Following her heart, Princess Flurry Heart allows herself to be taken prisoner by Cozy Glow, Empress of Tartarus.

This story is a sequel to Changing Expectations

This is an anthology of non-canon side stories for the Changing Expectations series, each story detailing a different take on the story, on the world, or any other story that can't function as a standalone. Reading Changing Expectations is required.

The entire course of history can be changed by a single butterfly flapping its wings. So what if an entire war was won instead of lost? What if a King never existed? Distorted and twisted, parallel universes offer an infinite number of stories to tell.

Waning Crescent: A world illuminated only by the moon and the stars above. Despite not wanting for light, there are far too many shadows.

Pursuit Of Happiness: Equestria might be the world of sunshine, rainbows, and magic, but not everything is perfect for everyone.

Phasma Is Considerably More Evil But He Is The Main POV Character So It’s Okay: Everyone loves a good villain story. But I'm fresh out of those, so have a mediocre one instead.

Cover art is by Rich May
Special thanks to all my prereaders for proof reading each chapter!

This story is a sequel to Hinterlands

Two years ago, bounty hunter Bitterroot turned a lich and her necromancer apprentice over to the authorities. Now, that apprentice, Amanita, has been released on good behavior. She has no more interest in necromancy. In fact, she asked Bitterroot to turn her in all those moons ago and helped capture her master. With nowhere for Amanita to go, Bitterroot takes her in until she can get her hooves under herself.

But all isn’t well in Canterlot. A killer is stalking the streets, striking with impunity and leaving no trace. The Royal Guard is befuddled. Bitterroot’s investigations have yielded nothing. And night is turning into a time of dread. Something needs to be done. If only the dead could speak. If only there was a moral necromancer around.

Amanita doesn’t want to admit it, but the part of her past she hates the most might be the most useful part right now. Just because ponies are dying doesn’t mean they need to stay that way. What she buried needs to be dug up again.

Her demons are rearing their ugly heads. It’s time to face them.

Reading the preceding story will provide some context for this, but isn't required. Cover art is modified from this image. Other entries in this series:

• Hinterlands
• Urban Wilds
• Death Valley

Beyond Equestria, the lands to the north are hostile and unforgiving. Ponies eke out a subsistence in uncontrollable weather, separated by mile after frigid mile of snow and mountains. A land where only the hardiest survive is no place for civilization.

Yet civilization encroaches from time to time. When a colossal bounty is placed on the head of a unicorn deep in the arts of necromancy, a motley crew of bounty hunters assembles and gives chase. It’s too good a chance to pass up. They’ll bring her to justice, no matter what stands in their way. Not her dark magic. Not the inhospitable environment.

And certainly not each other.

Other entries in this series:

• Hinterlands
• Urban Wilds
• Death Valley

Being left for dead in Trottingham was a major disappointment for the little changeling prince, this is true. Being adopted by a paddle-happy pony wizard, this ‘Star Swirl the Bearded,’ was also a bit of a downer at first. But Stasis still manages to appreciate the savory side of things.

Unfortunately, not all pastel prey are as soft and as chewy as they may appear. Stasis has seen the golden soldiers and their goddess’ wrath, and if he can’t keep his true nature a secret, he may see them yet again.

And of course, not all changelings see fraternizing with prey in the same light….

Cover art commissioned from Raikoh-illust

Dinky Doo asks her mother a question.

Derpy Hooves finally reveals a truth.

Story collaboration with Rootbeer Dew, who helped to write up the ending.

Picture by some guy on Deviantart. Doomcakes, I think it was? XD

Popular Section! 5th July, 2014, Saturday! Thank you everyone!

UPDATE - There is a sequel to this story! To read the sequel, look up TheMyth, and his story 'Where Is The Love?'. This is the official sequel that I gave him permission to write up. Thank you everypony for your views and support! You guys and gals helped to make this a special story!

Link to the sequel! Where Is My Love?

Leave it to Twilight Sparkle to create the greatest spell of the past century – and then want to destroy it.

It's too dangerous to use, she says. It's too tempting. It can't help you the way you think it can.

Well, Starlight Glimmer knows a thing or three about temptation. She'll prove to Twilight that this spell – this magnificent book – is too important to destroy. That it can help ponies.

She just has to survive using it, first.

Second place in the May 2018 WriteOff.

Cover art is "Reformed" by Okaces.

Over 5 centuries ago, halfway through Celestia's millennium long reign, a rebellious political faction attempts to take over Equestria and start a new pony republic. Celestia is accused of crimes against ponykind and put on trial in an effort to remove her from power. Celestia must defend herself, and her actions, against the conspirators who aim to take over her kingdom. The fate of friendship and the future of Equestria hangs in the balance.

Told through the perspective of Princess Twilight reading the story to Luster Dawn.

Cover art by Decoy the Skeletal Boy:
https://www.deviantart.com/theflamingalberto
https://twitter.com/skeletal_boy

The Changeling war machine rolled over Equestria in a little over a year. The following three years saw brutal oppression of Equestria by said Changelings, but now the Manehattan Protectorate, covering the eastern coast of Equestria, has collapsed. Out of it the Ponies' Front for the Liberation of Equestria, or Equestrian Liberation Front (ELF) has risen, sending the Changelings reeling as they try to minimise the damage and prepare a counterstrike.

But the uprising left many soldiers of the Heer trapped behind enemy lines, and surrounded on all sides by unfriendly ponies. This is the tale of one such 'ling and his unit, and how he saved his own life and that of the others.

Important: this takes place in the Equestria At War universe. Equestria At War is a mod for the grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV, be sure to check out their Discord and Reddit if you're not familiar with it. They also have a group on this site: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212917/equestria-at-war

Cover art: https://derpibooru.org/images/2603164

This story is a sequel to Good Trooper Gilda

Gilda has been a fugitive, a refugee, a prisoner of war, and a bat-hen to Equestria's fussiest unicorn. But it wasn't until she took 'the Princess's bit', that she began to know something about what it meant to be responsible for the welfare of others, even if the others in question happened to be the pack of imbeciles, blackguards, con-ponies, and bat-ponies who had been fool enough to answer her captain's call to the standard.

A crystalline standard which had not been seen in the living world for over a thousand years.

And although Captain Gleaming Shield and her motley band of raw recruits and shifty bat-ponies aimed to do nothing more exotic and dangerous than put a foreign princess on her proper throne, there are other things stirring in the shadows.

Like calls to like, and the revival of ancient battle-colors may lead to the revival of other, darker memories upon which the rays of Celestia's sun lay lightly and infrequently.