Equestrian Throwdown is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction written by Hex Mark following the exploits of Miles Skylark, a human summoned by Lyra Heartstrings in order to compete in a competition to pay off her debts. It can be found here
This fanfiction contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Meeting Zecora was relegated to an offscreen instance.
- Batman Gambit: Humorously subverted. Skylark decides to get a second key in the labyrinth in order to bargain with any of the other contestants that happen to pass by in order to break him free from his dungeon cell. The plan is botched when Taurus dives after the blink dog Skylark obtained the key from just moments earlier, busting down the bars of the cell and bowling down Skylark in the process.
- Blood Upgrade: Overlapped with Blood Magic, Skylark's Nacht Jäger is triggered by tasting blood. Balrog implies that Miles's sister, Mila, also had access to it before her implied death.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Said verbatim right before Skylark blasts Rajah in order to fall down a pit that was right behind him.
- Butt-Monkey: Even though he's the protagonist of this fic, Skylark hasn't won an on-screen fight single handed. His victories are attributed to help from unlikely allies and he usually is lucky enough to escape a much stronger foe.
- Composite Character: According to the writer Miles Skylark is a combination of the protagonists of two of his scrapped fan-fictions.
- Enemy Mine: How Taurus and Skylark decide to deal with the displacer beast in the first round.
- Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Inverted, as Balrog actually explained the mechanics of Skylark's power to Lyra and Twilight after delivering a swift No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to him.
- Subverted when Skylark 'explains' Rajah's power, only to become a You Just Told Me moment when he all but admits that it was a
guess
- Subverted when Skylark 'explains' Rajah's power, only to become a You Just Told Me moment when he all but admits that it was a
- Groin Attack: Whilst learning how to buck apples, Skylark gets his apples bucked by Apple Bloom.
- Healing Factor: Skylark has displayed a rather fast one, charred skin from a magic backlash healing in seconds. It gets accelerated thanks to Slime Pony Erubetie.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: When Lyra tries to claim that Skylark isn't a monster, he comes back with "who says humans can't be monsters?"
- Lame Pun Reaction: Skylark fires off a pun when Lyra tells him of her special talent. Lyra was not amused.
- Last-Name Basis: Miles is simply referred to as Skylark by Lyra and the others. Perhaps because it sounds more like a pony's name.
- Theme Naming: Hex Mark seems to be fond of colors. Iridescent Charmer, Emerald Warbler, Onyx Heart, Cobalt Horn, etc.
- Shout-Out:
- Balrog's and Vega Lorewalker's names are references to Street Fighter.
- The displacer beast, the blink dog, and Skylark's attempt at a magic missile are references to Dungeons & Dragons.
- In one chapter, Rarity demos an outfit on Miles, complete with red longcoat and yellow glasses. The author confirmed it was a joke about Alucard. Funnily, this also served as an unintentional reference to Vash the Stampede, as pointed out by a commenter.
