History Fanfic / WinterStorm

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler: Cadance gets ‘’so close’’ to being able to get away with killing Celestia, freeing herself and her child from her Aunt, but she doesn’t follow through in time, and now her own unwitting part in Sombra’s return is exposed]].

* ArtificialHuman: 'Pony' in this case. Cadance’s hopeful solution to replace Shining Armor’s imperfect immortal body is to make him a new, living alicorn body, but she’s been having no success after centuries of research. She finally succeeds in creating the body thanks to a healthy dose of ThePowerOfLove.
* TheBadGuyWins: Well, one of them, anyway. [[spoiler: Celesta still survives both Sombra and Cadance on the verge of killing her, with her Geas on her niece intact, and having manipulated Shining Armor into being open to the idea of surrendering their child to her at birth. Her victory is somewhat Pyrrhic, as Princess Celestia is only a fraction of her strength before. With Cadance's emotional damage worsening, she needs to tread carefully to avoid making her adversarial niece feel like she has nothing left to lose, because Cadance could easily destroy Celestia's reputation and take her elder with her as she dies]].

* PeopleFarms: Cadance accuses of Celestia's contract of "turning your own niece into a baby factory." Celestia can muster no real counter argument.

** Celestia as well, since her constant threat to finally put down Shining Armor made Cadance desperate enough to turn to Sombra’s help, despite her every instinct saying no. Additionally, she recognizes that trying to MercyKill Shining was a mistake, since she irreparably destroyed her relationship with Cadance.
* OneWorldOrder: Celestia’s ultimate goal, though through a hegemony instead of one single government.
* PeopleFarm: Cadance accuses of Celestia’s contract of “turning your own niece into a baby factory.” Celestia can muster no real counter argument.

A WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic {{Fanfic}} by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Snake+Staff Snake Staff]], of Fanfic/FriendshipIsGrievous fame. Centuries in the future, the immortal and benevolent Princess Mi Amore Cadenza rules over the Crystal Empire. At her side, her true love and very mortal Prince Shining Armor, who has been cheating death in an imperfect crystal body to remain with his wife. The price of immortality takes the toll on both of the rulers, and amidst the Crystal Empire’s hosting of the Equestrian Peace Conference, Cadance seeks a permanent solution to their mortal dilemma. With dark machinations in motion, will Cadance be able to ensure that her beloved Shining never leaves her?

Well, yeah. Just barely. The sequel story, Winter Storm, continues twenty years after the first. Cadance still struggles to complete her quest to restore Shining to life, but she no longer has all the time in the world to complete her designs. When Celestia is called away to mediate another country’s territorial dispute, Cadance makes one last effort to save her husband from his unseen guillotine, but finds losing him may be the least of her worries in the coming days.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: All the alicorn princesses are still adored by their subjects, and Cadance even expresses concern that she could get away with ''too'' much because the public is unwilling to challenge their leaders. The problem is that love doesn’t always extend to Shining Armor in his current state.

* WhatTheHellHero: When Shining Armor knows exactly how Sombra was able to return by manipulating Cadance’s need to return himself to life, he drops an ArmorPiercingSlap and storms off, something he’s ‘’never’’ done in centuries of marriage.

* AdultFear: By far, the greatest issue Cadance has with her “deal” with Celestia is how she knows any children she has are forfeit to Celestia, which only grows worse as she discovers her new pregnancy.

* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Sombra]]. What a surprise.

* {{Golem}} Shining Armor technically counts, but straighter examples find use by multiple characters, typically to act as disposable guards or minions.

* [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Pony]]: Cadance’s hopeful solution to replace Shining Armor’s imperfect immortal body is to make him a new, living alicorn body, but she’s been having no success after centuries of research. She finally succeeds in creating the body thanks to a healthy dose of ThePowerOfLove.

* [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]]: Celestia proves her mastery by [[spoiler: stringing Cadance along as she’s at her mercy, pretending to show no ill will to confuse the emotionally-unstable younger princess until the rest of the royals arrived]].

