Fanfic / The Perilous Gestation Of Swans

The Perilous Gestation of Swans is a fanfic in The Weedverse by Kudzuhaiku, it is a sequel to The Perilous Romance Of Swans and begins immediately after A Darkness Softly Creeping.

Winter is often a time for quiet reflection, and for Equestria, it is a time for recovery from the tumultuous events of the summer. At its centre, Princess Celestia fights to hold it together. During all the work, Gosling notices something odd in the records, and realises that secrets are being kept from him, and pursues them to an angry confrontation with his wives.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Above the Influence: Gosling doesn't take Luna's offer when she's emotionally compromised.
• Adults Dressed as Children: Luna and the Wardens attend the school ball disguised as foals. Justified by the presence of magic that can alter appearances to such a degree to make this viable as a disguise. Subverted in Luna's case. She's not an adult, but she is disguised, as she's physically a teenager and her filly size is larger than most normal ponies.
• Alchemy Is Magic: A potion brewed by Zecora is proposed to fix Gosling's wings faster, and the usual problems with alchemy in the Weedverse are discussed, most pertinently, being magic, it's somewhat unpredictable. Zecora's very good track record is mentioned as a counterpoint.
• Alien Geometries: It's mentioned that large portions of the castle are in pockets of extra-dimensional space. Luna is able to manipulate these to some extent, and Gosling suspects that her tower grows each time he climbs it.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Well, Toast at least, given her response to mention of Rauchtänzer and exactly which traits she's crushing on. Discussed when her brother begins complaining about it.
• All Amazons Want Hercules: Celestia reckons that one of the reasons Luna adores Gosling is because he has the will to stand up to her.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Crypteia are mentioned, one of several maintained by Celestia in the 'verse to protect her interests. Somewhat Deconstructed, as Celestia mentions that she believes the conspiracies long obsolete in Equestria's expanded populace.
• Anger Born of Worry: Sleet reacts badly to the danger that Gosling is put into in A Darkness Softly Creeping. She later recognises that her emotion had compromised her judgement, while she doesn't like it, Gosling has duties to his wives.
• Artistic License – Statistics: An in-universe example, where Purple Party believes that the populace is uninterested in the return of the Winter Moon festival due to interviewing Canterlot citizens, which (as revealed in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break) isn't the case in earth pony communities, where the festival has survived, and they're very pleased by the official return.
• Ass-Kicking Pose: Subverted. Gosling attempts to make one before heading into the kitchen to face Nightmare Noon^note Celestia while she is very hungry. Unfortunately, being wrapped in a blanket rather ruins the effect.
• Ass Shove: Subverted during the report of Tarnish's vigilante activities:
  Seville: A spoon had to be removed from a rather… unfortunate location—
  Luna: How does a spoon become lodged up one’s nose, anyhow?
• Back from the Dead: Grogar's minions are attempting to craft an Elixir of Revival, something requiring the organs of a changeling queen. Sumac getting Chrysalis to surrender at the end of Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals probably saved her life.
• The Bait: Gosling is used as bait to lure out attackers during the school gala. Luna and the Wardens will also be attending, though more incognito.
• Bandaged Face: Initially, Gosling and Moon Rose, due to frostbite damage from A Darkness Softly Creeping.
• Bathos: Towards the end of the climax, the sofa Celestia is sat on collapses beneath her weight.
• Battle Butler: Gosling is assigned Beans and Toast. He's not informed of the "battle" bit until after he's met them.
• Beneath the Mask: While in the personas of Sunshine Smiles and Moonlight Raven, Celestia and Luna are able to be far more honest about who they are without the crowns^note A (secretly) introverted and perverted Valley Girl and a Goth Deadpan Snarker who really does love her sister, although Luna still struggles to be completely open.
• Big Damn Kiss: Luna and Gosling share one just before the mass wedding.
• Big Eater: Celestia has become one as a result of being pregnant, to a ridiculous degree. In an attempt to defeat her, Graisseux makes The Breadnaught, a thirty-six pound sandwich. Celestia consumes it in one bite, although she arguably cheated.
• Big Sister Bully: Celestia was one to Luna, calling her "Stain" in reference to the black spots of her cutie mark. It's why she's so willing to give in to Luna's whims now. Her guilt is overwhelming her.
