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Fanfic / The Weedverse

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The Weedverse is a fanfic 'verse based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and written by Kudzuhaiku. It's based on the ideas of positivity and personal growth. Although largely adventure and slice of life, there are delvings into other genres at times.

The forces of darkness, led by returned necromancer Grogar, seek to seize control of the world by force. The ponies (and other creatures) of Equestria must learn about the past of their world, and the deepest powers in it, if they wish to save their future. But while the fate of the world is fought for, life goes on, and those stories are just as important as the great battles.

Due to the size and nature of the Weedverse, a recommended reading order can be found here.

     List of Stories in the Weedverse 

A timeline of the stories and where they fit can be found here.

The Weedverse is long and its plots often intersect, so beware unmarked spoilers.

The Weedverse as a whole contains examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    A to C 
  • Abusive Parents:
    • Dark Desire, Dim's mother, participates in her House's systemic abuse by using incest and psychological manipulation to keep her family in line. She also subverted Dim's heritage and destiny as a back-up Celestial for Princess Luna by transforming him into an Umbra pony, and paired him up with his cousin Darling Dark (who's actually his half-sister) so they'll produce a line of monsters loyal to Grogar.
    • Sumac's biological parents Belladonna and Flam Apple are not very nice people, and have contributed to his torment in their own ways. Though Flam genuinely regrets his actions once his cutie mark is removed before being turned into a tree.
    • Trixie's mother, Dandy Lion, was one growing up. She initially thought that having Trixie would make things better, but Arcturus's lasting influence made her continue The Chain of Harm and abuse her daughter instead. Princess Luna was not very happy to learn this, and forced her into a program that would help her change for the better.
    • Arcturus, Dandy Lion's father and Trixie's grandfather, was psychologically abusive. He saw his daughter as a way to continue the Lulamoon line and constantly pressured her to have foals. Because Dandy Lion was asexual, this led to her attempt suicide more than once. Although he's dead, the long-lasting consequences of his behavior remains. Princess Luna was so furious upon learning of the abuse he had inflicted upon his daughter that she proceeded to eviscerate him and his legacy.
    • Cielo del Este is one to her daughter Esmeralda Verde, who she had with Copperquick in a one-night stand. She psychologically abused and neglected Esmeralda until the filly became clingy, meltdown-prone, and riddled with other issues while still in infancy. While the majority of Equestrian society, being loosely matriarchal, is quick to blame the father for Esmeralda's state, others know that Cielo's truly responsible; Sapphire Shores mentioned that one of her dancers beat up Cielo for her abusive behavior.
  • Alchemy Is Magic: Yep, and specifically distinct from Chemistry, which is explicitly not magic. The difference frustrates both Flicker Nicker and Twilight Sparkle, both of whom would quite like consistent, repeatable results.
  • All Abusers Are Male: Discussed in Spring Broke. Since Equestria is a (very) loosely matriarchal society, with more mares in positions of power than stallions, there exists a social stigma in which stallions are generally seen as incompetent caretakers on their own and thus need a mare's hoof to properly guide them in raising the foals. This to the point where the legal system only has social services for single mothers (even if it's severely out of date), yet none that support single fathers. In addition, any stallion seen alone with a child is regarded with great suspicion. For genuinely good fathers like Copperquick, this trope is seen as a problem since not only is it a grave misinformation, it is also damaging in almost every aspect of life (medical, financial, etc.). In Copperquick's case, he has to deal with people insisting he's a poor parent and he should let the birth mother take care of his infant daughter, Esmeralda Verde; never mind that said birth mother was responsible for multiple accounts of abuse and neglect that led to Esmeralda growing up underdeveloped and full of psychological issues. Even mares such as Buttermilk Oddbody and Twilight Velvet sees this view as degrading.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Sometimes ponies and other creatures are ostracized by others in the Weedverse, one way or another.
    • Sleet was shunned by the First Tribes because she had a one-night stand and conceived a child (Gosling) out of wedlock.
    • Related to above, Gosling was also shunned by the First Tribes because he was Sleet's bastard child. He also experienced this in high school; after Skyfire Flash spread malicious rumors about his sexuality to spite him for not hooking up with her, Gosling was bullied and beat up for being a gay colt, so much that he had to run away from school and home, and developed suicidal urges that were culled by counseling.
    • Princess Luna had experienced this even before becoming Nightmare Moon. Because anything related to the moon and the night were seen as frightening taboos, and because Luna is totally different from Celestia personality-wise, ponies favored Celestia over her. The idea of them being a major reason why Luna turned evil in the first place went completely over their heads. And despite Luna trying to redeem herself for her mistakes, ponies, especially the First Tribes, continue to shun her as if she's still a monster. Moreh Quiet Knish calls everyone out for not learning forgiveness and shunning what they don't understand, not bothering to help those who need it just because they can't be understood.
    • Smirk, from Princess Celestia's Adventurous Advice, was also shunned for a few reasons - 1) she wanted to go be an adventurer like Tarnish and his friends, something that's anathema to a herd-minded society, 2) she used to associate with a bunch of shady ponies and did shady things she's trying to make up for, and 3) she has a cloak-and-dagger cutie mark, which people assume makes her destined to be a criminal for life, but Princess Celestia thinks otherwise.
  • All Trolls Are Different: In the Weedverse, trolls are evolved megafauna which are strengthened by sunlight and need to be burned to nothing to prevent them recovering. They also reproduce by fighting, as the spilled sap mixes and forms seed pods.
