Beneath The Sun's Surface
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Dark Fic written by CoffeBean. En route to Stalliongrad's capital city for peace talks between Griffonstone and Stalliongrad, Celestia's flight is supposedly downed by a blizzard; she, and the two pilots, do not survive. Princess Luna is thrown to the reins of the nation while trying to deal with her grief, and Twilight Sparkle, who is extremely suspicious of the incident, spends most of her time researching it, as she feels something larger is at play. In reality, the helicopter was shot down by a group of conspirators, and Celestia is captured by this group with the intention of using her body and mind to revive Nightmare Moon, since it required that the victim is in a near-death state, both physically and mentally, Celestia is brutally tortured on a daily basis as she begins to lose hope.
The story contains gore and torture, the author leaves markers to warn viewers of incoming gore content, allowing them to skip it if they wish to.
This My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fan Fic provides examples of:
- Action Survivor: Celestia survives for 5 days in the forest after she escapes from captivity, she makes use of morphine to relieve pain and have a lot of supplies and food she has stolen from the cabin she was being held, and survives the attack of a Mountain Lion.
- Agony of the Feet: White Dust breaks Celestia's front left leg to torture her and to prevent her from escaping, she's later forced to create a crutch in order to help her in her escape.
- Artistic License – Biology
- Celestia throws up as a result of her brain trauma, equines can't throw up in real life.
- Celestia has her left leg broken and severely wounded by White Dust, in real life, the chances of a horse to recover or even surviving from a broken leg are slim.
- Artistic License – Medicine: Averted for the most part, except for a few occasions:
- When Celestia injects herself with morphine, the drug works instantaneously. In real life, it takes 15-20 minutes for the drug to take full effect.
- Badass Boast: Princess Celestia gives two:
- She gave one to White Dust before killing him.
"Me? Useless? The entirety of Equestria is still intact because of myself. I have been alive for nearly two thousand years," She retorted, stepping closer to White, "I have defeated every enemy that has stood in my path," Celestia raised her hoof above White's head, bringing the blade down onto the left side of his face, "I have witnessed the rise and fall of entire nations!" The knife was pulled from the bone and flesh, and brought back down in a similar spot, "I have witnessed history before history was invented!" The blade came back down again, "I have learned more languages than any pony in existence!" And again, "I have created more spells than any pony in existence!!" And again, "I have ended wars!!" And again, "I have driven away invaders!!" And again, "I have met everyone and done everything you could think of!!!" One final time, the blade stabbed into the horribly disfigured face of White Dust, "So you tell me, how am I useless!!?"- Before her confrontation with Star Yield's army.
"I'm doing more than staying. I'm doing more than fighting. I'm ending this. Here, and now. No longer will I stand by at let this... simple traitor back me into corners! He can throw as many troops at me as he wishes; not a single one will make a difference. Not even he can hope to challenge me. I am the single most powerful being to ever have a heartbeat! I have stood in the way of foes that make this unicorn look as if he were a flea! Every spell he can hope to use against me would barely tickle my fur! Once he dares step hoof in this little town, he will know his mistakes! He will know what fury I can unleash! He will know what the sun herself is capable of!!" - Bandage Mummy: By the time Celestia arrived to Tisy, her entire body is covered in blood-soaked bandages. Valinka and Pavel are horrified by her appearance and state of health.
- Bandage Wince: Celestia winces every time her wounds are being treated by Red Hoof, herself or Valinka. Both, Valinka and Pavel, wince at the horrifying sight of Celestia's wounds.
- Big Bad: Star Yield is the mastermind behind the New Order, subverted in that he's brainwashed by the Aura spell.
- Big Damn Heroes: Princess Luna, Twilight, Cloud Drop and the Royal Guards arrive at Tisy just in time to save Celestia.
- Bilingual Bonus: Characters that speak Russian have their dialogue written in Russian with a direct translation in English.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: A variation of this happened. Celestia's white fur end up completely black-tainted by her own dry blood.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Celestia realize that her captors were controlled by the Aura after she killed them. The whole New Order is brainwashed.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The story contains a fairly light amount of gore but still a lot more than its source material
- Broken Tears: Celestia breaks down into tears many, many times in the story due to the torture she's suffering.
- Bunker Woman: After Celestia is capture, she's kept inside the basement of a house in the middle of the Black Forest for three weeks before she managed to escape.
- Cain and Abel: Star Yield tells to an imprisoned Celestia that Luna was responsible for the kidnapping, he lied to her for psychological torture. While crying in her cell, Celestia starts thinking of ways to kill her sister. Averted after Twilight confirms Luna's innocence to her.
