• Member Since 6th Jul, 2012
  • offline last seen Dec 25th, 2023

Arad


A Midwest brony who enjoys writing about adorkable unicorns and alien invasions. Come join me for XCOM 2 livestreams!

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Oct
12th
2016

The State of the Story (Part 2 plus poll/feedback for my next story) · 3:46am Oct 12th, 2016

Evening folks!

So, as most of you are no doubt painfully aware, I've yet to produce an update for Mente Materia since my last blog. I will spare everyone the drama and other things that has happened and I'll get right to the point. Everything is planned out for the final arc of Mente Materia but I find my mind being led astray by various plot bunnies that grab my attention, so I think I need to do something of a palete cleanser of sorts. I intend to start another story alongside my writing for Mente Materia that I can alternate chapters with, much in the same way did with the story Celestia last year.

With that being said, I have several ideas I want to potentially pursue but as a bit of a mea culpa to everyone waiting on my Mente Materia update, I wanted to throw all of my ideas out there to see what people think or want me to pursue. So, without further ado, I shall unleash my plot bunnies to gnaw upon your minds! (All titles are works in progress and may change based on feedback/how I feel when I start writing)

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Lotus Eater -- When the XCOM base came under assault, Twilight Sparkle played her part in defending it alongside her new human friends only to overextend herself and end up at the mercy of an Ethereal. One of the humans fired a shot to defend her... and missed. Twenty years later, Twilight wakes from stasis to find a very different Earth than she remembers.

Notes: This is the proverbial what-if scenario that I brought up some time ago. What if Zhang had missed his shot at the end of Stardust, leaving Twilight at the mercy of the Ethereal Overseer? The events of XCOM 2, modified to the Stardust canon/developments.

Expected length: Long

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The Brightest Spark -- Ponyville's peaceful day is shattered when terrifying machines battling strange creatures appear with the flash of lightning and the clap of thunder. Nopony has any explanation for their sudden arrival or equally puzzling departure, but Twilight Sparkle is certain that the armored alicorn in the center of the fight had something to do with it... and she will stop and nothing to solve the mystery.

And in a place and time far removed from those events...

A Ghost gifted with the Traveller's Light wanders the decaying ruins of a once great civilization, looking for the one Guardian it was made to find. For years it searched the wastelands, searching the bones and wreckage of the world before finding his goal near a broken roadway just outside of the Cosmodrome wall: the sand-blasted bones of a creature born of the Light... but not of this Earth.

Notes: Destiny crossover, a heavily modified retelling of the events of the game but significantly altered due to the arrival of a Guardian that is neither Human, Exo or Awoken... but undeniably gifted with the Light. Like all Guardians, 'Spark' (as she is called) has no memory of her origins save for the occasional flashback to a time and place so unlike the wartorn Earth. It'll be a bit of an experiment to see if I can tell two time-separated stories in parallel, like how Arrow shows Oliver Queen's time on the Island while showing current events as well.

Expected Length: Long

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Nightmare -- Villains rarely appear out of thin air. They start as most people do, but fall victim to fate, choice, manipulation... or love. Princess Luna's descent into the Nightmare is something that has been long forgotten by modern ponies, but Luna will always remember.

Notes: The sequel to my story Celestia, telling the story of the events immediately following Celestia and Luna's return to the hidden village and eventually leading up to Luna being banished to the moon. Like the previous story it's -technically- part of the Stardust timeline and canon, but can be taken by itself without knowledge of the other stories besides Celestia.

Expected Length: Short

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Directive Two -- XCOM's primary directives are as follows: One; combat and defeat enemy forces not native to the planet Earth wherever and whenever they may appear. Two; preserve and defend all human life. These two directives were never meant to conflict.

Notes: XCOM:EW!Good ending crossed over with GATE. What's this you say, not a pony crossover? Shame! SHAME! Seriously though, this has been a plot bunny that's been gnawing at me for a long time (plus I've had some folks comment that they'd like to see me write something that's not pony related). Rather than the nationalist/jingoist setting conflicts of the canon GATE, I had a different idea I wanted to explore. For the moment at least, the entire world is united in it's efforts to defend itself as well as help rebuild. When the invasion from the Gate begins, the peoples of Earth cringe in horror twice over. The brutal loss of life hearkens back to the terror missions of the aliens... but what's even more shocking is the revelation that the attack was instigated and led by humans not from this Earth. XCOM has to prevent any further attacks from happening and find the culprits responsible for launching the attack... while also contending with the fact that they are now the technologically advanced alien invaders kicking down doors.

Expected Length: Long

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Due to my time constraints, I'll probably only be able to pursue ONE of these ideas alongside Mente Materia and what comes after that. I would greatly appreciate everyone's input and feedback on this!

Report Arad · 1,053 views · Story: Mente Materia · #Mente Materia #Future Plans
Comments ( 77 )

Lotus Eater has my vote.:twilightsheepish::twilightsmile:

D48

I'm going to go with Lotus Eater as well.

Start with Nightmare. Since it's short you can finish it quickly and move on to a different idea. After that, I have to vote for the GATE crossover. That show had so much wasted potential.

