History Fanfic / EscapeFromTheMoon

* GaleForceSound: Twilight manages to send Spliced flying by the sheer force of her ''voice'' when she gets angry at Spliced [[spoiler: saying she'd ''abused'' Spike by the way she raised him not to horde.]]

''Escape From the Moon'' by Creator/{{Evilhumour}} and his beta-reader/co-author [[https://www.fimfiction.net/user/172032/AnoneMouseJr/stories?order=updated Anon e Mouse Jr.]] is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' 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.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/385071/escape-from-the-moon 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.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/385678/the-mare-from-the-moon The Mare From the Moon]]'' (published September 15, 2017 and completed November 10, 2018): Three hundred years later, events drive Doa/[[spoiler: Spliced Genome]] to finally leave the moon and return to her homeworld, only to end up taking an unexpected side-trip.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/407984/a-winters-tale A Winter's Tale]]'' (published April 29, 2018 and completed February 12, 2020): Set in the distant past of [[spoiler: the Equestria that Spliced Genome visits in ''The Mare From the Moon'', revealing the truth of Equestria's founding in that universe.]]

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/424882/scavenge-for-the-future 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''.

!!''Escape From the Moon'' contains examples of:

* {{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.

* MyGrandsonMyself: [[spoiler: 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.]]

* ShoutOut: One of [[spoiler: Doa's false deaths, in her nightmare, draws from Georgie Denbrough's death via having his arm ripped out of its socket in ''Literature/{{It}}''.]]

* ShoutOut:
** Nurse Crystal is an OC of Website/SpaceBattlesDotCom/[=FIMFiction=] user Tangent, who provided the name of the story.
** Batty, another OC for Tangent, appears briefly in chapter 4.
** The ''Fanfic/OldManHenderson'' story is referenced in chapter 7 as "Old Mare Henderson".
** Twilight gives a near exact quote from ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Star Wars: X-Wing #4 -- The Bacta War]]'', only replacing a character name with "We".
** Discord similarly borrows the majority of one of Commander Khashoggi's lines (changing the last word into a longer phrase) from ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou''. He later paraphrases the MajorGeneralSong.
** In chapter 8, Discord references ''[[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There]]'' with the line "I do six impossible things before breakfast", a variation on a line originally spoken by the White Queen.
** In chapter 9, Twilight describes dragons as both "extreme omnivores" and "obligate silicavores", in reference to a scene from Saphroneth's ''Fanfic/TheUnicornAtHogwarts'' where she used the same phrasings.
** Also in chapter 9, Spliced mentions (when explaining why she doesn't want to anger beings like Discord) that "[[FateWorseThanDeath You'd be surprised what you can live through]], even ''without'' my kind of immortality." The first half of that sentence references the ArcWords from ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar''.
** Chapter 11 mentions one of Spliced's old classmates who, during a history exam, made a mistake involving a war from long before their time -- he thought it was named after one of the generals involved instead of the piece of territory where most of the fighting took place. This references a scene from the ''[[Literature/TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine Johnny Dixon]]'' book ''The Drum, The Doll and the Zombie'', in which the title character's father is noted as having made the same mistake on his own history exam (he thought UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar involved a general named Peloponnesian, instead of primarily taking place in the Peloponnese region). However, unlike the character Spliced mentions, Major Dixon acknowledged and accepted his error when it was pointed out.
** During the aforementioned scene in chapter 11, Spliced refers to one of her classmates as "a gasbag of ego". The same phrase was used by an annoyed character to describe one of her squadron mates in ''Star Wars: X-Wing #7 -- Solo Command''.
** In chapter 14, Spliced references a quote from Socrates: "I am the wisest [man] alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."
** The valley Twilight mentions as the setting for a weather control experiment (or rather, ''lack'' of weather control) is based on [[Film/{{Tremors}} Perfection Valley]].
** During their discussion on weather control, Spliced names a method of creating new clouds that is straight out of ''Star Wars: X-Wing #2 -- Wedge's Gamble''.
** Still in the same discussion, Twilight discusses the creation of rainbows; the methodology used comes from a scene in [=RealityCheck=]'s ''Fanfic/TheAudience''. So does her usage of the term "morphic resonance field control".
** During Chapter 15's scene in Rainbow Dash's house, Rainbow Dash mentions that a compound named pyrobloin is mixed into the vapor used to make cloudstone. This is almost exactly how sea clouds and island clouds (like Skypeia) are created in ''Manga/OnePiece'', except there pyrobloin seems to be a naturally occurring compound that's expelled into the atmosphere via volcanoes.
** In the same chapter, Twilight mentions that she's looking for an emotion that she can use to manually trigger her flaming form (the one triggered by her RageBreakingPoint in ''Feeling Pinkie Keen''), and that she needs a positive one, since negative ones burden the spirit. This is inspired by a scene in chapter 23 of the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/2163216/1/The-Truth-and-the-Tempest The Truth and the Tempest]]''. The method she's currently using is reminiscent of [[Manga/OnePiece Sanji's "Hell Memories"]] technique.
** Twilight's two Trust Passwords in chapter 21 are one -- "The world is quiet here" is the motto of the V.F.D. organization in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''; "The celery stalks at midnight" is the title of the third book in the ''Literature/{{Bunnicula}}'' series.
** In chapter 29, after being warned that another outburst could see her charged with contempt of court, Spliced thinks to herself that ''I have nothing '''but''' contempt for this court'', a line from ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''.
** Late in chapter 29, Legal Preview says she'd be happy if Due Justice's legal license was "dumped in some black hole where it belongs". A similar line, except for referring to the case as a whole, was used in ''Star Wars: X-Wing #3 -- the Krytos Trap''.

