This is a collaboration piece with The Red Parade for the Scifi Contest.

When Strawberry Sunrise was eight years old, she watched as the sun blinked. It vanished for exactly four seconds, and Strawberry knew she had just seen the end of the world. Years pass, and the blinks get longer. Strawberry loses ponies to the blinks – loses ponies she loves. And she knows she cannot let it go on any longer.

Laotyn is tasked with watching the planet down below the great gas-ship Taelo. The primitive lifeforms are unevolved, bestial. But when Laotyn looks closer, when he strains his senses to really listen, he begins to think he can hear something that sounds almost like speech. 

"...but when the people grew resentful of the dark, when they shunned her sacred night,
her two halves united and she unleashed her wrath upon the fools and the ignorant,
alas, the sun god protected them from her wrath and trapped her within her ancient tapestry after a fight,
and she could only lament as she was forgotten to the sands of time..."

Luna has been waiting for over a thousand years to return.

A thousand years is a lot of time.

In that much time, many things could have happened.

Entry in scifi contest.

Retired Special Agent Sweetie Drops has been living in Ponyville as Bon Bon for just over ten years now, and aside from the occasional monster attack or magical mishap, life has been peaceful. She's happily married and has a successful career running a candy shop. Something has been preventing her from properly appreciating the quiet life, however, and that thing's name is Vinyl Scratch. Countless hours of surveillance has convinced Bon Bon of one fact, and it's that whatever Vinyl Scratch is, it's not a pony. Today is the day she gets to the bottom of the mystery that has haunted for her so long: What exactly is Vinyl Scratch, and what does she want with Octavia Melody?

A Submission for the 2023 Science Fiction Contest.

Edit: Featured from March 24th to the 29th? Magnificent. Thank you all so very much!

Edit 2: FEATURED ON EQUESTRIA DAILY!

Art commission done by my friend Raph13th, check him out!

After an unfortunate accident renders Rainbow Dash unconscious, she wakes in a strange new world filled with hostile pony-like creatures. Stuck in a booming metropolis with unrecognizable technology and a less-than-welcoming reception from its locals, she is desperate to find a way home.

However, she quickly learns that she has bigger concerns. Unrest spreads amongst the inhabitants of this city like wildfire, and Rainbow Dash finds herself in the midst of a society teetering on the brink of revolution.

Submission for the Science Fiction Contest II.

Cover art by Gusty.

Sweetie Bell isn't a robot, right?

My entry into the Science Fiction Contest II, with special thanks to my proof reader, gapty.

Cypress Flash has worked at Station Thirteen as part of the Logistics department for a month, and has had no reason to believe that it would ever be interesting. That changes when one day, he uncovers a perplexing mystery in the form of components missing from the storeroom. It'll be up to him and Kai, the station's only Changeling, to figure out not just who stole these supplies, but also why.

An entry for the 2023 Science Fiction Contest II.

Cover art adapted from this image. All credit goes to the original artist.

Lives are controlled. Communication is monitored. Anything deemed improper is censored. If you want to send messages in private, you need to do it physically, with couriers known as Runners.

Rainbow Dash is a Runner. It's not the greatest job, but it's for a good cause.

The government is hunting Runners. If they think you're carrying information they don't want you carrying, they'll come after you with everything they've got. They have nigh-limitless resources at their disposal: enforcers, vehicles, surveillance. Your life will be on the line until you submit. They will find you and they will hunt you down, and your only defense will be your wits and your ability to run.

Now it's the greatest job.

An experiment in atmosphere, entered in the Science Fiction Contest II because it inspired me to finish it. A thematic crossover with Mirror's Edge; no non-pony knowledge required.

Sunset Shimmer hates the magicless world of mutant apes she's been trapped in for the last four moons, but at least she's making some progress on improving her situation. Now if only the short-sighted fools surrounding her would stop getting in her way, she could show them. She'd show them all!

Note that this particular Sunset has yet to encounter the concept of the "mad scientist." Not until later today, anyway.

An entry in the Science Fiction Contest II and the Spring Fling. Thanks to EileenSaysHi for the original idea (which, full disclosure, was proposed in January, before the Spring Fling was announced.) Rated Teen for the occasional discussion topic that goes outside the scope of TV-Y.

Jiang - “江”, ancient name for Yangtze River, now refers to rivers of great volume. Also used as a common surname.

Shuren - “述人”, "to describe human" or "he who describes".

Jiangshu ren - “讲述人”, a narrator.

An entry for Science Fiction Contest II.
I guess the judges just have very different aesthetic opinions from the public, or they were cutting this exotic little piece some slacks.

As you can probably tell from the protagonist's name, this story was originally written in Chinese. It is an entry of Raa's 2020 Midsummer Writing Contest, conceptualised to the four challenge elements provided by the holder:

Leaving embers. The '70s. Subjecting. A violet rain.

It was written in a time of doubt and fear, and I probably got too emotional writing this, but in the end, I'm satisfied with how it turned out to be. Some of the concerns I raised had become very real problems on the Chinese Internet. I wish it had stayed a parable.

I found it hard to translate this story. Not only are there expressions that sound cumbersome in English, but some concepts mentioned are also unique to China. It might not be easy to read this, never mind empathising, if you didn't grow up in China. Though, I hope some of the sentiment get through to you, and encourage you to help make the Internet a more forgiving space for everyone.

No matter what, may you enjoy this story.

Thanks you, TheFlint44 and Omega, for proofreading!