attack: How Harry ultimately defeats Discorded Celestia, by tapping into the friendship power of the large crowd of ponies who he and his co-conspirators had successfully goaded into taking a stand against Celestia's new oppressive regime. Though Harry notes that it isn't as powerful or as focused as the Elements of Harmony, it operates under the same principles and does the job.
  • Confusion Fu: Derpy helps the heroes greatly through acts of seemingly random clumsiness.
    Harry, after Derpy smashes through a pillar to obstruct their pursuers: How does a single pony manage to keep smashing through solid stone?
  • Continuity Nod: Harry references the dropping of the old Soviet satellite that happened in Death Masks. Also from there, '(being able to forget the time I soul-gazed a Denarian would be nice)'
  • Cool, but Inefficient: Harry accuses the outfit Rarity gave him of being this in chapter 26. "The outfit Rarity had me set up with might be wonderfully stylish, but it was woefully lacking in the keeping-me-alive department."
  • The Corrupter:
    • Discord and the Denarians, natch. Discord also claims that he helped turn Luna into Nightmare Moon.
    • In chapter 23, Harry is deeply concerned that he has become this in regards to Twilight.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: Harry unintentionally performs a mild version of this by expanding Rainbow's vocabulary to include human swear words. He also wonders if Applejack being a smartass Deadpan Snarker in chapter 19 is his fault. In chapter 23 he wonders if he's turning Twilight into a monster.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Harry is convinced the universe hates him. Events in canon and in this fic support that idea.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Lash and Tessa, having actual swordfighting experience unlike Harry, can't let go of their training when they take up lightsabers. Later given as the reason for why Harry didn't just escape to the Outside; having spent the whole of his life being told that knowledge and use of the Outside is a capital offence, in the high stress situation it fails to enter his instinctual responses.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Words of Creation, with a capital W. Unusually for the trope, it backfires completely, not only doing no damage to the bad guys but also taking Lash out of the battle and stunning Harry, which Discord then uses as a basis for his Breaking Speech.
  • Darkest Hour: The end of Chapter 5. The ponies are captured, Discord is free, Nicodemus is planning to use the ponies as hosts, Harry is discorded, Lash is gone, Celestia is gone, Luna is missing, etc.
    • The ending of chapter 13, with the Elements being a trap and possessed Cadance. And then chapter 15, with Luna sent back to the moon and Rainbow Dash apparently dead.
  • Dark Fic: A half-example, since it's dark for a My Little Pony fic, but about on par with canon for The Dresden Files.
  • Deadly Dodging:
    • Twilight uses her Teleport Spam to this effect. Later attempted against Magog, to much lesser effect (since him hitting a wall at full speed only does damage to the wall).
    • Fluttershy later does this against a guardspony by using Wuld Nah Kest Dragon Shout when he tried to tackle her.
  • Death by Irony: Jenkins, dying while saving Dash and Harry after they were the ones to go Leeroy Jenkins and fall into a trap
  • Death or Glory Attack: Luna's attempt to distract Discorded Celestia so that the Elements can be retrieved. It fails.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Rainbow Dash attacking Discorded Celestia. Also goes with Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • Harry's idea to disrupt a magical storm by siphoning energy from it. Fortunately, the realization of what exactly he is doing dawned on him just in time to avoid getting fried. He immediately fell to the trope again, deciding to fight possessed Dash in the open.
    • Rashid accuses him of this when givings souls to the ponies, who are Outsiders.
      Rashid When Oppenheimer split the atom, he could not have fathomed the screams to come from Japan.
    • Harry has this thought in chapter 26 when he tries to burn away Nicky's Living Shadow... that was trying to crawl up his pants.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Jenkins
  • Disney Villain Death: Several denarians, thanks to typical Coruscant architecture.
  • Dissimile: Harry's attempt to describe Lasciel. "‘A rebel angel amongst rebels.’ Sort of like James Dean, except with fire and brimstone instead of motorcycles and leather jackets."
  • Dissonant Serenity: Nicodemus does this a lot, though Harry finds it more annoying than creepy.
    • He also gets frustrated when his best snarking attempts just bounce right off him.
  • Divide and Conquer: In chapter 25, Discord attempts this on Harry and the ponies when he realizes his attempts to rewrite the ponies' personalities via the writers isn't working. He offers to teleport Harry to Nicodemus giving him a chance to end the Denarians' evil for good. Harry knows Discord is trying to separate them, but the opportunity to stop Nicodemus is too tempting. He decides to trust the ponies to triumph without him and, with the encouragement of the ponies, accepts Discord's offer.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Harry really shouldn't have tried to call Nicky's bluff in 24.
