Isolated from her friends and taken prisoner in the middle of a war, Twilight must deal with the very real dangers of being percieved as an enemy as well as the nightmares of her arrival on 'Earth'. Can she overcome her own fears and the fears of her captors? Will the wayward unicorn's assistance be a boon or a curse to the 'humans?' Most importantly, will she ever find her way home?

"In short, it's a story of friendship and plasma rifles, with the emphasis on the friendship. The characters are well written, the XCOM setting is fleshed out very well, and the story is compelling. If you love XCOM, you'll love the story, but even if you've never heard of it, it's more than worth giving the first 3 chapters a read.

There's excellent action later on, but the real strength lies in the collision between the friendly and naive world of Twilight Sparkle and the desperate world of humans fighting a losing war for survival and willing to do anything to turn the tide."

--Arzoo

(XCOM/FiM crossover)
(Cover art commissioned by a friend and created by the magnificent FoxInShadow!)
(Original cover art by the amazing Carnelian can be viewed here!)
(Gore tag for blood and some violence)
(Many thanks to the studius OminousTen, Arzoo, xXFluttershyForeverXx and finally Setokaiva for giving my rambles a once-over)
(Now with it's own TV Tropes page! Get to tropin' folks!)

Jessica finds herself flung into a world she has little concept of. Everything is strange and new to her, but worst of all she cannot communicate with the native inhabitants. A world of monsters and sapient ponies, griffons and other assorted beasts is no place for a human girl.

How will Jessica cope? Without an understanding of their language how will she make her way in the world, will she even be able to ever communicate with them? Why was she even brought into the world and is there even a way for her to get home?

(Thanks to Tulip for the Cover image!)

(Also now apparently has a Tv Tropes page in the making. )

Now has a re-telling in progress focusing on the Equestrians' side of things, A Stranger Among the Voices

After four harrowing years of civil war brought about by Nightmare Moon's return, Canterlot has finally fallen. Princess Celestia has been banished to the moon, and now a new alicorn rules over Equestria. For the supporters of Nightmare Moon, the new eternal night is a time for celebration. For the ponies who fought for Celestia, it means something else entirely. For when the war is lost and the victor demands fealty, the vanquished are given only two choices: bow low and kiss the ground beneath her hooves, or die.

Not everpony who bows does so out of love for the conqueror, of course. Some do it to bide their time. Some do it out of a sense of opportunity. Most bow merely to survive. All of them are liars. But how long can a pony tell the same lie before it becomes the truth?

And what happens to that pony when their lies are lies no more?

Edited by SolidFire. Inspired by the Nightmare Moon timeline in the season 5 finale, a particular scene from a particular show, and an entertaining game of Equestria at War.

Spoilers. This story takes place during Season 5's ending episode, "The Cutie Re-mark".

Starlight can't be defeated. But then again, she can't win either. Both she and Twilight and trapped in an eternal time loop. After realizing this, Starlight alters her spell to transport Twilight and Spike beyond time itself. Unfortunately she's dragged in as well and taken to the place where time ends. In that endless nothingness where even time is meaningless and realities merge she and Twilight find...

Celestia, Discord, and Chrysalis playing cards and betting on the lives of mortals. And it's not as funny as it sounds.

One fine, perfectly normal day, Twilight unlocks the doors to her School of Friendship... and promptly loses consciousness.

When she comes to, she finds that her friends, mentors, other ponies she knows and even a couple unreformed enemies are with her, and her School has been radically modified, relocated and encased within a barrier. A strange little black-and-white bear tells them that they now live here indefinitely; the only way they can leave this place is if they kill a fellow pony and get away with it in a trial.

But Twilight has nothing to worry about. As long as she believes in the Friendship between herself and the others, there has to be a way for everypony to escape alive and well. Surely nopony would even dream about killing another pony... would they?

Prince Blueblood thought the Grand Galloping Gala was over. He thought he could just go to sleep and put it behind him. He never expected to be reliving the same disaster of a day, over and over... and over.

TV tropes page here:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheBestNightEver

Thanks to all the people who wrote the page and all the people who gave me a little wakeup call and comment to become aware of that fact! You can't see it, but you guys put a real smile on my face tonight.

Also, recently, extra thanks to RD Dash for giving TBNE a thorough editing. I've updated the fic accordingly (7.11.12)

Pinkie Pie is being tormented by horrific nightmares. Unable to deal with it by herself anymore she seeks out Twilight's help, but will it have been the best decision when she finds herself alone in an abandoned, fog filled Ponyville?

Sequel: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/4676/Too-Shy-for-a-Rainbow

There have been a LOT of high-quality readings of Silent Ponyville, but this one is my personal favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGh01rbB4o3xoSV7a6Omc-UJROXHRZ1Hv

"It has been the pivotal teaching of the great Fountainhead, personal mentor and Celestia's most esteemed archivist, that the grand unified theory of magic, if discovered, is to be found within the mage's affectivity –that is; of the polarizing impetus of love, for unicorn magic, and hate, for Black Magic. It is claimed, further, that reality itself, too, is subject to this principle; and to deny so was self-contradictory. The dogma, however was not uncontested. Unicorns, Mages and Archmages from all over Equestria of all emotional preconditions would challenge and confute the thesis with ease. It was here that the great Fountainhead replied that the grand unified principle was too profound to be felt and too minute to be perceivable. He posits that, though invisible, this maxim holds together the fabric of the universe: matter with magic; existence with consciousness; dreams with reality; and–most significant of all–ourselves with one another."

-Starswirl the Bearded, "Hermeneutical Phenomenology of Pre-Classical Metaphysics", Royal Canterlot Archives (323 L.B.), p. iii-iv

---

EDIT 04/16/13: Remastered version coming soon! Grammatically sound, split into several chapters and improvised.

My name is Canvas. I remember because I wrote it in the corner of the white box. It takes twelve steps to get from the cot to the wall. And the lights hurt my eyes.

(Note: The story isn't in color because I decided to try this without the gimmick! But I still recommend reading the GDocs version.)

We trained her.
We taught her.
We raised her to godhood.
She brought us down to earth.

Sequel can be found here: Memoirs in Ink and Blood