An inspired linguist. An ancient stone tablet. And the story of how a new species, made in love and forged in fire, came to be.

1st Place in the Everfree Northwest Iron Author Competition 2022. Many thanks to the judges -- Aquaman, Grand Moff Pony, and Xepher -- for their kind comments, and to my fellow winners: FanOfMostEverything, Mica, Scampy, Steady Gaze, and Admiral Biscuit.

Editing by LevelDasher (who is now on a much-deserved editing sabbatical).

Cover Art by CadetRedShirt [DeviantArt] [Twitter]
(I commissioned this one. Give Cadet monies and she will make art and/or sing for you!)

Story notes in this week's MT File.

Featured on EQD, 10/23/22.

River Swirl is many things. A born riverlander, a capable and accomplished student at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, a teacher, and finally, the Chancellor of the River Republic.

Or, she was, at least.

Life always puts hurdles in your way to overcome, and yet, when River Swirl is voted out of office, a dream comes crashing down for her. A project she had dreamed of for so long flushed down the drain along with her career.

But she knows there has to be more to herself. More than a politician, no matter her good intentions. She always wanted to bring her ponies forward, to a brighter future. Perhaps now she can go back and look at the past, and find out just where she went wrong. A past that was as troubled as it was great.

And perhaps even the most vague of bonds of years gone by can yet grow into something far greater.

River Swirl and the locations described in this story belong to the Equestria at War alternate universe. Knowing it is not required for this oneshot, but this is where you should go if you're wondering about location names and such.

This story is a sequel to Prey and a Lamb

'Little lamb, Little lamb, where have you been?~ I've sown the fields and reaped the corn~'

Ups and downs, triumphs and setbacks. This story(s) mainly draws from the characters after the end of 'Prey and a Lamb'. These individual story-chapters are both about what came afterwards, and their owners involvement in the wider events of Equestria.

You don't necessarily have to have read the marathon long previous story, (its really long, I know) as the characters can stand alone to an extent, but it might help. Or not? You can do as you please.

Now, as a word of how I plan to do this, first off: There is no release schedule! Sorry, no bi-weekly update grindstone writing. However, each chapter will be a small self contained story in itself. I will maybe use certain characters more than once, and interweave these min-stories Time Lines, but this will at least mean there are no cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter.

(Disclaimer: I own nothing and have no say in FiM and associated industries. The cover image came from a suggestion from earth)

This story is a sequel to A Song of Storms: Of Skies Long Forgotten

It has been twenty years since the fall of the Cirran Empire, and Commander Hurricane has led the pegasus pony tribe into a comfortable role in accordance with the Tri-Pony Compact. But a supernatural blizzard without end brings forth the suppressed hatreds that have festered among the three tribes, and the resulting famine threatens to eradicate all; earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus alike. With a bloody war looming on the horizon and the fate of their ponies at stake, the three tribes must find a way to survive together, or they will assuredly die alone.

Sequel to "Of Skies Long Forgotten." Reading of that story is not absolutely necessary to understand what is going on, but it is strongly recommended for you to understand the references.

Officially part of "The Price of Loyalty" storyverse, in collaboration with LoyalLiar

Editing by LoyalLiar and Ruirik
Cover art provided by Ruirik

How far will you go to save your family? Your friends? Your empire? Twenty years before the events of the Hearth's Warming Eve story, long before the pegasi had even met the other two races, Commander Hurricane was a simple farmer in the great Cirran Empire. When the neighboring griffon nation declares war on Cirra and everything it stands for, the young Hurricane finds himself thrown into the middle of a conflict with the fate of his very race put into question. Will he rise to be the pegasus Cirra needs him to be, or will the mighty empire fall to the claws of the griffons?

Officially part of "The Price of Loyalty" storyverse, in collaboration with LoyalLiar.

Now with a side story! Come check out my friend Ruirik's Wind and Stone and follow along with the journey of another legionnaire who struggled through the Red Cloud War at the same time as Hurricane. (*contains references to events in the sequel to OSLF, Snow and Shadows, so be wary*)

Cover art by Ruirik

Tempest Shadow might be reformed, but life has been far from kind to her. The legacy of her actions as the Storm King's second-in-command continues to haunt her as she struggles to try and build a new life in a land she had long ago forsaken. Mistrusted by many, and feeling that her life is going nowhere, Tempest struggles to learn the magic of friendship. Feeling defeated, she is approached by Princess Luna, and pointed towards a rather obscure little tailors shop in Canterlot, run by a pony named Elusive; a pony also trying to forget the demons of his past, Tempest hopes to find a way to reinvent herself, but in doing so, she will discover that she isn't the only one with a chequered past, and find that maybe some secrets are best kept hidden, and that some truths aren't meant to be known.

Proofread by Alden MacManx.

Updated every Friday.

This story is a sequel to The Empress and the Goose-Girl

Rarity is beautiful, elegant, talented. She has to be, to survive as Seneschal to her Dark Majesty. But now a newcomer arrives at the court of the Empress Nightmare Moon, and she threatens to unsettle everything Rarity has worked so hard to build.

Technically a sequel to The Empress and the Goose Girl, but works fine as a standalone if you don't want to read that. TW for some violence and blood, but it's not massively graphic. Written as a gift for the lovely Zontan, as part of an anthology.

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!

Autumn Blaze never found the cure for the Stream of Silence.

Third place winner at the Iron Author Speedwriting Contest at Everfree Northwest 2022. Contestants must write a full pony story within 2 hours, based on a surprise prompt. This is my story as written for the contest, with minor edits. Additional edits may be made once I have received feedback from the judges.

Thank you to all those who hosted the contest.

Olenia won against the Changelings, Chrysalis is presumed dead and the country lays in ruin.
Queen Velvet has tasked 16 Individuals, most of them Deer, with the administration and rebuilding of the Changeling Hives.
Will the Changeling lands enter a new era of prosperity and peace together with Olenia? or will the Administrative Council fail and the Changelings fall to infighting once again?