Fanfic / The Captain Goodking Saga

The Captain Goodking Saga is a series of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfictions written by Leondude.

• The first one, A series of unfortunate events that leads to another redeemed villain, yay!, tells the story of The Storm King being forced to redeem himself.
• The second one was a prequel called The tragedy of Sacanas, which focused on the exploits of the person who made the Staff of Sacanas.
• The third one, Captain Goodking and the Nightmare Knights, is a sequel to A series of unfortunate events that leads to another redeemed villain, yay! that involves the redeemed Storm King (now going by the name of Captain Goodking) teaming up with the Nightmare Knights to take down Sacanas, who has returned with some aliens to wreak havoc upon Equestria.
• The final one, fittingly called The End of Time is different from the other fics in that it's a crossover with Star Wars: The Old Republic and Xcom 2, but mostly the latter.

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A series of unfortunate events that leads to another redeemed villain, yay! provides examples of:

• Back from the Dead: The Storm King was brought back from a combination of Luna and Discord's magic.
• Big Bad: Lord Sanies, since he's the one who engineered The Storm King's resurrection in the first place.
• Big "NO!": Averted and even discussed. Instead of doing this, Sanies just calmly states how annoying his defeat is.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Sanies, courtesy of betraying his former master before the story and betraying The Storm King when he felt he has outlived his usefulness.
• Deadpan Snarker: While Sanies is usually played seriously, he does tend to come up with dry remarks from time-to-time.
• Demonic Possession: Sanies has the ability to leave his own body and possess someone else's, using this manoeuvre on Trixie.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The story's title.
• Evil Sounds Deep / Evil Sounds Raspy: Sanies' voice has been described as a mix of these two traits.
• Eviler than Thou: Sanies to The Storm King, especially since he unwittingly contributed to The Storm King's Heel–Face Turn by betraying him.
• Expy: Word of God describes Sanies as one of Toffee, especially since the both of them started out manipulating incompetant rulers for their owns ends. The similarities are even more striking in the sequel when Sanies' physical form was destroyed and he spent most of that fic possessing Chrysalis and Luna, similar to how Toffee was possessing Ludo before his physical form was restored.
• Fate Worse than Death: The Storm King considers being turned into a chicken and getting thrown into a world with barely any magic as this.
• Faux Affably Evil: While Sanies can speak very courteously when the mood strikes him, it's clear that this is merely an act.
• Forced Transformation: The Storm King got turned into a chicken twice in this fanfic. He gets better.
• Giggling Villain: Sanies has a habit of chuckling sinisterly, with the only time he was full-on laughing was when The Storm King was about to defeat him in a ridiculous superhero costume.
• Heel–Face Turn: Of course, The Storm King makes one at the end.
• Heel Realization: When the crowd cheered for Storm King taking down The Farm King, he realized that not only does it feel good to do good, but he was being truly adored too.
• Karmic Death: Sanies' lair has been described as having dozens of destroyed statues that are more than implied to have once been alive ponies. He eventually suffers the same fate that The Storm King once did.
• Ironic Echo: When The Storm King got angry at Sanies betraying him, Sanies responded with "What was it you said to your former commander? Oh yes, 'get with the program, I used you, it's kind of what I do'".
• Lemony Narrator: Word of God even admits that his writing style was an unintentional reference to A Series of Unfortunate Events.
• Mind Control: Sanies has this ability as well as the ability to possess people.
• Mind Rape: Sanies, while possessing Trixie, does this to The Storm King after he has absorbed everyone's magic by forcing him to relive all the deaths of the people that Sanies had murdered.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Sanies" is Latin for "purulent", "gore", "venom", "bloody matter", "corrupted blood" and "slaver", with the last one being very relevant to his skills.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Sanies, especially when he's controlling or possessing someone.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sanies winds up on the receiving end of this from Celestia in a flashback. While he immediately got back to his usual giggling self, that moment was one of the rare times in the entire series in which Sanies was actually terrified.
• Not So Above It All: While Sanies expresses sardonicism at certain things, when the redeemed Storm King showed up in a gaudy superhero costume, he burst out laughing before wiping away a tear because he was laughing so hard.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In Chapter 11, there was a fight between Stormy and the Mane Six that the narrator described as being so awesome words cannot describe it, only to skip over it and say the Mane Six lost. Subverted in a later update of the chapter in which the narrator begrudgingly tells the readers what happened out of "popular demand".
• Omnicidal Maniac: Sanies' end goal is to just destroy Equestria and remake it in his own image.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Along with the ability to use magic, Sanies has been described as having an oddly-shaped horn appendage on his head and two bone claws sticking out of one of his arms.
• Serial Killer: Sanies has been more than implied to be this, especially given the amount of destroyed statues in his lair that are implied to have once been alive ponies.
• Slasher Smile: Sanies is almost always seen wearing one of these.
• The Sociopath: While Storm King has traits in this story, it's more narcissism than anything. Sanies, on the other hand is manipulative, shows no emotion other than sadistic joy and mild annoyance, and has a superficial sense of charm that barely hides his callousness.
• Shadow Archetype: The Farm King, The Storm King's Equestria Girls counterpart.
• Shout-Out: The amount of Jim Carrey references in this story was intentional on the author's part because he thought it would be weird to have something named A Series of Unfortunate Events and not make a reference to the movie somehow. See the Lemony Narrator trope above for how ironic his reasoning is.
• Superpowered Evil Side: While traversing through Celestia's mind in a flashback, Sanies accidentally comes across Daybreaker, who temporarily controls Celestia and beats Sanies into a pulp.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: This story is a comedic tongue-in-cheek tale that involves the Storm King redeeming himself in comedic fashion. Sanies is a sociopathic dragon with an affinity for Mind Rape, Mind Control and Demonic Possession that is never Played for Laughs, his sardonic sense of humour notwithstanding.
• You Fool!: Sanies says this to the redeemed Storm King and his new allies. He even lampshades how cliched it is.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Everyone's reaction to Trixie (actually Sanies possessing her body) taking out the Storm King. Sanies even has a moment like this after seeing the redeemed Storm King declare he's going to stop him while wearing a superhero costume.

