Canterlot... For centuries, Canterlot was the shining gem of Equestria, the pinnacle of pony society. Now, it’s a reminder, a bleak and monolithic warning to the world. 

Changed by the chemical and technological poisons that plague the mountain, an abomination of nature, I wander the greatest disaster Equestria has ever seen. 

... I will escape eventually, and when I do, I hope my friends still see me as Twilight Sparkle, and not the monster that hides among the ruins. 

[Rationalfic Deconstruction / Subversion of Displaced]
You’ve read the stories of people from Earth being “Displaced”: Their bodies are changed, their minds are warped, and they’re thrown across the multiverse, to whatever world and timeline their supernal "Displacers" decide upon.  Well, this story isn’t one of them...

...because when they tried to remake me, I didn’t let them.

A Rationalist Horror story, in which an Occultist from some version of Earth (implied to be the World of Darkness) undermines her own Displacement and ends up as a Self-Modifying Construct. Scientific Inquiry, Philosophical Debate, Rational Discussion, Body Horror, and Existential Hijinks ensue. Themes, Concepts, and Style inspired by HP Lovecraft, Elizer Yudkowsky, Gordon R Dickson, Edgar Allen Poe, Modern Prometheus (Frankenstein), Dresden Codak, World of Darkness, and Friendship is Optimal.
^{Front page on JUL 28th, AUG 12th, OCT 30, and every update after that.}

Your story breaks the shitty norm that most displaced stories have in common by being an 'actually interesting story' instead of a powertrip for a horny teen.

This is like brain porn. My head hurts but in a good way.

Author’s Notes

I often find Displaced fics to be more often Miss than Hit with me. Often, they're generic, poorly written, or just do not do anything worth reading with the concept.  This is an experiment to trt out a few other concepts which aren’t used often, even by me, including some which directly subvert Displaced as a genre, and maybe even come up with some advice for those authors. This is also a crossover with the upcoming Dragon: The Oroboroi Chronicles, a World of Darkness rulebook which I lead the development team for.

I hope you all enjoy this, and I implore you to leave some feedback in the comments section: I'll experimenting with a few uncommon concepts here, and I'd like to know how people feel about how they're coming across. :3

FAQ

Because people keep bringing these things up...

Horror/Dark Tags

I've had multiple people ask "how bad does it get?" Note the lack of the "gore", "sad", or "mature" tags or anything like that. Yes, there is blood and death at some point in this story, but the real horror of this story comes from the philosophical and scientific quandaries the characters go through: this is "intellectual horror", not "visceral horror".

Length

In the interest of this NOT becoming one of those long, sprawling fics, I plan to keep this limited to a manageable 10 chapter limit, not counting Prologue and Epilogue. No one wants to read something that long, and I'd rather not be stressing over this 6 months from now.

Sequel

The Sequel is already in the works, with scenes already written. It will be a more episodic story revolving around world optimization and interplanar hijinks.

Crossovers

To be clear, I do plan on having the main character make one of those "Token" things, but as they often get in the way of actual stories, that won't happen until the end of the story. The Sequel will be crossover-heavy.

This is an alternate timeline set in the same universe as The Ties that Bind -- a "what if?" scenario, or "sister story" if you will. Reading The Ties that Bind is not required, but it is recommended.

On a cold winter night, tragedy befalls Twilight's family and she barely manages to escape with her life. Now she's lost and alone in a place she doesn't recognize.

She's left to wander aimlessly with nothing but the dark memory of that night to keep her company, but that's about to change.

Something awoke in the lavender filly that night -- a new kind of magic she's never had a chance to study before, and she soon finds she's not the only filly with dark memories and something new to learn.

Thankfully they both come across a strange town with a pony that just might be able to cultivate their new talents.

Tragedy strikes the Sparkle estate one winter evening and Twilight finds herself cold, alone, and far from home.

Fortunately she stumbles across two fillies who may have more in common with her than she realizes. With no place else to go, nopony else to turn to, and no clear way back home, Twilight decides to stay with the fillies and their caretaker while she tries to piece together the mysteries of what happened to her family and why.

Bonds will be forged.

Secrets will be unraveled.

And a great journey will be undertaken.

Additional tags: Sad, Slice of Life (I don't care if it contradicts the Adventure tag, things are gonna get Slice-of-Life-y)

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!

In an alternate, semi-futuristic, crystalpunk Equestria, the Six Imperial Families have ruled the land by proxy, dividing society by stature and establishing their dominion over the crown with their immense wealth and influence. The most powerful of them all, is the infamous Abraxas Family. With their monopoly on Lacrima, the crystalline power source of all Equestria’s magical technology, they have built an international multibillion-bit dynasty across the world. Follow the rise of Orion Abrasax, a lone human in Equestria adopted into House Abraxas and now heir to the family fortune; and Shining Armor, a dishonored former Captain of the Royal Guard, wrongfully accused and sentenced to Tartarus for crimes he did not commit. When ambition meets retribution, both man and stallion will embark on a venture that will shake the very corridors of power. Thrust into the dark, unforgiving world of business, money and politics, they will show Equestria that sometimes business can be personal... very personal.

A demon of a long-forgotten time, trapped in the barriers of an ancient prison; forever cursed with loneliness... until one day, she meets a human.

"What a queer looking creature..."

Heavily inspired by Juniper's Knot a visual novel by Dischan Media. Reading it is not required.

Thanks to DVAN56, bocaj518 and Mr101 for their help!

They came from the skies, in a never ending torrent.
Humans.
Heartless, merciless, cold blooded, monsters.

Or so Shining had thought, until he had the chance to actually meet one such monster.

Written for One-shotober (2nd chapter and accompanying super fic in the works)
Image taken from Saving Private Ryan (no it's not a cross over)

Granny Smith nurses an ailment one night, and meets somepony from her past better left forgotten. But the pony in question will not be chased off and his deal will not be denied. For honor, for love, for the soul of the Apples.

As the details surrounding the Canterlot Invasion don't add up, Twilight investigates the suspicious disappearance of a guard during the attack.