Cover Image

Message in a Bottle

by Starscribe
Humanity's space exploration ultimately took the form of billions of identical probes, capable of building anything (including astronauts themselves) upon arrival at their destinations. One lands in Equestria. Things go downhill from there.

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.

Teen
Complete
Mystery
Science Fiction
Profanity
Violence
Death
Human
Drama
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Alternate Universe
 
OL

515446 words: Estimated 2 days to read
Download:textHTMLePUB

89 Chapters:

  1. G3.01: Synthesis Complete 2017-04-01 09:18:23 UTC
    2662
  2. G3.01: Some Transit Required 2017-04-01 23:57:16 UTC
    2535
  3. G3.01: Repair Protocol 2017-04-08 10:00:38 UTC
    2840
  4. G4.05: Meaningful Contact 2017-04-15 18:03:56 UTC
    4443
  5. G4.05: Refractory 2017-04-22 10:03:30 UTC
    2753
  6. G4:05: Transitional State 2017-04-29 19:11:50 UTC
    2794
  7. G4.05: Adopting Change 2017-05-06 19:30:16 UTC
    5246
  8. G4.05: Collect Call 2017-05-13 11:40:04 UTC
    2234
  9. G4.05: Interpolation Error 2017-05-20 10:18:29 UTC
    2937
  10. G4.05: Taking Stock 2019-04-06 08:38:58 UTC
    2447
  11. G4.05: Special Delivery 2017-05-27 10:20:28 UTC
    2422
  12. G4.05: Policy Impact 2017-06-03 10:58:49 UTC
    2937
  13. G4.05: Native Contact 2017-06-10 11:02:19 UTC
    4158
  14. G5.01: Cost of Employment 2017-06-17 10:21:39 UTC
    4487
  15. G5.01: Settling 2017-06-24 12:34:57 UTC
    2447
  16. G5.01: Designation Earth 2017-07-01 11:25:34 UTC
    2112
  17. G5.05: Satellite 2017-07-08 10:35:48 UTC
    4930
  18. G5.05: Collapse the Wave 2017-07-15 11:23:17 UTC
    4006
  19. G5.05: Deadlight 2017-07-22 12:44:06 UTC
    3511
  20. G5.05: External Contacts 2017-07-29 20:15:58 UTC
    4701
  21. G5.05: Wonderbolts 2017-08-05 19:28:16 UTC
    6204
  22. G5.05: Transit Equus Zero Violet Zero 2017-08-12 10:26:47 UTC
    6620
  23. G5.05: Marked by Harmony 2017-08-19 11:23:01 UTC
    5753
  24. G5.05: Heart 2017-08-26 15:51:18 UTC
    5453
  25. G5.05: Security Override 2017-09-02 11:21:20 UTC
    5702
  26. G5.05: Gyroscopic Failure 2017-09-09 19:10:56 UTC
    5219
  27. G5.05: Blood and Ink 2017-09-16 10:22:45 UTC
    5395
  28. G5.05: Datamine 2017-09-23 09:38:47 UTC
    5586
  29. G5.05: Crisis Response 2017-09-30 11:55:21 UTC
    7110
  30. G6.3850: Harmony Remembers 2017-10-07 10:44:37 UTC
    4946
  31. G6.3850: Welcome to Othar 2017-10-14 10:36:06 UTC
    8130
  32. G6.3850: Mission Complete 2017-10-21 12:14:42 UTC
    6818
  33. G6.3850: Equestria by Wire 2017-10-28 18:02:26 UTC
    6688
  34. G6.3850: Not What You Think 2017-11-04 18:32:27 UTC
    5588
  35. G6.3850: Birds in the Underground 2017-11-11 11:01:34 UTC
    8446
  36. G6.3850: Dragon's Folly 2017-11-18 12:21:31 UTC
    5403
  37. G6.3850: Ceres Proclamation 2017-11-25 12:16:06 UTC
    6523
  38. G6.3850: Major Inglorious 2017-12-02 11:59:22 UTC
    6405
  39. G6:3850: Missing Pieces 2017-12-09 11:52:12 UTC
