When Twilight Sparkle returns to Canterlot from Equestria's frontier, the unicorn finds out just how much fashions can change.

For one thing, her old friend Rarity Belle is now an alicorn.

This story is a sequel to Twilight Discovers Nuclear Explosions

Twilight is staying in the Crystal Empire, when a hooded pony comes into her room and steals her crown.

Celestia reveals that it is her old student, Sunset Shimmer. Twilight immediately goes after the thief.

What happens next involves chemicals and a lot of science.

Set in: "MLP: Equestria Girls". Not to be taken seriously.

An entry in the Sci-Fi contest

Rarity leaves a career in fashion behind to learn about designing new planets as ponykind spreads to the stars.

This is, first and foremost, a gift for a very kind, incredibly talented friend of mine, Novelle Tale. It is inspired in every way by her work, her friendship, and her love of grand stories filled with tiny, flawed, yet somehow perfect characters.

It also tied for first place in Bicyclette's Science Fiction contest! Hooray!!

Please be sure to check out attsupidupis's beautiful instrumental piece inspired by this fiction!!

Some of you have read Le Guin's classic, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." I bring you a story from the perspective of the starved child in the cellar, shying fearfully from a mop.

Also, ponies.

Content Warning: Child abuse.

Preread Credits: Thanks to RDT and GaPJaxie for prereading (and to Punished Bean and TheSmokingGuy for some logistical help.)

Contest notes:

If friendshipping and other types of relationships are admissible to a 'shipping' contest, this story might qualify for Bicyclette's Woman x Mare Shipping Contest.

Do fanfics for Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" qualify for the site's current Science Fiction Contest? Maybe.

Note to moderators about the poetry/verse: I composed the prophecy (or excerpt from the prophecy) myself. Le Guin's own story didn't really need this poem, but I thought my story did.

Even if it's far from perfect, Applejack and Rarity have the life they've always wanted. But with continuous droughts and rising water prices, life on a farm planet is quickly becoming more than either of them bargained for. Stuck between a tightening water budget and raising their kids, when a sudden disaster throws their narrow but workable plans into the gutter they will have to make a choice to save their family, no matter the cost.

Entry for Bicyclette's Science Fiction Contest

Aileron is a Unicorn from Manehatton, she's one of the best astronaut ponies in Equestria. After being hand picked by the people at the Equestrian Space Bureau or E.S.B for short, She and a small team are sent to help repair a major hull breach in Lunar 5, one of many recently commissioned space stations orbiting the moon
, but when they arrive, they find that not all is as it seems... Now they are in a fight not just for their own lives, but the lives of all their friends and family back on earth. This... is Lunar 5.

It is the way of the world to change. But in the nightclubs on Ceres, where drinks and music flow in equal measure, those changes seem like distant problems. Sunset Shimmer thinks she can escape on past by running to another future, but when someone she knew finds her at the Blue Nova, she'll have no choice but to face the changes that have been waiting for her.

An entry for Bicyclette's Science Fiction Contest

Not many would chase after a Martian storm. But after a heated argument, all Fluttershy wants to do is lose herself in her photography. Unfortunately, it seems her motorcycle has other plans.

Entry for Bicyclette's Science Fiction Contest

1049 After the Sisters, Twilight, now elevated to Queen of Harmony after the nations united through friendship came together in a world government. Soon, the world will achieve sustainable space travel, and Twilight's job is to see her Friendship ambassador, and her little brother Spike, on a mission of friendship through the stars... But everything she passes by reminds her how long it's been since that first day in Ponyville...

(This was written for Bicyclette's Sci-fi Contest.)

(Twilight in image made by Silentmatten)

The facility is a massive, sprawling underground complex where ponies spend their entire lives. All they have to do is follow its instructions: flip that switch, turn that dial, press that button.

But what does it do?

Tagged Dark for general bleakness.
Content warning: may be frustrating to those with a high need for cognitive closure. It's also just plain weird.

Thank you to SparklingTwilight for prereading.

Written for the Science Fiction Contest. (third place)

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