* ThePowerOfLove:
** The secret to finally creating Shining’s new body. Cadance made a plea to the Crystal Heart, and it donated a significant portion of its energy to transform her prepared specimen into an alicorn body fit for Shining. Since there’s so much love to be had in the Empire, even the sizeable amount of magic given regenerates in less than a day. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, less than a day was all Sombra needed to slip back inside the empire]].
** Returns later. [[spoiler: It’s the key to breaking Sombra’s possession of Shining Armor’s body, in a scene almost identical to how they saved the day during their wedding.]]

* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Ancestors]]: Despite being several generations removed, Cadance and Shining make sure to playfully tease their most recent descendant of her childhood as she brings her husband and child for a visit.

* UnknownRival: Shining remains unaware that Celestia was behind Rose Quartz's attempt on her life or that she might still execute him should Cadance's research fail to bear fruit. Cadance's Geas prevents her from revealing this to him. [[spoiler: After the Sombra is defeated he actually seems amenable to Celestia taking a role in upbringing their children given Cadance's current unstable state.]]

* SpiritualAntithesis: To the ''Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt''. While both stories have similar plots, Celestia attempts to create more alicorns, they are dramatically different in tone and its presentation of Princess Celestia. Here, Celestia is colder and her [[chessmaster TheChessmaster]] traits are played to the extreme, whereas Alicorn Hunt presents Celestia as warmer and more down to Earth than canon due having moved away this. In both stories, creating alicorns is presented as being for the greater good, but in this story Celestia does this to take firmer control over mortals. In Alicorn Hunt, she and Luna hope to make everyone an Alicorn so that they can step back and allow ponies to govern themselves. The Great Alicorn Hunt takes place across Equestria in an alternate version of the series' present, Winter Storm and its predecessor primarily take place within the Crystal Empire in the distant future.

* Sequel Hook: Get two for the price of one:

The continuity also features a prequel, centered around Celestia and exploring what made her into the Princess we see in the story.

The first story and the prequel are complete, while the sequel story approaches its conclusion with semi-regular updates. They can be found [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/208304/together-forever here]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/224374/immortal-beginnings here]], and [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/211150/winter-storm here]], respectively.

** We also see that this ''was'' the case with other alicorns. Twilight had married, lived a full life, and had kids with Flash Sentry centuries ago, Celestia and Luna had also done the same, but most importantly, they all mourned their loves and and moved on. In contrast, Cadance refused.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Buy one spanner, get one free.
** [[spoiler: Sombra’s plans at world domination end up being this towards Celestia’s more benevolent method, since eventually it leaves Celestia critically injured and soon to be at the mercy of Cadance]].

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Despite having the valid reason of keeping his enemies alive so that he can drain their magic, [[spoiler: King Sombra]] keeps the ones who he isn’t planning on siphoning alive (or easily revivable) to torment the rest by or to admire his handiwork.

"True love never dies."

A WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicc {{Fanfic}} by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Snake+Staff Snake Staff]], of Fanfic/FriendshipIsGrievous fame. Centuries in the future, the immortal and benevolent Princess Mi Amore Cadenza rules over the Crystal Empire. At her side, her true love and very mortal Prince Shining Armor, who has been cheating death in an imperfect crystal body to remain with his wife. The price of immortality takes the toll on both of the rulers, and amidst the Crystal Empire’s hosting of the Equestrian Peace Conference, Cadance seeks a permanent solution to their mortal dilemma. With dark machinations in motion, will Cadance be able to ensure that her beloved Shining never leaves her?

A MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic {{Fanfic}} by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Snake+Staff Snake Staff]], of Fanfic/FriendshipIsGrievous fame. Centuries in the future, the immortal and benevolent Princess Mi Amore Cadenza rules over the Crystal Empire. At her side, her true love and very mortal Prince Shining Armor, who has been cheating death in an imperfect crystal body to remain with his wife. The price of immortality takes the toll on both of the rulers, and amidst the Crystal Empire’s hosting of the Equestrian Peace Conference, Cadance seeks a permanent solution to their mortal dilemma. With dark machinations in motion, will Cadance be able to ensure that her beloved Shining never leaves her?

