This story is a sequel to The Symphony of Dawn

Princess Platinum is in mourning after the death of Clover, her faithful companion. Yet, she is unwilling to know just how deep their bond really was. Instead, the noble-born unicorn mare is willing to take it to her grave... and with it, all the less-than-noble things she did to defend that secret.

A stand-alone sequel. Edited by TCC56. Inspired by the original Imposing Sovereigns contest. Had this been official, 'Madwoman Platinum' would have been my prompt. Contribute to the TVTropes page!

Years after a shared tragedy that changed their lives forever, Applejack is thrust into a fight for survival when Twilight convinces her to go on one last, mysterious mission. All she would say was that somepony on Great Boar island needed their help. But they never made it. A strange and magical event destroyed their train and separated the old friends. Alone in a freezing and hostile world, Applejack searches for Twilight and tries to make sense of this new, quiet apocalypse.

Five years ago I made an animation that inspired this story and serves as a sort of introduction. Find it HERE.

[Rationalfic Deconstruction / Subversion of Displaced]
You’ve read the stories of people from Earth being “Displaced”: Their bodies are changed, their minds are warped, and they’re thrown across the multiverse, to whatever world and timeline their supernal "Displacers" decide upon.  Well, this story isn’t one of them...

...because when they tried to remake me, I didn’t let them.

A Rationalist Horror story, in which an Occultist from some version of Earth (implied to be the World of Darkness) undermines her own Displacement and ends up as a Self-Modifying Construct. Scientific Inquiry, Philosophical Debate, Rational Discussion, Body Horror, and Existential Hijinks ensue. Themes, Concepts, and Style inspired by HP Lovecraft, Elizer Yudkowsky, Gordon R Dickson, Edgar Allen Poe, Modern Prometheus (Frankenstein), Dresden Codak, World of Darkness, and Friendship is Optimal.
^{Front page on JUL 28th, AUG 12th, OCT 30, and every update after that.}

Your story breaks the shitty norm that most displaced stories have in common by being an 'actually interesting story' instead of a powertrip for a horny teen.

This is like brain porn. My head hurts but in a good way.

Author’s Notes

I often find Displaced fics to be more often Miss than Hit with me. Often, they're generic, poorly written, or just do not do anything worth reading with the concept.  This is an experiment to trt out a few other concepts which aren’t used often, even by me, including some which directly subvert Displaced as a genre, and maybe even come up with some advice for those authors. This is also a crossover with the upcoming Dragon: The Oroboroi Chronicles, a World of Darkness rulebook which I lead the development team for.

I hope you all enjoy this, and I implore you to leave some feedback in the comments section: I'll experimenting with a few uncommon concepts here, and I'd like to know how people feel about how they're coming across. :3

FAQ

Because people keep bringing these things up...

Horror/Dark Tags

I've had multiple people ask "how bad does it get?" Note the lack of the "gore", "sad", or "mature" tags or anything like that. Yes, there is blood and death at some point in this story, but the real horror of this story comes from the philosophical and scientific quandaries the characters go through: this is "intellectual horror", not "visceral horror".

Length

In the interest of this NOT becoming one of those long, sprawling fics, I plan to keep this limited to a manageable 10 chapter limit, not counting Prologue and Epilogue. No one wants to read something that long, and I'd rather not be stressing over this 6 months from now.

Sequel

The Sequel is already in the works, with scenes already written. It will be a more episodic story revolving around world optimization and interplanar hijinks.

Crossovers

To be clear, I do plan on having the main character make one of those "Token" things, but as they often get in the way of actual stories, that won't happen until the end of the story. The Sequel will be crossover-heavy.

This story is a sequel to Blink Again

The truth of teleportation has been discovered; the full knowledge of its horrors known by a select few while the rest are given vague warnings of mortal peril. All use of teleportation is banned, all texts on it under lock and key, and all research into the subject placed strictly under government oversight.

As for those rescued from the pocket dimension, they must determine what comes next. Other versions of them already exist, filling their roles. Perhaps a new direction is in order. After all, the truth behind what created the spell remains a mystery. For now.

_{Part of the Blinkverse, by ocalhoun and many others. A timeline was created by Cocoa Bittersweet to keep track of these stories.}

This story is a sequel to Agate's Vigil

Times change.

It's a slow process, usually. Over the eons, civilizations rise and fall, cultures change, new technologies get invented and become lost. For the individual person, such events happen too slowly to even notice.

However, sometimes, change is sudden and cataclysmic. A catastrophe forces people to take drastic actions, upending their known world completely. One such event happens to the three pony tribes in the form of the Long Winter, forcing them to flee their ancestral lands.