* ShoutOut:
** The trio's ship, ''Excelsior'', is named (out-of-universe) in memory of the late Creator/StanLee and his catchphrase.
** Chapter 2 features multiple shout-outs to Star Wars, including:
*** A debate on strong caf that's inspired by a similar scene in ''Star Wars: X-Wing #8 -- Isard's Revenge''. This version mentions that Scratched bought some that "should keep you awake through a Gratetan performance of a Lhat'kan opera". In the original book, Iella Wessiri mentions a type of caf "strong enough to keep you awake through an Ithorian performance of a Gamorrean opera", and says hunting up a source of such caf is how they start any good investigation.
*** The ''Excelsior'' itself is heavily based on the ''Pulsar Skate'', Mirax Terrik's ship from the same series.
*** A mention of the "Big Man" and his Space Barn, with its three platinum rules, one of which is "no intoxicants". This is inspired by Shug Ninx and his Spacebarn on Nar Shaddaa, who has the same rule as one of his three. (The others are that anything is available to use, so long as whoever used it put it back or compensated for damage, and pay promptly for the use of his or his techs' services.)
*** Uglies, cobbled-together spacecraft, which were introduced in ''The Corellian Trilogy'' and have since been featured in the new canon.
*** In a non-Star Wars reference, the ship the group found has the serial numbers ''4815162342'' -- the cursed numbers from ''Series/{{Lost}}''.
** The group's stellar hiding place in chapter six is based on the Denarii Nova, where the Shadow Academy hid during the fourth book of ''Literature/YoungJediKnights'', and put into its current condition during the events of the ''ComicBook/TalesOfTheJedi'' series (issue four of the ''The Fall of the Sith Empire'' arc).
** Doa's Bar is identified as the start and end point of a war, referencing an event during the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, in which the first Battle of Manassas took place around the [=McLean=] family farm, which the Confederates used as an observation post and headquarters; afterward, to avoid his family getting caught up in another battle, Wilmer [=McClean=] moved his family further south to the town of Appomattox Court House. Four years later, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee was about to surrender to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, his messenger found a place in that town to meet -- the parlor of [=McClean=]'s new house.
** The last time Scratched went into a bar with someone to watch her back, her back [[Film/RobinHoodMenInTights got punched twice]].
** As revealed in chapter 7, Doa's Bar is located on an asteroid in the Oricho System. In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', the Oricho sector is home to the Borgo Prime star system, which is home to the asteroid Borgo Prime, which is home to the bar Shanko's Hive (which is itself an inspiration, along with Mos Eisley on Tatooine).

