Inner Demons

Inner Demons is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by SapphireLibra3 on Fanfiction.net.

On her twenty-first birthday, Twilight Sparkle comes across an ancient prophecy, detailing the rise of an evil known as the "Queen of Darkness" who will end Celestia's rule and take over all of Equestria... and the description of the Queen matches Twilight to a tee. Thus begins Twilight's downward spiral, as the darkness in her heart threatens to consume her and turn her into the greatest threat Equestria's ever known. Now it's up to her friends to stop her -- but can they save her and Equestria? And even if they do, will their friendship survive?

Tropes used in Inner Demons include:

• Abusive Parents: Apparently, Scootaloo's mother was a drunk, and her father tended to hit them.
• Armor of Invincibility: The Elements of Harmony apparently become this when they evolve -- during Rarity's Heroic Sacrifice, her Element transforms into a suit of armor that can't be removed even after she's defeated and captured. Trixie comments that it appears it won't come off so long as she needs it.
  • Fluttershy's armor activates after she's pulled back from the Despair Event Horizon, and grants her fighting skills and elemental powers she didn't have before.
  • Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's Elements evolve to armor when they confess their love for each other.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: When she's performing her Heroic Sacrifice, Rarity chokes out one of these to an absent Spike.

"I love you so much... Spikey... Wikey..." (note that she was crying during this)

• • Rainbow Dash confesses her love to Pinkie Pie when they're locked in the burning CMC clubhouse by Scootaloo.
• An Ice Person: The magic Rarity gains when her Element evolves into armor.
• Arch Enemy: Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rapidly achieve this status after the latter's Face Heel Turn, though she also has a strong rivalry with Rainbow Dash.
  • Applejack and Queen!Twilight, as well as Rarity and Trixie, likewise seem set up to be archenemy pairs.
• The Atoner: Trixie starts out the story having completed a pilgrimage across Equestria to learn true magic, and comes to Ponyville so that she can become Twilight's student, all in a quest to make up for her boastful and arrogant past. Ultimately subverted, as her quest for power and desire to be Twilight's student leads to willingly following her in a Face Heel Turn.
• Ax Crazy: Queen!Twilight is really not all there.
• Bad Dreams: Twilight is plagued by them after reading the prophecy, right up until she's consumed by her inner darkness and turns on the others.
• The Baroness: Sweetie Belle, of all ponies, becomes the sexpot variety after her Face Heel Turn, wearing an all black outfit that highlights her figure, complete with fishnet stockings and high heels.
  • One could argue that Queen!Twilight and Scootaloo qualify as well to certain extents.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Apple Bloom spends a few chapters complaining about wanting to be treated like an adult and not a child (to be fair, she's only ten). Then Queen!Twilight forcibly ages her, robbing her of her childhood. She lampshades the irony.
• Berserk Button: Betraying her (or doing anything that she interprets as betrayal) and coming between her and Shining Armor are both buttons for Queen!Twilight.
• Big Bad: Queen!Twilight Sparkle.
• Big Damn Heroes: Adult Apple Bloom, Spike, and Lezard saving Applejack from a group of Neo Canterlot soldiers.
  • Fluttershy likewise saving Rainbow Dash from another group of soldiers after being left for dead by Scootaloo.
  • Just when it looks like Scootaloo's forces are going to defeat the remaining protagonists in Ponyville Rainbow Dash saves Pinkie from the burning CMC clubhouse by confessing her love, which evolves both of their Elements, allowing them to save the others and send Scootaloo running.
  • Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy show up just in time to save Rarity and Applejack from Queen!Twilight's soldiers and the brainwashed Princess Luna and help them escape from Canterlot castle.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Sweetie Belle does this to every stallion in Fillydelphia.
  • Queen!Twilight does this to the Royal Guard and Princess Luna.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Naturally, Twilight's fall to darkness strains the relationships among the rest of the Mane Six. And by the time she's done crossing the Moral Event Horizon, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are too traumatized to do anything, Rarity is a prisoner, Rainbow Dash can't bring herself to fight her former friend, and Applejack is willing to kill Queen!Twilight.