The vast majority of them flee southwards, with the exception of one earth pony clan. Past the steep northern mountains, the refugees are doing their best to adapt to their new surroundings and rebuild their homes. These are their stories.

A prequel to how the snowponies came to be. Each chapter is a separate story.

Sombra's takeover took everyone in the Crystal Empire by surprise. No one saw it coming, none were prepared for it, and almost no one got away. Almost.

A few hooffuls of daring souls managed to break out of the city and flee southwards, towards Equestria. Some ran to beg the Princesses for aid, others - just to save themselves and their families from the mad tyrant.

But as the refugees are about to learn, it's the dead of winter outside the Empire's shield, and the crystal ponies are far too used to their warm life in the city. One filly that gets separated from her parents while trying to get away learns that fact all too painfully...

Cover art by Marbo, Allfather of the Snowponies.

Additional tag:snowpony

The Fire of Friendship has all but faded. One thousand years ago, Equestria fractured... those who disagreed with Celestia's rule left under the leadership of Princess Luna to found their own nation, their own way of life. Seventy years later, Celestia and Luna both disappeared during the first war, leaving the battered nations leaderless in their absence.

Over the last nine hundred years wars have frequently waged between Equestria and Lunaria, each seeking to unite ponykind under their own ideals. Equestria's mastery of magic often gave it the edge in battle, but never enough for a decisive victory. Peace reigns for now, but recent developments in Lunaria signal a shift in the balance between the two divided nations...

It has been nearly a thousand years since Twilight Sparkle died. Celestia and Luna are gone. The Holy Equestrian Diarchy, ruled by a bigoted and brutal theocracy, has driven ponies apart and divided them along tribal lines. Unicorns are driven from society, feared and hated.

The lessons of friendship, painstakingly written down in the journal of friendship by Princess Twilight and her friends, have been warped and twisted to fit the Diarchy's hateful ideology. But to the average pony, this is the truth and reality of the world they live in, beset on all sides by enemies monstrous and magical.

Emberglow, a young pegasus mare, aspires to join the elite Knights, magically enhanced warriors dedicated to the holy Saints worshiped by the state religion. Can she uncover the lies and deceptions that have led the world to this bitter place?

Thanks to QueenChrysalisForever for prereading Chapters 1-24. Prereader for chapters 29-31 is MrRTS.
Prereading for chapter 34-? by Horsetorian
Additional pre-readers: bananachips/CommissarVulpin, Thought Prism, Chyre
Special thanks to my amazing editor, Cyonix
Cover Art by JodTheCod

Note on timing: I began writing this long before Season 9 aired, so none of those events happened as far as the narrative of this story is concerned.

Come join us on the Rekindled Embers Discord!

Edit: Featured 8/7/20! Yay and Thanks!

Within our little corner of the multiverse are several agencies all funded by the Crown along with other 'backers' whose names you won't find in any public files—organizations that exist to handle certain tasks at the behest of Her Royal Highness. Many of these agencies work behind the scenes, out of the public eye. They strive to keep not just our country, but the world itself safe from the more dire threats that plague it.

There is an infinite number of universes that exist, some of which have been explored and countless others that we know are out there but have yet to see with our own eyes. There are those that are trained to take such risks. venturing into the unknown and unknowable for the sake of our continued prosperity. And then there those that deal with the nastier things that slip through from time to time. There are ponies and other creatures that specialize in dealing with those things—more often than not eldritch abominations so obscenely hideous and mindbendingly horrifying that the mere sight of one can drive you insane or kill you outright from the fear alone.

While there is some general overlap, I am not officially part of either of those groups. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am a newly minted agent of P.O.U.T. or the Procurement of Outlandish and Unearthly Treasures. My role is just what it says on the tin. I find and seize mysterious and often deadly artifacts that have been classified as 'not of this world', preferably before they end up in the hooves, claws, or paws of innocent and hapless civilians who have no idea what they're dealing with.

The failed invasion of that mad queen, Chrysalis, rocked the changeling community. From the hives nestled outside Equestria, to their kin living in peace within, they watch those colorful ponies eye one another with suspicion and let themselves be swallowed by fear and distrust.

A gamble by Princess Celestia has summoned forth the diplomat to the Seekers, the one changeling who may be able to ease tensions between their races and restore balance. The Bearer of Magic has been summoned after a century of peace.

And, like her mother before her, Princess Twilight Sparkle will answer the call.

Preread by Alto, Cynewulf, and Timaeus.
Cover art by FoughtDragon01, used with permission.