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The tragedy of Sacanas provides examples of:

• And I Must Scream: What Sacanas was going through when Sanies was killing him.
• Artifact of Doom: Along with the Staff of Sacanas, Sacanas is also responsible for creating the Alicorn Amulet.
• Asshole Victim: Downplayed since both Sanies and Sacanas are more worse than Sanies' father Serpentine, but it's kind of hard to sympathize with Serpentine when Sacanas tricks him into being turned into a statue, considering he mocked Sacanas' appearence after forcing him to remove his hood to show of his horns beforehand.
• Bad Guy Bar: Sacanas goes to one of these in the Badlands to hire some mercenaries to subdue an alternate version of Celestia so that he may absorb her magic and place it into the Alicorn Amulet.
• Bastard Understudy: Sanies to Sacanas.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Sacanas, courtesy of him having difficulty sleeping due to Luna being Nightmare Moon at the time of this story and his refusal to take anything that might impair his cognitive abilities.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Sacanas' past involved him getting abandoned by his birth parents because he was born with three horns, he was bullied by others during his foalhood, and his adoptive mother got accidentally killed when he was doing his entrance exam into the School for Gifted Unicorns.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Sacanas nearly killed Sanies in a fit of rage because he made fun of how Sacanas accidentally killed his adoptive mother.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. While Sacanas has been on more than one occasion disturbed by the actions of his apprentice, he mostly just laughs it off or expresses morbid fascination in his immorality.
• Expy: The mercenaries Sacanas hired are based off of characters such as Deadpool, Deathstroke, Bane and Venom. Killing Joke and Divine Comedy are ones of The Joker and Kefka Palazzo respectively.
• Faux Affably Evil: Sacanas, to the point where he's even willing to give Sanies tips on false courtesy.
• For the Evulz: Sanies' motivation when Sacanas asked him about it.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Sanies is first introduced to Sacanas by eating Sacanas' dragon assistant Snuff.
• Laughably Evil: Sacanas and Dead Poop.
• Laughing Mad: Sacanas has engaged in this more than once during the story.
• Manipulative Bastard: Sacanas. Sanies has traits of this as well.
• Meaningful Name: "Sacanas" is the plural term for the Portuguese word "sacana", meaning "rogue", "scoundrel", "trickster" and even "bastard". Sacanas definitely fits the trickster part to the point where he even sings a song about it.
• Never Say "Die": Subverted. While Sanies nearly mentioned "death" before getting cut off by Sacanas, Sacanas then points out later on that Sanies killed one of his test subjects.
• Not So Stoic: In the middle of Sacanas singing his Villain Song, Sanies interrupts him by shouting "TRICKY, I KNOW! JUST SHUT THE TARTARUS UP!"
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The one time when Sacanas doesn't have his usual energy is when Sanies was looking into his past, which resulted in Sacanas nearly killing Sanies in a fit of rage.
• Sad Clown: In spite of his energetic personality, Sacanas is clearly deeply hurt by the memories of his past. The one time his facade cracks was when Sanies was looking into his mind and mocking his past, to which Sacanas responds by angrily pointing a spear near Sanies' throat.
• Self-Made Orphan: Along with sending his mother plummeting into a volcano, Sanies also smashed his father's petrified form to pieces to prevent him from coming back.
• Shout-Out: Sacanas gives Sanies a "plan" that paraphrases The Grinch's schedule from How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
  • Sacanas' last words are a reference to what Flowey said near the end of the Genocide route in Undertale.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Sanies acting as the straight man to his master's zaniness.
• Taken for Granite: Sacanas teaches Sanies how to do this to people. It proves to be his undoing.
• The Trickster: Sacanas, given his unpredictablity and his flare for deception.
• Villain Protagonist: Sacanas and Sanies.
• Villain Song: When Sacanas was teaching Sanies a thing or two about being "tricky", he spends the rest of the chapter singing a song on the subject, much to Sanies' annoyance.
• We Hardly Knew Ye / You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The mercs Sacanas hired to take down Nightmare Star get incinerated by Sanies.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: While he was eventually taken in by Celestia, Sacanas' life was not a pleasant one and underneath his theatrics and energy is a bitter stallion that wishes to watch the world burn.

