Behind the Story: Amethyst

So, I’m back with these blog posts, not only out of a presumed obligation (don’t worry, I’d stop if I hated doing this), but also because I really like talking about my influences. This is mainly because Amethyst has an origin story that I love, which eventually disappointed me because I couldn’t replicate that feeling.

But let’s start earlier, shall we?

I was minding my own business in QnS. After doing my QnS duos contest, I outright stated that I would be focusing on my own projects for the time being to the crowd there. Then, QnS announced a fic exchange, and it sounded cool, so I signed up.

Basically, the main idea was that we’d write something down, and then somebody else would have to write what you asked for, chosen completely at random.

As stated in the description, I got the prompt to write any princess in a ship with Maud Pie, assigned by Bicyclette.

However, the problem is that if you put all the tags together, ranked from best to worst in how I write them, ‘Romance’ would be near the very bottom. On top of my natural procrastination problems, there was a little panic.

So, I first had to figure out how the hell I was going to use Maud Pie.

I felt that Twilight would have the most kinship with her, but I wondered why exactly that would be.

Suddenly, I don’t know what set it off (though I was told later that this idea isn’t really groundbreaking), I got the idea that Maud Pie had some sort of ASD. She has hyperfixations, terrible social skills, muted emotions, and very close bonds to a select number of people. It made sense.

I travelled down this line of thinking a bit more, and I was eventually led to To The Moon.

To The Moon is an Indie game that’s sort of Visual Novel-ish. There’s hardly any gameplay with lasting effects on the game beyond what you’re supposed to do. However, To The Moon is notable for having an amazing story.

When I say amazing, I mean it. The game was praised on its story alone, despite the lacking gameplay, and even won an award for best story the year it came out. It was up against Xenoblade Chronicles.

You may ask why I’m bringing To The Moon up, and despite the fact that it’s far from the main point of the story, the game treats ASD really well, in my opinion. I say this while suffering from (relatively minor, I must admit) ASD myself.

The main takeaway is that our main character in To The Moon fell for this neurodivergent girl mentioned in the story, not in spite of her Autism, but because of it.

So, I clung onto that idea and started writing Amethyst in that vein. I figured Twilight, prone to hyperfixations and far from a social butterfly herself, would feel a kinship in Maud. She would think this way mainly because Maud doesn’t care and actually shows it (not that Maud has much choice in the matter, but it’s whatever).

So, I set out to write the story where the two meet at a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party Pinkie’s throwing for Maud, and then go on to get Pinkie Pie some presents for what started out as Hearths’ Warming because haha meta joke because this is a Christmas fic exchange, but then was too hard to justify, leading to it becoming the Pie Sisters’ Gift Exchange.

Admittedly, I think the story suffers in its shortness, but I couldn’t think of anything else to write.

The title came about because I was just thinking of some dumb rock pun, but then I stumbled on ‘Amethyst’, and I found that beautiful as a title and ship name. Not only because amethysts are commonly found in geodes, meaning there’s a rough outer shell, but a shining interior, a metaphor I found very fitting for Maud (and it’s mentioned in the story like that, too), and a ship name because of the incredibly dumb idea that well, Purple Smart x Rock Pone = Purple Rock = Amethyst.

Also, Amethyst felt like a very ‘me’ SoL title, given that it piques interest because it’s nonspecific and possibly mysterious.

Aside from my normal influences, the only other big one was To The Moon.

That’s really everything interesting about Amethyst. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

And until next time; be awesome!
-Dashie