Not exactly a Fresh Prince parody.
The Prince of Ponyville
is a fanfic written by Kavonde as a sequel to A Teacher With No Class (found here) and The Strange Destiny Of Prince Blueblood.
Following the events of "The Strange Destiny of Prince Blueblood," our semi-hero's life has been flipped and turned upside down. Despite his attempts to start over fresh, however, his past-both recent and distant-keeps coming back to haunt him and the ponies he cares about.
The story's scope broadens dramatically as it goes on, incorporating new point-of-view characters and transitioning from a tale of Blueblood trying to make a new home in Ponyville to a quest through the Everfree Forest, fighting a secret cabal bent on conquering Equestria, and, potentially, the end of the world.
Despite being even Darker and Edgier than "Strange Destiny," the story generally maintains a sense of humor, particularly when Blueblood is around. The author has cited Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files as a major inspiration for the story's structure, pacing, and overall tone.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Cheerilee, Cadance, Celestia, Luna, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash... it might be easier to list the female characters who aren't.
- Badass in Distress: Twilight Sparkle spends most of the story as the bad guys' captive. Well, or acting as the host body for Nightmare Moon.
- Barrier Warrior: Shining Armor, of course. Many of the other characters use them as well, generally to protect against incoming spells. Blueblood tries to pick up the knack, but never gets far.
- Being Good Sucks: Despite making life changes for the better, and working against his curse as much as he can, Blueblood is still miserable, even more so then before A Teacher With No Class. This may be why that mind spell worked so well.
- The Berserker: Cheerilee is described as this, fighting with enthusiasm and fury but not much discipline.
- Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: Blueblood's curse. As a child, he was subjected to a ritual that made him cause anger, suffering, and misery to those around him, but that also empowered him by feeding off those same emotions. Had Celestia not done what she could to contain it, Blueblood would have grown up to be a powerful warlord and the intended consort to Nightmare Moon.
- Black Magic: All over the place. Blueblood has become extremely wary of chalk circles.
- Brainwashed: Blueblood is subjected to torture and ecstasy until his mind breaks.
- Brick Joke: Back in "Strange Destiny," Blueblood makes an off-hoofed reference to a book called Threats of the Southern Continent: Zebras and Lemurs. While its description of zebras may have been inaccurate, lemurs are another matter entirely.
- Character Development: Blueblood progresses from the useless, helpless coward he was in "Strange Destiny" to a genuinely brave, if still useless, hero, to a pragmatic (in the author's words) "wannabe Batman" who is determined to use his new power to protect Equestria, even at the cost of his happiness and sanity. And then he suddenly gets thrown back to being useless.
- Cheerilee goes from a simple school marm with a Mother Bear instinct towards her students to a surprisingly badass Action Girl while defending Ponyville.
- Cadance, since her return in "Strange Destiny," seems to have been gradually losing touch with her humanity/equinity, becoming colder and more pragmatic about using her powers to solve problems.
- The Chew Toy: Some are starting to wonder what Blueblood did to the writer, Kavonde, to make him torture Blue so.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Blueblood.
- Cliffhanger: The author has gone out of his way to end most chapters on one.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Several of them. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance stomp Chrysalis. Cadance stomps Chrysalis again by herself. Newly-empowered Blueblood shows off by tossing Shining Armor around, and later takes out the conspirators with ease.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Big Mac turns to the bottle to help him cope with his unfounded jealousy of Blueblood and Cheerilee. He gets better.
- Drunken Song: Cheerilee drags Blueblood and Blossomforth into an enthusiastic rendition of Bon Poni's "Shot Through the Heart."
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Shining Armor manages one by detonating a barrier spell. Another occurs when the Smooze is released.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The conspirators unearth one of Nightmare Moon's ancient refuges and claim it as their headquarters.
- Evil Is Hammy: Chrysalis chews no small amount of scenery. Subverted by Bank Ledger, who is described as monotone and utterly bland.
- First Girl Wins: Averted. Blueblood and Blossomforth do spend some time together, but a Near Non-Existence Experience brings him closer to Twilight Sparkle.
- Faustian Rebellion: Subverted. Nightmare Moon's cultists give Blueblood the ability to harness massive magical powers... but they also include an off switch in case he doesn't want to cooperate.
- Genre Blind: The Nightmare in the newest chapter. Seriously, the whole "I'll let you live because you're useless" thing?
- Good is Not Nice: Cadance, though whether she still counts as "good" is debatable.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Blueblood receives more than his fair share while imprisoned by the conspirators.
- Glowing Eyes: A typical effect when large amounts of arcane power are being thrown around.
- Hope Spot: Quite a few, with no doubt more to come in the final chapter.
- Jerk With A Heartof Gold: Shining Armor, mostly. Hacksaw, as a truer example.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Cloud Kicker resumes this role, naturally.
- The Pony Behind the Pony: Nightmare Moon. And behind her, the Smooze.
- Maniac Monkeys: Apparently, the lemur monkeys overcame their low spot on the food chain by adopting psychological warfare and sadistic savagery.
- Mauve Shirt: Hacksaw.
- Ninja: Pinkie Pie becomes one while infiltrating the diamond dog lair.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bon Poni, Rover James Dio, Megabark, Wiggle Spear, Tom Prancy...
- The Nondescript: Bank Ledger, a boring, monotone government bureaucrat, is secretly one of the leaders of the Eclipse conspirators and a skilled sorcerer.
- Now or Never Kiss: Blueblood and Twilight Sparkle, facing the distinct possibility of having their minds erased or going irrevocably insane, decide to spend some time snogging before they risk it.
- Only Sane Mare: Rarity thinks she's this when everypony else (sans Fluttershy) heads off into the Everfree Forest, despite Celestia specifically asking them not to.
- Zujada may be this to the conspirators.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Torrax, the boisterous warrior, and Xorrat, the silent shaman.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Nightmare Moon and her followers, having learned from past mistakes, have become proficient at this. She still forgets to check off a few items on the Evil Overlord List, though.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "You said we were going to be good friends, Tiktak. Let me show you the magic of friendship."
- Pretty Freeloaders: Cheerilee's neighbors seem to think Blueblood's one of these.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: Torrax the minotaur.
- Redemption Equals Death: Zujada. Subverted in that she doesn't actually die despite this trope being her explicit intention.
- Sadistic Choice: Join the bad guys, or be tortured until you do, with no hope of escape, just to prove a point?
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Averted. Cloud Kicker thinks Blueblood and Rarity might end up as this, but they settle on mutual ambivalence.
- The So-Called Coward: By the end of the first act, Blueblood, despite his continued uselessness, has proven his courage to everypony.
- Took a Level in Badass: Virtually everypony, but particularly Blueblood and Cheerilee.
- Trash Talk: Blueblood, whenever possible. Cloud Kicker and Rarity both get a chance to partake, as well.
- Weapon Specialization: Cheerilee becomes very proficient with the hammer she picked up at the end of "Strange Destiny."
- What the Hell, Hero?: Chrysalis, to Cadance, following her brutal assault.
- Willfully Weak: Celestia, exhausted and trying to use her magic sparingly, takes on the conspirators with nothing but her wings and her wits.
