Star Sparkle. Accomplished author, diplomat, historian and mother to one of the most famous mares in Equestrian history. She has no regrets, but she does have a problem: she ran out of gin last night. And her daughter is marrying an ape.
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Star really has come off as... well, mentally not right in this story. Some kind of antisocial disorder, or something.
Ah, nice to see Twilight do what I have wanted to see her do for ages: throw Star out. Out on the street, where she belongs. Alone, as she should be.
Twilight put her hoof down hard and it seems Lero is immune to future mother-in-laws mannerisms. Star has issues a plenty.
3866123 That's a really neat idea. I confess to me it just came across as her disliking people. Just been hurt too much in the past or perhaps simply not interested in getting close to others. Is there anything specific that leads you to think that rather than a choice and habit it's potentially a mental disorder?
3866123 3866446
If Star was human, I'd say she was an asshole. As a pony, she's downright unstable. Harmony, herd dynamics, parental attachment, common fricking courtesy. She acts as though she has no concept of them, but she was apparently much more "normal" at one time. Something broke inside her, and I think we've seen a tiny hint of why in this chapter.
Oh zecora, you're awesome
Wow, is this like an early chinese new year present or something?
This and Herd Life are by far my favorite stories in the Leroverse even though, other than the setting, they have almost nothing to do with it, and they both got updated within a day of each other after months of inactivity.
As always I really enjoy the details that go into your characters. I know some have complained about Star before, but I don't have a problem about reading about a character that is not likeable as long as she's also interesting, and she definetly is interesting. And well, just as I commented on the new Herd Life chapter, this is one of the very few good fisc around (possibly only 2) that deals with a herd as an established family unit and delves into what that is rather than begin just another romance story, and i love it for it.
Here's hoping for more than 2 chapters a year!
This somewhat reinforces my perspective of Star Sparkle.
The impression I've gotten isn't that Star doesn't like people- She actually rather enjoys their company, especially if they're attractive or intelligent or interesting- the problem is, she doesn't seem to be able to grasp the import of other people's feelings, especially in regards to her own actions- or at least, regard them as having any import outside of how they immediately impact her. However, she is very good at reading people and appealing to their desires- This is why she's such a good diplomat and seducer.
As such, she's a master manipulator, she plays people, gets what she wants from them, and is somewhat baffled why they hold a grudge about it later- and is somewhat incapable of dealing with it, because she can't manipulate them out of it.
In the end, she's found herself in a place where she's left a trail of disappointed and hurt ponies, sacrificing much of her time and life for a "Big find" that never came. While there are some nice things in her life, Such as Lucent and Cinnamon Swirl, she's found herself never reaching her goals, and alienated from ponies she'd wish to be close to, such as Velvet and her children, and is at an utter loss on how to correct this- Largely because she is too stubborn and prideful to do what would be needed- humble herself, ask for forgiveness, and mend her ways.
In a ways, her efforts here were most likely her clumsy attempt to make amends with Twilight, creating something they could do together and share interest in... Creating a common bond, a shared interest, an association, and familiarity that'd always been missing between them, as she spent all the time she could have formed those when Twilight was young, gallivanting across the world.
It'd have been a masterstroke if it'd work- solve one of her problems- without having to say she was sorry.
Problem is, that bridge was rather thoroughly burned, and all she accomplished was to fall in the the river while shattering the scorched remains to ash.
Smooth.
3866591
Could you expand on this? What do you think the hint is, exactly? :-/
3870561
I'm guessing something happened with Amaranth, her sister, who was mentioned once earlier in this story.
3871097
Thanks! I'd actually forgotten who she was
3871097
3871103
The joys of very slow updating...
3867542 I have made a pledge to myself to get this finished before the summer, so there will be more than two this year. I saw your comment on Herd Life too! It's one of my favourite Xeno stories as well (quite apart from the obvious reasons). I've enjoyed the subtle ways that herd life is fleshed out there.
3868172 I knew there was a reason I liked you.
I personally don't want to dig too deep into her motivations in the comments right now - it would spoil major, major plot points - but I do enjoy reading everything you guys come up with.
3870584 A fair point, I suppose I was focusing too much on the results of the actions rather then the actions themselves
Ah,Star Sparkle, the pony I love to hate.
Considering Zecora is such a good friend of Twilight Sparkle, I really hope things don't get awkward between them now that Zecora has slept with her mom.
3871097
I think whatever happened with her is why Star is how she is.
