Friendship is Grievous
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Star Wars crossover by Snake Staff.
Set during the Clone Wars, none other than General Grievous finds himself stranded on Equestria after a hyperspace mishap while boarding a Republic cruiser. Trapped in a land that is the utter antithesis of himself, he struggles to cope. Meanwhile, the curious but wary ponies attempt to befriend him, though his violent nature makes it difficult. In the wider galaxy, the Republic and Separatists, Jedi and Sith alike scramble to react to this sudden absence.
Also comes with a sequel, Empire and Rebellion, wherein Equestria must deal with the Galactic Empire.
Tropes in this story include:
- Adaptational Heroism: Discord proves the sincerity of his reformation, going so far as to make a Heroic Sacrifice on behalf of Ponyville.
- Anyone Can Die: Spitfire, Discord, and Twilight's parents, at minimum.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Well, the Equestrian ones aren't, but Count Dooku sure is.
- Badass Normal: Grievous is the only one lacking supernatural powers.
- Badass in Distress: Grievous is captured at one point and has to be rescued by Dooku.
- Ahsoka Tano is captured by Luna and handed over to Vader for torture.
- Bad Boss: Grievous punches one of his battle droid's heads off for annoying him.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: It wasn't an exclusive cause by any means, but the pain and humiliation Luna repeatedly endures on Korriban certainly drives her closer to the dark side. Also, Vader attempts to invoke this on Ahsoka Tano, who it seems has picked up a merciless streak.
- Berserk Button: Luna pressed on Grevious's hard by saying his people, the Kaleesh deserved their deaths at the hands of the republic. Grevious angrily screams at Luna he will butcher her for saying that.
- Big Bad: Darth Sidious, par for the course of the era.
- Break the Cutie: More like ALL OF THEM. Every living creature in Equestria has been put through absolute hell from the orbital bombardment, the natural environment turning into ground zero, the destruction of most towns and cities, the attacks from the droids, and finally, the deaths of most of their friends and family. This vicious attack has no doubt forever scarred and changed everypony there for generations to come.
- Combat Pragmatist: Grievous is not above dirty tricks or employing Mooks to weaken his enemies.
- The Cameo: Many characters, planets, and ships from the Star Wars Legends put in appearances in various capacities.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In the sequel, Twilight vs. Darth Vader. The Sith Lord easily parries all her offensives, cuts her arm off, and pins her to the wall with a Force Choke without sustaining any damage whatsoever. She survives only because he decides to probe her mind for secrets before finishing her off, giving Ahsoka enough time to hit him from the side.
- The Dark Side: Used by the Sith. And, in a pinch, Luna.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Luna believes she could use the Dark Side to defeat Palpatine and free Equestria. However, as many readers that are also fans of Star Wars know, the use of Dark Side, even if for noble goals at first, will only lead to the corruption of its wielders. This was even a plot point in one of the pre-Disney Expanded Universe stories- Luke wanted to use the Dark Side to take down a reborn Palpatine, but got corrupted and had to be rescued. This, of course, is what happens to Luna after a while.
- Dead Fic: Empire and Rebellion hasn't been updated since early 2018, and Snake Staff hasn't been seen onsite since 2020.
- Deal with the Devil: Luna makes separate agreements with Dooku's ghost, Darth Maul, and Darth Vader, all in the hopes of gaining the power to overthrow Palpatine. Who exactly is the devil isn't entirely clear.
- Dirty Coward: Grievous isn't above running if things go bad.
- Downer Ending: Equestria survives, but thousands are dead and Palpatine got exactly what he wanted.
- The Dragon: Luna becomes this to Darth Vader. Though in her case, she is a Dragon with an Agenda.
- Eldritch Location: Korriban in general, and especially the Valley of the Dark Lords.
- Elite Mooks: Commando Droid, Magnaguards, and Droidekas serve as these to the Separatists.
- Evil Gloating: A routine indulgence for General Grievous.
- Evil Laugh: Grievous and Darth Sidious are both fond of them.
- Evil Mentor: The ghost of Count Dooku, to Luna.
- Fallen Hero: Grievous was once a great warrior fighting for the future of his people.
- Count Dooku was once a Jedi Master.
- Faux Affably Evil: Grievous tries this initially, but isn't a very good actor. Count Dooku puts on a better air, but when it comes down to it is still unrepentantly murderous.
- Genre Deconstruction: You might think the fic ends like so many others, with a Heel–Face Turn from the crossover character. Nope.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Darth Sidious. While he is the main instigator of the events that happen, he never actually takes part of the conflict on Equestria.
