Author Interview » Arad's "Stardust" [Royal Canterlot Library] · 12:47pm Jun 17th, 2016
Today's story shows us what stars do: they shine.
Stardust
[Crossover] [Dark] [Human] • 216,600 words
Isolated from her friends and taken prisoner in the middle of a war, Twilight must deal with the very real dangers of being perceived as an enemy as well as the nightmares of her arrival on 'Earth'. Can she overcome her own fears and the fears of her captors? Will the wayward unicorn's assistance be a boon or a curse to the 'humans?' Most importantly, will she ever find her way home?
FROM THE CURATORS: Lengthy stories like this sometimes languish in our queue for a while, as we all try to make time to read them around our jobs and other hobbies, but Stardust sailed through, from nomination to approval, in less than a week. "I was looking for something of doorstop length to sink into this weekend," commented Augiedog, "and this one did the trick quite nicely." Chris also noted how easy it was to devour, saying, "This is a story that does an excellent job of holding the reader's interest, despite its length and wide-ranging plot."
Although this is a video game crossover, we all agreed that it did an excellent job of being accessible. "I think that familiarity with the source material isn't really necessary," said Soge in his nomination, and the rest of us were quick to confirm as much. "As someone with only the vaguest of ideas what XCOM is," said Chris, "I can attest from personal experience that this holds up well even for the non-gamers among us." Augie, meanwhile, noted that he couldn't tell which of "the humans here comes from the game or from the author's imagination."
But of course, this is a story about ponies, and especially about Twilight Sparkle. "Twilight's characterization remains solid throughout, slowly adapting to her new environment and her experience," said Soge. Chris agreed, noting that "her curiosity, naivete, and general desire to be helpful are all key story elements, and all fit her character well." And we found elements of the show to appreciate even beyond the main character, with Augie noting that "the story also contains one of the best renditions of Discord I've ever read," and Chris praising its tone, calling it "a long-form story that uses interspecies war as a backdrop, but friendship and basic human decency as its raison d'etre."
Read on for our author interview, in which Arad discusses plotbugs, whim purchases, and weaponized unicorns.
Give us the standard biography.
Just a brony living approximately two and a half hours away from anything interesting, who really likes reading and writing crossovers.
How did you come up with your handle/penname?
The name that I usually went by online and in other places was ‘Aradamis’, a mutation of ‘Artemis’. When I got into a rather popular MMO, Aradamis was inexplicably taken and I had to shorten it down to Arad. After that it stuck.
Who's your favorite pony?
Twilight Sparkle.
What's your favorite episode?
Lesson Zero, though I haven’t caught up with the newest season (yet).
What do you get from the show?
I tend to prowl Netflix and other video services looking for various TV shows to watch and enjoy, but I always come back to FiM as a palate cleanser.
What do you want from life?
Oh boy, I could write a book about this question, but in the end I suppose it all boils down to hearing three little words sincerely said.
Why do you write?
Because if I don’t then the plotbugs will eat my brain. Seriously though, I have a high school friend who encouraged me to keep writing through college, and this is the natural extension of that.
What advice do you have for the authors out there?
The hardest lesson I had to learn was that you cannot write a story that everyone will love. No matter what you do, someone will always have a problem with how your plot develops. Which is fine! Some people like specific kinds of stories, and by extension there’s some stories that those same people wouldn’t like. I personally like my sugary happy endings and triumphant victories, and just because I don’t like a tragic ending doesn’t mean that a tragic ending is bad. It’s just my opinion.
Talk a little about your history with the XCOM series, and why you chose to cross it over with MLP.
My history with XCOM starts out literally the week before XCOM (2012) came out. I had just finished plowing through one of the Super Robot Wars games (also turn-based strategy) when I saw on Steam that XCOM was going to be released in the next week. I did a bit of research and bought it on a whim. While playing the game after that, I was struck with the first question that is asked at the start of every crossover: What if one of the mane 6 ended up on Earth during this? That led to the question of how an outsider would view a humanity not at it’s best, but during its darkest hour.
When writing a crossover between two series with such different tones, how do you manage the story in order to stay true to both?
I suppose the best way to explain this is with a bit of mental imagery. Imagine the two settings as spheres that will never change so long as they’re separated. When the two spheres touch, they begin to blend together from the point of contact. The longer contact is maintained, the more change radiates from the point where the two meet, and that’s the key. Immediate changes to established canons based on that contact are unbelievable. It’s a gradual change that ensnares people.
Much of the story deals with the interaction between humans and ponies. How do you view their differences, and how does that influence your writing?
