My Little Pony Chronicles, by fanfic author WeirdRaptor. This is a My Little Pony fanfiction and an ongoing retelling of the My Little Pony TV specials, My Little Pony: The Movie, and My Little Pony 'n Friends (although the author has intentions of going farther than that). The opus intends retell the stories of 80s cartoons in a Darker and Edgier manner while tying them all together into one coherent mythology and will retain the same cast of loads and loads of characters from start to finish. It greatly expands on the established stories while filling in plot holes, giving the characters more development, and raising the stakes at every turn. For example, it takes the half-hour Rescue from Midnight Castle special and turns it into a 29 chapter fantasy epic.
As of the present, the work is still very much unfinished with only the story arc based around My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle completed. The work has been split into Books, each of which will cover a different arc.
The story of Book 1 follows the same basic outline as My Little Pony: Rescue from Midnight Castle, but greatly expands the story and mythology of the setting. Like in the original, it starts with ponies coming out into a warm Spring day to play and enjoy the outdoors after Winter's end. Then Scorpan and his dragonriders invade them and kidnap two ponies to be taken by to their master, Tirac, to be used as demons to pull his chariot and bring about The Night That Never Ends. Firefly goes for help, and this is when the story starts to deviate away from the special.
In the original, Firefly just grabbed the first human she could find (Megan) and took her back to Dream Castle with her to fight against Tirac and rescue her friends. In Chronicles, Firefly's plan has a bit more thought put into it, and while Megan is the first helpful human she encounters, she holds out for more. This pays off when she gains an audience with the acting lord of the lordship of Dongard, Bernard. He agrees to help in the ponies' plight and heads to Dream Castle with Firefly, his younger brother Frederick, his assistant Megan, the Water Magi Christopher, and a Badass Crew of four elite soldiers: Clyde, a soft spoken Huntsman with a pair of twin daggers; Blake, a sarcastic Ranger with a long sword; Ashei, a stoic shieldmaiden; and Mark, an expert ancher.
Meanwhile, a group of ponies set out for the Moochic's home, the Mushromp, to ask for help. He gives them the Vessel of Light to oppose Tirac's Vessel of Darkness. Then he tells them how to arm the weapon and where to find the ammo before sending them on their way. The two parties meet back at Dream Castle and thus, a fellowship of seven humans and seven ponies sets out to arm the only weapon that can stop Tirac, and then travel to his stronghold to kick his butt. The only catch is, the weapon is a piece of Lost Technology of a long lost civilization that just so happened to be an Ancestral Weapon coded only to be used by a descendent of its people. Luckily enough, Megan is of the line and so the weight of defeating Tirac falls on her shoulders.
Along the way, they encounter many trials and obstacles before finally reaching their destination.
Book 1 can be found on Fanfiction.net
, Blogspot, and DeviantArt. The unfinished Book 2 can be found on Fanfiction.net.
The author is also currently working on another project, Celestial Warrior Moon, based on Sailor Moon.
My Little Pony Chronicles contains examples of:
- Absent-Minded Professor: The Moochic, just like in the original cartoons. He's played exactly as he was back then. A friendly, but forgetful, yet ultimately helpful ally of the ponies that they can always turn to.
- Abusive Precursors: In the setting's history, you have Surt, King of the Fire Giants, and Neptune, King of the Merefolk. Though they did save mankind from going extinct at the hands of orcs, goblins, and harpies and taught the humans how to use magic, they still ruled with an iron fist long after they were needed. So, mankind discovered a bigger, better kind of magic and sent both tyrants back to their depths from whence they came.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Megan acts more along the lines one would expect a preteen to act with the weight of going to fight an evil tyrant being placed on her shoulder: great reluctance.
- Note that she was also rather reluctant at first in the original cartoon as well. That this trope is in play even so says something.
- Adaptation Distillation: While also expanding on the original 80's cartoons, the fic has taken insane steps to distill the entire disjointed and messy animated Ponyland continuity into something that doesn't make heads explode when attempting to explain.
- Adaptation Expansion: Thus far, it has taken a half-hour TV special and turned it into a work that's over a hundred thousand words long.
- Adults Are Useless: Completely and utterly averted. Until she got her hands on the Light, Megan was just the Tagalong Kid. Frederick at age 22 is a decent fighter, but he is far outclassed by the seasoned Badass Crew accompanying them.
- All There in the Manual: the fic comes with a guide that explains the history of the setting, as well as the rules of magic the stories' spell casters use.
- Anachronism Stew: A mild example. The Blank Lands, a closed-off section of the land that's just one big blank spot on the map to everyone living outside it, are notably much more modern than the lands from outside.
- Ancestral Weapon: The Elemental Cores. Basically, they're cores of refined magical energy that are coded only to be usable by members of the empires that created them.
- And I Must Scream: The four ponies that were transformed into dark beasts by Tirac to pull his chariot have been trapped that way a whole year, and have been robbed of their ability to speak.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Tirac's favorite way of motivating people who have failed him.
- Anti-Villain: Again, Scorpan and Rep.