• Blatant Lies: Celestia denies having fainted during The Sun Also Surprises.
• Blessed with Suck: Celestia muses on how being a sorcerer has a tendency to appear a curse to outsiders, what with it making you a Living Macguffin.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Beans and Toast are bodyguards as well as everything else, as while Gosling is capable, he's just a mortal pony.
• Boys Have Cooties: Luna gets thoughts like this while under a childish disguise.
• Brainwashed: The effects of Bumble Jelly^note Previously mentioned in 'Suckle and (not by name, it's the honey Luna references as making ponies Weak-Willed) in The Perilous Romance Of Swans on Changelings is revealed: It wipes their brains and makes them into obedient drones for Queen Bumblina.
• Break the Cutie: Celestia tells Gosling the story of her own breaking, how she was forced, as a young filly, to destroy the elder Alicorns, twisted by their war against the draconequui, such that they were doing horrific things, believing Utopia Justifies the Means, then lead the surviving ponies in the wilderness while she finished eliminating the threat.
• Burping Contest: Applejack finishes her (rather emotional) conversation with Celestia during the gala by heading off to begin one.
• Call-Forward: Twilight and Seville bond over their mutual love of inks, a significant factor in their finally getting together in Foalsitting Follies. More importantly, Celestia has a conversation in Chapter 44 with her advisors about whether they should act on Dire Dark's treason and risk angering the Darks. As readers know from Dark Desire's complaining in Eigengrau, Dire Dark is indeed arrested. In the same conversation, Inspector Le Feu^note Chartreuse' father providing some insight as to why his activities are Classified Information even to Shining Armor.
• Camera Fiend: The School For Gifted Unicorns Audio Visual Club is made up of these, and Seville Orange remains on form.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: During the Winter Moon festival, half a glass of wine has a rather significant effect on Twilight Sparkle, causing her to tease Celestia and Gosling, and giving her the giggles. It only goes downhill from there.
• Cassandra Truth: In Luna's prophetic dream, she describes rats attacking Canterlot, but Celestia dismisses it as mere symbolism (probably for the Ascendancy). As we discover in other stories^note Primarily The Mask Makes The Pony, we discover it's terrifyingly literal.
• Casting a Shadow: Not only Luna's province, Celestia plunges a room into darkness when convenient.
• The Chains of Commanding: A recurring theme:
  • Celestia Discusses her distress with the war in chapter 34, and similar concerns form part of Luna's Dreaming of Things to Come.
  • Celestia takes a little time during the gala to consider all those who suffered under her rule to bring Equestria to the point it is now (and rather sounding like a Civilization player).
• Cheerful Child: Exploited by Cadance, who has no problems using Flurry on a miserable Gosling.
• Chekhov's Skill: Sleet made sure that Gosling was cultured, giving him a familiarity with many forms of art, including show tunes, which comes in handy when a Dream Walking mission turns musical.
• The Chessmaster: Don't forget that Cadance planned Gosling and the Princesses' marriage since before even Celestia knew it was going to happen, that plan is far from complete.
• Christmas Episode: Along with Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break, this story is one for The Weedverse.
• Closet Key: Gosling is one to at least one pegasus colt, leading to an awkward moment when the two actually meet.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Discussed, while drowning his sorrows with Seville, Gosling asks who the Confessor should confess to.
• Continuity Nod: Several:
  • All the way back to The Sun Also Surprises, as Luna mentions how she has adapted to modern hygiene standards, an improvement over the situation back then, when (according to her sister) her downdrafts were an act of war and could stun a yak^note Apparently literally.
  • Luna's feat with Stinkbug during the wedding is referenced as a note of her mastery of Alteration magic. Celestia having lived through lean times is mentioned during Blueblood's lesson.
  • Sumac is briefly mentioned when discussing Celestia's ability to sense destiny.
  • The Film Within A Story in Spring Broke is confirmed to be at least somewhat Based On A True Story In-Universe, as Celestia references Sinister Dark as a pupil of hers.
  • The story that Seville is working on when Gosling needs his friend is a revival of the story he was working on in Spring Broke, due to being unable to sell it to any papers at the time.
• Crapsaccharine World: Just as with the main world, the Weedverse's Equestria Girls world is far darker than the canon show. Tarnish hanged himself due to bullying, Trixie kidnapped Sumac to get him out of the foster system and is now on the run with Twinkleshine, who she rescued from a place attempting to "cure" homosexuality, and Lemon Hearts.
