Celestia is lost. She needs to get home.

This story was written for the 2023 FimFic Science Fiction Contest. It placed somewhere.

The night after defeating Lord Tirek, Twilight Sparkle speaks with the dead.

Written for the Arboreal Yearnings contest.

Featured on March 6th, 2023!

Reading by Mystery Fluttershy Fan!
Reading by Lotus Moon!

Everyone is dead. She doesn't know who is responsible, just that somepony activated the ultimate weapon. Only four ponies survived and now try to find meaning in the great wasteland. Celestia will just be happy if she can find a way to heal Twilight.

Cloudy Quartz discovers a giant, beating heart of stone underground. Equestria is alive, and it knows she's there.

A cutesy story about marriage.

An entry to FanOfMostEverything's Ancestral Tribute Contest.

Edited by Mousse and Antsan. Cover art by me! Heh heh heh.

Being an alicorn is wonderful... except when it isn't. There are plenty of things that put a damper on limitless vistas of possibility afforded by such a long life: Court, mortal needs and expectations, the occasional decade of ennui.

And the dreams, of course. Agelessness comes with its own special kind of dreaming. Celestia finds that her own "Inner Court" is a bit too literal, and it--and she--are troubled at the prospect of a near-immortal Twilight Sparkle.

If only she could articulate exactly why that was.

art by spectralunicorn

Part of the Monophysite Quartet, which also includes Celestia Isn't Real, Have You Considered My Servant, Twilight?, and The Esoteric Rites of Darkness. All four stories have a common origin point in an old story idea I called "Monophysite" and touch on who or what Celestia really is in some way. They are otherwise unrelated.

Rarity is good at making dresses. In fact, she's the best. But even she didn't know that her latest dress would be more than the fashion sensation of the season.

Now she was going to have to add wing-holes to all her outfits, and everypony seems worried about her latest creation.

Each night I’m trapped in the dark, immobilized. I hear whispers as they operate on me: they say I shouldn’t be alive. Twilight refuses to tell me about the operation. Sometimes she can’t look me in the eye. What did they do to me?

Nothing used to scare me: I kicked a dragon in the nose, defeated gods of chaos and hatred, and control the weather. Now I feel broken. My memories have shattered, I feel wrong, and I’m afraid to tell anypony how scared I am.

I can’t even do the rainboom anymore. Who am I? I’m no longer the best flyer in Equestria, yet everypony assures me I am. Why won’t they tell me the truth?
↓↓ Credits

Special Thanks:
Dreampaw the artist. Best cover art.
Editors:
ArgonMatrix - Fixed 128 errors in chapter one alone.
Animus - who is awesome and for hire.
BronyWriter - The only author to punch Celestia in the face, and live.
Jaestring - Artist, Editor, and Female all in one.
Abcron - European editor, which means his time zone and my actual sleep schedule are aligned perfectly!
The Parasprite. Need I say more?
Selbi - If your editor isn't German, you aren't trying hard enough.
OctaviaHarmony - His avatar is as sexy as his editing.
RenegadeTimelord - Doctor who?
Akumokagetsu - Awesomesauce.
(Wow, a lot of editors came and went.)

Twilight has a beard. It's, like, a really big deal for some reason.

Written for June's Pride and Positivity campaign.

Check out these fantastic charity materialists, and consider donating some yourself or participating in the campaign yourself:
Black Lives Matter - Where to Donate
Support Black People MasterDoc

A sleeping Rarity mysteriously appears in her friends' beds, and nopony knows how or why. Her friends are determined to discover the truth behind Rarity's night-time snuggling spree.

Twilight has given you a new book to read. Well, she didn't exactly give it to you, you actually just found it in the back of the library. Behind a shelf. On the ground. It looks very old, downright ancient, and it smells like moss and rot. The binding is a little cracked, and there's no title on it. You can't help but wonder what might be inside, and the only way to find out is to keep reading.

Just turn the page.

You can do that much, can't you?

Please?

WARNING: This story contains brief depictions of blood, mild violence, and death, and has ARG aspects to it. It plays with formatting, and includes images. Some "pages" are long, some are only a few words. It is written in first person, to you, the reader, and is a slow mellow horror. You've been warned.

This story relies on unusual formatting for some parts, and thus may not be as enjoyable on a tablet or phone, or if you have specialized custom Fimfic settings.

If you post spoilers, hints, or answers in the comments, please be sure to spoiler them out or warn others. You don't want to ruin the fun, right?

Audio reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TqbHFchLg