(Beware, minor setting spoilers for XCOM and the first couple of chapters for Stardust.)
Before I get into this, I should probably clarify one thing. A human from the XCOM setting prior to Stardust is a frightful, paranoid creature and with good reason. Anything that isn’t human is with the invaders and should be feared (or shot on sight). Their motivation is the survival of themselves and their species, and all other considerations come in at a distant second.
Twilight’s arrival tore her from the comfortable setting that she had become accustomed to, and she’s desperately trying to shape her new surroundings into something she considers familiar.
It would not be a stretch to consider these traits to be core to the early conflicts in the story: the humans that Twilight interacts with are caught between disbelief at her motives and a hunger to weaponize what she can do against the invaders, versus Twilight’s attempts to befriend the humans so she can establish some small semblance of normalcy in an alien setting.
Many characters in the fic have to deal with the aftermath of traumatic events. What was your thought process when dealing with this sensitive theme?
Contrary to popular belief, I am not some sadistic puppetmaster that enjoys tormenting his creations. Every loss and setback has a purpose that serves some sort of need later in the storyline, just as every success and achievement. I wouldn’t really say that the characters ‘deal with’ what happens, as it implies some finality to it and what happened is forgotten.
My characters learn to cope with the tragedies they survive, and how they cope shapes who they are. Some cope better than others and bounce back with minimal effort. Others take significantly longer. Each is different, and it’s interesting for me to explore just how each of my characters survives what lies ahead.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Don’t give up on a story idea just because someone else is writing something similar! The story Research Project: Twilight Sparkle had a similar premise for what I was planning and was started a couple of months earlier than Stardust, and I had no idea if that story was going to do exactly what I was planning (it didn’t, thankfully, but that’s beside the point).
You can read Stardust at FIMFiction.net. Read more interviews right here at the Royal Canterlot Library, or suggest stories for us to feature at our Fimfiction group.
Congrats, Arad! So happy for you!
I read the story before I played the game. The story prompted me to spend $40 on the game. I liked the story better.
I've seen bits and pieces of references to this story in MLP time loops.
Now that I'm aware of the source, i'll have to add it to my read later.
Now here is a story I'm glad to seeing getting its due.
Good to see this here.
We'll be watching.
4028579 I definitely recommend it. It's a very solid read and Arad himself is a cool dude.
4028628 Yeah.
The issue is setting aside time to read it.
4028631 Yeah, true, maybe try and read a chapter a day.
4028681 ...that sounds oddly reasonable.
Why has that never occurred to me? I've always been more of a "read until I pass out" sort of guy.
4028683 *Snickers* To be honest I'm the exact same, but I know carving out time can be tricky.
A story I'm pleasantly surprised to see featured here! It's a great meshing of two very different settings, both of which are charming in their own way (optimistic fantasy world vs. cynical-yet-schlocky science fiction) expanded on with some really good character development and a willingness to brutalize its own characters to keep the audience engaged.
I would say this story is strongest when it's drilling down into the nitty-gritty details of its setting, of how magic works and how a resourceful band of motivated people can apply it to the task of blowing up the little grey men invading the planet, and also when it's letting the characters breath and develop their connections. The XCOM setting complements this really well; the underground base is isolated and there are few enough characters that they can all be sharply defined and play unique roles as they bounce off one another, and the action is written well enough that it's tense and engaging on its own terms beyond just wanting to see what XCOM's new toys and abilities are capable of. Where it slips a bit, and this is more a critique of the sequel than the original story, is when it tries to zoom out and backfill the world and different civilizations that the aliens are threatening. To each their own, though, and I suppose some readers might go for that.
Anyway, seeing this here kind of makes me want to re-read it again. In the meantime, major kudos to Arad for writing a story that very much deserves this sort of recognition.
those friggin chrysalids. nightmare fuel to the max
About time they realize the greatness that is Arad.
Nice to see Stardust recognized here. It totally deserves it.
4028579 did that xcom storyline with twilight openings a recycling center on an asteroid ever get finished?
4028868 I don't know.
I kind of stopped reading at chapter 56 while it was still on ff.net.
Woot! Glad to see this get featured here!
Congratulations, Arad! A well deserved recognition.
4028683 do it. This plus Fallout Equestria got me into MLP fanfiction. It's worth it, it is.
4028706 Honestly speaking i hve more than a few issues with the story. Rather seriosu ones.
Honestly it feels that, in order to keep the status quo of how xcom stories go, it kinda neutered equestria. Or maybe even completely neutered it. Equestria is what happens when the g1 stories is spliced with the dnd mosnter manual and super charged with some high fantasy energy as a finishing touch. This is a world where bears are made of stars and has plants that warp your body for comedic purposes.