  • Do Wrong, Right: Harry criticizes Discorded Celestia for an insufficiently dreary dungeon.
  • Double Tap: After Applejack knocks down a Denarian cultist, Harry wonders if he's unconscious or just Playing Possum. Sanya solves the problem by promptly putting a few rounds into him.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: Derpy does this by disguising as a guard.
  • The Dreaded: Harry puts Twilight into this category after she almost casually sends some Denarian cultists to the moon in Chapter 23.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Present and accounted for in Harry. As usual.
  • Dynamic Entry: Rainbow Dash lands a flying buck to Discorded Celestia's face. It's actually fairly effective, since it managed to give her a black eye and a bloody lip.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: Princess Luna uses her powers to transform Applejack's cellar into one.
  • Elite Mooks: Nick's cultists. They wear body armor, use sniper teams and flanking tactics, arrange ambushes, coordinate assaults, and armor their cars. Harry thinks they seem almost too competent to willingly work for someone like Nicodemus.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Discord in the Outside. The sight of an embodiment of Disharmony and Chaos free of cartoon conventions greatly disturbs Dresden, who is no stranger to seeing horrifying things.
  • Emergency Transformation: Defied. Harry chooses not to give a dying Jenkins a coin because of how easily the coin and the decision would corrupt them both.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: Discorded Shining Armor refusing to help Twilight against Discorded Celestia, even sealing her in.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Harry has several, pushing the action forward whenever the group gets stuck.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • When Discorded Shining Armor takes Diamond Tiara hostage, even his subordinate soldiers aren't happy with what he's doing.
    • When Shining Armor is giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech by an enraged Fluttershy, he slackens the grip on his knife, which prompts three of his soldiers to suddenly tackle him.
  • Everything's Better with Rainbows: Of course. Even the Discorded Cultists believe in it.
    Discorded Cultist: Smack him with the motherfucking rainbow of friendship, Twilight!
  • Evil Costume Switch: Possessed Harry offers Lash a choice between Hell-Bent for Leather, Badass Long Robe and Spikes of Villainy and actually hopes she goes with Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains and chooses something Stripperific. She is less than thrilled.
    • She says it best:
      Lash: I see you opted to combine all three for your own outfit, before covering the whole thing in skulls and adding a cape. I'm speechless.
    • In chapter 25 we learn that some of Nick's mooks get a "chaotic costume switch" after joining Discord.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold: Harry describes the touch of Nicky's shadow tendrils as vitality-drainingly cold in chapter 25.
  • Evil Is Petty:
    • Nicky having Derpy shot in 24. It wasn't like it would directly impact Harry's ability to fight; Nicky was just being a dick.
    • In chapter 26 Nicky does it again, stabbing Harry in the leg and twisting it with deliberate patience just to hurt him. Harry even wonders if Nicodemus was the one to invent the phrase, "twist the knife." He's certainly old enough...
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: Lash throws her lightsaber at a Denarian and it seems to have only scratched her ... but she was not aiming for vital areas: she was aiming for the coin.
  • Exact Words: Invoked. Harry may have promised to let Cadance go, but when he starts getting doubts about his ploy, Rarity comes to his aid by saying that she never made such a promise.
  • Face–Heel Turn:
    • At some point or another, someone stuck a coin on Derpy. However since her particular demon is against Cadence's, she continued to help Harry somewhat. Until she leads Harry and co. into a trap.
    • Pinkie once Discord's cultists get their hands on the script.
  • Fandom Nod: Remember all those fan vids about Fluttershy using Fus Ro Dah? Guess where Harry has to go to find her?
  • Flash Step: Fluttershy through her voice powers. After being purified she retains the ability but is afraid to use it in fear of hurting people.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Really, the only thing Warden Jenkins is missing is a Fatal Family Photo.
    • "Of course, sometimes I'm shooting at things that find bullets of any size annoying instead of painful." Later in the very same chapter, the character who said that falls victim to Once is Not Enough.
  • Full-Name Ultimatum: Harry gets one from Lash for teaching Rainbow Dash to swear. He thinks that all women are capable of the feat, then wonders how Lash knows, since she has no experience as a human female mortal.
  • Game-Breaker: In-Universe, the nephilim, with angelic powers and human free will. For this reason the Heavenly Host decided to exterminate them.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Dash suffers a cracked rib while trying to subdue Fluttershy. She overcomes the pain through sheer stubbornness, but later on, the loss of agility proves a dangerous weakness when she gets between unconscious Pinkie and Magog, almost getting her killed.
