Cheerilee: Thanks for letting me try Plan B first.
Raindrops: For the record, I think we need new names for these plans. In fact I think we need to make plans, before we give names to plans. Plans usually involve actual, you know, planning. We've been winging this since we got off the train.
Trixie: Hey! I planned! I planned things! Plans were made! By me! Not my fault we never stick to my brilliant and well thought through plans.
Written by thatguyvex
- And I Must Scream: The end effect of dark magic on Tarnished. Her real self is buried beneath the dark magic's hole, pleading for it to stop.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The Whisper looks like the ponies it's lecturing, save that it has entirely black holes where it should have eyes.
- Chick Magnet: Bootheel wants to be one, but fails due to his utter lack of tact.
- Dirty Old Woman: Princess Luna manages to out-dirty Bootheel in the epilogue.
- Doorstopper: One of the longer Lunaverse fics out there. Starting from chapter 4, each chapter up to the epilogue is upward of ten thousand words.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: As Sawdust, Picturesque and Sheaf mend fences, the Whisper rants that they shouldn't be able to overcome their issues. They're ponies, they break like glass. And yet, no-one's breaking.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: The people of Oaton worship Trixie because they think a year ago she saved them from the Lumber Guild. As it turns out, all Trixie did was get drunk, harass Sawdust, cause some Fire Drakes to get lose and made a nuisance of herself. Tarnished was the one who did the work.
- A Father to His Men: Sawdust does whatever he can to protect the Lumber Guild ponies. When he set Sawblade up to take the fall, he made sure as few of them got arrested, even though several of them had to know what Sawblade had been up to.
- Gambit Pileup: Several different ponies (Shiny, Sawdust, the Criminal Element) have their schemes, all of which collide at some point or another.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Tirek. He's long-gone, but his temple is responsible for Tarnished's condition, not to mention Oaton itself.
- Hate Plague: A side-effect of the shrine kicking into action is one spreading over the town.
- Idiot Ball: Sawdust makes the classic mistake of writing down his plotting and scheming in full view in his journal, which Trixie gets access to.
- Jerkass: Sawblade set up the Lumber Guild's dam operation at Oaton solely to spite Picturesque, though he claims it's just a coincidence that it happens to endanger the town his daughter's moved to.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Sawdust erased some of Bushel's memories from the first incident. Cheerilee is incensed at this.
- No Name Given: While the story never directly says it's Tirek responsible for the shrine, later stories confirm that, yeah, it's Tirek's handiwork alright.
- The Reveal:
- Cheerilee knows Count Shiny. They used to be friends.
- Trixie isn't the one who caused most of the problems for the Lumber Guild. Tarnished was.
- Sawdust is Picturesque's brother.
- Sanity Slippage: Tarnished, due to the effect of the Whisper of Tirek.
- Saying Too Much: Cut'n'Dry, speaking up on Raindrops' behalf, makes more than a few accidental comments about her figure.
- Sequel Hook: By the author's own admission, Tendaji's presence is basically just to set up future stories. He doesn't reappear until Contest of Champions, which just happens to also be written by thatguyvex
- Shout-Out: To Firefly, specifically Jaynestown, with Trixie in the role of Jayne. Sort of.
- Skewed Priorities: Tendaji tries starting a duel with Raindrops when all hell is breaking lose.
- Taken for Granite: Several people, including Picturesque. Not all of them because of the basilisks.
- Taking the Bullet: Bushel leaps in the way of a lightning bolt Tarnished casts at Trixie. Fortunately, it's mostly magic, so she's not fried. Unfortunately, it's mostly magic, so her inverted horn absorbs it.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Oaton has a secret so dark its inhabitants have long forgotten - they were founded by Tirek worshippers.
- Undying Loyalty: Shiny's guards, specifically Cut'n'Dry, owe him everything.
- Visionary Villain: Sawdust wants to put Oaton on the map, and then improve it dramatically.
- We Used to Be Friends: Sawdust and Sheaf met in college. Then Sheaf got Sawdust's sister preggers, avoiding Sawdust's notice via spells he'd taught Sheaf.
- Yandere: At first, this seems to be the case with Tarnished, her crush on Cheerilee being amplified by dark magic into full blown psycho rage. The truth is different.
- You No Take Candle: The basilisk, when Trixie manages to understand its thoughts.
