Fanfic / Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break

A sequel to Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals, Princess Twilight Sparkle's School for Fantastic Foals: Winter Break is a story in The Weedverse by Kudzuhaiku. The Gift Of Gab is a bridging story and recommended reading.

After an eventful term, Sumac Apple is on winter break. Not that lessons stop, of course. And with the winter coming, changes to his family are on the horizon.

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This story contains examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Lemon Hearts spends a great deal of time giggling after the incident with the sled and the Come To Life spell, both at the incident itself and Twilight's teasing about just how much trouble they're in now that Sumac has begun experimenting.
• Addictive Magic: Channelling storm magic is dangerous because of just how good it feels to cut loose, explained by it opening a connection to the bound fury of The Tempestatibus.
• Affectionate Nickname: Tarnish has taken to calling Megara "Nutmeg". Also, Applejack calls Sumac "Li'l Mac", in contrast to her brother^note Big Mac.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Sumac would quite like to recover so that he can escape when Trixie starts snuggling him like a foal. Olive also suffers from this, with how casually her parents discuss how earth ponies traditionally view the Winter Moon celebration: as a time for making foals, because eleven months^note They're equines, pregnancy is eleven months later is just when there's relatively little work to do, so having a newborn to snuggle with in the cold is rather pleasant.
• Aroused by Their Voice: Gosling's voice has a little magic to it, so whoever's listening hears what will most make them happy. For most adults, that means this trope, to a greater or lesser degree.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: While bored, Sumac accidentally does this by projecting a spot on the wall, Megara is partially cat and responds appropriately.
• Barrier Warrior: Twilight teaches a class of foals particularly skilled in shield magic, including Sumac.
• Baths Are Fun: While Sumac's own take is well known by this point, it turns out that Pebble rather enjoys baths.
• The Big Guy: Crown Agent Cocoa, the Composite Character of Tarnish and Vinyl in the film version of Daring Do and the Cult of Collie Ma. Tarnish asks if he was stung by a bee.
• Big Sister Instinct: Pebble develops one towards Megara, despite initial concerns about having to share her parents, but she considers the trade worth it after actually meeting her.
• Blatant Lies: Tarnish's response to being asked how he and Maud managed to make Pebble is to spin a tale of bureaucracy and divine observation.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Pinkie Pie's spicy gingerbread. She makes Sumac an extra-special batch, which he happily devours, despite Pebble giving up on her portion much earlier.
• Bring Me My Brown Pants: Played for Laughs when Sumac startles Fluttershy in a dream, followed by a lot of birds, resulting in a liberal coating.
• Burping Contest: When left alone in charge of the foals, Tarnish organises one. Twinkleshine wins, having learned from Princess Celestia herself at the School For Gifted Unicorns.
• Call-Back: As is standard for The Weedverse.
  • Octavia discusses the events of Skyreach, when Octavia and Maud believed their spouses dead, and the effect on her relationship with Maud. Also, the companions from Skyreach gather and share a ration bar, apparently an annual ritual. They still taste foul.
  • Applejack leaves to attend the gala, as seen in The Perilous Gestation Of Swans, which is set concurrently with this story.
  • Celestia's discussion with Sumac is partially precipitated by the fallout from a wrongly-kept secret in The Perilous Gestation Of Swans. In fact, it's the same secret, Sumac's magic sense may reveal Luna's weakness to him, though not the reason for it, and Celestia doesn't tell him.
• Cassandra Truth: Starlight Glimmer believes that something is trying to repair the damage done to time by her actions, but Twilight doesn't think that it's possible. Readers know from The Mask Makes The Pony that Starlight is right, an entity called Chronos watches over time.
• Cast from Calories: As is standard for The Weedverse, unicorn magic is subject to this trope. Sumac is left very drained after the Magic Misfire noted below.
• Catapult Nightmare: After the Flash Back dream, Sumac jerks awake, calling for Trixie.
• Celebrity Endorsement: Tarnish and Daring Do sponsor a brand of muesli.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Vinyl wears one while working on a birdhouse with Maud.
