Fanfic / The Great Slave King

The Great Slave King, written by TalonMach5, opens with Andrew King — a regular guy — somehow ending up in Equestria. Captured by diamond dogs and forced to work as a slave, King eventually escapes after many years in captivity, but loses his friend and adopted daughter in the process. On the verge of dying of dehydration, he unknowingly stumbles across the Well of Eternity, ascending to godhood and setting in motion a chain of events that will permanently change the world.

Now styling himself as 'The Slave King', the story from here follows his rule as Lord of the Earth as he attempts to gain revenge over those who have wronged him and outmanoeuvre his fellow deities.

Current works in the series:

• The Great Slave King — The first book in the series, starting with Andrew King winding up in Equestria and ascending to become Lord of the Earth.
• The Book of Water:
  • The Marriage of the Slave King — Set shortly before the Slave King's 500th anniversary celebration, he finds himself under threat from several schemes. Including arguably the worst fate for him: Arranged Marriage.
  • The Heart of Winter — Continuing on from part one, the Slave King finds himself crippled while surrounded by enemies on all sides, with no clue who he can trust...
• Equestrian Tales Told by Tavernlight — A collection of side stories, presented in-universe by Trixie.

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Tropes found within...

The Series as a Whole

• Agony Beam: The Slave King can use the magical brand on his slaves and servants to this effect and often uses it as a torture method to those that have displeased him. As a general rule, he always gives his newest servant a small taste of what awaits them should they ever betray or fail him.
  • The Slave King can also grant his servants power over a specific person's mark for this very purpose.
• All There in the Manual:
  • Several of the gods are mentioned in the guide at the start of the second book, despite not having appeared yet.
  • The author's comments and responses also tend to fill in several blanks, or elaborate further on events.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Arch Duke Fifi le Yipyap. While a cruel slaver, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for someone unable to die until they've been deemed to have suffered enough.
  • Sombra ends up receiving a taste of his own medicine at one point. It's not implied to be pretty.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Scourge, though he loses his corporeal body and sacrifices his ability to return to the afterlife in the process.
  • The Slave King eventually manages to bring Little Bleu back after many unsuccessful attempts.
• Battle Trophy: Both Darkpaw's pelt and skull are taken by the Slave King. He's almost never seen without wearing the former, and displays the latter above his throne.
• Beat Still, My Heart: The Slave King's discarded heart in the Well of Eternity. While not strictly a Soul Jar variant, it is implied that it would need to be destroyed before the Slave King could be killed. It also means the Slave King cannot survive being stripped of his divinity.
• Berserk Button: Almost anything to do with his dead daughter pushes this for the Slave King, to the point that he declares enmity towards all changlings because their queen attempted to feed off him by impersonating her. He also threatens to kill Bixie should she ever use his daughter's form again.
  • Arch Duke Fifi le Yipyap also secretly fears the Slave King's wrath should any of the liberties he took with her come to light.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Jormungandr is extremely crafty and intelligent, but is quite laid back and relaxed, to the point of falling asleep during moots and being more concerned over the lack of catering than one of his fellow deities lying dead on the floor.
• The Cameo:
  • Discord, Sombra, and Chrysalis all make appearances long before the timeframe of the main series.
  • Trixie makes a brief appearance during the prologue of The Marriage of the Slave King.
  • Most of the cast from Hearth's Warming Eve show up in The Great Slave King.
• The Chessmaster: Jormungandr. The Slave King as well to a lesser extent.
• Chick Magnet: The Slave King, despite showing a complete lack of romantic inclination towards any of the pantheon has nevertheless managed to attract the interest of many of its female members. While some such as Celestia are intrigued by him, for most however it's simply the novelty or the promise of sharing some of his power.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • The Slave King sometimes indulges in this as punishment for those who have particularly displeased him, such as Arch Duke Fifi le Yipyap.
  • Sombra tortures a changeling to get her to falsely confess to a crime.