- Anyone Can Die: Frederick dies attacking Tirac head-on to buy Megan time.
- Ascended Extra: This fanfic has taken this trope and run a thousand miles with it! Thus far, several one-shot characters have been given far more coverage than they ever got in the original series, including:
- Beezen, a one-shot villain from the episode Revolt at Paradise Estate.
- The Crabnasties from Fugitive Flowers.
- Catrina and Rep from Escape from Catrina.
- The witches of Gloom Mountain from The Movie.
- Badass Adorable: Thus far, most of the ponies, but especially Firefly.
- Badass Crew: The Specialists, Clyde, Blake, Ashei, and Mark. They are a crew of the four most skilled fighters the lordship of Dongard has to offer to the ponies' plight.
- Badass Family: The rulers of both the Dongard lordship and the Balacroff empire certainly count as this.
- Badass Normal: Megan, Lord David and his sons Bernard and Frederick, a team of adventurers Clyde, Blake, Ashei, and Mark. Also Emperor Ulrich Anthony and his sister, Ellie, as well as Baron Alexander.
- Black Magic: Pretty much how the Arcane Arts are treated in this setting. Though they are more versatile then Elemental Magic, they require their users to rip open tears in the space-time continuum in order for the arcane energies to be filtered into our reality and used. The risks one takes when misusing it include: accidental summoning rituals which might call up a demon or eldritch abomination, being sucked into another dimension, or blasting oneself into nothingness.
- Character Development:
- This story takes characters from My Little Pony and develops the heck out of them. For example, Megan has gone from the Tagalong Kid to The Hero to a nervous wreck of a shell-shocked veteran.
- Clyde has gone from the standard Lancer to the Cool Old Guy Team Dad.
- Blake starts off as a sarcastic Sour Supporter but eventually warms up to the others while still keeping his Deadpan Snarker traits.
- Closed Circle: The Blank Lands. They're a closed sector of land in the setting almost completely cut off from the lands outside by nearly impossible obstacles at all fronts. This is how the ponies remain unknown to the outside despite not living in another dimension like in the original series.
- Crazy-Prepared: Clyde carries a satchel of things that he thinks they'll need on their journey, which includes: Wyrm's Bait, which causes to go into a violent and uncontrollable frenzy. This thwarts an army of dragonriders they run afoil of. Later, he uses an item that's never named, but it blinds a mob of orcs that were attacking them. He also carries rare and valuable items with him just in case they ever need to barter or trade.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Very. Thus far, the author has done away with this episodic nature of the original series in which there are no permanent conquences or hard feelings and made it so that the effects of Tirac's world conquest are still being one year later.
- Also, the ponies that were transformed are still trapped in their altered states and currently experiencing And I Must Scream.
- Deadpan Snarker: Gusty, Blake, and Mark.
- Doomed Hometown: Megan's homeland, Dongard, but not played the way it normally is. Megan is already on the journey to stop Tirac before its ever attacked and the assault on it is not what convinces her to accept the call to adventure. Interestingly enough, not everyone back in Megan's Doomed Hometown is killed.
- Doorstopper: Over a 100,000 words (!) and counting!
- Early-Bird Cameo: Oh, where to begin?
- For starters, Nightshade the Michael Jackson Expy and Zebb from Bright Lights.
- The witches of Gloom Mountain, again.
- Catrina and Rep.
- Niblic the troll, from The Magic Coins.
- Cloud Castle, rom Flight to Cloud Castle.
- The Crabnasties and the Poseys.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: This trope is constantly at play. It starts with Firefly just going for help against some invaders, and extends to a quest that covers hundreds of miles over several months, walking a path with obstacles at nearly every turn that tax the main parties' resources and reserves almost to their breaking point. It begins with standard goblin-infested forests and armies of dragonriders, and things get worse from there.
- The '80s: Zebb is this trope embodied right down to how he dresses and talks.
- In fact,
the author described him as "so Eighties, it hurts."
- In fact,
- Elemental Powers: the magic of this setting is basically this.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
- With six elements: light, dark, water, fire, water, and air.
- Against water, fire is the most effective form of magic. Against fire, water is the most effective.
- The same rule applies to Earth and Air.
- Light and Dark are a special case, as they tromp all other elements, and are the counteracting agent against each other.
- Evil Overlord: So far, the story has mentioned five of them. Tirac, Catrina, Grogar, Neptune, and Surt.
- Evil Sorcerer: Beezen and Liam.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Several. It starts with giant sentient crabs being flipped over onto their backs and gutted and it ends with Tirac being burned into ashes.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: There have been several battles scenes, and each and every time someone has been badly injured or killed.
- Forced Transformation: Scorpan and four ponies are turned into demons. Scorpan has reverted to his original human form, whereas the ponies... have not.
- For Science!: This is the entire motive of Beezen, Tirac's righthand man and chief researcher. He sticks by Tirac's side for the nigh endless research resources that being an Evil Overlord's go to guy offers him.