- Cats Are Mean: A Mountain Lion attacks Celestia one night in the forest, injuring her. Inverted for Doorbell, Cloud Drop's cat is very friendly and kind.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Since the Order need Celestia in a near-death state in order to revive Nightmare Moon, Red Hoof is assigned to heal her after every torture session.
- Chekhov's Gun: Red Hoof use morphine before doing a surgery to Celestia, she later makes extensive use of morphine during her escape and during her fight against Star Yield and the corrupted Equestrian Army.
- Chekhov's Skill: Celestia is seen speaking in russian in the first chapter, she later goes hiding in the town of Tisy, located in Stalliongrad, a country based of Russia.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: White Dust's treatment of Princess Celestia involves breaking her front leg and convincing her that her sister was responsible for the kidnapping.
- Concussions Get You High: Completly averted, because of White Dust No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on her, Celestia suffers seizures, blindness, brain hemorrhage, difficulty in listening and talking, and a hard time remembering. It's all Played for Drama.
- Convulsive Seizures: Played for Drama. Because of White Dust No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Celestia suffers one due to a brain hemorrhage.
- Darker and Edgier: The torture scenes put this Fan Fic among the darkest of fics, let alone its source material.
- Dark Fic: Gore, torture, psychological taunting...Yes, it is dark.
- Deadly Doctor: Red Hoof briefly becomes one after Celestia injured him in an attempt to escape.
- Death Faked for You: The New Order faked Celestia's death in order to make sure no one goes to her rescue.
- Demonic Possession: This what the New Order is planning to do with Celestia. Since they need her to be nearly dead, both physically and mentally, the torture was really to break her Heroic Willpower.
- Despair Event Horizon: Celestia crosses it three times.
- The first time is a rare defiant variant, she literally doesn't care anymore about her pain or even if she lives and she dares to her captors to hit her harder.
- The second time is a straighter example, after she goes blind, Celestia lose all defiance she previously had and goes deeper into despair, she starts begging to her captor to kill her.
- The third time is downplayed, after she escapes from the cabin; despise regaining her freedom and carrying a large amount of food and medicine, she has little hope of getting out of the forest alive.
- All is ultimately averted after she's rescued.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Oh boy. It's hard to believe that a story this dark would get such a satisfying and heartwarming ending.
- Easily Forgiven: Cloud Drop and Star Yield are forgiven for their action against Celestia. This is justified because they were affected by the Aura. It is also deconstructed, since Luna wishes that Star Yield wasn't possessed by the Aura and express displeasure over the fact that no one is getting punished for the crimes committed against her sister's life.
- Establishing Character Moment: During her first day of captivity, Celestia attempts to overpower White Dust, he responds by stabbing her in the armpit and then brutally breaking her leg.
- Facial Horror: After White Dusts beatdown, Celestia's face ends up completely swollen with her jaw and her nose was broken. She later returns the favor by stabbing him repeatedly in the face during her Badass Boast.
- Frying Pan of Doom: During her final confrontation against Star Yield and his army, Celestia make use of an aluminum baking sheet to protect herself from magic attacks, she later used it whack Star Yield in the head.
- Gasp!: Celestia has this reaction every time she receives a wound that leaves her in a state of shock, later she simply stare at the received wound since at that point she doesn't care anymore.
- Government Conspiracy: The New Order consists of members of the Equestrian government and military, their plan is: Remove Princess Celestia from power in order to place Princess Luna on a higher position, use Celestia's body to revive Nightmare Moon so that she rules alongside Luna and bring the eternal night.
- Handicapped Badass: Princess Celestia. Even though she's mostly defenseless against White Dusk, there are times where she's able to overpower him despite having a broken leg, being unable to use magic, and multiple injuries on her limbs and head.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Princess Luna, she doesn't have a very good reputation because of her actions as Nightmare Moon. When she was unable to raise the sun, many ponies believed she was doing it on purpose. She gets better, though.
- Heroic BSoD: Princess Celestia suffers one after she killed her captors and realizes they were under mind control.
- Irony: Even though the Order plans to put Princess Luna as Equestria's ruler, she has no involvement in the New Order, she immediately goes against the group once she discovers the truth about her sister. Even more ironic, Celestia let Luna continue ruling Equestria after she recovers.
- I Shall Taunt You: Celestia, of all ponies, taunts Star Yield during her fight against him, bonus points for using cooking ware as a shield to stop his attack.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Star Yield stab Celestia three times in the stomach after she has defeated him.
- Language Barrier: Averted with Celestia, she can communicate with the stalliongradian since she speaks their language. Luna needs a translator in order to communicate in Stalliongrad.