  • Ancient Tradition: Many, many of these. Lucerna Perpetuum is one of the more prominent.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: All of the Celestials of Project Eternity, Eternitynote  for magic and fate, Pale for death, Chronos for time and Terra Firma for nature.
  • The Apprentice: How unicorn Wizards are traditionally taught. When the tribes unified they kept one tradition unique to each, the unicorns' was this. It's written very deep into Equestrian law, requiring someone of high authority to dissolve.
  • The Archmage: Twilight Sparkle, obviously, though she later moves up higher in Ink. In terms of mortal magicians, Tarnish is also recognised as the greatest living Druid, making him The Archmage of the Druid order, and Starlight Glimmer claims she, Trixie and Moondancer are the most powerful unicorns of the age, making them candidates.
  • Ascended Extra: Flicker Nicker was originally intended to appear in one short (The Masks We Wear), and his exploits be told second-hand in other stories, but due to popularity with both readers and author, got an entire series of his own (the Underwatch), starting with The Mask Makes The Pony.
  • Astral Projection: A crucial first step in understanding Animancy, but one that's very hard if you're trying to do it. Twilight Sparkle has yet to achieve it because she overthinks it, and Celestia fears she'll never manage it.
  • Background Magic Field: A complex network of Ley Lines feed magic throughout Equestria, and magic is stored in rocksnote  and carried by water. The Field is surprisingly poorly understood, and Tarnish and Maud spend a significant amount of time studying it. Grogar is corrupting it, weakening Unicorn magicians and strengthening himself. He killed all the centaurs with similar corruption, as they were directly tied into the magic field, so by corrupting it he poisoned them. The Field also appears to be subject to some form of Conservation, as described by the eponymous Hypothesis in Trixie Lulamoon and the Horrendous Hypothesis. Magic released into the air is called the Aether, Pegasus magic relies on it, as do many Unicorn workings.
  • Badass Army: The Royal Guard and the Wardens, and the Corps of Gringineers, a Badass Army practicing Badass Pacifist methods.
  • Badass Bureaucrat: Twilight Velvet and Raven Inkwell, arguably the most powerful mortal mares in Equestria, and a significant amount of their power derives from fitting this trope. Velvet in particular also collects other examples to help her with her agenda, such as Buttermilk Oddbody.
  • Badass Creed: Several:
    • "Ex Ignis Amicitiae", "From Fire, Friendship", for the Royal Signal Corps.
    • "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" for Lucerna Perpetuum
    • "Pertinax mater irrumator praetores", "Badass Mother-Fuckers" for the Underwatch.
    • The informal Dustpuncher's code, "Here’s to lying, cheating, stealing, and drinking… if you’re going to lie, lie for a friend. If you’re going to cheat, cheat Death and dry gulch that bastard. If you’re going to steal, steal a heart. If you’re going to drink, drink with me."
  • Badass Crew: Tarnish, Maud, Vinyl and Octavia form one over the course of Venenum Iocus. Later on, Sparkle's Spartans are one, and Gosling accumulates one around him as well.
  • Badass Family: Multiple, with the Pies, Sparkles and Lulamoons most often holding the spotlight. The Palace contingent (Celestia, Luna, Gosling, Blueblood and Raven) also count, and it's implied that there are several as part of Stiff Upper Lip, as apparently no child raised within the society has ever failed to qualify for membership after reaching majority.
  • Badass Pacifist: The Guard and more militarised Guilds recognise the existence of this trope with a "Pacifist's Writ", a document that means that you won't be offered combat roles, but are still part of the guard, with all the badassery that implies. Of the main characters, Seville Orange and Hennessey qualify.
  • Battle Couple: Not uncommon, with particular standouts being Vinyl and Octavia, and Tarnish and Maud.
  • Because Destiny Says So: As in canon, a pony's cutie mark is supposed to be a mark of destiny, except sometimes it doesn't work out. Ponies think that whatever cutie mark they get, that's what their destiny is going to be, and ostracize those with supposedly evil-looking cutie marks, as in the case of Smirk from Princess Celestia's Adventurous Advice. And Tarnished Teapot assumed his Poison Joke cutie mark meant that he was going to be an outcast of society, but he was actually marked to be a druid and nature's hero.
  • Benevolent Precursors: The ancient centaurs did everything they could to ensure that life would survive, even when their own civilisation was doomed.
  • Big Bad: Grogar the Necromancer appears to be this, being the one who influences most of the plot, although he has sponsors from beyond the stars.
  • Big Eater: Both unicorns and Earth ponies are generally the ones with huge appetites; for unicorns it's justified with how their magic works.
  • Big Good: Princess Celestia fills this role for most of the ponies, since she actively helps them even outside of political endeavors. A tier up from her, the Celestials and Ancient Centaurs also.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The House of Dark, full stop. They practice familial inbreeding to keep their line "pure" and as a way to control their relatives. They crave power above all else, and have pioneered more than a few experiments to get that power. And because they're all descended from Princess Luna, who cursed herself when she became Nightmare Moon, all Darks have inherited their insanity, making their family dynamic worse. Dim Dark, Sinister Dark, and Eerie Dark are a few members who managed to escape their family's extremely toxic environment, to varying degrees of "unscathed". Quiet Dark, Dim's young daughter, is the only one who grows up without her father's House haunting her.