• Crazy-Prepared: Beans and Toast have a few tendencies in this direction, given that one of them brought a towel to a meeting about upcoming celebration.
• Creepy Good: Gosling, like so many before him, finds the Rat-Catcher's Guild off-putting.
• Creepy Twins: Raven deliberately attempts to Invoke this by informing Beans and Toast that they have permission to creep out Prince Blueblood. They then proceed to do so, Finishing Each Other's Sentences. He even suggests they exhibit Synchronisation, and then asks about the Power Perversion Potential of it.^note Whether they're actually Synchronised is not made clear, as they favour snarking back at Blueblood over answering Gosling's question on the subject.
• Crisis of Faith: The betrayal represented by the secret kept by his godesses and wives puts Gosling through one. His faith does not survive, initially, but he rebuilds it around his desire to make ponies happy and the challenge of tending to Luna's newfound faith in him.
• Crushing Handshake: Celestia suffers several during the Gala, and is a little annoyed that she can't return the favour, due to the lack of survivors should she do so. The repeated assaults are enough to injure even her alicorn physiology.
• Deadpan Snarker: Beans and Toast, to Blueblood's annoyance. Gosling reckons they'll fit right in.
• Death by Childbirth: Both Celestia and Luna have done so in the past, their Resurrective Immortality meaning they had to grow up amongst their own foals, and one of the reasons Celestia hasn't had foals for a millenium is that she couldn't risk dying without Luna to take over while she matured. Fortunately, modern medicine makes it far safer.
• Death Glare: Shining Armor is on the receiving end of one when Twilight Sparkle discovers that he's been teaching Flurry to call her "Egghead".
• Destination Defenestration: Apparently Celestia threatened to throw a comptroller out of the window for wanting to defund the Observatory^note She was using it as a place to wait for Luna's return. Luna notes that she has grown more patient, and that the Celestia of old would have actually thrown him. Right into the rose bushes.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Lampshaded by the narration when Gosling accidentally implies Celestia is "easy", and then fails to explain successfully. Luna finds the whole exchange hilarious.
• Distracted by the Sexy: While navigating between dreams with Gosling, Luna initially doesn't manage to access the hall of doors because of this trope. Played for Laughs and heavily Lampshaded by Gosling.
• The Dividual: Beans and Toast are a classic example (also being Half-Identical Twins). Also, Gosling comes to the realisation that, despite their outward differences, Celestia and Luna really should be truly considered two parts of one being^note Backed up in other Weedverse stories where a character who sees the true nature of things perceives them as one being, the Sisters Equus Alicornae, which explains the ferocity of Celestia's ire with those who reject Luna, they're rejecting her too, even if they don't realise it.
• Don't Ask: Gosling doesn't ask where Purple Party acquired hippodrome chariots.
• Don't Split Us Up: Rare adult example, but Beans and Toast will perform whatever services Prince Gosling requires so long as he doesn't separate them.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Luna has a prophetic dream.
• Dream Walker: Luna continues her duties of helping the ponies of Equestria in their dreams, taking Gosling on an attempt to help a colt with his Gayngst, at the same time helping Gosling deal with his own lingering problems with being maliciously Mistaken for Gay in backstory.
• Driven to Suicide: Tarnish's alternate hanged himself due to bullying. The corpse was discovered by Maud Pie. Also, being trapped in an eternal adolescence forced Luna to kill herself to break free of it. Of course, due to her Resurrective Immortality, it was probably the most reasonable solution.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After the big argument, Gosling ends up borrowing some of Seville's gin.
• Exact Words: The guards obey orders, including ones to not reveal their orders. Of course, this just means you have to ask the right questions^note In this case "What were the last words spoken to you?", the answer being "You didn't see anything.". Gosling is complimented on his astuteness.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Luna's mane isn't in its usual ethereal state at the start, due to exhaustion. Once she's recovered a bit, it returns to its normal state.
• Eye Take: When Gosling decides to try on Celestia's regalia while she's busy, and begins prancing around in it, he turns around to find two alicorn princesses^note Luna and Cadance doing this in his direction.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Gosling's attempts to appease the newspapers just tend to result in them complaining about something else, something he's finding difficult to deal with.
