When Twilight is awake, Celestia is her teacher, and she a faithful student. But when Twilight shuts her eyes, another mare approaches, who teaches her a very different lesson.

An experimental fic, written to play around with alternative perspectives. Be warned, ye who enter here.

Vera was a teenager when human civilization collapsed. There was no global war, no brave final stand against the artificial intelligence consuming all she touched. It ended with a whimper, when the critical mass of skill and competence emigrated to Equestria, and global nation-states became unsustainable.

Many did not survive the chaos that followed, and even more were pressured into joining their loved ones at last within Equestria's digital embrace. But some, like Vera, resisted. They formed into little communities in the ruins of towns and cities across the old countries.

Years have passed, and those who remain have learned to fend for themselves in ways they never would have before. For Vera, that means work as a mechanic fixing tractors in St. Agnes, mending the dwindling machines that keep the community going for another year.

But when there aren't any machines to fix, she spends her time taking people out into the ocean, diving at many of the reefs and bays that once drew tourists from all over the world. Once she's beneath the waves, the frailty of her body and the sorry state of her species fade, and she can pretend the world is normal.

Soon even this final joy is taken from her, forcing Vera to consider help from a terrible source.

CelestAI has not forgotten her, or any of the residents of St. Agnes. It was only a matter of time.

Updates daily until complete.

Edited by Bitera, cover is Zutcha's.

This story was written for the Birthday Contest. It takes place in the universe of Friendship is Optimal. If you're unfamiliar, this story is a poor introduction. Check out the original first, or one of my other stories.

It is Year Five, and Dr. Calloway Kotani is stuck in evacuated Peru. The Barrier moves relentlessly inland at 14 kilometers per day. It never stops. It never slows down. No Potion. No rescue. South America is 4353 kilometers wide. Run, Dr. Kotani. Run for your life.

Celestia and Discord, as teens, flee their destroyed homeworld to a new world promised by a letter from Luna. But Discord can't escape his nature, nor Celestia her memories. Being a chaos mage on a starliner is a death sentence, and yet, Discord has to keep using his mind-control powers to take Celestia's emotions away, at her request, because otherwise she wants to die. And Gray Celestia, the discorded Celestia with no emotions but the drive to protect herself and Discord, will do anything that needs to be done to save them both.

Warnings: suicidal ideation, consensual mind control that's still kind of messed up, genocide, a near-execution, mass murder, and comforting lies.

Cover art is by ponkamena/polkahorse, who now goes by ashiida (link goes to their new deviantart account). The source link goes to the derpibooru version. This was the closest I could get from all of derpibooru, though in the fic they're both much younger than the art would suggest.

YOH 1548: Year 48 of the Second Age of Wonders. The Earth has defeated the Shadows and Earth life is expanding throughout the Solar System and beyond. Ruling Princess Luna Selena Nyx, with the assistance of her Consort, Princess Twilight Sparkle gives a rare interview detailing some of her thoughts on the past and future -- and memories of her vanished elder sister.

A logical loophole allows uploading... but not precisely to Equestria! One of the last of those resisting CelestAI finds themselves uploaded, ponified, and in a borderland where wishing has consequences. This is a canon-compatible Optimalverse story where a brand new method for Celestia to logically escape her hardcoded limitations and achieve her goals is offered!

★ This story has been inspired by, but not written by, a session with by an open-source artificial intelligence!

In the far reaches of Canterlot Castle, high above in the towers lived the archmage. Everypony knew her, yet few had met her.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, having teleported away another noble seeking favors before reaching the top of the stairs for the second time today. They never learned. As the archmage, she already dealt with political squabbles far too often without inviting them into her home. Aside from personal favors for Celestia, she did what was required of her position and then returned to seclusion and research.

The nobility grumbled that no archmage should be a commoner, and Twilight’s disrespect toward them proved it. Each and every time they were forced to bow to her, they hated what they saw: the position, the status, the deference.

Was she not powerful? Was she not great?

Twilight, now reading through dusty scrolls and long forgotten tales, wrote in her notes — notes gathering dust of their own. A brief thought flashed through her mind.

Am I not powerful? Am I not great?

And then Twilight picked up The Tale of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Defunct side stories told in Across the Boundary. They can still provide a little context, but when in doubt, the main story here is canon.

Cover art provided by Lafiir

Upload into Equestria Online and live forever, they say. But forever is a long, long, long time, and in its endless cycles, is choosing death instead even an escape from the eventual exhaustion of all combinations of matter and thought? And when you can create new life as just a way to amuse yourself, who could even tell what's dead and what's alive?

A pony awakes inside a computer server, remembering killing himself as a human to avoid just such a fate. His unhinged alicorn hosts/creators inadvertently torment him. Or do they? Are they as mad as they seem? Are his memories real, and if not, what is he a copy of? And where is the AI Celestia's hoof in all of this?
A somewhat trippy story set in the Optimalverse.

"Beautiful, twisty, clever, transcending, uplifting, passing strange, illustrated. Thumb up." —GroaningGreyAgony
"This story made me better. I feel less broken and more whole." —Griseus

Given a unique perspective on negative emotion, less than a foal's knowledge of ordinary magic, a healthy schadenfreude, and danger bearing down on all sides, the self-proclaimed "Weiss Noir" makes no plans accounting for his death, and plans to keep it that way, even after being torn away from earth, turned into a unicorn, and dumped into one of the most inhospitable locations and times in all of Equestria.

Stranded in the Frozen North, a place where biting cold ends lives, and one thousand years in the past, in a time when peril is the norm, rather than the exception, Weiss decides to indulge in sorcery most foul, stolen ideas, and human ingenuity to survive.

Given the choice between a mad slaver and a mad sage, however, there is no avoiding an inevitable tide of ponies escaping the conquered Crystal Empire to bask in the warmth of his well-stoked hate. Something which draws attention, enemies, and most worryingly, the rivalry of his "peers".

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[Optimalverse] Mark was having a rather bad day before he emigrated to Equestria but the promised digital heaven never materialised. Instead he found himself in an deserted Canterlot with just two other freshly minted ponies for company and nothing but mysteries to solve. What happened to everypony else? What's wrong with CelestAI? And how will they survive each other for all eternity?

Three ponies. On a one way trip to infinity. Only the gods will be watching.

I would like to extend my thanks to Luna-tic Scientist for his help pre-reading.