  • As of chapter 19, they've reunited in their goal to stop Queen!Twilight, even if they don't all necessarily agree on how.
• Bring It: Rarity to Trixie during her Heroic Sacrifice.
• Brought Down to Normal: Cadence is subjected to Queen!Twilight's mind control power, which blocks her ability to use her powers.
• Blow You Away: Fluttershy gains this power with her Element of Harmony armor.
• Cain and Abel: Sweetie Belle and Rarity, after the former joins with Queen!Twilight and rejects the latter. Interesting example, as the "Cain" in this case is actually the younger sibling.
• Call Back/Continuity Nod: Filled with them.
• Casting a Shadow: Another spell Queen!Twilight learns is moving through shadows. Trixie quickly copies it from her.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Twilight already had shades of this attitude towards her brother in canon. Queen!Twilight takes it Up to Eleven.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: After Rarity is captured, Queen!Twilight gives her soldiers permission to do whatever they want with her, which includes torture and rape. To her credit, Rarity remains defiant, mocking them when they're in the room and only breaking down crying when she's alone.
• Compelling Voice: One of the abilities that Queen!Twilight learns following her Face Heel Turn is a very Geass-like spell that allows her to brainwash whoever she uses it on including Princess Luna.
  • Sweetie Belle's singing voice is one of these due to her music-based magic.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Happens to Rainbow Dash at one point; she's running late for meeting up with Pinkie, but then notices Fluttershy, who's depressed after everything that's happened so far in the story. She's momentarily torn, not wanting to keep Pinkie waiting but unwilling to leave Fluttershy when she needs someone, and ultimately ends up deciding that Fluttershy needs her more at the moment.
  • Dash actually has a more dramatic example connected to the main plot -- she of course wants to stop what Queen!Twilight's doing, but can't bring herself to fight someone she still views as a friend.
    • She ultimately chooses to fight Queen!Twilight because she's loyal to her friend -- she's going to save Twilight even if she has to beat her senseless to do it.
• The Corrupter: Queen!Twilight definitely qualifies. See More Than Mind Control below.
• Curb Stomp Battle: Queen!Twilight versus Princess Luna.
  • Applejack's first encounter with Queen!Twilight's soldiers. She doesn't win.
  • When Applejack and Rarity are breaking out of Canterlot castle, they completely mow down the soldiers arrayed against them. Until they're confronted by the brainwashed Princess Luna.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Despite believing herself to have already killed the other Element bearers, the first thing Queen!Twilight does after taking the throne and establishing her power base is to dispatch one of her lieutenants and a large number of Mooks to Ponyville to check to see if they survived.
• Darkest Hour: The prophecy refers to the Queen of Darkness' reign as Equestria's darkest hour, and it definitely seems to be heading in that direction.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Invoked by Queen!Twilight, who uses this as a justification to Trixie for some of the less-than-ethical spells she starts using, stating that true magic is neither good or evil.
• Deal with the Devil: Rarity outright refers to Trixie joining Queen!Twilight for power as selling her soul.
  • Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo accepting Queen!Twilight's help in getting their Cutie Marks has undertones of this as well.
• Death by Childbirth: Happened to Big Mac, Applejack, and Apple Bloom's mother when giving birth to the latter.
• Demonic Possession: Apparently, when you know how to astral project, you can do this to other ponies, but only when they're asleep and with their permission. Queen!Twilight talks Trixie into letting her do this after her Face Heel Turn so that she can study new spells and gather power even while her body's locked up in the library basement.
• Despair Event Horizon: Both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy cross it after Queen!Twilight crosses the Moral Event Horizon.
  • They're both brought back from the horizon by Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh's love, respectfully.
  • Cadence crosses it when Queen!Twilight depowers and imprisons her. This in turn nearly causes Apple Bloom to cross it as well, but the others talk her back from the brink.
• Deus Ex Machina: It's implied that the Elements of Harmony are what saved Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie from burning to death in Sugarcube Corner.
