Tear Jerker / The Nuptialverse

Post Nuptials

• This fanfic explores the aftermath of the Changeling Invasion, specifically on how Shining Armor, Spike, Princess Celestia, and the Mane 6 ignored Twilight's warnings, shunned her for them, then the major Jerkass Realization they go through when it's discovered that she was correct and that Equestria was almost destroyed because of it. The amount of guilt.
• Shining Armor considers cancelling the wedding all together because he felt like he was a total failure as a Captain, brother, and husband for letting Chrysalis brainwash and fool him. Twilight has to talk him out of it.
• Since the Dragon Migration, Spike has begun viewing Twilight as his mom for the first time, but was afraid to share his opinions for fear of rejection. Now that he had ignored Twilight and had almost let her die at the hands of the Changelings, he fears that she would never accept him as a son now. It takes all up until a third of the next story for him to finally overcome his guilt.
  • When the CMC try to help him overcome his guilt by assuring that Twilight will forgive him:
  Spike: “DON'T TELL ME THAT!!! Family’s supposed to stand by each other, aren’t they? But I didn’t! The moment it looked bad for her, I just didn’t bother! After she stood by me for everything, I couldn’t stand by her! You don’t know what it’s like! All three of you have families! You have parents, or older brothers and sisters, or both to go to. I don’t have anything except Twilight, and I threw her aside today! I don’t have a family! And now I never will! (begins to cry) I go on a rampage and destroy half of Ponyville…she still stood by me. But…but when she…when she had one outburst…I turned my back on her. Even if she would want to be my mother, I…I don’t think I deserve it."
  • Then he rebukes everything Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom say using by one question:
  "Have any of your mistakes ever left somepony you care about at the mercy of something like the Changeling Queen? Or nearly gotten Equestria taken over and everypony enslaved?"
• Spike's guilt is only surpassed by Princess Celestia's; as soon as the reception started, she left for her room and let her sister to oversee it. When Luna checks in with her two hours later, she discovers Celestia had spent all that time crying her eyes out on how she had let both the real Cadance and Twilight suffer from how blind she was. Luna keeps trying to reassure her that with how Twilight went about accusing the fake Cadance, she had every right to doubt her, but nothing works. Finally, Celestia angrily snaps with this, which pretty much sums up how bad she's feeling:
  "Luna, quit trying to justify my actions! I'm a princess! I'm supposed to care for my subjects! To keep them safe and free of harm! I was supposed to be on my guard! Cadance's magic was off, I sensed it. I noticed her cold and distant attitude towards everypony except Shining Armor. And honestly, I taught Twilight personally! I should have known she'd know the difference between a brainwashing spell and one to cure headaches! Even as hysterical as she was, I should have at least checked. But no, I tore her heart out and left her alone, then went off planning a WEDDING and left her once again with the burden of keeping MY kingdom safe! (Sighs and puts her head back onto her pillow.) ...I'm unworthy of my crown, or the love of my subjects."
  • Her nightmare also counts as this and Nightmare Fuel; Luna has once again become Nightmare Moon and is now mentoring Sunset Shimmer, Chrysalis has transformed Cadance into a changeling, who is asking Celestia why she couldn't have prevented it from happening. On top of that, Discord shows up with Twilight, who he has turned into his insane Queen of Chaos, and sarcastically thanks Celestia for putting her beloved student through so many horrors that she transformed into a monster. Celestia's greatest fear is failing her loved ones...and her actions at the wedding made it come true.
  • This fic goes with the common fan theory that Twilight's breakdown in "Lesson Zero" was caused by the post-traumatic stress she received from fighting Discord. Celestia reveals to Luna that part of the reason why she pardoned her student for the Smartypants incident was that she felt responsible for it, considering how she had sent the Mane Six after Discord.
• Here's what the Mane Six go through as a group:
  • The first chapter begins after the ceremony, with Twilight readjusting her dress in her suite for the reception. Just as she starts to leave, her guilty friends show up, wanting to apologize for how badly they had broken her heart. They're all expecting Twilight to chew them out for what they did and to make them earn back their forgiveness, but instead, she calmly forgives them and tells them that they don't have to atone for their actions, making them feel even worse and having a tearful group hug. How tearful? It's Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, who starts it.
    • Rainbow is tearfully screaming and clutching onto Twilight, asking why she isn't mad with them and why isn't she telling them how much they don't deserve to be her friend. She's practically begging Twilight to yell at her. And it gets worse when you get into her POV later.
    • The Mane Six are so upset and angry with themselves that they believe they haven't been good friends to Twilight at all during the time that they had known her. They point out every bad thing they ever did to Twilight and don't see all the good stuff that they have done to her at all. They even blame themselves for Discord brainwashing and corrupting all of them, despite the fact that he was initially too powerful and managed to get Twilight, too.
  • There's also this tidbit from Applejack:
  "Face it, Twi. The Princess sent you to Ponyville to learn about friendship, but I think we're the ones who needed the lessons."
• Individually:
  • Rainbow's conversation with Soarin; she reveals that after Twilight's outburst, she kept arguing that Twilight really screwed up and that she needed to do a lot to earn their friendship again. So when Twilight and the real Cadance crashed the fake wedding, the tables were turned and she suffered the biggest Jerkass Realization out of all of them. Dash also believes that even if they were able to reach the Elements of Harmony before the Changelings stopped them, they wouldn't have worked because she fears that Twilight had lost so much faith in everybody considering what they did to her. Then the pegasus goes on and on about how much she feels like she had betrayed her Element of Loyalty, then ends up as a sobbing mess in Soarin's forelegs. It's a good thing he made her feel better.
  • Rarity feels like she had also betrayed her generosity, and that Twilight had also had forgiven them way too easily. When pouring out her heart to Fancypants, she talks about how relieved she was at being forgiven, but a comment by the stallion makes it dawn on her that Twilight was carrying her own regrets for what had happened at the rehersal, causing her to feel guilty all over again.
  • Applejack becomes a total Stepford Smiler during the reception, trying not to think about the bad stuff. But every single time she sees Twilight laughing with Cadance, or everyone saying what a great friend Twilight is, a huge metaphorical knife goes through her heart. She even decides not to join the gathering of Twilight's family because she feels like Twi had every right to be with them after the Changeling Queen. At the end of her chapter, she inwardly wonders why all of the fancy parties she's ever attended in Canterlot turn out to be so horrible.
    • Cadance, when convincing Applejack to play the fiddle for the reception, says that Twilight told her that she's an honorary member of the Apple Family. Yeah, that knife got twisted.
  • Fluttershy berates herself not only for what she did during the rehearsal, but for misjudging Twilight again when she thought the unicorn was going to yell at her and the others for what they did instead of calmly forgiving them. She also meets up with Iron Will from "Putting your hoof Down" during the reception, and while they're sharing each other's problems, he reveals that after what happened with Fluttershy temporarily becoming a jerk thanks his assertiveness classes, he found out that everyone he taught had become jerks, too. Fortunately, the talk makes them both decide to acknowledge and correct their mistakes.
  • Luna talks to Pinkie Pie about her "Think Happy Thoughts" mentality, which the earth pony sees nothing wrong with it. However, Luna tells her that denying negative feelings and not sharing them is not good for anypony's health (Considering the Nightmare Moon fiasco, she knows from experience), and references "Party of One" to make her point. We also get some hints to Pinkie's past on her family rock farm, none of which are exceptionally good...
• Near the end, it's revealed that Twilight is actually really bitter at her friends for abandoning her. However, she realizes that she had acted out of control during the rehearsal, and fears that she might've never been forgiven if she had been wrong.
  • In the last chapter, she finally confesses her true feelings to her friends with a epic What the Hell, Hero? speech, with a couple horrifying Death Glares to boot. What makes it really tearjerking was that her friends were actually encouraging her to fess up, because Twilight seemingly forgiving them easily at the beginning made them feel a whole lot worse, and they realized that Twilight needed to get it off her chest.