  • Bizarrchitecture: Alien Geometries are not uncommon in the homes of powerful magicians, including Canterlot Castle itself, with Bigger on the Inside in particular being used. The architecture of the Castle is mutable to a degree, with references made to the current "configuration", and part of the defence plan involves shifting into a more defensible configuration, or, if Celestia is particularly cruel, collapsing the extradimensional space with hostiles inside. There would be no remains left.
  • Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: In Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics, according to Sunburst, male alicorns have wings with contrasting colours, unlike females who have single-tone wings.
  • Black Magic: Or, more accurately, green magic. Ponies, creatures, and even objects with green auras tends to be associated with dodgy powers: Flim and Flam, Limey, the Changelings, witchfire. It has interesting implications for Sumac, who has a green aura, and has to struggle against his inner darkness.
  • The Casanova: Castor, Luna's pegasus son from a thousand years ago, slept with numerous mares. Luna is not pleased.
  • Cast from Calories: Unicorn magic fits this trope, making powerful or busy unicorns Big Eaters.
  • Casting a Shadow: Shadow magic is used by Grogar, but doesn't appear to be necessarily Black Magic, as Twilight Sparkle and Luna both use it.
  • Character Development: A major theme that concerns the Weedverse; in order to achieve happiness, a good deal of self-improvement must be made, and it's a long way ahead. For some (especially bullies and Jerkasses), the road is more tumultuous than others.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Very common, and sometimes very long-burn (the saddlebags Tarnish scavenges at the beginning of The Weed turn out to be a Bag of Holding in Venenum Iocus, for example).
  • Chekhov's Army: Several of characters met in passing become important in later stories, Helianthus being a particularly notable example, but also Gorgonzola, Buttons and Catrina.
  • The Chessmaster: Alicorns by default are this, with a major player being Princess Celestia, though Luna, Twilight, and Cadence have shown this to varying degrees. After ascending, both Gosling and Shining Armor start catching on to the trait as well.
  • The Chosen Many: The Powers That Be are choosing champions to save the world, and there's nothing to specify that the relationship is one to one, in either direction:
    • Chronos and Lima Bean have chosen Flicker Nicker.
    • Terra Firma has chosen Tarnish.
    • The Nameless One has chosen Twilight Sparkle and Shēdo, and may be seeking more champions.
  • Christmas Episode: Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals: Winter Break takes place during the winter season, obviously, and so does The Perilous Gestation Of Swans.
  • Circling Birdies: Circling alicorns are a frequent occurence, with the tiny creatures offering in-character advice and encouragement to the poor pony who's just taken the injury. It's fairly heavily implied to be more than just a consistent hallucination, with even ponies than have little-to-no contact with the ponies in question experiencing accurate (if somewhat Flanderised) characterisation for the alicorns.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Enshrinement works this way, as belief in something, even just believing in a friend, grants them power. With enough belief, either from a single source or in aggregate, it can empower vows and divine beings.
  • The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: This trope carries over from canon with Luna, who counsels troubled ponies in their dreams despite her own issues, but it's arguably even worse in the Weedverse, as she's not just having to deal with guilt, but even more serious issues (primarily bipolar disorder).
  • Coming of Age Story: The Weed and The Mask Makes The Pony particularly are about this particular transition.
  • Complete Immortality: This trope is achievable by being bonded to something, you cannot then be killed so long as the thing exists. Alternatively, ponies can Ascend if another immortal alicorn uses Animancy to transfer a portion of their soul onto them.
    • Grogar is bound to his crown.
    • The Ancient Centaurs bound Celestia and Luna to the Sun and Moon, respectively, intending to make any attempt to kill them a form of Mutually Assured Destruction... unfortunately, they didn't account for a Necromancer able to thrive without the Sun.
      • It's later revealed, though, that Celestia and Luna aren't just tied to the Sun and Moon, but potentially every sun and moon, rendering them unkillable by everything short of an Omnicidal Maniac.
    • Cadance is also immortal, due to her ascension being the result of Celestia splicing a tiny portion of her soul onto her.
    • Twilight Sparkle, despite being an alicorn, is not at present, although she could easily become so if she chose to. She eventually replaces the Nameless One in Ink.
    • The main character of Blank, She, is also apparently this, regenerating From a Single Cell and being The Ageless according to Cadance. This is because She is half-demon.
    • As of Foalsitting Follies, Gosling has become the Alicorn of Happiness just like his wives off-screen, thanks to Luna imparting a piece of her soul onto him; so as long as happiness exists in Equestria, he will continue to live.
    • Subverted with Princess Flurry Heart and her sister Skyla, who, like Twilght pre-Ink, are not immortal despite being Alicorn, though they could if they chose to.
    • As of Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics, Shining Armor has become an immortal alicorn just like Cadance; Kudzuhaiku stated that the portion of Celestia's soul Cadance had was passed on to Shining when she ascended her husband, making them both immortal.
  • Control Freak:
    • All ponies are prone to seeking control over their environment, and become concerned when things get out of control, due to normally having a great deal of power.
    • Nuance is a Justified example; he grew up in an emotionally absent home where his alicorn parents (Gosling, Celestia, Luna) are constantly kept busy by royal duties, and continuously break their promises to spend time with their children. Because of this, he seeks to control everything he can reach, including power. Part of his Character Development is giving something he can control and forcing him to shape up for the sake of that "something" (his relationship with Quiet Dark).
  • The Corruption: The Black Star twists anything its power touches.
  • Crapsaccharine World: We see a lot more of Equestria's seamy underbelly than is even hinted at in the canon show. Fortunately there are people trying to fix it. The Equestria Girls world is similarly affected, as shown in The Perilous Gestation Of Swans.
