There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and humanity is determined to explore every one. We send probes, probes with the blueprints to reproduce human explorers upon arrival. Uninhabited worlds the galaxy over can be colonized and populated, until after many years they too can join the vast throng of interstellar civilization. But if a probe is very, very lucky, it will land on a populated world instead. Equestria is one such world.
Even so, it's far from perfect for colonization, not with an environment lethal to human life. But each probe is resourceful and armed with the greatest machine intelligence mankind has devised. If placing a human mind into a newly manufactured human body won't work, it will just have to get a little more creative.
This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/
This story was written at the behest of Canary In The Coal Mine, who is sponsoring it on my Patreon. As usual, cover by Zutcha. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.
Fantastic prereading help from: Chyre, Danger Noodle, Doctor Disco, and Doggyshakespeare (who also did the Esperanto translation). Thank you all for helping to make this story more readable and more consistent for everyone.
So James is in a tech cloned body of Lightning Dust, Oh boy I can't wait to see how he or should I say she reacts if he ever meets the real Lightning Dust or even the Mane 6 or even the Princesses.
8066272
Lightning dust will feature quite prominently in the story, but I don't think she was the one cloned. It's honestly a little bit of a spoiler to have her on the cover and in the description, but she'll be appearing next chapter so it's not as though people will be waiting very long for her to show up.
So far so good! I'm actually thoroughly impressed here. Love the hard sci-fi of the story, and this looks like the start of something to really enjoy. So, in the end, I want MOAR!!!
8066272
Since when LD is blue?
impressive I am really liking this story right from the start.
Interesting start looking forward to seeing where this goes
8066272 Cloning an existing person is a mixed bag at best. A clone at least from appearance could go places easily but they wouldn't know what the original did. Too much chance of running into someone that knows the original. Best bet is using a sample as a template and making changes so they are a different person
WOOHOO STARSCRIBE YEAH!!!
I like this. Let it continue.
OK wow read the description and that sold me on the story especially if this is done right
I love first contact stories like these! The first story I read on this site was Arrow 18, which is a first contact story 'done right'.
I've been playing a ton of modded minecraft lately and often wondered "if dropped on Equestria with nothing but knowledge to build everything, how long would it take to build a singularity engine?" :v
A very interesting premise and so far well executed. I am eager to read more.
That's not good enough!
8066661 media.giphy.com/media/gUElV5rfVUVAQ/giphy.gif
Starscribe, you son of a gun.
This is a fantastic story so far, I'm looking forward to the next chapter
I sincerely hope this is not some abstracted April Fools joke, given the date of posting, because this...
I really really like this.
8066594 When talking Starscribe, it will be done properly.
Who are you and what have you done with the real Starscribe!?
But seriously I'm looking forward to where this goes.
Thanks for the update, seriously enjoying this story. Keep it up!
I'm stuck wondering what the computer would have done if it decided James was lying.
Featured!
This calls for another update maybe? Yes?
I'm defiantly sucked in to this story.
a vary good chapter.
MOAR!
I am curious though with picking a non-OC to be the pony this human has turned into, the story can basically only go one of several ways. Full on ALT Universe to the show, having this human blend into society while trying to accomplish its mission maybe? I guess there are other ways and other paths the character can take. I mean would the ship know what to do if the ponies rip her suit off and destroy it, or if it's destroyed?
I am still curious, but mildly concerned that this story may follow in the wake of similar premises to HIE tropes of a human waking up as a pony (not saying this is one of those stories, obviously since she is a clone of a young pony so that's not the same thing at all), but like I said, just a bit concerned and hoping I'm way wrong.
8067111
Lightning dust isn't the pony she was turned into:
Lightning dust will feature quite prominently in the story, but I don't think she was the one cloned. It's honestly a little bit of a spoiler to have her on the cover and in the description, but she'll be appearing next chapter so it's not as though people will be waiting very long for her to show up.
SPOILED LARS
"Kio en suna nomo vi faras ĉi tie?"
Esperanto, then.
This is something that I shall keep an eye on. Good job hitting the feature box by the way.
Dammit, I thought I was going to be done with your stories by the end of next week as a finish Friendly Fire, but no, you have to write more. I HAVE OVER 2 MILLION WORDS IN MY READ LATER LIST! MAKE IT STOP! *Breaks down crying from too much poni*
8067170 Oh I see, a little detail I must have brushed over. I find things flow more naturally ( and I tend to retain more details ) if a character's appearance are revealed from character interactions.