Metamorphosis

• The entire thing is one long tearjearker. It's actually easier to write all the happy things inside the story (P.S. There's hardly any.)

Honeymoon

• It's revealed that Cadance was orphaned in a house fire accidentally set off by a visiting diplomat from the Griffin Kingdom.
• Shining Armor still feels guilty for the rehearsal incident, despite the fact that he was brainwashed the entire time by the Changeling Queen and had absolutely no control over his actions at the rehersal.

Outrage

• Velvet and Night Light are worried sick about Twilight through the whole night, and end up crying each other to sleep when they are locked in their rooms for the night after being told Twilight is staying by Celestia's side. You can't really blame Velvet for chewing out Princess Luna and Applejack.
• The whole family seems to be saddened, not just about what happened at the wedding, but how they have all grown further apart the last few years.

Families

• Scootaloo's home situation and emotional abusement. And it starts getting a lot more physical later on.
• Twilight begins to suffer nightmares of her friends cheering for her execution (with her brother being the one who lowers the axe), and getting eaten by changlings while her friends ignore her pleas for help. They're so bad that she only gets about an hour of sleep in the course of three days.
  • What makes it worse is that the rehearsal incident made Twilight wary of sharing her true feelings, so she hides her cause of lack of sleep saying that she's just too worried about Spike. Applejack doesn't really buy it for a second.
  • Just the fact that despite choosing to forgive her friends and family for what had happened during during "A Canterlot Wedding", a LOT of the trust Twilight had in all of them had been lost.
• The scene when Applejack is trying to convince Twilight she can can be more open with their friends; the Cowpony outright admits that after what happened during the events of "Lesson Zero" and the wedding rehearsal, Twilight had every single right to doubt her trust in the Mane Six. It gets totally heartwrenching in the next line:
  Applejack: But I want to make it right. Come on, Twi. You're always there for us. Let me be there for you.
  • Almost immediately, Twilight breaks down in tears. As Applejack is trying to comfort her, the unicorn goes on about how much the Wedding reminded her of what Discord did to her. Applejack then decides to spend the night in order to help Twilight sleep well, and the Earth Pony once again apologizes for not always being there for Twilight.
• Have we mentioned Spike yet? As soon as he gets back to the library, his guilt overwhelms him to the point where he locks himself up in another room in the library and refuses to come out even to eat. It gets to the point where he finally tries to run away. And his guilt makes even more sense when ever since he hatched, Twilight's been defending him from the Fantastic Racism from bigoted citizens of Canterlot.
• Pinkie's backstory: Her parents punished her for earning her Cutie Mark because they believed it meant she was going to be a lazy good-for-nothing. It got so bad Pinkie ran away.
  • Pinkie nearly sets the kitchen on fire while baking without supervision. When Mrs. Cake grabs a paddle to discipline her, the very sight of it sends her into a hysterical Freak Out, complete with Inelegant Blubbering Tears of Fear. Mrs. Cake couldn't go through with it, and settled for just grounding her.

