An examination of the notes of Bobbie Brassie, a town guard in Ponyville, as she slowly descends into madness in response to the ever-increasing delinquent anarchy of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Read it here
.
Tropes found in this story include:
- Book Ends: The story begins with an incident report from a noise pollution complaint, triggered by the Crusaders getting ready for the school talent show. It ends with a report filed with the Manehattan police department, also composed by Bobbie, for the same infraction — only this time, the pony being written up is Babs Seed.
- Footnote Fever: The story contains an abundance of footnotes later added by Bobbie, mostly commenting on the "evil" of the Crusaders and lamenting her original ignorance. They're initially distinguished from the original text through red ink. Later on, that color is used to note particularly large drops in stability.
- Freak Out: An epic one of these is what gets Bobbie "retired" from her job and put into therapy.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Even after being restored to sanity, Bobbie is insistent that something is going on with the Crusaders to make them such a focus of and magnet for chaos, and it's what leads to her leaving Ponyville.
- Sanity Slippage: Bobbie goes from a sweet, kindly mare who dismisses the Crusaders with a "kids being kids" attitude to a crazed, paranoid, anti-Crusader wreck who vehemently argues for their forcible dispersal at the very least.
- Scrapbook Story: The story is told through Ponyville police department Juvenile Affairs incident reports written by Bobbie. Initially, these simply detail her interactions with the Crusaders as minor laws are broken during their efforts. Later on, convinced that nopony else is actually reading the forms, she starts using them to record her suspicions, turning them into a cross between personal diary and low-level Apocalyptic Log.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: While being the Juvenile Affairs officer who deals with the Crusaders is certainly stressful, those incidents aren't what truly send Bobbie over the edge: Discord's temporary escape leaves her with PTSD, and learning that the trio was fighting near the statue channels it towards them.
- Shout-Out: A subtle one: as Bobbie's Sanity Slippage increases, the number of exclamation marks in her notes gradually goes up, topping out at five.
- Worldbuilding: This story, more than any other, establishes the rationale for why the Continuum's Crusaders are perceived In-Universe as a disaster waiting to happen.