• Chew-Out Fake-Out: Twinkleshine, upon encountering the Burping Contest, begins to yell at Tarnish about what he's teaching the foals, before grabbing a bottle and joining in.
• Christmas Episode: Along with The Perilous Gestation Of Swans, this story is one for The Weedverse.
• Class Clown: Twinkleshine, despite not being a foal.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Lemon, not awake enough to activate the filters, and faced with a very cold floor. Lampshaded by Twinkleshine.
• Colony Drop: Horseshoe Bay is the result of Celestia dropping a meteor on an alicorn city after invading Draconequui drove the inhabitants insane.
• Composite Character: In-Universe, Crown Agent Cocoa in Daring Do's books is a composite of Tarnish and Vinyl.
• Competition Freak: Pebble's demeanour changes during any competition, going from apparent detachment to something that scares Sumac.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Almighty Alicorn Sisters from Skyreach and a pistol are in a glass case over the mantle in Tarnish's house.
  • The dinner incident from The Weed is mentioned when a similar Comically Missing the Point with a Double Entendre scene happens again. Pinkie Pie catches on this time. Sumac does not.
  • Celestia's ability to burp the dragon alphabet is referenced.
  • The story told by Sleet features Chromium, Conifer's keeper until Dogged Determination.
• Crazy-Prepared: Organisational variant, the Palace has a licensing clerk for marriages on staff. Because of course it does.
• Dancing Is Serious Business: Cloudy's opinions on the matter are now being passed on to her grandchildren. Pebble in particular uses it as a measure for how the dancers' relationship is going at the moment.
• Deadpan Snarker: Igneous considers one of the important parts of a filly's (or mare's) duties to be to sass her special somepony to keep him from getting too bigheaded (though he also emphasises the need for moderation to do it properly). Tarnish immediately queries whether Maud had this talk and, after she informs him that he's very quick on the uptake^note They've been married for several years at this point, tells her to carry on.
• Death Glare: Sumac attempts this on Vinyl after she betrays him. It's completely ineffective.
• Denied Food as Punishment: Tarnish threatens this if Pebble, Hidden Rose and Ambrosia don't cooperate with cleaning up the consequences of their spat.
• Dented Iron: Sumac's slow recovery from injuries at the conclusion of the previous story forms a subplot, starting from being unable to walk unaided, and progressing through being able to (weakly) kick a ball around in chapter 21.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Sumac, after mentioning that he'd like to make foals with Pebble because he wants to see what they look like^note He was thinking about the diversity in their family. Lampshaded by Igneous.
• Dirty Coward: A long discussion of the definition of "sissy" finally settles on this, someone who won't face their problems or meet their responsibilities out of fear.
• Disaster Dominoes: A chain is easily set up by creating a thing Megara might want to chase. This being Hearthswarming, there's plenty of balls of paper, ribbons and the like that fit the bill. Eventually, they wise up and being trying to hold Megara down during risky situations, but it's not terribly effective due to her catlike ability to escape restraint.
• Double Entendre: Quoth Twinkleshine, after making a birdhouse: "Thank you for making a home with me, Lemon." Almost immediately afterwards, upon being asked what they were doing for lunch, Maud Pie suggests they "Eat Pie". Poor Sumac has no idea what's going on, and mentions he would quite like a little pie for dinner. Things only get worse from there, and the adults are no help at all.
• Dreams of Flying: Sumac Invokes the trope in a lucid dream.
• Dream Walker: Sumac has occasionally seen Princess Luna slipping through doors in his nightmares. Later Luna^note Actually an aspect of her magic, Word of God is that Luna isn't even conscious of it enters Sumac's dreams to teach him a lesson about Trixie. Luna^note Actually Luna, this time also enters in order to retrieve the memories from the Centaur vault in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals, although retrieving all the information before Sumac dies is probably impossible.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Twinkleshine's response to Twilight's mirth upon realising that Sumac has hit the point of experimentation without wisdom.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Maud has one, while explaining Pebble's less edifying foibles to Sumac, she realises she does very similar things.
