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Escape from the Moon by Evilhumour and his beta-reader/co-author Anon e Mouse Jr. is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic, and the first in the Doa-verse, a part of the greater "Powers-That-Be" multiverse of fics. Originally posted September 9, 2017, it was completed September 13, 2017, with a promise of a sequel. One indeed came, and then some.

The overall series consists of:

  • Escape from the Moon: A mare finds herself all alone on a station on the moon, being monitored by unknown individuals and her life threatened by everything there. She knows nothing except that she has to find out who she is, why she's been imprisoned and how to escape.

  • The Mare from the Moon (published September 15, 2017 and completed November 10, 2018): Three hundred years later, events drive Doa/ Spliced Genome to finally leave the moon and return to her homeworld, only to end up taking an unexpected side-trip.

  • A Winter's Tale (published April 29, 2018 and completed February 12, 2020): Set in the distant past of the Equestria that Spliced Genome visits in The Mare from the Moon, revealing the truth of Equestria's founding in that universe.

  • The World Left Behind (published November 15, 2018, under Anon e Mouse Jr.'s profile): In the aftermath of Spliced Genome's return to her native world, life goes on, and Princess Twilight Sparkle and her fellow Bearers and other friends have a great deal to think about. But many dangers lie ahead for Equestria, some new and some from the distant past...

  • Scavenge for the Future (published November 13, 2018 and completed July 28, 2019): The final chapter of the Doa-verse, it follows events in Doa's home dimension thousands of years after the end of The Mare from the Moon.

All five fics are also posted in a thread on Spacebattles Forums.


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     Escape from the Moon 

Escape from the Moon contains examples of:

  • The Ageless: Due to the effects that made Spliced Genome immortal, she stopped aging. As seen in the final story, she's still the same physical age she was when she was first imprisoned, even thousands of years later.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: Whoever has placed Doa on the station has cameras in every room, including the bathroom.
  • Closed Circle: The entire story takes place in small space station except for the last chapter.
  • Enemy Mine: After the peace treaty between the "Pures" and the group rebelling was signed, Spliced Genome continued to create her plagues. Both sides promptly teamed up to capture her and lock her up.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Pretty much the entire station, from the showers, camera, airlocks and even the food is full of Death Traps.
  • Expy: Played with: The voice Doa has been hearing claims Doa is one for itself — the banished pony, imprisoned for a thousand years. Doa is not completely convinced.
  • Fantastic Caste System: in this universe, there exist Pures/alicorns and Thirds/the other three tribes. Despite having reached the stars, the three tribes were considered and treated like second class citizens. This reached a boiling point to where they rebelled against the Pures. This eventually resulted in them recruiting Spliced Genome/Doa...
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Doa/Spliced Genome was just an independent biochemist researcher consultant before she became a war criminal with a death count in the billions.
  • Idiot Ball: The decision to make Spliced Genome immortal was decried by countless as an ill advised measure, including Spliced Genome herself. The people holding the Idiot Ball disagreed.
  • Keep the Reward: Doa/ Spliced Genome is offered a chance to escape from the moon early, traveling to another world where she can aid and be aided by the mysterious voice, both gaining vengeance on their respective captors. Spliced turns them down, since she doesn't want to indebt herself to another when she's aware she'll escape on her own eventually.
  • Lack of Empathy: In her true identity of Spliced Genome, Doa literally doesn't care if what she does is good or not, only if it's interesting to her.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia. Doa has no problems functioning like a normal pony, but suffers Loss of Identity every time she wakes up from her odd dreams of dying.
  • Loss of Identity: Doa has no idea who she is or how she got to the moon. Until chapter 6, where it's all explained to her... and she subsequently overcomes this the next time she's killed and reawakens.
  • Mad Doctor: Spliced is a biochemist and doctor who genetically engineered deadly viruses, and was working on an improved version of the Black Plague when she was finally captured.
  • Magic by Any Other Name: Doa's magic is referred to as "thaumatics".
  • Potty Failure: Doa apparently experienced this during her second or so the reader is lead to believe trip outside, but omits it from her journal entry.
  • Power Limiter: Doa has one on her thaumatics, preventing her from using more than a minimal amount.
  • Resurrective Immortality: Doa was given this to ensure she would live out her thousand-year sentence in jail, reviving in her bed in the station every time she dies.
  • Synthetic Plague: As Spliced Genome, Doa created a number of these that killed millions and infected billions more.
  • Tailor-Made Prison: Doa's lunar station was designed as one for her.
  • The Many Deaths of You: Doa has died many times, in various ways — poison, electrocution, being expelled from an airlock, acid from the showers and others.
  • Villain Protagonist: Doa/Spliced Genome, though this fact is kept secret until late in the story.
  • Wham Episode: The entirety of chapter of six, which reveals the full truth of Doa's identity and why she's on the moon... and the source of the voice that she's been hearing.
  • Wham Line:
    "The percentage of memory used went from fourteen to fifteen with new short journal entry and Doa knew it was fourteen when she had started making her journals when she woke up from that painful nightmare of burning alive."
    • The reason this is a Wham Line: Chapter Five has her finally gain access to the other account on the computer. It turns out it has been storing all her previous journal entries in the restricted account, with the entire screen filled with overlapping file folders.