  • Creating Life Is Awesome: Generally this trope is in play when artificial life comes up. The Ancient Centaurs were bioengineers, with the Skyreach facility containing many strange and useful creatures, and Celestia and Luna are actively trying to breed a new species (the draconic pegasi).

    D to G 
  • Deader than Dead: Anything which has entered Pale's domain is not coming back, he watches the borders diligently. Unusually, this is the default state, most people pass on shortly after death anyway, it requires powerful magic (in Grogar's case, Necromancy, and in other cases Enshrinement, to prevent). This distinction becomes important in Ink, where The Nameless One begins dead (like all the Celestials), but passes into Pale's realm during the story.
  • Death of a Child: Foals do die in the Weedverse. For example, Luna's foals have a very high rate of dying at a young age if they're born Earth ponies; her last brood through her deceased husband Bronze Blaze lost their Earth pony brother at birth, and Steadfast, Luna's son from her current brood, is barely hanging on by a thread due to his sickly condition.
  • Department of Child Disservices: Equestria's social services leave a lot to be desired, and Twilight Velvet is waging war on the more conservative sectors in hope of changing this.
  • Divine Parentage: Well, ancestry.
    • Luna is the progenitor of a few noble houses; the Lulamoons, the Sparkles, and Darks were all part of her bloodline. Unfortunately, because of her stint as Nightmare Moon, they inherited her curse as well, forcing them to undergo a period of madness before becoming great ponies.
    • Celestia is implied to be the progenitor of the Apple family in Perilous Romance, making Applejack and her siblings Celestia's descendants.
  • Disability Superpower: Often, characters with a strange dimension to their power suffer for it with the normal powers for their species; for example, Tarnish is a weak magician by unicorn standards, but is also a Druid, and Flint cannot fly, but has fire powers. Chalcedony is blind, but she can see magic.
  • Disappeared Dad: Several characters are missing their fathers, including Tarnish, Blackbird, Sumac, and Gosling.
  • Druid: The primary magical tradition of the Ancient Centaurs. In the modern day, Tarnish is trying to resurrect the order. In this setting, they use powerful but hard-to-control magic, so study magic from other traditions to supplement their own abilities for when they don't want to flatten the town, and have some Green Thumb-style powers as well. They're empowered by a shard of Terra Firma taking residence in their souls; by dividing herself amongst so many bodies, she's a lot harder to kill.
  • The Dragon: Catrina to Grogar.
  • The Dreaded: Princess Luna's agents, the Wardens, and with good reason. They're willing to use morally ambiguous methods if it'll help them achieve some good results in society, including mind magics.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: A staple of the Weedverse stories. There is a happy ending, and the characters can get there, but they will have to learn and grow to make it.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Creatures Beyond The Stars sponsoring Grogar.
  • Everything Sounds Menacing In German: German is the "language of war", used by Dim Dark and the dragons.
  • Familiar: Several powerful mages have one - getting shared feelings, enhanced senses, an extended lifespan for the animals, and maybe have other effects. Tiberius is now closer to The Undead than alive. The magic is poorly understood, and theorised to be part of Friendship magic.
  • Family Theme Naming:
    • All members of the House of Dark have names related to the word "dark", and can be used in phrases as well ("Dark and Dim", "Dark and Sinister", "Dark and Quiet", "Dark and Eerie", etc.).
    • Blackbird and her mother, Starling, are named after birds.
    • As in canon, the Pies have names relating to dirt and rocks, such as Igneous, Marble, Limestone, and Maud (mud), with Pinkie being the sole exception.
    • Members of House Sparkle has names related to both the evening and light, such as Shining Armor, Night Light, Twilight Velvet, and Twilight Sparkle.
  • Fantastic Racism: Tribalism exists in Equestria, and most notable is how ponies react to Earth ponies. Earth ponies are generally seen as useless to Equestrian society outside of farming, food, and reproduction, and if one manages to rise above and achieve great things, others see it as You Are a Credit to Your Race. In A Day in the Cookie Court, earth ponies are even barred from receiving good education in some places, because certain ponies believe they don't need it. This trope is mentioned, discussed, and hinted at in some stories, but it's a very prominent subject in Down With The Pastryarchy, where Earth ponies are subjected to Double Standards, You Are a Credit to Your Race, and prevented from doing certain activities because it threatens tribal "equality".
  • Fantastic Slur: "Bat Ponies" for the draconic pegasi. Using it is mostly going to earn you a very polite request to not use it again. This is usually sufficient.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The First Tribes draw a lot from Jewish culture, with the leader position being titled "Moreh". Also, Inujima (and the Diamond Dogs that honour it) draw from Samurai traditions.
  • Fertile Feet: Downplayed, but utterly crucial. The Earth Ponies must be allowed to roam freely, otherwise the land itself will die. There are some Earth ponies who have lost this connection to nature, due to staying in one place for so long.
  • Fling a Light into the Future: The ancient Centaurs foresaw the end of their civilisation and made preparations, creating the Celestials as guardians of the world, building vaults of technology and encoding crucial expertise into the mythologies of the different races.
  • Food Porn: Periodically, there are some rather lavish descriptions of the meals being eaten. This is because Kudzuhaiku once worked as a restaurant chef and has experience in cooking.
  • Forbidden Zone: The Grittish government considers anywhere outside a major city this, refusing to extend their protection to smaller towns. They don't stop people going there though; the monsters do that for them.
