Chrono Reflect
is a fanfiction written by Sapphire Valley. It's both a crossover and a sequel, taking place after all the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movies and both Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, making it essentially the final story for both series.
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While the story is a crossover with both Trigger and Cross, it takes more after Trigger in terms of plot and character development. It focuses on a smaller more contained plot with fewer characters instead of a more complex plot with larger characters. It does deal with complex themes however, such as the Butterfly Effect and String Theory, while still not forgetting that Friendship Is Magic.
Chrono Reflect provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Spike the dog, instead of being a tiny mutt, is a Noble Wolf with magical powers.
- Nightmare Moon is much more powerful and better at fighting in this story, as opposed to her canon counterpart, who mostly used indirect attacks and only seemed to know two offensive spells.
- Alpha Bitch: Standard Fluttershy, who seems to have taken Sunset's place as the biggest bully of Canterlot High, with an outfit that's similar to Sunset's to drive the point home. Ironically, Equestria Girls Fluttershy is first seen being bullied by Sunset.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
- Inverted in the case of DASH-379. She was created as the final robot in a series of Killer Robots, but at some point was reprogrammed by unknown means. She now helps Rarity's party as The Atoner, seeking to destroy all robots in her series, including herself after she's finished.
- Played more straight for Tirek after DASH-379 learns the truth about what happened to her. After she succumbed to the Pinocchio Effect and gained free will, she was deactivated and thrown away. Once she learns the horrible truth of why she was decommissioned and what he had her do, she defects completely, even leaving him to be killed by his other robots. Talk about cold.
- Also played more straight for SOMBRA, who was planning on overthrowing Tirek and working with Luna to overthrow the humans of Machine to create a world of just robots.
- Anti-Villain: Pinkamena. Also,
Word of God says that most of the villains in this story will be this. - Anti-Climax: Despite being built up as the primary antagonist and previously acting as a Hopeless Boss Fight Nightmare Moon's final fight with the heroes comes off as very lackluster compared to what we saw earlier. This may be justified though, as Rarity refused to rule along side her before the fight happened.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Both SOMBRA and Luna get this, both dying in the arms of the main characters most important to them.(DASH for SOMBRA, Rarity for Luna)
- Arc Villain:
- Dr. Tirek is this for both the arc of the Machine universe and DASH's character arc in general.
- Greymane is this for Forest Fluttershy's character arc.
- Bottomless Magazines: Twilight uses a bow and arrows as her main weapon. Somehow though, she's never had to worry about running out of arrows.
- Butterfly Effect: One of the main themes of the story is how one single change can affect the way the whole world turns out. The world of Standard is one where Rarity died in a car accident ten years ago. The canon Rarity is the one who survived, but her death resulted in the following changes:
- Canterlot became more like the real world, being more modern and realistic.
- Applejack never moved back to Sweet Apple Acres, becoming a Southern Belle with Rarity's personality. She also changed her name to Applejewel.
- Fluttershy became the school bully, and is implied to be a disappointment at home.
- Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie both became super shy girls, Rainbow Dash due to Fluttershy's constant bullying, and Pinkie Pie due to anxiety issues she never got over.
- Finally, Twilight never transferred to Crystal Prep, growing up as a smart but still modern teenager with lofty dreams but a bit of an inferiority complex.
- The worlds of Forest, Machine, and Medieval are massive examples of this, with changes so big that there's no telling WHAT happened to make those worlds.
- Bystander Syndrome: Standard Applejack suffered from this, at least until her Character Development.
- Calling Your Attacks: When DASH activates her ATHENA Mode, expect her to shout “Releasing all limiters! Activating ATHENA Mode!”
- Character Development: Applejack, Fluttershy, and DASH-379 all make their standard counterparts do this. Interestingly enough, this unlocks new abilities for them.
- DASH-379 helps Standard Rainbow gain more self-confidence, and has her finally stand up to Fluttershy.
- Fluttershy gets Standard Fluttershy to become nicer.
- Applejack helps Standard Applejack become more honest, both with herself and others.