     The Mare from the Moon 

The Mare from the Moon contains examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Discussed in chapter 23 — Celestia, according to Twilight, does not approve of these, and is taking legal action to curb certain abuses in particular that are still happening in the far corners of Equestria, like parents forcing their underage kids (such as those who are around the age of the Crusaders) into leaving home and supporting themselves the instant they get a Cutie Mark. (The laws don't prohibit underage work altogether, since there are some who would gladly get an after-school job if they could find one, and Rainbow Dash notes that she left school and started working early and turned out pretty good; the goal is to prevent it from being forced onto underage ponies.)
  • Adaptive Ability: It's noted that every time she dies and resurrects, Spliced slowly adapts to what killed her, making it harder and harder for her to die by that particular thing again (she specifically notes lack of oxygen and large amounts of electricity as being things she's adapted to), and she revives faster and faster.
  • Anger Born of Worry: Spike starts to lose his temper with Twilight out of worry for her because she's been acting so oddly the last few days. Then he finds out why she's been acting that way and softens up.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: By the time she leaves the station to go through the portal to Equestria, Spliced has adapted to survive in incredibly low oxygen. By the time of Scavenge For the Future, she's adapted to not needing oxygen at all.
  • Berserk Button: Don't imply that Spliced doesn't know anything about certain subjects. She gets very mad.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Snöflinga / Snowflake the windigo initially speaks in his native language, represented by Swedish. Translations are as follows:
    • Chapter 17:
    Snowflake: "Mitt huvud," Translation: "My head,"
    Snowflake: "Vem är du? Var är jag?" Translation: "Who are you? Where am I?"
    Snowflake: "Evinnerliga snöstorm! Vad ända in i Fimbulwinter är det för fel på mitt ben‽" Translation: "Eternal blizzard, what the Fimbulwinter is wrong with my leg‽"
    Snowflake: "Här är jag, bara så du vet," Translation: "I'm right here, you know,"
    Snowflake: "Jag förstår inte vad du säger men jag är rätt säker på att det handlar om mig och det uppskattar jag inte!" Translation: "I don't understand what you're saying, but..."
    Spike: "De försöker bara hjälpa dig," Translation: "They're just trying to help you,"
    Snowflake: "Vänta, så du kan faktiskt [i]prata[/i] normalt?" Translation: "Wait, you can actually speak normal?"
    Snowflake: "Kan du tala om för mig vad det faktiskt är som händer?" Translation: "Can you actually tell me what is going on?"
    Snowflake: "Hallå! Var är mitt halsband?" Translation: "Hey, where is my necklace!"
    Snowflake: "Jag hoppas verkligen att det är här någonstans. Translation: "I hope for real that it is here somewhere."
    Spike: "Hur såg det ut?" Translation: "What did it look like?"
    Snowflake: "En kedja av hård granit som omger en kristall," Translation: "A chain of hard granite surrounding a crystal,"
    Snowflake: "Det är mitt! Ge tillbaka det genast!" Translation: "That's mine, give it back now!"
    Snowflake: "Jag vill fortfarande ha tillbaka mitt halsband." Translation: "I still want my necklace back."
    Snowflake: "Hallå där! Vad håller hon på med?" Translation: "Hey, what's she doing?"
    Spike: "Hon gör så att alla ponnyer kan förstå vad du säger och du kan förstå dem," Translation: "She's making it so all ponies can understand what you're saying and you can understand them,"
    Spike: "Det kommer vara säkert, det lovar jag." Translation: "It'll be safe, I promise."
    Snowflake: "Det är bäst för dig, or else I will-" Translation: "It is best for you, or else I will-"
    • Chapter 18:
    Snowflake: "I don't what that is, but galna hynda passar dig," Translation: "I don't what that is, but crazy bitch fits you,"
    Snowflake: "Vad sa hon?" Translation: "What did she say?"
    Snowflake: "Vad säger han och vad gör han med mig?" Translation: "What is he saying and what is he doing to me?"
    • Chapter 21:
    Snöflinga: "Vilka är ni fem?" Translation: "Who are you five?"
    Snöflinga: "It nice meet you five pony — gah, det här är sÃ¥ attans dumt!" Translation: "It nice meet you five pony gah, this is so blinking stupid!"
    Snöflinga: "Självklart har vi bakben," Translation: "Of course we have hind legs,"
    Snöflinga: "Vi är inte som de där Sirenerna – dumma fiskar," Translation: "We're not like those Sirens — stupid fish,"
    Snöflinga: "De försvinner när jag flyger men jag mår inte tillräckligt bra just nu för att flyga." Translation: "They go away when I'm flying, but I'm not well enough to fly right now."
    Spike: "Så du gillar inte de där tre du heller va?" Translation: "You don't like those three either, huh?"
    Spike: "Jag klandrar dig inte." Translation: "I don't blame you."
    Snöflinga: "Vilka tre pratar du om? Det finns en hel ocean av dem." Translation: "Which three are you talking about? There's an ocean of them,"
    Spike: "Twilight och jag mötte några som förvisats genom en portal för länge sedan och höll på att försöka ta över den andra världen," Translation: "Twilight and I met some who'd been banished through a portal a long time ago and were trying to take over that world,"
    Spike: "Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. Och de är maktlösa nu." Translation: "Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. And they're powerless now."
    Snöflinga: "Jag tänkte säga att det inte låter ett dugg vettigt men jag kommer ju från det förflutna så jag är inte rätt person att uttala mig," Translation: "I'd say that doesn't make sense, but I'm from the past so I don't have much room to talk,"
    Snöflinga: "Dessutom, du borde tala om för dem vad vi pratar om. De ger oss skumma blickar." Translation: "Also, you should tell them what we're saying as they're giving us looks."
    Spike: "Visst." Translation: "Right."
    Snöflinga: "Vill du ha bevis för att jag är en windigo? Här är ditt bevis!" Translation: "You want proof I'm a windigo? Here's your proof!"
    Snöflinga: "Jag borde förmodligen spara på krafterna tills jag är helt återställd," Translation: "Probably should conserve my power until I'm fully better,"
    Snöflinga: "Det har du inte med att göra," Translation: "None of your business,"
    Snöflinga: "Så snart jag känner mig bra nog kommer jag ta er ponnyer till grottan för att bevisa att jag har rätt." Translation: "Once I am good enough, I will take you ponies to that cave and prove I am right."
    Spike: har du något emot–" Translation: do you mind-"
    • Chapter 22:
    Snöflinga: Någon dag får du förklara det där närmre. Translation: "One of these days, you'll have to explain more about that."
    Spike: "Ã…h, det ska jag," Translation: "Oh, I will,"
    Spike: "Det är en riktigt spännande berättelse." Translation: "It's a really exciting story."
  • Broken Bird: Having learned empathy from her time in Equestria, Spliced's breakdown is shown for the first time when she realizes the consequences of what she did with her viral creations, and then again during her trial, getting worse as time passes in chapter 30. Over the years, as she's lost all her friends to age or dimensional barriers, she reaches the point where the emotivers call her emotionally dead — her sorrow has bottomed out and they doubt she can feel any actual emotions anymore. She can still get depressed or seem pleased, but nothing is really there.
  • Burning with Anger: In chapter 15, Twilight shows that she's learned out to trigger her flaming form (originally seen in the episode Feeling Pinkie Keen) at will through her memories of things that make her angry, though she's looking for a better, more stable and positive emotion to do so, since negative emotions burden the spirit.
  • Call-Back:
    • To canon — in chapter 9, references are made to events from the episodes Dragonshy (Twilight mentions a dragon's snoring and producing smoke that caused troubles), The Cutie Mark Chronicles (Twilight hatching Spike), The Return of Harmony two-parter (what Discord did the first time they met him), Secret of My Excess (Spike's Greed Growth-fueled rampage), Dragon Quest (their first meeting with Garble) and Gauntlet of Fire (how they first met Dragon Lord Ember).
    • Multiple callbacks to canon, and to earlier in the fic, are made in chapter 14.
    • At the end of the first story, Spliced learned that she was her world's "banished pony", who would be trapped on the moon for a thousand years, and at the end of that time "the stars would aid her escape". At the end of the second story, this proves true — Spliced's sentence ends exactly one thousand years after she was first sent to the moon, and she returns to Hesturland via the shuttle Aiding Stars, piloted by a pony named Escape Velocity.
  • Character Development: The entire story is about Spliced learning empathy and changing from the person she once was.
  • Chocolate Baby: Discussed. There are some ponies who've accused Princess Cadance of infidelity since she's an alicorn, her husband is a unicorn, and her alicorn daughter Flurry Heart has proportionately greater pegasus traits than any of the others. The real reason for this, which isn't widely known, is that Cadance was born a pegasus before becoming an alicorn.
  • The Clan: Like Applejack, Rainbow Dash has more distant cousins, aunts, uncles and other relationships than can be reasonably plotted out, and they're a wide variety of species (both pony types and non-ponies). (However, her immediate family is just she and her parents, with Scootaloo being as good as.)
  • Color-Coded Wizardry: Spliced's thaumatics are turquoise.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Pinkie does this in chapter 12, resulting in a pun:
    Rainbow Dash: "Just let me get down first." As in, off of the cloud she's sitting on.
    Pinkie Pie (looks around in confusion): "Where are you going to get it from?" ... "I don't see any ducks around here!"
  • Continuity Nod: In chapter 8, Discord mentions "this realm's Door to the Realms in Between". This was previously mentioned in chapter 12 of another of Evilhumour's stories, A Chance Meeting of Two Moons.
  • Covered in Gunge: In chapter 19, it's noted that there was a pony who, about a week after the events of the episode The Crystalling, barged in on an event in the Crystal Palace's ballroom and made insinuations about Flurry Heart's parentage. This trope quickly happened, as he ended up hanging upside down from the chandelier, covered in banana creme and with a Dunce Cap glued to his head.
  • The Dreaded: Rarity, for Prince Blueblood, after the events at the end of the Grand Galloping Gala they attended together, to the point where Shining Armor can keep Blueblood in line by threatening to lock them in a room together for a few hours if he doesn't behave.
  • Dr. Jerk: Spliced comes off as this when she's working on a patient, an attitude which greatly displeases other doctors that she's temporarily working with. She justifies it with her statement that the negativity is actually helping the patient, a windigo who feeds on such emotions, to recover.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Spliced Genome has a bodycount in the millions, but when she's told that Garble the dragon wanted Spike to smash a defenseless phoenix's egg just for fun the first time they met, she concedes that he doesn't belong anywhere near any throne.
  • Evil-Detecting Baby: Inverted with Flurry Heart, who likes Spliced, or at least isn't bothered by her presence. She also reacts positively to Pharynx and Snöflinga.
  • Eye Scream: In chapter 25, there's a catastrophic failure in a machine Spliced is working on, and she gets a chunk of metal in her eye (and all the way into the bone) as a result. Fortunately, her healing ability allows her to remove it and regenerate the eye with ease.
  • Face Palm: Starlight's reaction to learning how one of Spliced's old classmates reacted when he failed a history exam, insisting he was right and the textbook was wrong.
  • Faint in Shock: Spliced's reaction when she finds out that, contrary to what she'd believed, that she can walk on clouds.
  • Fantastically Indifferent: Zecora is completely unfazed at the sight of a new alicorn outside her home (she doesn't even comment on Spliced's species), and reacts with total calmness when she recognizes Spliced as being from another dimension. As she explains, zebras in general are used to travelers from other worlds dropping in or passing through.
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • As a diamond dog, Doctor Dies Horribly has been on the receiving end of this plenty of times. He's pleasantly surprised when Spliced tells him she doesn't care about his species, just his capabilities (which are high).
    • Snöflinga, a windigo, hates Sirens. A Winter's Tale later explains that the two species are natural rivals because both feed on negative emotions.
  • Flashy Teleportation:
    • Discussed in chapter 8, when Discord does it and shocks Spliced, who calls it "theoretical technology at best". She's stunned again in chapter 14 when she sees Twilight can do it, and learns that Celestia, Luna and Starlight can also do so.
    • Chapter 30: Spliced has learned it by the end of the story, six hundred years after her time in Equestria.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Spliced Genome denies that magic is real — she refers to it as "thaumatics", an energy that can be manipulated by ponies in certain forms, and firmly believes it has a scientific explanation. She's also convinced that one of their most powerful enemies in the past was just a creature with a far greater ability to manipulate thaumatics than any normal pony rather than any sort of magical entity. By the end of the story, nearly six hundred years later, she's not only changed to thinking of it as magic, her powers have developed considerably and she can now teleport.
  • Gale-Force Sound: Twilight manages to send Spliced flying by the sheer force of her voice when she gets angry at Spliced saying she'd abused Spike by the way she raised him not to hoard.
  • Godzilla Threshold: In chapter 15, Twilight describes Daybreaker as this.
    Twilight Sparkle: "I... asked her about that, after Starlight told me about the whole thing. She compared it to something from one of Spike's comics, actually. That most of the time, she feels like she lives in a world of cardboard, and that she always has to hold back to keep from breaking everything around her. Daybreaker is what happens when she doesn't care enough to hold back anymore, to let loose with everything she has without worrying about the consequences. And that's something that she'd only use as an absolute last resort."
  • Hell Has New Management: The Royal Sisters don't want to banish Spliced to Tartarus; this is one of the reasons, as they fear her researching the creatures there, and the nature of Tartarus itself, turning them to her own benefit and making her even more dangerous.
  • Hidden Depths: Chapter 17 reveals that Spike speaks the language of the windigos, having learned a bit from one of his comics (a thinly disguised version of Marvel's "The Mighty Thor") and looked up more because he thought it was interesting.
  • Hurl It into the Sun: Celestia initially promises that she'll do this to Spliced if she proves herself a threat. Later though, she changes her mind when it's pointed out that Spliced's Resurrective Immortality, and her adapting to what killed her every time she dies, will eventually leave her immune to both the sun and to Celestia's magic, something she decides is too big of a risk.
  • Idiot Ball:
    • Spliced Genome was content to wait out her time on the moon, and had been reforming slowly after almost three hundred years of no conflict between her and her jailers. But then one of them grabbed firm hold of this trope and activated a death trap, triggering her Rage Breaking Point. As stated in Spliced's trial at the end, it was done by an individual without permission and against standing orders to leave her alone.
