Luna's return and Twilight's ascension to rulership of Equestria helped usher in an age of scientific and magical innovation. She and her slow-aging and long-lived friends lived through tumultous times of discovery and progress, and now Equestria is beginning its first true forays into deep space.

But someone has to be out there, representing Twilight and speaking on her behalf. She can't go herself--FTL travel is still primitive and time consuming. She needs someone out there trekking the stars, keeping up with the growing network of colonies. Someone with diplomatic chops, a vivid imagination, impeccable manners, and a lot of charisma. Rarity is eager to help her wife out in a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the worlds, literally.

Applejack is not having a good day.

She was nopony special: a gardener and sometime-engineer aboard the Golden Oaks space station, providing food and oxygen for the CelesTech researchers living and performing experiments there. She vaguely knew everypony, performed good work, and even was on first-name terms with a certain royal, but wasn't noteworthy. She was nice, a dependable worker, and not much else.

But when the Stellar Thrones send up representatives for a routine tour, something goes wrong. Applejack wakes up a week later, with no memories of what occurred in the meantime, to find Golden Oaks ravaged. The entire station is in lockdown. Communications are nonexistent. The shuttles are destroyed. Power is unreliable. Most of the crew have been slaughtered. The escape pods don't work. Every module has been badly damaged. And something is prowling the station. Something capable of disguising itself as anything.

With only a wrench and herself to rely on, Applejack pushes through the crumbling station to unravel the mystery. But her every step is being watched, her every movement is a risk. Because Golden Oaks isn't a research facility anymore. It's a hunting ground. And ponies are the prey.

Although this is a crossover with Prey, no knowledge of it is required.

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

This story is a sequel to Seashell

I never thought I would see the Seawall again. Fate, though, seems to enjoy odd twists. Thirteen years ago, it was roses. Now it's feathers. Somehow they've both brought me back to this place, back to the edge of the world to where I really belong most of all.

My name is Sunburst, and as a guard of Princess Twilight, her student Azure Sky is both one of the ponies I protect and my friend. I watched her grow up. I, and everypony else, thought we knew exactly where she was headed in life. It seemed so obvious - how could the personal student of a princess have anything but the brightest of futures? We were all so sure.

What did we really know?

A happy life, a good life, can't be built on a lie. The heart of a unicorn and the heart of a pegasus are different things in some ways, but in the ones that really matter, they're the same. Nopony can endure the misery of an existence devoid of real meaning in their hearts, going through empty motions they feel nothing for, dead on the inside. I think all ponies, deep down inside where it counts, are the same in this way. That's what Azure and I needed to learn, here on the edge of the world, so that I could help her share the things she so desperately needed to find a way to give voice to.

Approved by Twilight's Library on December 11, 2014!

After months of anticipation and fear, the war with Gryphos has finally reached Ponyville, shattering the fragile peace. Scootaloo and the other Crusaders, now separated from their families in the chaos, have holed up in the Golden Oak Library, hoping to ride out the war until it passes.
But they aren't soldiers; they're just kids, with few survival skills to speak of and who barely know how to defend themselves. With bandits and looters roaming the streets and no end to the fighting in sight, the constant struggle to survive becomes desperate as each day demands ever more from the inexperienced fillies and their dwindling supplies.
What will they do when their food runs out? Will the shells ever stop falling? And what deeds will they be forced to commit if it means they can survive just one more day?

Written for the More Most Dangerous Game contest, prompt #5: "In an Equestria devastated by an apocalyptic war, the few that remain try their best to survive or rebuild—however they can."

Also written in a single day, and it shows. You have been warned.

Artwork: "Out of the Ashes, a New Story To Be Told" by Huussii, and "Cutie Mark Crusaders Adventure" by aruurara.

Loosely inspired by the basic concept of "This War of Mine," a simulation game that depicts civilian life in a warzone. It shares no story, character, setting, or plot details, and is thus not a crossover.