• Deuteragonist: Apple Bloom seems set up as this.
• Didn't See That Coming: Queen!Twilight admits to not anticipating the Elements of Harmony evolving past what she'd seen.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Rarity does this to a guard at one point to escape a dungeon cell.
• The Dragon: Trixie, who Queen!Twilight takes as a disciple, and who quickly abandons her morals in order to stay in the role.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Cadence apparently has this ability.
• Dream Weaver: Another ability that Queen!Twilight picks up, an extension of her Astral Projection -- by entering another pony's mind while they're sleeping, she's able to shape their dreams. She first does this to Trixie to manipulate her and get her on her side, then does it to Fluttershy as part of the below Kick the Dog.
• Driven to Suicide: Fluttershy attempts to throw herself off a cliff following Queen!Twilight's crossing of the Moral Event Horizon, but is stopped at the last second by Big Macintosh, who talks her down.
• The Empire: After Queen!Twilight defeats the Princesses, she declares herself the ruler of the "Neo Canterlotian Empire", though for the time being, said empire only consists of Canterlot.
  • As of more recent chapters, it appears she's now effectively conquered Fillydelphia as well.
• Enemy Within: What Twilight's "Queen" persona appears to have originated as.
  • Eventually confirmed by Lezard, who states that Celestia tried pushing the darkness in Twilight's soul out, but that just made it stronger, until it finally managed to take over.
  • Fluttershy seems to have one too; when she regresses into herself following her Despair Event Horizon, she meets another personality who seems to represent all of her darker impulses.
    • Turns out, it would be closer to say that it represented her id, and only seemed dark because she was repressing it.
• Epiphany Therapy: The Element bearers apparently all need to have some kind of personal revelation that leads to them understanding the true meaning of their respective Elements in order to evolve them to armor form:
  • Rarity realizing that true generosity is being willing to sacrifice yourself for others (Her Heroic Sacrifice to protect Spike and Apple Bloom)
  • Fluttershy realizing that true kindness means being kind to herself for once (Admitting her feeling for Macintosh)
  • Rainbow Dash realizing that true loyalty is standing besides your friends even when you don't agree with them (Agreeing to help the others fight Queen!Twilight)
  • Pinkie Pie's isn't really explained, but it appears to have something to do with her and Dash admitting their feelings
  • According to Sweetie Belle, this also appears to be a key component of Queen!Twilight's cutie mark-granting spell.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Naturally, the reaction from the other Mane Six when Twilight goes dark.
  • And from her own twisted point of view, Queen!Twilight sees herself as the victim of this.
  • Rainbow Dash's reaction to Scootaloo's Face Heel Turn.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even after her descent into darkness and madness, Queen!Twilight still loves her brother, and is visibly horrified at the thought of the others turning him against her.
  • Though this actually makes her worse...
  • In a less Squicky example, she also seems to cherish the new friendships she's forged with her minions, due to her friends "betraying" her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Initially, at least, Trixie has trouble with the more violent aspects of serving Queen!Twilight. Then she gets a glimpse of just how powerful the latter is, and decides anything is acceptable if it means the chance to learn from her.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Lezard claims that the Queen of Darkness doesn't understand love, though from what we've seen from her perspective, it's possible he's not completely accurate in that statement.
• Evil Feels Good: After her fall to darkness, Queen!Twilight declares that she's never felt more alive.
  • Scootaloo feels so as well, and while Sweetie Belle hasn't outright stated it, she definitely seems to enjoy all the perks of her new position.
• Evil Former Friend: As implied in the summary and shown elsewhere on this page, Queen!Twilight to the other Mane Six.
  • Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to Apple Bloom.
• Evil Mentor: Queen!Twilight to her minions, Trixie primarily.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Naturally, Twilight is horrified when she discovers the prophecy implicates her, and when she starts having nightmares about it coming to pass. Then, when the darkness within her takes over, the Queen persona wonders why she ever fought it.
• Evil Overlord: Queen!Twilight after she declares herself ruler of the Neo Canterlotian Empire.