- Pinkamena helps Standard Pinkie get over her anxiety, and to become happier.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Rarity, the main protagonist, is a black adept, using darkness based magic. Sadly gets subverted though, when it's revealed that her powers were given to her by the Big Bad of the story, and were growing due to her slowly falling into darkness.
- Despair Event Horizon: Rarity spends most of the story fighting this, having multiple points where she breaks down or withdraws into herself. Sadly, once she has her fears confirmed, she crosses it immediately, becoming Nightmare Crystal and seeking to help Nightmare Moon with whatever her goals are.
- Does Not Like Men: Forest Fluttershy is this after she gets raped, to the point where she goes berserk if a man so much as touches her. Fortunately for her, her friends are there to help her trust men again.
- Do with Him as You Will: Zig-zagged with Tirek's ultimate fate. He's left to die at the hands of his other creations by DASH and her friends, but this not done because he mistreated them but really because they were being secretly controlled by Luna. The zig-zag come from the fact that he created the Luna of Machine.(or at least, he built her body)
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Standard Pinkie's outfit is clearly meant to invoke this trope.
- Elemental Powers: Like in Chrono Trigger, each character has a single element that they specialize in and only use magic in that particular color/element.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted with Pinkamena. It takes quite some time for the others to forgive her for what she's done, especially Applejack. This isn't helped by the whole "shows no remorse for her actions" thing she got going for her. However, it turns out this is done on purpose, because she hasn't forgiven herself for everything she's done.
- Evil Costume Switch: Happens to Rarity after her Face–Heel Turn, made to look like her Nightmare Rarity form.
- After becoming a bully, Standard Fluttershy now sports a red top that shows off her bust line, a black leather jacket, black mini skirt, fishnet stockings, black high heeled boots, a bat shaped hairpin, dark gray eyeshadow, and dark red lipstick.
- Expy: This story takes after Chrono Trigger, with Rarity meeting versions of her friends that are expies of characters from Chrono Trigger either subtly or outright.
- Rarity herself is an expy of Crono and Serge, without being a Heroic Mime.
- Twilight is both an expy of Lucca and Marle, having the former's intellect and personality and the latter's position in the party (healer) while possibly being the main love interest.
- Fluttershy is an expy of Ayla, coming from the forest though rather than the stone age.
- Rainbow Dash is an expy of Robo, with shades of both KOS-MOS and E-102 GAMMA.
- Applejack is an expy of Frog, minus the Flowery Elizabethan English and still being human.
- Pinkamena is an expy of Magus in terms of plot, but her design, mannerisms, and fighting style is a direct shout-out to Tira from the Soul Series. Her outfit, however, takes elements from Harle.
- Fallen Hero: After learning that her entire world is Deader than Dead, Rarity loses all hope and allows her darkness to consume her, becoming The Dragon to Nightmare Moon's Big Bad. The rest of Twilight's friends venture out to bring her back.
- Fighting a Shadow: Pinkamena invokes this when she tells the rest of the party about Lavos. She says that the "Lavos" they've been seeing isn't the real thing, comparing it to "fighting one of his arms."
- Good All Along: Pinkamena, who starts out being The Dragon to Nightmare Moon is revealed to have been this.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Standard Fluttershy smokes. Again, seeing her do this is very disturbing.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Luna seems to be behind EVERYTHING. The Wolf Tribe attacking? All her. The Pinocchio Effect? Guilty as charged. She even seems to responsible (be it indirectly or not) for the death of Rarity in Machine and Medieval.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: DASH-379 and Forest Fluttershy are a truly heartwarming version of this, with Fluttershy being the main source for DASH-379 slowly gaining more humanity as time goes on.
- Knight Applejack and her deceased teacher, the Rarity of Medieval, are hinted to have been this before the latter's untimely death.
- Rarity and Twilight seem like this for most of the story, but a number of hints suggest that they might actually be a Chastity Couple.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Whatever Luna is planning, she's playing it close to her chest.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fight with Nightmare Moon. It's clear none of them stand a chance, and they only reason the survived at all is because Nightmare Moon didn't want to kill them.