The continuity also features a prequel, centered around Celestia and exploring what made her into the Princess we see in the story. Read it here.

The first story and the prequel are complete, while the sequel story approaches its conclusion with semi-regular updates. They can be found here, here, and here, respectively.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: All the alicorn princesses are still adored by their subjects, and Cadance even expresses concern that she could get away with ‘’too’’ much because the public is unwilling to challenge their leaders. The problem is that love doesn’t always extend to Shining Armor in his current state.

* NighInvulnerable: Thanks to their natural toughness, HealingFactor, and incredible power, alicorns outright shrug off most damage and recover quickly from what breaks through. However, they ‘’can’’ be killed, especially by a similarly-powerful entity.

* TheScapegoat: PlayedWith. Lady Rose Quartz very much wanted Shining Armor retired so that her son could marry into the throne, and actually ‘’’did’’’ attempt to ensure that came to pass. So nobody doubts her guilt and her punishment of immediate execution. [[spoiler: However, it was Celestia who gave her the means to do so, and the extra push]].

** We also see that this ‘’was’’ the case with other alicorns. Twilight had married, lived a full life, and had kids with Flash Sentry centuries ago, Celestia and Luna had also done the same, but most importantly, they all mourned their loves and and moved on. In contrast, Cadance refused.

* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: After Cadance’s RoaringRampageOfRevenge is stopped and Celestia knows she’ll never let Shining’s attempted assassination slide, she offers this as an alternative to killing her niece. The deal forces Cadance to never reveal what happened this night nor seek revenge, to allow Celestia to euthanize Shining should Cadance fail to revive him, and most disturbingly, surrender any children she would have with Shining so Celestia could raise them.

DarkFic: Notable because while the meat of the story is as upbeat as the series it’s based on, a few moments explore into the dark implications of past events, and the destructive fight scenes don’t shy away from the details.
* EmperorScientist / Mad Scientist: King Sombra was both in his reign centuries ago, both ruling over the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof and conducting twisted experiments in dark magic below his castle. Cadance uncovers his work when she liberates the country, and is rightfully disgusted, but it turns out that his research was the key to ensuring that her Shining Armor would never leave her.

* HeelFaceTurn: Sombra claims to have gone this way, though Cadance suspects he’s lying. At any rate, she accepts his advice, which turned out to be completely accurate.
HundredPercentAdorationRating: All the alicorn princesses are still adored by their subjects, and Cadance even expresses concern that she could get away with ‘’too’’ much because the public is unwilling to challenge their leaders. The problem is that love doesn’t always extend to Shining Armor in his current state.

** [[spoiler Celestia uses this justification as well, regarding her plans to have Shining Armor killed]].
{{Immortality}}: Both the central theme and the central conflict of the story. All alicorns are ageless, near unkillable, and natural leaders, which is quite a problem when the alicorn Cadance falls in love with the mortal Shining Armor. Rather than be forced to lose Shining Armor to the inevitable, she forces immortality on Shining Armor, who would accept it if it means he could stay with his beloved. The rest of the story involves her search to change his imperfect immortality with a perfected design.

* {{Irony}} Celestia ends up causing a potentially nation-shattering confrontation during a peace conference she established.

* {{Geas}}: Twice.
** First with Lady Rose Quartz, cast by Celestia to prevent her from revealing the true culprit behind Shining's near-death. She breaks hers, the backlash of which leads her a vegetable.
** How Celestia forces Cadance to agree to her [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse Offer she can't refuse]]. She caused Rose Quartz to break her own and witnessed the consequences, so Cadance knows what's at stake.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Granted, there’s light gray and dark gray, but both sides have a point and admit to using morally questionable tactics. Cadance dwells in necromancy (though she hates that term) and eventually steals medical corpses to experiment on, while Celestia goes further and attempts assassination to try to ensure the Crystal Empire’s safetly. Notably, Celestia has no objections to Cadance’s using dark magic to revive Shining, as long as it furthers another of her plans.