- Healing Factor: Alicorns can take an enormous amount of punishment, up to and including regenerating lost limbs over time. The only apparent exception is the loss of a horn, though it's suspected in story even that might come back given enough time.
- Hero Killer: Grievous, naturally, who kills a Jedi Master in the first chapter and later Captain Spitfire. Also Dooku, who takes down Discord.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Discord, to save Ponyville from a droid army.
- Hypocrite:
- Luna calls General Grievous one as he hates the Jedi for destroying his homeland but has no qualms about doing the same to hers.
- Luna falls into this in the sequel. She kills Janus and blames Twilight entirely for it. She then accuses Twilight of being foolish and arrogant, when Luna is confident that she can use the Dark Side without being corrupted and that she can defeat both the Emperor and Vader.
- Grevious call Luna this saying she speaks of warrior's courage and yet spends the beginning of their battle hiding and throwing objects from a distance.
- Kick the Dog: Admiral Tarkin destroys a beautiful forest full of living creatures simply to add weight to his threats. Luna in the sequel does this when she kills Janus and attempted to execute Twilight.
- Lured into a Trap: What Luna is forced to do to Grievous.
- Master Swordsman: Grievous, Obi Wan, Dooku, and Luna show themselves to be this.
- Mecha-Mooks: The entire Separatist Droid Army, naturally.
- Medieval Stasis: Equestria direly comes to regret allowing its technology to fall behind when the Separatists invade. Come the sequel, they're desperately struggling to modernize.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Rainbow Dash deduces that Grievous is evil due to the sinister tone of his name; while the rest of the Mane Six scold her saying that she shouldn't judge people by their looks or names. But Rainbow couldn't be anymore right, and she's living in the Star Wars galaxy, where names often do reflect one's nature.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Jedi Master Hera may have tried to take Grevious with her to the afterlife as she died, but very unfortunately, he was landed in Equestria of all place. Which has gotten the ponies involved with the bloodthirsty and cruel general of the Seperatists and worst of all, getting the whole world involved in the Clone Wars.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The Battle of Canterlot ends with the droids defeated, but the city almost completely dead. How dead? Out of 15 thousand civilians, only a mere 70 survived, and that's not taking the collateral damage and destruction of the other lesser cities and town into account. Not only that, most lush forests, beautiful lakes, and other non-civilization areas have been turned into ground-zero .
- Redshirt Army: The Equestrian Royal Guard and the Clone Troopers.
- Redemption Rejection: Grievous never accepts the ponies' friendship, and ends the fic just as evil as when he started.
- Revenge: A goal for many characters. Grievous, against the Jedi. Luna, against the Empire. And Dooku's ghost, against Darth Sidious.
- Rock Beats Laser: Averted. While the pony's magic does help when the CIS invades, it's made abundantly clear that they ultimately can't win against the droids' superior numbers and technology without outside help.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: All the royalty we see, from the princesses to Count Dooku, are quite active.
- She Who Fights Monsters: Luna. She goes from despising those that torture and kill innocents into doing exactly that.
- Shock and Awe: Dooku makes good use of force lightning. As does Princess Luna.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: A standard feature for dark side users. Luna briefly acquires them when using force lightning against Grievous.
- Subverted by Grievous himself, who has golden reptilian eyes but no supernatural powers whatsoever.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Grievous' opinion of his battle droids.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Obi Wan and Tarkin don't get along, to say the least.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Orbital bombardment is used against a peace-loving, primitive nation that has no space assets whatsoever.
- Token Evil Teammate: Admiral Tarkin to the Republic task force, who clearly does not give a hoot how many innocents die as long as the mission is accomplished.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Equestrian Royal Guard, at least compared to their canon counterparts, hold out reasonably well against a vastly superior force.
- Tragic Hero: Obi Wan Kenobi is the most moral of all the non-Equestrian characters, and repeatedly winds up taking punches to the gut.
- Tragic Villain: Grievous is an unrepentant murderous psycho, but once you learn his backstory it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for him.
- The Unfettered: Luna quickly loses all of her moral restraints after embracing the Dark Side. Torturing and killing innocents; killing her own soldiers and even attempting to execute Twilight.
- Villain Respect: Grievous compliments Luna for her refusal to give up in their sparring match.
- Villainous Rescue: Dooku comes to the rescue of General Grievous.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Grievous at least tries to become this by rescuing the Cutie Mark Crusaders from some timberwolves.
- The Watson: Both Commander Cody and Admiral Tarkin play this role for Obi Wan at times.
- We Have Reserves: Grievous takes this attitude via his battle droids.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Discord pulls this against an entire droid army. They don't.