    • In chapter 20, Spike indicates that he thinks Chrysalis had hold of this trope during the wedding invasion (and when she captured the entire royal family later), and once he explains himself, Spliced agrees with him — Changelings feed on love, but since she tried to turn them into a nation of hostages, all of them angry over being held captive, they wouldn't be producing very much love for her to drain in the first place.
  • I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Spliced's dream in chapter 15 has her saying "I'm a scientist, not a doctor."
  • Innocently Insensitive: In chapter 19, Spliced assumes that Shining Armor can't be Flurry Heart's father because of the larger amounts of pegasus magic in her, whereas he's a unicorn and Cadance is an alicorn, and feels he should know. She has good scientific reasons for it though, and thus is apologetic when the two inform her that the increased pegasus magic is because Cadance used to be a pegasus before ascending to alicorn. Since she wasn't being deliberately offensive, they accept her apology.
  • Is That a Threat?: When Princess Celestia says Spliced will find out what happens to a body when it is exposed directly to the sun if Spliced harms Twilight, Spliced figures out that Princess Celestia is threatening her. The princess' response is that no, it's not a threat — it's what will happen, because the sun is where she'll most likely imprison Spliced if Spliced proves herself a threat.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Spliced tends to use "it" to refer to her patients or test subjects as a way to distance herself from them. Doctor Hale, however, strongly disapproves of this method and scolds her for it. When she eventually stops, it's not clear if his words have really sunk in, or if she even realizes she's stopped.
  • Kangaroo Court: Spliced's trial starts out as one, with the defense having been given only two days (as opposed to the prosecution's two weeks) and the three judges blatantly trying to manipulate things in favor of conviction by interrupting the Defense's opening statement. Spliced responds to this with a rant that convinces them to subvert it for fear of her getting Off on a Technicality. Then a higher court overrules their final decision and sends her back to prison anyway.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Spliced had to deal with a few of these in her classes as a younger pony, including one student who, after failing a history exam, still insisted he was right and the textbook was wrong. Then there was the one who went as far as trying to change the historical records to match up with what he claimed was right, but was caught almost immediately.
  • Lame Pun Reaction: After Pinkie makes an unwitting pun while Comically Missing the Point in chapter 12, there's a Collective Groan, then a chuckle from Rainbow Dash, who actually liked the pun.
  • Larynx Dissonance: The voice-changing effect of Poison Joke is replicated in chapter 16, this time on Sweetie Belle (as a demonstration of the plant's abilities). Scootaloo is barely restraining herself from laughing herself sick at the results, and Spliced herself has to suppress a snort of laughter when she hears it gives Fluttershy the same voice.
  • Legend Fades to Myth: The truth about the founding of Equestria has had this happen about it, as Snöflinga the windigo reveals. As he explains, among other things, "Private Pansy", "Smart Cookie" and "Clover the Clever" were actually his friends "Privateer Pansy", "Tough Cookie" and "Clover the Cobbler". Also, he refers to Princess Platinum, General Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead as "monsters".
  • Little "No": Spliced utters one at the end of chapter 29, when she realizes she's back on the moon.
  • Logical Weakness: Snöflinga's species feeds on conflict and negativity. Naturally, when Flurry Heart's unrestricted love is directed at him, it makes him queasy.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: The one Sombra set up in the Crystal Empire comes into play again in chapter 20, this time affecting Spliced Genome and showing her her worst fears — that she's back in her lunar prison, suffering Loss of Identity again.
  • Mama Bear:
    • Celestia decides to send Spliced to stay in Ponyville with Twilight, but makes it very clear what will happen if the visiting alicorn if she harms Twilight or anypony (or non-pony). Spliced's reaction: "That mare is scary."
    • Twilight is the same when it comes to Spike, warning Spliced that if her plan to help him get ready for what's basically puberty doesn't work out like she promised, Spliced will have to explain the entire thing to Spike, all of Twilight's friends, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Dragon Lord Ember and her father, former Dragon Lord Torch. And then, as an implied threat and the final nail in the coffin, she informs Spliced that she and her friends once banished a being who hurt Spike into the prison realm of Tartarus.
    • Cadance is protective of everyone in her family and the Crystal Empire; she disapproves of Spliced's behavior towards Snöflinga, threatening her with banishment if she continues acting like that, and is concerned for Twilight's and Flurry Heart's safety in Spliced's presence, telling Twilight she would never trust Flurry Heart alone with Spliced. Later, when Spliced wants to perform a small scanning spell on Flurry, Cadance insists that Twilight cast it instead.
  • Mistaken for Racist: When Spliced starts explaining about her world's Pures (Alicorns) and Thirds (the other three tribes, who have only a third of what a Pure has), she realizes that this might sound like racism, and starts explaining that to her, the differences between the tribes are purely biological, with Thirds variously lacking any or all of the following: a carbuncle (the organ that generates their thaumatics), the particular keratin (a fibrous structural protein) that makes up a horn, or the bones that form wings.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Spliced is this in the morning, since she doesn't get a lot of sleep due to her nightmares.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Twilight's reaction when Spliced points out the damage she's inadvertently done to Spike's growth, meaning he's physically a child who's about to enter puberty with the wrong mindset.
    • Spliced's reaction when it finally hits her just what kind of monster she was before she was sent to the moon.
  • Mythology Gag: In chapter 19, Celestia mentions a Miss Hackney, who was teaching the day Lemon Hearts got her head stuck in a flask (as seen in a flashback in the episode Amending Fences), and who shares her name with the girls' teacher in My Little Pony Tales.
  • Narrative Profanity Filter:
    • Spike mentions an incident in his past when Princess Luna apparently swore a lot in his presence (to the point where it nearly set the nearby paperwork on fire) while complaining about Prince Blueblood, but adds that he's not allowed to use that kind of language until he's at least eighteen — the only part he can quote without getting in trouble is 'snooty little plothead'.
    • In chapter 21, Snöflinga mutters something profane under his breath in his own language; Spike, who says he's heard worse, declines to translate it for the others.
  • Never Heard That One Before:
    • Snöflinga is used to being referred to by "Snowflake", which is what his real name translates as.
    • Doctor Glorious Death has heard all the jokes about her name. Luckily, she has a sense of humor about it, and her colleague Doctor Hale suspects she went into medicine for the irony.
    • In chapter 19, Spliced becomes convinced that Shining Armor can't be Flurry Heart's father, due to her oversized wings and having more pegasus magic than unicorn magic. Cadance and Shining Armor inform her that others have made such speculation too, but they were wrong — Flurry Heart gets her wings from her mother, since Cadance was born a pegasus before ascending to alicornhood.
  • Noodle Incident: Just what happened the first time Luna met Princess Platinum to make her so distrusting of the other mare?