• Fainting: Gosling becoming angry enough to shout at his wife, on top of everything else going on, shocks Twilight enough to do this.
• Fantastic Racism: The integration of the Changelings isn't going well, with crimes against them being common. Shining, Gosling and Blueblood are struggling to deal with it, because cracking down could cause riots, but not doing so would be a tacit admission that some citizens aren't worth as much as others. Also discussed as a potential source of the scare stories around potions, with them being a largely zebra craft.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Celestia finds Gosling's very fascinating.
• From Bad to Worse: After several paragraphs of nauseating description of the effects of a regenerative potion, the narration claims:
  Just when Gosling thought he couldn’t bear another moment, it all took a turn for the worse…
• From the Mouths of Babes: When Celestia asks Cadance if she was able to get some rest after her surge, Flurry interjects to say that Cadance and Shining "wrestled and jumped on the bed". Poor Cadance is mortified, particularly when Celestia proceeds to ask follow-up questions.
• Furry Reminder: It's possible to cause pegasi to make bird-noises, with the specific bird determined by the pegasus' nature^note Celestia honks, Gosling caws, Luna hoots, as does Sleet, Hotspur trills, Cadance coos, Hush echolocates and Twilight, to her surprise, squawks like a chicken.
• Geas: As part of protecting the secret Celestia placed one on Cadance without her knowledge or permission.
• Godzilla Threshold: Celestia keeps the Darks around as a backup for when the this has been crossed. They're, to a one, completely nuts^note Especially useful when the enemy wields madness as a weapon, and thoroughly indiscriminate, but when you need something annihilating more than the cleanup will cost...
• Gone Horribly Right: Celestia's plot to raise money for the Weeping Sister Hospital by selling tickets for one minute's private dance and (if requested) a kiss with Gosling^note And he has to wear a ridiculous sweater. It sells out. All 300 tickets. Despite that being suggested as a far-too-high number^note Celestia was expecting Kibitz to make his usual adjustments. Also, she did this without consulting Gosling.
• Goth: Moonlight Raven, Luna's disguise for the night out, is the gloomy variant.
• Graceful Loser: Luna, after the improvised chariot race, and she pays up her side of the wager, despite Gosling's insistence she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to, a kiss, which she suggests Gosling savour, due to being hard-won.
• Half-Identical Twins: Beans and Toast have the same coat colour and eye colour, and Gosling thinks that if it wasn't for their different gender, they could be identical twins.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Graisseux vs. Celestia, including declarations of war, excessively large amounts of food and Badass Boasts.
• Headbutt of Love: Sleet continues to favour a particularly violent variant of this. Gosling becomes understandably concerned when she and Luna start swapping techniques.
• Heal It with Booze: While Gosling is under the effects of a regenerative potion, Celestia offers him cherry cordial, mixed with poppy tincture. When he complains that he doesn't like poppy juice, she says he should really be worried about the 96-proof liquor. He takes it, and then she pours herself a glass.
• Hero Insurance: The trope is Discussed as part of the E.U.P.I.E.A. meeting, as Gosling is concerned about common ponies being hurt, particularly as several of the new superheroes are less benign than Tarnish. The others in the meeting agree that the proposal must include protection, and one suggestion is a near-literal Hero Insurance provided by the crown, providing medical care and other support to those caught in the crossfire.
• Homemade Sweater from Hell: Luna makes a sweater for Gosling to cover up the damage to his wings and keep him warm until his coat regrows. She even picks the finest wool to avoid irritating his bare skin. Unfortunately, her knitting skills are rather lacking, and what results is a lopsided mess. He likes it anyway, after all, for all its lack of aesthetic appeal, it does keep him warm.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Luna is currently one, due to her Resurrective Immortality making her into a filly and she's not finished growing yet. This, combined with Gosling's natural position in this state, despite his professionalism masking it, leads to the problems caused by the secret being far worse as several participants in the mess are not thinking clearly or maturely.
• If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Him: Seville threatens Celestia that if Gosling ever comes to him with a broken heart again, he'll go public with it. Celestia accepts the dressing-down with good grace, she does deserve it.