* CaffeineBulletTime: Spliced gets ''very'' hyped up on coffee in chapter 6, to the point where she's [[MotorMouth talking a mile a minute]] and acting more than a little crazier than usual.

%%* Power Trio: Scratched Wrench, Aerostorm and Zaat.

* PowerTrio: Scratched Wrench, Aerostorm and Zaat.

* GodzillaThreshhold: In chapter 15, Twilight describes Daybreaker as this.

* NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech: Happens in chapter 15. Unusually, it's a character doing this on behalf of somepony else:
-->'''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."

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Happens in chapter 15. Unusually, it's a character doing this on behalf of somepony else:
-->'''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."

* {{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.
** 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.
** [[spoiler: Spliced has learned it by the end of the story, six hundred years after her time in Equestria.]]

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/385678/the-mare-from-the-moon The Mare From the Moon]]'' (published September 15, 2017 and completed November 10, 2018): Three hundred years later, events drive Doa/[[spoiler:Spliced Genome]] to finally leave the moon and return to her homeworld, only to end up taking an unexpected side-trip.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/407984/a-winters-tale A Winter's Tale]]'' (published April 29, 2018 and completed February 12, 2020): Set in the distant past of [[spoiler:the Equestria that Spliced Genome visits in ''The Mare From the Moon'', revealing the truth of Equestria's founding in that universe.]]

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/424993/the-world-left-behind The World Left Behind]]'' (published November 15, 2018, under Anon e Mouse Jr.'s profile): In the aftermath of [[spoiler: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...

* TheAgeless: [[spoiler: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.]]

* {{Expy}}: Played with: The voice Doa has been hearing claims Doa is one for itself - [[spoiler: the banished pony, imprisoned for a thousand years.]] Doa is not completely convinced.
* FantasticCasteSystem: 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 [[spoiler: Spliced Genome/]]Doa…

* KeepTheReward: Doa/[[spoiler: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.]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Doa has died many times, in various ways - poison, electrocution, being expelled from an airlock, acid from the showers and others.
* [[spoiler:VillainProtagonist: Doa/Spliced Genome, though this fact is kept secret until late in the story.]]
* WhamEpisode: 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.

* AbusiveParents: 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.)

* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: By the time she leaves the station to go through the portal to Equestria, Spliced has adapted to survive in incredibly low oxygen. [[spoiler:By the time of ''Scavenge For the Future'', she's adapted to not needing oxygen at all.]]

* BilingualBonus: Snöflinga / Snowflake [[spoiler:the windigo]] initially speaks in his native language, represented by Swedish. Translations are as follows:

-->'''Snowflake''': "Mitt huvud," [[spoiler:Translation: "My head,"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Vem är du? Var är jag?" [[spoiler:Translation: "Who are you? Where am I?"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Evinnerliga snöstorm! Vad ända in i Fimbulwinter är det för fel på mitt ben‽" [[spoiler:Translation: "Eternal blizzard, what the Fimbulwinter is wrong with my leg‽"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Här är jag, bara så du vet," [[spoiler: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!" [[spoiler:Translation: "I don't understand what you're saying, but..."]]
-->'''Spike''': "De försöker bara hjälpa dig," [[spoiler:Translation: "They're just trying to help you,"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Vänta, så du kan faktiskt [i]prata[/i] normalt?" [[spoiler:Translation: "Wait, you can actually ‘'speak'' normal?"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Kan du tala om för mig vad det faktiskt är som händer?" [[spoiler:Translation: "Can you actually tell me what is going on?"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Hallå! Var är mitt halsband?" [[spoiler:Translation: "Hey, where is my necklace!"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Jag hoppas verkligen att det är här någonstans. [[spoiler:Translation: "I hope for real that it is here somewhere."]]
-->'''Spike''': "Hur såg det ut?" [[spoiler:Translation: "What did it look like?"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "En kedja av hård granit som omger en kristall," [[spoiler:Translation: "A chain of hard granite surrounding a crystal,"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Det är mitt! Ge tillbaka det genast!" [[spoiler:Translation: "That's mine, give it back now!"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Jag vill fortfarande ha tillbaka mitt halsband." [[spoiler:Translation: "I still want my necklace back."]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Hallå där! Vad håller hon på med?" [[spoiler:Translation: "Hey, what's she doing?"]]
-->'''Spike''': "Hon gör så att alla ponnyer kan förstå vad du säger och du kan förstå dem," [[spoiler: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." [[spoiler:Translation: "It'll be safe, I promise."]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Det är bäst för dig, or else I will-" [[spoiler:Translation: "It is best for you, or else I will-"]]