Nightmare as a sister story to Celestia?
Count me in! That story really brought development to the Celestia of the Aradianverse.

If you were to work on Directive Two what site would you release it on.

GATE fanfic that is up to snuff is quite rare.

Lotus Eater got a third vote here !

Lotus eater sounds most interesting. Probably because I haven't watched GATE or played Destiny.

The GATE one would be my second choice though.

I want to see Directive Two. Where would you likely host it?

I like Lotus Eater, but it might have too much overlap with your eventual plans for the future.

I haven't got time to explain how much I want to read The Brightest Spark.

But it's a lot.

Nightmare

Brightest Spark got my vote.

The others are kinda ok, but the GATE thing is kinda boring because it screams too much of HFY that it made the conflict boring and repetitive.

2 things:
1. Holy shit you watched GATE too?
2. Xcom 2, Destiny, AND GATE crossovers? I could hug you

I'd love to read Nightmare

It's a mix between the brightest spark and Lotus eater V: the Phantom spark.

lotus eater and nightmare

Directive Two. XCOM slaughtering Roman legions? Yes, please.

Directive 2 please holy crap yes.

One of the humans fired a shot to defend her... and missed. Twenty years later, Twilight wakes from stasis to find a very different Earth than she remembers.

Notes: This is the proverbial what-if scenario that I brought up some time ago. What if Zhang had missed his shot at the end of Stardust, leaving Twilight at the mercy of the Ethereal Overseer? The events of XCOM 2, modified to the Stardust canon/developments.

I'm kinda torn on the "battle-hardened Twilight fighting with resistance-movement XCOM" angle. On one hand, a lot of the main human cast would be there (Lana included) and it would provide some much needed development for XCOM 2's cast (looking at you, Lily and Tygan). On the other, I'm not sure all the alternate timeline character beats and plot developments would work for the better. There'd probably be constant brooding from Matt and Zhang for not initially saving her, Twilight being paralyzed initially for believing she failed her friends, Vide having even greater plot armor. That's just me thinking out loud (and you probably have some good ideas for making the above not feel cringy) but it just sounds like there's a lot of these elements already present in Mente Materia and other future stories in the timeline.

That, and I think Lotus Eater would likely have a incongruent downer ending that would clash with Stardust's overarching themes of friendship conquering adversity.

How so? Well, I seem to recall a scene in Stardust with two arcane horrors in disguise discussing the consequences if Twilight didn't return. If Discord wasn't just stroking his superiority complex when he said he knew Equestria was doomed if Twilight failed I doubt she'd have a home planet to return to. The Ethereals (or whatever greater entities are lurking in the shadows) would probably play it safe and simply obliterate Equestria since they already have Twilight as their perfect apex specimen.

And on the flip side you had Celestia solemnly swear she'd ensure Discord's complete erasure from the multiverse if her favorite student didn't come home. That would probably lead to one hell of a relapse for the former solar tyrant.

i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag163/AlphaChurch0/Solar%20Flare%20-%20The%20End%20of%20All%20Things_zpsofhqig28.png

Once again, just my thoughts.

For my money, I'd go with Nightmare as the next side story. The end of Celestia did a great job at filling in some blanks and expanding the universe. I'd love to see how this version of Luna copes with her power (and the fact that she's the victim of memory tampering).

Ultimately, it's your call and I'll be reading whatever comes next.

4252389

Thanks for the feedback, and you brought something up that I forgot to mention.

Twilight would NOT be battle-hardened or a grizzled veteran. When she wakes from stasis, to her it's literally been less than a minute since the Ethereal ran off with her. Combine this with the fact that the vast majority of the crew on the Avenger are going to be vehemently xenophobic to the point of violence, I don't think Old Man Bradford would entrust Twilight's safety to any of them if she might get 'shot in the back' accidentally.

Now, that being said, there's another thing I wanted to point out: Lily Shen is dead in the Stardust timeline. Stardust is so hardcore that I killed her before she was even announced as a character. (No seriously, Shen's kids are dead. :( ) So, I wonder who would replace Shen on the Avenger. Perhaps someone else from Stardust that stated an interest in engineering perhaps? *hint hint wink wink*

I hope you go for "Directive Two," just so that we can read you take on a Gate crossover. The amount of over the top propaganda pisses me off. Sure some propaganda will pass since this is made by the Japanese and being proud of your country's accomplishments and strengths is great and all. But the glossing over so many blunders... Just so many things annoyed the hell out of me. The fanfiction, "Manifest Destiny," by Blueway is probably the only crossover that managed to do a more realistic take on the series. Especially America's involvement since Japan is still under Article 9 regardless of how the politicians in the Diet try to spin the 'not war'.

Hopefully you get rid of as many of the problems that made the series really unpalatable to me. Honestly the bare minimum would be to get rid of Itami, that waste of space of a character. Its like how people hate Kirito from SAO for being a bland emo kid.

... Now that I think of it, if you do go with this idea, will this be on another site like fanfiction.net because this story will have no ponies?