  • Genre Blindness:
  • Gilded Cage: In chapter 20 after Harry lets himself and the Mane Cast be captured as part of his plan, Harry and friends are confined to a posh suite with nice furniture and fresh food, which is apparently the closest thing Canterlot palace has to a dungeon. Harry complains since he wants the authentic evil dungeon experience.
  • Glad He's On Our Side:
    • After seeing what Twilight can do when angry, Harry is very glad she didn't take the coin.
    • Also with Celestia and Shining Armor. Harry notes later than Celestia, when going all-out, is pants-horseappling terrifying, and that Shining Armor is one of the few spellcasters who can give him a challenge.
  • Gladiator Games: Discord transforms Twilight's library into a huge arena for Denarians vs ponies showdown.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Traveling through The Outside will do this to anyone who doesn't have some sort of guide to lead them through. Harry wonders if Pinkie's frequent travels through The Outside have contributed to her barely-controlled cheerful craziness.
    • Also comes up during the first battle. Harry is facing an illusionist demon but can't use his Sight, for fear of seeing the true form of something really, really bad.
    • Harry makes sure Rainbow Dash won't see the pony-themed toy section in a shopping mall, fearing that it could result in a serious existential crisis. Semi-Played for Laughs, when Pinkie Pie pulls out a Harry doll.
      Harry: I don't even try to understand why she does the things she does anymore.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Harry taking a hostage. Also, at some point the group discusses the possibility of contacting hell to Summon Bigger Fish. And Rarity using firearms. Things get desperate pretty quickly here.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Harry is this. And he's disturbed to notice that he's rubbing off a little on the Equesterians. He's still very much willing to Shoot the Dog or use lethal force right off the bat, though, and he's more than willing to spell it out.
    "Let me tell you a story, Adagio. It’s about a guy named Cassius. He was a Knight of the Blackened Denarius. Maybe you’ve heard of them, maybe not. But in any case, they’re the kind of evil your worst nightmares wish they could think of. One day, he ran afoul of myself and some friends of mine. He got the bright idea of trying a fake surrender too, because he knew that my friends were obligated to accept it. The thing he forgot was that I was there too. So you know what I did? I asked my friends to step outside, and then I took a baseball bat to his arms and knees. So, what do you think that says about my tolerance for bullshit surrender offers?"
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Harry covers Dash' eyes when possessed Fluttershy kills an old man. All we get is a Sickening "Crunch!" as she crushes his skull.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Invoked in Equestria. My Little Pony is a kids' show after all. Harry can't even THINK a curse. This becomes a Plot Point. The fact that Harry can curse in Equestria, even if it's just inside his head, means the fundamental laws of the world such as good beating evil and no genuine death are breaking down.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: All of the Mane Six have been Denarianed-up by Nicodemus. And now Harry and Lash have to go on a journey to free them to use the Elements of Harmony.
  • Gut Punch: Chapter 5 ends with Harry and the ponies being Mind Raped into Demonic Possession and a Face–Heel Turn by Discord and Nicodemus.
  • Half-Truth: Used by Discord to break Harry, tallying all the people that died as the result of his actions, while forgetting all he saved people with the same actions. Though considering the mind-boggling number, he may have just been outright lying.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Harry fears that he's bringing Twilight down this path, thinking of Morgan as he does so.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Discord drives Harry into one with a Half-Truth about the consequences of his actions.
    • Twilight after confronting Discorded Celestia. It does not end well for her.
    • Celestia has a more reserved one after coming out of her possession.
    • Twilight again after unwittingly killing some mooks. by sending them to the moon, which unlike the Equestrian moon, doesn't have an atmosphere. She throws up all over Harry's shoes.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Rainbow Dash attacks corrupted Celestia to get the rest of the group a chance to escape
  • Heroic Willpower:
    • Two of the ponies break out from possession on their own when presented with the right stimuli.
    • Lash kills Lasciel in a duel of wills.
  • Hit Me, Dammit!: Invoked by Applejack after she severely injures Rainbow Dash while under the effects of Demonic Possession.
    • Promptly subverted by Fluttershy, who also wants Rainbow's forgiveness and says she's willing to follow Applejack's example, despite how much the thought terrifies her.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Rarity takes control of some Denarian cultists' machine guns.
    • Nick can only be killed by his own noose.