-->'''Snowflake''': "I don't what that is, but galna hynda passar dig," [[spoiler:Translation: "I don't what that is, but crazy bitch fits you,"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Vad sa hon?" [[spoiler:Translation: "What did she say?"]]
-->'''Snowflake''': "Vad säger han och vad gör han med mig?" [[spoiler:Translation: "What is he saying and what is he doing to me?"]]

-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Vilka är ni fem?" [[spoiler:Translation: "Who are you five?"]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "It nice meet you five pony - ''gah'', det här är så attans dumt!" [[spoiler:Translation: "It nice meet you five pony ''gah'', this is so ''blinking'' stupid!"]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Självklart har vi bakben," [[spoiler:Translation: "Of course we have hind legs,"]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Vi är inte som de där Sirenerna – dumma fiskar," [[spoiler: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." [[spoiler: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?" [[spoiler:Translation: "You don't like those three either, huh?"]]
-->'''Spike:''' "Jag klandrar dig inte." [[spoiler:Translation: "I don't blame you."]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Vilka tre pratar du om? Det finns en hel ''ocean'' av dem." [[spoiler: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," [[spoiler: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." [[spoiler: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," [[spoiler: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." [[spoiler:Translation: "Also, you should ''tell'' them what we're saying as they're giving us looks."]]
-->'''Spike:''' "Visst." [[spoiler:Translation: "Right."]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Vill du ha bevis för att jag är en windigo? Här är ditt bevis!" [[spoiler:Translation: "You want proof I'm a windigo? Here's your proof!"]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Jag borde förmodligen spara på krafterna tills jag är helt återställd," [[spoiler:Translation: "Probably should conserve my power until I'm fully better,"]]
-->'''Snöflinga:''' "Det har du inte med att göra," [[spoiler: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." [[spoiler:Translation: "Once I am good enough, I will take you ponies to that cave and ''prove'' I am right."]]
-->'''Spike:''' har du något emot–" [[spoiler:Translation: do you mind-"]]

-->'''Snöflinga:''' Någon dag får du förklara det där närmre. [[spoiler:Translation: "One of these days, you'll have to explain more about that."]]
-->'''Spike:''' "Åh, det ska jag," [[spoiler:Translation: "Oh, I will,"]]
-->'''Spike:''' "Det är en riktigt spännande berättelse." [[spoiler:Translation: "It's a really exciting story."]]
* BrokenBird: Having learned empathy from her time in Equestria, [[spoiler: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.]]

** 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).

** 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.

-->'''Rainbow Dash''': "Just let me get down first." [[spoiler:As in, off of the cloud she's sitting on.]]

* FlatEarthAtheist: 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 [[EldritchAbomination 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. [[spoiler: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.]]

** 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.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: [[spoiler: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.]]
* IsThatAThreat: 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.
* ItIsDehumanizing: [[spoiler: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.]]
* KangarooCourt: 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 OffOnATechnicality. [[spoiler:Then a higher court overrules their final decision and sends her back to prison anyway.]]

* LittleNo: Spliced utters one at the end of chapter 29, when she realizes [[spoiler:she's back on the moon]].

* LotusEaterMachine: The one Sombra set up in the Crystal Empire comes into play again in chapter 20, this time affecting Spliced Genome and showing her [[SupernaturalFearInducer her worst fears]] - that she's back in her lunar prison, suffering LossOfIdentity again.