• Exploited Immunity: Boomer takes shelter from Flurry's affections in a fireplace.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The Long Day Arc is one day that takes up most of the story.
• Extreme Omnivore: As usual, Boomer. In this case it's bottlecaps.
• Fanservice: In-Universe, the film Daring Do and the Cult of Collie Ma makes use of its photogenic leads.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Sumac reckons that Applejack's could clear a room of trouble.
• Fear of Thunder: Common amongst ponies, but Averted for Sumac, even when he's only two years old.
• The Film of the Book: In-Universe. The film they go to see, Daring Do and the Cult of Collie Ma is based on a book written by Daring Do about real adventures. It takes some liberties.
• Flash Back: Courtesy of a dream, in which Sumac flashes back to when he was two.
• Furry Reminder: Megara, as a cat, can be distracted by objects moving in certain ways, including her father's tail and a spot projected by Sumac.
• Good Is Not Nice: When Tarnish was Paying Evil Unto Evil, below, Maud didn't tell him to stop. After all:
  Maud Pie: I'm not a nice pony after all. I hope I get rocks in my stocking. ^note Remember that she's a geologist.
• Groin Attack: Crown Agent Crash makes use of them in the bar brawl, and Crown Agent Cocoa later against a tiger. Also, apparently how Rainbow extracted the location of Clan De Stein from Professor Link, in contrast to the film's approach.
• Gasshole: Sumac's choice of bedtime story involves an elephant who can't make friends because he farts. When Lemon Hearts objects to his tastes, Sumac makes the irrefutable defense that he's five.
• Happy Ever After: Discussed, Sumac feels that the ending of the story feels very like the ending of a storybook.
• Happily Adopted: Sumac's mothers have tripled in number, with both Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine being considered such at this point, as well as Trixie.
• Hates Baths: Sumac continues to detest them and consider those who make him bath to have betrayed him. Vinyl later distracts him with a trick^note Lifting soap bubbles without bursting them that will require many years of practice (and therefore regular baths) to perfect. Sumac considers this dreadfully unfair.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Gosling remains on fine form, causing mares to faint during his speech.
• Healing Hands: Sumac's broken neck (and other injuries) were treated by both Cadance and Radiant Heart. Unfortunately, when a bitter argument breaks out nearby, the love-based magic fails somewhat, causing Sumac not-insignificant pain.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The captain and first mate of the Courageous stay on board so they can ram the attacking pirates' command ship. Given that the explosion could be seen from miles away, it's unlikely they survived.
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: Pinny Lane comes armed and dangerous. Sumac ends up with an electric-blue one with pink flames. Pebble's is bright green with red baubles.
• Hurricane of Puns: When Limestone brings up that everything Tastes Like Potatoes, the conversation soon turns to this.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: Trixie contextualizes her magic using this sort of thing. It's not a straight example, and magic can be approached many ways (her conversation partner Vinyl's Emotional Powers being another).
• Innocent Bigot: Deconstructed, Big Mac's outspoken concern about Sumac becoming a "sissy" due to being this becomes a problem, as Sumac doesn't want to let Big Mac down, but no-one particularly wants Sumac also becoming developing sexist attitudes, innocent or otherwise. Also, the attitude is rubbing off on Hidden Rose and Ambrosia, although less innocently, given that they began bullying Sumac over it.
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: Sumac begins to suffer from this, probably an early sign of puberty's encroachment.
• It's All My Fault: Sumac and Pinny have a brief discussion about guilt after Sumac accidentally breaks a glass, and Pinny reveals that she still feels guilty over what she did to Tarnish, although that also wasn't her fault, as well as tending to break glasses occasionally.
• I Want Grandkids: Cloudy did. And now she has them, and nothing will keep her from them. Also, Octavia bribes her for a truce during the holidays by offering to raise her own foal^note Alto Clef, as yet unborn, created via IVF from Tarnish to see Cloudy as their grandmare. Of course, already having a plethora of them doesn't mean Cloudy isn't going to poke Limestone given the opportunity.
