Through the Eyes of Another Pony

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
This is the kind of thing every brony wishes for...minus the whole Nightmare thing.

"So yeah, I'm a human.  And now I'm a pony.  No, that's not a joke, though I would laugh if it were.  All I did was party at my place and pass out, only to wake up in Ponyville.  Now you must be thinking I had one too many, and I'm right there with you.  But no drunken hallucination lasts this long and whatever the case, The Nightmare seems to have a problem with me.  A big one.

So now, armed with my cigarettes and some cool unicorn magic, I have to fight off The Nightmare, my own Fanbronyism, and try to find the time to let the ponies give me a name.  I know, I suggested getting a pony name first, but they're pretty excited about that.  Not sure why.  All of the ponies in this town are crazy.

You can find my story here."

Tropes used in Through the Eyes of Another Pony include:
  • Actually Pretty Funny: "Oh, Luna. Your sadism should not be this entertaining."
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: When Firewall realizes he's about to be taken from Luna, he tries to tell her he loves her.
  • Anti-Magic: Twilight Sparkle discovers a substance at Firewall's crash site that is impossible to manipulate via magic, dubbing it "Inmanipulon." It is later revealed to be the power behind the effects of Poison Joke, and prolonged exposure can cause immortality and immunity to magic.
    • Later revealed that it is not so much an anti-magic effect as it is an intensely focused form of magic that sucks magic from its surroundings – somewhat akin to a black hole of/for magic.
  • Author Avatar: Firewall, at first. In the author's notes at the beginning of one chapter (somewhere between ch. 8 and 12), he says that Firewall has developed from an Author Avatar into a proper stand-alone OC.
  • Berserk Button: Anything that threatens kids in any way absolutely enrages Firewall. The Nightmare learns this the painful way when the villains kidnap Apple Bloom.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: None of the ponies take Firewall seriously, as he tends to respond to danger by laughing his plot off at it. This does NOT mean he cannot be a credible threat. When pushed too far, he will melt your freaking face into a puddle, and then incinerate said puddle. See the examples under Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass below.
  • Blessed with Suck: A pony that is heavily and repeatedly exposed to Inmanipulon becomes immune to magic... rendering them unable to interact directly with magical objects in the process, and cutting them off from their own special talent.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: After Firewall tells Pinkie Pie (and the rest of the Mane 6 and Celestia) about their being viewed on TV, Pinkie Pie waves at the reader, and Firewall tells them to wave back. Judging by the comments, most did.
  • Breather Episode: After escaping Nightmare Sol, not only does Firewall get some good sleep for the first time in a while, but the action and drama also take a back seat and let comedy take the reins for a bit.
  • Burning with Anger: This happens to Firewall in chapter 10 after he gets into an argument with Luna, and is physically threatened by Storm Wing while he's emotionally stressed.
  • Butt Monkey: Firewall. He even lampshades it by name in chapter 12.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Storm Wing gives Winter Sky a verbal dressing down. He even uses the "You're not my father!" line.
  • Came From the Sky: Firewall. Who else?
  • Centipede's Dilemma: Particularly evident in the rewrite of Chapter 1 (or as The Bugsydor likes to call it, Chapter 1 Mk II), when Firewall first discovers he's a unicorn and attempts to do magic. He'd already been magically lighting his cigarettes without noticing, in addition to pulling them from hammerspace, but he couldn't force a spell out of his horn when he tried to just do "anything". Apparently, it's loads easier to work magic as a unicorn if you don't think too hard about it and just let the magic take care of the how while you think of what you want done.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The story's tone gradually shifts into more serious territory as it goes on, although it maintains humor throughout.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Firewall takes this trope and runs with it - which is probably the only reason he's still alive in a setting where almost everyone is more powerful than him. Among his techniques are pulling on hair, using his tail to trip opponents (a technique even Storm Wing admitted he'd never thought of,) and throwing dirt in the enemy's eyes.
  • Cooldown Hug: Luna gives one to Firewall after Celestia's transformation into Nightmare Sol and the events following that finally start getting to him.
  • Creator Behind the Demon: If you thought that the Nightmare's plans seemed a bit too intricate for her shattered mind to formulate, you were right. It was all an elaborate plot by David so that he could "fix" her.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Firewall, though not really a moron, does act rather goofy at times, which usually annoys the ponies around him. However, don't mess with him or his friends.
    • Shadow Shot learns this the hard way.
    • Even Storm Wing seems somewhat afraid of him when he's mad.
    • The Nightmare learns how ineffective hooves are against a sleeper hold in chapter 14. Poor Applebloom.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Firewall, Luna, and Storm Wing (y'know, screw him for that) are all big on the snark department. Hilarity tends to ensue whenever there's dialogue between them.
  • Deconstruction: The author does some minor deconstruction on the universe with regards to canon, but will more frequently deconstruct certain elements of Fanon.
  • Demonic Possession: The Nightmare is quite fond of doing this. A bit scarier than many cases in that it doesn't need anypony's help/hubris to acquire a new host.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Awesome Sky Carriage of Awesome™
