An homage to stories like The Substitute Demon, ALL GLORY TO THE OVERGOAT!!!, and 1000 Virgin Mares, 1 Frickin' Badass Dark Overdude, Infinite Facehoofing

One thousand years ago, the Princesses Celestia and Luna were blindsided by the return of the Masters of Equus. The cult of power-mad alicorns, thought to have been banished from Equestria forever, appeared in the middle of the Princesses' battle for supremacy, and caged them away. The rest of Equestria quickly fell to their might. Even the fearsome Discord was forced to his knees before them. All of Equestria was enslaved, and an era of misery began.

Now, one thousand years later, a lone unicorn mare has learned of a creature that might be able to overthrow the Masters. A creature immune to magic, overwhelming in size and strength, sealed away for centuries uncounted. A creature of ultimate evil: the Smooze.

Unfortunately for Starlight Glimmer, in trying to ensure the creature's obedience, she modified the summoning ritual a bit too far.

Because of her meddling, the soul of a recently-deceased human is pulled from Limbo, and given life, but not exactly a body. Now he has to help her save the world, or face obliteration.

Not much of a choice, is it?

Inspired by Pen Mightier and Bucking Nonsense, the legends who – to my knowledge – popularized the "human in villain's body becomes Equestria's savior" genre. May your inkwells never run dry.

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.

Elias Bright is a survivor. He has survived the end of the world. He has survived the deaths of his family. He has survived the death of all that he has built. On the run from a past that haunts him to his core, he finds himself in Equestria, a land of tranquility and peace. Elias now has a choice. Does he give up the only life he has known, that of a survivor, and settle with the ponies of Equestria, or will his past deeds come to drag him back into the dark past he has tried to bury?

The scope of the multiverse is so tremendously beyond the comprehension of most beings that, if they were to truly know what it meant, they would break down and be unable to live their lives the way they wished. Most worlds are lucky to be blissfully unaware of the true picture of reality, never to encounter the higher forces and civilizations.

However, when one of those higher forces make contact with one of those unaware worlds - intentionally or not, peacefully or not - everything will change drastically. Sometimes the change is slow, sometimes rapid. Regardless of the pacing, like all change, it is both good and bad. Civilizations have risen from simple worlds overnight and have crumbled just as quickly. Many can't handle the revelation, and those that can are not always the best examples of honor and dignity.

It is often said that each world - each universe - has a Song, and that all these Songs are related, intertwining together in a mesh of powerful destiny among the Spheres of the multiverse.

This is the story of how a certain world inhabited by Technicolor ponies found their Song and how it interwove itself in the Songs of so many others.

This is a story of finding meaning in infinite possibility.

This is a mega-crossover project of immense proportions covering dozens of fandoms. However, it is written in such a way that no previous knowledge of any of them - not even the ponies - will be required. The only warning is that there will be spoilers for any franchise you haven't seen.

There are several side-stories being written for Songs of the Spheres by several authors, and links to them can be found in our Fimfiction group, including links to non-pony related stories. There's also a Discord chat. Lastly, we have a Spacebattles forum. Discussion about the multiverse, setting, and future events can also be found there if you don't mind spoilers.

Has a TV Tropes page now. Needs love.

Special thanks goes to my little editing army. Keywii_cookies55, VoidTemplar2000, Ponygood11, Omnipresent Microorganism, Blaster Master, Useless Common, Galliar,
Mal Masque, Nickle241, and Triv the Imaginary Duck.

Cover drawn by Little Duke. (DA: Spiralling Vibrance)

Has been updated to comply up to Season 8. Does not comply with Season 9 though elements from it are included.

-GM, master of the Dark Tower