• Jade-Coloured Glasses: Trixie worries the world's beaten her down so much she can only believe the worst of people.
• Jaw Drop: The only reaction Sumac can muster to Gosling and Cadance's dance. They're both dancing to show off, and Sumac is certain that he's watching some pegasus dominance display.
• "Just So" Story: Trixie and Sumac share one in the bath about how Wild Storms came to be, the result of an ancient and insane alicorn named The Tempestatibus who wanted all the spark magic for himself, so stole it away from everry other creature, from the sky itself, until the desperate creatures tore him apart and bound him into the sky to revive the weather, but his rage means that storms of spark magic leak out, and the pegasi and griffons must fight to keep the storms small enough that The Tempestatibus cannot escape. The truth of this story is left undetermined.
• Kids Are Cruel: Hidden Rose and Ambrosia's initial interactions with Pebble and Sumac during the story are not exactly friendly, and it's clear that there's been a pattern of them bullying Sumac. Once Ambrosia works out that Sumac (due to Sumac using his Grift to get them to stop fighting, making them realise he could have made them do anything at any time, and hasn't) has been treating them better than they've treated him, she has a Heel Realisation. Hidden Rose is less self-reflective.
• Kill the God: Sumac asks about the events in of Skyreach, as the book he's reading claims that "Crown Agent Cocoa" ^note the fictionalised amalgam of Tarnish and Vinyl killed a god. Exactly what happened isn't revealed, as Tarnish is unwilling to relive it and doesn't know everything, but it involved Celestia destroying Skyreach during 48 hours of night.^note Also, at the time this was written, Skyreach was an unfinished fanfic, so the author wouldn't reveal any spoilers
• Lady of War: Twinkleshine, when being told about her ferocity and enduring reputation around Celestia's School, contends that she's still feminine and ladylike and otherwise fits this trope. Some contrary evidence is offered.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Twinkleshine gets raisin toast thrown at her by Trixie after a particularly bad pun. This is largely ineffective, as she simply removes and eats the toast.^note Assuming the intent was to inconvenience Twinkleshine. If the intent was to amuse Sumac, it certainly succeeded.
• Last-Second Word Swap: After an angry interruption by Octavia, Pebble finishes "Sh-" as "Shenanigans". Octavia is unimpressed.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Cloudy does so at one point, causing Sumac to think she looks much younger.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Tarnish suggests this about Sumac's Digging Yourself Deeper moment.
• Little Brother Is Watching: Pebble comments that having Megara following her around means she has to be good or lead her sister astray.
• Magic Misfire: Sumac's at the right age to start experimenting. His attempt to help Lemon Hearts pulling the sled using a Come To Life spell results in a runaway and an intervention from Twilight Sparkle to avoid casualties. A minor one happens later, when Sumac tries to lift a glass and it breaks apart.
• Manly Tears: Tarnish breaks out into this during dinner, due to having missed so much time with Megara.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Twinkleshine decides to take part in the Burping Contest, gulping down a bottle of Celestia-Cola extremely rapidly, Boomer seeks refuge with Vinyl, who dons a mixing bowl and grabs a pot lid as a shield, Tarnish and Pebble engage in a mutual Security Cling and Megara wraps around Sumac protectively. Then Twinkleshine opens the second bottle...
• Messy Hair: Megara, at least when control is attempted with a brush. She claims that licking is more effective, but we don't see how this works, because she licks Pebble, and then^note At Pebble's instigation Sumac. Twinkleshine also gets some briefly, after being in range of a Sumac temper tantrum. Lemon Hearts' attempts to help just cause her own hair to end up static-filled as well.
• Mook Horror Show: In-Universe, Crown Agent Cocoa gets one vs. Caballeron and his mooks.