* LivingStatue: How Shining Armor artificially extends his life. He’s inhabiting a perfect replica of his young body made of crystal, and then his soul is bound into and animates the statue. It keeps him alive, but he greatly longs for the joys of living, like being able to feel his wife’s mane or eat a meal.

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Shining Armor is a unique example in that he’s using forsaking his own soul in order to artificially extend his lifespan, by inhabiting a LivingStatue enabled by dark magic.

* PoorCommunicationsKills: Turns out, Celestia doesn’t mind, and even encourages Cadance to continue her efforts to create Shining Armor a new body. [[spoiler: If only she knew that before she tried to euthanize Shining Armor, and irreparably damaged her relationship with Cadance]].
* RoaringRampageofRevenge: When Cadance finds out Celestia was behind Rose Quartz’s attempted assassination of Shining Armor, she doesn’t not take it well. Her first act when she finds Celestia is to half-demolish her summer home, and it only gets more intense from there.
* TheMenFirst: For all her flaws, Celestia tells the truth when she says she only wants to keep as many people alive as possible. [[spoiler: So when she knows Cadance seeks revenge, she chooses her isolated summer home to make her stand and evacuates all the staff and guards]].
* SilkHidingSteel: Pick an alicorn princess. Any alicorn princess. This trope describes them. [[spoiler: However, when Cadance confronts Celestia, she drops the silk the earliest.]]
* TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: Shining Armor might be a centuries-old, clinically depressed, living statue, and Twilight a similarly-aged respectable and wise alicorn princess, but that doesn’t stop the two from engaging in the silly play and pillow fights they’ve had in their youth.

* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: One of the clauses of the “deal” she strikes with Cadance is that she is to forfeit any children she has with Shining Armor. Since they’re guaranteed to be alicorns, Celestia plans to raise them to be enlightened rulers that would eventually come to lead all mortal nations, similar to how Twilight was nurtured by herself.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Celestia.

[[folder: Winter Storm (Warning: Spoilers for the previous story will be unspoilered)]]

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Once again, Sombra manages to take over the Crystal Empire, forcing Celestia and Luna to take the fight north to depose him.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Why Cadance is spared by Sombra and the Changeling Queen. They detect her very-early pregnancy, and can’t resist the idea of raising their own alicorn {{Tykebomb}} to rule the world. They cheerfully point out they’ll kill her after she delivers her baby, though.

* DemonicPossession: [[There’s a reason why Sombra helped ensure Shining Armor was restored in a shiny new alicorn vessel. After all, he only has a few weeks to start to learn what it’s like to live again, and it wouldn’t take much to take control...]]

* HarmlessFreezing: [[spoiler: Luna’s incapacitated during her fight with Sombra this way, courtesy of his windigo allies. However, that’s not even treated as more than a method of capture, even with her alicorn resilience]].

* {{Golem}} Shining Armor technically counts, but straighter examples find use by multiple characters, typically to act as disposable guards or minions.
* TheExtremistWasRight: Celestia was actually right about Shining Armor being a weak point in the Crystal Empire’s defenses, as his dark-magically conjured body did end up attracting evil creatures. Specifically, Sombra.

** Cadance revives Shining Armor... at the cost of borrowing energy from the Crystal heart, which temporarily weakens it just enough to let Sombra slip in.

* WhyDon’tYouJustShootHim: Despite having the valid reason of keeping his enemies alive so that he can drain their magic, King Sombra keeps the ones who he isn’t planning on siphoning alive (or easily revivable) to torment the rest by or to admire his handiwork.