The Visit

• Even after spending more than a year in prison, Speedy Delivery hasn't changed at all and still thinks he didn't do anything wrong with how he was raising Scootaloo. In fact he seems to now view Scootaloo as a traitor for siding with Rainbow and Celestia over him.
• Quick Delivery seems like she wants to say something through the whole visit but can't seem to put it into words. Either she is too ashamed to speak, or too scared of her husband to try to.

Direction

• Sweetie Belle getting massively sick, and Rarity being hardly able to do a thing about it. Then it turns out that Trixie, still corrupted from the dark magic the Alicorn Amulet gave her, was making Sweetie Belle into her puppet to get to the Mane Six. Just the way Rarity tries to get Sweetie Belle to snap out of it while she is continuously being beaten up by Trixie.
• After the mane 5 see their greatest dreams when they are trapped by the changelings spell Applejack sees her parents and has a breakdown afterwards and compares the experience to opening a stitching wound when she was a child. When Rainbow asks Applejack if she wants to talk about it after they got free and returned to Equestria, she breaks down and starts crying similar to how Twilight had broken down about her nightmares in the last story.
• When Celestia informs Trixie that her parents disowned her, she isn't sure which is sadder; the disownment, or Trixie's look of relief at the news.

Through The Mirror

• The state of the Humane 5's broken friendship. It's way worse than it had been in canon, and it was enough to cause Twilight to freak out.
  • The rift between Fluttershy and Rainbow was caused by Sunset spreading a false rumor about them having a sexual relationship, which got them attacked by homophobic students.
• Rarity dropped out of the Spring Fling running because Sunset started a rumor that she was having underage sex with some soccer team members. Her own parents threatened to send her to reform school, and some others were petitioning Principal Celestia to expel her. Fortunately, she and her sister proved the rumors false, but still... Not cool on Sunset's part.
• Celestia feels totally useless and a failure for not being able to prove Sunset is behind any of the things that happened to her students, despite how pretty much everybody knows she's the perpetrator.
• The above info shows that Sunset's bullying is a lot worse than in was in the first film. If DarthLink22 decides that Sunset should be reformed like she was in canon, it's going to be a lot harder for her to earn CHS's trust in this continuity.
• During "Another Lesson", The Keeper shows Twilight an alternate universe where she rejected any and all apologies from her friends and decided to remain bitter after the events of "A Canterlot Wedding". When Twilight, horrified by how that her is acting, begs to have the vision stopped, the Keeper obliges and flat-out says that Twilight really didn't want to see where that scenario lead.
  • Twilight is also distressed by the fact that Spike is nowhere to be seen in said vision and it's heavily implied he was killed in the aftermath of the Changeling attack.
• Twilight was certain that revealing that Sunset was the one who first drove a wedge between the Human 5 would heal the rift between all of them. To her shock and dismay, however, they say that while Sunset may have tricked them at first, they all did the rest of the damage on their own, and they can't just get over that. The best Twilight can do is convince them to at least work together long enough for Twilight's campaign to succeed.
• Twilight meets up with Rainbow on Tuesday and Rainbow is initially happy for her progress against Sunset and is surprised to hear she is getting Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie to work together. When Twilight invites her to join them Rainbow seems like she'd like having things like old times again, but becomes angry the moment Twilight says Fluttershy is also coming. She warns Twilight she can put herself in as much danger as she wants but not to include Fluttershy because she doesn't want her hurt. When Twilight asks her why she stopped talking to Fluttershy then, Rainbow punches her across the face.
• At the end of Twilight's date with Flash the two share a passionate kiss together. But immediately after it she runs back to Celestia and Luna's home, goes to the guest room, and immediately begins crying. It finally dawns on her that she has been missing out on potential romance in her life, and even though she knows she and Flash don't love each other he is the best shot of starting a true romantic relationship since he doesn't know anything about her social status in Equestria. She knows she'll need to leave him to return to Equestria by the end of the week.