A Letter to My Readers: A Dose of Reality
Please be certain you have read the whole story before you read this letter. Spoilers ahead!
To start off, I didn't expect this story to become nearly as long as it did, but there was a lot to write about, which I aim to clarify in this letter. Anyway, as I mentioned in the description, this story is inspired by real-life experiences I’ve dealt with, and continued to deal with in the process of writing it. The story’s inspiration unfolded in front of me while I wrote it. At the beginning, I was consistently a number of chapters behind, so some ideas ended up being changed along the way when I got there.
In terms of Crimson’s narration, while he is pretty young in the first act, he needed to have a more mature narrative at times. I have seen ten-year-olds that are quite mature for their age, but I did occasionally have to play him up a few years in order for me to properly relay the messages I wanted to say.
As I mentioned, some of the details of the story had to be changed up a bit based on how events unfolded in front of me. Some aspects were only slightly altered, while some things were quite different from their real-life inspirations right from the start.
While I did get sick when I was four and have a heart transplant when I was only six, I didn’t get diagnosed with cancer until I was twenty-two (though the doctors were surprised it hadn’t happened sooner— PTLD usually strikes within the first few years of an organ transplant). This is why Crimson needed a slightly more mature narrative— I was giving a ten-year-old some of the thoughts of a person in their twenties…
After I was diagnosed, I did not have to spend the entirety of the treatments portrayed in Act I in the hospital. I was able to go home and go back to the hospital when I needed the treatments, though I did get readmitted when the events that led to the resectioning occurred.
Every medical problem that happened to Crimson in this story actually happened to me in some way, though some aspects were altered for the sake of time. Since this story focused on my cancer battle, I did not delve too deeply into the issues I’ve had with my heart. However, I decided to omit some of the other issues I’ve dealt with during my cancer fight. For example, I also had thyroid cancer, for which I had a thyroidectomy, and I had to have my tonsils removed due to the potential presence of more cancer (which happened while I was writing chapter 25).
Some people might say that I “killed off” Level Dasher in the middle of the story, but my father actually passed away three years before I even started my cancer battle. The sad truth is that my father really did retire right before he unexpectedly passed away. Just like what happened to Crimson, I was about to have a great opportunity with my father, but I had it ripped away from me. Including him in the story was my way of imagining what things would have been like if he was still here when I got diagnosed.
While Crimson’s path to initial remission took a little less than a year, in reality, I never really went into “remission” (which, as I mentioned in the story, doesn’t actually mean what a lot of people think it means) after dealing with the issues portrayed in Act I. There was a period of time (think the end of Act I and the beginning of the Entr’acte) where the cancer just sort of laid dormant, not causing any problems, aside from preventing me from attending college. When it “reawakened,” I began the clinical trial, and when that didn’t work, the doctors prepped me for the stem cell transplant, which some of you following me may have seen me talking about in my blogs. The doctors originally thought the whole process from my initial diagnosis would only take about a year if done correctly (which is partially why I made Act I a similar length), but things evolved— sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. While it can take up to two years after a stem cell transplant for the body to be considered fully recovered, the first year afterward is the most important, so if we call that the official end of my battle (since my scans all came back clean up to then), my battle with cancer took a little over three years. As of March 2017, though, I’m happy to report that both Oncology and Hematology have determined that the transplant was a complete success, and we can officially call me cured!
The basis of the story gradually shifted from being mostly based on reality with hints of fiction to move the story along, to more fiction with aspects of real life that I wanted to keep in the story. That’s why I say the story is inspired by real life, not based on it. I feel like the phrase “based on” would denote more similarities to reality, although I kept in many truths about my medical history and family. I also realized that as the story progressed, it put more focus on Crimson and Tesla’s relationship— I didn’t intend for the story to evolve into a romance. However, this helped emphasize a message I did want to convey: how times of crisis can strengthen the bonds of friendship. Then again, a schoolyard crush can certainly help move that along.
While I decided to give this story an official ending, I really don’t know how things are going to play out for me in the future. My medical life is an absolute mystery. I seem to be doing well now, but even if more major stuff happens to me in the future, I have high hopes that everything will be okay.
In this story, most of the named characters are OCs, and many are inspired by real people. Without giving actual names, these are the named characters and their IRL inspirations if they have one.
Crimson Star: Mostly based on myself. While his personality is similar to mine, as well as many of his interests, some of my minor attributes and lesser hobbies helped shape a few of his primary characteristics. He does think on a similar philosophical level despite his age, but he is a kid— some knowledge can only come with experience.
