Follow TV Tropes

This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.

Following

Tear Jerker / Aftermath of the Games

Go To

Aftermath of the Games

  • When Cinch starts blaming Sci-Twi for becoming Midnight Sparkle, she initially believes the commotion of the crowd is being directed at her. She is surprised to see people standing up for her.
  • It's revealed that Sci-Twi was orphaned when she was thirteen when Berry Punch, a Drunk Driver, crashed into her parents. She was raised by her brother and sister-in-law since then, and Twilight's still grieving after three years.
  • When Princess Twilight discovered that her parents' human counterparts are dead, she's beyond horrified. Also, in the human world, Applejack's parents are alive, so when she found out that their pony counterparts were dead, she nearly barfed from shock.
    • Apple Bloom doesn't react any better, running to hug her older sister tightly. Scootaloo also has a freakout, demanding to know if her and Rainbow's parents are all right.
    • The other humans also worry if their parents' counterparts are dead in the ponyverse, and Princess Twilight has to take a few minutes assuring everybody that they're not.
  • We get an explanation on what happened to the original human Sunset; she died in a car accident (and her parents died of grief) a few years before her pony counterpart showed up in CHS.
    • As for Pony Sunset, she admits that her birth parents didn't want her and dumped her in an orphanage the first chance they got.
  • The nightmare Sci-Twi has are both this and Nightmare Fuel; what's worse is that she can't see a psychiatrist about what she's been through considering how crazy her experiences would sound. Fortunately, her new friends more than make up for it.

