The sequel to this story: Sweetie Belle and the Quest for Knowledge is now available!

When Sweetie Belle finds a mysterious artifact of a now lost civilization, how will she come to terms with the wealth of knowledge it provides? It says it can be ignored, it says it will never try to influence her, but can an artifact of such power really be so harmless?

Book I of III

Prologue and Chapter 1: Thanks to TheOtherSideOfFluttershy for pre-reading and editing.
The whole story: Thanks to RaylanKrios for editing.
Chapter 4: Thanks to AuthorGenesis for editing.
Epilogue:
Thanks to Malefactory for editing.

Uh, hi. Yeah, Magic's my special talent; got the cutie mark and everything.

My parents think I'm a prodigy or something. Don't get me wrong; They've kinda got the right idea. I mean, I can see magic, and it's freaking everywhere. I've just had a little trouble figuring out how to do anything with it.

Teachers can't seem to teach me anything (I don't think they ever really tried), so I've just kinda... decided to try and figure it out on my own.

Um... There's something I've left out. Why I'm having a hard time figuring this stuff out, why no magic teacher could ever get anything through to me...

You see... I'm an Earth Pony.

My name is Strange Design, and I have no idea what I'm doing.

For the past ten centuries, Princess Celestia ruled alone with a gentle touch, waiting for her sister to return from exile. Twilight Sparkle reunited her with Luna and banished Nightmare Moon away.

For the past ten centuries, Queen Solar Flare ruled alone with an iron hoof, accepting that she would never again see her sister after Nightmare's mysterious disappearance. Until one fateful day when she too was reunited with her sister, thought long dead.

But years later, when Luna discovers a tether of Nightmare Moon's magic in her mind, the veil is breached once more. What strange interactions will occur when the symmetry between these two worlds is broken?

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For antiquity, featured 10/29/14, 11/22/14, 12/18/14

"Learning to trust your instincts is a valuable lesson to learn."

Mere months after the events of "A Canterlot Wedding," the memories of cold shoulders and dismissals remain fresh in Twilight Sparkle's mind, which causes her to question her ability to face the next task that Princess Celestia bestows upon her.

Alone, she must find a way to protect an entire empire. She's afraid and unprepared, but when a mysterious stallion lends a hoof to her success, she soon discovers a friendship that threatens to blossom into something much greater.

(6/9/2016): Made it to the "Featured" page again! You're so awesome, guys!

(( "Of Magic and Masquerades" is the first story in the Crucibles of Harmony series. It is an alternate take on "The Crystal Empire," with some alternate events from Season 3 and minor Twilight/Sombra shipping. ))

A three arced story that begins slowly as partially Comedy and Slice of life and rotates more towards Adventure and Dark in later chapters.

Some school fillies have to deal with school crushes. Others with bullies. Sometimes they have to deal with both. But no filly has ever had to deal with an Evil Tyrant being bound to their shadow and have the power to control their every action. This, of course, seems to be no big deal for Sweetie Belle who seems to even enjoy the stallion's company. Though the feelings aren't mutual. The small filly reminds the old king too much of a filly he used to know... Though it's strange the only place he'd seen her before are in these strange dreams of his. Recollections of a past he can't remember.

Perhaps Sweetie Belle will awake in him that version of himself before he was a Tyrant. Before he was labeled evil. A time from when he was a father. Perhaps she will help him forgive.

First featured on 9/4/2014!

The cover art was sketched by me and colored by the very talented Midnight Sonare

I've had my fair share of critics in my line of work. It's understandable—someone with the power to invoke fear in those he touches? Yeah, that's someone I want to watch over me and my children.

But that's what I am now; a Metahuman Agent, using this and the other 'perks' of my unique condition to help my team in taking down the baddie of the day. Of course, it was while taking down the baddie of the day that I fell victim to his malfunctioning machine; a Rift that tossed me, randomly, to a head-scratchingly insane world of magical, talking ponies...

All I can do now is wait, pray I can get home, and try to show them I'm not the monster I appear to be.

(Dread's homeworld is based somewhat on the Little Victory comics by jollyjack; an Earth where metahumans are enlisted and trained by the government to defend the populace from threats, big and small.)

Life was normal for Eric O'Mally. Go to school, come home, do homework, play games, hang out with friends.
Right up until the day when he just...wasn't in his home reality anymore.
He's been drifting for far longer than anyone should, especially anyone his age, and almost every time, it ended poorly for him. Especially when magic was involved. Almost every time when magic was involved, in fact. And let's not mention deities around him.
So what happens when this boy gets dropped into Canterlot after his latest drifting, in the home Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch, a.k.a DJ-PON3, keep there, while they're there?
And what happens when the local goddesses take it to greet him like they've greeted all their other human visitors?
If you think hilarity ensues, you've clearly not met the boy.
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Done in the style of the Memverse, which has a concept I greatly enjoy at its core. Here's my take on it, let's see if they like it, eh?

A few days after the Nightmare Moon Incident, Spike awakens to find Twilight acting a little...odd. Or odder than usual anyway. All of a sudden she's being all motherly, sure of herself in ways she's never been before, and even more outgoing.

But…it’s kind of creepy how she just seems to know everypony’s name, or their habits, and even some stuff nopony else should know.

But she's still good old Twilight...right?

Featured 5/28/2014

Blacklight had the truth. He knew what he was. He knew Alex was dead, and that he was never human. He knew that Dana was never his sister, and that he was never even slightly related to her. He knew that there was nothing tying him to Dana, no real memories or biological similarities or even species based empathy. For some reason, Blacklight loves Dana like a sister he doesn’t have.

Perhaps this is what keeps him tame when he is brought into a place he does not belong. A scenario where a being of chaos and war brought to a place of harmony and peace is not often a pretty one. Yet with Dana there, somehow he manages not to go berserk and start murdering everything in sight.

Now the Monster of Manhattan contemplates his place in the world, lies to his sister and the ponies, and questions his lack of empathy when he begins to feel remorse for his actions. He is beginning to miss the simple times where the only things he had to deeply contemplate were methods of horrifically mutilating armies with the maximum amount of efficiency. At least that was straightforward.

(This fic operates under the assumption that Prototype 2 and its tie-in comics never existed. If you really have to ask yourself why, play the first game, then play the second game. The reasons should become apparent.)

(Well I'll be damned. Front page on the first day. Thank you all for your support!)

(Well, enough of you seem to think this is funny enough to be a dark comedy, so I added a comedy tag. I have to warn you though, I'm not entirely certain as to how consistent the comedy will be. So don't come into this expecting the wacky misadventures of a murderous psychopath.)

Princess Celestia never knew what it was like to be feared. Sure, she knew of the anxiety of those meeting her for the first time, but that was a given. That wasn’t true fear. She knew of the fear of defeat shown by past villains she had brought down, but it was never true fear of her or her actions.

This colt, though? This earth pony who just appeared in her castle? He fears her. He fears her above all else, even death itself. Not even Nightmare Moon was feared this way. So why, oh why was this little colt so terrified of her? What had she done? How can she ever hope to alleviate her little pony of his pain, if her very presence causes him to lock up in terror?

Just where did this colt come from?

(So imagine a character from a grimdark story (ideally the victim) ending up in canon Equestria, and you pretty much have the premise behind this story. Do be warned though; this is much darker than my other stories, mostly because of the setting the aforementioned character came from. Seriously, when I thought of a victim of a grimdark story, I really wanted his old home to be as grim and dark as I could make it.)