My Little Pony: Dusk's Dawn
is an "orginal" fanfiction based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, made by Project Interlude. The story is composed entirely of original characters, other than passing references to Princess Celestia, Nightmare Moon, Discord and the main cast.
In the magical land of Equestria lives a shy neon yellow pony, depressed by the loss of his father. On his ninth birthday, he decides to burst into his family's library and discovers that his castle was created by dark powers and sorcery. Suddenly, the pony is consumed by his Evil Twin. He causes a massive storm, which ravages Ponyville. A group of six ponies venture forth into the castle in hopes of stopping him.
Allegedly, the short was rushed to be the first fan-made My Little Pony episode, beating Double Rainboom to the title. As a result, Dusk's Dawn was widely criticized for its subpar animation, voice acting and plotting.
This isn't to be confused with Dusk and Dawn, another My Little Pony fanfiction.
Project Interlude's website can be found here.
This fanfic contains the following tropes:
- Action Hero: Mister Brave gallops through a raging windstorm and charges at his possessed friend. Donut is also this to an extent, as he busts through the doors of the castle twice.
- Aerith and Bob: Donut is a name alongside Iridescence and Star Whistle.
- All There in the Manual: Since some of the dialogue is unintelligible, most people wouldn't know what Iridescence's name is, or that the yellow pony's last name is De Noir. The former's shown on the website banner.
- Ambiguous Gender: Despite having a female body design, Breeze Rider is voiced by a male actor and is most likely male. Still, it's never really made clear.
- Amplifier Artifact: The ring on Star Whistle's hoof amplifies her magic, which causes the windstorm and makes her summon magic tornadoes.
- Arc Symbol: The Evil Twin's cutie mark, as well as the De Noir family crest, is the Invisible Pink Unicorn logo. What this has to do with anything relevant to the story is anyone's guess.
- Artistic Age: Dusk is only nine but he has the model, and voice, of an adult. The writers may have been trying to invoke "horse years", but horses don't take nine years to mature (they're adults by three).
- Artistic License – Physics: In an example of Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud, Mister Brave ducks under a tornado.
- Authority in Name Only: Donut really isn't a royal guard of Celestia, but claims himself as one.
- Big Bad: The unnamed Evil Twin is the one behind the storm enveloping Ponyville.
- The Cameo: Celestia, Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Mane Six are shown on a door containing the Elements of Harmony.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The Evil Twin, right down to laughing evilly about evil things, having a Villain Song and proclaiming that "[he's] having so much fun".
- Chekhov's Gun: When fighting the antagonist, Donut and Star Whistle wonder where Breeze Rider is. He shows up later to snatch the villain's weapon.
- Cliffhanger: We never see what happened to the antagonist, or when the protagonists went to Celestia. It was intended to be a Sequel Hook, but a new production hasn't been made in years, so it's either been abandoned or stuck in
Development Hell. - Continuity Nod: Breeze Rider references the opening when the group approaches the castle.
- Continuity Snarl: Considering that the Mane Six doing battle with Discord is shown on a door containing the Elements of Harmony, we have to assume that this takes place some time after the start of Season Two. However, the same scene shows Nightmare Moon still in the Moon, even though she is not imprisoned there, at this time?
- Dark and Troubled Past: One of the De Noirs gives us an Info Dump about how his father is missing and how "illusions can't help."
- Demoted to Extra: Iridescence and Doodlecute don't do much but stand around, despite being in an ensemble cast. Meanwhile:
- Mister Brave saves Star Whistle from the magic ring.
- Donut finds the antagonist and performs a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Star Whistle fights against the antagonist using her telekinesis.
- Breeze Rider saves the day by grabbing the sceptre.
- Department of Redundancy Department: "What happened here? Is anypony able to tell me what happened here?"
- Disappeared Dad: The De Noir family's only son has one. It turns out he's an evil sorcerer.
- Easily Forgiven: Star Whistle, after she wreaks havoc in Ponyville with her windstorm. This is lampshaded in a commentary:Mister Brave: "We'll help you pay damages for all the ponies you killed!"
- Easter Egg: When Dusk reads from the book, the words in it are actually the lyrics to "Sweet Child O' Mine", by Guns N' Roses.
- Ensemble Cast: Like in the source material, there's a cast of six and no one pony has the most focus.