• Exact Words: When Applejack is captured by Queen!Twilight's forces, she promises to not try to escape. As she and Rarity are breaking out, she explains that she has no intention of trying to escape; they are going to escape.
• Eye Beams: An apparently inherent ability of Queen!Twilight's zombie soldiers.
• Face Heel Turn: Twilight's eventual one is the whole premise of the story.
  • Trixe reluctantly goes along with Queen!Twilight's actions, until she gets a glimpse of how powerful she is, and fully turns in order to learn from her.
  • In a major shock, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who willingly join with Queen!Twilight after she ages them up and gives them their Cutie Marks.
• Fallen Hero: Twilight Sparkle, obviously.
• Faux Affably Evil: Queen!Twilight Sparkle, who keeps up the appearance of her old friendly personality only for the sake of manipulating her followers and mocking her former friends.
• Friendly Enemy: Sums up Apple Bloom's relationship with Sweetie Belle following the latter's Face Heel Turn. They still view each other as friends, even if they're now on opposite sides.
• Forced to Watch: After taking Cadence prisoner, Queen!Twilight makes her watch remotely as she disguises herself as her and makes love to Shining Armor.
• God Save Us From the Queen: Twilight, after being consumed by her Queen of Darkness persona.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Scootaloo, following her Face Heel Turn, starts wearing what appears to be an anachronistic leather biker outfit (it goes with her Magitek motorcycle).
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rarity takes on Trixie, giving Apple Bloom and Spike a chance to escape Canterlot and get help from Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Non-fatal example, as while she's defeated, she's not killed.
• Hidden Depths: Turns out, Silver Spoon hates Diamond Tiara, and only hangs out with her because their fathers are co-workers and expect them to. As Apple Bloom befriends her in secret and gets to know her, it turns out she's actually a very kind and loyal person.
  • Scootaloo has apparently been holding a grudge against Rainbow Dash for a long time, born out of jealousy. At least, that's what she claims post-Face Heel Turn.
• Hope Spot: Rarity, Apple Bloom, and Spike are escaping from the castle and planning to go to Shining Armor and Cadence for help in the hope that the latter can use her powers to return Twilight to normal. Trixie intercepts them, and while Apple Bloom and Spike escape, Rarity is recaptured. Meanwhile, Queen!Twilight has learned of their plans; by the time the heroes are reunited, she's gotten to Cadence and stripped her of her powers.
  • After Scootaloo goads Rainbow Dash into a race for the title of fastest pegasus, Dash pulls off a Sonic Rainboom and it appears she's going to win. Then Scootaloo pulls off a firey equivalent of the Rainboom and not only wins but drives Dash into the ground.
  • Applejack and Rarity are fighting their way through Queen!Twilight's forces, and it looks like they're going to win and escape, only to be confronted by the brainwashed Princess Luna.
  • Spike confronts Queen!Twilight in Fillydelphia, and for a moment his heartfelt pleas seems to be getting through to the real Twilight -- then she punches him across the room.
• I Have No Son: Following her Face Heel Turn, Sweetie Belle rejects Rarity as her sister, substituting her in that role with Queen!Twilight.
• In Love with Your Carnage: A bit of an inverted example -- Trixie starts out more or less on the positive side of the morality scale, only reluctantly going along with Queen!Twilight's actions. Then she sees just how powerful the latter is, and quickly completes her Face Heel Turn in order to stay by her side.
• In-Series Nickname: Apparently, Fluttershy earned the nickname "Hurricane Fluttershy" after the events of the titular episode.
• It Got Worse: Sums up the plot pretty well.
• It's Personal: When Rarity and Applejack are escaping from the castle, Rarity takes the lead against Queen!Twilight's troops, as payback for everything they put her through when she was their prisoner.
• Kick the Dog: While testing her powers prior to going public with her Face Heel Turn, Queen!Twilight invades Fluttershy's dreams and goads her into nearly raping Big Macintosh before she snaps out of it. There was absolutely no reason for her to do this, other than shits and giggles.