- There's also the first fight with Lavos; their attacks don't even phase it, and they probably would've all died if Pinkamena hadn't saved them.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Dr.Tirek firmly falls into this category in the end as it's revealed that everything he planned was set up by Nightmare Moon so that he'd fail.
- Irony: Standard Fluttershy is jealous of her brother Zephyr Breeze, saying how everyone just goes on and on about him, how he's so smart and so talented. This is the exact opposite of what we get in the show; Zephyr's canon counterpart feels like he's stuck in her shadow, leading to him feeling insecure.
- The Lad-ette: Even though she wears a red bow in her hair, Knight Applejack is actually the most masculine on the team, being the second strongest fighter on the team after DASH-379, almost always seen in her armor (and if not is wearing boy's clothes) and was even confused for being a male by the party when she was first introduced.
- With the exception of her skimpy attire, long hair, and manner of walking, DASH-379 shows NO feminine traits at all. Being a combat robot doesn't help much.
- Rarity also has shades of this, being quite brutal in battle despite how ladylike she is everywhere else.
- Love Makes You Evil: Luna's love for Rarity is what turned her back to evil in the first place.
- Karmic Death: Tirek is killed by his own creations.
- Mad Scientist: The Tirek of Machine, complete with a plan to Take Over the World.
- Meaningful Name: Just like Crono and Serge before her, Rarity's name is actually quite meaningful to the plot: She's a singularity in the universe, essentially someone or something that only occurs in one variant of the world. In her case, every other Rarity in the universe was killed, and she is currently the only Rarity alive in any world.
- Missing Main Character: When Rarity gets consumed by her darkness and turns into Nightmare Crystal, the story switches it's focus onto Twilight. This is meant to mirror the moment in Chrono Trigger where Crono died and in Chrono Cross when Serge has his body stolen by Lynx.
- Never My Fault: Invoked, when Standard Fluttershy says that she should've died and not Standard Rarity, Applejewel(Standard Applejack) calls her out on this, saying that her becoming a bully was her own doing and that she shouldn't blame Standard Rarity's death for making her who she is now. Though, Standard Fluttershy never says that her becoming a bully because Standard Rarity died, so it isn't clear if she really thought that.
- Odd Friendship: While all of the main characters qualify to a degree, DASH-379 and Fluttershy are the best example. These two are the best of friends, and understand one another better than anyone, despite their worlds being polar opposites. Fluttershy even hints at being somewhat afraid of machines, yet sees DASH-379 as more of a person than a machine. This plays a big part in DASH-379 becoming more human.
- Once Pinkamena joins the group, she immediately begins clinging to Twilight, even calling her "bestie". This is really odd considering that Pinkamena damn near killed Twilight earlier in the story. So far Twilight hasn't given hints to feeling either way about it, but she does talk to her the most out of everyone in the party.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A quick way to tell if Rarity is upset? If she stops speaking with the fake British flair and sounds like a normal teenager, something is SERIOUSLY wrong. Twilight is quick to pick up on this.
- Precision F-Strike: Pinkamena normally doesn't swear, but in one chapter she says “I am helping, by staying the fuck out of it”. Later on in the same chapter, she says "Damn right I'm afraid."
- Rape as Drama: Implied with poor, poor, Forest Fluttershy.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Even after she takes a level in kindness, Standard Fluttershy keeps her abrasive, assertive personality.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Due to something called the Pinocchio Effect, robots in Machine seem to become this overtime, making them indistinguishable from humans, to the point where the party didn't even realize that the Celestia from Machine was a robot.
- It seems that DASH-379 either succumbed to this sometime before joining the party, or is heading in this direction.
- Sanity Slippage: Luna did NOT take the revelation that her loved one is fated to die in every universe well.
- Suddenly Speaking: Unlike in canon, Lavos is capable of speech. He speaks to Rarity and her friends telepathically, mocking them on how they don't stand a chance of beating him.
- Sexy Jester: Pinkamena's outfit, on the other hand, is clearly meant to invoke this trope.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: DASH-379. She's proud of her body, and doesn't care that her outfit is so revealing. It's even implied that she wants people to enjoy the show.