  • Forced Transformation: Exposure to the Rainbow Of Darkness turns a pony into a dragon.
  • Foregone Conclusion: In-Universe. Eternity wrote Sumac a happy ending, and left him the freedom to write the rest. The enemy can't take him, and the heroes can't manipulate him unless he wants them to. It was her last act, as she was already dying and the break from harmony required, on top of her other acts, finally killed her. This also happens out of universe due to the different stories (we know that Shēdo won't kill Dig Dag in Dogged Determination because he was killed by Flamingo in Venenum Iocus, for example).
  • Generation Xerox: Quiet Dark and Nuance's relationship and history is astonishingly similar to that of Quiet's parents. Justified as Love Redeems runs in that branch of the Coffyns, quite possibly a result of magical (or destiny's) help, and several characters, including both sets of parents, are actively trying to invoke it. After all, it worked for Dim and Blackbird.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly: Gosling theorises that the state of worship may have effects on the Alicorns being worshipped. In The Mask Makes The Pony, the Powers That Be reveal that he's at least part right, as offering prayer can empower those touched by the divine as part of a subset of Enshrinement. While the Alicorns are immortal, their power levels can be affected by lack of worship; worship of Luna stopped completely after she became Nightmare Moon, resulting in her appearance and magic being stunted after she came back redeemed.
  • Götterdämmerung: Grogar was responsible for one in the distant past, by killing the Celestials. The Gods are still around as The Powers That Be but they're no longer what they were.

    H to J 
  • Happily Married: Many couples are shown to be of this nature, such as Shining Armor and Cadance; Gosling and his wives Celestia and Luna; Igneous and Cloudy Quartz Pie; Trixie Lulamoon, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine; Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst; Dim Dark and Blackbird Coffyn...
  • Harping on About Harpies: Harpies in the Weedverse are minions of Grogar, and unnaturally created by corrupting phoenix eggs in the Rainbow of Darkness. Celaeno is the only harpy who is on the heroes' side.
  • Happily Married: Most of the main-character couples reach this stage at some point. The most prominent couples are Shining and Cadence, and Tarnished and Maud.
  • Hard Light: Telekinesis is explained as this.
  • Heroes "R" Us: The Stiff Upper Lip society is the heroic organisation variant, with a job of putting people with resources in touch with people who need resources.
  • The High Queen: Princess Celestia is the most obvious example, but Luna also shares in her duties. Cadence, as the ruling Princess of the Crystal Empire, is one as well. It's enforced with Princess Skyla, who has a cutie mark that relies on this trope for power; in order to become an effective and powerful ruler, she must rule well.
  • Hollywood Healing: Averted. Injuries gained take a realistic time to heal, and in some cases, this means they don't heal at all without magical intervention.
    • A notable example being Trixie's leg wound in Venenum Iocus, which isn't healed five years later, and continues to trouble her until Princess Cadance intervenes in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals. Even after being healed, the injuries she got affected Trixie's fertility, leading to a number of miscarried foals before the birth of Lemon Poppyseed in When Life Gives You Lemons....
    • In Mare Do Well, after coming back severely injured from an adventure with Tarnish, Rainbow Dash had to rely on Rarity patching her up with first-aid supplies and stitching her up. It wasn't entirely painless.
  • I Know Your True Name: Names have magic and power.
  • Immune to Fate: The Undead are beyond the power of the Ink, as their book finishes upon death. However, they're not beyond the power of the sun.
  • Ingesting Knowledge: Part of what a Sorcerer does - as they empower others, they absorb portions of their knowledge, allowing for Power Copying. This is what makes them invaluable to certain factions that want Sorcerers.
  • Interspecies Adoption: Not uncommon amongst the circles the main characters move in, as when you're regularly in contact with other species and regularly in mortal danger, some of this is going to happen naturally, but very rare elsewhere, much to several characters' dismay, as there is legitimate need for people willing to take in orphans of all species.
  • Interspecies Romance: Inter-tribal romance is very common, Interspecies romance is much rarer, but it does happen: Char-lotta is a dragon who is pony-curious, Yam Spade and Azure Serape (pony and burro) are an item, Starling is a hippogriffnote  and marries an earth pony, and there's Ship Tease between Stinkbug and Celaeno (changeling and harpy).
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Although most of the stories can be read and enjoyed separately, to really understand everything that's going on you have to read all of them, and Continuity Nods and Call Backs abound.

    K to N 
  • Large and in Charge: Celestia obviously fits the bill, but Gosling post-Ascension becomes one of the biggest Alicorns, towering Celestia in height. Shining Armor also grows larger after becoming an Alicorn; Kudzuhaiku described his body as being sturdy and having elements of Big Macintosh's body.
  • Ley Line: A measurable phenomenon, and a portion of the story is the characters discovering new information on how they work. Intersections tend to lead to patches of Wild Magic, making them dangerous to study, although low-level ones often house Earth Pony villages.
  • Living Macguffin: Sorcerers tend to turn into this, often to their detriment. The last Sorceress that Luna knew was utterly broken by the time the Princesses were able to get to her, thanks to the evil wizard who kidnapped her. Sumac, as a unicorn (now alicorn) with sorcerous abilities, was often subjected to kidnapping attempts as well, one of which Celestia foiled by accident to give him belated birthday wishes. Celestia fears that history might repeat and Sumac exploited by the wrong people, so when she finds Twilight and her friends performing experiments with him, she quickly and soundly puts an end to the experiments, and escorts Sumac (and Pebble and Olive) home for tea.