- Evil Twin: The antagonist is one, formed after one of the De Noirs goes into the family library. He takes over the De Noir's son's body.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Mister Brave has bravery as his element, as he gallops through a storm to save Star Whistle.
- Expy:
- Breeze Rider is this to Rainbow Dash, both being able to fly, cracking jokes and having a strong sense of adventure. He even quotes her "thirty seconds flat" line too.
- Breeze Rider is also definitely trying to be like Pinkie Pie by providing goofy (attempted) comic relief at random times, like popping his head out of a cloud and impossible areas.
- Forgot About His Powers: Donut abandons most of his armor when invading the castle for no reason.
- Friend to All Living Things: Doodlecute's talent is allying herself with nature and plants.
- Fun Personified: Breeze Rider cracks (bad) jokes many times in the short and tends to be a daredevil…if flying through a forest counts.
- Furry Reminder: Tried and failed. The De Noir son states that he's turning nine, and at the start of the musical number sings that "Today I am/A kid no more". Problem: real stallions are considered mature somewhere between a year to three years old (depending on the rancher), and in FiM, there's at least one normal character (Grannie Smith) who's lived to be at least one hundred years old, implying that MLP ponies age at human rates. So either De Noir is an incredibly slow bloomer, or he's kidding himself about being an adult.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: The villain's motivation is never really explained. He's just doing… evil, well… because he's evil.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: An incredibly rare example when the guard in question, Donut, is a main character! He doesn't notice anything about the Big Bad who's "obviously cured" and as he's walking down a corridor monologing about how bored he is, a highly suspicious dark shadow flies by. Rather than do his job and check it out, he just brushes off a potential intruder as "a cat or something" (despite seeing it fly) and continues walking forward. See Idiot Ball Below.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Donut charges into the Evil Twin's scepter, knocking himself out to save Star Whistle. He's alright.
- Hyde Plays Jekyll: The Evil Twin pretends to be the De Noir's son after losing his scepter to Breeze Rider, claiming to have been "cured".
- Idiot Ball: Donut doesn't notice anything suspicious about the antagonist after he claims that he's "obviously cured."
- Info Dump:
- In the beginning, Breeze Rider and one of the De Noirs inform the audience that the family's only son hasn't been outside for a long time, that he owns the land, and that his father is missing.
- The Villain Song states that the father assembled the castle with dark powers, and a Doppelgänger is formed from them.
- Donut has the longest one in the story, admitting that he's not a royal guard, he was recently instructed about the Elements of Harmony, he filed a report to Celestia and that the villain is in Ponyville.
- Large Ham: The Big Bad admits to enjoying himself while he casts disaster on Ponyville, and seems to be the most energetic actor. This isn't saying a whole lot, as everyone else is stiff or unintelligible sometimes.
- The Medic: Iridescence specializes in medical work, as evidenced by working in a hospital and her Cutie Mark.
- Most Writers Are Adults: Dusk is only nine but he acts much more like a nineteen year old. He's quite mature for his age.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Star Whistle caused a storm that ravaged Ponyville.
- Original Character: According to Project Interlude, they didn't use any of the canon My Little Pony characters in order to avoid backlash from the fanbase.
- Stock Sound Effect: The highly cliched Dun dun dunnnnn gets played when the heroes first encounter the villain.
- The Stoic: Donut doesn't emote outside of assertiveness, inquisition and disappointment.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: At one point, the villain outright states that he is evil, in case that wasn't clear enough already.
- Tyop on the Cover: The intro claims this is an "orginal production."
- Unexplained Accent: Breeze Rider's voice actor has an accent completely different from everyone else's. It's impossible to tell if the character is from a different area or if he's not supposed to have the accent, even though his voice actor does.
- Villain Song: The evil twin gets a long one, which doubles as an Info Dump, when the De Noir's son goes into the library.
- Vocal Dissonance: Dusk's voice is deep for a character who is meant to be a foal.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: Breeze Rider smacks into a tree while flying in the intro.
- Wrap Around Background: A rather egregious example occurs towards the end when Donut is walking down the longest and least interesting hallway in Equestria for over an entire minute. He even lampshades it, not that it makes it any more bearable.
- Younger Than They Look: The De Noir son looks like a stallion, but claims to be nine years old.
