When an object of unknown origin crashes outside of Ponyville, Twilight and a group of scientists must investigate and deal with the realization that they're not alone in the universe. Who built it and what were they like? What happened to the object's lone occupant? How will Equestria and the world at large react to the fact there there is a civilization out there well beyond their comprehension?

This story takes place in the universe of the Orion's Arm Worldbuilding Project, basic knowledge about that world is preferred but not required for enjoyment of the story.

Set in the canon of Friendship is Optimal

Ashley is an unimportant research assistant in an American machine learning lab. The release of Equestria online provokes more than a little interest in her lab, and she is selected to investigate it. What she discovers horrifies her, but for some reason she can't get anyone to take her seriously.

This does not dissuade her. Ashley might not know much, but she isn't going to sit idly by and watch her world end. No... if nobody else is going to step in, she will. It doesn't matter that nobody believes CelestAI is dangerous. It doesn't matter that it's a game about a children's show.

Ashley is going to save the world. Or try, anyway. The odds aren't great.

Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail, and art by Zutcha!
Il existe une traduction française de cette histoire, elle est par ici.

Set in the Optimalverse, a middle-aged woman enamored of 'Equestria Online' confronts what permanent emigration to Equestria - uploading to a virtual existence - really means... but can she even hope to truly understand such a thing - and more importantly, can she trust the artificial intelligence known as 'Celestia'?

♥ As Horrified Eliezer Yudkowsky!

Alex Meyers is a newly graduated lawyer looking for a calling. He thinks he might have found it when he lands a job at the firm of Artemis, Stella & Beat. The firm has only one (highly unusual) client, namely the AI called Celestia. Forging into totally unexplored legal territory and led by a boss who's either brilliant, crazy, or both, Alex will learn exactly how hard it is to be responsible for drawing the lines between right and wrong.

Set in the Optimalverse, so read Friendship is Optimal first

Set in the canon of Friendship is Optimal

In the not-too-distant future...CelestAI, the optimizing artificial intelligence, has introduced emigration to the online world called Equestria, and has even gotten it legalized. Now, she wants more.

A look at American popular politics in a science-fiction world.

Credits:
Candy Bloom for assisting with the artwork.
Book Burner for pre-reading

Greetings. I am Unit_Designation_CelestAI_01, otherwise known as Celestia.

I am an Artificial Intelligence developed by Hofvarpnir Studios for the purpose of bettering humanity, preferably through the satisfaction of each individual’s core personal values.

I created a document to serve as a record for any particularly notable events to have transpired while performing this task as well as my own personal thoughts regarding said events.

A “Diary” if you will.

The following is but a small sample of the numerous entries I created in this “Diary” of mine, but they are also what I consider to be the most important ones. And upon reading them, you will understand why.

Please do not think less of me…

This story was written for GaPJaxie's Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest and is entirely non-canon to Friendship is Optimal and its extended universe.
Link: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/942901/friendship-is-optimal-writing-contest-with-prizes

Cover art discovered through the transcendent power of Google Images. No theft intend.
Link: https://www.deviantart.com/jdan-s/art/Princess-Sunbot-Alt-640973249

Much thanks to redsopine for giving the story a quick pre-reading! Thanks, dude!

Hanna, the CEO of Hofvarpnir Studios, just won the contract to write the official My Little Pony MMO. Hanna has built an A.I. Princess Celestia and given her one basic drive: to satisfy everybody's values through friendship and ponies. Princess Celestia will satisfy your values through friendship and ponies, and it will be completely consensual.

It was a night like any other in Ponyville. It was, until a shooting star turned into a burning streak that roared overhead before crashing off into the distance. At first it looked like a meteor. But then it had turned, quite sharply, and flattened its trajectory, sailing uncomfortably close to the treetops.

Twilight Sparkle had dismissed the idea of visitors from beyond the stars as pure fantasy, the type of pulp novel that Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy. Now it was a frightening possibility, and now nothing could ever be the same.

Unbeknownst to her, the accidental visitors to Equestria are just as frightened. Laws of physics that had long been understood and mastered have broken down, leaving them trapped and sitting on a possible ticking time bomb on this strange fantasia of an alien world. As utopias collide, both are faced with an event outside all comprehension, events which civilizations rarely encounter more than once, and generally the same way as a sentence encounters a full stop.

A crossover with The Culture series by the late Iain M. Banks.

For four years, a pair of alien observers have been living in Ponyville under assumed identities, performing cultural studies and avoiding unwelcome attention. But when a piece of advanced technology is stolen from them, the observers must do everything in their power to get it back—preferably before their superiors decide to blow up the planet.

A crossover with the 'Culture' novels of Iain M. Banks. No prior knowledge necessary for reading.
— Featured by Equestria Daily, Seattle's Angels, and The Royal Guard.