The Caprica. At one time, an impressive piece of technology for humanity. Originally built for peace; retrofitted for war. But now, Marcus is all that remains of the human race after a hostile alien invasion, and he uses the only life he's ever known to escape his captors. Making a blind jump to unknown space, his skills as a pilot, and as a man in uniform, will be put to the test.

Rated teen for language and some adult situations.

It's been a couple of weeks and way more than a couple of games since Pinkie Pie introduced the Mane Six to the joys of playing the classic real-time strategy title, Age of Empires II. Unanswered questions surround this mysterious game: where did it come from? Who made it? Why is there so much killing?

Never mind all that - Twilight Sparkle and her friends have a game to play!

NOTE: Though I've tried to make the story more about the relationships between the four gamers (no Rarity or Fluttershy, sorry!) than about the game itself, some rudimentary knowledge about Age of Empires II is required if you want to understand what is going on. I wrote this as a short-ish story so I'm not really going to go into technical details much.

=====INFO AFTER BREAK=====
References consulted while writing story:
ZeroEmpires (Commentary on Competitive AoE II matches)
wikiHow (5 Ways to Make Your Economy Boom in Age of Empires II)
Wikipedia (for info on Byzantines, Moon & Vikings)
Luttwak, E. "The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire" (Harvard University Press, USA), 2009 (Byzantine military strategy)

Youtube links:
Prologue - PakAttack95 (Youtube Channel)
Main Menu and Victory Music - mikec1000 Civilization Themes

Cover Image:
Wikipedia
Age of Empires II
Cutie Mark Vectors by Hawk9mm (deviantART page)

When a mishap occurs with Celestia's bathroom scale, an ancient protocol that may just doom Equestria is set into motion. With the entire palace staff now conspiring against her, the sun goddess must not only contend mountains of paper work, dancing celery sticks, and steroid pumped stallions, but a sister who will take this chance to torture Celestia any way she can as payback for her banishment. Lock the cupboards and barricade the fridge! It's the Royal Diet!

Now with TVTropes page! :http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/ASliceOfLife

On a dark night filled with even darker magics, an insane cult attempts to give Nightmare Moon a body and life of her own, utterly separate from Princess Luna. But, when the spell is interrupted by Celestia, something unexpected is created.

Now, a little black alicorn filly named Nyx finds herself living under the care of Twilight Sparkle, only to be haunted by memories and emotions from her past. Is she Nightmare Moon reborn or is she simply a doppelganger with a soul and mind of her own? Can Twilight Sparkle protect Nyx from those who refuse to see past her dragon eyes and black coat?

Or, will Nyx be forced to inherit the sins that may not even be hers and become the greatest evil Equestria has ever known?

2022 REWRITE IN PROGRESS

After being rudely awoken from Cryo-sleep, John-117 finds that the Forward Unto Dawn has been sucked into a gravity well, causing it to fall towards an unknown planet. In the crash, he is separated from Cortana and falls alone into the Everfree forest. In addition to this new complication, old memories from a scarred and tragic past haunt his dreams, putting his remaining sanity on edge.

However, he has little time to ponder these thoughts, as he encounters the planet's... peculiar... inhabitants.

First 19 Chapters proofread by Bravo 539 and Shadownamesto.
Credit for the intro sequence goes to Blaze Spectrum.

Current rewrite will not necessarily follow the old story but certain events and details may be reused.

For little less than one thousand years, the species of Equestria had been a part of the Trade Order, sharing the millenium of peace of prosperity the humans had enjoyed.

Now, with the arrival of alien invaders and the return of ancient evils, that peace was been shattered. A people unused to war had to rediscover its ways and fight for their home. The Trader Emergency Coalition was born from this need.

Ten years have passed, and the sitation has improved to the point High Command has authorized a rotation of the forces, sending the weary first generation back to their homes, to rest and recover.

Meanwhile, a lavander unicorn mare who has never been on a planet is travelling to Equestria on behalf of her teacher...

For more information, see the [URL='http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/friends-of-a-solar-empire-mlp-fim-soase-thread-mk3.220696/#post-7541443']thread on the Spacebattles forums.

[URL='http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/FriendsOfASolarEmpire']Now with tropes!

The griffons have launched an unprovoked attack against Equestria, but Twilight doesn't care about that. All she cares about is Rainbow Dash going to war.

On this day, every year, Pinkie sits at the crossroads and waits for her.

Image by DawnAllies of deviantART

Twilight has been called up to teach at the School for Gifted Unicorns, and has to write her final letter to Princess Celestia. In it, she talks of the struggles of moving on, but that in the end, they will never forget.

I've wanted to submit something to the brony community for some time now; it's one of the greatest communities out there. Hope you readers like it C:

A minor accident at Sweet Apple Acres sends Big Macintosh to Ponyville in the middle of applebuck season. At first, things seem fine. But then some of the mares begin acting a little...oddly.

Then very oddly. Turns out every other stallion skipped town for a very good reason.