To the Stars

Kyubey promised that humanity will reach the stars one day. The Incubator tactfully refrained from saying too much about what they would find there.

And what was it they found?

War.

Humanity is locked in a war of survival against alien beings. Not as advanced as the Kyubey, but significantly superior to the humans in terms of technology , they attacked without warning and for no discernible reason. Now magical girls fight alongside the rest of humanity to help bring the hope of survival to all.

To the Stars is a Continuation Fic for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a Distant Sequel to the Epilogue of the anime, set several centuries into the future. A detailed exploration on the possible future of the world of Madoka Magica, the fic is arguably one of the most thorough Madoka Magica fictions in terms of the level of detail of world building.

The surviving main characters from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mami and Kyouko, appear as main characters in this fic, and Yuma from Puella Magi Oriko Magica appears in a supporting role. The third, and central, protagonist, Ryouko Shizuki, is a girl whose entry into the world of magical girls begins a little after the story's start.

To just give prospective readers an idea of the length of the fiction, the first 100K words alone of the story covers the events of the first 24 hour of the in-universe plot itself. It is much, much better than it sounds. This epic of a story can be found here.

Tropes used in To the Stars include:

• Action Girl: All the magical girls.
• Attack Drone: A noted odd power among some of the more scientifically-minded magical girls.
• Barrier Warrior: Usually paired with a teleporting magical girl. Homura was also this, when she stopped a giant Wave Motion Gun by flying straight to it, halting it by a simple wave of hand, and reflecting it back to the ship. After that, there wasn't a single weapon that capable of harming her.
• Bio Augmentation: The standard package for military grunts and most magical girls to better fight the war with. The civilians are also receiving their standard package, notably to prolong their lifespan to hundreds of years.
• Blue and Orange Morality: Kyouko’s lecture on the pulpit accuses the Judeo-Christian god of being unable to understand humanity because their morality system is so different from humanity’s. The Incubators suffer the same problem in their relation to humanity. Aware of this problem, one of the principal, though lesser known role of a major division in the MSY is to serve as an advisory body for the Incubators with regards to human affairs.
• Child Soldier: At the time when humanity was lacking manpower, the freshly-contracted magical girls were expected to go into front lines to hold off alien forces. Once the situation became less dire, under political pressure, the military decide that quality is better than quantity especially given the scarcity of Puella Magis, withdrawing magical girls under 13 year old from direct battle to be trained. Only slightly better, at least. Pressures within the government to completely avert this trope as of the start of the Fic have been steadily growing.
• The Conspiracy: There’s something strange going on that Mami, Kyouko, nor Yuma can figure out. Said conspiracy may have a hand in Ryouko's vision of Kyouko's death, what with the targeting and intent to completely destroy her soul gem as the results seem to indicate.
• The Corruption: Magical girls are constantly fighting not to succumb to this and fade away. Homura isn’t being allowed to go, her wish still active and preventing her passing.
• Cult: The Cult of Hope, led by Kyouko. Created after Homura’s miraculous superpowered destruction of an entire alien fleet while having a completely corrupted soul gem convinced her that Homura’s ramblings about the Goddess were true.
• Deadpan Snarker: Kyouko
• Death Seeker: Implied to be Homura’s goal as she leaves to find her purpose.

Kyouko: I hope Homura hasn't lost sight of who she is, and that she still works for this world somehow. The last time I saw her, she was in agony. She is human too, and her human heart would prefer she join her Goddess in heaven, rather than toil on Earth in service of Humanity, as a more perfect being would. I do not begrudge her her humanity, but if she suffers, it must be for a reason. Just in case, we strive every day to find her.