• Moral Event Horizon: invokedDiscussed, with Lemon considering Queen Chrysalis to have crossed it when she attacked Sumac^note Even amending "somepony" to "some bug", but Sumac remains somewhat uncertain as to the difference between forgiving Chrysalis and forgiving Flam, Trixie or Princess Luna.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Megara has a predator's grin.
• Mundane Made Awesome: If the narration is to be believed, Twinkleshine's burping^note All six paragraphs of it is the harbinger of the apocalypse.
• Mundane Utility: A dragon being fireproof makes her really easy to dry off, just lob her into the fireplace. Also, arousing Sumac's curiousity at the unusual magic, Tarnish uses his Green Thumb to fix a wobbling table.
• Mutual Disadvantage: Manticore venom is especially effective on dragons. Unfortunately, manticores are vulnerable to fire, leading to vicious conflicts as shrinking habitats force the species into close contact, making Megara and Boomer's friendship usual, but by no means unwelcome.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem: An interesting variant. Megara calls Vinyl and Octavia "Mom", something that Pebble has never done (they were her Honourary Aunts), but this spurs Pebble to reconsider, and when she does call Octavia "Mum", Octavia "got all weepy about it".
• Nightmare Fuel: An In-Universe response to Tarnish and Megara's birdhouse, having sculpted it into a replica of Megara's head with her open mouth being the entrance.
• Nightmare Sequence: Sumac experiences a delightful one where he is taken to a twisted version of Celestia's school and goaded into sadistic power-tripping.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Crown Agent Cocoa inflicts one on Caballeron during a Mook Horror Show. Sumac is glad that Tarnish wouldn't really do that. This may actually be one of the more accurate points of the film, given what we know of Tarnish.
• Not So Above It All: Octavia, Vinyl and Sumac are all having tea, with Sumac imitating Octavia's prim and proper posture. He fails to notice that Vinyl is imitating him, in her own inimitable way. Octavia, for her part, pretends to ignore the pair, until she lets rip in the way only Earth Ponies can.
• Not So Stoic: After Sumac covers Pebble in icing, Maud ends up Laughing Herself Sick. The moment rather overcomes Sumac, and leaves Octavia a little shaken, as Maud's laughter is a very rare beast, with Tarnish's claim of a previous sighting being rather doubted^note Though true, the incident occurs during The Weed, in the chapter Home.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's mentioned that Vinyl projects an image of being irresponsible and slightly stupid as part of her DJ Pon-3 persona, but, as readers are more than aware, she really isn't.
• Oh, Crap!: Trixie's response to realising that Sumac has hit the point where he's going to start experimenting without being mature enough to think through consequences properly.
• One of the Kids: Twinkleshine often acts this way, which means that when discipline comes up, Sumac is rather pleased that she's making the decisions, rather than Lemon Hearts. Unfortunately, Twinkleshine knows exactly what she's doing, and when she's finished^note Sentencing Sumac to a bath and a nap, entirely reasonable to get him cleaned up and wound down from the recent problems, but Sumac Hates Baths, plus, Sumac feels he should be punished, so by phrasing what he'd need anyway as such, it solves that particular problem., Sumac decides he'd rather take his chances with Lemon or Trixie than face Twinkleshine the Disciplinarian again.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Twinkleshine's parents threaten to cut her off entirely if she marries Trixie and Lemon Hearts, claiming implications for their social standing and political careers. Doesn't stop her.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: One of the ponies that Tarnish and Maud rescued Boomer from attempted to use her egg as a hostage. What Tarnish did to him is not "for foals or dragon hatchlings", and so remains unelaborated on, but from what we know of Tarnish's combat preferences it was was doubtless brutal, particularly given that Maud, who has little concern relating tales of combat to foals, will only describe it as "bad".
• Pirate: Sumac has no intentions of ever becoming one, because at some point he might meet Tarnish.
• Polyamory: Lemon Hearts proposes to both Trixie and Twinkleshine in chapter 21, and they accept.
