Hail Mary
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fan Fic written by ArbyWorks and Ezrienel.
A Hail Mary pass is a long, desperate throw in the game of Equestrian Football. It's usually the game changer as attempting it could end in a turnaround or utter failure. Here we have Spike; Grade 10, not many friends and dealing with bullies, Spike makes a spontaneous decision to join the Equestrian Football team at his school. Maybe to remove the slack from bullies, become more of a man, get the girl, or just satisfy himself, knowing he at least tried. This is Spike's attempt at a Hail Mary.
Tropes present in this work:
- The Ace: Spike is smaller than most of the players. Cue the football team where he takes to the weight room and training routines where he's suddenly growing in physique; couple that with his implied eyesight and hearing range along with his reaction time and he's easily the team's ace.
- Adults Are Useless: Invoked. Spike rejects all adults yet labels them as useless.
- Arrested for Heroism: Spike beats up Felix and his buddies, something the readers have been wanting for a long time. Then he gets arrested for assault.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: It's no secret Rainbow Dash is physically attracted to Applejack. Applejack responds with annoyance. In chapter 7, Applejack reveals this. In chapter 10, Rainbow Dash does.
- Badass Biker: Rainbow Dash rides a motorcycle and constantly acts like a badass. It's debatable.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Spike dons one for his date.
- Badass on Paper: Felix and his cronies. It's shown numerous times that Spike merely holds back when it comes to confrontation.
- Berserk Button: Mentioning Spike's parents, or making quips to his family and friends.
- Big Fancy House: No explicit description is given yet it's implied that Spike and Twilight's parents own one of these.
- Big Brother Instinct: Shining Armour has tried this with Spike. It made things worse and...
- Big Sister Instinct: Rainbow Dash has neglected to do this with Scootaloo due to her constant ogling of Applejack.
- Bishonen: Spike is described as this by many along with Pipsqueak.
- Bittersweet Ending: Those who wanted the Manticores to win may be a bit saddened.
- The Bully: Felix, the designated main antagonist whenever he's featued. Gilda too.
- Bullying a Dragon: In a meta-sense; Spike is a dragon in the show and it's established several times that the only reason Spike doesn't retaliate (he stands taller and far more muscular than Felix) is because he's introverted and aware of the consequences.
- Butch Lesbian: Rainbow Dash radiates this trope, having admitted her orientation years prior to the story. Nobody is surprised when she starts getting touchy-feely with Applejack.
- Book Ends: The story starts and ends with a kid in a dumpster and the protagonist heading to school. Except in the ending, the boy in the dumpster at the beginning helps the boy out of the dumpster at the end.
- The Cameo: A ton of background ponies in the show appear as one-chapter players, such as Vinyl Scratch and Octavia during the Canterlot Wondercolts game or Braeburn and Little Strongheart during the Buffalo
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Twilight walks in on Spike and Rarity.
- Central Theme: Love; each protagonist (Spike, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo) struggle with some form of it.
- Character Development: The main drive of one of the authors; and it's delivered spectacularly.
- Arby Works: This is a real good story, at least from what we've made and one I hope pleases fans of character development, sports, Sparity and Apple Dash.
- Comically Missing the Point: Twilight, many times given she retains her social ignorance from the pilot episodes of MLP.
- Combat Pragmatist: Felix is implied to be this as Spike remembers a time a cigarette was pressed into his eyebrow.
- Cool Car: Spike gets to drive his father's Mercedes-Benz SLR Mc Lauren on his date.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Spike VS. Felix and his two buddies in chapter 14, Emergency Number.
- Darker and Edgier: Compare this to the show; friendship typically solves issues and they're never more than bloodless carnage and mild destruction versus the darker, more mature themes one could expect from a real high school environment such as peer pressure or social relations.
- Delinquents Scootaloo and Gilda. Rainbow Dash set fire to the school and stole frequently when she was younger but she cooled off.
-
Fake American: Pipsqueak attempts to but it's still pretty clear he's British. When he gets aggravated or excited, it's written that he gets a nearly incomprehensible accent that is his actual accent. - Foreshadowing Spike's rage is going to burst sometime...
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Spike and Felix are like this whenever they get into a scuffle. Not so much during the last time they fight.
- Hellish Pupils: Spike's eyes frequently slit, implying he's Not Quite Human.
- High School: It's set in Manehatten Secondary School.
- High School AU: This is set in a humanized Equestria in Manehatten where the school is totally okay with girls playing full-contact High School football.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Spike's whole reason for wanting to join the football team.
- Implied Death Threat: Felix makes this towards Pipsqueak after preventing him from bothering Spike.
- Implied Love Interest: Scootaloo to Spike; she flirts with him frequently.
- Loser Gets the Girl: This seems to be the implication for Spike as he's often regarded as a loser in-universe.
- Moment Killer: Twilight and Rainbow Dash do this frequently, usually when Rainbow states something vulgar.
- New Transfer Student: Scootaloo in chapter 3. Later chapters show that physical, psychological and verbal abuse from Gilda in Cloudsdale is the reason.
- Not Quite Human: Spike; slitted eyes, an odd texture to his skin on occasions, sharp fangs? Well, Spike is an actual dragon in the show...
- Out of Focus: Spike is the proclaimed protagonist but later chapters have a tendency to focus on others and Scootaloo. Potentially
Fridge Brilliance as Spike is an introvert and prefers being a background character and it's shown that he's noticing everything the characters are going through. - "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Many characters give this out to Spike due to his constant whining.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: An attempted one. Seven years of bullying, psychological and physical torment, built up and burst when Spike brutally beat up Felix and his two cronies, involving paralyzing Felix.
- Shrinking Violet: Fluttershy as in the show and Spike, hence the reason to join the football team. Later, Scootaloo becomes this.
- Tempting Fate: Felix really likes testing Spike's restraint... mentioning his parents or eyes add to the stress and anger, and several times Spike has almost severely injured Felix in retaliation.
- Tooka Levelin Jerkass: Oh my god, Gilda... and how! Compare the griffon unable to take a joke well and throwing a hissy fit from the show and compare it to the Alpha Bitch Gilda that bullied Scootaloo into leaving Cloudsdale.
- Two-Teacher School: An astonishing one teacher. Unless you count Coach Snowflake and the Vice Principal.
- Vulgar Humor: Rainbow Dash utilizes this like a machine gun in pretty much every word that comes out of her mouth.
- Wham Line: This particular line of text implies that the counterpart of a certain celestial goddess in the show is Spike's mother:
- Haruo (in response to Spike denying there is nothing for him in Canterlot): “I wouldn’t say that as of this point in time, Mr. Solaris.”
- World of Badass: Everyone has badass moments from simply speaking a line to performing an action; a prime example would be the entirety of the football team's comebacks in the various games.