Retirement had begun to grow boring for former princesses Celestia and Luna, until one evening Luna noticed a star was moving, and it was heading for their planet! With the aid of her sister, Princess Cadence, and even Twilight Sparkle, the four will embark on a small adventure of a lost race which sought to give the rest of the universe eveything they could for a brighter future.

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Edited by Hammerhead, thanks for taking the time!

Cover art is a modified variation of a piece done by Johan Swanepoel and used from a MIT website. Thanks to Cedric Bale and HalflingPony for confirming and taking the time to research for me.

Top of the Box of Shame, 5/1/2021.

In the magical land of Equestria the borders are kept by the watchful eyes of the fourth tribe. Evergreen Hold, one village among many, guards the endless forests along Equestria's southwest border. But lately something new has crept into the forest, it seems there is a change in the air...

Many thanks to Destiny Chaser and Comma Typer for their encouragement, and to ClockworkMage for his gracious help in editing this. Any errors that remain exist by my own efforts.

Cover art generously provided by Comma Typer.

A translation into Spanish Generously provided by SPANIARD KIWI.
Halvard y la reina amable

Twilight has had a very eventful week: Fighting Tirek, getting her home blown up, defeating Tirek, and getting a nifty replacement home would already be pretty exciting on its own. But now she has been summoned to Canterlot by Celestia, who has some big news to tell her.

After long consideration and no small amount of pestering from Luna, Celestia is about to grant Twilight access to the files of the Equestrian Secret Service so that she and her friends can be better prepared for future threats to come.

What will Twilight learn in the depths of the archive? Surely nothing that could shake the very foundation of the friendships she so painstakingly built in her new home ...

Obligatory edit: Woohoo, featured on the front page . Thank you all so much for liking my story .

Many thanks to silent_user for proofreading and editing this story.

Written as an entry for BWG's 'New Blood' Contest. I would greatly appreciate some feedback from any of the judges.

If any of you would be interested in an epilogue, where I unveil some of the secrets or thoughts behind them, let me know in the comments.

Need deniable arson? Anger a kirin!

Preread by Samey90. Discussions and BSing with the usual crowds, thanks!

This story is a sequel to p-value

Shortdesc

Destabilized by Equestrian magic, Wallflower’s world is dying. For its sake, Sunset had to leave forever. All Wallflower can do is hold on to the last connection they still have: the journal Sunset left behind.

Review

Long-Distance is a wrenching story and more than one of our judges said that, though they won’t ever be able to bring themselves to re-read it, it will stay with us for a long time. Everything is ending, it may or may not be anyone’s fault, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The time it will take to reach that final tragedy doesn’t make it any less remote. Sunset and Wallflower are separated across worlds, and have only Sunset’s journal to link them. One of them will die and the other will live on. They’re left to learn how to cope with and share and grieve the time they have left.

Long-Distance is superbly written, with just enough detail about the nature of the tragedy to make it feel realized without overwhelming readers with exposition. There’s a novel’s worth of story in this short story, but none of it feels compressed. Sunset and Wallflower’s tightly written, wrenching, and affecting, and the last chapter left us breathless.

--Judges of Scampy's SunFlower Shipping Contest

The result was an emotional tale of making the best out of a bad situation through inevitability and – if you’ll pardon the title drop – long distance. Bicyclette’s work is a delightful story that exemplifies how to Show a hard-hitting story through meaningful dialogue, contextual narrative clues, vivid scene setting, and a firm grasp of the characters and their struggles.

--PaulAsaran, Paul's Thursday Reviews CCCXLVII

Contest

Literal last-minute entry to Scampy's SunFlower Shipping Contest, and now unexpectedly the fourth-place winner. Go read the other entries please, there's a lot of good stuff in there!

I originally pulled this story for revisions after the contest results came out. I regret this, and I am sorry.

Credits

Thanks to Sledge115 for emotional support!