A [[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic]] {{Fanfic}} by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Snake+Staff Snake Staff]], of Fanfic/FriendshipIsGrievous fame. Centuries in the future, the immortal and benevolent Princess Mi Amore Cadenza rules over the Crystal Empire. At her side, her true love and very mortal Prince Shining Armor, who has been cheating death in an imperfect crystal body to remain with his wife. The price of immortality takes the toll on both of the rulers, and amidst the Crystal Empire’s hosting of the Equestrian Peace Conference, Cadance seeks a permanent solution to their mortal dilemma. With dark machinations in motion, will Cadance be able to ensure that her beloved Shining never leaves her?

Together Forever List:

[[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Ancestors]]: Despite being several generations removed, Cadance and Shining make sure to playfully tease their most recent descendant of her childhood as she brings her husband and child for a visit.
AnOfferYouCantRefuse: After Cadance’s RoaringRampageOfRevenge is stopped and Celestia knows she’ll never let Shining’s attempted assassination slide, she offers this as an alternative to killing her niece. The deal forces Cadance to never reveal what happened this night nor seek revenge, to allow Celestia to euthanize Shining should Cadance fail to revive him, and most disturbingly, surrender any children she would have with Shining so Celestia could raise them.
BigScrewedUpFamily: At least half of the Equestrian Royal Family has significant mental issues. Twilight manages to stay the sanest and most upbeat, while Luna seems to have sorted through her own quite some time ago.

EmperorScientist / Mad Scientist: King Sombra was both in his reign centuries ago, both ruling over the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof and conducting twisted experiments in dark magic below his castle. Cadance uncovers his work when she liberates the country, and is rightfully disgusted, but it turns out that his research was the key to ensuring that her Shining Armor would never leave her.
EvilDetectingBaby: Shining Armor is anything but evil, despite the nature of the ritual that gave him his long life. However, when seeing his great-great-grandpa in the flesh (or in the gemstone), his infant nephew starts crying in fear at seeing the walking statue approach his stroller. Extra painful for Shining, who’s constantly aware he’s “an abomination.”
HappilyMarried: Cadance and Shining Armor’s love is so strong it’s continued over centuries, and despite the hardships and argument they have, they never once doubt their true devotion to each other.
HeelFaceTurn: Sombra claims to have gone this way, though Cadance suspects he’s lying. At any rate, she accepts his advice, which turned out to be completely accurate.

IDidWhatIHadToDo: Cadance uses this reasoning to justify using the unethical work Sombra has recorded, plus stealing corpses (that were already donated to science) for her own experiments.

ImmortalityHurts: Not physically, mind you, but as an imperfect LivingStatue, his sense perception is a shadow of what it used to be. This means whenever he sees a pair of lovers embrace or watches a subject eat a delicious snack, he’s constantly reminded of the sensations he’s unable to feel any more.
{{Irony}} Celestia ends up causing a potentially nation-shattering confrontation during a peace conference she established.
IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Shining Armor is less than pleased at his immortality accommodations, but he simply loves Cadance enough that he’ll willingly shoulder any burden so she’ll keep her true love alive.

