Dr. Tenderheart has done this job long enough to know what death means. But nobody noticed, and nobody cared. So she pressed on.

Quills and Sofas Panic Fiction entry for a Rob Panic. The prompt was 'naked on the beach.' 2nd place winner. Like what you see? Come join us! Content warning: death.

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.

After four harrowing years of civil war brought about by Nightmare Moon's return, Canterlot has finally fallen. Princess Celestia has been banished to the moon, and now a new alicorn rules over Equestria. For the supporters of Nightmare Moon, the new eternal night is a time for celebration. For the ponies who fought for Celestia, it means something else entirely. For when the war is lost and the victor demands fealty, the vanquished are given only two choices: bow low and kiss the ground beneath her hooves, or die.

Not everpony who bows does so out of love for the conqueror, of course. Some do it to bide their time. Some do it out of a sense of opportunity. Most bow merely to survive. All of them are liars. But how long can a pony tell the same lie before it becomes the truth?

And what happens to that pony when their lies are lies no more?

Edited by SolidFire. Inspired by the Nightmare Moon timeline in the season 5 finale, a particular scene from a particular show, and an entertaining game of Equestria at War.

Daring Do cannot believe her luck when she is asked to help explore the most ancient tomb known to ponykind. But terrible danger awaits her, for beneath the earth rests something beyond equine understanding.

Warning: comments contain ending spoilers.

TVTropes page.
Alternate ending by Duplex Fields.
Archived in the Pony Fiction Vault.
Reviews:
One Man's Pony Ramblings
Louder Yay
PresentPerfect
The Royal Guard
Cleverpun's Critique Corner
The Goodfic Bin

After another stunt gone wrong, Rainbow finds herself cooped up in a hospital room again. But when she ends up getting roomed with a nine-year-old colt, her stay at Ponyville General takes a turn that's worth just a little more than reading a book about an archaeologist.

She wanted peace. She wanted diplomacy. She wanted harmony and friendship.

She got war.

With the armies of the Changeling Lands marching through Equestria, overwhelming any and all resistance they encounter, Princess Celestia has had to resort to increasingly drastic measures to save her country and the ponies that live in it. But while her sister leads the armies from the front and her ponies fight and die in the name of princesses and country, Celestia feels useless and inadequate in Canterlot. After all, she was supposed to protect her precious little ponies. How had she failed them so badly?

Those doubts and worries gradually gnaw away at her, day after day and month after month. Until one day, she reaches a tipping point, the point of no return:

She will save Equestria, no matter what it takes.

[An Equestria at War story]

Edited by LoyalLiar and SolidFire
Art by TwoTail813

At 3:15 AM, Adams woke me with a loud knock on my front door.
"Put your boots on," he said when I answered. "There's a biblical monster in my house."

* * *

A Visual Companion, by the author
Interview with the author, from the Royal Canterlot Library.
Audiobook by Robin Jacks and Wubcake.
Audiobook by Scribbler.
In-depth analysis by the Heroic Tales cast.
Literary Analysis by ScarletWeather.
Special thanks to GaryOak.
Reviews:
City of Doors
One Man's Pony Ramblings
PresentPerfect
Louder Yay
Between Lines
Bad Horse

September 17th, 1862 became the single bloodiest day in American history when a battle was fought along the Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Yesterday, Fluttershy hummed happily as she watered her garden.

The two events are not unrelated.

After being marooned on an icy world in unexplored space, Lumina must now face the perils of this frozen wasteland and search for some way home. But in this dark place, she discovers something that was lost to pony kind ever since the fabled Equestria sank into the ocean over 10,000 years ago. Something that will change her, and possibly the entire galaxy, forever.

Not a cross over, and not an alternate universe. This is the far future, and this has happened before.
Cover art by CSImadmax

Now in the FimFiction Gold Archives!
Now on Equestria Daily!
Now featured in Fort-Book Reviews!

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.