Tirek. Discord. The Changelings.

The ponies have faced all these threats, and triumphed, but things could have been handled better. Princess Celestia knows this better than most. She knows that to face threats even greater than Tirek, greater than Discord, the ponies need allies. They need friends to turn to when the chips are down and the mad gods and cruel tyrants are on the horizon

She and Princess Twilight Sparkle travel to the Griffon Kingdom to meet the Griffon King. They seek to negotiate a formal treaty, something more than a rudimentary "You stay in your yard, we'll stay in ours." If the Changelings invade, or Tirek is once more a threat, it will not only be the ponies standing against them, but the griffons as well. It's only logical, after all. The griffons and the ponies share a border. They share ideas. They share refugees and concepts and cultures. And there haven’t been any major hostilities since the Pony-Griffon War. That was almost a thousand years ago.

It is logical to enter an alliance, but politics aren’t always about logic. Sometimes they are about past crimes, mistakes, and tragedies. Sometimes, past grudges simply can't be let go.

(Rated Dark and Teen for some disturbing content, though nothing too heavy or overt)

Coverart from Pie on furAffinity

On some level Celestia always understood that a ship could never really love an anchor.

Everypony knows the Hearth’s Warming Eve tale of tribal unity and the shared rule which followed. Everypony also knows that alicorns - singular or dual - have sat on Equestria’s throne for well over a thousand years.

Very few have really looked in to what actually happened between those points.

Even Twilight Sparkle, until a chance encounter leads her to an alarming discovery: Neither she, nor any other alicorn, has actually held any legal right to Equestria’s throne. They are technically usurpers, autocrats - even tyrants.

Still struggling with her own personal rule, having the fundamental basis for her authority swept from beneath her leaves Twilight with one simple, yet impossible question: 

Now what?

Many thanks to Commawriter and Kirtai for pre-reading!

Cover image was edited by Vinylshadow. They deserve all credit for it!

Princess Celestia gets legit deaded by everyone's favorite bacon head.

It is the first time that two creatures will be approaching the catastrophic planet. Never before has anything made by the inhabitants of Weil come close to it. What better creatures for this than two ponies?
Indeed, the mark on its surface, a crater, is one of the most recognized symbols in all of pony folklore. It's a symbol of peace, of joy, of fear and evil. Legends give it miraculous properties, as well as terrible corrupting powers.
Is there a link between this crater and pony folklore? Even if the planet is so far from Weil that it can't even be seen with the naked eye, it wasn't always the case. Millenia ago, it would have been visible in the night sky, barely smaller than the moon. Only for a brief period of time.

What will those two ponies find here? Are the legends true? And if they are, which ones? The good? Or the bad ones?

Warning: While there is no gore or physical violence so to speak, there are some disturbing things and implied pain. That's why the fic is rated "Teen". I don't think it needs the "Violence" tag, but I'm ready to add it if people deem it necessary. I'm also really bad with tags in general so I've put Horror and Dark because I think they do fit. Or, at least, the fic is intended that way.

Story written for the Science Fiction Contest III. I was planning on participating in the Wonderbolt Contest with another fic, but I couldn't do both in time, and this one was way more inspiring for me. So I did this one.
Art by Taïga Blackfield.
Music used: Ketsui to Kakugo (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S)
Sweet Dreams (by RisenFromTheDust, from the album Beyond and Below of Neighsayer/Furtherproof & Feathers)
Light of the Seven (Game of Thrones)
We Die in Here All the Time (Borderlands 3)

Starlight Glimmer is transported to the distant future against her will. She discovers an Equestria she helped create that is both amazing and sickening. It turns out this utopia has a deadly problem that only she can fix.

Written for the Science Fiction Contest III.

Featured May 3-4, 2024.

Thanks to Airy Words and Nines for proofreading.

Thousands of years into the future, the Empire of Equestria is in shambles, its ponies left to waste away in space colonies or dying terraformed planets without a strong leader to guide them.

With the Empire fragmented mercenaries like Grogar have risen to power and attacked it head-on with only one goal in mind: to get their hooves on the Stone of Harmony, the last vestige of the old magic left in the universe.

In a desperate ploy to protect the stone, Starlight Glimmer embarks on a journey to safeguard it in the last place her adversaries would anticipate—the lost planet of Equus...if she finds it first.

Her old friend Sunburst might have some answers, but in a galaxy where everyone only looks after themselves, Starlight's misplaced trust might not only cost her her life but the future of the Empire as a whole.

_{Written for the Science Fiction Contest III
Rated T for sci-fi violence, some swearing, minor character death, and a dash of awkward romance, but nothing too severe.}

Spike has been Twilight's loyal Friendship Ambassador for many years, sorting problems and building bridges with other nations.

Sadly, the customs of his ancestral home remain a mystery to him. On a diplomatic visit to the Dragon Lands, Dragon Lord Ember decides to enroll Spike in a ceremony that all young dragons must pass, the communion with the deity of the dragons.

Yet, in this unfamiliar realm, a world of dragons he knows so little about, Spike is forced to grapple with profound questions of identity-who he truly is, what he aspires to become, and whether he can ever embody the essence of what it is to be a dragon.

Surely speaking with a God can't be that bad?

Set sometime before The Last Problem during Generation 4

Art is by Noben at https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16601690/ all credit goes to the artist and their works exclusively.

When Sky Stinger comes to Rainbow Dash for help with Vapor Trail, she figures it has to be better than paperwork, right?

The help that Vapor Trail actually needs might test that theory.

Expanded from my entry in the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Pegasus Contest. Many thanks to Shaslan and my fellow contest entrants for the feedback that helped make this story better!

Also an entry in the 2024 Wonderbolts site contest.

Everyone always asked Tank where he was going.

He never knew how to answer them. How could one say that when time eroded everything else away, there became less and less meaning in a purpose.

All he knew is that the time passed him by, the more he always seemed to be leaving.

That's when Philomena showed up.

Written for the third Quills and Sofas Expanding Universe contest. A sequel to Novelle Tale's Growing Together .

Art by Shaslan!