  • Sombra ends up receiving this at the paws of Second after having failed him at one point.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • The Slave King, who gets chastised by both Ouroboros and Triton over his lack of honour.
  • Sombra also fights dirty, leading to tension between Triton and the Slave King when he wins a contest in this manner and almost kills one of Triton's knights in the process.
• Deity of Human Origin: The origins of many of the deities so far remains unexplained, but King at least ascends to godhood by drinking from the Well of Eternity.
• Determinator
  • Andrew King continually makes efforts to escape from captivity.
  • The Slave King refuses to give up trying to resurrect Little Bleu.
  • Scourge. He doesn't let being dead stop him.
• Distracted by the Sexy
  • Performing the Renewal of Earth ceremony leaves whoever holds the position of Lord of the Earth in a rather amorous state.
  • Lady Suzaku's magic invokes this. Shaw tries to use this to his advantage as part of a quest when she grants him a feather.
  • The Slave King ends up inducing this in others at the anniversary of his 500th inauguration. He quickly realises something is amiss when even Nightmare starts acting extremely affectionately towards him.
  • The Slave King magically spikes the wine at his inauguration ceremony to invoke this with Lady Suzaku's help, to distract the rest of the pantheon from his Fee Fi Faux Pas.
• Elemental Powers: The primal gods each have control over their own particular element, and can revert to their elemental form if they wish.
  • Dishing Out Dirt / Extra-ore-dinary / Green Thumb / Death: The Slave King.
  • Playing with Fire / Magma Man: Lord Ouroboros.
  • Blow You Away / Shock and Awe: Lady Zephyr.
  • Making a Splash: Lord Triton.
  • An Ice Person: Lord Cerynitis.
  • The Power of the Sun: Princess Celestia.
  • The Sacred Darkness / Lunacy: Princess Luna.
  • Heart Beat-Down / Playing with Fire: Lady Suzaku.
  • Fate: Lord Ananse.
  • Green Thumb: Lady Minoa
  • Shock and Awe: Lord Raiden
  • Space Master: Jormungandr
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex: The pantheon during the first age, to the point where most of the gods have paired up at some time or another, which resulted in most of the species that now populate Equestria. This ends up making the newcomer Slave King quite attractive to many of the female gods, simply for the novelty factor.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • The Slave King's Order of the Shadow, to The Most Illustrious Order of Triton the Lawgiver.
  • The Slave King's magical slave brands are this to a pony's cutie mark.
• Exact Words: The Slave King often makes use of this, in combination with Loophole Abuse.
• Expy:
  • Private Pansy is Fluttershy's guard equivalent, right down to sharing the same coloration. She's also about as good at her job as you'd expect Fluttershy to be.
  • Ringing Bells is something of an expy of Rarity.
• Fantastic Racism: The Slave King initially despises diamond dogs, but later confines his ire to the Gem Biter clan.
  • He also hates changelings after one of them tried to feed off him by impersonating his dead adopted daughter.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Arch Duke Fifi le Yipyap is condemned to life until he has suffered enough to have "paid his debts in full".
  • The fate of those unable to enter the Summerlands.
• Full-Name Basis: Unlike the rest of the pantheon, the Slave King almost always addresses them by their name and title, something which confuses them. Eventually he explains that he learned this behavior during his time as a slave.
• Gambit Pileup: This tends to happen whenever the pantheon starts playing politics, especially when the Slave King is involved.
• Glowing Eyes: Assuming the position of Lord of the Earth grants the Slave King glowing ethereal green eyes, later revealed to be due to him lacking any "magical organs" to deal with the surplus of magical energy he possesses.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Discord ended up saving Equestria from Tiroc long before The Great Slave King, but the mortal races are unaware of this.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Luna becomes increasingly jealous of the devotion and admiration given to her sister Celestia. Further, Luna also shows signs of becoming extremely possessive of the Slave King, to the point where any interest in him from other members of the pantheon, real or perceived, is met with this.
  • Lady Zephyr, having already fallen in love with the Slave King and still hoping to resume their previous relationship, similarly shows great jealousy whenever anyone else shows interest in him.
  • Complicating things further still, Lord Cerynitis is jealous of the idea of Luna showing any interest in the Slave King. This ultimately causes him to treat her cruelly, driving her away from him and towards the Slave King.
