Theodor Pichler knew joining the Barrow Observatory's winter crew would be a difficult position. He thought he knew the danger--freezing temperatures, gale-force winds, and terribly spotty broadband coverage. What he didn't expect was for an experimental new telescope array to interact with an unusual storm and send him screaming helplessly into the sky.
Instead of falling to his death, Theo landed in an alien world, populated by colorful horses he can't understand. What's worse: the body he landed in isn't his own, and he's not sure anything is where it should be. Having wings might be cool if he didn't have to be naked all the time...
With limited supplies and no help from the Observatory, Theo has to somehow navigate this new land, making new friends and encountering terrible dangers along the way. It will take all his cleverness, and a healthy dose of luck, if he's ever to be human again.
This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/
This story was a commission for Lucky Ray on my Patreon. Feel free to PM me if you'd like one of your own. It was edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Coverart by FoxHatArt. Where chapters have art, it was done by Jasper.
this looks really interesting
Yay its here
It's time for the Starscribe Drinking Game! If the male protagonist changed gender as well as species when he transformed, take a shot.
I kid, I kid. In all seriousness, looking forward to seeing where this goes and what what you do with hippogriffs.
9554152
Chug the whole bottle.
Hipogryph this time, huh? Colour me intrigued, I'll follow this one too.
Not another story. How do you expect us to sleep Starscribe?
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A vortex above the telescope sucks him in.
Sci-fi with hippogriffs? Sign me up!
Huh neat. Well, lets see where this goes
9554103
That it does.
Yellow-bluish flying genderswapped... yes, the whole bottle it is.
9554368
What is this "sleep" thing you're talking about?
Is it edible?
Fascinating. I can't wait to see where this goes.
Storms, what did he plug into that array?
Well that's just all kinds of inconvenient.
Updooted, faved and watching. But then when am I NOT watching Starscribe and everything s/he writes?
Woo! New story! Only one small nit-pick:
That should be closer to -45 degrees. -15 very quickly becomes "minor inconvenience" levels of cold to someone in the Arctic, as opposed to an actual danger. Especially if you are using Celsius (scientific outpost, yo).
Looking forward to the ride!
9554853
Well, in that case, -15° *would* be mighty balmy. And if it had become that unseasonably warm in a short period of time... Yeah, that'd definitely kick up quite the storm, I'd imagine.
You have my interest and I have subscribed to your newsletter. 👀
Extra " at the end of the paragraph there.
As an Alaskan, aurora photographer, and cold weather addict, I’ll be reading this. That and potentially correcting stuff on occasion.
9555111
I envy you so much, I plan to fly to Iceland sometime soon to see the Aurora Borealis with my own eyes.
Okay, at first I was a bit curious... but now I'm intrigued. Can't wait for more!
9554853
Scientific outpost uses Kelvin.
They are also allowed to break physics a little.
Getting sucked up to another world in a snowstorm... it's almost like watching Digimon again.
Scientific experiment without a really tortured acronym? Suspension of disbelief broken already!
Looks like I'm hooked on another of your stories.
9555116
I’ve lived up here almost my entire life, and the lights still blow me away after all this time. It’s really something to see. Alaska or Iceland are great places to watch the show from.
9555644
Just remember, amateur astronomy nerds named a phenomena that was thought discovered and related to the aurora (but wasn’t any of those) STEVE to fuck with scientists. It was formally discovered and named that too. They’ve been trying to make an acronym work for a few years now.
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I totally agree, -15 I feel warm in my not artic winter clothes. Hell 2 thin layers under my work pants and my winter jacket and I'm sweating to death. -15 is still 1 layer of socks and my regular, year round boots.
Star, we need to get you to experience real winter. Just few weeks at -10 to -20 and a few days at -40. Well one day at -40 would really be enough, I don't know how you adapt to live in -40 because it's usually not more than 1 or 2 days a year here, but in the arctic they probably are a bit more used to it.
2 years back I did 16 hours at -30c and was fine. This guy is wussing out in supposedly better gear at half that... and that's assuming Celsius.
Theo now needs to figure out the local language.
Lovely chapter!
Ah yes, the language barrier. It's always refreshing to see a HiE story that realistically addresses that.
"They were also smaller than she was, some by a head or more." I think that is still supposed "he" here.
At least they're using human-intelligible phonemes and not just modulated horse noises. And they're not screaming and panicking. Definite plus there. With any luck, Theo's been directed towards a unicorn or other creature with some kind of translation capability. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
he
were
That’s the only two I’ve seen.
Anyways, love language barrier stories and this one.
9556230
My money is on Chateaux Twilight, given the flash of purple during his Exit Stage Up from Earth.
>Human in Equestria
>Sci-fi
>Species swap
>Gender-bent
>Language barrier
>Smell as an emphasized sense
I can't hold the repeated use of themes and elements against you since you're doing this on commission, but wow, people sure seem rather unoriginal when they request More Of The Same.
OK, this looks like a really interesting HiE fic. You've earned yourself a tracker. :)
9556361
Unless this is an unlabled AU, that's not Twilight's place. I doubt it's Ponyville at all.
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No. Not Ponyville. Just Twilight's mad scientist dungeon for studying an ancient and arcane acropolis in the Arctic.
9556839
*snickers evilly*
I love reading the comments ^^
Is it a good idea to use Discord attachments as a permanent image storage? Sure it persists for immediate future, but sooner or later URL will be changed, or image will be purged.
9556888
Glad to oblige!
9556447
Hey, if you want something good, prder what the chef knows how to make, right? Doesn't make sense to order realistic renderings from someone who got popular drawing loony toons.
Though maybe a little experimentation would be good...
But I mean, no sign of Jackie yet so it's not exactly the same as usual
Are you using a conlang or just making it up as you go? Google translate doesn't help.
9557779
Good luck on translating it, it's completely made up ^^
Starscribe story starter pack...
At least he got a friendly shoulder to cry on. One that might know more about his situation, soon.
Best to rip off the bandage, even if that does lead to some tears. Still, Theo's gotten herself a translator, so she can definitely make progress in finding out precisely how fucked she is.