Fanfic / Spectrum Reports In Wartime

Case Files

First Published: Mar. 31st 2014

• All There in the Manual: This side-story expands on the history of the war, revealing the finer details of what's happened through interviews and narration.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Marcus delivers a couple to the founder of the PER after she was captured, first asking her why she hasn't taken the potion for herself if she claimed to hate humanity and being a human so much. He then asks just how the Solar Empire ponies could be kind and peaceful if they're stealing humanity's home, vaporizing all of its history into nothing, and committing the worst kind of Mind Rape imaginable. She can't answer either of those, and instead resorts to hurling insults at Marcus and telling him that he will bow to Queen Celestia one day.
• Cassandra Truth: One of the factors that led to the Harriet Thomas Foundation (a support group for people whose loved ones left them after getting ponified) becoming the Human Liberation Front was that the HTF's founder, a reverend named James Thomas (Harriet's father), failed to get the FDA to take his concerns about the potion seriously.
  • As with TCB!Lyra - she was seen as crazy at first, or no different from the potion-happy forces of the Solar Empire.
• Continuity Nod: TCB!Lyra's commemoration of Queen Elizabeth and public declaration of her defection from the Solar Empire is lifted from the Asia Side Story.
• Dark Messiah: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the PER's founder, was regarded as a "high priestess" by her more fanatical followers.
• Documentary Episode: This side-story is described by Redskin as being like "something you would see on TruTV".
• Hand Wave: According to the PER chapter, the reason that there were so few interviews with PER members is that most of them are dead, because "in the presence of most anyone that did not support the Solar Empire, their lifespan was best measured in minutes."
• Hate Sink: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the founder of the PER and The Quisling to all of humanity. Sure, the Solar Empire ponies aren't exactly slouches when it comes to the war crimes and atrocities they've committed, but it's also clear they are little more than pawns in the Big Bad's master plan. Reitman meanwhile was a selfish opportunist who sold out her species for her own desires.
• Heroic Sacrifice: It's explained that TCB!Lyra was captured by the Empire in the aftermath of the famed "Battle of Thunderchild", wherein she commandeered a magically-enhanced Cool Ship off the coast of Iceland to give the refugees there time to evacuate from the approaching Imperial forces. The diversion succeeded at the cost of the prototype ship's destruction and her getting taken prisoner before she could leave the area.
  • How Dare You Die on Me!: Thinking back, Marcus can't help but express this sentiment, though he quickly relents and admits the depth of his grief.
• Kangaroo Court: TCB!Lyra's "trial" after being captured by the Solar Empire amounted to little more than this.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The disgust which most characters express for the HLF's actions pales next to their utter contempt for the PER.
• Magitek: The creative ways the PHL find to combine technology and magic to further the war effort are lovingly detailed.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Dr. Reitman's initials make it clear that she's an unflattering stand-in for Chatoyance herself.
  • The same goes for the pony supremacist unicorn Catseye, whose physical description matches Chatoyance's profile picture on Fimfiction.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: HLF supporter Senator Patrick Goleman seems to have been this.
• Oh, Crap!: Lyra's reaction to finding out that the Harriet Thomas Foundation had become the HLF:
  ... Lyra was on record as looking in fear for a couple seconds, saying simply, "This won't end well."
• Reassigned to Antarctica: What Marcus's reassignment as Ambassador Lyra's bodyguard was meant to be...
  • Reassignment Backfire: ... before he helped her shape the PHL into an effective military force.
• Retired Monster: Some of the interviewees are former HLF members, such as Andrew Silas, Dayoung Tengku and Viktor Kraber. Granted, Andrew Silas' only crime was graffiti tagging Buckingham Palace, Dayoung Tengku only stuck with the HLF after they saved her from the PER and she left pretty quickly, and Kraber is not anywhere near okay with his past misdeeds, and Word Of Fluffy is that he's suicidal due to the sheer guilt. Nonetheless, there's plenty of HLF members that qualify. There's also PER defector Ernst Kasparek, who left due to a crisis of conscience.
• Shown Their Work: The mentions of landmarks in Riga, such as the Daugava and Cathedral Dome, are actual places.
• Take That!: Again, several of them are applied to Chatoyance and to the TCB subgenre as a whole.
  • TCB!Lyra acted as one against Chatoyance's version of earth as a diseased hellhole and her Humans Are Bastards views:
  Lyra: (to Aegis) "I've seen most humans, and I've visited many places all over Earth. Let me tell you this: they're not living in some dystopia where everything is owned by a greedy minority and every religion is some corrupt scam church like so many newfoals claim! Sure, it isn't perfect, but it's not as though they're riddled with kill-happy criminals, murderers, terrorist fanatics, and whatever else you can think of! They seem happy!"
  • An unintended example popped up in Andrew Silas' interview where he mentions having known some trans individuals who came to regret going through with a sex reassignment operations (unlike the newfoals who never stop telling people how great ponification is no matter how long it's been since they were converted). Chatoyance once infamously put up a "support" website for transpeople advising them to cheat on psychiatric tests that would determine whether they were really trans and thus qualified for surgery. There probably are people out there that took her "advice" to heart...
    • According to Doctor Fluffy, it was unintentional, but he thought the coincidence was funny and ultimately made it a straight Take That! retroactively.
  • Exaggerated with the reveal that the PER's founder was a misanthropic doctor named Jacqueline Dionna Reitman. In other words, she shares the same initials as Chatoyance's real life name (Jennifer Diane Reitz). For that matter, the names even sound similar.
    • Also, while she's in federal custody, she gets punched in the face by an FBI interrogator (with an "audible crack" to go along with it) and receives a vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Marcus.
  • One PER agent being interrogated in a flashback clip is named Mikhailovitch. Mikhailovitch is the Russian equivalent of "Michelson," making him a Russian equivalent of Michelson from Chatoyance's infamous story The Speed of Right. He even mentions another PER agent named Morely.
• Techno Babble: A magical variant was given to Aegis while he was talking to TCB!Lyra. He did not understand it at all.
• Truth in Television: That mention of the "fire hedgehog"? That's based on a real thing.
• Turn in Your Badge: Spitfire quit the Wonderbolts after an argument with Rainbow Dash... which was quickly followed by the entire 'old guard' of the Wonderbolts.

