"Can everyone please stop getting distracted by the most minor of things, and going off on tangents that lead nowhere, that take up all of our time, and ultimately accomplishes nothing?!"
—Twilight summing up the whole fanfic
8-Bit Pony
is a Crossover Fanfiction with 8-Bit Theatre on Fimfiction.net by Dawn Flower.
After the Light Warriors defeated Chaos, (look, the point is, Chaos was defeated and the Light Warriors were there) the four heroes friends travelling companions of them decided to all go their separate ways and move on with their lives... except for Black Mage and Fighter. They continued adventuring simply because they had nothing better to do.
While on a quest for the mythical Armor of Invincibility, the two of them end up transported to Equestria. How will they react to this strange new world, and how will this new world react to the two of them? Will they end up bringing about the destruction of this peaceful world? Will they learn the true meaning of friendship?
HELL NO to the latter; maybe to the former.
8-Bit Pony provides examples of:
- 11th-Hour Ranger: White Mage inexplicably shows up towards the end of the story to help defeat Nightmare Moon.
- Aborted Arc: In Chapter 71, after the group has defeated Nightmare Moon, an older version of Pipsqueak shows up, now a full-on Expy of Sarda. However, Black Mage merely says that they don't have time for another arc, so everyone just leaves and the whole thing is dropped immediately.
- Accidental Murder: Black Mage kills his first pony by assuming that it's a god and that it could survive a mass stabbing to the head. Every murder after this, however, is fully intentional.
- And the Adventure Continues: The fanfic begins at the exact point the sprite comic ends.
- Anti-Climax: Nightmare Rarity shows up at the end of chapter 39, and is unceremoniously defeated in a single line in the next chapter.
- Ass Shove: Implied to be where Fighter has been keeping Drizz'l's swords since he got them.
- Author Avatar: The author's pony OC appears in the story. They're the first casualty.
- Berserk Button:
- Twilight: Pointlessly derailing the plot and going off on tangents that lead nowhere, to the point where her eye starts twitching if someone so much as says the word "tangent".
- Rainbow Dash: Do not call her gay.
- Big Bad: Nightmare Moon.
- Book Ends: Invoked. The battle against Nightmare Moon takes place in the Castle of the Two Sisters, where the ponies fought her in the first episode.
- Brick Joke: In chapter 16, Black Mage tries to guess the pony's names and calls Twilight, Starbutt. He calls her this again in chapter 50.
- Butt-Monkey: Black Mage, obviously. As one commenter put it:(Is Black Mage still a Butt Monkey?) That's like asking if Twilight is smart. It's such a part of their character, it wouldn't even be them if that trait isn't present.
- Call-Back: There are several to the sprite comic:
- When Fighter and Black Mage first meet a pony, Fighter remembers the Madpony that Red Mage mentioned in a filler comic.
- Black Mage points out the impossibility of anything but the Gods being made up of more than sixteen bits.
- Fighter being a Drownball Champion, and Twilight's reaction to it mirrors Sarda's.
- Twilight sends a pony to the same void dimension that the Cthulhu Cult sent the Light Warriors to.
- Fighter's swords are referred to as Stabby and Slashy.
- Black Mage calls Fighter stupid by blind, mentally deficient monkey standards.
- After Fighter breaks both of his swords, he pulls out the swords that he took from Drizz'l.
- White Mage ends up defeating Nightmare Moon in the exact same way that she defeated Chaos.
- Canon Discontinuity: When Pinkie Pie talks about the events of Equestria Girls, Twilight has no idea what she's talking about, with Pinkie then realising it's because the films aren't canon to the series.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Pinkie Pie put it:Pinkie: Hey, Twilight. Since it was already established that Discord could open up portals between dimensions, and since Fluttershy knew this, had a way of calling him to her in an instant, and she was the first one that the two of them approached, and they explicitly told her that they were from another world and were trying to find a way back there, couldn't we have sent them back this entire time and avoided all of this?
- Eviler than Thou: Black Mage is far more evil than Discord, who's supposed to be the ultimate evil of Equestria.
- History Repeats: The story begins with Fighter and Black Mage searching for the Armor of Invincibility.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Specifically Fighter and Black Mage’s stupidity and evilness, respectively. This is later weaponised by the Big Bad.
- Hypocrisy Nod: When Pinkie Pie talks about the events of Equestria Girls, Twilight insists she has no idea what she's talking about… then starts humming the tune to Welcome to the Show.
- Impossible Thief: Thief manages to steal Black Mage's wallet, hang him from a tree, and trip him all without being in the same world as him.
- Insane Troll Logic:Pinkie Pie: Well actually, you said that you didn't want us to help you, and the way you said it implied that you wanted to die, so us helping you would mean that we'd help you die, but since you said you didn't want us to help you, that means that you didn't want us to help you die, which, by process of elimination, means that you wanted us to help you live, so I did.
- Insult Backfire:Twilight: You are a horrible little creature and I pray for your swift and just end.
Black Mage: Thank you. - Large Ham: BOW DOWN BEFORE ME, PUNY MORTALS. FOR I AM, NIGHTMARE RARITY. MWA HA HA AH!!!!
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Fighter will sometimes note that it feels like months since the last chapter.
- Out of Focus: Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash basically don't exist unless the story needs them to.
- Plot Hole: A part of the reason Black Mage isn't stabbing ponies more often is because he left his knife buried in his first victim, yet in a later chapter, he stabs Fighter in the back of the head. In classic 8-Bit Theatre fashion, when Fighter points this out, Black Mage just tells him to shut up.
- Rule of Funny: Invoked, Played Straight and Defied. Twilight attempts to unceremoniously defeat Nightmare Moon by slapping her, like what Rainbow Dash did to Nightmare Rarity earlier in the story, but fails because of this trope.
- Rage Breaking Point: Twilight finally reaches this at the very end of the story when she discovers that literally everything that happened was completely avoidable.
- Shout-Out:
- Two of Celestia's royal guards are named Biggs and Wedge.
- Black Mage constantly getting Fluttershy's name wrong while defending that he knows it, like Twilight in the Mentally Advanced Series.
- Chapter 38 reveals that the story is in the same universe as Justice League and Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
- Chapter 40.5 is a blatant one to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged.
- One of Black Mage's atrocities involves a clown who, while still alive, will never walk again.Nightmare Moon: Sorry, but Luna's not here right now. You face Nightmare Moon.
Twilight: Call yourself whatever you want, you crazy alicorn bastard! - Fluttershy uses the Konami Code to summon Discord.
- Pinkie's got a Plan 9.
- Sneeze Cut: When Twilight says that Fighter's unexplained recovery makes no sense, it then cuts to Discord sneezing.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Pipsqueak is looking to be one for Rex Crockett (The Onion Kid) as he's constantly traumatized by Black Mage, has his parents killed because of him and ends up in an orphanage.
- The Unreveal: Nightmare Moon being the Big Bad.Pinkie Pie: Who could have possibly seen this coming except everyone because the author spoiled it in the character tags.
- Welcome to Corneria: Averted with the royal guards who speak normally. Although Fighter simply can't seem to comprehend that this is the case.
- Wham Line:Nightmare Moon: You are clearly an expert fighter... err, Fighter. However, it's all in vain. No attack you throw at me can hope to penetrate my Armor of Invincibility.