    5595
  40. G6.3850: Command 2017-12-16 17:04:29 UTC
    6764
  41. G7.01: Forefathers 2017-12-23 11:01:08 UTC
    9956
  42. G7.01: Colonial Governor 2017-12-30 11:26:19 UTC
    5724
  43. G7.01: Plan of Action 2018-01-06 12:35:04 UTC
    5005
  44. G7.01: Momentum 2018-01-13 12:21:20 UTC
    7528
  45. G7.01: Guest of the Princess 2018-01-20 13:01:39 UTC
    6421
  46. G7.01: Pyrrhic 2018-01-27 11:15:50 UTC
    6738
  47. G7.01: Map Reduction 2018-02-03 11:11:00 UTC
    6280
  48. G7.01: Army of One 2018-02-10 11:06:35 UTC
    6229
  49. G7.01: Opening Volley 2018-02-17 11:17:21 UTC
    6754
  50. G7.01: Love in War 2018-02-24 13:02:27 UTC
    6518
  51. G7.01: Selene 2018-03-03 12:23:16 UTC
    6280
  52. G7.01: Polaris 2018-03-10 11:07:47 UTC
    8074
  53. G7.01: Love the Truth 2018-03-17 10:45:38 UTC
    5997
  54. G7.01: Harmony Control 2018-03-24 10:49:52 UTC
    5919
  55. G7.01: Citizen of Equus 2018-03-31 11:37:29 UTC
    6102
  56. G7.01: Debt 2018-04-07 12:16:22 UTC
    7330
  57. G7.01: Downstream 2018-04-14 11:17:20 UTC
    6837
  58. G7.01: Home 2018-04-21 11:42:16 UTC
    5981
  59. Part 2: The Long Con 2018-04-28 10:31:30 UTC
    6123
  60. Part 2: Invariant Conditions 2018-05-05 11:51:57 UTC
    8505
  61. Part 2: Mission Parameters 2018-05-12 13:52:41 UTC
    8090
  62. Part 2: Jump 2018-05-19 13:12:58 UTC
    7835
  63. Part 2: Contact 2018-05-26 19:36:00 UTC
    7803
  64. Part 2: Storm 2018-06-02 11:53:40 UTC
    6449
  65. Part 2: Eye of the Maelstrom 2018-06-09 17:48:24 UTC
    6470
  66. Part 2: Atreides Class 2018-06-16 11:54:08 UTC
    5805
  67. Part 2: Turnover 2018-06-23 11:32:57 UTC
    5553
  68. Part 2: Allegiance 2018-06-30 18:09:34 UTC
    5401
  69. Part 2: Jailbreak 2018-07-07 19:18:43 UTC
    6707
  70. Part 2: Friend on the Edge 2018-07-14 19:22:47 UTC
    7442
  71. Part 2: Persuasion 2018-07-21 13:08:26 UTC
    6883
  72. Part 2: Message and Messenger 2018-07-28 17:11:35 UTC
    5945
  73. Part 2: Intrusion Testing 2018-08-04 13:19:13 UTC
    6410
  74. Part 2: Orbital 2018-08-11 18:33:55 UTC
    5051
  75. Part 2: Citizen Permissions 2018-08-18 11:00:46 UTC
    6445
  76. Part 2: Celestial 2018-08-25 18:37:52 UTC
    5132
  77. Part 2: Unwilling Partners 2018-09-01 15:04:19 UTC
    7562
  78. Part 2: Escape Vector 2018-09-08 15:56:49 UTC
    6596
  79. Part 2: Hostage 2018-09-15 16:24:03 UTC
    5297
  80. Part 2: Hedgemaze 2018-09-22 17:39:33 UTC
    6535
  81. Part 2: The Florist 2018-09-29 10:24:39 UTC
    6250
  82. Part 2: Revivification 2018-10-06 15:30:17 UTC
    8108
  83. Part 2: Breach 2018-10-13 18:14:34 UTC
    6217
  84. Part 2: Deploy 2018-10-20 18:53:17 UTC
    6833
  85. Part 2: Detonate 2018-10-27 18:49:18 UTC
    7080
  86. Part 2: Emperor's Gambit 2018-11-03 18:05:50 UTC
    5547
  87. Part 2: Citizen of Equestria 2018-11-10 13:54:16 UTC
    5932
  88. Part 2: Storm Broken 2018-11-17 16:28:55 UTC
    7991
  89. Epilogue 2018-11-24 19:41:23 UTC
    6826