This is no world the aliens could easily get through. Every step would agitate some powerful threat that could decimate enemy forces. Be it a hydra, a ursa major, or something more abstract and even ethereal; sky is the limit.
And that leads me to two other criticisms. Whenever there is a powerful magical force the aliens encounter, it only helps them. From tirek to those robots, never does either make themselves a threat to the aliens. So basically the world never threatens them yet will help them isntead. The magical world they are invading and destroying.
The other is that it seems that the writer intentionally ignores a major detail. That the psionics and magics collusion means that most lifeforms in equestria are, in fact, psionic creatures themselves. From ponies, to dragons, to hydras, to star bears. So basically while only a small handful of alien species in fact have psionics themselves, this entire planet has it.... And a variation that alters matter itself.
Put simply the real potential of his idea is neutered to keep the ponies and equestria from giving the aliens lots of grief. Which they likely could. Which i feel is bad writing at large because it expects the audience to basicalyl ignore the obvious.
Made even worse when aspects of equestria end up making them stronger. That is just hypocritical.
Also current plotlines in it make me groan. Sending pinkie pie into such a dangerous place, idea that tirek can somehow take the crsytal empire when he would need the magic of most of equestria just to take alicorn energy, and the crystal heart barrier would be much stronger than an alicorn by far. And this whole cadance plotline is just pathetic in my opinion. Might be because it is just compounding my point that absolutely nothing inconveniences the aliens and instead makes them stronger in a world that would be nothing like they ever encountered before.
Also nopony ever figuring out they can use those anti magic barriers to their own advantage agaisnt the aliens, and fucking doing that. Seriously, there is zero reason why the ponies would do nothing, not be creative or anything like that.
The good writing and ideas are being overshadowed by very forced plot convenience at most of the turns here. And for some reason no one is taking that into account.
I was (and still am) following "Research Project: Sparkle" when I found "Stardust" a few months back, was surprised I hadn't found it sooner. It's an awesome read, though being familiar with XCOM does help. Congrats!
One of these days I really need to go back and finish XCOM. Pokémon X&Y came out and I abandoned my playthrough halfway.
4029296
Well, first of all I'd highlight for anyone reading that those are all criticisms of the sequel, and not Stardust itself. I think one of the reason Stardust works so well is that it really captures the XCOM spirit of 'everything goes wrong, human pluck and ingenuity kludge together a solution from the limited resources they manage to salvage from their bloody battles with the aliens to keep it together, everything gets worse again.' Twilight as a secret weapon whose friendship and cooperation slowly unlocks a bigger and badder arsenal for her human allies manages to feel very in keeping with both the show and the game. But obviously it wasn't quite sustainable when scaled all the way up to 'aliens vs. Equestria'
I don't mind them co-opting some of Equestria's baddies to help them. Assimilation is kind of their thing, both in terms of fifth columns a la EXALT and their long-term goals.
4029296 I don't necessarily agree or disagree with your other points, but I feel that I should comment on this.
Psionics in-game are basically mind magic. Ethereals, having extremely potent psionic abilities, are essentially able to easily mind-control almost anyone - something which is also true in this story.
On the other hand, mind magic is traditionally considered an extremely difficult and advanced area of magic in the world of MLP.
So magic is not necessarily better than psionics. It may be more versatile than the raw mind-bending the Ethereals practice, but that doesn't mean it can easily counter it.
Anyway, like Eakin said, this is more about Mente Materia than Stardust. I disagree with a lot of things MM did, and at this point don't even like the story that much, but Stardust is still one of my favourites on this site.
4029393 Sequel is kinda the continuation of the story so it has weight.
The problem is that in the terms of tirek, how on earth did they find him, and why would he work for them? They conflict with his goals.
In addition their gains include robots of a magical construct nature that somehow they can control, despite not knowing how they would function. Let alone how they would be able to even find them.
Largely the issue is that they find no adversaries and major threats in equestria, despite what has been set up in story. Entire planet full of psionic magical creatures, likely with a lot of power. They should be struggling against this formidable planet.
Worst part is that creatures like timberwolves and ursa majors would be impossible for them to assimilate. They have no genetics to manipulate.
The writer has this bizarre disregard for what equestria is. And he is the one who in a sense made it that way the moment he linked magic and psionics.
4029464 Prehaps that is true. Thoguh it is the continuation of the story. Whatever happens in it, impacts the previous story in the end.