• Immediate Sequel: To A Darkness Softly Creeping, beginning with Celestia's reaction to the events of the story, writing to Cadance for help and going to the hospital where Gosling, Luna and Moon Rose are being treated.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Discussed, with Celestia offering to take Sleet out drinking when some filly breaks her heart the way she broke Sleet's^note Forcing a change in relationship with her sons as they introduce them to more adult relationships.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Luna does this, and Gosling (mentally) notes how much trust is implied in that she lets him see her do it. He finds it excruciating to listen to, but stays because she needs him then.
• In Spite of a Nail: Twinkleshine, Trixie, Lemon Hearts and Sumac are all together in the mirror world, and there are other parallels, but this trope isn't entirely in play, as Tarnish died via suicide (although he was still discovered by Maud).
• Intergenerational Friendship: Gosling speaks highly of these as a source of growth for both parties.
• I Warned You: Luna expresses the sentiment to Celestia about keeping the secret from Gosling. It's false, to protect Luna from Gosling's fury. Celestia wanted to tell him, but Luna refused.
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: Gosling has a brief conversation with a draconic pegasus who was attempting to repeat Maud Pie's hydra-killing feat. Things did not go according to plan, as this particular hydra liked to chew its food.
• Klatchian Coffee: Celestia's one gripe with tea was the lack of caffeine compared to coffee. So she created Celestial Glory tea, which contains twice as much caffeine as usual coffee.
• Laugh Themselves Sick: When Celestia needs cheering up, Gosling is called in. Even under pressure, he succeeds. Later on, Celestia and Luna both fail to maintain composure at Gosling's attempts to perform a group marriage.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Luna attempted this on herself to remove the memories of Celestia's bullying. It didn't work, simply resulting in a forced return of the memories, accompanied by the smell of ink. Word of God is that they tried too hard, rather than just altering memory, they were trying to alter the source of memory, the book in the Library of Souls, and the book kicked back.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Celestia's invocation of this to interrupt Luna's question of whether she has resorted to pimping suggests that certain another trope applies. It turns out that Celestia did, in fact, prostitute out Bronze Blaze, her and Luna's previous husband, as part of her breeding program for the ponies.
• Like Brother and Sister: Gosling describes his relationship with Cadance as this.
• Like Is, Like, a Comma: Sunshine Smiles, as part of the Valley Girl persona.
• Loss of Identity: Luna's use of illusions and her interactions with dreams mean she's no longer sure who she is any more, or even what's real and what's dream.
• Mama Bear: All three characters from A Darkness Softly Creeping are treated in the same room, because, well:
  Doctor: Because the angry, scary blue one refused to give up the foal or be reasonable.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Celestia, pregnant and having reconfigured the castle, induces one in the kitchen staff.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Gosling and Celestia. The immortal's perception of time does put strain on this, worsening the crisis in the climax, as while Celestia is actively trying to act like a pony so she can savour her time with Gosling, Luna is seeking refuge in it.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Chrysalis has been forced into an immature body, and acts much as a small foal would. Luna has similar problems when wearing a foalish illusion, unexpectedly requesting "Upsies"^note Apparently a fondness of Twilight's when she was young, and she provided the dreams that power the illusion. Sharply shown when the narration jumps into her head during the Gala, and she's struggling to keep the foalish impulses down, as doing otherwise risks Loss of Identity. Made worse by the fact she is literally always under an illusion, to conceal her current adolescent state.
• Mood Whiplash: After discovering what's going on on the other side of the mirror, including a spread of Grogar's corruption into that world, Gosling asks what he's doing on the other side. The answer: He'd been sleeping with Luna, to scandal when it got out, and has now been offered several modelling contracts. The last few sentences of the chapter are Blueblood and Shining commenting (probably accurately) that he'll be insufferable after this.
• Motor Mouth: While in her Sunshine persona, Celestia becomes this. According to Luna, it's her natural state, as she was when they were young.
• Mustache Vandalism: One of the few things that can get Kibitz to lose his composure is when Gosling and Luna do this to statues of Celestia.
• MRS Degree: Part of Celestia's advertising of her school includes the fact that 60% of the students meet their love there, and at least one of the students she's filming with was sent because her mother was hoping she'd meet a husband ^note the mother will have to be disappointed, as she's gay. Celestia doesn't actually believe in the trope (she's trying to appeal to the parents' somewhat older-fashioned sensibilities), and while she's very happy for her students, she also expects all her students to be independent and do great things. The fact it makes other tropes more likely may also figure into her thinking.