** 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'.

** [[spoiler:Snöflinga is used to being referred to by "Snowflake", which is what his real name translates as.]]

** [[spoiler: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.]]

* PowerCopying: 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.

** In the last chapter, [[spoiler:Spliced learns that nobody knows how to turn her mortal again. Furious and tired, she teleports away to parts unknown.]]

** Twilight gives a near exact quote from ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Star Wars: X-Wing #4 - The Bacta War]]'', only replacing a character name with "We".

** Chapter 11 mentions one of Spliced's old classmates who, during a history exam, made a mistake involving a war from long before their time - he thought it was named after one of the generals involved instead of the piece of territory where most of the fighting took place. This references a scene from the ''[[Literature/TheCurseOfTheBlueFigurine Johnny Dixon]]'' book ''The Drum, The Doll and the Zombie'', in which the title character's father is noted as having made the same mistake on his own history exam (he thought UsefulNotes/ThePeloponnesianWar involved a general named Peloponnesian, instead of primarily taking place in the Peloponnese region). However, unlike the character Spliced mentions, Major Dixon acknowledged and accepted his error when it was pointed out.
** During the aforementioned scene in chapter 11, Spliced refers to one of her classmates as "a gasbag of ego". The same phrase was used by an annoyed character to describe one of her squadron mates in ''Star Wars: X-Wing #7 - Solo Command''.

** During their discussion on weather control, Spliced names a method of creating new clouds that is straight out of ''Star Wars: X-Wing #2 - Wedge's Gamble''.

** Twilight's two Trust Passwords in chapter 21 are one - "The world is quiet here" is the motto of the V.F.D. organization in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''; "The celery stalks at midnight" is the title of the third book in the ''Literature/{{Bunnicula}}'' series.

** Late in chapter 29, Legal Preview says she'd be happy if Due Justice's legal license was "dumped in some black hole where it belongs". A similar line, except for referring to the case as a whole, was used in ''Star Wars: X-Wing #3 - the Krytos Trap''.
* StupidestThingIveEverHeard: 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''.

** [[spoiler:Spliced has learned it by the end of the story, six hundred years after her time in Equestria.]]
* TimeCompressionMontage: The final chapter shows various scenes, jumping forward in time between each one and covering [[spoiler:up to the end of her sentence on the moon]].

* UnusualEuphemism: [[spoiler: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.]]

* WhamLine: [[spoiler: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.

-->'''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."

** In chapter 29, [[spoiler: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.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]

* TheCallPutMeOnHold: 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. [[spoiler:She finally earns it in chapter 6 when she creates the necklaces that link the foursome.]]

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: 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. [[spoiler:Snöflinga was actually going to be given this position before he ran off, and when he finds out he's very surprised.]]

** 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.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: 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. [[spoiler: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.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: The three leaders - Hurricane, Platinum and Puddinghead - all espouse dislike of the other races. In truth, they're secretly working together. [[spoiler: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.]]

* AnArmAndALeg: 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.
* BigBad: Clear Vision, who seeks to conquer the universe. [[spoiler:Supposedly. Subverted when he turns out to actually be a DiscOneFinalBoss after Subtle Dancer finally reveals herself by shooting him dead.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: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.]]
* BookEnds: 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 [[spoiler:crawling into the same bed, commenting on how the name finally fits, and falling into the BigSleep.]]
* TheBusCameBack: After a lot of teasing, it is revealed that [[spoiler: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.]]

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler:Clear Vision, the BigBad. He puts on a friendly face as CEO of the ''Shining Tomorrow'' organization, but he's really out for galactic conquest.]]
* CripplingCastration: Ray Blaster suffers a justifiable one with his own gun, courtesy of [[spoiler:Downpour, the owner of Doa's Bar. Who is actually Spliced Genome.]]