Also psionics being more powerful kinda is iffy. We look at what psionics does and it all looks like really basic magic. Why i kinda raised a big old eyebrow that the ethereal mindraped Twilight......... It is clear she was too powerful to just mindrape, from what she was doing. Her mind overcoming the physical.
4029483
Does it? You can choose to ignore the later story. Stardust works excellently as a standalone.
This kind of thing might be a bit iffy with e.g. tighly linked prequels/backstories/etc., but here we're ignoring the later story, whose events don't influence the earlier one. And we're not randomly deciding on a cutoff either - the two were published separately; they're two different entities.
What I'm saying is, the flaws of Mente Materia, as a story, don't make Stardust worse, as a story.
Oh hey, a story I've actually read! Def recommend this one, one of the best crossovers I've ever read here!
Xcom is a real easy one to crossover with because there's very few established canon characters, so you have a ton of leeway.
4029483
This is just senseless.
Ethereals are serial mindrapists. It's basically their key defining trait.
Twilight has power and skill, which lets her do the things she knows how to do. Teleport? Sure. Telekinesis? All day, every day. Cast a spell she read in a book? Yes, albeit with frequent mishaps. Resist a form of power she has no established skill in resisting? Why would she be able to?
It'd be a terrible sign of Mary Sue status if she were randomly immune to mind magic just for being 'powerful'.
Loved this story. One of the first stories I commented on regularly. I ended up purchasing XCOM because of this and Research Project: Twilight Sparkle.
Hey, it's that fic that led to me making an account here.
4029296 Your insistence and utter obsession with forcing your headcanon into this story is awe-inspiring, absurd and quite frankly borderline creepy.
Oh hey. This is here! I was expecting this! I totally didn't forget about this! No sir, I've been thinking about this for a long time!
4028538
I am sorely tempted to steal this for a blurb/endorsement of the story. XD
4029600
I always use Research Project: TS as a great example of a story with a similar premise but different direction. When I saw that story was already published and rolling when I was considering Stardust, I almost gave up because I thought someone had beaten me to it. But after reading it I was confident that our ideas, while similar, would explore two radically different plots.
I encourage everyone to read it, RP: TS is great!
4028579
MLP Time loops? I'm afraid I'm ignorant of what that is, though I'm curious now...
------
Lastly, to everyone replying to lordofmyth, I have this advice: Don't. I won't go into the who sorry history of it but I've learned that he ignores any sort of argument that doesn't adhere to his head canon. I have -pages- of comments on Mente Materia of him telling me how to write my story.
4030128 ..... At what point was i talking about headcanon? Is it somehow headcanon to expect a world filled with beings with powers akin to the aliens would likely prove to be a major challenge to the aliens, especially when only a small handful of the aliens have those powers, and the majority of that world in fact does?
4030143 Sighs. AS a matter of fact i have had nothing but civil conversations here. On some parts they even agree on my views, yet disagree on other parts of it. One even brings up an interesting point on not letting a sequel impact your views on the prior story.
Albeit that individual does not like you sequel to begin with.
So why are you directly telling people not to reply to me when i have not in any way done anything inflammatory? Especially when you are trying to characterize me as some troll. I brought up what can be seen as rather major problems of the story, including the inconsistency of equestria technically being a world full of psionics yet somehow showing no resistance whatsoever to the aliens. You never gave a desirable answer to explain this outside of outright disregard for it.
4030128
It's compounded by the fact that he was often one of the first five comments on new chapters when the came out.
4030163 the definition of headcanon is basically that what you have in your mind, what you want stuff to be isn't in the story/show/whatever you're basing it on. So, in the case of Stardust and its sequels/prequels, it's written a certain way intentionally, and the way things work out are canonical to the work in question, where your continuous insistence on "how wrong certain things are" (and again, continuous being a key word here) is your headcanon.
The story is what it is, not what you want it to be.
4030195
Because no matter how much people point out that you're wrong, you continue to insist otherwise. Throughout your criticisms of Mente Materia ages ago, you've shown repeatedly that you are ignorant of the canon that has been established in Stardust. Heck, the majority of your criticisms listed here aren't even for Stardust.
And that's the root of your problem: You have a habit of levying criticisms that have their foundations built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the Stardust canon. Your stringent unwillingness to allow people like the author of the story to correct your mistakes makes it a rather pointless exercise to engage you in any kind of discussion.
4029581 I can see that. But still the difference is mind influencing mind vs mind influencing matter. It is hard to really say which is more powerful. telepathy can be powerful, but then again how does that power hold up against a mind that can warp matter? Which is what twilight was doing. Both takes a lot of power after all.