KnightTemplar: [[spoiler: Celestia. She’ll gladly sacrifice lives now as long as it ensues the loss of more lives later down the line, even if those potential lives saved may not have been in mortal danger]].
{{Geas}}: Twice.
First with Lady Rose Quartz. She breaks hers, the backlash of which leads her a vegetable.
How Celestia forces Cadance to
GreyAndGrayMorality: Granted, there’s light gray and dark gray, but both sides have a point and admit to using morally questionable tactics. Cadance dwells in necromancy (though she hates that term) and eventually steals medical corpses to experiment on, while Celestia goes further and attempts assassination to try to ensure the Crystal Empire’s safetly. Notably, Celestia has no objections to Cadance’s using dark magic to revive Shining, as long as it furthers another of her plans.
LivingEmotionalCrutch: Shining Armor has become this for Cadance, since neither of them are sure if Cadance would emotionally survive Shining’s death. This means Shining’s alive well past the time he should be dead, and Cadance hostile to any insinuation that she needs to let go and recognizes her irrationality. Other characters point out how unhealthy her devotion is, [[spoiler: and eventually take it upon themselves to remove that crutch]].
LivingStatue: How Shining Armor artificially extends his life. He’s inhabiting a perfect replica of his young body made of crystal, and then his soul is bound into and animates the statue. It keeps him alive, but he greatly longs for the joys of living, like being able to feel his wife’s mane or eat a meal.
LoveHurts: Another huge theme the story explores. Cadance and Shining Armor’s century long love is taking it’s toll, but they power through in the hope that their situation will improve.
PoweredByAForsakenChild: Shining Armor is a unique example in that he’s using forsaking his own soul in order to artificially extend his lifespan, by inhabiting a LivingStatue enabled by dark magic.
MercyKill: [[spoiler: Shining Armor is miserable being forced to live far past his natural lifespan, so Celestia sees her plan to eliminate him this way. Lady Rose Quartz seemingly has this idea as well, but since in her introduction she introduces her son as a perfect bachelor, it’s likely she had ulterior motives for seeing Cadance widowed.]].
NighInvulnerable: Thanks to their natural toughness, HealingFactor, and incredible power, alicorns outright shrug off most damage and recover quickly from what breaks through. However, they ‘’can’’ be killed, especially by a similarly-powerful entity.
ThePollyanna: Twilight, in both stories, still remains relatively innocent and idealistic despite the passage of centuries. Cadance and Celestia are both glad for her good cheer, so seek to limit her exposure to the nastiness of politics as much as possible.
PoorCommunicationsKills: Turns out, Celestia doesn’t mind, and even encourages Cadance to continue her efforts to create Shining Armor a new body. [[spoiler: If only she knew that before she tried to euthanize Shining Armor, and irreparably damaged her relationship with Cadance]].
RoaringRampageofRevenge: When Cadance finds out Celestia was behind Rose Quartz’s attempted assassination of Shining Armor, she doesn’t not take it well. Her first act when she finds Celestia is to half-demolish her summer home, and it only gets more intense from there.
TheMenFirst: For all her flaws, Celestia tells the truth when she says she only wants to keep as many people alive as possible. [[spoiler: So when she knows Cadance seeks revenge, she chooses her isolated summer home to make her stand and evacuates all the staff and guards]].
SilkHidingSteel: Pick an alicorn princess. Any alicorn princess. This trope describes them. [[spoiler: However, when Cadance confronts Celestia, she drops the silk the earliest.]]
TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: Shining Armor might be a centuries-old, clinically depressed, living statue, and Twilight a similarly-aged respectable and wise alicorn princess, but that doesn’t stop the two from engaging in the silly play and pillow fights they’ve had in their youth.
TheScapegoat: PlayedWith. Lady Rose Quartz very much wanted Shining Armor retired so that her son could marry into the throne, and actually ‘’’did’’’ attempt to ensure that came to pass. So nobody doubts her guilt and her punishment of immediate execution. [[spoiler: However, it was Celestia who gave her the means to do so, and the extra push]].
TimeSkip: The story is set over four hundred years after the main series, which everyone but the immortal cast having passed away.
TinyGuyHugeGirl: Cadance and Shining. Shining’s still his original size, which matched Cadance’s, but her alicorn status meant she eventually grew to almost Celestia’s size. Some humor arises from the odd positions they need to enter in order to cuddle how they like to.
UnstoppableRage: A defining trait of alicorns when they’re pushed over the edge emotionally. The story emphasizes how the level of destruction they can wreak can render whole areas uninhabitable. [[spoiler: Eventually, Cadance unleashes hers upon Celestia]].
ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Cadance truly loves Shining Armor, and woe betide to anyone who tries to make her let him go. [[spoiler: That includes Celestia]].
InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: One of the clauses of the “deal” she strikes with Cadance is that she is to forfeit any children she has with Shining Armor. Since they’re guaranteed to be alicorns, Celestia plans to raise them to be enlightened rulers that would eventually come to lead all mortal nations, similar to how Twilight was nurtured by herself.
WellIntentionedExtremist: Celestia.



