This story is a sequel to The Dusk Guard Saga: Beyond the Borderlands

"With ever-excellent action sequences, steady and effective character growth for our two leads, and constantly high stakes, the viking once again delivers an exciting and memorable adventure." —PaulAsaran

Long ago, a city of great magical power and ability was beset by evil and sealed away beyond the scope of time. Now that seal has begun to fray.

First Lieutenant Hunter and the rest of the Dusk Guard have been dispatched. At face value, their mission seems straightforward: Secure the city. Hold until reinforced.

But nothing for the Dusk Guard is ever quite that simple, and this mission is no exception. As the city nears its return so does its ancient king, a shade who once wielded enough power to bring even immortals to their knees. And if he is allowed to regain his throne, will once more. Worse, the city may very well be under the iron hoof of his own followers, a ruthless order who will stop at nothing to see their king regain his former glory.

Dark magics. Cities lost to time. Ancient evil.

The Dusk Guard's first official mission has begun.

Book III of The Dusk Guard Saga
Epic Fantasy
Official Series Timeline at TDG Group Forums
Can be found on TV Tropes at The Dusk Guard Saga’s page (Page outdated)
Cover art by ... well, I don't know. I was unable to find any credit whatsoever on the hosting site or by searching. If you know, please PM and pass it on so it can be properly attributed!
Alpha and Beta read by Halusm, Seirs, Bugsydor, and son_of_heaven176. Many thanks for your help!
If you encounter what you think are typos in the story, PM them rather than clogging the comments feed with them.

Author’s note: From time to time you may encounter a hotlink in the text. These hotlinks are background themes I listened to when writing the fic and can be clicked or passed over at your own choice. It is recommended that for maximum enjoyment beforehand if you do wish to follow them, make sure that your volume settings on YouTube are at a comfortable level and make use of Ctrl+Shft+Clicking or the middle mouse button to open the song in a new tab. Be aware that there may be ads if you do not have an adblocker.

Or just don’t click on them until later. They are an entirely optional experience, and can be passed over without incident.

Twilight's power, along with that of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, has been claimed by Tirek. Drunk on power, the demon-centaur is unleashing destruction upon Equestria, his reign of terror just beginning.

But there is hope. A crystalline chest, a gift from the Tree of Harmony, able to be opened by six keys. Keys which Twilight has now claimed the last of. All they can do is hope, hope that whatever is contained inside the chest is enough to stop Tirek.

And then something goes wrong ...

Note: This story is in no way connected with my other fanfics. It's very much a one-off in good fun.

First Contact. It was all over the news, how could it not be? A station could be heard, if one tuned into the right AM station. It played on repeat. It came from outside this world. Was it in peace? What did it mean?

Done entirely on whimsy, though I can blame the folks in #writing-chat on the Fimfic Discord.

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With Maud settling down in Ponyville, Marble studying in the Crystal Empire, and her parents finally deciding to retire, Pinkie Pie wonders if Limestone is going to be okay running the Pie Family Farm all by herself. She's never done well on her own, and her cold demeanor probably isn't going to get her a boyfriend anytime soon.

Luckily, she knows an equally lonely human who is perfect for the job!

This story is a sequel to Eclipse

Page needs a vacation.

He's not getting a vacation.

What he does get, is... how do they put it? Brand new exciting opportunities.
He never wanted to be a Prince, nor to rule. But he's stuck with the job, which means having ponies relying on him.
So he's doing his best.
Which would be fine, except ponies seem happy to keep finding brand new ways to make it harder for him.

Retirement had begun to grow boring for former princesses Celestia and Luna, until one evening Luna noticed a star was moving, and it was heading for their planet! With the aid of her sister, Princess Cadence, and even Twilight Sparkle, the four will embark on a small adventure of a lost race which sought to give the rest of the universe eveything they could for a brighter future.

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Edited by Hammerhead, thanks for taking the time!

Cover art is a modified variation of a piece done by Johan Swanepoel and used from a MIT website. Thanks to Cedric Bale and HalflingPony for confirming and taking the time to research for me.

Top of the Box of Shame, 5/1/2021.

Theodor Pichler knew joining the Barrow Observatory's winter crew would be a difficult position. He thought he knew the danger--freezing temperatures, gale-force winds, and terribly spotty broadband coverage. What he didn't expect was for an experimental new telescope array to interact with an unusual storm and send him screaming helplessly into the sky.

Instead of falling to his death, Theo landed in an alien world, populated by colorful horses he can't understand. What's worse: the body he landed in isn't his own, and he's not sure anything is where it should be. Having wings might be cool if he didn't have to be naked all the time...

With limited supplies and no help from the Observatory, Theo has to somehow navigate this new land, making new friends and encountering terrible dangers along the way. It will take all his cleverness, and a healthy dose of luck, if he's ever to be human again.

This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

This story was a commission for Lucky Ray on my Patreon. Feel free to PM me if you'd like one of your own. It was edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Coverart by FoxHatArt. Where chapters have art, it was done by Jasper.

Zutcha was here too.

XCOM Record: Operation: Rising Star
11:52 am, 18th Febuary, 2016
Northwestern Territories, Canada.

Summary: Witness reports contact with extra-terrestrial creature. X-ray is unconcious and unresponsive. X-ray does not match description of previously observed species.

Response: Strike-One dispatched on high alert, orders are to recover X-ray alive. Alien Containment prepared for the new arrival.

***

The war ended. They were beaten back, their mothership destroyed, their command structure in ruins. Lost ships and soldiers continued in vain, but thanks to XCOM, humanity won, and the world was saved. The Volunteer saw to that - everything changed because of one man.

And then suddenly, everything changed again. Only this time, it's not a man's doing - it's a mare's.

Proofreading by the aweome Setokaiva, entirely without me asking!
Tagged Dark and rated Teen: Gore, because there is going to be some blood shed by the end of this.

There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and humanity is determined to explore every one. We send probes, probes with the blueprints to reproduce human explorers upon arrival. Uninhabited worlds the galaxy over can be colonized and populated, until after many years they too can join the vast throng of interstellar civilization. But if a probe is very, very lucky, it will land on a populated world instead. Equestria is one such world.

Even so, it's far from perfect for colonization, not with an environment lethal to human life. But each probe is resourceful and armed with the greatest machine intelligence mankind has devised. If placing a human mind into a newly manufactured human body won't work, it will just have to get a little more creative.

This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

This story was written at the behest of Canary In The Coal Mine, who is sponsoring it on my Patreon. As usual, cover by Zutcha. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.

Fantastic prereading help from: Chyre, Danger Noodle, Doctor Disco, and Doggyshakespeare (who also did the Esperanto translation). Thank you all for helping to make this story more readable and more consistent for everyone.

Coming straight out of FTL, Captain Amelia Finegold barely has time to blink as her ship, Cobalt Blue, crashes into an unknown vessel in deep-space. Struggling to get ahold of an unexpected situation, things take a turn for the bizarre when she finds out the other ship isn't driven by humans. Or even occupied by humans at all.

One moment, Twilight is asleep. The next, lights and alarms blare as she comes to grips with an unexpected emergency. Problems crop up one after the other. Irreparable damage, wounded ponies, and a new alien species?!

Set in an alternate universe where Equestria became a space-faring empire.

Small note: Some revisions have been made, thanks all!