• Power Incontinence: Sumac's magic sense mucks with his head, Celestia offers him lessons in controlling it in exchange for keeping a secret.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Sumac deliberately Invokes this while being asked about bad behaviour, calling up all his saddest memories to add more punch. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the hoped-for result, with Twinkleshine instead saying she's Disappointed in You, which causes Sumac to begin crying for real, which gets Ambrosia to 'fess up.
• Pyromaniac: Briefly Discussed and Played for Laughs when Sumac develops a Cheshire Cat Grin while watching a fire^note He's thinking about what Dandelia might secretly like, and Twilight Velvet suggests that Trixie keep an eye out for symptoms of pyromania. Trixie, for her part, considers this a trait to be encouraged.
• Raging Stiffie: Poor Sumac ends up with one watching Daring Do and the Cult of Collie Ma, due to the female leads.
• Ramming Always Works: The end of HEMA Courageous' last stand, after wrecking over a dozen attacking pirates, Spiderhawk rammed his ship into the opposition's command vessel.
• Readings Blew Up the Scale: Downplayed, Sumac gets headaches when he uses his Supernatural Sensitivity on magic-users above a certain power level. ^note Including Rarity, who appears unaware of just how talented she actually is.
• Record Needle Scratch: When Sumac asks about how Tarnish and Maud made Pebble, Octavia's practicing abruptly collapses.
• Red Baron: Twinkleshine has apparently retained the reputation of the "Powder Puff Terror" despite having graduated from Night Light's fencing classes some time ago.
• The Reveal: Sumac's magic sense during the raising of the moon reveals that it's not just the magic of the Sisters that moves the heavens. They are the foci, but every pony present (and possibly every pony alive), especially the earth ponies, bears some of the weight, drawing power up from the earth to move the sun and moon.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Megara's cuteness continues to make an impression.
• Romance-Inducing Smudge: Sumac accidentally coats Pebble in icing^note Actual icing, they're still foals. He was making a gingerbread schoolhouse... and he's left stunned until Megara jumps in and begins licking her clean. Sumac, for his part, continues with his project.
• Running Gag: Most ponies reckon Sumac is growing socks and feel the need to comment on it, but he can't see them and is sceptical (and rather tired of it).
• Shipper on Deck: Cloudy outright asks Tarnish to marry Limestone, much to Tarnish's displeasure. Once the reasons are elaborated on^note Cloudy doesn't want her becoming a Meal Ticket, or lost to upper-class snobbery, Tarnish is less displeased, though he doesn't acquiesce^note And neither does Limestone, due to being Like Brother and Sister.
• Sleep Cute: Sumac, Megara, Boomer and Pebble quickly end up conked out on the sofa. Hardly suprising, given the intensely high-energy nature of Megara and Boomer's meeting. The adults decide to take advantage of this. A developing one is later Subverted, due to getting interrupted by Tarnish (who has a dozing Boomer on his horn and a sleepy Megara clinging to his neck) beginning to Laugh Himself Sick.
• Smoking Barrel Blowout: Twinkleshine, with her horn, after cleaning up the entryway.
• So Proud of You: There's a lot of this going around
  • Olive's parents are very proud of their daughter, a significant improvement over the state of affairs in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals, where they are terrified of her.
  • Tarnish is very proud of his daughter's ability to clobber a whole sofa's worth of ponies with ease. The ponies in question are less pleased with the trait, and blame him for it, due to his own ability to disable large quantities of Mooks.
  • Princess Luna gives a speech praising Trixie for her fortitude in overcoming her cursed blood to find love and a place.
• Stay in the Kitchen: When Igneous begins as speech by saying he needs to have a talk about the place of a filly, most of the mares worry it's going to be on this theme, fortunately, it's Subverted^note (see Deadpan Snarker above), but Trixie becomes concerned over her suspicion, and worries she's got unwarranted Jade-Coloured Glasses.
• Sympathetic Magic: The bureaucracy involved in noble marriages includes a small blood donation, as it makes the documents easier to find and summon and allows checks for imposters.
• Synchronous Episodes: Beginning with Chapter 43, synchronises with the other Weedverse Christmas Episode, The Perilous Gestation Of Swans.