Winter Storm List:
Warning: Will contain unmarked spoilers for the previous story.

AdultFear: By far, the greatest issue Cadance has with her “deal” with Celestia is how she knows any children she has are forfeit to Celestia, which only grows worse as she discovers her new pregnancy.
AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Once again, Sombra manages to take over the Crystal Empire, forcing Celestia and Luna to take the fight north to depose him.
[[ArtificialHuman Artificial Pony]]: Cadance’s hopeful solution to replace Shining Armor’s imperfect immortal body is to make him a new, living alicorn body, but she’s been having no success after centuries of research. She finally succeeds in creating the body thanks to a healthy dose of ThePowerOfLove.
BaitAndSwitch: The story seemed to revolve around Cadance’s attempts to escape the vice Celestia has her placed in and and create a permanent solution to keeping Shining alive, but Shining Armor gets his body halfway through and Celestia isn’t even the main villain.
BlackAndGrayMorality: Celestia may use certain extreme methods and has developed quite the ego, but she’s very sincere in her desire to protect as many lives as possible and her ultimate plan uses very benign methods. [[spoiler: She’s practically as morally upstanding as her canon incarnation compared to what Sombra is planning for the world]].
CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Why Cadance is spared by Sombra and the Changeling Queen. They detect her very-early pregnancy, and can’t resist the idea of raising their own alicorn {{Tykebomb}} to rule the world. They cheerfully point out they’ll kill her after she delivers her baby, though.
DidYouJustHaveSex: Everyone they encounter could tell what the first activity the Royal Couple did once Shining received his new alicorn body.
DistressedDude: Shining Armor can’t catch a break, even centuries later. Not only is Celestia threatening to euthanize him should Cadance fail to craft him a new body, but even once he fully returns to life, [[spoiler: he gets possessed by Sombra]].
DemonicPossession: [[There’s a reason why Sombra helped ensure Shining Armor was restored in a shiny new alicorn vessel. After all, he only has a few weeks to start to learn what it’s like to live again, and it wouldn’t take much to take control...]]
DramaticIrony: Anytime a character besides Cadance points out Celestia’s moral perfection and kindness rings hollow when considering the previous story.
EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Sombra]]. What a surprise.
HappilyMarried:

HarmlessFreezing: [[spoiler: Luna’s incapacitated during her fight with Sombra this way, courtesy of his windigo allies. However, that’s not even treated as more than a method of capture, even with her alicorn resilience]].
HobbesWasRight: Celestia truly believes in this philosophy, which is why she hopes to create a world in which all heads of governments are alicorns, since they have the longevity and power to rise above simple “mortal” concerns. She’s had a very long life witnessing mortal leaders killing each other over foolish concerns, yet under her rulership Equestria has enjoyed nearly-permanent peace, so it’s hardly unfounded.
HopeSpot: After centuries of hardship, denial, and depression, Cadance finally realizes her dream of restoring her beloved Shining Armor to life, and they can finally enjoy life together for a few wonderful months. However, she knows that won’t last, because her pregnancy announcement comes with the reminder of her bargain with Celestia, [[spoiler: and even that is postponed by the current overthrow she unwittingly helped Sombra perform]].
HypocrisyNod: Cadance acknowledges how unfair it is to demand to know if Shining Armor is going behind her back to investigate his attempted assassination, at the same time hiding her complete knowledge of the event. It’s not like she has a choice, however, since she’s under the threat of a mind wipe should she reveal the truth.
HugeGuyTinyGirl: Shining Armor’s new alicorn body is noted to be almost a full head taller than his wife’s, which she certainly intended. Quite a the switch after centuries of Shining being the shorter one in the relationship.
IntimatePsychotherapy: For once, justified. A lot of Cadance and Shining Armor’s issues come from no longer being able to truly interact on a physical level, so once Shining gets his hot new alicorn vessel... Well, when the lovers emerge several hours later, Shining’s mindset has improved incredibly.
{{Golem}} Shining Armor technically counts, but straighter examples find use by multiple characters, typically to act as disposable guards or minions.
TheExtremistWasRight: Celestia was actually right about Shining Armor being a weak point in the Crystal Empire’s defenses, as his dark-magically conjured body did end up attracting evil creatures. Specifically, Sombra.
MalignantPlotTumor: One criticism leveled at the work involves how, despite a proper build up, the DarkerAndEdgier conflict with [[spoiler: Sombra and the changelings]] eclipses the earlier conflict between Cadance and Celestia, which was the initial draw. Part of this may simply be because the writing experienced longer periods between updates, making the final portion seem longer in comparison.
MurderByInaction: [[spoiler: Sombra disposes of the new Changeling Queen this way, by simply allowing her to be overpowered by her BeamOWar with Luna. Since he correctly guessed she’d betray him eventually, Sombra simply acted first, by simply not acting]].
NeverRecycleYourSchemes: {{Averted}}. [[spoiler: The Changelings again kidnap and impersonate a princess in order to compromise a well-defended city, and it goes off without a hitch because the Queen actually bothered to learn how Twilight’s special greeting with Cadance.]]
NiceJobBreakingItHero: Twice.

