• Story: Arcadia (Update Part 5!)


    [Sci-fi]

    Author: Obscurica
    Description: They abandoned a dying world, their voyage near-stillborn by the strife of the grieving. And time does not, despite the popular saying, heal all wounds. On the thousandth year of the voyage of the colony ship Arcadia, a nightmare returns to remind them - that peace is built upon the backs of the lost and the damned.

    (Space opera reinterpretation of S1E1-2 by way of Asimov and Clarke.)
    Arcadia Part 1
    Arcadia Part 2
    Arcadia Part 3
    Arcadia Part 4
    Arcadia Part 5 (New!)

    Additional Tags: space opera, human, alternate universe

    36 comments:

    1. Sounds interesting, so does that robo-Vinyl thing, too.

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    2. Story sounds kinda cool. I like Sci-Fi stuff. Also love the pic. :D

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    3. Okay, that picture is.. disturbing.. mechascratch

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    4. A reinterp. of an Asimov & Clark work o.0? I'm intrigued...especially since I'm in a Sci-Fi class atm...will read later after work.

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    5. Well i read it while i like science fiction and the writing was decent i found it hard to understand. i was never a big fan of Amisov or Clarke anyway. I guess this isn't for me.

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    6. Here I was with the slightest hope it may have something to do with Skies of Arcadia. :p Still sounds cool though.

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    7. A pretty interesting concept, you've caught my attention.

      (To the people who don't get the premise from the description, it's a retelling of the first two episodes of FIM using augmented humans on a miles-long colony spaceship instead of ponies. It took me a while to catch on to that.)

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    8. Skimmed the first chapter; looks like my kind of thing, highly technical SF (and something I'd considered writing myself, although not quite the same premise, fortunatly!).

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    9. this is kinda based off of halo wars

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    10. The pilot episodes well-translated into Sci-fi...

      ...but where are the ponies? It's all humans!

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    11. I haven't even read it and I know it's awesome.

      I mean seriously.

      Asimov/Clarke, AND Ponies? Hell yes.

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    12. Why in the hay was this taken down and then later reposted?

      Did anypony else notice this?

      Whatever. *reads*

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    13. I, too am confused about it's posting.

      It's a nice read though, if a bit stuffy.

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    14. Modern space opera with a Clarke-ian feel... I like it.

      Oddly enough, not very many novels go for that combination...

      Reminds me of an anime space opera, actually.

      General Evaluation: =D

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    15. I don't usually enjoy fics that retell the first episodes.

      This was an exception. There is just enough sci-fi interspersing the redundant retelling to make it an enjoyable read.

      Must listen to this while reading: http://youtu.be/n3l3w1X8LCg

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    16. Awww, it's only the first part?? This chapter, at least, was awesome - I was disappointed when I got to the end. I'm really looking forward to more of this.

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    17. @Unknown : More that Halo Wars apes older, better hard science fiction works. Definitely feeling your influences here, Obscurica, and very interested to see how this pans out.

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    18. I'm a big fan of the 'Foundation' series of Isaac Asimov... but it has been a while, and I'm not sure if 'Arcadia' refers to one of his books ?

      Anyway, I'm not sure how well 'ponies/Equestria/MLP:FiM' will work here... we will see.

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    19. @Nova25

      It's not based on anything specific by Clarke or Assimov. It's just a comparison made to indicate the type of sci-fi story that this is.

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    20. This is really well done. Can't wait for part 2 :)

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    21. Can't wait to see how the author handles pegasi.

      One question: if unicorn equivalents require sterile environments, then whatever will they do when the colony ship finally gets to colonization?

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    22. @Bugsydor
      >Can't wait to see how the author handles pegasi.

      I was thinking exactly that :)

      >One question: if unicorn equivalents require sterile environments, then whatever will they do when the colony ship finally gets to colonization?

      Either die out, become the weakest race, or develop a cloud of nanites to filter the environment around them? :p

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    23. It is really good story, I want continuation, please. And method to contact with the author

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    24. Seriously, this is so great. I would read it even if it wasn't pony.

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    25. @NHO

      I've established an email account for general, public inquiries. I'm going to have to pass on the IMs, though - partially because I'm having connectivity issues at the moment, and partially because I haven't set up a public IM account, and would rather not use my personal account for these purposes.

      I'm thankful that you appreciate my story, though! As I am to the rest of my readers. Quite happy to see that it's gotten some fans.

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    26. Bwaahahaaa! Rainbow Vaiva is awesome :D

      Can't wait to meet Fluttershy :3

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    27. This is marvelous. Erudite, thorough world building, creative re-interpretation that stays faithful to the source material while remaining imaginative in its own right, and even haunting in places. I'm already anxious for more.

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    28. As a fan of old-school SF as well as MLP, I love how you're managing to retell the events of the latter in the context of the former. Eagerly awaiting further chapters.

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    29. Cool, this updated :D
      *downloads as PDF to read after work*

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    30. Hm. This chapter suffers somewhat by comparison to the previous ones, mainly by relying too heavily on the source material. It's a peril faced by any fanfic that recapitulates episodes of the original show, but one this fic has largely avoided by virtue of worldbuilding.

      However, the party scene has left me a bit at sea. What did Mayuya drink? Why the comment about strawberries? Is she allergic to them, and if so, how should I have known?

      It doesn't help that almost everyone's been given new names, which I've almost entirely lost track of, but maybe that's a problem with the episodic format or my own ability to retain names.

      I still intend to keep reading, because I admit I'm curious; the author has played the 'Celestia as chessmaster' card, which only makes sense if, despite the nanotech and the harder science, true friendship really is what powers the Elements...

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    31. @Fred M. Sloniker

      Alas, the "Strawberry Surprise" reference in the party scene was a bit of self-indulgent humor on my own part. I was, ah, personally exposed to it a few years back, and the specific alcoholic concoction seemed a good fit for the scene.

      I will avoid explaining the joke, but for the confused and bemused, TVTropes has it listed...

      And, yes. I'm actually a bit irked at chapter 3, in particular, for how closely it hews to the source material. Luckily, we're into what I'll consider the "crescendo" mini-arc of this little recollection. There will be changes. There is Yet More Worldbuilding to do. And we haven't even gotten close to the halfway point...

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    32. I have to say, Fluttershy's counterpart's introduction seemed a little rushed. So did Applejack's, I guess. Rainbow's first scene was almost a story in itself.

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    33. I love this story.

      Re: What happens to the unicorns?

      Same thing that happens to the other subspecies: their augmentation is phased out and their descendants are augmented to suit their new environment. Transhumanism can go backward if it needs to.

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    34. Reading chapter 4...
      So, Pinkie is of a race of people that literally produce sugar in their blood stream all the time? Ho boy :p

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    35. I'm curious. What's Pinkie's full name, if she has one?

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    36. Am I correct in my guess that this story has been abandoned? :(

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