3/14/24 Still Alive Edition

There's only one pony in Ponyville that the Mane Six have never met. Pinkie Pie has never thrown him a party, Applejack has never sold him a mug of cider, and Twilight has never seen him check out any books. And as far as that unicorn, Lapis Print, is concerned, that's exactly how it should be.

Lapis can't risk them knowing where he lives, what he does for a living, or even what his name is - if he gets his way, the Mane Six won't even know he exists, and nopony in Ponyville will miss him once he's gone.

It should be a piece of cake - after all, it's not like the biggest magical power in Equestria is about making sure everypony looks out for each other, right?

(Rated Teen for language - mental cursing mostly.)

This story is a sequel to Changing Expectations

When ages are segmented and divided in the annals of history, it is done so with great events as breakpoints. The Second Age of Heroes was unanimously declared to have started with the return of Princess Luna and the changeling Invasion of Canterlot.

For thousands of years, the changelings survived beneath The Great Tapestry, that which connects all living and nonliving things. Hundreds of generations worked endlessly to keep their existence a secret. With one command from Queen Chrysalis, the Masquerade was broken.

In a single night, the changelings waged war against Equestria and took the Kingdom by storm. Months later, the war between changelings and ponies has ended. A new tapestry, a new story, must be woven between the two species. Equestria and the Fifth Hive have gone through a dark chapter and have emerged stronger for it.

One war ends and another begins.

As The Sword of Damocles hangs above the heads of the formerly-human King Phasma and his Equestrian counterparts, the forces of light must work on an ever-shortening window before war once again brings Hell to Equus. Dark powers grow in the places that the light does not reach, and they bring one irrefutable truth.

Epitaph is coming.

Cover art by Nixworld.

Special thanks to my pre-readers!

I got dragged to Equestria by pure accident due to an experiment gone 'wrong', roughly forty years before Nightmare Moons' arrival.
No matter what I do, as a pony-changeling hybrid, something will change with Equestria. I just hope I don't doom the country before Nightmare Moon even arrives... Or worse.

This is the first story I ever tried to write professionally, so there WILL be errors, for that, I apologize in advance.
I'm editing and proofreading it on my own because I literally suck when it comes to using this site competently.
Lastly, I am a slow writer due to IRL getting in the way but I will try my hardest to settle the story down whether it's popular or not.

Fair warning, there may be spoilers in the comments.

Thank you to Little Tigress for the fantastic cover art.

Revered by their populace, the four immortal Alicorns have ruled Equestria with benevolence and kindness for five centuries, curating a meticulous balance that must not be disturbed. The Two-One system has survived everything that was thrown at it, and anything that threatens to disrupt that balance should be crushed at all costs.

Right?

DISCLAIMER: Sex tag ONLY for innuendo and jokes! Only a minor AU, VERY LITTLE has been changed from canon!
WARNING: Contains A LOT of profanity because I can't help myself
Fantastic cover art provided by Hoodwinked MCShelster on DeviantArt!
Proofread and edited by DarthBall, newbie, T0ucan, and Pen Dragon
Additional help provided by various members of the Changing Expectations discord server

The Ever Expanding List of Inspirations:
Anzel's Memoirs of a Royal Guard and Secrets of a Royal Guard
Bpkyle777's Past, Present, and Future
ChroniclerOfFantasies's King of Queens
Crensler's To Know Hell and Finding Artemis
DanishDash's At Your Service
Darkwing Dust's Crystal Soul
dj_neon_lights' A DJ in the Night
Hilord17's The Anomaly in a Mare’s World
Hiver's New Beginnings and all of its sequels
Ice Star's All That Lingers
Irrespective's The Harem Noses, No Nose Knows, and This Nose Knows
KKSlider's Changing Expectations
Kotushk Fier's Nocturnality and With a Shine in His Eyes
Krystl_Fae’s The Son of Infinity
kudzuhaiku's The Sun Also Surprises and The Perilous Romance of Swans
Lightning Ace's The Humble Prince
MisterEdd's Shattering a Heart of Darkness
Pen Dragon's Gems I: The Sun Princess and its sequel
PinkiePieFox's Shimmering Night
RadBunny's Timeless and A Brush With Fate
Scibe of the Nightwings' Interruption and Intervention and Admiration and Admission
SilverWind102's The New Guy
Tallfry's One Bolt, Many Questions
ThatWritingDragon's A Dusk’s New Dawn
The Boss's Coming out of it...
TheEighthDayofNight's The Centurion Project
Thule117's Guardian
Urimas Ebonheart's Warframe: Equestria
wishcometrue's With the Thought of Us
Zoshe's Return of the Ancient Mage

