A Notice of Hiatus

Jackson Brunner was walking home from work when he slipped and fell. He then awoke in a palace made of crystal that seemed to be long abandoned. Exploring these halls, Jack feels a strange sense of foreboding. Almost as if something horrible had happened here.

And that's not even the strangest thing about this situation.

No, things will only get stranger from here once the new owners of the palace show up.

Times this story has been featured:
August 16th - August 20th, 2023 (briefly got top spot on the 16th!)
Pretty much every time I upload a chapter lmao

The pony that came back after 1000 years of exile to the moon was not the pony that Celestia expected. Instead of the menacing figure of Nightmare Moon what she instead got was a madly cackling alicorn rolling in a grassy field occasionally taking a break to stroke the lush green plants as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world.

While this was certainly better than the alternative Celestia was a bit miffed that her sister had not even acknowledged her presence before going to play in the grass. How could grass be more interesting than her?

I just went to sleep and woke up in the body of a pony. I am not supposed to be in this body I am a human and my home is Earth, not here.

As I look into the crystal glass in front of me, a foreign face greets me yet the face has my voice. Have I lost my own humanity? Is my very being slipping out of my hands? That will not do.

It has been six months since Princess Luna's return to Equestria, however everything is still so new to her. Equestria is not as it once was, and so much seem new and strange. From the words, to the customs, and even the way they conduct their ruling.

Luna felt lonely for a long time, that is until she discovered the joys of gaming. She even found a new friend, just one small problem, he is human, and not from their dimension. Well, it would not be a problem, not if Luna would not have used a certain spell to drag her newest friend through their online game and into Equestria.

Turns out dragging a human through a game and landing him in Equestria has some unforeseen consequences... Other than the fact he is a pony now...

Editor: SoloBrony

Story Inspired by the cover used.
Cover Owner: RedchetGreen from DeviantArt

Formal Premise: The inventors of the Mirror wanted to create a device that could channel infinite magic and grant wishes. The hard part was making sure those wishes would never destroy the world. Showing a person their heart's desire is a sensible precaution to put into a wish-granting machine designed NOT to go horribly wrong.

The Atlanteans got close, even managing to imbue some amount of intelligence and morality into the Mirror. But they never finished their work; the Mirror never DID get to the point where it could grant wishes... at least, nobody believes it ever got to that point. But then, nobody has ever been trapped inside the Mirror and returned to tell the tale.

When the Mirror traps someone inside itself and outside of Time, that person and their consequences can no longer affect the world. In that circumstance, with a person fully under its power, the Mirror isn't limited in what it can do. Sometimes, it can even grant seemingly incompatible wishes.

But complex problems require complex solutions. In this case, the Mirror takes a few massive liberties about how, exactly, it satisfies the wishes of both Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. Namely, it sends them to a world of ponies.

Informal Premise: This is a crossover between MLP and Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, not just Harry Potter. No matter how accessible I try to make it to those who haven't read HPMoR, those who HAVE read it will undeniably have an easier experience reading this story.

HPMoR is the second most popular fanfiction of Harry Potter, at least according to fanfiction stats. It involves Harry studying & dissecting the wizarding world with science. Not with technology, with actual science. That is, he uses the experimental method, generates and tests hypotheses, and in the words of his Occlumency instructor, "wants to discover the underlying rules of magic to become all-poweful".

THIS fanfic brings THAT version of Harry Potter to Equestria. It also brings that story's version of Voldemort.

If you want the best reading experience, please go read HPMoR first. It can be found on fanfiction dot net, or on its own website, or even on any podcast app, as it has its own fan-made audiobook with 30+ contributing voice actors, production quality, sound effects, music, etc. (which is more than can be said for most PROFESSIONAL audiobooks).

Link to HPMoR on fanfiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Methods-of-Rationality
Link to HPMoR on its own website: http://www.hpmor.com/chapter/1
Link to audiobook (though the website isn't nearly as good as podcast apps): https://hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=56

All forms of HPMoR that I've encountered are high quality, but that doesn't mean it's for everyone. You can probably read the first few chapters of HPMoR in thirty minutes or so. If it doesn't appeal to you, this story probably won't appeal to you either.

For those who haven't read Methods and want to read this story anyway, the first two chapters are going to be the most confusing. They're mostly housekeeping and stage-setting, barely touching the MLP universe beyond the new setting.

And I think the same advice Yudkowsky gave for HPMoR applies here. The story starts hitting its strides around Chapter 5, if not sooner. If you don't like it by Chapter 10, best just to give up and read something else.

Waking up as a strange alien bug was certainly not something Thornton ever expected to happen. And yet, that was just the circumstance he found himself in when he and his family awoke one morning with strange new bodies in a strange new world.

Now they're hoping to find their way home, but is home a place they can get back to? And if so, is home a place they want to return to?

Updates weekly.

Cover Art by KlaraPL. Story commission for Gargon94.

After losing her hive, Queen Chrysalis is forced to start another one. Luckily she has the help of a few loyal subjects who never accepted their fellow changelings new way of life. They must stay hidden from enemies, collect enough food to survive and rebuild their strength. Now the first brood has hatched and there is something very different about one of the larva.

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.)

After losing his last relative, Will is stuck in despair and sadness, only wishing to have a new family. And he's getting one, one that will never leave him.
His wish granted and ready for a new start, Will is purged from the sadness of his old life by accepting to lose some of his memories and is no longer human, in a strange new land with two brothers that will never leave him alone. Literally.

Death Tag for the prologue.