* TheCycleOfEmpires: People state the galaxy is in the decay state and any day now will fall into the long night. [[spoiler:Spliced and her group comment on how it looks like the villains are working to speed up the process.]]
* DirtyOldMan: [[spoiler:Clear Vision]] likes to watch his secretary leaving his office, staring at her flank as she goes. [[spoiler:She kicks his corpse in retaliation after killing him in chapter 13.]]
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler: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.]]
* TheDragon: [[spoiler:As powerful and complex as the plans Subtle created are, ''she'' is this to someone [[GreaterScopeVillain even more powerful and dangerous than she is]].]]
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Ray Blaster suffers one from Downpour, who [[spoiler:smashes him in the face with his own gun, shoots him in the groin and then slams his gun ''through his skull''.]]
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler: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 she started and her punishment afterward. She also planned the massive galactic crisis to lure her back to the moon so Spliced would get the Spear of Reclamation for the one Subtle follows.]]
* ForgettableCharacter: [[spoiler: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.]]

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: 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.

* TheHeavy: 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. [[spoiler:Then it turns out he never ''had'' a plan and was just used by Subtle Dancer to get Spliced back to the moon.]]

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How [[spoiler: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.]]
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: 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.

* InterspeciesRomance: Scratched Wrench, a pegasus, is dating [[spoiler:and by the epilogue is married to]] Aerostorm, a griffon.
* InTheBack: How [[spoiler:Clear Vision dies, shot by Subtle Dancer.]]

* LongGame: [[spoiler: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.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: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.]]
* MamaBear: [[spoiler: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.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Subtle Dancer turns out to be one to the acting Big Bad, and it turns out there's one behind ''her'' too.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler: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:]]
** [[spoiler:She encouraged Spliced to focus on studying rather than learning important social skills as a child.]]
** [[spoiler:She arranged for Spliced to fail her ethics test, putting her in a position of loneliness and frustration.]]
** [[spoiler:She deliberately created a race war, all to put Spliced into position to kill millions.]]
** [[spoiler:She manipulated things so Spliced would end up immortal, allowing her to live long enough to achieve Subtle's goal.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
** [[spoiler:When Spliced returned, she manipulated the trial so Spliced would return to the moon, furthering her descent into crippling depression.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
** [[spoiler:She purposely caused trouble for Spliced's descendents, including inflicting Aerostorm with cancer after the griffon fell in love with Scratched Wrench, just to torment the family.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
* MortalityEnsues: [[spoiler:What the Big Bad plans for Spliced once she's retrieved the Spear, followed by her immediate death.]]
* MyGrandsonMyself: [[spoiler: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.]]

** [[spoiler:Subtle Dancer, who's been around since before Spliced and yet hasn't aged since they met all those thousands of years ago.]]

* SecretLegacy: So secret even her ''parents'' didn't know - [[spoiler:Scratched is descended from Spliced Genome.]]
* SecretlyDying: [[spoiler: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.

*** A debate on strong caf that's inspired by a similar scene in ''Star Wars: X-Wing #8 - Isard's Revenge''. This version mentions that Scratched bought some that "should keep you awake through a Gratetan performance of a Lhat'kan opera". In the original book, Iella Wessiri mentions a type of caf "strong enough to keep you awake through an Ithorian performance of a Gamorrean opera", and says hunting up a source of such caf is how they start any good investigation.

*** In a non-Star Wars reference, the ship the group found has the serial numbers ''4815162342'' - the cursed numbers from ''Series/{{Lost}}''.

** Doa's Bar is identified as the start and end point of a war, referencing an event during the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, in which the first Battle of Manassas took place around the [=McLean=] family farm, which the Confederates used as an observation post and headquarters; afterward, to avoid his family getting caught up in another battle, Wilmer [=McClean=] moved his family further south to the town of Appomattox Court House. Four years later, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee was about to surrender to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, his messenger found a place in that town to meet - the parlor of [=McClean=]'s new house.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Subtle Dancer is only present and interacting in the last few chapters, but [[spoiler:it reveals that everything that happened in the story was part of her plan]].

* UniversalUniverseTime: 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.
* WeaponizedExhaust: 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. [[spoiler:He doesn't get the chance to pull it off, because the owner of Doa's Bar kills their foe first.]]

** The penultimate chapter reveals that [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler: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.]]

* {{Fainting}}: Spliced's reaction when she finds out that, contrary to what she'd believed, that she ''can'' walk on clouds.