  • Mage Species: Cat Folk appear to be this, with all known examplesnote  being mages, and the species as a whole having a reputation for powerful magic.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Generally, although the characters and audience aren't aware of all the rules, and the study of it makes up part of the plot.
  • Magical Eye: Heterochromia appears to near-universally signify supernatural power, such as the House of Dark's lineage, or Shēdo's mother's Spirit Sight.
  • Magically-Binding Contract: Making vows, particularly when you (or the person you vow to) is metaphysically significant or under emotional strain, is rather risky.
  • The Magic Goes Away: Sumac's Horrendous Hypothesis is this, as statistically, unicorns have weakened over time. Later stories build on the Hypothesis, showing it's a bit more complicated than that, particularly Amplitude Adjustment.
  • Magitek: A common feature in centaur cities and vaults. To a much lesser extent, Equestria has and makes use of some, Night Light manufactures magical masks for the Rat Catcher's Guild.
  • The Maiden Name Debate: Dim Dark wanted to take Blackbird Coffyn's name when they married, ending the corrupt House of Dark. Princess Luna intercedes, resulting in Quiet, their daughter, being Quiet Dark.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Yam Spade (an earth pony stallion) and Azure Serape (a burro jenny). Because of their relationship, Yam has been blacklisted by the private detective agencies in Equestria and is now in business for himself.
  • Matriarchy: A gradual subversion. Early stories took after the show, which displayed an Enlightened version; Equestria is still ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and most higher-up ponies who get prominent screen-time are mares, but it's still a gender-equal society. It starts becoming a gradual subversion; after the pegasus Gosling marries the Royal Sisters and ascends into an Alicorn Prince, he ends up sharing much of his wives' duties and his political standing is on par with them.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Any relationship between an alicorn and a mortal, though the only notable cases have become subverted into Eternal Love.
    • Due to ancient laws, anyone who wanted to court one of the Royal Sisters must marry both of them. Celestia and Luna's first husband was Bronze Blaze, an Earth pony, before he was killed by Luna while she was corrupted as Nightmare Moon. Gosling, a pegasus, succeeds Bronze Blaze, though he ends up far luckier in that he ultimately becomes the immortal Alicorn of Happiness.
    • Cadance is an Alicorn who became immortal through Celestia performing Animancy, and her marriage to the mortal Shining Armor is often worryingly discussed. Thankfully, Shining Armor eventually decides to ascend into an Alicorn and become immortal.
  • Meaningful Name: It's a My Little Pony fanfic, there are many meaningful names, more than a few Invoked:
    • Silver Lining is the bright spot in Gloomy August's life, and discovered at the end of a very harrowing journey.
    • Tarnished Teapot's signature spell is the ability to rapidly turn water to steam or vice-versa.
    • Helianthus is the latin name of the sunflower, hinting at her link to Celestia.
    • Pinny Lane is a talented bowler.
    • Nobody likes Lima Bean.
    • Flint and Tinder have (as yet unspecified) symbiotic fire powers.
    • Stinkbug has a truly legendary stench.
    • Fink Apple is a coward only too happy to talk to the police once pressure is applied.
    • Piper Pie can create magical flutes that control animals.
    • Jitterbug is a very excitable and adventurous pony.
    • Gosling comes from the term for a baby goose. He starts off as a pegasus guard, before he marries Celestia and Luna and eventually becomes an immortal Alicorn, much like how a gosling grows into an adult goose.
    • Gloomy August has the ability to make clouds rain, making her a vital asset to Cloudsdale's weather ponies. May also count as an Ironic Name, as Gloomy is a Plucky Girl and left her job because she doesn't want to make ponies' days gloomy by making it rain.
  • The Men in Black: The Wardens come across as a benevolent version, being an organisation bound by no rules except their own and answering directly to the Princesses.
  • The Merch: invokedAn in-universe example in the form of the various princess colas.note 
  • Minovsky Physics: The difference between Celestium and Helium is the addition of a Thaumaton particle. Celestium is a crucial component of airships, as an electrical current causes it to show properties allowing the ships to fly.
  • Mother Nature: Terra Firma is this, and empowers the Druids, as well as being able to hijack them as she needs.
  • The Nameless: The Power that oversees magic is known only as "The Nameless One".
  • Necromancer: Grogar's specialisation is with necromancy. Undead generally being out of the books of fate is why Grogar's such a powerful threat.
  • No Such Agency: As in canon, S.M.I.L.E.
  • Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Poison Joke. It naturally filters Wild and Black Magic out of the Ley Lines, but because of its poisonous petals, it's often destroyed by ponies, leading to natural disasters. It's lampshaded by Tarnished Teapot, who recognizes the plant's reputation in Equestrian society.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: The precise methods and actions of the Wardens are left vague for this reason.

    O to R 
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: A frequent antagonist, as they occupy much of Equestria's social services. Some of them come with flavors of tribalism, especially towards Earth ponies. Twilight Velvet and Gosling are attempting to reform the situation, but it's hard work.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: An earth-pony ability referred to in-universe as "Jaunting".
  • Older Is Better: Centaur tech is far better than anything the modern ponies can produce. Justified due to the setting being After the End (long enough that it's not immediately obvious). Despite the millennia of work by Celestia, they just haven't had time to rebuild the ancient knowledge bases.
  • One-Gender Race:
    • Played straight with harpies, who are all female.