  • Nightmare tends to get extremely jealous of anyone else who shows affection towards her master.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Several varieties, though only half-diamond dogs, half-griffons, half-phoenixes, and half-dragons have been mentioned thus far. The existence of the latter is something of a mystery in-universe given that the Slave King and Lord Ouroboros are male, and is of great embarrassment to them both.
• Happily Adopted: While it's arguable how happy she is during her time as a slave, it's made very clear that Little Bleu deeply loves her adopted father.
• Healing Factor: Divine beings possess this and can recover from most physical wounds very quickly.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Discord to an extent. While renowned for causing chaos, Discord saved Equestria from Tiroc yet mortals are completely unaware of this.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: In addition to the ponified versions used in the show, we also see the equivalents from other species, such as "anydeer", "anyhound", "anyfeather" and suchlike.
• Honour Before Reason:
  • Triton and his knights tend to suffer from this. Even when he is well aware he is being exploited in this way, Triton still refuses to compromise his honour, and carries on with an agreed deal.
  • Dragons consider honour to be paramount, and have almost no tolerance for betrayal and deceit.
• Hypocrite: The Slave King, despite having experienced the horrors of slavery firsthand, has little problem with it when he takes over as Lord of the Earth. Though it should be noted that he does make many reforms to ensure better treatment of slaves.
• Immortality:
  • The Ageless: Divine beings, though they are also fairly difficult to kill in their own right.
  • Complete Immortality: Those empowered by the Slave King take on this while under his protection, but this can be lost if the Slave King is weakened, or they step too far outside his domain. This also isn't always a good thing.
• I'm Standing Right Here:
  • While trying to prevent a jailbreak and having discovered the prisoners trapped in a force field, Captain Sing Sing orders his guards to escort them back to the cells before the princesses find out, only to find a bemused Celestia looking straight down at him.
  Captain Sing Sing: Oh, horse feathers.
  • Between Scourge and Second when they are discussing Celestia's supposed plot against the Slave King.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Vendetta, a weapon crafted by the Slave King which is powerful enough to harm gods. Simply creating it in the first place nearly killed the Slave King and almost cracked the world.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Rarely occurs between mortals, though the first story does prominently feature a relationship between Showboat, a unicorn, and Shaw, a griffon.
  • Human visitors, known in-universe as Wayfarers, later develop a negative reputation for attempting to partake in this soon after they arrive.
    • Given that Humans are exceptionally rare to Equestria, it makes sense they would develop that reputation; since there's so few of them to form relationships, it's inevitable they'd either have to turn to other species or go celibate.
  • Occurs between members of the pantheon, but they are gods after all.
• Kick the Dog:
  • The Slave King neglects his duty to perform the Renewal of Earth ceremony, and is almost completely indifferent to the suffering this causes for many.
    • Another example occurs during the second book, where having agreed to free all those captured after a battle, he manages to invoke a technicality to avoid having to release a captured reindeer mage.
  • Nightmare literally and figuratively does this at one point when petrifying and shattering Priest Hobbs, who the Slave King later describes as a loyal servant of the Earth.
  • Sombra when he takes over as steward of the Crystal Empire immediately starts doing this to the crystal ponies, in particular towards Queen Topaz III.
• Loophole Abuse: The Slave King is fond of abusing these for his own ends, to the dismay of the rest of the pantheon. However, on one occasion he does invoke this for a more heroic purpose by banishing the last of the Gem Biter clan to spare the child's life, while still fulfilling his oath to destroy the entire clan.
• Love Hurts:
  • Lady Zephyr, previously the lover of Darkpaw until he was killed by the Slave King, eventually ends up falling in love with his killer which causes her much anguish.
  • Lady Suzaku is heartbroken after Lord Ouroboros breaks his promise to marry her if she helps him.
• Magically-Binding Contract: Agreements made at moots are binding under the laws of creation, and carry heavy punishments for breaking them. This comes back to haunt the Slave King when he hastily declares vengeance on the Gem Biter clan and is forced to follow through with it, though only the letter of the agreement has to be adhered to.