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Captain Goodking and the Nightmare Knights provides examples of:

• Back from the Dead: Subverted with Sacanas. While it looks like he's been resurrected, he's actually from the past and from the moment before his death.
• Big Bad: Sacanas, who lured the Nightmare Knights to the maze so they can play his little game.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Stygian gets reduced to this by Sacanas after he tricked Stygian into becoming the Pony of Shadows again.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Word of God says he imagines Sacanas sounding like Jim Carrey, which isn't surprising given Sacanas' energy levels.
  • He also imagines Kronos sounding like Frieza.
• The Corrupter: Both Sanies and Sacanas try to be this with the Nightmare Knights, with varying results. They both fail in the end.
• Demoted to Dragon: Incredibly Lame Pun aside, Sanies is once again reduced to being Sacanas' apprentice. That said, he still has his omnicidal urges.
• Fighting from the Inside: What Luna is trying to do while Sanies is controlling her.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: What everyone in Sanies' dream realm is going through.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Kronos, who is not only responsible for bringing Sacanas back, but is also responsible for the alien invasion taking place in the story.
• Heel Realization: Sacanas of all people has one of these in his last moments.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Sanies traps the main characters in one of these.
• Meaningful Name: Sanies' persona in the Lotus-Eater Machine is a bat-pony called Venomous Snake, which is fitting since he has a venomous personality and he is a backstabbing snake in the grass.
• Mind Rape: Sanies does this to Luna to make it easier for him to possess her.
• Reformed, but Rejected: It's even the name of the second chapter as Captain Goodking has to deal with people not trusting him even after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Shout-Out: The joke Sacanas laughs at near the end of the fic is a paraphrase of the one The Joker said at the end of The Killing Joke.
• Villainous Breakdown: It's a small moment but the pressure of having to influence so many minds at once along with Luna fighting back causes Sanies to grab Goodking by the throat and tell him to just take the Seal of War in his dream world. He quickly gets better though.