  • Hope Spot: Darth Vader gives Harry one, possibly to repay him for calling him Little Orphan Annie.
    • The ponies finally find the Elements of Harmony... its an illusion, and a trap.
    • Cadance in Twilight Sparkle's Flash Back of what happened while Harry and co. were missing from Equestria. And then she holds up a tarnished coin...
    • Just when it looks like Harry and co. are about to successfully escape, Discorded Shining Armor catches up to him and traps the entire group.
  • Hostage Situation: Harry does this to Cadance. Shining Armor later does this to Diamond Tiara. Exaggerated, when Denarian Derpy holds herself hostage.
  • I Am Spartacus: Sort of. The ponies declaring against Discorded Celestia which Element they would take up if a Bearer fell.
  • I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: Twilight assumed that our moon has an atmosphere, as Equestria's does, when she casts a banishment spell. It takes summoning a corpse back to convince her otherwise and triggers a Heroic BSoD.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Harry, as usual. He notes that a man like him who did horrible things for the greater good has no business in a land of cheerful and innocent cartoon ponies.
  • Idiot Ball:
    • Getting tricked by a Denarian — it happens. Getting tricked by a duo of Magog and Applejack? Pinkie...
    • Harry notes that this may have been Celestia's way of fighting Discord's corruption since she's usually so smart.
  • Idiot Hero: Derpy. Rainbow Dash has some shades of this as well though in her case, it's more Honor Before Reason than genuine stupidity.
  • I Have a Family: Discussed in 24. "It is so dreadfully tiring when all you ever hear is ‘No, no! Please, no! I have a family! .... As if I wouldn't kill their families too, I despise loose ends."
  • I Have This Friend: Shining Armor trying to describe his feelings for Cadance.
    • Jenkins tries to say his sister watches the show when quizzed on how he knows so much. He blows his cover when he reveals that he knows about Littlepip and MLP fanfiction.
  • I Have Your Wife: Harry literally does have Shining Armor's wife, Cadance. At least he didn't use her as a tactical weapon. Technically this takes place at the start of season 2 they aren't yet married, but Shining Armor is still in love with her.
  • Immortality Hurts: Being able to regenerate from any injury as long as you have your coin is a cool power, but if your opponent is in an Unstoppable Rage and armed with a lightsaber, he will just keep chopping you up until he finds it. Well, it's debatable. The Denarians don't actually seem to experience pain, unless it comes from one of the Swords.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In chapter 26, Nicodemus, though he remains still pretty alive.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: presented by actual imperial stormtroopers. Harry complements them on their amazing marksmanship with no irony, since it would take an amazing amount of skill to point the gun at him and avoid hitting accidentally.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: Star Wars has no actual wizards, so upon entry, Harry is turned into a Jedi, the Force and all.
  • Improvised Weapon: Pinkie Pie weaponizes the party cannon, many weeks before it was validated by the cartoon series.
  • Indy Ploy: Discussed — Harry wishes he had an actual plan but the enemy is forcing his hand and there is no time to gather additional intelligence.
  • In-Series Nickname: Pinkie suggests that Harry call Saluriel-possessed Cadance Snakeyhooves.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Luna angrily dismisses Pinkie's attempts at coming up with a name for Discorded Celestia like "Daymare Sun", refusing to call her sister anything but "Celestia".
    • Harry wonders what to call the Denarians whose names are too difficult for him to make fun of.
  • Interspecies Romance: Lash discusses the human/angel variation. She finds it distasteful.
  • Irony: Celestia sent a force to recover the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon in canon. Luna sends a force to recover the Elements to defeat Celestia.
  • I Surrender, Suckers:
    • Harry offers Rainbow Dash a fake Denarian coin to lure a possessed Fluttershy into range.
    • Later on, Harry gets himself and the rest of the Mane cast captured so that he can sucker Celestia into a public debate that breaks her hold over her subjects.
  • It's All My Fault: Harry is suffering from a bad case of this in chapter 16. Rainbow Dash's apparent death, Twilight's banishment, being suckered by Celestia's trap... he blames himself for all of it. And he's partly right.
  • It's Personal:
    • If it wasn't before for Harry, it clearly becomes so once the villains make Fluttershy kill a defenceless man.
    • Again, after Harry finds out what happened to Twilight.
    • The fight against Lasciel is personal for Lash by default.
  • It's Quiet… Too Quiet:
    • Harry gets paranoid when the infiltration plan goes too smoothly. He is right.
    • When Harry says this trope word for word, this annoys Lash quite severely.
