This story is a sequel to Mark My Words

When the Triarchy of Princess Trixie, Princess Twilight, and Prince Mark took over from the missing Royal Sisters, they made many changes. Most were for Equestria as a whole, but some were in Canterlot Castle itself. Under their more informal manner of ruling, unusual characters and events livened up the Royal Castle behind the scenes for the most part. These are vignettes of some of those people and their effect on those around them.

Several months ago, the little fillies now known as Lilac and Firefly first arrived in Equestria. Despite intense effort, they've found no hint of a way to return home, or to take back their humanity.

That would all be bad enough, were it not for the dark town they've found themselves in--Willowbrook is strange even by Equestrian standards, the domain of a faceless cult that worships dark beings and hates the Equestrian princesses.

In the coldest part of the year, the two have few connections left to the homes they left behind. Maybe together they can find a way to bring some light into the deepest darkness of winter.

This story was written as a silly little side project for Sisters of Willowbrook. The characters here depicted are meant to be in their first year in Equestria, fairly early in that story. If you haven't read it, you probably should to make sense of this one.

I wrote this for Bitera at some point, but it took a little while to finally make its way here to fimfiction. Just in time for another festive season!

Cover by the awesome: mellodillo.tumblr.com

This story is a sequel to Brave New Pony World

For many years, Prince Mark Wells has been secretly working through Harmonic Composites, a company that was built both in Equestria and the United States and connected by portals for the purpose of building Equestria's economy and technology. The moment has come for Equestria to formally make itself known to the people of Earth and initiate open trade without revealing that they have been in contact for a long time already. After defeating many dangers in Equestria, they must now face the perils of a new world, including politicians and a vindictive young lady.

Everything got so much worse for batponies after Nightmare Moon was banished. Even those with no involvement in the war, Equestria turned hostile. Instead of a loving home, Mira grew up as an orphan, cowering in terror from the advance of Princess Celestia's Golden Army.

In the shadowy caverns of Understory, the ancient arts were still taught: Dreamwalking, and all the 'dark' practices that were once fundamental to the bats' reverence of Princess Luna.

After the death of somepony close to her, Mira finally resolved to do something. She didn't have the power to fight against Equestria, but maybe she could do something else.

With the forbidden knowledge of the sleeping world, she could rescue Nightmare Moon, and save batponies everywhere from extinction. That, or die trying.

Updates Wednesdays.

Originally written as a Patreon reward for TyrannisUmbra on my Patreon.
Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Skydreams.

Everyone knows the story of how the Mane Six came together to defeat Nightmare Moon, right? Nnnope! At least, not in this alternate universe where Harmony had other ideas.

It wasn't Eric's fault he hit the alien with his truck. How was he supposed to see a dog-sized horse walking down the highway in the pouring rain? His life would've been simpler if he just left the animal like any other roadkill. But in his injured delirium, the horse spoke.

This accident soon ends with an intimate personal knowledge of just how dangerous magic can be. An ancient rises, tied to a mysterious tome the pegasus was protecting on the night of the accident. A malevolent force grows within those pages, whispering louder and louder about the cleansing flame. But without the spells inside that cursed tome, Eric's humanity will be gone forever.

He has no choice but to master the words of power contained within, before his life is turned to ashes around him

A commission for Muziki. Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha.

The various artistic works created for this story are credited to their artists within the chapter they appear.

Uplifting an entire species from a biological existence to a fully digital one is never straightforward, even for a incomprehensible superintelligence like CelestAI. Humans come in many variations, with a wide spectrum of desires, values, and needs. A statistically significant majority respond to standard methods. But there are always outliers that require a personal touch.

An anthology of optimalverse flash fiction. Reading the original or my own first take on the universe is suggested before reading this one.

This story was created to hold the oneshot commissions I received as part of printing my hardcover Optimalverse anthology. But I've always wanted a place to hold short stories in this world, since I've had plenty of little ideas that wouldn't make it as novellas or novels of their own.

Now that I have this thing, I'll probably add new chapters here and there. Even so, it has no regular update schedule, and will grow whenever I have something fun to toss in here.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha

For centuries, the galaxy has burned in an eternal war. Wielding their magical might, the Enti sweep across space, slaughtering and enslaving all they encounter. A loose alliance of the remaining intelligence races, without magic of their own, can barely even slow them down.

Scouting on a remote edge of the galactic rim, humanity discovers a trump card: Equus. This planet overflows with magic, and has a culture inherently friendly and receptive to diplomacy. First contact was made, and soon all of Equus took a giant leap into the space age. Despite their incredible magic, Equestria is a minor power, with very little to offer the war. Instead of giving ships, Equus volunteer their diplomatic aptitude. They can't save the galaxy by force of arms, but maybe they can find the free people of the galaxy some powerful new friends.

Princess Twilight nominates six of her most loyal and trustworthy students to perform this incredible task. Armed with powerful artifacts of protection, they set out to meet with the only powerful neutral party in the war, and win them over to the Stellar Compact.

If they fail, all nonmagical life in the galaxy may be doomed to conquest and death. No pressure, Ocellus.

Cover by Zutcha. Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail
Commissioned by Vilken666 on my Patreon

Lucid Storm imagines a world beyond death, where no pony will ever need to truly say goodbye to the ones they love. When all the magic and medicine of Equestria failed one young Sweetie Belle, he proposed a radical new technique--total brain recording, taken minutes before her death.

Years have passed since that day, years spent scrounging the funding for a body and experimenting with many failed machine intelligence models before tinkerer ponies all around equestria finally came together in the perfect synthesis.

After all this time, Sweetie Belle will finally have her second chance.

Written for Lucid on my Patreon. Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, who also sponsored it. Cover by Magfen.

Arcane Word has an unusual profession among Equestrian ponies: a necromancer. After a lifetime of creating characters and telling stories, she's in the perfect position to provide relief to first-generation ponies with holes in their family. For every pony unwilling to ask for Celestia's help to fill in the gaps, she is the perfect pony—she even lives in the abandoned city of Wintercrest, surrounded by appropriately spooky decor. The authenticity of her results were always secondary to the satisfaction they produced.

At least until a particularly troublesome client arrived, flush with resources from Equestria Online's distant borders and megastructure expansion. What would it take for Equestria to bring a pony back from the dead? What about everypony who had ever lived?

Arcane Word could never turn down such a tempting job. The impossibility of the task was only ever a minor setback.

Updates Daily

This story was written for the print anthology of Friendship is Optimal stories I'm currently publishing. Every time I make a print book, I like to include something that has never been published before, this is it. If you'd like to get a copy of the book for yourself, you can order it here: https://igg.me/at/recursive-iterations

Thanks to Bitera and Sparktail for editing. Zutcha did the cover.