• Ms. Fanservice: Gosling somehow makes Luna's Home Made Sweaters From Hell look good.
• My Beloved Smother: Sleet is going out of her way to Defy the trope, even forcing herself to forgive Celestia for taking Gosling away from her and talking it through with Celestia, despite the pain.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Purple Party has one after being called out by Gosling for failing to support Luna as he should be, and he seeks Gosling for atonement. Later on, after the secret comes out and Gosling's justified fury is expressed, Luna's composure collapses entirely.
• Nerd: Shining Armor accuses Twilight of this after her explanation of her chemical detection spell. She responds by asking how long he spent playing Ogres and Oubliettes.
• Never Found the Body: Invoked with Celestia's orders regarding a prisoner, to annihilate his body and hopefully make the Enemy waste resources trying to locate what does not exist. Destroying the corpse has the additional benefit of preventing him gaining information.
• Noodle Incident: After walking in on Celestia and Gosling after the fridge-on-head incident, Shining Armor begins telling a story about Cadance.
• The Nose Knows: Twilight uses a spell to give herself this power.
• One-Man Army: As is standard for the Darks, Dire Dark is one. When planning his arrest, they have to take hi away from populated areas and use a century of Immortal Solars and fifty Wardens, and still really hope he doesn't resist arrest, as the casualties will be catastrophic.
• One Riot, One Ranger: Celestia and Luna only discuss releasing one Dark to deal with the current problems.
• Over-the-Top Secret: Operation Lightswitch, the plan for locating the abandoned foals of the Darks to identify any potential sleeper agents before Celestia acts against the family^note She tries to plan for everything, and knows the Darks do the same.
• Parental Abandonment: Moon Rose's biological parents abandoned her because her magic was too dangerous. Fortunately, she was taken in by Hazy Breeze and Soprano Summer. Her lingering concerns in this area are why they chose not to send her to Celestia's school, although they change their minds, with the stipulation that she come home every evening. Celestia is more than happy to make any necessary arrangements.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Discussed, Gosling declares having "entered into a platonic relationship", later clarifying "forever", with Twilight, to the bewilderment of several people both in and out of universe^note A couple of chapters later, Rainbow Dash is sent off to look up the definition of "platonic", possibly also an exasperated nod at confused readers by the author. It's not actually an example, though, Gosling is far closer to his actual wife and characters such as Seville and Hotspur than Twilight.
• Playing Hard to Get: Discussed by Gosling and one of the fillies he's dancing with. Her friends suggested she use this technique to get with a particular colt, and she's gotten nowhere with it, Gosling recommends just talking to the lad, however embarrassed she may get.
• Power Incontinence: Cadance still hasn't quite got her healing under control, despite her assurances, so when she tries healing Gosling and surges again, it has permanent consequences: while he doesn't Ascend, he does get alicorn wingspan. Much to his delight once they heal properly.
• Praetorian Guard: The Immortal Solars, Celestia's personal guard. They're more than this, though, also being deployed to arrest (very) dangerous criminals, and to covertly protect her interests in Ponyville. Oh, and a century responds to Cadance's call while being interrogated by Twilight and Gosling. In that last case, they're taken out fairly quickly.
• Propaganda Machine: Raven and Seville kind of disagree on what Seville's office is meant to do, with Raven wanting to use it as this, and Seville more interested in reporting the truth without manipulation or bias. As later stories reveal Seville wins, writing codes of behaviour for reporters.
• Pubescent Braces: Cadance wears some in a photograph from the time Twilight took her brother to the school dance.
• Rant Inducing Slight: Although the seriousness makes sense from Gosling's (and the reader's) point of view, the blasting that Purple Party receives for not making any preparations for the Winter Moon Festival was both sudden and loud.
• Rapid Aging: Luna uses this when she needs to be lucid, as it's a more magically taxing spell, but less mentally draining.
• Real Dreams are Weirder: Gosling gets to go along with Luna on a Dream Walking expedition because she intends to use his sexiness to help a colt deal with his Gayngst. From Gosling's fragmented memories after the fact, this trope is in play, given the mention of a show tune number in which Gosling and Luna wear feather boas amongst other things.