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In chapter 10, Luna refuses Firewall's empathy after she learns of Celestia's Dark Secret.
    • Firewall is driven to this after he gets into a big fight with Luna leaves him distraught.
  • Doorstopper: One Chapter is 43000 words/100 pages
  • Double Take: Day one is chock full of 'em, as well as Facehooves.
  • Fantastic Nuke: The process of destroying Inmanipulon could trigger this.
  • Fighting From the Inside: Firewall after being possessed by the Nightmare. Couldn't actually take back control, but sure could make getting anything done a nightmare. Apparently this wasn't possible for the Nightmare's previous hosts, and was only possible this time because David himself had prepared said host.
    • Also Trixie to some extent. When David's contract prevents her from acting directly against him, she begins deliberately dropping clues about the identity of the saboteur.
  • Fisher Kingdom: Firewall, a human from Earth, wakes to find himself as a unicorn pony in Equestria.
    • Though there was at least one human before him who didn't change...
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Firewall, Winter Sky, and Storm Wing (screw him for that too) respectively.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Fourth Wall Breaking: Firewall will frequently make an Aside Comment directly to the reader, acknowledging their existence; this usually occurs for the purpose of Lampshading.
  • Genre Savvy: Firewall and Luna both.
  • God Is Inept: Turns out the "Equestria" Firewall is in is actually David's creation: its third draft, to be specific. He'd botched the previous two incarnations pretty horribly, and his attempts to fix the current one weren't particularly well thought out.
  • Hammerspace: One of the first things Firewall does is pull a cigarette from here. After a quick Double Take he quickly accepts it as a utility.
  • Handicapped Badass: Storm Wing is a personification of this trope (screw him in his badassery), since he's blind.
  • Heel Realization: Trixie gets one in Chapter 14 and takes it very poorly.
  • Heroic Red Ring of Death:
    • Firewall experiences this in at least one encounter with The Big Bad.
    • An odd mental example. Luna breaks down entirely mentally and physically, due to having assimilated more data at one time than her brain was capable of properly processing
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Cookie, the head chef for the castle, whom Firewall calls the attention of by shouting "Cookie" as the typical nickname that would go along with such a professsion, before asking what his name was...only for the chef to reply that that really *was* his name.
  • Honor Before Reason: No Starlight don't be like this!!
  • I Have No Son: Storm Wing says an inversion of this to Winter Sky during an argument. Even Firewall cringes at this.
  • Ingesting Knowledge: One of Luna's spells--which she soon passes on to Firewall--allows her to burn books and other reading materials, instantly transferring the information on said book to her. She eventually pushes this spell to a new level by burning Firewall's phone, which happens to be connected to the Internet. By doing this, she gains near omniscience of Earth's history and knowledge. (It also makes her quite savvy).
  • Lampshade Hanging: Firewall will frequently point out some inexplicable phenomena, such as being able to manipulate objects with surprising dexterity despite only having fingerless hooves, or being able to store things in a nonexistent pocket. Generally accompanied by the assumed explanation that "it's magic and/or it's a cartoon, just roll with it".
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Firewall learns that Azure Flora, The Dragon to David, is Storm Wing's mother. She doesn't know he's her son yet, though.
  • Magi Babble
  • Meaningful Name: True to source, but discussed between Firewall and Twilight. Names may hint at a pony's special talent, and provide a clue for what they can do; but the pony still has power to choose. Fire still doesn't get it.
  • MST: One is currently in progess done by the same people behind the "Past Sins" MST. It can be found here.
  • Mundane Utility: Firewall uses his fire powers to light his cigarettes.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: In chapter 12, Luna tells Firewall they need to have a chat, alone, and Firewall remarks how he's been asked that three times already. The preview for this chapter treated the event as more dramatic, mainly thanks to giving it out of context. Actually, the chapter previews do this a lot.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Played with. When the Mane Six discover new abilities granted to them by the Elements just in time for a decisive battle, Firewall and Luna are pleased but deeply suspicious. They are right to be.
  • Nobody Poops: Subtly mentioned as one of the perks of living in a cartoon world.
  • Not So Different: Firewall is Compared to David; but by Winter Sky. David was silly, tried to hide human culture from the ponies, and was only serious if ponies were in danger too. Firewall has yet to come up with a serious difference between the two, aside from himself being somewhat philosophical.
    • An odd variation when Storm Wing uses it to compare humans to ponies, in order to cool down Firewall.
    • David himself invokes the trope word for word in chapter 14.
  • Not So Stoic: Firewall, who usually hides most of his more depressing thoughts through his eccentricity and general wackiness, breaks down after the Nightmare takes control of Celestia, only to be comforted by Luna.
    • David spends most of Chapter 14 trying to appear calm and in control, but this mask flickers several times - and drops completely once or twice.
  • Oh Crap: The ordinarily calm and collected David experiences two of these in rapid succession when he realizes Trixie has stolen the codex, and then again when Firewall merges with Nightmare while David is already weakened.
  • One Steve Limit: Part of the reason Firewall was happy enough to abandon his human name and adopt a pony one.

