The greatest displays of strength are not always the most overt. Fluttershy is not whom one would consider to be a strong pony. But when Rarity digs a little deeper, she discovers in her friend a strength that carries the weight of hundreds.

Inspired by Estee's Five Hundred Little Murders.

A hidden museum rests in the Canterlot palace, by law open to the public, by practice closed to visitors. Within its walls lie treasures of opal and gemstones, salt and wood. Shelves filled with untouched scrolls line the walls.

It is here that Luna pays her respects to Equestria's fallen heroes. Why, then, is it against her sister's wishes?

An engineer loses his family, and finds himself as a colt in Canterlot, beside Discord's statue. When he realizes he knows the means to defeat Discord, he must do little to disrupt those events. But the rise of the New Lunar Republic demands his action. And the knowledge he can share to help everypony, demands he do something to help. He must do what he can to help his new friends, yet must carefully avoid changing things too much to let the actions to defeat Discord still work.
The Princesses and the buearcracy also realize his usefulness in forwarding their own schemes.

A look into the politics and psychology of the capital, and its people. And theory on the rise of the New Lunar Republic. Celestia faces Luna, and the NLR leadership , alone.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
- Mahatma Gandhi

A young minotaur on the brink of adulthood goes to learn about his clan’s proud history from his wise grandfather. Of the duty and legacy he now must uphold.

He is told of the beginnings of his species proud nation. Of the great deeds of their forefather, and how, through his indomitable will, he reshaped the world itself despite all odds and hardships.

That, in the end, there is no greater strength than an unbreakable will.

This is a Canon-compliant Omake to my story The Power of Freedom, meaning that what happens here happened ‘off-screen’ in the main story.

Reading the main story isn’t necessary to appreciate and understand this, but it would make it far more enjoyable in my opinion.

Beta Reader: The Amazing Emtu!
Featured! 09/27/2020; 09/28/2020

Cutie Marks are an everyday, but extremely important aspect of pony life. They showed a pony’s greatest skills and talents, interests and aspirations, some would go so far as to say that they allowed a glimpse at a pony’s very soul itself.

If you could interpret the darned things, that is. Something that, more often than not, was easier said than done, especially when one considers the myriad of ways even the simplest of symbols can be interpreted and analyzed, and the many, many meanings even the most basic of marks could have.

As such, upon making three strange new friends with very similar and unique-looking Cutie Marks, young Singing Blossom couldn’t help but wonder: What did their Cutie Marks mean?

This is a Canon-Compliant Omake for my story The Power of Freedom, meaning that basically what happens here happened off-screen in the main story.

In this, we see Singing finally getting her answer to the question she first tried to ask Ganondorf during chapter V, about what his Cutie Mark means.

Timeline wise this tale took place around chapters XI to XII of the main story.

Beta Reader: The Amazing Emtu!

Featured! 05/28/2021;05/29/2021; 05/30/2021

Dinky leads a double life. In the real world she is an average pony in her final year of school, slightly timid, bored with everything around her. In the Dream-Web she is a hacker who wants to make a name for herself.

One evening she stumbles on something that has both her lives merge in one, as she seeks to find whether the Web really is run by deities, or is this just a trick by the Starswirl Conglomerate.

Marked AU because of season 5 episode 18 - Crusaders of the Lost Mark.

Written for the F*** this prompt 6 competition

Special thanks to Malefactory and Elric of Melnipony for advice, editing and proofreading.

Desert Mirage lives in a world full of guns, lasers, explosives and people competing to be the best of the best. There she excels at what she does: hunting. She started as a nobody, and yet became one of the most sought-after gunslingers.

Sunset Shimmer was practically born the best of the best. Selected by none other than Princess Celestia to be her prized student... until she ran away to another world in search of power. Through trials and suffering she was eventually taught humility and friendship.

At first blush, they don't have much in common. But their connection runs deep, and sooner or later it will change their worlds forever.

The newest and hottest game on the market is Sword Art Online, or SAO. A VRMMORPG, Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, Sword Art Online takes the player into a virtual reality world of swords and shields. Only 10,000 copies were sold online or in stores. But quickly, things go wrong and the fight goes from fun, to survival.

To escape the game of death, the game must be cleared. All 100 floors of the floating iron castle, known as Aincrad, must be conquered. If you die in game, you die in real life. The NerveGear will fry your brain. The same goes if the NerveGear is removed while you are in the game, you die.

Sword Art Online is a game of swords and shields with no magic. The game isn't designed to handle their Equestrian Magic. Sunset Shimmer must make sure that her friends and guildmates escape the game, or at least survive long enough until the game is defeated.

This story is a Serial Novel Society story: Updates will be at least on a weekly, Tuesday, basis.

*Pre-knowledge of Sword Art Online is not required. The Pilot Episode covers all you need to know.
**First Featured Tuesday, November 12, 2019. Also on 12/3/19, 12/10/19, 01/14/20, 2/11/20, 2/18/20, 2/25/20, 3/3/20, 3/10/20, 3/17/20, 3/24/20, 3/31/20, 4/14/20, 4/21/20, 4/28/20, 5/5/20, 5/19/20, 5/26/20, 6/2/20, 6/9/20, 6/23/2020, 6/30/2020, 7/28/20, 8/4/20, 8/18/20, 8/25/20, 8/27/20, 9/1/20, 9/8/20, 9/15/20, 9/22/20, 9/29/20, 10/20/20, 10/27/20, 11/3/2020, 11/10/20, 11/17/20, 12/1/20, 12/8/20, 12/15/20, 12/22/20, 12/29/20, 1/5/21, 1/19/21, 2/2/21, ICE, 2/23/21, 3/2/21, 3/9/21, 3/16/21, 3/23/21, & 3/30/21.

Want to know what is happening outside the SAO in the real world? There is a story for them! Link to the Asides.

A big thank you to my editor, Void Runner.
A special thanks to SuperSonicHeroes and Wildfiretiremile. Each helped a lot with Beta Reading!
Also, a special Thanks to Badwolf231. He helped me as this project got started.

- Sword Art Online is owned and created by Reki Kawahara.
* Cover Art created with art elements from Orin331, Frye-Medi, and flutterdashrarijack.

Legendary swords, items of power and magic, great artifacts that can topple countries and raise kingdoms when wielded by those worthy of their supernatural might. They are the greatest of arms, wielded by heroes and villains alike as they battle fate itself.

As such, as the wisest of sages can easily attest, there are very good reasons why any sane being would do well in keeping such dangerous artifacts well contained and safely hidden away from prying eyes and unworthy hands until such times when their mighty powers may be needed once again.

So the fact that both Link and Ganondorf lost their legendary blades as they traveled through the void towards ancient Equestria may be something of a problem…

This is just a fun little, non-canon, Omake to my story The Power of Freedom, depicting one of the many possibilities that could’ve come to pass due to Link and Ganondorf losing their swords mid-travel as they reached ancient Equestria.

Reading the main story isn’t necessary to appreciate this, but it would make it far more enjoyable.

Proofreader: The relentless TranquilClaws!

Twilight Sparkle was used to a lot of strange things. So when she pursued the strange unicorn who had stolen her crown through a portal, she thought she could handle whatever came her way. Unfortunately for her, she finds herself involved in a war far greater then she could have imagined. Thankfully, she's got a cute boy to help her survive. Fifth war/EQG 1 mixup.

Cover art: by Alex-kellar