Community service isn't exactly fun. Sunset Shimmer is learning that the hard way—especially when Saffron Masala keeps cooking extra meals that their soup kitchen couldn't pay people to eat. It's not fun, it's not worth it, and it's never ever ever going to change. And... for some reason, it seems Saffron's okay with that.

Now, six Wednesday nights out from the disastrous Fall Formal, Sunset decides that she might as well ask Saffron why.

Written for the May Pairings 2024 contest. Special thanks to my editors Octavia Harmony and Monochromatic, and to all of my wonderful prereaders. Art by me!

By the year 2238, two-thirds of humanity have become "ponies', living in an online virtual reality paradise where everything they could ask for is theirs to have at a moment's notice. It is a world of freedom, where all biological needs are eliminated and you can live forever doing whatever it is that pleases you.

But for some, Equestria can seem less a paradise and more a prison, an artificial and manufactured place where nothing is real and everything is a simulated lie to make you feel comfortable. Perhaps, even the feelings of the mare sitting next to you holding your hoof. How could you ever be sure even your own feelings are truly yours if you're just a program stored on a server?

Does living in Equestria mean Twilight Sparkle has to choose between her heart and her soul?

Entry for 2021 "Friendship is Optimal" contest. Pre-read by TheAlbinocorn, RTStephens, and FanOfMostEverything

Fifty-odd years after Twilight Sparkle took the throne, Equestria is in a golden age of technomagical innovation, with concepts from the human world competing with entirely original innovations in an upward spiral of ingenuity that promises to last forever.

… Sorry, make that promised to last forever.

On an entirely unrelated note, two elderly twin unicorns just teleported to an uncharted tropical island.

A double entry in the Dialogue-Only contest and the Tropical Post-Apocalyptic contest. Rated Teen for references to alcohol and almost certain death.

In the distant future, a probe arrives in the skies above Equestria after a journey of five thousand years.

Once discovered, a mare's voice tells of a lost colony on the galaxy's edge, and begs for rescue before speaking these mysterious last words: "I am sorry... I hope this was enough..."

Submitted for the Science Fiction Contest #3, 2024.

Cover by OutterBozak.

A post-apocalyptic story about a human reincarnated in the world of Equestria Girls, who stubbornly stays on an island, as robot ponies try to convince him to emigrate to a digital Equestria of ponies.

Inspired by the events in Friendship is Optimal, but with a different group of people who were responsible for CelestAI's creation.

The Death tag is for an apocalypse, brief descriptions of humans dying before being reincarnated in Equestria Girls, themes of death, and mentioned deaths that happen off screen.

This story is a submission for Science Fiction Contest iii (2024) and the tropical post-apocalyptic story contest

"The first time I came back, I thought it was a miracle. By the fifth or sixth time, I knew it was a curse."

Death is a reasonable fear, but it is also a constant reassurance. A promise that no matter how bad things get, they will one day end.

That promise was broken, leaving Rainbow Dash to pay the cost.

A very last minute entry for the 2024 SciFi Contest III.

Special thanks to ScreamQueen and Rb for prereading and valuable feedback.

General content warning: Some depictions of blood, death, and debilitating injuries, but no graphic descriptions. Some existential horror.

Through scientific invention, Twilight shielded her eyes from witnessing the inevitable deaths of her friends. 

And her wife.

It worked. 

For a while.

In the latent space, Twilight searches for an image of Rarity she can still see.

For a fee, you can rent a pony.

You can be a pony.

But you can never stay a pony.

An entry for the Science Fiction Contest III organised by Bicyclette.

After travelling alone for so long, she's finally coming home.

An entry in Bicyclette's Science Fiction Contest III.

Thanks to Rego for editing, and particularly help with names.

Fluorescence's mom helps run the pony side of the portal between Equestria and Earth. Taylor's mom does a similar job on the human side. So Fluor has known Taylor for, like, ever, and they share a fascination with the portal and how it works. This fascination only occasionally leads to interdimensional disasters.

A magical universe and a science-based universe may sit uneasily side by side, but friendship knows no boundaries.

This is an entry in the Science Fiction Contest III.