Ye be crushin' me need ta be a unique snowflake, Fate!

  • Original Character: Firewall (of course), as well as at least half of the relevant characters in the story.
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: The Nightmare
  • Played for Laughs: Pretty much the story itself, in that it uses so many elements to great effect that should normally make this just another terrible fanfic.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Like Stoic and Lafter battle for dominance within Firewall's head, his fiery exuberance is balanced by Storm Wing's calculating stoicism.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Played straight with both Celestia and Luna, especially in the case of the latter, who becomes the best friend of Firewall, and eventually his romantic interest.
    • Prince Blueblood, who would ordinarily be averse to raising a hoof to do most things for himself, let alone anything at all for anypony else, is seen in the crowd of ponies who are defending Applelossa from the incoming shadow army.
  • Rule of Funny: The primary reason why so many elements usually characteristic of a bad fanfic are used.
  • Running Gag: Sometimes when Storm Wing (screw him) is mentioned, Firewall will say "screw him" in some form or another. Usually if he just did something that annoys or angers Firewall.
    • Firewall is very jealous of pegasi simply because they can use their wings to shrug. He comments nearly every time.
  • Self-Insert Fic: While Firewall indeed began as an Author Avatar, the author himself acknowledges that it has grown to the point of being an Original Character.
  • Shout-Out: Numerous shout outs to the Brony community, among other things. The shout out density increases significantly after Luna absorbs the internet.
    • Luna adds a Nyan Cat to the night sky.
    • From chapter 13:

Firewall: I need an adult!
Luna: (in her best gravelly voice) I am an adult!

  • Ship Tease: There seems to be quite a bit between Firewall and Luna as of late.
    • It has since graduated into full-on shipping, it seems.
    • CL also seems to tease a bit for Silverheart and Storm Wing (screw him for that), particularly in the middle of the story. As of the later chapters, this relationship seems to have been put on hold in favor of Prince Storm Wing (screw him) and Fluttershy. Which is then hinted at by Firewall.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: Firewall delivers these to the Nightmare on a regular basis.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Due to most of the main characters being snarky, a lot of their dialogue can become this.
  • Spit Take: Of all ponies, Princess Celestia does this around a campfire, after learning how most humans view her as a cruel tyrant. Twice, in fact, though the second time, Firewall ends up covered in cider.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Is what David actually is.
  • Tempting Fate: Firewall comforts Applebloom by telling her that it isn't like she'll never see him again. The chapter ends with Firewall being banished / sealed away from Equestria.
  • The Shadow Knows: When Celestia discovers that Firewall is a human, she creates a light that causes him to cast a human shadow.
  • Troll: Luna, especially to Firewall. Firewall will usually try to counter-troll her, though.
    • Hell, this is half of Firewall's personality. No, really. He's explicitly divided his personality into two halves, and one of them exists to be a hammy ass at every opportunity.
  • Tropes Are Tools: See Sturgeon's Law above.
  • The Virus: The Shadow Ponies created by Nightmare Sol can spread their curse to ponies they capture, making them into particularly powerful ponies of shadow.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 between Firewall and Storm Wing, and arguably Firewall and Luna as well.
  • Unobtanium: Inmanipulon.
  • Willing Suspension of Disbelief
  • Write What You Know: Firewall as a self-insert Author Avatar.
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