- Shout-Out: Dr.Tirek is a Mad Scientist who wants to Take Over the World for no apparent reason. His first name is also Albert. Sound familiar?
- Shrinking Violet: Standard Rainbow Dash, which is especially jarring considering how her canon counterpart acts. She is Rainbow Dash without her massive ego, also with a friend who abuses her. These two things combined have served to turn her into a timid wallflower. It takes Machine Rainbow Dash, who acts more like her canon counterpart, to draw her out of her shell.
- Also, Standard Pinkie Pie, who suffers from anxiety. Once again, this is in contrast to how her canon counterpart acts.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Standard Fluttershy swears more than any other character in the story.(though granted she is the only character who swears) Considering how she normally sounds, hearing her swear is very unsettling.
- Southern Belle: Standard Applejack, who moved in with her Aunt and Uncle Orange but then never moved back to Sweet Apple Acres. She even changed her name to Applejewel.
- Strength Equals Worthiness: In order to enter the Land of the Gods, a test requiring defeating three Guardian Statues is needed to pass first. Rarity's party ends up defeating one during a detour in the main quest without even realizing what it was.
- Standard Fluttershy eventually comes to believe this, thinking that if she makes herself strong nobody will ever look down on her for being weak again. Unfortunately, she takes things too far and becomes a bully.
- Stripperiffic: DASH-379's armor leaves very little to the imagination, consisting of armored breast plates and matching panties, shoulder pads, gauntlets, and armored boots that are high heeled. She even has a slight sexy walk.
- Partially justified in what she is. She's a combat android, so her mannerisms were probably programmed into her. Also, she mentions that her body is made of stronger material than regular human skin, so her armor's only purpose is so she's not walking around nude.
- Pinkamena's outfit, which can best be described as a Sexy Jester's costume.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Rarity's Shadow Form.
- DASH-379's ATHENA-Mode is a contender as well, given the nature of why she was created in the first place.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: DASH-379 and Medieval Applejack are the tomboys to their Standard counterparts's girly girls.
- Token Evil Teammate: Despite eventually being revealed as being Good All Along, Pinkamena still falls into this category after she joins the party. While her loyalty to Twilight is admirable, she still makes no apologies for what she's done, needlessly antagonizes the others for no apparent reason, and when Dr.Tirek is about to die, she laughs in his face.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After her Face–Heel Turn, Rarity openly assaults her friends both physically and verbally.
- Standard Fluttershy. This is justified, though: After her best friend and sworn protector Rarity dies, she's left with no one to save her from her bullies. This forces her to stand up to her bullies, but she lets her drive to never be weak again take things too far and she ends up being the biggest bully of Canterlot High herself. Fortunately Forest Fluttershy forces her to take a level in kindness after beating her, and she starts being nice again. ...Somewhat.
- Tragic Villain: It turns out Pinkamena is this. Unlike all other villains in this story she was forced into villainy, and she has hated every second of it.
- Undying Loyalty: Once Pinkamena joins the party, she becomes quite devoted to protecting Twilight. Actually, she protects her more than anyone in the group!
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Standard Fluttershy used to act just like her canon counterpart before Standard Rarity died.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Once Pinkamena joins the party, she gives Twilight a new Gate Key that she was apparently keeping in her her bra like top.
- Villains Want Mercy: Before Tirek dies he begs DASH and her friends to save him. They don't listen. After that, Luna and Nightmare Crystal show up to reveal they set everything up so that he'd fail. He begs them for help as well, but they not only don't listen but mock him as they watch him die.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: It turns out Luna and SOMBRA are both this. Luna is a more selfish example than most as she just wants to be with Rarity forever. SOMBRA, on the other hand, wants a world where robots are treated equliy. It just happens that he plans to kill all humans while he's at it.
- You Are Number 6: DASH-379 is actually just a serial number, as she's the 379th robot in the DASH series made after the prototype. While everyone calls her "DASH", her actual name is "Athena", and she's a Killer Robot made by Dr. Tirek.