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The End of Time provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Courtesy of the Sudden Downer Ending, there is more than one hanging plot thread. For example, the main plot of the good guys getting the Seals before Kronos does.
• An Arm and a Leg: While being held captive, Dead Poop cuts his hooves off. Because of his Healing Factor, they grow back.
• Author Avatar: Both Lion Dude and Laeyoon Oude.
• Back from the Dead: Discord resurrected Sacanas and tasked him with keeping an eye on the Seal of Wealth.
• Bad Boss: Kronos, especially when he dislocated Laeyoon's jaw.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Not Kronos, surprisingly, but Sanies.
• Battle Couple: Laeyoon and Jaesa. Doubles as Unholy Matrimony as they're both Sith.
• Big Bad: Kronos, who wants the Seals of the Planets to himself.
• Bloody Hilarious: Dead Poop repeatedly hacking off his hooves out of boredom.
• Butt-Monkey: In addition to being stuck on a planet filled with talking equines, Laeyoon gets smacked around and humiliated a lot in the story. Word of God even refers to Laeyoon as 'Darth Maul if Darth Maul was kind of a loser'.
• Canon Character All Along: One of Kronos' minions informs Kronos that Cowardly Donkey's actual name is Bray, one of Grogar's lackeys back in G1.
• Dark and Troubled Past: You know how in Slice of Life, Doctor Whooves tells Derpy of a traumatic experience that happened to him as a foal? Turns out that traumatic experience in question was Kronos (back when he and Whooves were still friends) accidentally sending the young Whooves in the middle of a war that he himself orchestrated in the future.
• Demoted to Dragon: Once again, Sanies has been reduced to someone's minion. This time, he's working with Kronos up until a future version of himself gives him a gauntlet that he uses to wipe out all life in the universe.
• Easy Amnesia: In the past, Kronos erased his encounter with Starlight from her mind.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Laeyoon is many things but a Fantastic Racist is not one of them, as evidenced by him choking out a snobby overseer on Korriban for calling him 'Dathomirian scum'.

  Laeyoon: I really despise speciesism so if you could keep insulting my race to the bare minimum, that would be nice.

  • Before her Heel–Face Turn, Starlight was visited by Kronos and was horrified by the Unwilling Roboticization process he was inflicting on innocent ponies.
• Evil Brit: Kronos has been described as having a British accent.
• Evil Former Friend: Kronos used to be friends with Doctor Whooves until the latter found out about his warmongering tendencies.
• Expy: Kronos is one of Frieza to the point that Word of God stated Kronos actually sounds like that iteration of Frieza.
  • As the above quote in Butt-Monkey will tell you, Laeyoon Oude is one of Darth Maul.
• Faux Affably Evil: Kronos. The narration even describes some of his dialogue as being 'false courtesy'.
• Hijacked by Ganon: All it took was one chapter for Sanies to replace Kronos' plan with his own and wipe out every living thing in existence.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sacanas has pulled one of these after being resurrected by Discord.
• Knight of Cerebus: While he does have his amusing moments, Kronos' presence immediately heightens the stakes when compared to previous stories.
• Joker Immunity: Once again, Sanies has proven himself incapable of being put down for good. He even lampshades it when he encounters Twilight.

  Twilight: How is this possible? My friends and I defeated you with the Elements of Harmony and freed Luna from your possession!
  Sanies: You know, I had a similar conversation with Luna and Starlight within the dream realm. I suppose when one learns enough possession magic to hop from body to body at will, one does become an undead cockroach.

• MacGuffin: The Seals of the Planets, which are actual seals.
• Obligatory Swearing: Unlike the previous stories, this one is T-rated and has the coarse language (courtesy of Laeyoon Oude and Dead Poop) to match.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Darth Malgus is this to Laeyoon Oude. One reason Laeyoon took part in the invasion of Equestria was because he wanted to show Malgus up.
• Sharing a Body: Sanies spent most of the fic in Luna's body. Unlike the last time he did this, they're taking turns.
• Shout-Out: During a fight between Laeyoon and the good guys, Laeyoon paraphrases Juggernaut by saying 'Don't you know who I am? I'm a Sith Juggernaut, bitch!'
  • The ending is a big one to the end of Avengers: Infinity War and, by extension, the opening to Avengers: Endgame. Also, it's title is Everyone Died. The End.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Sanies wipes out all life in the universe.
• Unwilling Roboticization: Kronos has a factory made specifically for turning ponies into his cybernetic soldiers and was planning on doing the same to Starlight.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Twice. Dead Poop yells out 'SPACE KEBAB, BITCHES' while ambushing the heroes while Laeyoon later on says 'I'm a Sith Juggernaut, bitch!'.
• Token Evil Teammate: Lion is on the side of the heroes but this summary of himself is barely heroic:

  Lion: Hi there. My name is Lion Dude. I am a felon who was convicted on charges of piracy, possession of Class-B drugs, using a mind-control spell on the hottest supermodel this side of Sassy Saddles and, oh yeah, I'm here to rescue you. You can trust me.

• Villain Decay: Word of God has admitted that Sanies' threat level had greatly diminished by the time of this fic. It’s subverted when Sanies uses a gauntlet fashioned out of the Seals of the Planets to wipe out all life in the universe.
• Villain Song: Kronos sings one to the tune of My Lullaby.