Queen Chrysalis has given Princess Celestia and Princess Luna an unwelcome gift for Hearth’s Warming. Thankfully, they can regift it to somepony. Who can regift it to somepony. Who can…

Changeling in a Santa Hat by Pein078 at Derpibooru

Twilight Sparkle was only a filly when Equestria detected the enigmatic Signal. A series of increasingly complex mathematical proofs, the Signal transformed from an intriguing curiosity to reliable evidence of extraequestrian life.

And as it happened, Equestria's exploration of their own solar system was nearly complete. With colonies orbiting every planet and large body, and an asteroid belt filled with miners and prospectors, Twilight's civilization was just about ready to turn its focus outward. The signal was less than ten light-years away, within reach of a daring, experimental voyage. A voyage Twilight Sparkle would lead.

Along with a small crew of the most skilled scientists and engineers Equestria could offer, Twilight is determined to uncover the mystery of the Signal, and brave the final frontier for future generations of Equestrian explorers.

A comment-driven, CYoA story. Please use the links provided in the author's notes of each chapter to vote, rather than the comments.

This story is a creative experiment of mine, one meant to explore the general idea that creativity is often most fostered by restrictions. As a result, I've imposed a number of restrictions on the writing of this story, which I'm stating explicitly here so I can be called out if I break any of them.

1. Brevity is the soul of wit
No chapter may be more than 1000 words long. This wordcount only includes prose, and not the questions/rolls.

2. Every choice matters
When a choice is offered in a chapter, at least one sub-optimal choice must be present, with no indication about which is which other than the prose itself. Every chapter should end with a CYoA-style decision tree when possible.

3. Fate is cruel and the universe is heartless
The decision of the vote must be respected. This means any character could be killed, or the entire story could end in failure, if that's what the votes decide. Where numbers, stats, and randomization appear in the text, these elements are not verisimilitude, but are decided by public diecrolls in my discord server.

Note: Because of the unusual production of this story, its chapters won't be edited in the same way as my usual fare. Feel free to point out any mistakes you encounter.

Awesome cover by Zutcha as you can probably tell. Editing stuff by Two Bit and Sparktail, where applicable.

After a mirror portal field trip being conducted by Luna goes terribly wrong, Ocellus finds herself trapped in a strange palace far from home. That palace, once abandoned, is now infested with a hive of love-starved changelings intent on using her only way home as a means to invade her world.

Otherwise, Ocellus appears to be alone.

At first.

The story is inspired by, and a homage to, my favorite game of the last decade. However, this story is neither a crossover nor AU. This story is set after "The End of the End" (but before "The Last Problem"), and is purely a My Little Pony story. Warning: rudeness and intolerance are not allowed in the comments, but spoilers are. Exercise discretion. Remain polite and on-topic. And please enjoy the story!

After dying in a train crash, Twilight finds herself offered a deal by the Reaper: a game of chess for her soul. Twilight accepts, but there's something off about the game. Something she can't put her hoof on.

But the answer to that question is just perfect for who she is.

Cover art is from the Poets of the Fall album Clearview.

Most work undertaken by princesses is fairly tedious, and a good chunk of it is paperwork and letters.

Celestia is interrupted while dealing with some of this.

-

The Straight To The Point Studio version.
My version.

Hallo! Sorry I'm late. But then, it seems... so are you, Rainbow Dash.

And so the late Rainbow Dash comes face to face with Death himself! And he's... surprisingly cordial, actually.

But when Rainbow ends up in his debt, there's only one way to get back to the life she knew: take up the role of the Grim Reaper herself while Death takes a little holiday. Will Dashie be able to stay quick among the dead? Will she be the most awesome reaper ever... or will Death have to cut his vacation - and Rainbow's life - tragically short?

(Apologies and honors to the late Sir Terry Pratchett.)
Editors: Reese, GenerousGhibli, E3gner
Illustrations: Greenfinger

This story is a sequel to Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead

“Look, I know Mom and Aunt Luna said I shouldn’t work ‘the business’ without them. And I know they’re right – college will be hard enough without battling the hungry dead. But people out there need a bad-ass monster hunter to save them, and that’s what I’ll be.”

“Just don’t tell Mom. You know how she gets.”

(Slice-of-life adventures of Canterlot College's rookie band of monster hunters.)

Now with a Tropes page, courtesy of AnoneMouseJr.

And check out this fan art!

After Big Macintosh helps the Mane Six out of a jam, he finds his ordinary life of
peaceful routine thoroughly disrupted by the various misadventures those crazy
ponies always seem to get themselves into.

Artwork provided by the talented Zemious

Clover the Clever never asked for his life to get so complicated.  It was bad enough tricking a drunk Imperatrix Celestia, war goddess of the Three Tribes, out of her accidental coup against Queen Platinum.  But now the most dangerous pony in Equestria has returned to trade her claim on the sun for a chance to woo him.

On top of that, his erstwhile mentor Star Swirl the Bearded has saddled him with a mysterious magical necklace and a uniquely bleak and pointless prophecy: If he's brave enough, and if he's clever enough, he just might survive Celestia for long enough to break her heart.

Now with an audio reading by ScarlettBlade!

Recommended by PresentPerfect! "horizon gave me the story I needed rather than the one I wanted ... along the way we get some very strong lessons about love, and meditations on the value of a lifetime and what one pony can achieve on their own."

Featured on Equestria Daily!

First place, "Out of Time" Writeoff! (11/2015) At long last, expanded to novella size! The world-spanning, centuries-spanning romance as it was always meant to be told!

PRAISE FOR THE WRITEOFF VERSION:
"One of my favorite depictions of Celestia in a long time." –billymorph
"To the top of the ballot with it." –AugieDog
"There’s going to be a lot of tears shed when this one hits publish." –Georg
"You need to read Time Enough For Love. I literally swore out loud when my computer crashed when I was halfway through, and then I immediately whipped out my smartphone to finish it. And now I'm reading it again in a desperate attempt to figure out how it does its job so damn well." –Bachiavellian
"I can get behind some historical revisionism for such a brilliant story. The writing is second-to-none … I laughed, I cried, and I felt other things too." –Trick Question

Cover art by Nadnerb.

They say that Equestria was a paradise. I don’t know if that’s true, but I wanna believe it. There sure ain’t one in this piece of the ‘Verse. Maybe we coulda built one if it weren’t for the damned Confederation. Those bastards wanted every planet in the system under their hoof and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The outer planets fought ’em, and we lost.

It’s tough to get by these days with Confederation lawkeepers looking for an excuse to crack down, bandits and thieves crawling everywhere the Confederation’s not, and the Jesters prowling around the edges of civilized space. Honest work’s hard to come by, and honest folk are twice as rare. Still, a mare has to make a livin’ somehow. So that’s what I do.

Find a crew. Find a job. Keep flying.
– Rainbow Dash, Captain of Tranquility