    • Subverted with the Alicorns; the prevalence of female Alicorns in the canon show gives the impression that they are primarily female, but Sumac, Gosling, and Shining Armor have ascended in different stories, introducing male alicorns. Sunburst's comment about Shining's colored wings post-Ascension suggests that male alicorns did exist in the past.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: The original dragons are the result of exposure to the Rainbow of Darkness, with the resulting dragon depending on the type of creature exposed. The results on Earth Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi are known, the results on other creatures are unknown, but several characters consider the possibility of Changeling dragons serious Paranoia Fuel, and Alicorns are theorised to mutate into Draconequui.invoked Silver dragons, though, are natural.
  • Painting the Medium: Celestials and similar beings are capable of speaking in a special voice (notably, they don't have to, Pale is glad when they're discussing something amongst themselves and decide not to bother for a bit), rendered as Small Caps in the vein of Discworld's Death (it was even first seen being done by Lima Bean. It's a skill that can apparently be taught, as Lima Bean and Sumac have both learned (both off of Pale, interestingly).
  • Physical God: Alicorn Princesses in general tend to be this, but Celestia and Luna are exceptionally powerful due to being ascended by the Centaurs. Celestia lays claim to the power of every sun in multiple galaxies, and the same goes for Luna and every moon in said multiple galaxies. As of Foalsitting Follies, Gosling, Celestia and Luna's husband, has become the Alicorn Prince of Happiness. As of Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics, Shining Armor also becomes an immortal alicorn, due to Cadance passing onto him a tiny sliver of Celestia's soul that she possessed when she Ascended him.
  • Polyamory: Due to generally being a herd-minded species, ponies sometimes take on multiple spouses, with Trixie Lulamoon and her wives Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine, and Gosling and his wives Celestia and Luna being the most prominent. However, while couples where the husband is outnumbered by the number of wives taken is acceptable, couples were the number of husbands outnumber the wives is looked down upon, as it indicates predatory males or a loose mare.
  • Politically-Active Princess: The Alicorn Princesses Cadance, Celestia, Luna, and Twilight take active roles in Equestria's political scene, in addition to ruling their respective territories.
  • Power Copying: A Sorcerer can duplicate spells cast using their Super-Empowering, even if they don't understand all the underlying mechanics. This is part of why they're so valuable.
  • The Power of Friendship: A major theme, just like in the canon show. The Nameless One theorises that it's a kind of Enshrinement (see Gods Need Prayer Badly and Clap Your Hands If You Believe above).
  • The Power of Hate: Subverted, the most dangerous power in the Weedverse is apathy.
  • Powers That Be: The Anthropomorphic Personifications and related beings appear to be this, taking on champions to protect the world and acting on a scale beyond what the ponies really deal with. The known Powers are:
    • Lima Bean, who takes the dead to their rest.
    • Chronos, the god of time.
    • Annote  unnamed Power with a domain of Magic.
    • Pale, who guards the boundaries of the Realm of the Dead, keeping out thieves and keeping in the dead.
    • Terra Firma, who is the personification of the Earth.
  • Precursor Killers: The ancient centaurs aren't around anymore due to the actions of Grogar and his sponsors.
  • Precursors: The Ancient Centaurs.
  • Prehensile Hair: Prehensile dreadlocks are a frequent occurrence amongst zebras, with both the Sea Witch and Lima Bean possessing them.
  • Psychic Nosebleed: Mages who push themselves too hard often show this as the early sign of hitting a Heroic RRoD.
  • Punny Name: And lots of them, sometimes veering off into Double Entendre territory. Special mention goes to Maud's sanctuary, the Glory Hole.
  • Quirky Town: Ponyville develops into even more of this than in the canon show.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Several groups fit this, with the Stiff Upper Lip society being something of a collection, and Stinkbug's group also being one.
  • Resurrective Immortality: How the alicorns' Complete Immortality manifests if their bodies are somehow destroyed. For Celestia and Luna, nothing short of an Omnicidal Maniac can kill them, due to being linked to every sun and moon in the universe. For Gosling, he will never die as long as happiness still exists in the world.
  • Rewriting Reality: The power of destiny includes everything that lives and is written in the Ink, a power that is held by the Librarian of Souls. However, abuse it and Harmony will punish the culprit by writing you out of existence.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The standard for pony royals. Celestia and Luna are the most obvious examples, but so are Gosling, Blueblood, Shining Armor, Cadence, and Twilight Sparkle.
  • Running Gag: The difference between tea drinkers and coffee drinkers comes up periodically.

    S to V 
  • Salt Solution: Salt is a pure mineral, so purifies magic passing through it and repels supernatural nasties.
  • Same-Sex Triplets: Subverted. For some reason, whenever Celestia and/or Luna decides to have foals, their children will always be born triplets, one from each tribe. Celestia's brood produces fantastic Earth ponies but weak unicorns, while Luna's brood produces powerful unicorns but weak Earth ponies. Even if their children manage to be of the same gender, they have enough differences to be told apart from their siblings.
  • Scientifically Understandable Sorcery: Magic varies somewhat on exactly how it works, depending on exact form, but high-concept magic involves particle physics concepts (see Minovsky Physics, above), and microwaves screw up pegasus flight. Amplitude Adjustment is about Vinyl and Sumac clocking that unicorn magic is essentially radio and seeking Celestia's permission to study further.