• Manipulative Bastard: While he more often shows his Chessmaster tendencies, the Slave King is also fairly adept at manipulating others, though he still isn't perfect at it.
• Meaningful Name: Lasher, who among other things, administers lashes to slaves.
• My Greatest Failure: The Slave King seems to view the deaths of his friend and adopted daughter as this.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Nightmare. Scourge. Nidhogg. Indeed, most of those empowered by the Slave King tend to take on fairly intimidating names.
  • Tiroc the Destroyer
• Noodle Incident: The creation of human-dragon hybrids in-universe, something which the Slave King and Ouroboros refuse to elaborate on.
  • According to Word of God, the Slave King and Ouroboros accidentally merged their divinity while fighting a battle, something both find immensely embarrassing. Ouroboros only agreed to spare them after the Slave King offered him a favour.
• Out-Gambitted:
  • Most of the pantheon end up being out-gambitted by the Slave King in the first book.
  • Zig-zagged in Marriage of the Slave King. The Slave King manages to ruin Celestia's plan, but in this instance she's able to recover by invoking Discord's help.
• Pet the Dog: The Slave King, despite generally being cruel and uncaring does show elements of this from time to time. Perhaps the most notable example is when he admits to his daughter Melody after she places herself in a dangerous situation that he would be quite distressed if she were killed, and to be more careful in future.
  • He also does this literally on very rare occasions, though they aren't always an actual example of this trope.
  • When Lady Suzaku presents him with a gift at his 500th inauguration ceremony, he's implied to be deeply touched at how much the gift cost her, and he immediately orders his daughters to go and comfort her when he declines her affections.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Celestia often acts as the voice of reason and diplomacy within her role as head of the pantheon.
  • The Slave King. While he tends to harshly punish failure, he will also accept a good excuse and notes that under his rule, everyone has the right to refuse an impossible request.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Lord Ananse.
• Rules Lawyer: Discord, of all people. As he himself notes...
  Discord: How better to break the law when you know it backwards, forwards, sideways, in, out, inverse, concave, and converse?
• Sex Slave: An unfortunate fate suffered by many female prisoners of the diamond dogs, and continued later under the Slave King's rule.
• Slave Brand: Those owned by the Slave King take on a magical brand which transforms into a mark of citizenship when freed. Also doubles as an Agony Beam if he is displeased.
• The Social Darwinist: The strong ruling the weak ends up becoming the Slave King's modus operandi.
• Taken for Granite:
  • Discord as per series canon. Celestia and the other deities threaten the Slave King with the same treatment after he becomes a god, forcing him to rip out his heart to protect himself.
  • Also happens to a diamond dog, Priest Hobbs at the hands of Nightmare, before he gets shattered.
  • The Slave King develops a reputation for this, and at one point threatens to do this to Scourge and Second for a year, and place them in the delightfully named Cavern of Torment.
• Take That!: A mild one at Human-in-Equestria stories, where the tendency in-universe for "Wayfarers" to attempt to couple with the natives as soon as they arrive has given them a bad reputation.
• Time Skip: Several:
  • The majority of The Great Slave King takes place two years after Andrew King's ascension.
  • The events in The Marriage of the Slave King start shortly before the 500th anniversary of the Slave King's inauguration, and the prologue is set around the time of the show.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Darkpaw attacks the newly ascended Andrew King, violating the laws of creation right after being explicitly warned of the consequences. After being stripped of his divinity as punishment, King gives him one last chance to yield, which he refuses. Then he gets his neck snapped.
  • Sombra. Right after the Slave King warns him of the dire consequences should he maltreat the crystal ponies, he immediately starts abusing his authority the moment he gets there.
• Undying Loyalty: Scourge to the Slave King. Quite literally, as Scourge under most circumstances cannot die, and later his loyalty to his master allows him to return from the dead to the Slave King's side.
• You Have Failed Me: The Slave King and his underlings tend to dispose of minions who screw up especially badly.
• Xanatos Speed Chess:
  • The Slave King often finds a way to twist events in his favor by playing this.
  • Celestia also gets involved in Marriage of the Slave King where after having her plan foiled by the Slave King she's able recover.