  • Not a Morning Person: Both Spliced and Twilight, as shown in chapter 23.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: Even Spliced knows she's being a bit out of character when she decides to comfort Twilight over the latter realizing her mistakes in regard to Spike, but can't bring herself not to do so.
  • Papa Wolf: Discord is very protective of Fluttershy, and makes it very clear to Spliced that he knows of her past with experimental plagues and what will happen if she harms Fluttershy or anypony else in this world with them.
  • Parental Substitute: Per canon, Twilight to Spike, but it's made more visible as Twilight actually refers to him as her son here, especially when Spliced starts calling her out on her inadvertent stunting of his growth.
  • Poke the Poodle: Spliced and Starlight's interactions amount to this when Spliced swipes Starlight's breakfast from her in chapter 11 after Starlight makes a snippy remark to her about being polite. Twilight is not amused.
  • Power Copying: Discussed and averted — Luna and Celestia don't want to send Spliced to Tartarus, regardless of her crimes, because they're afraid Tirek might do this to her and become immortal.
  • Powers That Be: Twilight reveals that for all the dimensions she was shown, there are Powers that act as the source for what they are named after in that dimension. Examples include:
    • Celestia is the Lady of Day. Luna, her Opposite, is the Lady of Night (and also of Dreams).
    • The Bearers each represent a subset of Harmony (Honesty, Loyalty, Laughter, Kindness and Magic); their collective Opposite is Disharmony, with Discord as its Lord, and the Opposites of the six Elements are Lies, Oathbreaking, Sorrow, Cruelty, Self-centeredness and Technology (the last of which Twilight doesn't seem to appreciate).
    • War and Peace are also Powers that are Opposites, with Peace being the nasty one who acts aggressively to ensure that war won't break out.
    • It's further revealed that a Lord or Lady of one Power cannot enter another dimension unless that Power has no Lord or Lady present at the time, unless they're invited.
  • Pragmatic Hero: Spliced displays a touch of this when she chooses to help Twilight with Spike, out of a desire to avoid being punished by certain individuals for causing harm by deliberate inaction.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Spliced Genome's comes when, after close to three hundred years of behaving herself, she's killed again... destroying all the hard (and harmless) work she's been doing, causing her to decide she's had enough and she's leaving now.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Princess Celestia is one, accepting Spliced's gesture of fixing her broken nose in the spirit that it was meant, and being willing to hear her out about her past. However, upon hearing about her past, Celestia and Luna have a private conversation on their thoughts on Spliced, recognize the danger she poses and agree to handle her with extreme care.
  • Recap Episode: Chapter 29 serves as a summation of many past events as Spliced testifies about herself in court.
  • Red Baron: In her native dimension, Spliced was dubbed the "Viral Maniac" for her crimes.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • Apparently, the Great Old One Azathoth once resided in Spliced Genome's world, but the locals kept resisting its control, to the point where Azathoth decided it wasn't worth the effort and moved on to go after some other planet or dimension.
    • In the last chapter, Spliced learns that nobody knows how to turn her mortal again. Furious and tired, she teleports away to parts unknown.
  • Stealthy Teleportation: As of chapter 19.5, Pharynx has apparently learned how to do this, as he teleports back to the hive for a quick word with Thorax, and then back to the Crystal Empire afterward. Thorax makes a note to learn it himself.
  • Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Spliced Genome's reaction to learning that being an alicorn automatically puts you in a position of leadership in this world, especially if they try to make her a princess — she admits that she would make a terrible leader, having killed every plant she's ever owned out of negligence. Even a cactus.
  • Time-Compression Montage: The final chapter shows various scenes, jumping forward in time between each one and covering up to the end of her sentence on the moon.
  • This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: When Spike mentions that all winged species can walk on clouds, Spliced's reaction is that "That is impossible on so many levels that I cannot even begin to describe how impossible that is." She's quickly proven wrong when Rainbow Dash pushes a cloud into the room and sits on it. Then again when Starlight levitates Spliced herself onto the cloud, which she finds is quite solid to her.
  • Translator Buddy: Spike acts as this for Snöflinga both before and after Snöflinga starts learning modern Equish, since he's the only one around who can speak the windigo's native language.
  • Trust Password: Twilight sets one each up for Spike and Starlight, in order to confirm her identity after she returns from the Valley of Alicorns and prove that it's not another Power impersonating her.
  • The Unreveal: What exactly the Valley of Alicorns is; the chapter cuts off right as Twilight starts to explain.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Snöflinga/Snowflake the windigo uses "Fimbulwinter", the term for the three years of successive winters (with no summers in between) that precede Ragnarok in Norse myth, as a curse. Later, he refers to certain individuals as "Ymir-spawned bastards!", referencing the father of all frost giants in the same myths.
  • Use Your Head: Spliced Genome's reaction, when Princess Celestia tries to keep her from leaving her bed, is to headbutt the other mare and break her snout. (She apologizes later and heals it though.)
  • Wedgie: In chapter 19.5, Pharynx says he's going to give one to Chrysalis once they catch her. When Thorax points out that she doesn't wear clothes, Pharynx says that clothes or no clothes, he's still capable of doing it to her, and Thorax is both intrigued and terrified by the idea.
  • Wham Line: The very end of chapter 18, when Snöflinga/Snowflake identifies "Privateer Pansy", "Tough Cookie" and "Clover the Cobbler" as his friends. Chapter 19 then shows the characters reacting to it.
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: While listening to the story of Ponyville's founding, Spliced wonders to herself "who in their right mind would give their foal the first name Stinking?"
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Spliced Genome begins to really hate her immortality. After years of promising to turn her mortal, those in charge admit that they lost the process to render her mortal again. This only furthers her growing depression.
  • Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: Spliced wonders, in chapter 19, if Blueblood would really be dumb enough to attempt a coup while the princesses are away. Celestia's response, that they have to pretend they're concerned about it so as to discourage him from doing so, indicates that yes, he is.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain:
    • In chapter 29, Spliced has been put on trial and effectively gotten what she wanted, with the judges having reduced her sentence to freedom once she cures all the diseases and viruses she's made, requiring her only to undergo mandatory psychological evaluation and therapy afterward. Then agents of the higher intergalactic tribunal show up and inform everyone that their bosses have already made up their own minds, re-arrest her and take her back to her old cell on the moon.
    • The story ends with Spliced, having finally served out her full sentence, asking the council members to fulfill their promise and make her mortal again so she can die permanently... only to learn that they don't know how.
  • You Are a Credit to Your Race: Spliced Genome says this to her doctor, but realizes afterward that her words might be taken as offensive. Her attempts to apologize lead to a case of Digging Yourself Deeper.