  • Soul Power: Animancy is the practice of manipulating souls, and a largely lost art; a subplot is Princess Celestia developing it, her experiments led to the creation of Helianthus and she used it to help Princess Cadance Ascend, and give Lemon Hearts the ability to birth a foal in When Life Gives You Lemons.... Princess Luna had mentioned wanting to be the one who Ascends Gosling in The Perilous Romance Of Swans, which eventually happens in Foalsitting Follies. As of Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics, Cadence helps Shining Armor ascend into an Alicorn through a Secret Test of Character by using Animancy. On the villainous side, the Alicorn Ascendancy is making fake alicorns by splicing several souls together using similar techniques... with less than successful results.
  • Steampunk: Steam technology, particularly steam weaponry, shows up occasionally, being rather more practical in the Weedverse than our world, as discussed by the author here.
  • Student–Master Team: A proud tradition among the unicorns, the most prominent example being Sumac (student) and Vinyl Scratch (master).
  • Super-Empowering: Sorcerers are the amplifier version, vastly improving the magical capabilities of every creature in range, meaning that they often become Living Macguffins for every major faction. Celestia fears what this power could bring in the wrong hands, and when she discovers that Twilight and her friends were conducting experiments with Sumac's power in Princess Twilight Sparkle And The Sorcerous Symbiosis, she gives them a scathing lecture, makes Twilight swear an oath not to use Sumac's ability, and escorts Sumac home.
  • Super Registration Act: The E.U.P. I.E.A note  is the benevolent version, supplying the registered individuals with the powers of a constabulary force.
  • Super-Senses: Alicorn senses are generally far acute than those of normal ponies, making it very hard to hide anything from them - in Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics, Cadance reveals she can hear mice and shews fart. In The Sun Also Surprises, Luna was mentioned to have the ability to deduct a pony's tribe by the sound of their breathing.
  • There Are No Therapists: Defied by Princess Cadance, who maintains a large and skilled stable of therapists of all kinds, although there is a slight specialisation in marriage counselling due to her Shipper on Deck tendencies. Cadance herself is also a therapist to some degree, due to possessing powerful empathy. But generally, it's usually justified in the fact that the Weedverse takes place in a period where psychology is a relatively new and unknown concept.
  • There Is Only One Bed: "A quaint Trottingham tradition", due to the rampant poverty in the area, and a significant part of Vinyl and Octavia's early relationship. Becomes something of a Running Gag with the pair later ending up with guests in their bed, completely innocently (Octavia likes the sense of togetherness).
  • Time Skip: There's a gap of about five years between the two chronological groups of stories. Later, it's partially filled in by Skyreach.
  • Toilet Humour: Used quite a lot, both in-universe and in narration.
  • Token Heroic Orc: Stinkbug the Unwanted is about two of these, a harpy and a changeling.
  • Uneven Hybrid: The Draconic Pegasi are exactly that, although the exact mix varies. There's a breeding program of sorts in place to keep them from breeding out of existence, one way or the other.
  • Un-person: Eternity writes herself and her siblings out of the memories of everyone as a protection against discovery and attack. She also did this to anyone who tried to hurt her daughters, causing Harmony to punish her for abusing her powers. Twilight, as Eternity's successor, had to learn not to repeat Eternity's mistakes.
  • Unreliable Narrator: An important consideration with many of the Weedverse stories is that although they are third-person, they are from the perspective of a particular individual, and this can and does skew the narration, whether from bias or ignorance.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Maud is fond of "Happy Husband Hugs". "Fronk" is also used by several ponies, both as a swear and a verb.

    W to Z 
  • Walking the Earth: A distinct subculture of adventurers doing this exists in Equestria, and several characters spend some time part of it.
  • Wham Episode: Given the nature of the Weedverse, there's bound to be several.
    • Ink: Twilight Sparkle ascends as the Librarian of Souls to replace The Nameless One, aka Eternity, after facing the consequences of her arrogance and learning not to abuse the power of fate. Oh, and little Sumac becomes an Alicorn as well, and given the ability to write his own future by Eternity as a final parting gift.
    • Lies, Damn Lies, And Statistics:
      • Flurry Heart reveals to Shining Armor that all of the Alicorns, including Shining's family, have been sworn to keep the process Ascension a secret because of how much being an Alicorn affects one's perspective, and to avoid putting pressure on their un-Ascended loved ones. Flurry hates it because she had to lie to her own father. Shining is devastated.
      • At the end of the story, Shining reevaluates himself and decides to become an Alicorn like his wife and daughters. He meets the Librarian of Souls (who is actually his younger sister Twilight Sparkle), goes through a Secret Test of Character, and comes back immortal.
  • A World Half Full: Equestria is rampant with stagnation and corruption, beset by ancient and powerful enemies and divided against itself. But the good guys can, and will, turn the tide.
  • World-Wrecking Wave: The Black Star precipitated one, tainting magic, breaking down the natural laws and spawning monsters. The after-effects remain on the world.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: With many, many players, some of whom have aligning goals, and not all of whom are aware of all the othersnote . Twilight Sparkle is trying, but has yet to quite get out of her mentor's shadow (although latter stages of Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals suggest she may be becoming a full player soon). It takes her until Foalsitting Follies to fully grow into the role, by which time Sumac Apple is trying it out, too.
  • Xenofiction: Downplayed, but there is a distinct psychology to ponies compared to humans, in particular a strong herd instinct. Most of the protagonists are actually closer to human than most ponies, due to a lower herd instinct, something acknowledged in-universe as something that means that they are able to do things that the more normal ponies can't as they can operate outside of the social structures and rules of the herd (which is why they're the protagonists). Similarly, each of the other species encountered has a fundamentally different underlying psychology that affects how they think and act.

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