The Great Slave King

• All Your Powers Combined: The Vendetta is created by merging the various elements into a single weapon.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Sir Stouthorn ends up as a victim of this when struck down by the Slave King.
  • The Slave King loses his arm to the Vendetta, when Seafoam attacks him in retaliation for impaling Sir Stouthorn. Later he gets a metal prosthetic replacement.
• Badass Boast:
  • Terrorantula to Sir Stouthorn in the Marelantis Coliseum
  Terrorantula: I shall feed upon your carcass, and decorate my lair with your remains.
  • Sir Stouthorn to the Slave King when confronted for his refusal to surrender the Vendetta
  Sir Stouthorn: At Jormungandr’s Way I stood up to Scourge the doomhound without flinching. At the Marelantis Coliseum I battled Terrorantula the spider without faltering. Against all odds I defied Lord Triton the Lord of Water without failing. And in the Howling Wastes I punished Lord Ouroboros the Fire Tyrant himself without falling. What makes you think I’m going to stand down to the likes of you, you son of a bitch!
• Badass Normal: Most of the mortal cast in the first book, but Sir Stouthorn in particular deserves mention.
• Bad Liar: Sir Stouthorn. Lying doesn't exactly come with being a virtuous knight after all.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Not the only reason, but his torture as a slave at the hands of the diamond dogs does play a part in Andrew King's transformation into the Slave King.
• Brutal Honesty: Lady Zephyr gives one to Shaw, when after having blessed his union with Showboat she declines the right of primae noctis, deciding not to sully their love with "a night of amazing sex that you could never hope to experience otherwise".
  Shaw: That was a bit mean.
• Cooldown Hug: Celestia offers one to the Slave King when he is on the verge of committing suicide.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • Arch Duke Fifi le Yipyap is kept alive in part so he can witness his clan and home destroyed at the Slave King's hand.
  • While he despises treachery, Ouroboros spares Fifi after having stolen the Slave King's prized pendant, simply because he thinks the Slave King will inflict an even worse punishment.
• Driven to Suicide: After realizing how evil he has become and lost in despair over the loss of his daughter and friend, the Slave King ends up about to kill himself before Celestia intervenes.
• Eye Scream: Ouroboros loses an eye after having it cut out from the inside.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Slave King goes from being a regular guy taken as a slave, to one of the most powerful, cunning, and cruel deities in the pantheon.
• Fun with Acronyms: B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S. or the barding association for the saving and retelling of deeds in song.
• Generation Xerox: Prince Blueblood is almost identical to his Friendship is Magic counterpart.
• Heel Realization: The Slave King, after he attacks Sir Stouthorn. It doesn't turn him into the epitome of goodness, but he does start acting in a more responsible and less evil fashion afterwards.
• He Knows Too Much: The Slave King has a pony disposed of after having had too much of his plan overheard, but is not happy about it in the slightest and rather apologetic.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Celestia prepares to sacrifice herself to stop the Slave King after seeing the chaos caused, but she gets talked out of it by Luna.
• Hidden Villain: Tiroc the Destroyer, who is ultimately responsible for many happenings behind the scenes in his attempt to escape.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Slave King loses his arm after being attacked with his own weapon, the Vendetta.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • Sir Stouthorn is impaled on multiple summoned spikes by the Slave King when he refuses to relinquish the Vendetta.
  • The Slave King impales numerous dragons when they attempt to steal from him.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Showboat starts out as a pure old kleptomaniac given her nature as a thief, but gradually gains the hero part over the course of the story.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Happens to an unfortunate diamond dog priest after being petrified by Nightmare.