     A Winter's Tale 

A Winter's Tale contains examples of:

  • Adaptational Villainy: In show canon, the trio of General Hurricane, Princess Platinum and Chancellor Puddinghead were jerks (or at least eccentric, in Puddinghead's case), but eventually ended up good. Here, they're all straight-up evil Hate Sinks.
  • Bilingual Bonus: In chapter 1, Snöflinga is mentioned as being in his "spöklik" form, meaning "spectral" or "ghost-like" (it's the flying form that all windigos have).
  • The Call Put Me on Hold: Like the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Clover has yet to earn her Cutie Mark... but it hits her far worse, because she's already effectively an adult and doesn't have one. She finally earns it in chapter 6 when she creates the necklaces that link the foursome.
  • Child Hater: Princess Platinum, who thinks children should be born as mature adults so their parents don't have to "waste" their time and energy raising them. Subverted by Hurricane, who rolls his eyes when she says this and says afterward that it's their responsibility to raise children in the proper way, which Puddinghead agrees with while noting that such effort doesn't always work out.
  • The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Subverted with a vengeance. There's a position in windigo society where one member is the designated complainer, or Ymir's Advocate (named for a former windigo leader who was supposedly the first of their kind), whose job it is argue against decisions made and point out any legitimate problems there might be that the others might not have otherwise thought of. Snöflinga was actually going to be given this position before he ran off, and when he finds out he's very surprised.
  • Emotion Eater:
    • Windigos, per canon, feed on negative emotions. Clover discovers from first-hoof experience that this can actually benefit ponies, since Snöflinga's feeding on her sadness left her feeling happier. Tough Cookie later remarks that his abilities would do wonders for therapists, since he could feed off their patients and help them feel better.
    • The sirens, who are a lot like seaponies but feed on negative emotions (and also flesh). Unlike windigos, who harvest in secret and are their natural rivals, they actively go stirring up trouble to feed on.
    • Changelings are briefly discussed in chapter 6. They live in warmer climates, feed on positive emotions, and have a mutual "We don't bother them and they don't bother us" policy with windigos.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • During the pegasus/griffon war, two of their soldiers secretly worked together to earn their way up the ranks by making themselves look good, and eventually became leaders of their respective nations. Those two were Hurricane, now leader of Pegasolopse's military junta, and Glaucus, leader of the griffon nation.
    • Later, the two form an alliance with Princess Puddinghead, Princess Platinum and Snöflinga's father Snjóstormur, each making the others out to be worse threats in order to hide that they're actually working together for a common goal, seeking to cement their rule of their respective nations.
  • Evil Chancellor: Puddinghead, who managed to usurp control of the kingdom by rallying the people against the royal family via propaganda, essentially forcing all but Princess Tough A. Cookie (whom he held as a hostage, lying that he would free her if they did as he said) into exile and keeping her hostage against them, threatening to kill the others if they ever returned.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Snöflinga's father Snjóstormur strongly disapproves of his interest in the pony tribes and their developments, viewing them only as a source of negative emotions for his kind to feed on. Later subverted when it turns out he values this trait of being disagreed with, because it's necessary for the position of Ymir's Advocate, which he intends Snöflinga to take up.
  • Fight Clubbing: Tough Cookie (the real name of Smart Cookie) is revealed to be involved in an underground fight club in the first chapter.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Since it's a prequel, it's a given that the story will result in Equestria's founding and Snöflinga being separated from his friends and buried in ice for over a thousand years.
  • Hypocrite: The three leaders — Hurricane, Platinum and Puddinghead — all espouse dislike of the other races. In truth, they're secretly working together. And Snöflinga's father, who also views the ponies as nothing more than a source of food, is also part of their alliance, as is Glaucus, the griffon leader who gained his position from moving up the ranks during a war between griffons and pegasi.
  • Hidden Elf Village:
    • The seaponies, who (as Snöflinga notes) are mostly peaceful kelp farmers and are a lot better at keeping apart from the rest of the pony tribes, to the point where Tough Cookie had never heard of them before Snöflinga mentions them.
    • Sirens, to an extent. They also keep themselves hidden for the most part, even when preying on land-dwelling ponies.
  • Impoverished Patrician: Tough Cookie, daughter of the former king of the Earth pony kingdom, who's been essentially stripped of her position by Puddinghead's usurpation of her family's rule and has to fight for a living.
  • In-Series Nickname: Clover gets nicknamed "Clover the Clever" in chapter 3, when Snöflinga comes up with it as a compliment on her intelligence. She herself initially introduces herself as "Clover the Cobbler".
  • Insult Friendly Fire: In chapter 5, Cookie uses the term "snowed" in a negative way, then apologizes to Snöflinga for doing so. Fortunately for her, he knew what she meant and isn't offended.
  • Like Cannot Cut Like: As Snöflinga notes, emotivores cannot feed on one another, or even sense the emotions of other emotivores.
  • Monster Progenitor: According to windigo legend, Ymir was the first of their kind, whom his people overthrew for being a total monster.
  • Mysterious Middle Initial: When Tough Cookie's history is revealed in chapter 5, her full name is given as Tough A. Cookie, but what the "A" stands for is unidentified.
  • Photographic Memory: Clover has one, able to exactly remember things she's read long ago and make use of the knowledge.
  • Prequel in the Lost Age: A Winter's Tale covers the events set before the founding of Equestria, which are over a thousand years in the past.
  • Privateer: "Private Pansy", as mentioned in The Mare from the Moon, is actually Privateer Pansy, a former sky pirate who's been pardoned and is now working for General Hurricane's military junta. Despite this, he's still treated poorly by the other captains working for the general.
  • Sapient Eat Sapient: In addition to being emotivores, sirens like to drown ponies and then devour them.
  • Speech Impediment: Snöflinga has a tendency to stutter, especially when speaking Equestrian, and sometimes has difficulty even getting words out at all when he's embarrassed or frustrated. It improves as he spends more time with Pansy, Clover and Cookie.
  • The Un-Favourite: Snöflinga is this for his family, as the fourth son who has a far more progressive view and desire to adapt certain developments that the ponies have, as opposed to his highly conservative family who see ponies only as a food source.
  • The Usurper:
    • Puddinghead, who served as a trusted chancellor to the royal family until he turned the people against them and exiled them, installing himself as their new leader.
    • Hurricane, technically, though there's no proof he personally arranged it beyond working his way up the ranks of the military and earning popularity among the populace, which led to the public ousting the old and ineffective monarchy and installing him as their leader. There are some who find his rise suspicious though.
    • Platinum, youngest child of the king of the unicorns, who murdered her way to the throne when her father wouldn't give her her own territory to rule.