• Kill It with Fire: Queen!Twilight attempts to kill Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie by locking them in Sugarcube Corner and setting the building on fire. She fails.
  • Scootaloo attempts to do this to Pinkie Pie, but she's saved in time.
    • Actually, she tries to do this to everyone.
• Magic Music: Sweetie Belle's magic appears to be tied to her singing voice.
• Manipulative Bastard: Queen!Twilight, oh so much.
• Mare Scorned: Lezard quotes this when the mares of Fillydelphia fight against the stallions who have been brainwashed by Sweetie Belle.
• Master Swordsman: Adult Apple Bloom quickly becomes one, justifying it by saying that a sword is just another tool, and she can work with any tool.
• Me's a Crowd: The unique magic that Pinkie Pie earns when her Element evolves to armor is to do this via illusion.
• The Millstone: Fluttershy starts to see herself as this after her role in Queen!Twilight's Moral Event Horizon which contributes to her suicide attempt. She ultimately subverts it though, proving herself to be an important part of the team.
• More Than Mind Control: Trixie, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all join Queen!Twilight of their own volition, after she plays on their desires and gives them all what they want.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Twilight's reaction when she turns Celestia to stone in a fit of anger. Of course, once she turns, she goes from regretting it to bragging about it.
  • This is also Shining Armor's reaction when he realizes that the "Cadence" he slept with was actually Queen!Twilight in disguise.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Celestia had told Twilight about the prophecy before she found it, or broken the news to her gentler, it's possible Twilight's downward spiral could have been halted. At the very least, Celestia wouldn't have been petrified.
  • Twilight actually pulls this on herself. After the above incident, she begs her friends to chain her up in the library basement for everyone's safety while Rarity searches for a way to stop her fall to darkness. Instead, her being locked up while Spike's helping Rarity means that there's no one there to wake her up from her nightmares, wherein the Queen personality takes control of her mind.
  • Sweetie Belle was wavering on having a Heel Realization, until Rarity's poor choice of words hit an emotional trigger Queen!Twilight had planted, leading to her fully accepting her Face Heel Turn.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Yet another skill set Queen!Twilight picks up is necromancy, which she quickly puts to use to bolster her forces.
  • Interestingly, these zombies appear to have some degree of sentience and free will -- they can talk, and at one point, two of them argue over the best way to carry out an order.
• No Body Left Behind: When Queen!Twilight's magically constructed zombie Mooks are killed, their bodies dissolve back into the ground.
• Official Couple: Fluttershy and Big Macintosh, eventually when he pulls her out of her Despair Event Horizon.
  • Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie end up together as well shortly after when Dash likewise pulls Pinkie out of her DEH.
  • And of course, there's the canonical pairing of Cadence and Shining Armor.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Rarity vs Trixie. Apparently, the fight was even-matched enough that Queen!Twilight had to step in, and Trixie blames herself for not being able to defeat her on her own.
  • During the battle against Scootaloo's troops in Ponyville, Fluttershy sees a group chasing Lyra and Bon Bon. She follows them behind a building, and by the time they show up again, the troops are gone and Lyra and Bon Bon are safe.
• One-Winged Angel: When Trixie evokes the Storm Avatar spell, she essentially becomes a living storm that takes the combined efforts of all the protagonists to even knock out.
• Playing with Fire: Scootaloo gains fire-based speed and fighting powers after she joins Queen!Twilight and is aged to adulthood. As a consequence, she seems to have become a Pyromaniac.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: The Cutie Mark Crusaders are all forcibly magically age progressed to adulthood by Queen!Twilight in an attempt to win their loyalties. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both accept it and she artificially gives them their Cutie Marks as well. Apple Bloom rejects the latter offer (none of them had a choice in the former), and gets locked up.
• Promotion to Parent: It's mentioned that Applejack became a mother figure to Apple Bloom after their actual mother died.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, as a result of their Plot-Relevant Age-Up -- as Lezard points out to the latter, while their bodies might be adults, their minds are still those of children.
