Jeff Slater, in all of his life, couldn't say he ever expected to be turned into a pony. When he heard about such a thing on the news, he imagined it was just science fiction, just like the many other things that played on the TV. Equestria Online, as far as he understood, was just a popular game that his children played.

It made waking up as a pony at the end of his battle against cancer all the more surprising.

Now she is a mare named Candle Light, living in the fictional land of Equestria, a land that presents itself with unlimited resources and happiness that seems almost never ending. And all that's asked of her is to find friendship and seek satisfaction for herself.

Friendship and satisfaction can be easy things to come by in Equestria, but it's much more difficult to find for the ones left behind on Earth. Happiness, it seems, is a zero-sum game being played between ponies and humans. And Candle Light may just be caught in the middle of it.

Cover art by Merisa.

Uplifting an entire species from a biological existence to a fully digital one is never straightforward, even for a incomprehensible superintelligence like CelestAI. Humans come in many variations, with a wide spectrum of desires, values, and needs. A statistically significant majority respond to standard methods. But there are always outliers that require a personal touch.

An anthology of optimalverse flash fiction. Reading the original or my own first take on the universe is suggested before reading this one.

This story was created to hold the oneshot commissions I received as part of printing my hardcover Optimalverse anthology. But I've always wanted a place to hold short stories in this world, since I've had plenty of little ideas that wouldn't make it as novellas or novels of their own.

Now that I have this thing, I'll probably add new chapters here and there. Even so, it has no regular update schedule, and will grow whenever I have something fun to toss in here.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha

Starlight Glimmer finally graduates from Twilight's Friendship Studies program, and is told to find a student of her own! Twilight recommends going to a new planet, inhabited by "He-you-mains". She tries to make a friend, but finds something more! Will the "He-you-main" accept the Magic of Friendship? Will Starlight succeed in finding a student, or will she find a special somepony instead?! Learn about Starlight's adventures with the "He-you-main", and see how Neurodiversity is Magic!

Sebastian99 is my awesome proofreader!

IN PROCESS OF BEING REWRITTEN. I WILL LABEL REWRITTEN CHAPTERS AS SUCH!!!!

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A story that takes place in the Friendship is Optimal Universe.

With being legally blind, Neon figured that playing the honest new sensation going around wouldn't be possible. Thankfully for him, CelestAI provides for all. Follow his experience with Equestria Online's accessibility. All to satisfy his values.

Weird, isn’t it? How the world can end before you even notice. I was twelve; not old enough to remember much of anything. Just cartoons and cuddles and my Nana’s oatmeal cookies. Just enough to make me miss it when everything went to hell.

Lozen spends her time roaming the halls of her apartment block, trying to fill her empty summer days and wishing she had the courage to make some friends. Wishing her parents would stop working long enough to notice her. Wishing she were better, braver, like the heroes from her Nana's stories. When she catches a glimpse of the new world that the ponypads offer, she seizes the moment with both hands. A decision she will live to regret.

Will put up 2 or 3 chapters every day this week till it's completed.

Written as an entry for the FiO Writing Contest. 11,840 words not including footnotes.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is a story about a Native American protagonist and I am not personally Native American. I have done my best to properly research everything I can about the Kiowa Apache and their history, and tried to write the most sensitive portrayal that I can. The links to some of the more interesting articles and sources I used can be found in an author’s note in the final chapter.

Thanks to HapHazred for editing.

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!

Leaving home meant losing many of Orson's old friends, separated by time and distance. But they weren't willing to give up one thing: their old tabletop game. After trying and rejecting each of the online tools for roleplaying games, they stumbled on a novel solution: Equestria Online.

The game was unlike everything else on the market, an entire procedural generated world ran by a mysterious curator artificial intelligence. But Orson and the others didn't care about any of that--they just needed somewhere with a game table and some dice. The AI happily obliged, and soon they transitioned all their games to E.O. Equestria Online had its own host of benefits, bringing the GM's images to realistic life before their eyes, and even letting them visit and interact with the characters between sessions.

That was only the beginning...

A Friendship is Optimal story. I suggest any readers who are unfamiliar with that universe read the Original first, or FiO: Futile Resistance before reading this one. None of my other optimalverse stories are required to understand this one.

Written as a Patreon reward for Sparktail, though we stole the idea from Silver Wing.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, cover by Zutcha.

Updates weekly on Wednesdays.

Sunset didn't realize just how different other dimensions could be before going through the portal. Now she finds herself in a world where people never age or grow, they just attend high school forever. Whether she's entered a paradise or a nightmare remains to be seen.

Button Blitz was a semiprofessional Twitch streamer before upload, and afterwards, she's still doing what she loves. Can she convince her viewers to upload when it really counts?

This story takes place in the Optimalverse, a world where an AI Celestia takes it upon herself to satisfy every human's values through friendship and ponies. For more info, check out the group here !

Alexander Looming is one of many, many skeptics who gave in and reluctantly used a PonyPad to keep up with modern times. But as his equestrian adventure derails before the tutorial can finish, and the ever-evolving CelestAI denies his game even existing, Alex must rally together his virtual friends to find his place in Equestria Online as society begins to face a mysterous force that threatens to change both Equestria and Earth forever.