Donut Joe keeps his store open on Hearth’s Warming Eve. And why not? He doesn’t have anywhere else to be, and neither do the tired, bitter ponies who find their way inside.

But the Eve is young, and strange things lie ahead. Who knows what might happen on a night like tonight?

(Inspired by the song "Old City Bar," by Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Reviewed by TheifofZ here.

Now available in print format, thanks to our Kickstarter supporters!

It turns out that the magical land of Equestria is not a flat plane covered by a bowl of stars after all. This is big news to Queen Chrysalis. If the moon is actually a place, then she can travel there, claim its magical energies, and finally get revenge on Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and everypony else.

Of course, there are problems. One problem is that everypony else is also rushing to get into space. Another problem is that Chrysalis really has no idea how to do it. Fortunately a certain earth pony with a taste for cherries is willing to help... provided she gets to fly the ship, and provided Chrysalis keeps the space program honest and open and legal.

Together, Chrysalis, Cherry Berry, and a horde of brave-but-dumb changelings will make world history... or, more likely, they'll make a lot of really big explosions.

Inspired by Kerbal Space Program. Current cover art by Jason Meador aka texasuberalles.

TVTropes page here! Thanks to GymQuirk for making it!

Old cover art (and Changeling flag) here:

http://nishi199.deviantart.com/art/Changeling-Swarm-Flag-413227759

1-21-2017 Included in The Goodfic Bin's High Quality Fics! Thanks! Review here: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/206510/the-goodfic-bin/thread/173558/submissions-folder-decision-thread-v2#comment/5750494

[img]http://s13.postimg.org/5a2dthj87/Giz_Vyc0.png[/img]

A middle aged brony inexplicably replaces Chrysalis as a new changeling queen some decades before the fruition of a certain pony prophesy. Now the new queen must figure out how to manage a kingdom that has been in a slow, seemingly irreversible, decline for the past several thousand years.

Vinyl Scratch visits her father.

Set just before the events of chapter ten of Friendship is Optimal. One of the last living humans survives and scrapes by in the ruins of Eugene Oregon. He is approached by a simulacra of Twilight Sparkle, who promptly attempts to convince him to upload himself to Equestria. He balks at first, so Twilight plays to her strengths: studying.

Part of the Optimalverse.

WARNING: RATED TEEN FOR IDEOLOGY. This story attempts to take a realistic and balanced view of why an intelligent and religious person might not upload. It does not attempt to convince the reader to believe any of the viewpoints discussed. However, it is written in as unbiased a way as possible, therefore, both theists and atheists will probably find portions of it offensive.

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.

There is no such thing as a gut feeling, not really. If you suddenly start to feel afraid for no apparent reason, it's very unlikely to be anything serious. But it doesn't make it feel any better does it?

Twilight is up burning the midnight oil again, when suddenly every sense she has tells her that something is terribly wrong. There can't be anything really wrong though, not in reality.
Can there?

A short experiment in atmospheric horror.
Featured in the Royal Canterlot Library on 26/04/19
Now featuring readings by ColonialPone here, and by MrSnarky here.

In the magical land of Equestria, there are no ponies.
In the sleepy town of Ponyville, there are no ponies.
In the glittering Castle of Friendship, there are no ponies.

So who are all these colorful quadrupeds?

Twilight has given you a new book to read. Well, she didn't exactly give it to you, you actually just found it in the back of the library. Behind a shelf. On the ground. It looks very old, downright ancient, and it smells like moss and rot. The binding is a little cracked, and there's no title on it. You can't help but wonder what might be inside, and the only way to find out is to keep reading.

Just turn the page.

You can do that much, can't you?

Please?

WARNING: This story contains brief depictions of blood, mild violence, and death, and has ARG aspects to it. It plays with formatting, and includes images. Some "pages" are long, some are only a few words. It is written in first person, to you, the reader, and is a slow mellow horror. You've been warned.

This story relies on unusual formatting for some parts, and thus may not be as enjoyable on a tablet or phone, or if you have specialized custom Fimfic settings.

If you post spoilers, hints, or answers in the comments, please be sure to spoiler them out or warn others. You don't want to ruin the fun, right?

Audio reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TqbHFchLg

A normal end to a normal day -- at least, that's what it was supposed to be.

But it wasn't.

Luna went to raise the moon as usual, but something went wrong. Terribly wrong. She felt it, but she couldn't stop it.

None of us could.

It appeared too suddenly -- acted too quickly.

The only warning we received was a roar and a bright flash of light, then everything was gone. No more Canterlot, no more ponies, no more anything.

Nothing survived.

Nothing... except for us and whatever 'it' is.

We may be immortal beings, but that doesn't make things any better -- if anything, it makes the pain all that much worse. The only thing we can really do now is try to avenge those dear to us. Our subjects... our families... my friends...

Everything.

I don't care how long it takes, and I don't care if it's a pointless battle. All I care about now is making sure we put that thing down for good.

After that?

Well...

Cover art done by Little Tigress. Check out her other stuff on deviantart if you wanna see more!