Also i guess in my mind she was releasing a psionic equivalent of an emp by releasing all that energy. The energy itself would have disrupted the ethereal, maybe force it to try and overpower the energy flow so he can get in.
4030254 Or you are being very defensive about your creation. We all want to protect what we create.
In no way have you really proven i was 'wrong' at any point. In the sense that you are not making the everfree an entity and similar subjects, i am wrong in saying that is not your intent.
Yet at the same time the everfree forest, and most of the planet, is infused with what is basically 'psionic' energy to begin with. So how come the everfree is not alive, amognst the other quandaries i brought up.
By the end of it all ti seems the reason why the everfree is not alive, why the ponies are not adapting to the alien threat, and all those other quandaries, is that it would mean the aliens would not have the advantage. Or at least their advantage would be severely crippled.
Basically plot convenience. This idea of your can be greatly expanded on. Yet you seem content on having equestria be absolutely no different from the earth invasion, outside of it giving advantages to the aliens that earth could not provide. You say equestria is no different, yet it is contradicted by your own lore it seems.
To bring up an admitably inferior product, Stephannie, author of twilight, says vampire are stronger than werewolves, inspite of the fact they are as strong as them even in human form and their fangs can easily destroy vampires. And being wolves, they would be biting anyway.
4030295
Because it isn't. It isn't the gestalt entity you want it to be. It never was. That is your personal interpretation of the Everfree based on what you perceived from the show. That, like everything else you've said, is your head canon.
Oh, and please continue to bring up criticisms that are not only completely incorrect, but entirely unrelated to the story that is the subject of this blog.
media.giphy.com/media/LFlT04CTtrwc/giphy.gif
4030315 Sighs. That gif is an obvious means for you to reflect criticism. And is exceptionally childish of you to use.
Though i should not be surprised at this point.
You state it is one way, but it looks like something else, is the problem. You state your vampires are more powerful than werewolves, when the werewolves means of attack can easily kill them and generally have superior traits.
So the everfree is not sapient. It is still a force that needs a tree of fuel crystals gone sapient to contain the damn thing (also that explanation i cannot comment on, just....). So chryssalids invade and nothing really happens to the aliens. Despite they being the source of the chryssalids. Nothing in a psionic forest that needs a god tree to contain, else it would spread across equestria, got up and got pissed about it.
You are a lot more creative than that. The only reason why you didn't think of what could have been angered by sending the chryssilids there is because it would inconvenience the aliens. And despite being in a world like equestria where there are ancient and dangerous things, those ancient and dangerous things do not exist unless they are for the benefit of the aliens.
4030143
I would highly recommend MLP Time Loops. Its basically a massive collab of crossover stories loosely tied together. There are even a few chapters of XCOM crossover material. Be prepared to lose a lot of time, story currently has over a hundred 10k+ words chapters.
4030453 I really liked the XCOM section. It's too bad they dropped it.
4030254 Arad, you're failing to follow YOUR OWN ADVICE. You've already been down that road, you just warned everyone else how it went. Try not to get sucked in again. Never helps and it's just one headache after another.
In other news, congrats on the recognition. I'm an OLD XCOM fanboy, as in played the one made back for DOS, and I love Stardust. I've mostly fallen out of love for MLP, and I still love Stardust.
4030415
Nowhere in this comment is there anything related to Stardust... or related to anything in my stories. Why don't you come back after you've read Stardust?
Headcanon. Noun. (uncountable) (fandom slang) Elements and interpretations of a fictional universe accepted by an individual fan, but not found within or supported by the official canon. (Or the Stardust canon for the purposes of this argument).
Have you ever considered using your head canon to write your own story rather than trying to dictate how other people should write theirs?
4030453
I'll keep it in my back pocket for Bronycon if I have time to kill. Is it very jarring going from chapter to chapter if it's different authors?
4030474
You know, you're exactly right. None of the pages of comments earlier changed his mind, and it did get to the point where it was just me trying to make him see sense. I'm just going to not respond to him any more for now and reply to other people's comments for now. Thanks for pointing that out.
4030489
It can be jarring. Not just from swapping authors, but from all of the time jumps as well. Its a Time Loop story, the time line is all over the place. Still, most of it is quality stuff and a very fun read.
4030481 ......... YOU already made it clear they exist when yuo brought your toybox idea into it. An ancient vault full of ancient magic weapons. So you made that precedent for your world.
Sighs.
4030143 Hey man, it was cool enough to thank you in person at BronyCon.