Adrift

First Published: Nov. 24th 2014

• Badass Crew: Subverted with the Mamayev Kurgan's crew. While they are armed and dangerous, they consist of a bunch of misfits given control of an aging Russian ship.
  • Downplayed in Segment Two. While the crew managed to subdue the SAS raiders, they suffered larger losses and only won due to the SAS team being convinced to lay down their arms in exchange for medical equipment.
• The Cameo: Stellar spots a wounded Aegis in the aftermath of the car bomb.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Stellar has some shades of this. For instance, he inexplicably thinks there are humanoid robots in St. Paul's Cathedral.
• Celebrity Paradox: A variant of this trope is used. As Sherlock Holmes is stated to be a living person in the Spectrumverse, the interviewer (implied to be Mycroft Holmes) is utterly perplexed when Stellar mentions Sherclop Pones.
• Celebrity Survivor: Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Stellar mentions and witnessed the aftermath of the car bomb meant to kill Lyra, and saw a wounded Aegis on the scene as well.
  • The USS Gerald R. Ford is mentioned to be in the North Sea; it appeared in the same location in the Europe side story.
• Crossover: The detective Stellar runs into is very heavily implied to be Sherlock Holmes. His name, "William Scott", matches Sherlock's full name in the show - William Scott Sherlock Holmes.
• Cryptic Background Reference: The end of the first segment show several related files. While the first few file names have something to do with the chapter, the meaning of the last one (named Project Eris) isn't explained.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Ana.
• Deadpan Snarker: The interviewer. As he's heavily implied to be Mycroft Holmes, it's rather natural.
• The Dreaded: The Special Air Service is this to Viktor and the rest of the human crew.
• Epic Fail:
  • Ana somehow ending up in Blackburn through the London Underground.
  • Stellar and the smugglers failing to identify a foreign head of state on board their ship.
• Failed a Spot Check: Stellar and his fellow crewmates managed to miss the fact that they have a foreign president (and an old, abdicated king) on board. The interviewer lampshades this repeatedly.
• Framing Device: The whole story is presented as an interview recording.
• The Ghost: The smugglers' boss. And to an extent, the organization the smugglers work for isn't named.
• In-Series Nickname: The interviewer is called the Umbrella Man by Stellar.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: See Noodle Incident below.
• Lighter and Softer: Somewhat less dark in tone than the other Spectrumverse stories, in stark contrast with Light Despondent and Last Train.
• Lower-Deck Episode
• MacGuffin: The stolen missiles are a downplayed variant.
• The Men in Black: The interviewer is called one of these by Stellar.
• Motor Mouth: Stellar Wind, for some parts of the interview.
• Noodle Incident: The interviewer has had a run-in with Aegis before. He doesn't want to talk about it.
• No Name Given/ Only Known by Their Nickname: The Interviewer refuses to give away his name, resulting in Stellar deciding to call him the Umbrella Man.
• Oblivious to Love: It's implied that Ana has feelings for Stellar. He doesn't notice.
• One-Word Title
• The Pollyanna: Stellar is this, combined with Unfazed Everyman.
  • Stepford Smiler: However, he also has a lot of inner pain and sadness, making him sort of a Sad Clown.
• Ragtag Band of Misfits: The smugglers. And by extension, the rest of the passengers.
• Suddenly Shouting: Stellar does this when talking about Viktor Kraber, who is still a member of the HLF at this point. Apparently, Kraber managed to blow two bureaus into oblivion, and killed most of the ponies in Innsbruck, Austria.
• Vodka Drunkenski: Crewmember Nikolai Belinski. His drunken behavior leads to a shootout between Jokowi's guards and the crew, as well as the SAS raid.

Many Faces Of Mankind

First Published: March 05th 2015

• Ascended Extra: Yael Ze'ev reappears here.
• Continuity Nod: There's a mention of a guy named Polmont throwing a bottle at Reverend James Thomas' face, which was referenced in Light.
• Call-Forward:
  • Yael claims that the reason she hates the HLF so much is that the thought of contending with them during evac when the barrierfalls scares her. She namedrops both Atlas Galt and Truro, Nova Scotia in this, foreshadowing the events of Last Train. There's also a mention of possibly getting genderbent while being ponified.
• Documentary Episode: Though unlike Case Files, this story reads as an extended magazine article with several different interviews interspersed here and there.
• The Unreveal: Kraber and Aegis have a Cryptic Conversation about whatever it was that ponified Verity. It reveals... absolutely nothing.