- The Law of Conservation of Detail: The reason why the original version of chapter 15 was removed and replaced with a shorter, simpler version.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Because the New Order consists of many members of the Equestrian government and military, they are able to cover the attack as an environment accident.
- Manipulative Bastard: Star Yield convinces Celestia that Luna is the one responsible for her predicament. He also manipulates Luna so that she remains unaware of her sister's fate.
- The Mole: Every member of the New Order is a mole.
- Mutilation Conga: Played for Drama. Poor Princess Celestia, by the end of the story she has: a burned hole on her left wing, a broken leg, multiple cuts and stabs on all of her limbs, a nasty cut on her broken leg made by a broken plate, a completely swollen face, a broken jaw, a broken nose, has a small hole drilled on the back of her head (this was a surgery that saves her life), her left eye damaged, six cuts on her chest made by a Mountain Lion and three stabs in the stomach by Star Yield.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Celestia regrets killing Red Hoof, Shield Arc, and White Dust after she realizes they were controlled by the Aura and promise she'll never kill anyone ever again.
- Cloud Drop regrets being partially responsible for capturing Celestia.
- Star Yield after he's freed from the Aura.
- Near-Death Experience: Celestia is close to death two times in the story:
- As a result of White Dusts beatdown on Celestia, she suffers a brain hemorrhage and Red Hoof has to perform surgery to save Celestia.
- Star Yield stabs Celestia three times in the stomach, causing her to start losing a lot of blood, thankfully Luna arrived just in time to take her to a hospital.
- Nightmare Sequence: Celestia suffers nightmares everyday following her abduction. She's tortured by her sister out of pure enjoyment before dying by her.
- The Night That Never Ends: Unintentionally, because Princess Luna doesn't know how to raise the sun, Equestria stays in the dark for more than a week until Luna is able to. This is the New Order's objective after they revive Nightmare Moon.
- Noble Top Enforcer: Cloud Drop is much more friendly and reasonable than Star Yield, unsurprisingly he pull an Heel–Face Turn after Luna realizes her sister is still alive.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: White Dust gave one to Celestia in chapter 10, let's just say that he went too far.
- Omniglot: Celestia states that she can speak 20 languages fluently. It is justified since she's approximately two thousand years old.
- One-Woman Army: After receiving a warning from Twilight that Star Yield and his army is coming after her, she decided to stop running and finish this nightmare once and for all, she succeeds.
- Power Nullifier: The inhibitor ring prevents Celestia from using magic. It's the only reason why she can't escape or defend herself. She later use the same ring on White Dust and detonates it, severing his horn.
- Primal Fear: Celestia develops a fear of knives due to White Dust's torture on her.
- Revealing Injury: The author goes into great detail describing Celestia's injuries,
it's quite terrifying. - Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After White Dust accidentally detaches the inhibitor ring from Celestia's horn, she shows no mercy by brutally killing her captors. She immediately regrets it.
- Sanity Slippage: Constant pain, blood loss, increasing fear and lack of sleep takes a toll in Celestia's sanity, evident by her maniac laughter before killing her captors. Cellie regains it after she realizes they were under mind control.
- Sickening "Crunch!": Poor Celestia, she ends up with a broken leg, several broken ribs, jaw, and a broken nose. In all of them you can hear the Sickening "Crunch!".
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Twilight's effort in investigating the accident ends up being completely unnecessary after Cloud Drop's Heel–Face Turn. She even express her annoyance over it.
- Shown Their Work:
- The fanfic shows a surprisingly accurate depiction of injuries, psychological trauma, and medical treatment.
- The author also shows good knowledge of Russian Language and its culture.
- Self-Surgery: After Celestia killed her captors, she has to treat her wounds with supplies she found on the house. Later, Valinka gives a better treatment to Celestia.
- Smug Snake: Star Yield has clearly overestimated his own ability and underestimated what Celestia, Luna and Twilight were capable of.
- A Taste Of His Own Medicine: White Dust enjoys torturing Celestia with his knife, the princess later kills him with his own knife.
- Teleport Spam: Princess Celestia make heavy use of this against Star Yield. It's justified because of her injuries, she can't affort getting hurt.
- Temporary Blindness: Played for Drama. As a result of the seizure and White Dust beatdown, Celestia can't see anything for days.
- Torture Technician: White Dust certainly knows how to hit for maximum hurt.
- Villainous Breakdown: Star Yield gets very angry and start panicking after he discovers that Celestia has escaped. He loses it again after seeing Celestia taking out his stallions one by one.
- Villains Want Mercy: Shield Arc begs to a furious Celestia not to kill him because he wants to see his family again. She responds by slicing his throat. She later regrets it.