• Resurrective Immortality: Celestia and Luna have Complete Immortality, taking this form. It brings them back as a foal, meaning that Luna is still a foal, following her disintegration at the beginning of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
• The Reveal: The secret being kept from is that Luna is not an adult. When she was purified in the first episode of Friendship Is Magic, she was killed and returned as a filly due to her Complete Immortality resorting to Resurrective Immortality if pushed too far, and she's not yet grown.
• Revealing Cover Up: Gosling realises something important is missing in the progression from Luna as a filly immediately after the Nighmare's defeat to her fully-grown appearance during Nightmare Night because of the suspiciously complete absence of information in the archives.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Cadance attempts to flee from Twilight and Gosling's questions about what's being kept from them. Twilight is able to prevent her doing so.
• Seers: Celestia, as in canon, has a touch of prophecy. She used it to bully Luna when they were fillies. Luna also Dreams of Things to Come.
• Servile Snarker: Kibitz' only response to seeing Luna lose her balance and fall, flailing, into the bath?
  Kibitz: Majestic.
• Shower of Love: Celestia and Gosling.
• Shrink Ray: Celestia uses one to successfully consume The Breadnaught, although, unusually, No Conservation of Mass is Averted.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Celestia and Graisseux act like this with each other.
• Snowball Fight: Gosling decides the middle of a massive blizzard is a good time to start one with Luna, to Celestia's exasperation.
• Spider-Sense: Celestia is sensitive to destiny, which means she occasionally gets a "wibble" when something needs to be done.
• Spit Take: Luna, when Flurry Heart asks Gosling if he'll "wrestle" her.
• Spot Of Tea: Toast recommends this for Purple Party after he's overcome by Gosling's proposals.
• Squee: Toast's response to the mention of Rauchtänzer.
• Static Electricity: Cadance forcing a woollen sweater onto Gosling builds up a large charge that he proceeds to use against her. His attempts to repeat the feat on Flurry have a different outcome.
• Stealth Mentor: Celestia had two students while teaching Twilight Sparkle, although the second wasn't revealed to anyone, including the student in question (Shining Armor). This comes up because Gosling hadn't realised he was her current student, resulting the trope's continuation.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The reason that the regeneration potion for Gosling takes so long to make is apparently that the first batch exploded.
• Summon Bigger Fish: During an argument, Cadance calls the aid of the Immortal Solars. Twilight calls her teacher. Celestia is displeased by the unwanted call, and does not take Twilight's side.
• Super Registration Act: Luna proposes the E.U.P.I.E.A., which is the benign variant of this, intended to give those with exceptional abilities the legal power to do what they were doing to do anyway^note Tarnish has broken up at least one robbery with an excessive quantity of cookware, and Rainbow Dash has taken to dressing up as Mare Do Well and visiting nearby cities. At least, they're pretty certain it's her, given the reported Super-Speed, but the captured criminals are unwilling to admit they were Beaten By A Girl.. The idea apparently originated with Shining Armor.
• Super-Strength: Celestia casually puts her horn through a fridge and lifts it off the floor when startled.
• Synchronous Episodes: Beginning with Chapter 55, synchronises with the other Weedverse Christmas Episode, Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break.
• Take Over the World: Briefly discussed as a potential solution to various other nations refusing to take Grogar seriously as a threat, but Celestia, as with the Mr Mariner incident, is unwilling to engage in tyranny, even with the best of intentions. Despite this, she's not above using ponies with their own ambitions in this direction, with her sleep talking occasionally involving commands to various former students^note Twilight Sparkle and Sinister Dark, notably to not engage in such projects.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Celestia does it, leading to a few rather interesting lines. She also does it while Astral Projecting, providing hints as to what she's doing to readers, although Gosling has no idea who "Grrrr" might be.
• Tempting Fate: During a particularly messy sequence, Celestia thinks that raising three cute foals will be easy compared to this. We know from later stories that this is not really true.
• That Came Out Wrong: Seville, while tired, accidentally makes Twilight go from purple to red. Later on, Gosling falls victim when requesting a little pickled apple while Celestia has hold of his tongue^note It Makes Sense in Context. Celestia was pigging out on pickled food, and Gosling's attempts to obtain himself a snack had lead to her getting territorial. Celestia, for her part, Laughs Herself Sick. While maintaining the grip on his tongue.
• Third-Person Person: Gosling briefly goes into this while Drowning His Sorrows.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: As in the source material. Twilight spends the latter half of chapter 28 discovering new shades of purple, heading for red after Seville gets a case of hoof-in-mouth syndrome.