      Lash: That line was a cliche thousands of years before you were born, Harry.
  • Jack of All Stats: The White Council requires one to know multiple magical talents before he can be considered a proper wizard. Harry considers this arrogant. Shining Armor's sheer competence is considered proof that he is right.
  • Like Reality, Unless Noted: Played for Drama in 23 when Twilight sends some cultists to the moon, not knowing that Earth's moon is not survivable like Equestria's.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: Getting hit at full speed by a furious pegasus when you have no shields is... messy.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Harry's first action after arriving to a new world is usually to test how the local magic works and how it affects him.
  • Mama Bear: Cheerilee for her students something Shining Armor learns the hard way. Chapter 17 is even called "Nopony Messes with a Mama Bear".
  • Mooks: Zigzagged. Though obviously weaker than Harry and the Mane Six in a fair fight, Canterlot royal guards, Denarian cultists and Imperial stormtroopers do manage to seriously inconvenience the heroes and become a credible threat when allowed to play to their strengths.
  • The Multiverse: Not only do all works of fiction have their own worlds, but any fanfic that is popular enough will form its own bubble reality.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Anyone who got possessed, even though Harry tries to protect them from learning about the worst things they did.
    • Twilight, when she realises she has just teleported a bunch of enemy mooks to a Moon with no atmosphere.
  • My Greatest Failure: How Harry feels about Rainbow Dash's death. Actually this is pretty much how he feels about everything in the story so far.
  • Mythology Gag:
  • Never Got to Say Goodbye: Harry and the ponies, though it may only be a brief farewell.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Not only does Lash get a body as the result of visiting Equestria, when Harry is reduced to a broken heap by Dash' Meteor Move it turns out she can heal him, something extremely rare in Dresdenverse.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Scootaloo's desire to see Rainbow Dash again sees her calling out to a group of guard Pegasi, drawing their attention to the escapees. All the way up to the end, whether she gets chewed out for it remains unknown.
    • "In hindsight, taking Cadence hostage had been a bad move on my part. Apparently, it had inspired all the bad guys to follow my example and start pulling the hostage card too."
    • In chapter 24, Harry decides to call Nicodemus's "bluff" and cancel the fragile truce agreement once Rainbow Dash is safely back. It turns out that the sniper Nicodemus had so casually mentioned had another pegasus in his sights from the start...
  • No Ontological Inertia: Discussed. "I guess demonic immortality doesn’t come with much in the way of ontological inertia."
  • Nobody Can Die: An important plot point, as the effect depends on the current setting. In Equestria, this is mostly true, especially for the heroes. Other worlds are much less forgiving. Discord and the Denarians have messed with reality enough that this is no longer the case even in Equestria.
  • The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: In chapter 23, Twilight sends a bunch of cultists to the moon. She only wanted to send them there a couple days to give them time to think about what they did except in our reality the moon has no atmosphere. She is horrified when she brings back one of the cultists who turns out to be very, very dead.
  • Not So Omniscient After All: Luna has the power to block her sister's Intellectus and Harry's tracking spell.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Ptzriel when he realizes he is left alone against the mane six.
    • Harry and his friends when Possessed Pinkie pulls out her array of weapons.
    • Magog, when Pinkie pulls out a bazooka.
    • Chapter 13: Hey, corrupted Cadance. Fancy meeting you here.
    • Chapter 20: Um, Pinkie? Please put down the knife.
    • Chapter 21: The Denarians have taken the production crew hostage.
    • Chapter 22: Harry realizing that Mab manipulated him into violating the Seventh Law of Magic to tighten his leash. The Gatekeeper is also unpleasantly surprised when Harry reveals that he gave a bunch of Outsiders souls.
    • Chapter 23 gets 2 Oh, Crap! reactions out of Harry in the span of about 3 seconds: First when Fluttershy gets shot and a moment later when it results in Twilight Sparkle going avatar state on the cultists
    • Harry in 24, first after realising how Nick has played him and then when the actual meaning of Nick's Exact Words dawns on him.
  • Oh, My Gods!: Ponies use Celestia or Luna to swear or curse by.
  • 1-Dimensional Thinking: Or four-dimensional thinking in this case. The heroes could have avoided a lot of problems if they remembered that they can shift to the Outside to escape danger.
  • Out of the Inferno: Celestia tries to fight Discord, unleashing The Power of the Sun on him and actually melting a large part of the great hall in the process. Yet when the smoke clears, Discord is not only unharmed but casually backstroking in the resultant pool of lava.