Level Dasher: As you can probably see by my account name, this is my original OC, and though he's based off of me, he represents my father for the story. I gave him an OC family before I wrote this story, so I decided to have the story told from his son’s perspective so I could show the family dynamic. When I did this, I changed some things around to allow him to keep his character, but still portray my father. While Level Dasher and my father are pretty similar anyway, I did have to change his career.
Harmony: Originally just LD’s significant other when I created the characters, I gave her some of my mother’s qualities for this story. My father was actually the more musical one in the family, but since LD’s special talent wasn’t music, my headcanon determined that his wife’s had to be. Some of the less flattering things about Harmony in the story—mostly her initial tension with Tesla—were only for the sake of the story. While any good son would say this about his mother (I hope), my mom really is the epitome of love and compassion, and would do absolutely anything to ensure anyone’s physical and mental well-being if she is able, particularly family and close friends.
Gramma: This character is an amalgamation of both of my grandmothers. I couldn’t think of an appropriate name to represent them both, so “Gramma” she shall forever be called. Both of my grandmothers are equally awesome, but for the sake of potential confusion, I only wanted to use one grandmother, and the story required this character be the paternal grandmother because of Level Dasher’s death (and yes, my mother does call her “Gram” as well).
Starry Knight and Tesla Coil: Believe it or not, despite being main characters in a story with mostly OCs that represent real people, they DON’T represent anyone. I needed two friends for Crimson that I could mold any way I chose, so I didn’t base them off any of my real friends for fear that they might be misrepresented as the story evolved. While I did have a few schoolyard crushes as a kid, none of them blossomed into relationships like Crimson and Tesla’s did.
High Flyer: This character is a representation of every nurse that took care of me in the hospital. Realistically, you would never have the same nurse every day, especially considering how much time Crimson spent in the hospital, but if I had a different character for every nurse, the story would have been incredibly confusing. So I combined them all into one (it’s the same reason I just said “the doctors” instead of giving them all separate names). While most of my nurses were female, I decided to make High Flyer male because in my experience, there are nowhere near as many male nurses as there are female, and the guys are just as awesome as the gals.
Blackhawk: A friend of mine that I was introduced to when I was first admitted after my diagnosis. He unfortunately did pass away.
White Stripe: Another friend I made in the hospital. I met him during one of my treatments, and we kept in touch. We were both in the hospital again when I got admitted for my resectioning, but after I got discharged, well… he didn’t.
As I said, the deaths of Blackhawk’s and White Stripe’s inspirations really did happen. In fact, they occurred within a week of each other, around the time I was writing chapter eight. That was a rough time for me. I also had to severely alter my plans of where the story was going when this happened. I’m purposely not saying too much about these characters’ inspirations because they didn’t know they were being put in this story. I thought about taking them out of the story for that reason, but I decided to keep them in because I feel that they need to be (and I want them to be) honored.
Page Turner: Doesn’t represent any one of my teachers in particular, but all of my teachers/professors were completely supportive over the course of my battle.
Tall Tale and Quick Quill: Page Turner doesn’t represent anyone, and nor do these two. However, I really do take to heart the message Tall Tale wrote. I wanted to include that line from The Shawshank Redemption somehow, because I do believe that it really is true (as well as when ‘hope’ is replaced with ‘friendship’). *Side Note* I’m amazed that when I first posted that chapter, nobody commented on the fact that ‘Crimson’ replacing ‘Red’ in that quote was basically the same thing! 
Amethyst Wonder and Rosebud: Two of my friends I made through the transplant department that I keep in touch with fairly often. As mentioned in the story, both have had it rough.
Inkwell and Joy: Inkwell represents one of my other key friends from the transplant world that I keep in touch with (he really was my roommate). Our age difference made it so that I couldn’t really do much with his character, but I wanted to include him somehow. Since the character is so young, I needed his mother there as well.
Brick and Boulder: Originally used as shoutouts to Crystal Moose since he did the same with my trio in A Daughter and Her Dragon when he first started writing it and it wasn’t on my account, so they don’t really represent anyone, either. I did deal with bullies when I was younger, but not because I was sick— more because of the physical side effects that came with being sick. The idea of the relationship between Brick and Blackhawk came to me on a whim, but because of this relationship, I had to change the order of Blackhawk’s and White Stripe’s deaths. Crimson would have found out about Blackhawk’s death sooner through Brick— Blackhawk’s inspiration actually passed away first IRL.
