Set in the alternate Sombra timeline during The Cutie Re-Mark.
Sombra found the young unicorn shortly after his banishment ended. He saw in her a shred of potential. He could have dominated her will...but perhaps she'll be more useful like this.
And besides, it had been quite a long time since he'd taken an apprentice.

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns IV, using the prompt King Sombra/Strength. Good luck to the other contestants!
Notably, do keep in mind that this fic does contain dark content and may not be suitable to everyone. Content warning includes:
--Some bloodshed, but nothing too graphic
--onscreen character death
--light profanities

In order to obtain the power to control Equestria, Cozy Glow must kill three primordial demons and eat their hearts. It's an unsavory business. Better hope she brings hot sauce.

A story about power and those who suffer it.

Yesterday, Twilight Sparkle was hot in pursuit of dangerous stolen magic, her friends at her side and Ahuizotl in her sights. Today, she is imprisoned aboard a wondrous and horrifying city, hurtling through the empty void of space and surrounded by creatures and a world she barely comprehends and everything she thought she knew is upside-down - a world where a legion of ponies serve as seeming slaves.

Yesterday, Santana Guerro was finishing up an ordinary investigation - another day, another case, another synthetic assistant assigned to be by his side. Today, an ancient, living space probe from a lost world is in his office - the furthest possible thing from routine, and certain to be far from easy to close the case on.

Both of them need answers. Secrets are in play - secrets that others will kill to be the one keeping. But to find a way out, they’re going to have to understand each other.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First-Place Winner of the 2023 Science Fiction Contest.

Cover art Credit: Twilight is from the show. All else is mine.

It is the year 0179 of the Cloud Century. Almost two centuries have passed since the Pegasus Enclave closed the sky and cut off the toxic, uninhabitable surface world. A new home for ponykind, where pegasus ponies are born, and raised, and die.

Before the war, before the sky was cut off, something terrible was locked away. Chamomile is an average pegasus, born into a family of archaeologists and living at the edge of Enclave territory, far to the north. When she stumbles into ancient dangers and conspiracies, she finds her quiet life turned into a horror story. Can she set things right, or is the Enclave doomed?

A Fallout: Equestria sidestory. Thank you to all my readers, patreons, and well-wishers!

As always, I most look forward to seeing what references and cameos people notice. You surprise me sometimes with how you pick up on minor details!

Here's a gallery of the previous cover art, as well as a few bits of character design I put together: Gallery

This story is a sequel to The Witch of Canterlot

Sunset Shimmer needs a vacation. She doesn't feel she can really match the accomplishments of the ponies around her, and even though she knows leaving Canterlot is just running away from her problems for a while, maybe it's what she needs to get her head back in the game.

Griffonstone needs someone to save it. The griffons won't ever admit that, but it isn't half the city it used to be. The birds still in town do everything they can to leave, and the whole place is ravaged by terrible gale-force winds.

The earth roars! The heaven howls! The crowds cry out for a hero! Can Sunset really end a curse that's lingered for generations?

A week ago, Appleoosa Station suffered a critical reactor failure that resulted in the station's complete destruction. By absolute miracle, a single tramp freighter piloted by a brave young pegasus escaped the destruction - and carried two hundred of the station's residents to safety in its hold.

Young Scootaloo has been widely celebrated for her bravery, ingenuity and talent in saving so many lives.

Problem is, the version of the story she insists on isn't the same as the official accounts.

Written for the Science Fiction contest.

Proper credit for the inspiration/original form/etc to the legendary Leslie Fish and her work on the nearly-lost filk album Carmen Miranda's Ghost. In particular the song which inspired this fic, Some Kind Of Hero.

Featured 11/30/2021 - 12/3/2021!

Featured in 25 of the Best Fanfics to Read for Cutie Mark Crusader Day on 11/20/2022!

It's Nightmare Night in Ponyville (and presumably everywhere else as well) and Starlight and Trixie have teamed up to host a haunted house attraction. Spooks and frights and guaranteed in this one-of-a-kind experience orchestrated by two mares who, between them, barely make up a single functioning member of society.

What could go wrong in this pandormare's box of horror designed by a former villainous megalomaniac with boundary issues and a compatriot whose worldview is heavily tinted by a lens of narcissism?

Take on the role of Rainbow Dash, fearless seeker of frights, in this branching CYOA experience. Explore different paths to victory, collect items, solve puzzles, and try to find all the hidden endings!

Content warnings: More thriller than horror, with the occasional dip into psychological terror. Some medium-tier body horror, mostly transformation based. Odd snippets of comedy to lighten the mood. Mild spoilers for various horror movies, but nothing recent.

Note: Some artists are credited by name only because their only linkable contact is on nsfw-heavy websites.
Special thanks to SparklingTwilight and Panem et Circenses for helping work out the gameplay kinks and pointing out mistakes that slipped past me.

In a year marked by the greatest number of legal assaults on the rights of trans people to exist that has ever happened, this is my contribution to Pride Month for 2021 - my own, personal, real life transition story, ponified and coated in science fantasy. I took a metaphorical sword and sliced open my guts for you to see, raw and bleeding. This is my life, this is my story, painted in ponies. Petal Chatoyance says: Trans Rights!

A Cutie Mark amplifies potential. It makes a pony formidable — but it makes a human a god.

When humans started visiting Equestria and returning with Cutie Marks on their hips, Earth changed overnight. Now a young man with an unwritten future is about to discover the true consequences of that change … and his choice of Marks will forever alter the fate of two worlds.

** CONTENT WARNING: Offscreen rape, mind control.** Earns its Dark tag.

* * *

Highly Recommended by Present Perfect! "Completely memorable ... I've never read anything like it. Also perfectly terrifying."

"It went on my Favorites shelf, and I really don't do dark." –iisaw

Third-place winner in the September 2014 Writeoff Association competition! Newly edited for FIMFiction!

Praise for the Writeoff version:
"What in the hell. … This is a really remarkable and surprising piece, one of the best HiE’s I’ve ever read, and the best Friendship Is Optimal-style sci-fi I’ve read since FiO itself." –Present Perfect

"F**k you for writing an HiE that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. Just f**k you." –Golden Vision