  • Our Souls Are Different: Harry and Lash have them of course but it's iffy if anyone from Equestria has one.Until chapter 21, when, to keep Discord from affecting their free will, Harry gives each of the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony a piece of his soul to mature into their own.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Harry's rage-induced murder of Tessa would have come across as cruel to even a Denarian... but it's Tessa so no one feels a drop of remorse.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Possessed Harry — his ego makes him unable to grasp that anyone might mock his Large Ham behaviour, his magnificent evil costume or his master plan.
  • Scheherezade Gambit: In chapter 26 Nicodemus thinks that he has Harry dead to rights and Harry tries to buy time with storytime. ":inda like Arabian Nights, except more horrifying."
  • Screw Destiny: Discord starts screwing with the show's scripts back home, forcing Pinkie to try and kill Harry. Harry helps her fight it. It gives Pinkie not just free will but a soul.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Defied by the Gatekeeper, who warns Harry that being in Mab's service won't save him from the Council if he breaks too many of the Laws.
  • Squee: Harry definitely has this reaction after realizing that he's ended up in the Star Wars universe after finding out his trusty blasting rod has been replaced by a lightsaber.
  • The Starscream:
    • Averting this trope is revealed to be why Rainbow Dash gets a different type of brainwashing than the other ponies; just inverting her virtues would have given her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
    • Nicodemus hires Tessa, who clearly has an agenda of her own and gleefully throws his backup plan out of whack by using lethal force against the mane six.
  • Take That!:
    • In Star Wars, Harry is glad to see the Jedi Temple in ruins, as it means the prequel trilogy is already past.
    • "Sending waves of agony shooting through her head as the alicorn cracked (the stuff unicorn horns are made of, not the misused term for a pegacorn)"
    • In 24, the three humans denounce the less-reliability of a Fabrique Nationale F2000.
  • Tastes Like Purple: The Outside. The fact that it also includes directions makes navigation an unforgettable experience.
  • Taught by Experience: After getting his arse kicked by possessed pegasi a few times, Harry forces Deirdre-possessed Derpy to the ground as soon as she tries to take flight.
  • Tempting Fate: The moment Harry thinks he can get out of a confrontation with the guards while having to protect the escapees, Shining Armor's barrier appears.
    • Lash's relief that Harry didn't start using annoying cold and ice-based puns after becoming the Winter Knight is shortlived since she admitted that in earshot of Harry. Harry immediately commences the punishment.
    • In 23 Harry is glad that he hasn't started using pony puns like "everypony". A few paragraphs later...
    • 25 does this twice in rapid succession. Harry asks Discord if his duster would be taken away. That happens. Sanya tells Harry to look on the bright side as he still has his dignity. Discord replaces the rest of his clothes with "stiletto heels, a bright pink feather boa, and white boxers with little red hearts on them."
  • That Man Is Dead: Used by Rarity in a fight against Fluttershy. Fluttershy proceeds to prove her wrong.
  • Theory of Narrative Causality: Its made explicit that worlds originating from the human imagination, like Equestria, follow the general narrative conventions of their source work. The Denarians mess with the laws in Equestria; Luna and Harry aren't sure if they simply removed the "good always wins" rule, or if they replaced it with an "evil always wins" rule.
  • There Is Another: Unfortunately, nopony bothered to mention to Harry that there are actually three winged unicorns in Equestria: Celestia, Luna and Cadance. He finds out, naturally, at the worst time.
  • Time Abyss: Invoked by Lash to stop Jenkins from hitting on her. He doesn't seem deterred.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: During her first appearance, Pinkie not only ignores the laws of physics, as is usual for her, but causality as well.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Most of the main cast, but particularly Rarity.
  • Tranquil Fury: When Tessa jeers to Harry that she's going to kill his daughter in response to killing Deirdre, Harry goes past the point of complete fury and into this instead, brutally killing her in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
    "'' Harry (narrating): It wasn't that, red-hot anger that comes from normal pissed-offedness, it was that ice-cold fury where your entire mind is focused on hurting something.'"
  • Trauma Button: Applejack trying to get Fluttershy to shout louder reminds the latter too much of Rainbow Dash.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Directly invoked by Harry at the end of chapter 18.
  • Unstoppable Rage:
    • Pushing Harry's Berserk Button by threatening innocents is risky even under normal circumstances. Do it in Star Wars verse, where he is susceptible to the Dark Side, and you have one paragraph left to live.