- Foreshadowing: No one else's business! Book 1 alone takes great measures to introduce (or at least mention) characters, places, and artifacts long before they will ever come into play.
- Giant Enemy Crab: The crabnasties, giant sapient crustaceans.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Completely averted with one exception. Most of the guards in this story act very professional.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Catrina and the witches of Gloom Mountain have been
reimagined into this. - Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gusty, and to some extent, Blake, who leans closer to Jerkass.
- Kid Hero: Megan, and played unusually realistically. Instead of happily going along on the quest and then returning home triumphantly, she's instead subjected to all kinds of horrors that leave the poor thoroughly traumatized.
- Kick the Dog:
- Tirac. Repeatedly. Ends up backfiring on him though when his cruelty finally drives Scorpan to actively spooning the La Résistance information.
- The second arc has introduced a trio of new villains named Liam, Wylfred, and Dylan. They love kicking others while they're down, too.
- La Résistance: Done twice. Once on the road through one of the lands Tirac conquered, and then again in his own capitol. He's just so popular with the people.
- The Last of His Kind: Tirac the centaur. After his people tried to reclaim their former glory after they themselves caused a three-day Earth-Shattering Kaboom, they were driven out of the land into the cold, barren North where their numbers dwindled intil there was only Tirac left. It is explicately stated that part of his motive for trying to take over the world is to ensure that his people are never forgotten.
- Light 'em Up: Megan, Wielder of the Element of Light.
- Lost Technology: More like Lost Magic. The Elements of Light and Dark are the supreme magics available to mortals, but they have been lost for a millennium. Currently, two individuals have recovered them. They are none other than the Kid Hero and Big Bad of the story.
- Magic A Is Magic A: In the form of the Arcane Arts and Divine Magic, both of which are taboo for anyone to use The Arcane Arts because they require opening rifts in the fabric of the universe to use and have all kinds of risk factors and Divine Magic is never been successful mastered by anyone not a god.
- Mama Bear: Twilight to Ember. In fact, Ember being kidnapped is why Twilight is on the party. She goes on an extremely dangerous several month journey to rescue her adaptive daughter.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Scorpan.
- Near-Villain Victory: The finale of the first arc was this. Tirac came within an inch of covering the land in The Night That Never Ends.
- The Night That Never Ends: Tirac's ultimate goal, but not played as straightforward as it usually is. The purpose of the Darkness shrouding the land wasn't to block the sun, persay, but to spread Tirac's supreme dominance all over the globe, granting him power over everyone and everything. Even the sun would only shine where he saw fit. So you could say his goal was borderline A God Am I.
- Non-Idle Rich: So far, every wealthy character introduced has been this. Lord David, and his sons, Bernard and Frederick are undisputed badass normals, and Baran Alexander of Balacroff was secretly funding rebel activities right under Tirac's nose.
- Original Character: the author has introduced several of these, but none of them are the main heroes. They're all supporting characters who play any role from being randomly encountered denizens to new party members.
- Party Scattering: Done when a battle between Tirac's forces and some rebels stumbles onto the parties' camp site and they end up losing each other in the confusion. This culminates in a three-way split of the party fleeing through the countryside trying to relocate each other for several chapters.
- Pet the Dog: Blake has a few of these.
- Power Trio:
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Sort of. Instead of just Megan and five ponies like in the original TV special, this time the fellowship is comprised of Megan, a young lord, a badass crew of elite soldiers, a simple country mage, and the seven ponies.
- Refusal of the Call: Megan, in contrast to the original where she Jumped at the Call almost immediately. It takes her a lot longer to change her mind and decide to accept the task of killing Tirac.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: So far, all the royals introduced have been non-idle. There's King Odin of Midhelm, who came to the front lines to fight off Tirac's forces, Ulrich Anthony and his sister, Ellie, of Balacroff led the charge against Tirac himself in the courtyard of Midnight Castle, Scorpan, Tirac's best general and prince of Toltos, and Tirac, himself, being an undefeated conquer for seventy years straight.
- Shout-Out:
- In this story, the fact that Bart Simpson was the voice of Gusty is taken up to eleven.
- Several references to FIM have been peppered throughout the fic, even including Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles).
- The Stoic: Ashei.
- Swirling Dust: Whenever Gusty's power causes dust to be blasted off, it's a good sign that you might want to take cover and pray for safety.
- Tagalong Kid: Played straight and then subverted with Megan. At firt, all she did was assist her employer, the noble Frederick. Once it was revealed she could use an Ancestral Weapon weapon to fight Tirac, she became the only prayer the quest had.
- Take a Third Option: Meta-example: Which ponies from which generations to include? Well, so far we've had ponies from G1, G2, and G3 show up.
- Dream Castle or Paradise Estate. In this retelling, there are enough ponies to live in both, as well as a third location called the Clearing.
- Team Dad: Clyde, who doubles as the Cool Old Guy.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Megan vs. Tirac! Round One!
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: To a point. The author definitely adds an Old English tint to the humans' dialogue in many cases, but it's mostly just excluding contractions and occasional using "twis" and "tis".