• Deliberately Cute Child: Yuma uses her cuteness to get her way in most of her meetings and discussions with fellow bureaucrats. It even works on machines.
• Despair Event Horizon: Homura hit this after the major battle when the magical girls revealed themselves to humanity and the attacking aliens.
• Do Not Go Gentle
• Family Business: It’s noted at one point that the temperament for becoming a magical girl runs in families, informally known as Matriarchies. Some families even call becoming a magical girl the family business! Some of the older generations girls, like Kyouko are understandably unhappy about this because how difficult their life were as magical girls. It is strongly implied that some of these families are extremely influential.
• The Future: The story is set a few hundred years in the future. Much of this fanfiction's appeal stems from its very detailed world building, and exploration of this trope.
• Good Is Boring: Ryouko certainly thinks that utopia is bland.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Homura manages to have good and evil wings.
• Guilty Pleasure: In the cinema where the movie is playing, several full-grown male adults screaming Tiro Finale in unison when Mami in-screen does.
• Half the Man He Used To Be: In Ryouko's Ribbon-inducting vision, Kyouko is seemingly killed by an explosion of a submarine railgun and her top half was vaporized along with her soul gem. Then, the magical girl council deduces a foul play in said future disastrous mission with just verbal descriptions from a girl that isn't exactly sure about the details herself.
• Higher-Tech Species: The aliens attacking humanity. Good thing they don't have their own magical abilities granted by the Incubators, eh?
• In-Series Nickname: The Mitakihara Four, a group of magical girls that led their kind in their survival, revolutionary history, and finally, acceptance in society.
• Jumped At the Call: Ryouko seemed a bit happier than most to have gotten the chance to make her wish come true.
• Lamarck Was Right: It's already said the psychology that makes the girls form their contract was inherit to the descendants, making magical girl into some kind of Family Business. The same is also can be said to Ryouko, who Mami and Kyouko have found out to be from a bloodline that is really dense of the contractees from both sides of her families, and only does not become one herself for this long because of her parents' interference.
• Lady of War: Homura and Mami
• The Leader: Mami, the main representative of the magical girls in the army; Kyouko, the leader of the Cult of Hope; Yuma, the main representative of the magical girls in politic; Homura, the representative of power and hope for most of the magical girls who has disappeared to find the reason that Madoka hasn't come to take her to paradise after her soul gem became completely corrupted. In short, the Mitakihara Four is an example of Authority Equals Asskicking.
• Les Yay: A minor mention is made of girls becoming involved with each other. Kyouko’s own activities are glossed over, as they are a bit questionable
• Magic and Powers: Vary from magical girl to magical girl, as it depends on who they are and what they wished for.
• Magical Girl: Obvious trope is obvious.
• Make a Wish: In exchange for letting Kyubey put your soul in a gem and making you fight monsters until your gem goes dark.
• Memento MacGuffin: Madoka’s ribbons, which have never worn after hundreds of years, one of which Homura has and the other which she gave to Kyouko. The latter resides in the Cult of Hope’s main base, open to all magical girls to see. The ribbon is also said to give visions of the future and a glimpse of the Goddess herself.
• The Men in Black: The Black Hearts, who are so secret that even knowing about their true existence requires security clearance, though conspiracy theories abound.
• The Messiah: Homura, to the Cult. Ryouko looks to be ascending to the same ranks, what with her visionand encounter with Madoka
• Minor Major Character: Sayaka. She barely gets mentioned in history and the Very Loosely Based on a True Story movie retelling about the Mitakihara's magical girls' story, her existence is almost unknown, and her portrayal is somewhat lacking for someone who is one of the main character of mother series, even though she was acknowledged as one of the original Mitakihara Four, the (officially documented) main reason of Homura's sudden personality change and her famous obsession of her Goddess, and (Mitakihara Four restricted information) Kyouko's heartbroken rebound sexes. Justified because she doesn't survive long enough for her name to be famous.
• Mundane Utility: Some of the uses the girls find for their powers just make everyday life easier. Yuma is the queen of this trope.
• Older Than They Look: Pretty much everyone.
• One-Winged Angel: Homura after her soul gem fades to black.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Ryouko often finds herself doing this, mostly because of her family's complex emotional situation and her future-oriented personality.