Directive Two sounds pretty interesting. At the very least you're one of the few authors I would trust to pull off a quality GATE fic.

Vote for Lotus Eater!!!

Personally I like the look of Lotus Eater the best.

Also, love your describing them as "plot bunnies" :pinkiehappy:

I also throw in another vote for Lotus Eater. I would love to see what would happen to the avenger crew with twilight to help them along the way.

4252397

Lily Shen is dead in the Stardust timeline. Stardust is so hardcore that I killed her before she was even announced as a character.

Aw, snap! Completely forgot about that. So we'd get Chief Engineer Lana Jenkins terrorizing the Avenger's crew with her army of GREMLIN drones? Wonder what other roles old XCOM staff might play (i.e. Matt Harris the Psionic Drill Sergeant).

This is why you're one of my favorite authors on this site; you put in the time and thought to make sure the stories in your literary universe are cohesive with each other. Can't tell you the number of times I've read tie-in material that supposedly expands a series only to find it presents contradicting information *cough*XCOM 2 Resurrection*cough.*

Still not completely sold on the premise, though. I can buy Twilight's stasis rendering her a combat rookie and the majority of the Avenger's crew viewing her as more a threat than ever, but these circumstances seem to set the characters back further than when Twilight was initially sent to Earth. We'd be going over similar "should we or shouldn't we trust the purple book horse" scenarios from Stardust involving some characters who can't be convinced otherwise and will probably take every opportunity to kill her out of misguided revenge. Even if Bradford's foresight still gives him an edge, the more undisciplined / unhinged members of this XCOM would represent a serious threat to Twilight and any sense of unity their resistance movement is trying to foster. A house divided and all that jazz.

Regardless, thanks for reading my comments, long-winded as they are. Best of luck with the coming chapters.

4252397
I would go with Nightmare being first.

I have to admit I'm torn. Lotus Eater, Nightmare, and Directive 2 all sound good to me. Though if I had to rank them on what I wanted to see most:

1. Directive 2
2. Nightmare
3. Lotus Eater

Lotus Eater! I've been waiting for this! :twilightsmile:

The Brightest Spark sounds interesting, as does Lotus Eater. Both take two different, but game approaches that you do well. And let you appeal with your wordsmithing.

I vote for Nightmare into Lotus Eater.

4252397
So basically Lotus Eater is Stardust in terms of relationship beetween Twilight and Xcom. Could be interesting. Those first meetings awkward moments got me hooked to Stardast, i would love to experience them once again.

Personally I vote for Nightmare... mostly because you did such an awesome job making a great standalone story with Celestia that gave us an intriguing look at her supposed background, I can't help but wonder what you might come up with for our dear Princess Luna(r Lullaby).

I'm for Nightmare and Lotus Eater, here.

Directive Two seems like you'd end up with an even more overpowered force marching through the Gate. Forget F-4s, Cobras, and Type-64 rifles, XCOM would march through with Firestorms, power armor, and plasma weapons. That said, I can't really see it being more than "I want to try some 'what-ifs' in the GATE universe while tying in XCOM". It'd be neat, but I'd have to vote against it.

Lotus Eater sounds pretty good, so I'd vote for that.

I vote nightmare or directive 2! (I don't think I can handle the amount of emotional agony lotus eater would cause me as I can barely handle stardust series and lotus eater, without a doubt would have WAaaaaaaaay more feels of agony.
(Sorry about the mini-panic attack)

Lotus Eater and Nightmare are great, not that the other ones are bad. their good, just those two Nightmare, in particular would fill my desire for more of that relationship.

Nightmare or Directive Two, preferably Nightmare. I want more in this universe, so bad, even if it's not needed.

Personally I would love to see Nightmare, but Lotus Eater also souds awesome. Maybe write Nightmare first, since it's supposed to be short, and then move to Lotus Eater? Other ideas are also really cool, but I think these two are the best.

I can't decide on Lotus Eater or Nightmare.
Directive 2 sounds intestine as well, by my lake of knowledge of Gate hinders it.
And I have very little intrest in anything Destiny, sorry.

my votes split between lotus eater and brighter spark, both sound damn good but if i had to...id say stick with the xcom your doing quite well in that universe so far with your stories.

I was going to choose Lotus eater, but then I saw Directive Two. Not sure how it works with pony, but goddamn I'm a sucker for GATE. Either one of those is great

Lotus Eater has my vote! :twilightsmile:

I wold have to go with Locust Eater or Detective Two. Mostly because I love your Xcom stuff.

The brightest spark and directive two sound pretty interesting to me.

I have yet to see a good destiny fic. I want to see The Brightest Spark.

Door #2 please!

I'm torn between Nightmare or Lotus Eater

Lotus Eater sounds awesome.

Lotus Eater sounds fun

Brightest Spark (as this site needs some more good Destiny crossovers [the game makes such wonderful fanfic material]) and Directive Two (love XCom crossed with almost anything, and I like GATE [when it isn't being a giant Japan wankfest, which as mentioned by another somewhat understandable and acceptable, but goes way too far at times]). Both of these need to be done. Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

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