     The World Left Behind 

  • Mythology Gag: In chapter 2, Twilight tells Sunset Shimmer about one of the alternate universes she viewed with her fellow Princesses, wherein "Blueblood was so detestable and offended every single pony in Ponyville, to the point where Luna broke free from Nightmare Moon on her own because she was so tired of being compared to somepony like him just because they were both royalty." She's describing the events of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Deviations comic.

     Scavenge for the Future 

  • Accidental Public Confession: Ray threatens to kill Check Mark if the crew of the Excelsior doesn't bring him what he wants within an hour. He then beats her to death, unaware until afterward that he left the communications system on and that they saw and heard everything, meaning they know he lied.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Type two — Aerostorm's wing gets shot off by Ray Blaster, who's firing randomly at that point, in chapter six when she's coming to her girlfriend's rescue. It's later fully restored, courtesy of Spliced Genome.
  • Big Bad: Clear Vision, who seeks to conquer the universe. Supposedly. Subverted when he turns out to actually be a Disc-One Final Boss after Subtle Dancer finally reveals herself by shooting him dead.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The third story ends when Spliced finally dies permanently and is at peace, while taking out the one responsible... but their boss is still alive and has acquired the Spear of Reclamation, allowing their plans to go forward.
  • Book Ends: The first story begins with Spliced awakening in her bed in the prison on the moon, deciding to call herself Doa even though the name doesn't fit. Chapter 13 of Scavenge For the Future ends with her crawling into the same bed, commenting on how the name finally fits, and falling into the Big Sleep.
  • The Bus Came Back: After a lot of teasing, it is revealed that the owner of Doa's Bar is none other than Spliced Genome in the latest of a series of disguises and false identities she's used over the years.
  • Cop Killer: Ray Blaster, who guns down nearly an entire security force when he breaks out of his cell.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Clear Vision, the Big Bad. He puts on a friendly face as CEO of the Shining Tomorrow organization, but he's really out for galactic conquest.
  • Crippling Castration: Ray Blaster suffers a justifiable one with his own gun, courtesy of Downpour, the owner of Doa's Bar. Who is actually Spliced Genome.
  • Cure for Cancer: Spliced is able to fix Aerostorm's lung cancer just by sending a magical pulse through her and harmlessly pulling all the cancer cells out, then disintegrating them.
  • The Cycle of Empires: People state the galaxy is in the decay state and any day now will fall into the long night. Spliced and her group comment on how it looks like the villains are working to speed up the process.
  • Dirty Old Man: Clear Vision likes to watch his secretary leaving his office, staring at her flank as she goes. She kicks his corpse in retaliation after killing him in chapter 13.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: Subtle Dancer, who's been manipulating Spliced's life for a very, very long time — she's the reason Spliced never had friends, she was present at the events when Spliced was recruited into the Thirds' army, she's the one who made Spliced immortal on behalf of the government (though really for her own reasons and, due to her talent preventing anyone from questioning her actions or anything related to them, they were not even aware that they had ordered this), and she was acting as a maid in the Crystal Empire in one scene. The penultimate chapter reveals that she was behind everything that went wrong.
  • The Dragon: As powerful and complex as the plans Subtle created are, she is this to someone even more powerful and dangerous than she is.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Ray Blaster suffers one from Downpour, who smashes him in the face with his own gun, shoots him in the groin and then slams his gun through his skull.
  • Final Boss: Subtle Dancer is this for the Doa-Verse, having orchestrated the entire sequence of events that led to Spliced Genome winding up the mare she was, from her failing her ethics test to becoming involved in the civil war that Subtle started and Spliced's punishment afterward. Subtle also planned the massive galactic crisis to lure Spliced back to the moon so she would get the Spear of Reclamation for the one Subtle follows.
  • Forgettable Character: Subtle Dancer. Her talent is being unnoticeable, and she's done this countless times — one time she was in the Crystal Empire acting as a maid and nobody noticed she didn't leave when Twilight had everyone except for her friends leave.
  • From a Single Cell: Spliced's immortality is so advanced that she once revived (albeit slowly) from being disintegrated in a ship explosion.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: Scratched and Aerostorm certainly think so. Zaat disagrees when Aerostorm is one of the girls, though not because he objects to homosexuality — he just doesn't like seeing a girl he thinks of as a sister doing that kind of thing with anyone, regardless of gender.
  • Great Big Library of Everything: The archive world of Jukern VI, part of a multi-planet library intended to preserve as much information as possible for the next generation since it's widely believed that a galactic collapse of civilization is going to happen soon.
  • Healing Hands: Spliced is able to heal, or "fix", others with her magic... up to and including effectively generating them a new limb, as shown when she restores Aerostorm's lost wing.
  • The Heavy: Clear Vision, whose plans to conquer the galaxy are what drive the plot, leading to Scratched Wrench and her team running into Ray Blaster and setting them on the path to meeting Spliced Genome. Then it turns out he never had a plan and was just used by Subtle Dancer to get Spliced back to the moon.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: By the time of this story, Spliced Genome is known more for her work healing and curing the diseases she created and is considered the foremare in the universal health standard. She reacts with disgust at hearing that description of her.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Ray Blaster wants to do this to Scratched, Aerostorm and pretty much any female he can.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Subtle Dancer dies, with Spliced ramming her horn up through the underside of Subtle Dancer's chin and out through the top of her head.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Aerostorm's coughing turns out to be this — it's a sign of her lung cancer, which is slowly killing her. Ultimately subverted when Spliced fixes it, saving her life.
  • Insistent Terminology: Spliced Genome corrects people who call her "doctor", since she never actually earned her medical degree. Also, when she heals someone of their injuries or illnesses, she always says she "fixed" them, rather than "healed" or "cured".
