YMMV / On a Cross and Arrow

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• Alternative Character Interpretation: Provided courtesy of the fic's very premise — simply changing the genders of the characters but leaving their personalities and appearances the same results in some very different outlooks on the originals. On the one hoof, Rainbow Dash's Ladette athlete seem perfectly stock for the male Rainbow Blitz. On the other hoof, Rarity's Fashionista Large Ham makes the male Elusive Camp Straight.
• Fanon: The names of the gender bent characters, at least the Mane Six.
• Follow the Leader: While not the first piece of fiction to have gender-flipped ponies, this story did open the floodgates for many other stories involving the gender-flipped Mane Six, and has given the gender-bent ponies their fanon names: Dusk Shine, Elusive, Butterscotch, Rainbow Blitz, Applejack, and Berry Bubble^note counterparts to Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, respectively.
  • Fanon Osmosis Failure: This was the fic that locked in the Fanon names for the gender-flipped Mane Six, EXCEPT for Pinkie Pie, whose counterpart is here named Berry Bubble^note Short for Beriswainer DaVinci Bubble, just as Pinkie's full name is Pinkimena Diane Pie while at least half of the works that take the rest of their names from On a Cross and Arrow flip his to Bubble Berry.
    • Not technically one of the Mane 6, but Spike's counterpart here is named Spines, while nearly all of the copycats call her Barb. There's also Elusive's kid brother Sweepy Bell, though the author has since edited it to "Silver" Bell instead.
• Fridge Brilliance: Applebuck wearing a red baseball cap makes more sense when one remembers that Apple Bloom was based on Blossom, who also has a gender flipped version of her with a red baseball cap — Brick of the Rowdyruff Boys.
  • The gender-flipped counterpart of Rarity is named Elusive; both of their names mean "hard to get", the former also meaning "hard to acquire" and the latter "hard to catch".
• Fridge Horror: If you've read this fic, you'll know that everything that has happened in Canon!Ponyville has happened in Alternate!Ponyville. Which means…
  • That also means that a female version of Discord has most likely been there…
  • And may be a male version of the Changeling Queen — if the episodes of the series is out of order.
    • A throwaway line by Dusk Shine implies that he has no biological sisters, which means that unless either Continuity Drift comes into place (or the line is edited), Shining Armor (and probably Princess Cadence) don't exist. Of course, this story was written before Season 2 had even begun.
  • Not to mention the Crystal Empire and its dark tyrannical ruler.
  • Female Tirek, anyone?
• Fridge Logic: The story admits that there are some inherent differences between males and females in terms of physical capabilities, and yet despite that the world somehow managed to develop to be exactly the same as the normal world with the exception of genders, which implies that nothing in all of the world's history was actually affected by the gender differences.
  • Could be a blow for gender equality, or a sign that there's no such thing as free will.
    • It's not as simple as gender equality or free will as much as physical impossibility. As an example, take pregnancy. Pregnancy would significantly hamper the pregnant party, which would already change things pretty radically, and that's not even going into the other issue with pregnancy (namely, the fact that a male can impregnate multiple females in a relatively short time span, and if you switch that you end up with a bunch of unborn foals, which would cause an even bigger alteration of history).
    • Then again, perhaps in a world with more males than females, reproduction adapted to accommodate. Maybe mares can carry more foals at once, and from multiple stallions.
    • ...Or, in this universe it's the Males that give birth.
    • Except that's implying that the Rule 63 universe has high gender imbalance, which is not the case, because both universes have an equal ration of male and female ponies among the populace; the original simply puts more focus on mares while the fanfic's alternate universe puts more focus on the stallions.
  • It's explicitly stated the worlds aren't 100% mirror to each other; there are a couple subtle differences, as shown with the fact Dusk Shine and Twilight Sparkle didn't end up just switching universes. Instead, Dusk's intended trip to Manehattan would have been scheduled for several hours after Twilight's intended trip, resulting in him being interrupted by Twilight's arrival.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • [In the Season 3 episode "Magic Duel". One of the magic tricks that Twilight does is turn Applejack into a colt (or pretends to anyway).]
  • This isn't the only time a stallion that looks like Dash's opposite sex double appeared.
  • In the first chapter, Twilight compliments Rarity's observation to detail and said that she "would have made a great detective". And she does.
  • Rarity's Male Counterpart is named Elusive. Then along comes Friendship is Dragons where the leader of the thieves guild that Rarity is a part of is, in fact, named Elusive.
• Hype Backlash: One of the earliest FiM fics to hit it really big in the fandom, and is still regarded as a classic FiM fic even today. However, as a simple gender swap story, many newcomers to the fandom find it rather hard to see whatever made it so popular, especially with the number inconsistencies it has with the show proper.^note Keep in mind, this fic was written before season 2 was even a thing and a lot of common fanon concepts have been Jossed since then.
• Tear Jerker: Rarity and Applejack's reaction's to seeing their gender flipped siblings and not being able to reveal who they really are to them is just heartbreaking.
  • Applebuck (Apple Bloom's Gender Flip) running in just as the Mane 6 are ready to go back to their own dimension, and then he starts hurling himself against the shield that they put up because he wants Applejack to stay.

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