Star Swirl the Bearded is lost. Very, very lost. He was certain the world was round -- or at least a hemisphere -- and not, as it now appears to be, flat and riding on the backs of four elephants, themselves riding on the back of a massive turtle, swimming through the vast expanses of space.
He's going to need a lot of magical help to get home, and the Disc is going to need help to deal with the strange creatures that followed him through from his home world - creatures whose icy nature threatens to bring about the Apocralypse.
Fortunately, the first person he meets is a wizard. He even has "Wizzard" written on his hat...
Now has a sequel!
Chapters (18)
Oh, Star Swirl, everypony knows that the utmost care must be taken with teleportation spells. One wrong syllable, and you'll be off to a crossover fic faster than you can say "interdimensional roller coaster". Just ask Twilight!
P.S.: Tracked! Too short to really rate yet, but I definitely want to see where it's going.
*happens to see title of story in the Latest Updates bar; investigates because there might be Rincewind*
*reads the description; realizes that there WILL be Rincewind*
*adds to tracking list because this is quite promising so far*
Off to a good start, I must say. Looking forward to more pony/Discworld excitement!
*Discworld fansqueal*
Also, fic starring historical pony figure. Yesss.
160081
I realize the teleportation-spell-gone-awry thing has been done to death, but hey, at least it isn't another Twilight-Sparkle-Messed-Up-A-Spell fic!
160318
There's something to be said for someone with a healthy respect for the true nature of adventure. Adventures are terrible, awful things to go through, and Rincewind knows it.
160443
Thank you! It's a horrible temptation to just throw references in all willy-nilly, so I'm having to clamp down on that a bit as I work through the first full chapter.
160661
The real challenge isn't characterization or plot, so far. It's getting something out that fits Pratchett's style.
Needed my Discworld Ponies fix, and who knows if Binkie Pie is going to update any time soon...
Trying... to fight... growing smile...
Losing... Love for Discworld too strong...
A chapter! Ok, now I can rate it. You've nailed it. Five stars and a pony.
(The pony is an extra bonus for mixing this timeline with Binkie Pie's.) And now I know not to read the next chapter anywhere that a sudden outburst of laughter would be embarrassing. Live and learn.
THIS IS GONNA BE SO EPIC. Fun characters and funny plot aside, you've managed to write in a Prachett-y style which REALLY fills that gaping hole in my heart that keeps demanding more Pratchett stories to read. I am pleased.
Also, Pinkie Pie. Bueno.
Spot-on with the Prachett style, well-balanced distribution of footnotes, and a shout-out/continuity nod to Binky Pie?
You have just made the day awesome.
161500
Yeah, I've been rereading "Rincewind the Wizzard" (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, and Eric) a lot lately, which sort of prompted this.
161615
Whee! Five stars and a pony! And the pony is Twilight Sparkle! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!
161641
Epic? I sincerely hope so. I've got ideas. Horrible, nasty ideas. Thanks! The style is challenging - I'm trying to emulate his style without directly quoting, and that is really tough.
162449
Footnote placement is something of a challenge. I love Binky Pie, but the footnotes are all at the end of the chapter, which means a lot of scrolling. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it up.
I think creative likenings of ridiculous happenings/thoughts to other ridiculous realities of the Discworld are a real stable- I mean, staple of his writing. You've got the creative usage of "*"s down. The Binky Pie fic is also an excellent reference for how to emulate Pratchetty writing. 8D Anyways, thanks for being awesome, and please continue!
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I'm writing as fast as I can, dammit!
And about the footnotes, it's an unfortunate limitation of FiMFiction. I type everything up in GoogleDocs first, and there the footnotes go on the appropriate page, but here I have to put them at the end of the document instead. I see you've put them in the middle of the document, which works well enough.
Also loving the time-twisting there. Poor Death was probably glad of the break when he got stuck in Equestria.
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On the plus side, your updates are longer than mine, too.
*cracks knuckles*
Let's do dis!
That's it. The Luggage is definitely a brony. Must act nice around ponies.
Yay for the update! This is getting better and better. 8D
The sisters with the caravan - were those Celestia and Luna?
And while the Luggage being nice is unnerving, I can think of something even scarier: Greebo being nice to someone other than Nanny Ogg.
♫♥I look forward to reading what happens next in your story♥♪
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There's actually more going on there than that. Not sure how soon I'm going to make the full reveal, but it has to do with the nature of magic on the Disc as opposed to Equestrian magic.
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Don't think I've read any of the books with Greebo in 'em. I'm sticking to characters I'm familiar with, and with a couple of exceptions (Soul Music, Hogfather, and Equal Rites to name a few, and of those, I only own Equal Rites) I've pretty much just read Rincewind books.
As far as the other thing you've mentioned...
Mmmmmaybe.
Oh no, he did a Twilight!
I've been debating whether or not Horsery is a terrible name for this phenomenon for a chapter or two, and eventually decided that it's fitting enough. So, yeah.