  • Interspecies Romance: Scratched Wrench, a pegasus, is dating and by the epilogue is married to Aerostorm, a griffon.
  • In the Back: How Clear Vision dies, shot by Subtle Dancer.
  • Landfill Beyond the Stars: The story begins on Zeehale, a desert world full of junk, with Scratched Wrench, Aerostorm and Zaat living there.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Zaat and Aerostorm, as Zaat says in the first chapter.
  • Long Game: The true Big Bad's plan relies on one — they need Spliced alive long enough to retrieve the Spear of Reclamation, so they stirred up enough trouble to start a war, influenced it so she would be drawn in and manipulated things so her punishment would include inducing immortality in her so she would live long enough to retrieve it.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: In the final chapter, it's revealed that Spliced left a holographic message for Scratched Wrench, revealing that she and Steady Cut had a girl together and Scratched Wrench is her direct descendent.
  • Mama Bear: Retroactively with Spliced Genome, who castrates the pony who threatened her many-times-great-granddaughter with his own gun. Neither of them knew of the relationship at the time though — Spliced herself wasn't told who it was she'd saved until shortly afterward.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Subtle Dancer turns out to be one to the acting Big Bad, and it turns out there's one behind her too.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Subtle Dancer, who's been manipulating Spliced Genome almost her entire life and had done this sort of thing countless times in the past, destroying countless universes in the process, all to hone her technique as a manipulator in order to get to this one point. Among other things:
    • She encouraged Spliced to focus on studying rather than learning important social skills as a child.
    • She arranged for Spliced to fail her ethics test, putting her in a position of loneliness and frustration.
    • She deliberately created a race war, all to put Spliced into position to kill millions.
    • She manipulated things so Spliced would end up immortal, allowing her to live long enough to achieve Subtle's goal.
    • She got Spliced sent to the moon, where she could find her way into another world that would allow her to learn empathy and start to feel immensely guilty for her actions.
    • When Spliced returned, she manipulated the trial so Spliced would return to the moon, furthering her descent into crippling depression.
    • She dangled a love interest in front of Spliced, knowing she would take it and more than likely give birth to a baby she would give up.
    • She purposely caused trouble for Spliced's descendants, including inflicting Aerostorm with cancer after the griffon fell in love with Scratched Wrench, just to torment the family.
    • When Spliced finally learns why she's been manipulated all this time, so she could be used to one day retrieve an item for Subtle Dancer and her superior, Subtle Dancer is willing to kill billions more and destroy a star system if Spliced would not play along.
    • And during that confrontation, Subtle Dancer admits that she could have gotten some random kid to retrieve the item, but decided that all this manipulation was more enjoyable.
  • Mortality Ensues: What the Big Bad plans for Spliced once she's retrieved the Spear, followed by her immediate death.
  • My Grandson, Myself: Since the end of The Mare from the Moon, Spliced has changed her identity and fakes her death every so often, posing as her original false identity's descendant.
  • Not Blood Siblings: Scratched Wrench's parents have adopted Aerostorm as their other daughter. Doesn't stop the two from being a couple, with plans to get married someday.
  • Older Than They Look:
    • Spliced Genome, who hasn't aged in six thousand years.
    • Subtle Dancer, who's been around since before Spliced and yet hasn't aged since they met all those thousands of years ago.
  • Portal Network: Jumpgates, which allow for transport of spaceships from one location to another.
  • Secret Legacy: So secret even her parents didn't know — Scratched is descended from Spliced Genome.
  • Secretly Dying: Aerostorm, who's been suffering from terminal lung cancer since before the story started. It's so secret that she refuses to tell anyone until after Spliced Genome fixes it and exposes her condition to her friends in the process.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Subtle Dancer is only present and interacting in the last few chapters, but it reveals that everything that happened in the story was part of her plan.
  • Stronger Than They Look: Zaat, who's able to carry a full-grown griffon with ease. Scratched is very surprised by it when she sees it.
  • The Teetotaler: Scratched Wrench doesn't drink for any reason.
  • Throw the Book at Them: While facing Ray Blaster in the libraries of Jukern VI, Scratched hits him over the head with a very heavy volume and knocks him out long enough for her to escape.
  • Two Girls and a Guy: The main characters consist of main protagonist Scratched Wrench, her griffon girlfriend Aerostorm, and their male harpie friend Zaat, who considers Aerostorm a sister.
  • Universal Universe Time: Subverted. Scratched Wrench and her crew come from a planet with a very long year — by its standards, they're only two years old, whereas by Hesturland or Equestrian standards, they'd be roughly twenty-one. Furthermore, Zeehale's day (one full rotation) is 108 hours long, and is divided into six segments — each eighteen hours long, with ten of those hours dedicated to waking and eight to sleeping. During high day and high night, going outside is near impossible due to the searing heat and freezing cold.
  • Weaponized Exhaust: In chapter 7, Zaat tells Scratched that if she finds their enemy again, she should lure him to their ship so they can use this against him. He doesn't get the chance to pull it off, because the owner of Doa's Bar kills their foe first.
  • Wham Episode:
    • The penultimate chapter reveals that Subtle Dancer, among setting everything in motion, from Spliced's failed ethics test to Spliced unleashing the viruses to her banishment to everything else, also destroyed countless universes as practice for this one moment.
    • The last chapter of the Doa-Verse reveals that whomever Subtle Dancer answered to has obtained the Spear of Reclamation, resides in the Realm Between Dimensions with a massive army and foretells that the end is coming.
  • Wrench Wench: Scratched Wrench, a genius with fixing up technology.
  • Wretched Hive: Doa's Bar, where the main characters arrive after fleeing Jukern VI, in an attempt to hire some mercenaries to help them deal with Ray Blaster and to find someone who can read the data box they recovered. Unlike most examples though, Doa's also has very high standards when it comes to ensuring their customers don't cause trouble.

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