A thousand year absence from the world would be disorienting for anyone, but when your job is Head of State, understanding how society has changed during your interregnum is vital. Princess Luna, banished in the age of the longboat and the longbow, has returned just in time for the launch of the tablet computer. With the help of her sister, she undertakes to understand the history she's missed and the people she finds herself among, in order to resume the duties of her title.

This story takes the form of a series of conversations between Celestia and Luna that take place months and years apart. It is openly concerned with political ideas and how societies are organised, and not at all concerned with monsters and magic beyond the conceit of immortal monarchs. The Alternate Universe tag is there because I will be ignoring every single one of the thousand year catastrophes that occur in the show after the Nightmare Moon crisis, the retirement of the Princesses, probably the presence of any other Princesses, and anything else in the show I feel like ignoring, because I find them irrelevant to the themes I want to cover.

In short, if you wanted The Audience with ponies, I got you covered.

This story can be considered canon to my comic works such as The Sunjackers, and my other associated worldbuilding projects, and uses the same date system as them (ie. roughly matching our own, with the return of Nightmare Moon happening the same year as the episode aired, 2010). May also be your jam if you like Equestria At War, but not affiliated at all.

An alien scientist is startled when Pinkie Pie stumbles across his ship in the woods near Ponyville. For him Pinkie is a problem: he's not allowed to make contact with intelligent natives.

Pinkie Pie is overjoyed when she stumbles across an alien spaceship in the woods near Ponyville. For her the alien is a new friend, to be given a Welcome to Ponyville party with all sorts of treats.

Of course, the alien is really alien- a methane-breather who can't leave his refrigerated ship. His biochemistry is very different from a pony's. Can Pinkie Pie find something he can eat that isn't poison? And can he keep other ponies from finding his hiding place and forcing him to leave before he's had his party?

Tied for second place in the Science Fiction Contest II. First draft released early as a Patreon exclusive, now posted here in edited form for everybody.

EDIT: Wow! Straight to the top of the Featured list! Thanks, everyone!

Part of the Remember Fort Libris print anthology, thanks to our Kickstarter supporters!

Pinkie knows that being a baker means taking a lot of responsibility for your product. The bread has to rise with Celestia. Nopony needs to go through Round Two on the Baked Bads. And if at all possible, you should absolutely avoid serving the kind of 'donuts' which summon an eldritch horror from beyond space and time to destroy the world.

The Cakes keep slipping up on that last part. Not deliberately, at least in that they don't know they're doing it -- but somepony still has to clean up the tentacled mess, and do it by the time Sun is raised. Which is going to be Pinkie. Again.

Break out the caffeine. It's going to be a long night.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

Rated C for Cthulhu Crackfic.

Even for a superfan like Rainbow, there are things you don't learn about the Wonderbolts until you become the newest part of the squad. Like how the view from the back of the formation never really changes, or that the slipstream carries a few unwelcome scents to the rear position. Or laundry. Nopony told her that the new mare was going to be responsible for doing the laundry. And the whole wash/dry process is just boring.

There's got to be a way to make laundry more interesting. Surely she can make an impression on Spitfire if she just... stunts it up.

Rainbow always makes an impression on ponies. And the landscape. A few windows. The occasional building...

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

This story is a sequel to Unnoticed

Do you know the mare? So many believe they do. A single glance is more than sufficient to teach them everything. And given that they now know everything, there's clearly no need to make any further inquiries. She is what they've decided her to be. No more, and it would take quite a bit of effort to create any degree of 'less'.

Do you know the pegasus? The mailmare, the single mother, the incompetent, the town's lowest-flying joke? Is that what you've told yourself?

Do you know her?
You don't.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

While this story is tagged as a sequel, it's just following up on her previous appearance there: no knowledge of that piece is required.

What does a mayor do? On a good day, you get to nose over an award. It helps if you can make sure the weather schedule comes off on time. But more than anything else, it's about leadership. Taking responsibility for the safety and comfort of all those who live within your domain. That's how it's supposed to work. The mayor is the one who makes sure everything is under control.

This is Ponyville. Marigold is fully aware that on a typical day, approximately nothing will be under control. But when it comes to protecting those who live there, she still has to do whatever she can.

If there's anything left which she can do at all.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

Cover art from a vector rendering by DaAfroMan.

Being somepony's friend can require accepting the... quirkier parts of their personality: something Rarity is all too aware of, especially when it comes to the work involved in accepting hers. So discovering that Fluttershy possesses -- shall we say, a 'special interest' -- simply means that the designer needs to accompany her to the convention. Just to make sure the pegasus isn't going to get hurt.

But a mare of dignity and taste does not casually wander into a 'special interest' gathering and emerge unaffected. And as it happens, neither does Rarity.

Rated C for Conifer Crackfic.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

With proper care, thought, and some attention given to what the recipient might actually want, just about anypony could purchase a well-planned Hearts & Hooves Day gift. But to make it work when you're down to the last few hours, after having indulged in none of the previous requirements to the point where ignorance has become its very own art...

...well, to find the perfect gift under those circumstances would take a very special pony indeed.

And if Rainbow's anything, she's special.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

This story is a sequel to Anchor Foal: A Romantic Cringe Comedy

It's been over a year and when it comes to the little routines of labor and love, Fleur still hasn't managed to fully adjust. She needs to find some means of making it all last. And one thing she can definitely try to do is screen out anything which threatens to make her mate unhappy. Such as, just by way of very unwelcome example, the brother. Because Zephyr wants to be part of Fluttershy's life. He claims to have changed. But Fleur doesn't know whether change is truly possible.

Or if she's really changed at all.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

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YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.