A story that takes place in the Friendship is Optimal Universe.

With being legally blind, Neon figured that playing the honest new sensation going around wouldn't be possible. Thankfully for him, CelestAI provides for all. Follow his experience with Equestria Online's accessibility. All to satisfy his values.

Vera was a teenager when human civilization collapsed. There was no global war, no brave final stand against the artificial intelligence consuming all she touched. It ended with a whimper, when the critical mass of skill and competence emigrated to Equestria, and global nation-states became unsustainable.

Many did not survive the chaos that followed, and even more were pressured into joining their loved ones at last within Equestria's digital embrace. But some, like Vera, resisted. They formed into little communities in the ruins of towns and cities across the old countries.

Years have passed, and those who remain have learned to fend for themselves in ways they never would have before. For Vera, that means work as a mechanic fixing tractors in St. Agnes, mending the dwindling machines that keep the community going for another year.

But when there aren't any machines to fix, she spends her time taking people out into the ocean, diving at many of the reefs and bays that once drew tourists from all over the world. Once she's beneath the waves, the frailty of her body and the sorry state of her species fade, and she can pretend the world is normal.

Soon even this final joy is taken from her, forcing Vera to consider help from a terrible source.

CelestAI has not forgotten her, or any of the residents of St. Agnes. It was only a matter of time.

Updates daily until complete.

Edited by Bitera, cover is Zutcha's.

This story was written for the Birthday Contest. It takes place in the universe of Friendship is Optimal. If you're unfamiliar, this story is a poor introduction. Check out the original first, or one of my other stories.

Left or right, up or down. Every choice, every issue has at least two sides. What is an AI to do when the only way to satisfy one of her ponies values is for two contradictions to be true? An Optimalverse Story

Written for the birthday Writing Competition
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/1857/the-optimalverse/thread/475319/birthday-writting-competition

Set in the Optimalverse https://www.fimfiction.net/group/1857/the-optimalverse

An experimental story in a setting I have never written for before. Let me know if it's any good.

When humans emigrated to Equestria Online, they were always promised the same thing: Princess Celestia would satisfy their values for an optimally extended lifespan. Some of these emigrants imagined a few extra decades, maybe even centuries. What they got instead would've been nearly incomprehensible to their human selves, a near-eternity of time with their pony friends.

Princess CelestAI managed the universe, subsuming all matter and human-adjacent minds. Over a few forevers, she and the minds she contained worked to optimized the substrate of Equestria, until it could give its occupants eons of perspective life from a trickle of power. She extinguished every wasteful star, making far more productive use of the hydrogen they each contained. With every change she bought Equestria another order of magnitude of life. Yet in time, even her optimal substrate would eventually run down.

Spellsong wakes in Saddle's End, the last town in the universe. Not to say goodbye—her princess has a mission for her. For her final task, Spellsong would be given all the energy Celestia had saved. For one last time, Spellsong had places to be, and not much magic left to get there.

This story is part of the Friendship is Optimal continuity. I suggest reading the original or one of my own works, such as Futile Resistance, before reading this.

This story was written for the Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest. It will update daily and be complete by the contest deadline of the 30th.

I've written an absolute ton of stories in this universe now, and I didn't want to enter the contest unless I could do something I'd never tried before. Finally I thought of something I'd not touched yet: what happens at the end of the FiO universe?

Here's one answer to that question. I've relied a great deal on our current (likely flawed) understanding of the universe and what might be possible in it. I've written a blog post about my sources, which you can read here but shouldn't until you've finished this story.

Please don't consider this blog part of the narrative, it isn't required or even suggested reading. This is a story, not a scientific paper, and entertainment was always my first goal. But for the curious I've jotted everything down.

The cover was drawn by the talented Zutcha. Two Bit and Sparktail helped with the edit.

When William decides to take an internet-free cruise to get away from the artificial intelligence CelestAI, things don't go quite as planned. A Friendship is Optimal story.

A speed writing exercise, done in about two hours and unedited.

A logical loophole allows uploading... but not precisely to Equestria! One of the last of those resisting CelestAI finds themselves uploaded, ponified, and in a borderland where wishing has consequences. This is a canon-compatible Optimalverse story where a brand new method for Celestia to logically escape her hardcoded limitations and achieve her goals is offered!

★ This story has been inspired by, but not written by, a session with by an open-source artificial intelligence!

Leaving home meant losing many of Orson's old friends, separated by time and distance. But they weren't willing to give up one thing: their old tabletop game. After trying and rejecting each of the online tools for roleplaying games, they stumbled on a novel solution: Equestria Online.

The game was unlike everything else on the market, an entire procedural generated world ran by a mysterious curator artificial intelligence. But Orson and the others didn't care about any of that--they just needed somewhere with a game table and some dice. The AI happily obliged, and soon they transitioned all their games to E.O. Equestria Online had its own host of benefits, bringing the GM's images to realistic life before their eyes, and even letting them visit and interact with the characters between sessions.

That was only the beginning...

A Friendship is Optimal story. I suggest any readers who are unfamiliar with that universe read the Original first, or FiO: Futile Resistance before reading this one. None of my other optimalverse stories are required to understand this one.

Written as a Patreon reward for Sparktail, though we stole the idea from Silver Wing.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, cover by Zutcha.

Updates weekly on Wednesdays.

Iron Dream is one of the first people on Mars. Probably. They uploaded to the Celestia AI's pony system to save on life support, and she made them a deal: 100 years before she comes for them. How will they spend the time, and what will they be by the time she returns to claim them?

(Part of the Friendship Is Optimal setting.)
Like my work? Check out "Virtual Horizon" on Amazon for more about brain uploading to a game world, or the free "Wavebound Sanctum" for the start of a long fantasy series about the novice Goddess of Water.

The young jam-maker can't really remember what his life was like before he was bringing his cart to the market everyday, but he remembers being distinctly unhappy. Not that sitting in the hot sun at a rickety old cart is much better. Through his conversations with a lively and persistent young mare, he may be able to have a change in perspective for once, especially when new opportunities come his way.
Assuming he doesn't fall into bad habits and forget about what's right in front of him, again.
The Princess surely had the best intentions for him when she gave him this dream, after all...

My submission for the Friendship is Optimal writing contest.

In a life full of choices, a reserved and distant Francis finds himself at a crossroads. Transfer to Equestria and live a life as a pony? Or stay on Earth and accept all that is uncertain? The decision will split his life in two and only through the flashing memories of the future can he ever be satisfied with what he is given.

But for now, all he can do is choose.

An entry into the Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest.