Tear Jerker / Adopted Displaced

These are stories about adorable baby ponies being Happily Adopted, nothing bad could ever happen... right?

The Trained Six fics (listed alphabetically):

Batmare Beyond

• As if canon wasn't horrible enough to Coco; Suri sets herself up as Coco's Meal Ticket and forces her to live in the same apartment so she can, among other things, toy with her how she pleases, up to and including rape.

Dante's Little Apple Surprise

Fortresshy: The Nine Fathers/Fortresshy 1. 5

• Chapter 2 reveals that Pyro's "Rainbow World" is a coping mechanism for them to deal with how horrific their job truly is. They are genuinely terrified at the prospect of losing themselves to the violence that goes with what they do and not only do they have to make an effort to see things how they actually are in reality, but focusing like that is a burden as they are forced to accept the horror of their job if they do it for too long.
• Pyro has a minor Freak Out over whether "Rainbow Land" is a delusion they made up or actually a real place given Fluttershy's existence.
• Demoman is terrified and wrecked with guilt when he thinks Fluttershy is doused in one of his explosive mixes. It affects him so strongly he decides to cut back on drinking.
• Fluttershy happily tames a bread monster that Soldier created and is having the time of her life riding it around while getting it shoot off its Breath Weapon... but doesn't notice that each shot is making the bread monster dry out more and more until it crumbles right under her. This is bad enough for any pet owner but it happens to Fluttershy as a foal, who responds as well as you could expect on both counts.
• Engineer discovers that Fluttershy is from another dimension, that something in the fortress caused her to appear there, and that whoever brought them there wants to use it. He gives a Declaration of Protection before going on that Fluttershy will grow up one day and that she will have to go back to her home... and that when she does it is going to destroy them because she helps ease the madness that all of them have.
• Chapter 21 has a bad case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome as Fluttershy has bad memories of the BLU team attack to the point of nightmares.
• Soldier accidentally triggered flashbacks to Chompy's demise for Fluttershy when he set off fireworks and the ashes got in her fur.
• Engineer and Heavy look through a family album while singing "Turn Around". The last image is a drawing by Sniper of Fluttershy all grown up with a foal of her own.
• Fluttershy killing her friends from Equestria. To her it's all in good fun since they can respawn but for them they have to personally experience the kindest pony the know kill them with a smile on her face.
• The Equestrians arriving to take Fluttershy home. The RED team have been dreading this day for years and when they find out about the Equestrians they know what will be the worst day of their lives has arrived.
  • Fluttershy herself has a tremendous breakdown when Celestia says that they've come to take her back to Equestria. She clings to her adopted fathers for all she's worth while wailing that she doesn't want to go and asking why her birthday wish to stay with them hasn't come true. Scout realizes what Fluttershy must have wished for every birthday from that one.
• Pyro was given "help" regarding his delusions before the team. It's not known what was done but given the time period and that Luna, an expert in psychiatric care, uses "butchers" as a term nothing good came of it.

The Sparkle in his Eye

• The first chapter has Ratchet's Dark and Troubled Past.
• Twilight briefly considers that she's not actually real and might just be a story brought to life. Ratchet fortunately dissaudes her of that notion.

The Technological Technicolor Technomare

You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter

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The Not-So-Bad Guys fics (listed alphabetically):

Order and Chaos

The Merc with the Moth

There's Nopony I'd Rather Be Than Me

• During the virus fight, Felix, Ralph and Wily all experience the horror of their child being in life-threatening danger and being unable to help them. Wily even ends up losing Zero to the virus and while his son does eventually come back, Wily spends a long time thinking he won't.
• Moony discovering that her home "game" isn't a game at all but a User world...meaning she's never going to see Ralph or any of her friends ever again. She has a full on breakdown at this thought that the narration basically says is her inner child coming out and wailing for her daddy.

Three Kittens, Two Unicorns, and a BANANA!

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The Supporting Characters fics (listed alphabetically):

Another Hatchling

• The first chapter has Samus meeting the spirit of one of the Chozo that raised her. Said spirit proceeds to reveal the intense collective guilt of all the Chozo over not only raising Samus into a warrior but also how they made her barren through the injection of Chozo DNA. The Chozo gave her Spike's egg not just because he would be needed in the future but also so she could have the chance to be a mother.
• This version of Metroid Fusion ends with The Reveal that the SA-X thought it was the original Samus and believed the real one had enthralled Spike somehow, causing it to go after her to save him. Horribly mutating while on the verge of death forced the copy to accept that it was the fake and Samus was the real one. The quote by Ember sums up the tragedy best:
  "Desperately tracking down a monster with your face to try and protect the one you care about the most... only to discover you are the monster that needs to be stopped?"
• During the mission to rescue Melissa, Spike is forced to kill multiple Metroids. After it's revealed that they're going to have to let the people who caused the whole fiasco get away with it to protect Melissa, a devastated Spike reveals that the Metroids treated him like a brother, begging to know why he was hurting them the entire time. Notably this is one of the few times Spike breaks down.

Dragon Ball Zeeyup!

Dressed to Steal

• The story begins with Coco acting as a distraction so Sly, her father, doesn't get shot at by Carmelita, her mother. Carmelita is incensed because she thinks it was Sly's idea but he was as clueless as Carmelita about Coco's plan. The entire situation is essentially a child being distressed by her parents arguing and her well meaning attempt at trying to fix it only worsening matters.
• Mz. Ruby's horror that Sly witnessed his father's murder tugged on a few heartstrings as did The Reveal that she's been alone her whole life and genuinely envies Sly for his loving friends that have turned found family
• A reviewer has already predicted that Coco's reaction to Bentley getting his legs crushed beyond repair is going to be utterly heartbreaking. Made worse when the chapter before the events that caused it's comments section had the author confirm it has to happen despite Coco's presence, meaning she's probably going to end up blaming herself.
  • More recent chapters have hinted that Bentley's crippling is going to be caused by the Golems she creates during her Roaring Rampage of Revenge in this timeline.
    • The crippling happens essentially as it did in canon. Coco's response is to give Clock-La the immortality she desires and then drop her unable-to-die-no-matter-what body into the deepest and darkest trench she can find. And even though Coco doesn't regret it, the fact that she doesn't haunts her for the rest of her life.
• Sly's amnesia is heartbreaking here since it's not just his friends and allies he's forgotten but his wife and daughter. And Scrooge, upon realizing that Sly's able to unconsciously tap all of his thief skills, doesn't have a good answer for the girls.
• When Coco explains to Penelope that if anything, Bentley is holding Sly back instead of the other way around, citing her dad and uncles' backgrounds, Penelope's eyes go wide in horror and she runs off. Many fans think she realized how badly she had messed up with her plot with Le Paradox before running off to fix it...and failing.
  • The idea that if Sly hadn't been around, Murray would have probably bullied Bentley.
• Razor discovers what Penelope is up to as the Black Knight and she's completely broken, fully believing that there's no way the Gang would take her back and yet being loyal enough to Bentley to refuse to "satisfy" Seft.
• Clockwerk's backstory in this AU is finally revealed to be that he was in a Star-Crossed Lovers scenario with the lovely Cara Cooper whose father wanted her to marry someone who would raise his family's station. He eventually tricks Klaww, Clockwerk's original identity, into becoming a pirate so as to satisfy a phony Engagement Challenge and tricks Cara into believing her beloved abandoned her. She accepted a "proper" marriage, which Klaww could have lived with...except her husband tried to prove himself a Cooper thief and got Cara killed. The entire modern Cooper clan are disgusted and several readers admitted to sobbing.

Heart of the Dragon General

• Cadence reveals why she deliberately subverted Celestia's canon test of Twilight involving the Crystal Empire. She used her visions (the birthright of Alicorns) three times over her life with Iroh to gamble that waiting would bring a better outcome. The first time involved a fleet of Fire Nation soldiers being eaten by a Kraken during the Siege of the North for the "crime" of following orders. The second time involved her allowing Ozai to escape rather than fight Zuko, because she feared it would break one or both of them; this nearly caused the Earth Kingdom to burn to the ground. The third time, instead of using her abilities to heal Azula's twisted mind and soul, Cadence decided to wait until after the war; she ended up having to personally Mercy Kill Azula, who was begging her for salvation while all Cadence was able to do was make death painless. Needless to say, Celestia finds this quite sobering.