• To Serve Pony: Princess Celestia tells of how the animosity between ponies and dragons started. Apparently, a smart dragon convinced a dumb pony that they could get a shiny and sleek coat by slathering themselves in butter. This was true, so it got copied and butter farmers became rather rich...until the dragon shows up to dine on some hot buttered pony. Apparently Celestia has told this story before, Blueblood mentions that she forgot the bit about convincing the ponies to eat bread and apples so they'd be pre-stuffed, and Raven mentions that colts had trouble catching the buttered fillies.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: When Fox is nervous he begins using Celestia's titles when addressing her. Several different ones per sentence.
• Two-Person Pool Party: Subverted in chapter 34. While it might well have got there, given what we know of Celestia and Gosling's relationship, they're interrupted by Luna, who's been Dreaming of Things to Come.
• Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking...: Gosling genuinely does struggle to get through the wedding ceremony, but pulls it off. At least well enough to make both his wives Laugh Themselves Sick.
• Wacky Cravings: The "quantity" variant, shown very dramatically in chapter 5 when Celestia runs out of patience with the cooks and their normal-sized portions, and finishes the chapter by leaving to "sack" the kitchens. Somewhat amusingly, according to historical record, she also gets a craving for conquest, with Equestria's borders noticeably expanding each time she's pregnant.
• Wacky Racing: When brainstorming ways of improving efficiency in the castle, Gosling proposes indoor chariots. A couple of chapters later, a delivery of racing chariots is taken. Next chapter, Twilight and Celestia are having a conversation about defensive plans. Then Luna and Gosling race past, with Beans and Toast wielding padded bats against each other.
• Valley Girl: Sunshine Smiles, Celestia's disguise of choice for the night out.
• Volleying Insults: The scientists studying beneath Canterlot Castle descend into this when discussing Discord's hex on Chrysalis. Later on, Beans and Toast (who are actually of an age where this is common behaviour) begin doing it over breakfast when discussing Toast's crush.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Celestia and Luna are capable of altering their forms to appear as different ponies, including young fillies. Luna's the more skilled at such magic. It's an exploitation of her dream powers. She's not as good as a changeling though, all her forms have a new quirk, and she's vulnerable to the source of the dreams^note Using Twilight's, for example, gives her very bookwormy thoughts.
• Weak-Willed: Celestia describes the ponies as this, by and large, with rare exceptions (such as Twilight Sparkle), repeating theories that it's because they're a herd species. It apparently causes a problem for teaching magic to unicorns, while they're fine with the theory, actually focusing the will to work magic goes against the grain.
• Weaponised Teleportation: While threatened by a century of ponies, Twilight teleports them all away (though not their weapons and armour, that's a little beyond even her yet).
• What the Hell, Hero?: Celestia is vicious when Cadance and Twilight attempt settling an argument via application of guards or herself. Gosling descends into a snarling fury when the truth finally comes out, due to the secret potentially having resulted in him unknowingly having sex with an underage filly. Fortunately, it hadn't, and Celestia wouldn't have let it. Cadance calls out Celestia for allowing Luna, who is known to be emotionally compromised, sway her into making a bad decision.
• Wham Episode: That this is a Christmas Episode doesn't save it, starting in chapter 44 with a confrontation between Cadance and Twilight turning violent and Gosling flipping out when the secret finally comes out.
• The Woman Wearing The Queenly Mask: Even with all the opening up she's done to Gosling, Celestia still hides a lot of herself, including the fact she's actually an introvert, and that she'd really rather not have everyone looking at her. Discussed by Cadance later, with her explaining to Twilight why she doesn't immediately blow up at Celestia following a betrayal, the Empress cannot afford to, however furious Cadance may be.
• Worf Barrage: The Immortal Solars launch a round of attacks at Twilight Sparkle during an angry confrontation between her and Cadance. It leaves her more annoyed than angry, let alone hurt, and her response eliminates the threat entirely.
• You Need to Get Laid: A variant. Celestia tells Gosling that he needs to sleep with Luna in order to help her get over the argument. Gosling, given his own attitudes towards both sex and Luna, takes some convincing.
• Your Makeup Is Running: Moonlight's (illusory) mascara begins running during Sunshine Smiles' revelations in the Observatory.

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