3871146
Heh, I wouldn't expect Spoilers, but Star has always struck me as interesting, especially since she seems in some ways to be a social idiot savant, as well as being brilliant and sexy, so I've tried to understand her and why she occasionally does awful things. I think the people in the "Star Sparkle is a monster" camp should take notice that she never seems to intentionally go out of her way to wreck people's lives- her worst crimes are usually her prioritizing her own needs over others.
I find myself wondering, not for the first time, why people who know Star continue to associate with her. Every time she opens her mouth, it's either to insult someone or to manipulate them into something she wants. I've known people like that. I've tried to deal with them, and honestly, the only way to win is to walk away and let them dig their own graves.
The highlight of the chapter was when Twilight showed her the door. It's nice to see how Lero doesn't fall for her tricks.
Is there going to be some sort of catharsis here? I'm not really seeing much development, and reading about a thoroughly unlikable person for roughly 46,000 words is starting to get a little frustrating.
An excellent chapter and I am so glad to see this is still alive. Only complaint I have is that I would really like to see more of Lero's herd's interactions with the rest of Twilight's family, at least those that are present.
I also can't stop thinking of Twilight sending a letter to Luna asking her to deny Star any information; or taking it a step further and waste her time by spending hours on useless information and tales that always seem to be leading up to what Star wants to know, before having herself get called away or having to leave just as she seems to be about to get to said information.
Oddly for a professor, it seems Star Sparkle doesn't know how to learn. Academics, she can learn, but when it comes to social interactions she seems to be completely operating on a stimulus-response basis. She gets a stimulus in the form of 'want something' or 'be bored' and she responds without thinking, and she treats others as though she expects them to have the exact same mode of operation. That works fine when she meets someone initially, or someone who'll put up with it, or who's already unfriendly on first meeting and expecting manipulation, but most ponies will stop reacting the way she expects them to as their experience with her alters their responses. That her negative personal interactions can have repercussions on her future interactions seems to be genuinely outside her awareness. And her response to unanticipated interactions is to leave, rather than engage in any consideration of the possibility of changing herself.
Who is Guiding Light?
3886437 Chapter three.
I realise that the amount of time between that and this would make it difficult to remember some details.
3886871
Honestly, I can't keep hardly any of the characters in this story straight. I usually just roll with it but I didn't remember this character at all.
I don't why it took me this long to get to this, but I'm glad I have. I love how alien Lero and his works seem to Star. To a lesser degree, so do other ponies. As has been noted, she just doesn't seem to grasp the idea of there being other thinking beings in the world, just tools and obstacles.
As for emotions, Star doesn't even really understand her own. At the very least, she lies to herself about them constantly to maintain her self-image. She cannot accept the image of her being afraid of anypony, certainly not Celestia, and so she refuses to acknowledge the possibility. Silly, stubborn pony.
Also, abandoning half of the scrolls is definitely going to bite Star on the ass in the future. Just like her daughter, she becomes terribly, unscientifically close-minded when she's frustrated.
One last comment:
The phrasing here struck me as odd, mainly the image of a house making its home. Recursive domesticity apparently makes my brain ache.
In any case, looking forward to more. Especially seeing where Star goes from here.
4111381 No, thank you for such a great comment!
3925130
I'm starting to wonder if Star isn't the pony version of a sociopath, in the sense that she doesn't on a fundamental level get that the other ponies are people like her, with the same feelings and desires and internal life. She's definitely smart, she has a lot of superficial charm, she's a good manipulator... but she's also selfish, impetuous, sexually reckless and her relationships are all strained by her sheer inability to be nice to others even when it would be in her own best interests.
4217321
That pretty well describes a lot of self-absorbed geniuses, actually. Galileo comes to mind.
Edit: >comment is older than dirt.
...Oh well.
from chapter one to chapter five, my enjoyment of this story steadily decreased. i enjoy your OCs. they are fleshed out and i want to know more. but i just feel like im missing so much backstory. i've spent the last two days ingesting this xeno-verse. i understand not all are tied to the main verse and some are branches of others. but to me, there is not enough "connection" to that for me to find this completely enjoyable.
as a stand alone story, about a mother who made choices and now has to deal with her daughter moving on with her life or the "debt" she's accrued... but not as a xeno story. heck, i probably missed why you chose to have star be twilight's mother instead of velvet.
maybe i'm just missing everything.
but gawd daym, you write hella well.
firmly?
chin