Mother X: Father

My Little Killing Machine

My Own Wings

• Falco's method of teaching Sunset history through games hits a massive snag when she ends up witnessing James' death through Peppy's eyes. She has a total breakdown and attempts to use necromancy to bring the grandfather she never knew back.

On the Corner of Straight and Narrow

Sons of Damas

The Rock in the Gulch

• The first chapter has Church quickly bonding with Maud... and questioning why he feels so paternal towards her. Those who have seen the series know that it's because in a way he already knows what it is to be a father. More tragic is that this is likely how the Director was to Carolina before his wife's death.
• Church's "death" thanks to Caboose and Sheila is not Played for Laughs, with Maud pleading (as much as she does) for Church not to die.

Three More Things

• Jackie, of all people, has a Dark and Troubled Past here which comes up during the incident with the Rabbit Talisman. Details are scarce but there's a heavy implication that Jackie lost his parents which is the reason he was raised by Uncle.
• During the Rabbit Talisman episode Carl Nibor plans to eat Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo which sends Jackie into Unstoppable Rage territory. The narration makes it quite clear that the only reason Nibor and his chef don't die is that Jackie doesn't want to kill them in front of the girls. Once his rage wears off, he curls up and starts crying. What HAS he gone through to cause that?
  • That same chapter also reveals that the girls, all of whom are brave and crafty, were so traumatized by Sweetie and Scootaloo's brush with death that they ended up cuddled together under Aesop, dead silent. Then they spend the next few chapters worried sick about Jackie.
• Immediately after the above incident Captain Black remembers an incident from a few years ago that caused a similar reaction in Jackie. It involved criminals and a young girl and was bad enough that the local authorities were willing to leave them to die if Black hadn't discouraged them for Jackie's sake.
• After fusing with Tohru and Audrey to defeat the mini Cthulhu she accidentally summoned with the Rat Talisman, Apple Bloom is not only under extreme depower but is attached to Tohru in a Like Brother and Sister fashion as an aftereffect. Despite reader predictions that this just means Tohru's Heel–Face Turn will come sooner than canon, that doesn't make her conflicted feelings or Sweetie, Scootaloo and Jade's worries any less sad.
• Every time Scootaloo discovers that magic can't fix the people in the hospital is devastating to both her and the audience.
• Tiger!Jackie steals the girls' candy and leaves Apple Bloom nearly in tears and Sweetie Belle actually in tears with no apology. Though they find out it's the Tiger talisman relatively quickly, the girls are legitimately devastated until they find this out.
• Po Kong cares a lot about her sister Bai, expressing a strong desire to see her wedding to Valmont, and is willing to behave on Earth to make sure that that happens. Unfortunately, Wong's actions force her to complete her banishment spell herself to save Bai and the girls, and she doesn't even manage to pull a Taking You with Me with Wong as she'd hoped.
• When Jackie destroys the Box in anger for Jade being accidentally dragged along with Po Kong's banishment, banishing all the members of the Demon Sorcerers still on Earth, Valmont futilely tries to stop Bai from being banished, only for her to turn to water to keep him from sharing her fate. He's so devastated that he undergoes Demonic Ascension into a Demon of Light and heads straight to the Book of Ages in an attempt to get her back.
• Though Played for Laughs, the way Sonata summarizes the events of "Rainbow Rocks" is pretty depressing. Basically, as she puts it, she and her sisters were going about their business when a bunch of girls showed up, beat the crap out of them and broke their most prized possessions.

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The Megaverse trilogy:

Wily's Wittle Wub

• The final two chapters are a major Wham Episode. Rock and Kalinka's wedding start off well, until someone interrupts the wedding with a bomb, forcing Vinyl to attempt to save Rock and Kalinka. She fails, and her own leg gets blown off, forcing her to replace it with Rock's. The worst part for her is that the robot casualties are listed as collateral. this forces her to transport Wily Castle to her home dimension, and cause (almost) all technology on the planet to Blue Screen. Even worse, due to... reasons... this transports Octavia to Dr. Light's lab, culminating in "Melody of the Future".

Melody of the Future

Denouement Duet

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