OneWorldOrder: Celestia’s ultimate goal.
PeopleFarm: Cadance accuses of Celestia’s contract of “turning your own niece into a baby factory.” Celestia can muster no real counter argument.
PregnantBadass: Cadance has her pregnancy confirmed a few weeks after Shining Armor’s ascension, whilst her badass credentials were firmly established before. [[spoiler: It actually ends up saving Cadance’s life when she’s captured by Sombra and the Changeling Queen, because they decide they want an alicorn child of their own to raise as an Evil Overlord Junior]].
SpannerInTheWorks: Buy one, get one free.

SuperiorSpecies: Celestia believes alicorns to be superior to mortals. Unusual in that she still greatly values the lives of every creature, but she simply asserts that alicorns are the only ones who will have the agelessness and wisdom to lead nations properly, and that mortals will inevitably kill each other over “pointless” short-term goals. She’s also forgetting the times alicorns made huge blunders, including her own failures.
TautologicalTemplar: Despite her typically-benevolent deeds and reasoning, Celestia still manages to fall into this. She reasons that alicorns are far superior to mortals at ruling, despite the fact that her sister went insane while ruling and she dismisses Cadance as too emotional for her own good. She also fully believes that any child raised by her would become the ideal leader for a hegemonic nation, yet she’s had at least one student (Sunset Shimmer) who fell into evil anyway. Still, she’s as determined as ever to ensure her master plan continues, no matter who suffers in the end.
ThePowerOfLove:

TimeSkip: Another one from the last fanfic’s TimeSkip, with this story set twenty more years after that.
TotalitarianUtilitarian: Celestia gets very close to this without quite crossing the point of no return. Her ultimate goal is to create essentially a benevolent OneWorldOrder, by slowly and bloodlessly ensuring that an alicorn raised to be the perfect leader sits on every throne. The main moral qualm about this plan concerns how [[spoiler: she’ll force Cadance to give up her children to become the “perfect rulers.”]]
VillainWithGoodPublicity: Cadance is the only one who is aware of Celestia’s ultimate desire of hegemonic alicorn domination of the planet, and even then, plus the methods she’s willing to take in the name of “protecting others.” For everyone else, Celestia is just as upstanding and benevolent as always.
WhyDon’tYouJustShootHim: Despite having the valid reason of keeping his enemies alive so that he can drain their magic, King Sombra keeps the ones who he isn’t planning on siphoning alive (or easily revivable) to torment the rest by or to admire his handiwork.
WellIntentionedExtremist: Celestia, while one of the more benevolent examples, still falls in this category. However, she’s nowhere near as extreme as [[spoiler: Sombra, who mixes his claims to “liberate” ponykind from the alicorn’s stagnant rule with his propensity for conquering, murdering, and oppressing his future subjects.]]