196200
It's entirely appropriate, in a terrible way.
196200
It's an absolutely, unconscionably awful name for it. It's like the perfect cross between the Discworld's off-the-wall humor and Equestria's terrible horse puns. I'd have expected nothing less from Rincewind, either. I love it. So we should be on the lookout for a... Horserer.
Oh, how much I love this story. 'Tis a thing of beauty, verily.
fantastic
I wish these chapters were longer so more stuff could happen when I read.
Let's see... given that Star Swirl came from the time just after Equestria's founding, and given how the Lady decided to manifest herself...
I suspect that the origin of Celestia will be revealed through this story.
I'm absolutely loving this so far. Can't wait to see where it'll be going
Short chapter this time around, because I couldn't think of a follow-up for the scene with the Klatchians, but didn't want to leave the story without an update while I tried to figure it out.
The story has the highest ratio of laughs to words I've yet encountered.
It was his beard, right? Right?
307116
I find it funnier to leave the question totally unanswered.
Well, you magnificent bastard, this is yet another awesome update. I love this stuff; keep up the good work
wat u did thar, i sees it.
309166
I'm glad someone did. What with Starswirl being "father of the amniomorphic spell" there weren't many places I could take it, and most of them were kind of ew.
On the other hoof, I figure that what makes amniomorphic spells special is that they should be inherently less stable than a fully spherical spell, and his innovation was making the spell stable despite being a hemisphere.
Also, don't you have something to do? Don't you have something to write? A Miss Pie... a miss Pinkie Pie?
309345
I've been busy! University is not kind to me. Or my free time.
309579
Aw, I understand. Frankly, I wanted this update to be about three times as long as it was, but I feared work doing the same thing to me, as it's been prone to do lately.
... Okay, either I am less versed in the quality of Discworld fanfiction than I thought... or you are Terry Pratchett, resorting to this because you couldn't find a way to publish Ponies without incurring the wrath of Hasbro (I'll admit, that doesn't really sound as threatening as it should).
This, ser, is godly. And I'm not talking 'god of where two ant trails cross', either - no, I mean, full fledged, Offler-class. Possibly on par with Om. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say you're catching up with the Lady. Quite frankly, the only reason I would be surprised to see this published is because that meanbs you got permission from _both_ Hasbro and Pratchett to use their stuff to make money (nevertheless, that's still a lot of surprise).
I promised longer, but felt this was a good place to break apart the chapter, as the next bit is Rincewind coming out of the big top, and a chapter break is a good place to stick a short time skip. Another chapter is on the way, preferably later tonight. I'm transcribing it now.
I will have to remember the snug as a measure of adorability.
And given what's described in the menagerie... it will be interesting to see what color mane she has.
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Yeah, I'm rather proud of that one. It fits in well with the thaum as a unit of magic. Also, Pratchett's use of nuclear physics to explain magic has given me a plot hook I'll be needing in a few chapters: sub-Harmonic Particle Theory.
Bear in mind, the menagerie is not the same as the main show...
405319
Being totally blind-sided surprised still counts - even if it's nopony the rest of us know, we'll still want the description.
Okay, so the alicorn on display wasn't the one I was thinking of, but I had the right idea.
And... did Offler just summon who I think he just summoned?
Well, that would be rather par for the course for Rincewind...
405931
Woona's in the petting zoo. I thought it fitting.
As far as the other question, I figure it would be spoilery to answer except to say "look very carefully at Wizard Isrim al Qurad, and what he's currently experiencing."
...
Also his name.
405954
*looks at the name, adjusts the parsing filter until it scans correctly, and nods in acknowledgement*
Well, he's currently out of his body... and will undoubtedly soon be out of his mind.
Correct me if I'm reading this wrong, but wouldn't 150 millisnug = 0.15 snug?
Doesn't seems like it'd have much effect at all.
406347
No, you're reading that right. Bear in mind that the sheer adorability of a full snug is something best handled by experienced professionals... I mean, really, look at her.
Woah. How did you do the Strikethrough text? It doesn't seem to work no matter what I try, and I know someone who desperately needs it to port the formatting from Google Docs over to fimfic :|
[edit]
After some experimenting, it looks like "strike" does it. Good to know :)
Was that an El Goonish Shive reference of some sort?
407575
Yes. Yes it was.
I have been wanting very much to get this chapter out to you guys. This has a lot of scenes I've been planning since about Chapter 3... before then, the Klatchians were going to be a one-time encounter. Originally, Rincewind et al were going to join the caravan as performers and blah blah blah, but I like this version better.
"Ponies of all colours of the spectrum, with the possible exception of octarine."
I dunno; given that only wizards can see octarine, I suspect those of us without the octagons to see said color might have it mentally translated into something else. Like, say... pink.
Loved the metacommentary about the [grimdark] tag, and Rincewind aggro just might be the scariest thing in Discworld that I've heard of... and I've read most of the books.