• Love Makes You Crazy: The Slave King does not take Little Bleu's death well. Even hundreds of years later he still obsesses over it, continually trying to resurrect her, and refusing to let it go. On several occasions this also causes him to experience very vivid hallucinations.
• Love Makes You Evil: Andrew King's love for his daughter and friend are ultimately what fuels his rage and despair at their deaths, and play a large part in his transformation into the Slave King.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Andrew King has a mild case after he gets captured by diamond dogs and resorts to stealing an apple from a unicorn foal who he would later adopt as his daughter. He does return it however.
  • The Slave King gets a much bigger one after striking down Sir Stouthorn in anger, and having realized the depths he has sunken to.
• Mythology Gag: Private Pansy being an Expy of Fluttershy, considering Fluttershy played her in Hearth's Warming Eve.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Clover does not take kindly to Second speaking ill of Scourge when he sacrifices himself to ensure their quest is successful.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Slave King towards the Gem Biter clan.
• A Taste of the Lash: While mentioned to have been on the receiving end of this before, Andrew King suffers a particularly brutal set on one occasion that almost kills him.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • The Slave King's prized possession is a pendant containing feathers from his friend Snowe, and pieces of Little Bleu's horn.
  • Lady Zephyr is given one of Darkpaw's fangs by the Slave King though he later gets it back in order to craft the Vendetta.
• Tragic Villain: The Slave King. The loss of his daughter and friend, and the hardships he suffers eventually drive him into becoming a cruel monster unrecognizable as his former self.
• Vampiric Draining: The Slave King eventually learns how to drain the life of anyone he wishes, providing they are touching the ground.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Slave King gets one in the first book when Clover tries to convince him not to harm Shanks.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Andrew King and Snowe throw quite a few light-hearted insults around between them.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Arch Duke Fifi le Yipyap, who wishes for nothing more but to die and rejoin his old master. He does not take kindly to pity.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: The Slave King gains his position as Lord of the Earth by killing the previous one, albeit in self-defense.