• The Talk: A variant. Sumac is fully aware of how babies are formed, but has some problems working out how Tarnish and Maud managed it, given their massive size difference.
• Tastes Like Chicken: The Equestrian equivalent is apparently potatoes. Pinny Lane theorises that this might be because potato starch is widely used as a binding agent in processed foods.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted, as is standard for The Weedverse, Moondancer is receiving therapy for the events of the previous story, in which she was kidnapped and impersonated for an extended period.
• There Is No God: Played for Laughs with Pebble's despair during Twinkleshine's contribution to the Burping Contest.
• There Is Only One Bed: The guest room at the castle has two beds, but given that there's the newly-married adults and the two foals, there's still this sort of tension, although it's mostly implied and offscreen.
• Think Unsexy Thoughts: In this story comes the beginnings of Sumac's hormones and the first signs of what will cause his later reputation.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Doctor Caballeron had this response to attempting to rob a museum right across the street from where Tarnish and the gang were eating fondue. Apparently the museum had a special display of pre-industrial minotaur anvils and Tarnish and Vinyl decided to give the thieves exactly what they came for.
• Threatening Shark: Tarnish is scarier than one, at least to Sumac.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Downplayed and Justified. Sumac is able to, with considerable effort, walk (slowly) after a pertinent dream. It's very possible that at least part of the problem was psychosomatic, and the damage was nervous-system based (Chrysalis had broken his neck), so his mental state is relevant.
• Time Out: After Hidden Rose, Pebble and Ambrosia get into a fight, they're all made to stand in the corner.
• Time Travel: Twilight has had another visit from the future.
• Tranquil Fury: What was done to Adventus has induced the trope in Twilight; when she says she intends to make the perpetrators answer to the Heliophant if she catches them, she means it.
• Trauma Button: The events of Skyreach are one for Tarnish, something that Sumac doesn't realise before asking about them.
• True Companions: Vinyl, Maud, Octavia and Tarnish have solidly become this by this point, having been working on it since Venenum Iocus.
• Under the Mistletoe: Someone sets up some above Sumac and Pebble^note Exactly who is not mentioned, but it's Pinny Lane who points it out to Pebble. Pebble takes the opportunity with some gusto, creating rather a mess as Sumac is occupied with a piping bag full of icing, giving Pebble a face-full.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: Pinkie and Octavia don't boil the mulled wine long enough (or at all), and don't tell anyone prior to Sumac drinking a not insignificant amount of it. Intoxication Ensues.
• Vegetarian Carnivore: Manticores are carnivores, and there were some worries about Megara's diet. Fortunately, as she's part pony she's actually omnivorous, and they're able to keep her healthy with eggs and dairy, with occasional fish, shrimp or shellfish. The biggest concern is Taurine, but Fluttershy's mentioned to be helping keep her healthy. According to her, there are actually vegetarian griffons.
• Visual Innuendo: In-Universe, when startled while icing a gingerbread schoolhouse by Pebble kissing him, Sumac accidentally covers her in the white icing. Every adult in the room spots it, and Tarnish has an apple applied to keep him from saying anything. Somewhat hilariously, neither Sumac nor Pebble seem to get it, and the adults decline to explain, resulting in ever more adults excusing themselves as the two innocently try to deal with it.
• Walk-In Chime-In: Well, it's less "Walk-in" and more "jump out of Tarnish's shadow to the noise of a kazoo", but Pinkie Pie responds the mention of balloons with a classic "Did somepony say 'balloons?'"
• Walking the Earth: Part of Sumac's explanation for why he doesn't have adventurous fantasies in the manner of most foals is because he's already done this^note He travelled with Trixie for most of his childhood prior to beginning at the School.
• Weight Woe: Pebble is a little chubbier than average, but perceives herself as being much fatter, causing significant body issues.
• Wildlife Commentary Spoof: Octavia provides a little while Megara is chasing Sumac's spot. She is, however, quickly distracted by the resulting chaos.

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