• Rage Breaking Point: After developing a true friendship with Apple Bloom, Silver Spoon's patience with Diamond Tiara starts wearing thin, and she eventually snaps at her after one insult towards Apple Bloom too many.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Queen!Twilight manipulating Fluttershy via her dreams into trying to rape Big Macintosh, and forcing Rainbow Dash to rape Pinkie Pie as part of a Sadistic Choice.
  • Fluttershy was apparently herself raped at some point in the past, and has treated it as a shameful Dark Secret (though it's what snapped her out of the attempt on Big Mac).
  • When Rarity is held prisoner, Queen!Twilight gives her soldiers permission to rape her. This is what more or less finally convinces Rarity that the Twilight she knew is gone.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Silver Spoon gives one of these to Diamond Tiara, when she finally has enough of her.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Applejack notices that Queen!Twilight's eyes are a threatening red.
• Sadistic Choice: Queen!Twilight pulls one on Rainbow Dash as part of her "coming out party". She captures Pinkie Pie, and when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy show up to help, she incapacitates Fluttershy as well and then threatens to kill her if Dash doesn't force herself on Pinkie. Applejack shows up to save them... but only after Dash has had no choice but to go through with it.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Princess Celestia is accidentally turned into a statue by a furious Twilight after revealing she knew about the prophecy and never told her about it.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Rarity's birthday gift to Twilight is teaching her how to beautify herself, and the result is described as looking very attractive. Then she goes evil.
  • This trope also pops up and crosses over with She's All Grown Up in the case of the age-progressed Cutie Mark Crusaders.
• Ship Tease: So far, the story's dropped hints of Spike/Rarity, Big Mac/Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash/Pinkie Pie.
  • As of this writing, the latter two have been upgraded to Official Couple status.
  • Apple Bloom seems to have developed a crush on Lezard.
• Shock and Awe: Rainbow Dash gains the ability to actually turn into lightning when her Element evolves into armor.
  • This also appears to be Trixie's preferred method of fighting.
• Shout-Out: As mentioned above, Queen!Twilight's mind control spell is very similar to a Geass. In fact, her statement when shutting down Cadence's magic -- "Never use magic again!" -- is very similar to Lelouch's "Never speak again!" moment with Mao. Lezard even refers to this ability as "the Power of the Queen", and his explanation of how it works sounds very similar to the mechanics of Lelouch's Geass.
• Shrinking Violet: Fluttershy, naturally, though after she hooks up with Big Mac, she opens up and becomes more confident.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Trixie starts out the story just wanting to learn from Twilight; after Queen!Twilight convinces her that she's the victim, Trixie reluctantly goes along with her in attempting to kill the other Mane Six, but then when she gets a glimpse of how powerful the Queen is, she throws all her morals aside in order to prove she deserves to be by her side.
• Stalker with a Crush: Fluttershy, of all ponies, is a passive one towards Big Macintosh until Queen!Twilight manipulates her into nearly raping him before she snaps out of it.
• The Starscream: Scootaloo seems to be heading in this direction -- she claims that working with Queen!Twilight is just a means to an end for her, and that all ponies are now just pawns to aid her in reaching her goal, which appears to be supplanting Queen!Twilight's place as ruler.
• Superpower Meltdown: During the Battle of Fillydelphia, Trixie evokes the Storm Avatar spell in order to combat the protagonists and ends up losing control of it, nearly destroying everything around her before the heroes knock her out and disrupt the spell.
• Tagalong Kid: Silver Spoon becomes this to Apple Bloom's group. Bloom herself doesn't count anymore, for obvious reasons.
• Take Over the World: Appears to be Queen!Twilight's ultimate goal.
• That Mare Is Dead: Inverted, as Applejack declares the Twilight Sparkle they knew dead. Queen!Twilight, meanwhile, still sees herself as the same person as before, just with a new worldview.
  • Likewise, following the dissolution of their friendship, Scootaloo declares that Apple Bloom is dead to her.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Lezard says this to Applejack when Apple Bloom fights her former friends during the Battle of Fillydelphia.