    • Twilight Sparke has had a week of Break the Cutie. She isn't particularly stable now. So don't threaten her friends. Just don't.
    • Same for Raindow Dash. She may be no wizard but at the speeds she can move at, normal people are Made of Plasticine. Also, she isn't very good at holding back her emotions.
  • Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Parodied. Possessed Harry attempts a Smoke Out but has not prepared the escape route and is still struggling with a window when the smoke clears.
  • Villains Want Mercy:
    • Lasciel begs Uriel to save her when she realizes Lash has the upper hand in their fight to the death. Uriel refuses.
    • Also invoked when Harry finds Tessa. Harry refuses. Vehemently.
  • We Can Rebuild Him: After spending the whole chapter on a race against time to save Rainbow Dash, Harry suffers a moment of Fridge Logic when he realises the group had access to all sorts of fictional realities, with their respective brands of magic and/or technology.
  • We Can Rule Together: Possessed Harry to Lash, delivered in the cheesiest way possible.
  • We Have Reserves: In 24, Nicky says that he can afford to throw away hundreds of his minions, but Harry can't afford any losses.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist:possessed Harry has a delusion of being one.
  • Wham Episode: Chapters 5, 10, 11 and 12: Discord and Nicodemus succeed in corrupting Harry and the girls, Rainbow Dash nearly dies fighting Magog, Discord has left Equestria (which is worse than it sounds), Luna admits that the "Nobody Can Die" law may no longer be in effect and furthermore, Twilight Sparkle IS ON THE MOON.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Several plot points are left unresolved by the end, including:
    • How are the ponies taking having killed now that the action's over?
    • Nicodemus is dead, but what about his Coin?
    • Harry does wonder what happens to the Denarian coins in his duster pocket when he's in pony form in Equestria, but it's never brought up what happens to them when Discord makes his duster disappear, and not come back.
    • It is mentioned in a throwaway line that Dresden gave all the coins to Lash.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Harry correctly guesses that Cadance's normal powers aren't useful in a fight. Word of God states that they could actually be very dangerous — but the demon lacks the creativity to use them and didn't have a proper appreciation of The Power of Love.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • All of Harry's companions, (except for Dash, who is becoming a bit of an Anti-Hero from all she experienced) are shocked by him taking a hostage.
    • In chapter 16, Pinkie Pie delivers a roundabout one to Harry for Rainbow Dash's apparent death.
    • Later, Fluttershy saves the party by crushing Shining Armour with one.
    • Harry gets this again when Rarity points out that Harry is essentially trying to fight Celestia, Discord and Nicodemus all by himself.
    • While Harry understands their reasons, he can't help but bitterly call out Celestia and Luna on leaving Earth to Discord and the Denarians while waiting for Celestia's power to return.
    • The Gatekeeper calls out Harry on violating the Seventh Law of Magic and ensouling Outsiders. He also calls Harry out on not asking him — the guy in charge of watching the Outer Gates — for help instead of chasing after the demons. He makes it clear to Harry that Harry's position as Mab's Winter Knight is the only reason the Council isn't going to execute him.
    • On a lighter note, Sanya makes a big deal about Harry reading Twilight's diary.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…:
    • Party cannon won't get the job done? How about ten?. Still nothing? Then how about a party heat-seeking missile?
    • Shining Armour is a Barrier Warrior and lacks offensive spells (or the personality to employ Lethal Harmless Powers). Still he puts his abilities to good use, dividing the battlefield to thwart the enemy team tactics and allow the guard to corner individual opponents. Chapter 17 emphasizes this.
      Contrary to what the popular saying claimed, when all you have is a hammer, it usually means you start getting extremely skilled at using a hammer and find all sorts of creative ways to use it.
    • And in Chapter 19, he manages to restrain Celestia, admittedly with Cadance's help, long enough for Harry and the rest to prepare their next move.
    • Having no healing magic of his own, Harry tends to use ice magic as an emergency means of stopping bleedings.
  • Willing Channeler: Rainbow Dash is brainwashed into this. The result is an insane boost of power, enough for her to whip up a full-sized tornado all by herself.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Used in-universe by Rainbow Dash. After getting saved, she can't stomach the defeat despite the circumstances and blames it on the demon, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
  • Worst Aid: In chapter 26 Harry pulls a hunk of metal out of his leg and recognises it might be doing more damage than leaving it in. Fortunately he can freeze over the wound to hold the blood loss back. Justified in that the iron was cutting him off from his Winter Knight powers.
