Once upon a time there was a very lazy dragon who did not want to find a town to pillage.

So he decided to make one of his own.

Editors: Mitch H, Dlafrferg
Jake the Army Guy has done an amazing reading of this on YouTube
Excellent cover picture credit: Harwick on Fimfiction or Harwicks-art on Deviantart.com
Also, the Audio Project has done a reading of this and other stories on YouTube

Sanctaphrax, the city of knowledge. Wherever there's a question, there you can find the answer.

For the right price.

Unlike most of the citizens of The Ivory Island, the Admiral doesn't concern herself with economics. Her wealth comes in knowledge and the never-ending struggle to pull the future into the present. As long as she has the bits to keep Algol's Shadow running and its crew fed, she dives, and Sanctaphrax pay is more than enough.

When a routine salvage job leads to a discovery that could change the way the world sees the sunken ruins of Equestria forever, she can't help but get a little excited. She can hear the future knocking, just another dive away. The very stars themselves might as well be in her grasp.

This story takes place in the world of Goldenwing's story Empty Horizons, but it can be read without context.

Darkness holds dominion over the world. Cinders of Sun and Moon gathered from a long-forgotten catastrophe are all that remain to shelter the village from the consuming void. But their power wanes. Lanterns of Sun and Moon held close against his chest, a stallion takes up the mantle of light bearer and forges into the abyss to return light to a world that has all but forgotten it.

Beyond the safety of the village gates, he will meet a voice of shadows and starlight, and many are the revelations it has of the world he thought he knew so well.

7/10/19 update: This story has been completely remastered to meet my 2019 writing standards! Enjoy!
Love this story? It's available in hardback and paperback!

[Cover art by Ventious]

Equestria stands on the brink of ruin. A necromancer has raised an army of the dead and is poised to plunge the world into darkness. Monsters and brigands roam freely across the land, preying upon the innocent.

Only one hope remains. Armed with swords, spells, snacks, and a bag of dice, five heroes band together to defeat the forces of evil… if their rolls are good enough.

Welcome to gaming night in Ponyville.

Dramatic reading by Goombasa.

Cover image by Elosande used with permission.

This story is a sequel to Substitute

A great evil is destroyed and its wards are so too. But now a fragment of that evil is on the loose and is unchecked.

Between an awakened seal threatening to soak up Equestria's magic, a long-dormant thorn now budding, and changes to once well-understood rules, the final pieces of a partially solved puzzle are in place and are ready to be filled in.

The greatest trials may produce the biggest revelations, transform the tightest bonds, and perhaps even lead to salvation. The cost, however, is first the breaking of everything.

The Crystal Ball Trilogy is a series of stories which deal with time travel, parallel universes, and other manipulations of time and space. Divergence is the last story; it is preceded by Feedback and Substitute.

Digital pdf version here
Print book version here

Featured on 2/6/19!

Edited by James Fire