• Power Crystal
• Power Gives You Wings: Homura
• Power Glows
• Really Gets Around: Kyouko, in her 'hedonist' period and still has some of its trace even after all these years. It's said to be a 'species-wide joke'. It's mostly because of heartbroken over Sayaka's death, even her current lover is physically similar with Sayaka.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Most everyone, save for the actual teenage girls. People living to be over 200 years old isn’t uncommon among both magical girls and civilians.
• Saving the World: Several of them, all colonized by humans.
• Schoolgirl Lesbians: Simona is, at least.
• Sentient Cosmic Force: Madoka, pretty much.
• Shell-Shock Silence: Mami experiences this during the initial battle where magical girls aided the military in fighting the aliens
• The Singularity: In situations of emergency, a majority vote by mankind can activate "Emergency Modes," which effectively bring humanity closer and closer to a single-minded entity, with a "philosopher-king" technocrat comprised of a mixture of human and AI government consciousnesses dictating the actions of every single human alive.
• Space Battle
• Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The Incubators, of course.
• Survivor Guilt: Asaka becomes a general because her general dies in battle. She then ordered her best friend to a suicide mission that insure their overall directive, without something such as meeting her and saying goodbye. She goes home with a shiny new medal and a prestigious promotion while her friend, Alice, is written off from the mission report and boy, does she angst over it. If it wasn't for a vision from the Ribbon, where Asaka had a chance to meet Alice for a last time, Asaka might not have recovered from her subsequent guilt induced Hikkimori-esque Heroic BSOD.
• Techno Babble: Can linger into this on occasion.
• Technology Porn: And how!
• There Are No Therapists: Gloriously averted with the Mental Health Division. The MSY was genre savvy enough to realize this trope, and set-up a division to provide psychological services to Puella Magis, given how critical emotions are to Puella Magis, and the immense stresses of that occupation. Indeed, this trope has been so thoroughly averted that therapists are very influential among Puella Magis!
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Dear goodness, Homura, you blew ALL of them up!
• Transformation Trinket: It’s a fanfic on a magical girl series where the trinket in question is the girl’s soul. What do you expect?
• True Companions: Many of the magical girl teams are said to always stick together, unless one of them gets married and starts a family. Even then, they stay close.
• The Unmasqued World: The magical girls had to reveal their presence to help save humanity from utter annihilation. Before the Battle of Epsilon Eridani, the magical girls were forced to live underground, worrying about how they support their life with a stable income and no more stealing from machines, hiding from public so not to attract attention of the more nosey government institutes, covering the fact that they stop aging after made their contract. Most of the older girls are still living their spartan life, with their out-dated furnitures and habits, because they just so used with their suffering in Masquerade.
• Vast Bureaucracy: The government pervades every part of a citizen’s life. Not a bad thing as they help maintain peace and prosperity for all.
• Waif Prophet: Homura is believed to be this, even since her heart-disease-ridden childhood. At least, that's how public believed it.
• War Is Hell: The Battle of Epsilon Eridani. Destruction of several Earth's colonies might also this, but because of so little known about them, the scale tips on A Million Is a Statistic.
• Wave Motion Gun: Aliens' standard warship weapons.
• The Wiki Rule: In-universe. Each chapter has two different wiki sources explaining about the theme of the chapter, complete with citations and direct links.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Everyone. In-universe, the story of Mitakihara Four is so legendary, and the movie is covering several hundred years. From (movie-makers' purely guess) Door Step Baby that is Homura, her search of Goddess and her gradual cynicism, her contract, finding her Goddess, her leading the magical girls surviving under radar for several decades with their never aging bodies, the Very Loosely Based on a True Story sudden Big Damn Heroes of the magical girls in the Battle of Epsilon Eridani, and Homura's disappearance. And it's awesome.
• You Killed My Father: Kyouko's sentiment against the main body Church, because their excommunication was the thing that had driven her father into Pater Familicide. She's silently spitting at them as they, still too proud to beg, "melding" the Cult into themselves and saying that the Cult is a lost lamb that they have to "call back".