The Marriage of the Slave King

• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Celestia towards the Slave King when she asks if he is truly happy.
  • The Slave King again ends up on the receiving end of this, when Lady Zephyr asks him why he makes special provisions for some combatants. The idea of displaying the same hypocrisy he accuses other deities of cuts him quite deeply.
• Arranged Marriage / Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: The Slave King is forced into marrying one of the pantheons by the rest. Played with slightly in that he does get to choose which one he marries.
• The Chains of Commanding: After worrying over whether he is turning into a hypocrite by acting in the same manner as the rest of the pantheon, the Slave King laments how much more complicated things are as of Marriage of the Slave King. The compromises he has to make actually ends up giving him a rare moment of empathy with his fellow deities.
• Cut Himself Shaving: Second passes off Sombra's injuries after his torture as the result of falling down several flights of stairs. Repeatedly. Bizarrely, this actually works.
• Deal with the Devil: Celestia makes one with Discord if he cheats to prevent the Slave King from throwing a Spanner in the Works and ensure Luna wins his competition.
• Dirty Coward: Sombra. He'll happily torture someone too weak to fight back, but the moment he's threatened by anyone more powerful will turn around and beg for forgiveness.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sombra's treatment at the hands of Second somewhat resembles a Domestic Abuse case. Intentional, according to Word of God.
• Double Entendre: Part of Chapter 9 consists entirely of these from the narrative viewpoint. See Innocent Innuendo.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Ignatius, a half-dragon does not appreciate Melody calling him by his nickname "Iggy".
• Establishing Character Moment: Sombra's treatment of Bixie demonstrates his willingness to abuse anyone under his authority.
• Et Tu, Brute?: The Slave King's reaction to what he views as Scourge's betrayal. After Scourge is found innocent, he's deeply wounded by what he views as a betrayal of their friendship, and tells Scourge they are no longer friends.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The eponymous marriage of the Slave King, though it only becomes a plot point towards the end.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: At one point the Slave King attempts to locate any intruder at his inauguration anniversary, only to accidentally mingle his magic with everyone present; described as the divine equivalent of "copping a feel". In an attempt to save face, he tries to pass it off to Celestia as case of Power Incontinence and gets everyone else drunk on magically spiked wine.
• First-Episode Twist: The prologue of The Marriage of the Slave King confirms that the Slave King did eventually succeed in bringing Little Bleu back to life, and that despite his efforts, Luna still fell to the darkness.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Even calling it a First Date Marriage would be generous. While the Slave King is forced into marrying one of the pantheon, he is completely mystified by his bride-to-be claiming to love him, stating the obvious that she barely even knows him.
• Gender Bender: Discord can readily switch to his female persona, Eris, and threatens to remain in that form to take part in the Slave King's competition unless Celestia allows him to remain and watch the fun.
• I Have No Son!: While the Slave King generally doesn't acknowledge his children, particular mention goes to Dawson, who he flat out refuses to accept as his son. It's later revealed that this was due to Lady Zephyr deceiving him over a ritual that would produce a child, which angered him greatly and caused him to end their relationship.
• I Know You Know I Know: Between Celestia and the Slave King regarding her scheme. However, the Slave King is mistaken over what said scheme involves.
• Ineffectual Death Threat: The Slave King threatens the female members of the pantheon with this after finding out about his Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage, even while exhausted and surrounded by them. They don't take it very seriously.
• Innocent Innuendo: Played for comedy. At one point the Slave King gets a massage to help reduce his considerable stress. However, the way the narrative describes this, and the way the cast react, you'd think something completely different was going on.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Minoa threatens/propositions the Slave King with this if she wins his competition.
• Interrupted Intimacy: The Slave King and Luna's wedding night gets interrupted by the theft of his heart and its use in a magical ritual which almost kills him.
• In the Back: Lord Cerynitis tries to dispose of the Slave King in this way after being defeated.
• Irony: Lord Cerynitis' paranoia over Luna becoming romantically interested in the Slave King, leads him to drive her away with his cruelty, and sets in motion the very thing he sought to prevent.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Slave King provokes Lord Cerynitis into charging at him by taunting him. It doesn't work out well for Cerynitis.
• Love Redeems: Celestia seems to believe wholeheartedly in this trope, and attempts to invoke it on the Slave King. Whether it works or not remains to be seen...
• Mind Screw: The massage scene. It's not clear nothing untoward happened until you read the author's note, in part helped by the cast's reaction to the situation as if something completely different was happening.
• Musical Theme Naming: Lady Suzaku's three daughters are named Aria, Harmony, and Melody.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After the Slave King spares Lord Cerynitis's life, he almost gets stabbed in the back as a reward. It doesn't get received well.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The Slave King gives Lord Cerynitis one, after defeating him in combat over the right to marry Luna.
• No-Sell: Chrysalis ends up absorbing Nightmare's rage, instead of being intimidated by it. This does not go down well with the latter.
• Parental Substitute: Scourge takes on the role as a sort of father-figure to his student Aria.
• Power Incontinence: The Slave King tries to pass off his Fee Fi Faux Pas as a case of this to Celestia, to which she sympathises.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Whenever the Slave King looks into Celestia's eyes, he often finds himself unable to remain angry with her. However, Celestia also appears genuine whenever she invokes this, rather than manipulative.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Serving to illustrate how bad Sombra is.
• Spanner in the Works: The Slave King almost ruins Celestia's plan to get him to marry Luna when he unexpectedly turns his choice of bride into a competition.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Lord Cerynitis takes the opportunity to not just do this, but challenge the Slave King for his bride.
• So Proud of You:
  • Dawson hopes for this, and desperately tries to impress his father. After several false starts, he does actually manage to do this by proving his skill in combat, but the Slave King can't bring himself to admit it.
  • Aria similarly hopes to receive this from her father, but does get one from her mentor and father-figure Scourge instead.
• The Starscream:
  • Second, to both Scourge and to the Slave King. Unfortunately for Second, the Slave King is well aware of this even if he is allowed to carry out his schemes unhindered.
  • Scourge gets mistaken as one by the Slave King when he's forced to choose between helping his master and friend, or ignoring him to save his life.
• Suddenly Sober: One of the many benefits of the Slave King's Draught of Renewal.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The Slave King and his wife Luna. She's considered the most beautiful of the pantheon, whereas he has many scars from his time as a slave.
• Unwanted Harem: The Slave King ends up with many of the female members of the pantheon vying for his affection, albeit mostly for political and selfish reasons.

• Worthy Opponent:
  • The Slave King and Ouroboros seem to consider each other this as of Marriage of the Slave King.
  • Cerynitis and Darkpaw apparently considered themselves this. A sentiment the former does not share towards the latter's successor.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The Slave King recognizes Celestia has some scheme up her sleeve, but believes she's planning an invasion instead of her Love Redeems plot.

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