Center Stage: My friend that introduced me to the MLP fandom in the first place. She came and visited me during some of my treatments, and it was during those visits, when we would occasionally (read: frequently) talk MLP, that I began thinking about writing this story. I wanted to give her a cameo that had some impact, but didn’t really need to show up more than once. I don’t know the extent of her musical ability when it comes to instruments, but she is in fact a fantastic dancer, and has performed around the world!
Knightfall and Painted Pen: Since Starry and Tesla don’t represent anyone, neither do their named parents, but Painted Pen is Keetasari’s OC, and I was given permission to use her as Tesla’s mother in Like Father, Like Son.
Aftershock: Same deal with the other named parents— Brick’s father was an extra character.
Miss Nightingale: Just a placeholder name (I didn’t want to keep saying “the mare from the PonyLife room”), but she can also represent any of the people that work in the program called “ChildLife,” which does exactly what I explained in the story— keep kids occupied with various activities, give them company if they need it, etc.
Dr. Osis: Another placeholder name, but I wanted LD’s surgeon to actually have a name. If you’re familiar with medical terminology, you might have gotten the reference I was trying to make with his body color (Cyanosis).
Nurse Redcross: Again, she’s really just a placeholder for a ‘head nurse’, but I wanted her to have a name.
Topaz Moon: Another shoutout to another user here on FimFic, but her allowing me to use her OC did help me move the story along when I got stuck.
Dreamcatcher: Another friend of mine I met during treatments, who I am happy to say is doing well— she’s been cancer-free for over two years now! Any negativity in the personality I wrote for this character was purely for the sake of the story. In reality, she is an incredibly cheerful and outgoing person, despite all of her hardships. The words Dreamcatcher said in the finale are only slightly altered from something incredible she said in real life: “Just when I think I can’t, I can. I can because I have to, and I have to because I have no other choice.” If that isn’t an inspirational quote to follow, I don’t know what is.
*Note*: There are many other friends I’ve made in the medical world, and I wish I could have included them in this story, but if I had, it would have made the story ridiculously long and complicated. Some of them are still with us, some of them aren't. I just felt that tossing quick mentions of them into the story without having them make any real impact wouldn't have done them justice, particularly my friends that have passed.
If you took the time to read this far, you have my utmost gratitude. Like I had Crimson say in chapter twenty, I’m not one to pour my heart out to people, and I don’t really like to “talk.” Writing this story was therapeutic for me— it allowed me to relay my feelings in a way so that I didn’t actually talk to anyone directly, but was able to vent enough that I didn’t let my feelings consume me. My anger, sadness, frustration, and fear were all poured into the words you read here. Including my hiatus for medical reasons, it took me upwards of two and a half years (give or take a few months for editing) to write this story. I hope it was worth your time and patience, especially if you followed it from the beginning.
After reading this story, I hope you can now empathize with a cancer survivor who was not willing to give up the fight. I fought for the sake of my family, my friends, myself, and even for you. If reading this story has had any impact on you, whether it has inspired you to donate to the cause, made you remember someone you know who is also fighting (or fought and lost), or even just made you take an extra moment and think about other cancer survivors and/or fighters, this story was worthwhile.
It is my strong belief that everyone has a purpose in life. I originally thought mine was to become a teacher, but medical circumstances kind of put a block on that road. My involvement in this fandom has led me to a new path— primarily writing and editing (if you’ve seen all the stories I’ve edited), but my limited teaching experience has served a purpose in that regard as well. If I serve even more purposes along the way, like raising cancer awareness, I’m all for it. You, dear reader, have a purpose, too. When you find it (or if you’ve already found it), do the most and the best you can with it. You can consider that your ‘cutie mark’ here in the real world.
My big message for this story is this: make the most out of life, because you only get one shot at it. You may have a lot of obstacles to face along the way, but even so, you do have a life to live, so live it as best you can— for yourself, and for those around you.
Thanks for reading.
Level Dasher
P.S.: When I wrote that celebratory scene where Crimson comes up with the name for his foundation (in chapter 56), I decided to do a Google search. Incidentally, there actually is a pediatric cancer foundation called the Shining Stars Foundation. I’m thrilled to say that this foundation actually does a lot of things that I imagined Crimson envisioning for his foundation as it evolved. In case you’re wondering, this wasn’t an attempt to pitch the foundation— I think of it as a completely accidental, yet appropriate coincidence.