Integration

  • When it's discovered that Sunset, Rarity, and Sci-Twi can use telekinesis at will without ponying up during the sleepover, Sci-Twi freaks out and locks herself into the bathroom out of fear of becoming a demon again. It takes a while for everybody to convince her to come out, and it hammers in the reality that although Sci-Twi is recovering from all of the trauma she's been put through during the Games, she still has a long way to go.
  • It turns out the reason Snips and Snails were acting as goons for Sunset was because they had been mocked and picked on by most of the school due to their stupidity, except Flash Sentry.
  • It turns out the reason Starlight never saw Sunburst again after he was sent to Canterlot wasn't because he abandoned her but because there was a lab accident and Sunburst was killed. And Word of God has stated that his death happened in the original timeline, too.
  • Twilight feels like she doesn't deserve to be Filly Starlight's adoptive mom because she took her in only as a last resort to defeat the original Starlight, rather than out of mercy or kindness. She also feels as if she had murdered villian Starlight, something she really did not want to resort to. And what makes this worse form her viewpoint? Twilight thinks that, because of the way Starlight tearfully smiled and faced being retgoned with quiet dignity, Starlight had planned the entire time-traveling thing as a Suicide by Cop gambit. She didn't, but there's no way Twilight can know that.
    • Also. Twilight really did try to talk Starlight down and offer her hoof in friendship. And the original Starlight actually seemed to consider it for a moment. However, unlike in canon, she outright threw it away because she was convinced that as soon as she gave up, Twilight would throw Starlight in jail for her crimes. Twilight really did have no choice.
  • Seeing how the orphanage Starlight grew up in was totally neglectful and abusive, you can't help but see why Starlight was so devastated by Sunburst abandoning her to go study in Canterlot, and why the original Starlight grew up bitter. It really hits home when filly Starlight is completely amazed at the prospect of Twilight taking the time to read her a bedtime story, because nopony has ever showed her this kind of concern for her well-being.
    • Twilight asks Starlight if she wants to grab anything from her orphanage before coming to the present. Starlight declines because she doesn't have any possessions, not even anything from her missing/dead parents.
    • The fact that Starlight was so willing to run away from her orphanage with two complete strangers the minute it was offered to her shows not only the extent that she was abused but how desperate she was for love.
    • When Starlight first meets Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, they pull her into a three-way group hug. She starts crying because she never got this kind of love from any adult before.
  • While Flash and Rainbow Dash are going over the roster of bands for an upcoming event, Flash reminds Rainbow that this is his band's last show together before they breakup and go their own ways.
  • Sci-Twi was almost kidnapped by a group of human Changelings because she was too scared of visions of Midnight Sparkle to use her magic to defend herself. She was saved by Rainbow and Flash but Puppy Spike got hurt trying to defend her.
    • It's also extremely hard to blame Cadance for freaking out like she did. She arrives at the police station as a sobbing mess, hugs and kisses her charge tightly, and even spends the night by Sci-Twi's bed with a huge baseball bat because she worries that it could happen again.
    • It gets a bit worse during "Interlude II"; just like Sci-Twi, Cadance's parents died when she was thirteen, and getting to help take care of the infant Sci-Twi was what helped her with her grief. And Sci-Twi's family took her in, so the death of Night Light and Twilight Velvet was just as a heavy loss for her as it was for Shining Armor and Sci-Twi. The Sparkle siblings are the only family Cadance has left and the idea of losing either one of them terrifies her to no end.
  • The meeting the Humane 6's parents and Cadance have to discuss the next course of action after Sci-Twi's near-kidnapping. It's clear that the event really scared the adults, because if the Changelings wanted Sci-Twi for her magic, it meant that the ones who also have magic aren't safe.
    • The parents not only want to send the Humane 5 to Equestria, they want to send every single kid they have in order to guarentee the safety of their families.
    • Although Sunset has completed her redemption in the eyes of herself, the Rainbooms, and CHS, some of the Humane 6's parents still have some trust issues with her. A couple even begin to blame her for what's happening.
    • This exchange when things start heating up:
    Cookie (Rarity's mom): "You don't know what it's like to seeing your child get bullied-"
    Cadance: Actually I do. And on top of that, I know what it's like to find out your child's been nearly kidnapped by people who want to drag her off to who knows where! (Awkward Silence.)
  • Flash's family is a little upset to hear that since Twilight is immortal Flash won't be her only lover, even though Flash tries to say he understands what he is getting into. Flash's little brother Shining Sentry even asks if there is anyway Flash can become immortal himself.
  • Puppy Spike, while still recovering from getting hurt, asks Sunset if there are any spells that can make him big and strong so he can protect Sci-Twi better. Even though he is still hurt all he cares about is his own Twilight and how he probably feels he failed to protect her.
  • It is revealed that Puppy Spike lost his mother and all of his siblings to a case of rabies, and he was the only one who didn't get infected. He was so depressed over the loss that no family that came by would look at him because he wasn't energetic like the other dogs. Sci-Twi adopting him saved his life just as much as he saved hers.
    • The night Spike is adopted, he wakes up to find the thirteen-year-old Sci-Twi sobbing. She then picks him up and shows Spike the urns that contain the ashes of her dead parents.
    • Twilight is taking Spike for a nice walk, when Fleur comes along and shoves poor Sci-Twi to the ground, while her friends laugh at her. While Fleur does get punished by Cadence, Twilight comments on how she isn't liked.
    Sci-Twi: “Fleur is always bullying me, and I don’t know why. At least everyone else at Crystal Prep just pretends I’m not there. Her... why doesn’t she like me? I mean, aside from the fact that I’m a loser.”
  • Sunset points out Adagio's current situation. For the first time in centuries she doesn't have her sisters and is worried sick about them.
  • During "Humans VIII", the parents are forced to confront the fact that there's nothing they can do if the Changelings do come after them other then send them to an alternate dimension.
  • "Humans IX", Sci-Twi admits to Sunset that back when she attended Crystal Prep, there was this attractive boy named Neon Lights that had asked her out on a date to a restaurant. It turned out that it was a cruel prank set up by Fleur where a bunch of her friends threw her in a dumpster of rotten food. They didn't take any pictures of the event, because they didn't want Candance to find out and expel them, but it still really hurt Sci-Twi.
  • The Reveal at the end of "Humans IX". While it's a relief to know that Sunburst is alive, as far as Equestria knows, he's dead. Also, he wound up in the clutches of the Changeling Mafia, where they've been interested in gaining Equestrian magic through illegal means...

Top