First Featured: 5/3/22
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And again on 11/5/22:
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And AGAIN on 1/18/23:
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO

Inspired by the heroics of the mysterious mare known as the Stable Dweller, Silver Storm, a guard of the town of Marefort, decides to go on a daring mission to rescue her captured brother. Of course things rarely go as planned and her attempts at heroism drags her into a tangled web of plots and conspiracies as warring factions vie for control over the last great city: Dise.

Spanish Version translated by Spaniard-Kiwi: https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Fallout-Ecuestria-Heroes-996263393

An entry in the Bloodlines Continuity

It isn't always easy putting up with family. Some of them are embarrassing, some try to tell you how to run your life, and some try to invade the capital city of Equestria. Queen Chrysalis may be gone, but for the owner and employees of the Metamorphosis spa and massage parlor, their work has just begun.

In the meantime, Chrysalis is in for a lot of angry letters...

Featured on 6/10/19, 26/02/20, 29/08/20, 2/12/21, 3/3/22, 29/4/22, 3/6/22, 24/7/22, 14/9/22, 4/11/22, 7/03/2023, and 8/03/2023! Thank you all!

I never asked for power or leadership. Royalty was a collar around my neck and a weight on my heart. A mask of superiority was born to keep them from realizing how our world was crumbling down to dust. No longer will my people live in the shadows. This plan has to work.

Art by Yula586 on Deviant art https://www.deviantart.com/yula568

Discord knows many things, has powers that can make heads flip and worlds turn upside down with a snap of his fingers, but if he's turned to stone again if Twilight can break her friends free from his influence, he was going to need an heir. Before his secondary loss, which he knew would eventually be inevitable, he chooses someone from another world, a young man named Charles, to take his stead and be the next Lord of Chaos. But with a new life comes a new body, and it's hard to be a menacing, chaotic deity when you're turned into a young draconequus colt.

This is a story requested by LordOfChoas.

Inspired by the song Bismarck by the amazing band Sabaton!

When the Allies sunk the great battleship Bismarck, they thought it would be gone for good, left at the bottom of the Atlantic to rust as the Second World War raged on. What they didn't know was that the ship never made it to the ocean floor. Instead, the hulking battle machine was transported to someplace entirely unknown to mankind, with its sole survivor taken along for the ride.

The Gryphon Empire had been expanding its borders for centuries, gaining power and influence over the majority of the planet while at the same time stretching themselves ever thinner. Now, with food shortages threatening to tear the Empire apart, they look towards the only hope of salvation they have, Equestria.

Yet the pride of a predatory race would never allow for them to stoop to begging or trading for what they need. In their very blood there is a cry for war that cannot be denied if they are to save all that they have built. However, only a fool would dare go against the magical might of the pony nations, even taking into account the abysmal state of their military. Yet all of that changes when the hulk of a massive war vessel appears on the shores of their homeland, with a very strange pony the only being aboard.

Will Equestria fall under the power of one of mankind's most infamous warships? How will our lone human-turned-pony react to being in both a new body and world? You'll just have to take a look inside and see for yourself.

Thank you to my new Editors Grau and Helping Hoof for their help in making this an even better book for all of you to enjoy.

There’s no end to the monsters that lurk in the dark.

Ghosts, werewolves, mad scientists, cultists, mutants, zombies, vampires, aliens and more lie in wait in the dark corners of Equestria, terrorizing the night. But the most infamous and dangerous of them all is the legendary witch Twilight Sparkle, with a five hundred million bit bounty on her head.

Seeking fame and fortune, Rainbow Dash sets out to defeat the legendary witch and collect the massive reward. The one thing she wasn't counting on was Twilight being less evil than she expected.

More stories set in this AU can be found here.

Cover art is a work in progress by Abode_WTF