  • Would Hurt a Child - Shining Armor holds Diamond Tiara hostage with a dagger at her throat in a bid to make Harry surrender. Harry takes this as proof that Shining Armor has also been Discorded, reasoning that anyone who was made the Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard back when everything was still okay in the first place would normally be too good a person to threaten a child like that.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Nicodemus' plan to have the denarians fight the mane six - if they win, they will have eliminated the greatest threat to his Evil Plan. If they lose the ponies will be tired and vulnerable to attack - and since they have won, they will make much better hosts for the demons.
    • During their phone conversation in chapter 24, Harry suddenly finds himself very much wondering if his past canon "victories" against Nicodemus haven't instead served to make his enemy's position stronger all along. After all, a Denarian (especially a nigh-invulnerable one like Nicky) can fairly comfortably afford to take the long-term view and spin a half-dozen slowly unfolding flexible master plans while Harry is much more often compelled to make snap decisions whose consequences may come back to bite him later just to survive from one day to the next in his line of work...
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After he Soulgazes her to make sure no one's controlling her anymore (long story) Pinkie reassures Harry that he's a GREAT person who's always done his best and that he shouldn't get so down on himself.

Dresden Gets Schooled provides examples of the following tropes:

  • It's Personal: Michael agrees to go with Harry after Sunset Shimmer because her situation reminds him of Molly's case.
  • Off the Rails: One hell of a First-Episode Twist follows. Harry and Michael, with the help of Human Rainbow Dash, break into Principal Celestia's office and grab the Element of Magic. Harry then uses a warning shot to scare Sunset Shimmer off smashing the portal and brings Sunset back to Equestria. Celestia then asks him to take her as an apprentice.
  • Shout-Out: "Oh, I'm sorry... did I break your concentration?"

Dresden Rocks provides examples of the following tropes:

  • Adaptational Badass: It looks like the Sirens are getting a competence boost. For one, after entering Harry's Earth, instead of restricting themselves to a high school, they turned to YouTube and apparently have already gotten one billion people under their spell as early as the first chapter.
  • Adaptational Karma: The Sirens ended canon depowered, but still mostly free. In this story, however, Adagio ends up trapped in Demonreach, Sonata is abducted by the White Court, and Aria ends up being dragged back to Equestria to undergo rehabilitation.
  • Bullying a Dragon: After being defeated by Harry and Sunset, you would think that Adagio wouldn’t try and make her situation worse for herself by provoking and gloating to the two people who were beating her behind like a drum only a minute ago. Alas, she doesn’t, and ends up doing hard time in Demonreach for her troubles.
  • Didn't See That Coming: In chapter 3, someone manages to record footage of Harry and Sunset abducting Sonata. Harry notes that he couldn't possibly have went door-to-door clearing every building for possible witnesses.
  • Groin Attack: In chapter 5 Sunset hits a mook in the nuts with a flaming fist.
  • Minor Insult Meltdown: The breaking down of Sunset's relationship with Celestia started when the former lost her patience with a schoolmate who kept annoying her while she was trying to study for an important test and let him have it.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Discussed in chapter 3, when Harry points out that the lingering effects of mind control don't just disappear as soon as it's lifted.
  • Tranquil Fury: Harry goes into this when Adagio goes on about how she’ll fake her redemption to get off the hook lightly, calmly getting in her face and recalling his run-in with Quintus Cassius who got his limbs mangled for trying the same trick with him and the Knights Of The Cross, waits until Adagio starts to get the memo and panics, before coldly saying that Celestia isn’t around to save her and imprisoning her in Demonreach, deaf to her pleas for mercy.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Adagio, did you really have to brag right to Harry's face that you intend to pull off a fake repentance?
  • Unequal Rites: Unicorn magic, which Sunset has regained access to, has (easier) access to some stuff that the human magic Harry practices doesn't. Teleportation for one. Not being a Walking Techbane for another.
  • Villains Want Mercy: Adagio Ain't Too Proud to Beg once Harry has her at his mercy.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Siren magic is incredibly versatile. Adagio uses hers to create shields and heal.
  • Would Not Hit a Girl: Harry struggles with his usual chivalry when fighting the Sirens, which costs him at some points.
  • Wrong Context Magic: Not only does Sunset's unicorn magic not suffer many of the limitations or drawbacks that human wizards have, as described above, but as Outsiders with Mind Control powers that don't necessarily follow known rules of magic, the Sirens could potentially control Alfred, the controlling intelligence of Demonreach, along with all of the monsters and abominations imprisoned there.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top