• Underestimating Badassery: Trixie thought that her fight with Rarity would be a Curb Stomp Battle in her favor, due to Rarity being just a dress maker. Instead, Queen!Twilight apparently had to step in to help end the fight. The Element of Generosity turning into a suit of armor probably helped with that.
• Villainous Breakdown: While she isn't all that sane to begin with, when Queen!Twilight realizes that Shining Armor is choosing Cadence over her, she completely flips her shit.
• Villainous Friendship: There appears to be a Type 3 between Queen!Twilight and Trixie -- Trixie openly admires Queen!Twilight and seems to think they have a mentor-based friendship, but for now it seems that Queen!Twilight only sees Trixie as a loyal and important pawn and doesn't care about her personally.
  • Likewise, her relationships with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, with her appearing as a friend and -- in the case of the former -- Big Sister Mentor, while really just manipulating them to her own ends.
    • Actually, later chapters show that she actually does care about them, viewing them as the only real friends she has now that the others have "betrayed" her. So these are actually all Type 1s -- except in the case of Scootaloo, which is a Type 2.
• Villainous Incest: You know the subtle Incest Subtext between Twilight and Shining Armor in canon? Well, Queen!Twilight isn't bothering with either subtly or subtext.
• Villainous Valour: Say what you will about Trixie, but she will do anything to fulfill the orders Queen!Twilight gives her.
• Villain Protagonist: The story starts out focusing on Twilight, so naturally when she becomes a villain, this trope comes into play.
• Villain Song: In chapter 18, Adam Lambart's "For Your Entertainment" is used as one by Sweetie Belle while she's brainwashing the stallions of Fillydelphia and sending the resulting mob after Apple Bloom's group.
• We Will Meet Again: When Scootaloo is defeated by the heroes in Ponyville, she manages to escape, swearing revenge.
  • When things go downhill for her in Fillydelphia, Queen!Twilight grabs her minions and flees, promising that things are from finished.
• We Used to Be Friends: Obviously, Queen!Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six.
  • Apple Bloom's relationship with the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders falls apart when she decides to take the search for her Cutie Mark more seriously. And then the latter two accept Queen!Twilight's Deal with the Devil, putting them on opposite sides. Though while Scootaloo wants nothing more to do with her, Sweetie Belle regrets losing their friendship and would want her to join them again and tries to talk her into accepting the deal as well.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Trixie evokes her Storm Avatar spell, she goes completely berserk. According to Lezard, this happens to anyone who uses that spell.
• With Us or Against Us: Forms a pretty fundamental cornerstone of Queen!Twilight's worldview.
  • Sweetie Belle seems to be following her lead in this regard.
• The Worf Effect: Twilight manages to petrify Princess Celestia by accident even before her Face Heel Turn, giving us a taste of just how powerful and dangerous the Queen of Darkness will be. Which is proven when she wipes the floor with Princess Luna in combat.
  • The first time we see one of Queen!Twilight's lieutenants in combat against the protagonists, Scootaloo not only beats Rainbow Dash in a race, but leaves her knocked out in a ditch. Said lieutenant also goes on to successfully fight the remaining Element bearers and their allies, until Dash and Pinkie's Elements evolve to armor, and they return the favor.
  • Inverted examples: every time one of the Elements of Harmony evolve to armor, the heroes easily deal with whoever they're fighting. The only exception is Rarity's offscreen fight with Trixie, and even then it's implied they were even until Queen!Twilight stepped in.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: How Queen!Twilight convinces Trixie to side with her, by making it seem that the other Mane Six assaulted her and locked her up (conveniently leaving out that locking her up for everyone's protection was Twilight's idea). That being said, Trixie was apparently more interested in the fact that Twilight was powerful enough to petrify Celestia and wanting a piece of that power for herself, than in whether this was justified.
• You Shall Not Pass: The cornerstone of Rarity's Heroic Sacrifice -- she's keeping Trixie from going after Apple Bloom and Spike long enough for them to escape. She knows she can't win, and is just trying to buy them time.