The Elements of Harmony. Six artifacts of legendary power that have provided for the peace of Equestria for over a thousand years. While Queen Chrysalis managed to deny the ponies their ultimate defense, she still lost to a different unexpected surprise in the form of a love-powered shield spell.

However, the Elements won't be so easily denied. Unbeknownst to anyone, they awaken in their vault and cast Chrysalis into another world to teach her a lesson or six about life and harmony.

Stripped of her power, trapped in a form unfamiliar even to a changeling, and at the mercy of the locals, Chrysalis must learn how to get along with others before she is allowed to return to save her hive. And if successful, she may just be allowed to keep her new friend... If he's willing, and if he can survive the drawbacks of being one of the rarest changeling classes ever seen:

A breeding drone.

Join a spoiled rotten queen and a workaholic electrical engineer in the retelling of an adventure that brought them together across the boundaries of space and time. Because sometimes, a little change isn't all that bad.

(Changeling Drone 'Gazer' design artwork courtesy of oFimFiction.net member 'More Dakka')

I have traveled this world for decades. Yet I have seen no sign of life but the predators that hunt their prey.

I have made a home among the jagged peaks of a near dead wasteland. One day a creature fell from the sky, badly wounded.

She calls herself Chrysalis. She tells me that she is the last of her kind.

Or so she thought.

[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a331/brittmcgee/MLP%20Minecraft/TLSOA_zps2aa17c49.png[/img]

Warning: Silliness inbound.

By order of the high lords of Terra themselves, a lone soldier from the Death Korps of Krieg has been sent to the planet Epona to wipe out its Xeno population. Starting with Equestria, the Korpsman has sworn not to leave the planet until he falls or completes his mission.

However, no Korpsman should fight without setting up a proper trench first, and so the Korpsman must dig...and dig...and dig.

Destroying Equestria is going to take a while.

It's been a couple of weeks and way more than a couple of games since Pinkie Pie introduced the Mane Six to the joys of playing the classic real-time strategy title, Age of Empires II. Unanswered questions surround this mysterious game: where did it come from? Who made it? Why is there so much killing?

Never mind all that - Twilight Sparkle and her friends have a game to play!

NOTE: Though I've tried to make the story more about the relationships between the four gamers (no Rarity or Fluttershy, sorry!) than about the game itself, some rudimentary knowledge about Age of Empires II is required if you want to understand what is going on. I wrote this as a short-ish story so I'm not really going to go into technical details much.

=====INFO AFTER BREAK=====
References consulted while writing story:
ZeroEmpires (Commentary on Competitive AoE II matches)
wikiHow (5 Ways to Make Your Economy Boom in Age of Empires II)
Wikipedia (for info on Byzantines, Moon & Vikings)
Luttwak, E. "The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire" (Harvard University Press, USA), 2009 (Byzantine military strategy)

Youtube links:
Prologue - PakAttack95 (Youtube Channel)
Main Menu and Victory Music - mikec1000 Civilization Themes

Cover Image:
Wikipedia
Age of Empires II
Cutie Mark Vectors by Hawk9mm (deviantART page)

The sequel to this story: Sweetie Belle and the Quest for Knowledge is now available!

When Sweetie Belle finds a mysterious artifact of a now lost civilization, how will she come to terms with the wealth of knowledge it provides? It says it can be ignored, it says it will never try to influence her, but can an artifact of such power really be so harmless?

Book I of III

Prologue and Chapter 1: Thanks to TheOtherSideOfFluttershy for pre-reading and editing.
The whole story: Thanks to RaylanKrios for editing.
Chapter 4: Thanks to AuthorGenesis for editing.
Epilogue:
Thanks to Malefactory for editing.

Twilight's latest letter to the princess goes... astray.

Two months have passed since House faked his death to avoid prison and spend time with his best friend, Wilson. Together they have traveled the United States doing whatever it is Wilson wishes to do before he dies from terminal cancer.

The most recent decision was to go to Trentville, a small town with little to offer the pair, apart from an unbeatable drinking challenge.

After successfully completing the challenge House and Wilson pass out in an an alleyway behind the pub, only to wake up in rather different land.

How will House cope in a land that is filled with ideas he believes to be moronic, where kindness and friendship roam free. More importantly, how will Equestria cope with House's cold, hard, cynical logic? Also how will Wilson cope living in a land filled with ideals he has tried to convince House of his whole life?

Applejack had certainly dealt with her fair share of critters taking apples from the farm in her life. Unfortunately for her and the rest of Equestria, this latest apple thief encounter may just be more of a hassle than the ponies can deal with...

"Humans.... Quite possibly the most infuriating mythical creatures in existence. If you ever have the 'luck' to meet a Human in your travels across Equestria, then you must be careful. Humans are extremely powerful creatures, some would say more so than Celestia or Luna, they are also more unpredictable than Discord. They can help you in a tight spot if you're lucky, or play nasty tricks on you if you don't hold the Human's favor. In my time I've seen a Human give a filly pounds upon pounds of gold, and the same one turn greedy ponies into gold. The only one I ever have seen 'face-to-face' was in my earlier years, he helped me repair my wagon when it broke down in Everfree Forest, by fix I mean a whole new one appeared not ten feet away, and the only thing the Human asked for in return was a spindle.... But be warned, never anger a Human, a trick or two in fair game is fine, but if you ever manage to truly anger a Human...... you'll be part of the small number ever to meet non-existence." - Star-Swirl the Bearded.

A silly nonsensical story, not to be taken seriously. Some chapters are not connected to others.

What happens when the C.E.O of a company whose motto is 'We sell products and get in fights' appears in a world full of candy-colored ponies? We're going to find out the hard way in this one shot, action packed fic!

TF2 and MLP belong to their legal owners