8067005 What makes you think the computer was even telling the truth about the protagonist being the first?
Awesome. Sci Fi elements seem a bit cheesy but i dont mind me a good ol star trek style space adventure. They are fun, and thoughtful. Also cheesy but hey that's fun to in its own way.
It's definitely interesting, and I'm liking the balance between sci-fi babble and story progression. Too much of the former is never a good idea.
Not entirely sold on the fact that they still need linguists while sporting such a high tech-level.
Question about an unimportant detail: Is the computer's voice masculine or feminine? Just so I know what mental voice to assign it when I'm reading any future dialogue.
8067286 Well, it is a computer, not an AI. It's programmed to act a certain way, it can't choose what to do.
It's pretty interesting. Has a sort of "No Man's Sky" feel to it. Even though it had nothing to do with scavengers puttering around in personal starships. I dunno, just the whole "technology versus faulty planning versus the environment" sort of thing. What the heck is LIghtning Dust doing out all by herself in a storm like this?
8067462
What makes you think that it isn't an AI? It has the decision making capability of choosing how to proceed, how to get around drawbacks (using a local life form blueprint instead of the human one when that didn't work out), and how to evaluate if the decisions it makes are making any progress. We can even see it controlling all the automated mining and fabrication technology.
That said, even if we assumed it wasn't intelligent but just following orders, how do we know it wasn't programmed to lie?
For instance, how did it get the body sample? How did it find out human bodies wouldn't work? Very little information was provided to the protagonist on the activities so far, just gathered information.
8067396
Apparently, looking at the computer in this story, humans still haven't figured out how to give computers tact.
Her first mission is making first contact, and is helped by her linguistic skills.
even if you propose that the computer could have autotranslated, it still needs a dataset to make a translated language, and considering it only was able to find one specimen to replicate, I'm guessing it wasn't able to get much data discretely. Hence a 'human' with tact that can handle the situation directly.
Plus, if it was just the computer, we wouldn't have a story, would we?
8067561
What would be the point in programming it to lie? Besides, it's called a computer in the story, and isn't even given a name. Also in the story, it says
. It's only programmed to try a different tactic if the other ones don't work. We are also told that the computer created drones, for scientific studies. That probably includes taking samples of alien life too.
8067575
An AI need not have a name. Maybe it does have one, but the protagonist does not know, and does not care. People often don't know the name of everyone they personally interact with, or interact via a proxy (like a cook making food at a diner doesn't interact directly with customers, but they are still there and presumed to be intelligent entities).
You're making quite a few assumptions here on what happened. Maybe that is what did happen, maybe something else happened. The protagonist seemed pretty sure the computer has some real power over them, especially if they couldn't perform their duties. Why should they be worried? Do you think that fear is an exaggeration, or does the protagonist knows more about the possible actions of the computer that haven't yet been revealed to us?
Very nice story!! Keep up the good work! :)
And since I'm a musican: Who else had to think of this, when you read the story tittle?
8067796
Oh hey, that's the song where I got the title from!
It must be a very strange thing to spend forty years studying to be a xenolinguist, get your mind scanned, and then know that you're never, ever going to actually get to use those skills yourself. Only your copies will ever get to actually use it.
8067200 You should at least use the spoiler format on it.
8067982 Sorry, I haven't been here for like a year.
8067987 it's all good, welcome back.
8067440
All sci-fi computers are voiced by Majel Roddenberry. Its a law.
8068190 i aprrently need to get a new law book because I don't know who that is.
8066619 the closest thing I can relate that question to is factorio a sci-fi game where you are dumped on a planet and told to get it ready for colanisation. You end up building a giant factory that is fully automated and can even expand extremely quickly without any input by yourself. ( note: have not played my self but have seen multiple reviews stating what is above is true) makes for an interesting concept when a singularity happens.
8068208
She was the literal voice of the Starship Enterprise' computer, and every computer for that matter, in every Star Trek show ever made. She was also nurse Christine in the original series and Lwaxana Troy in the Next Generation tv shows.
8068220 Ah never watched that many star track episodes sorry.
8066817 true dat
Not sure I can stand one update per month for this. I love it too much!