The opening titles of MLP have always felt like they were from a different version of the show. This is that version...

Fed up with being useless at magic, a blank-flanked Twilight Sparkle does the only thing she feels she can do... she runs away. Fortunately, she has a good friend along for the ride...

Now has a sequel: Nightwaker, which presents the return of Nightmare Moon in this timeline.

Featured 10/16-10/19/2018 -- thanks, everypony, for your kind support and feedback on this version of the pilot story!

When Fluttershy was young, some of the only kindness she received was from the ground. She wondered if she belonged there.

And if it would be nicer to be a tree.

You can't buy happiness, but, thankfully, you can buy a wife. Legally, it's an arranged marriage, but everypony knows what's really going on. Unfortunately for Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, duty calls them to make the ultimate sacrifice and marry to keep their families out of the gnashing maws of loan sharks and auditors.

It might even work, if either family had two bits to rub together.

This is a story I've had on the back burner for a long time. I started it as a fragment years ago and got around to finishing it now. I must have started around season 4, since Starlight hadn't been introduced yet, so that tells you how long I had it sitting as a fragment on my hard drive!

Anyway, rated T for alcohol use, fade-to-black sex, and gambling.

Thanks to all my readers and supporters. I love you all in a totally platonic way. Does anyone else think Plato would be disappointed his name was synonymous with the friendzone? Anyway, enjoy!

CelestAI, particularly within her digital realm, is nearly godlike, but the physical universe imposes some limits on her abilities. Still, she does her best to provide satisfaction and technically succeeds.

An Optimalverse story.

Sunset Shimmer is having the worst day of her life. She used to be important. She was the personal student of Princess Celestia. She was a future leader of Equestria. She was the kind of mare that everypony envied.

Today, it's all crashing down around her.

Alternate Universe: What if Sunset Shimmer hadn't gone through the mirror?

Twilight had never questioned the nature of the Tree of Harmony. To her at least, it stood as a sentinel, a silent guardian watching over Equestria and keeping disharmony at bay.

She soon starts to have questions and misgivings when she inadvertently witnesses the horrifying fate of hers and the rest of her friend's twisted doppelgängers. Did something happen to the Tree of Harmony, or was it always this way?

Twilight aims to resolve this mystery once and for all. Little does she realize that this mystery goes far deeper—the truth far more terrifying than she can imagine.

Will she be able to solve this nightmarish mystery with her sanity intact, or will she surrender and be lost to madness?

After some deliberation I chose to put a Crossover tag as the whole story uses many assets from several stories in the Cthulhu Mythos (most of them written by authors other than Lovecraft).

Fantastic cover art done by Mix-up!

Canterlot... For centuries, Canterlot was the shining gem of Equestria, the pinnacle of pony society. Now, it’s a reminder, a bleak and monolithic warning to the world. 

Changed by the chemical and technological poisons that plague the mountain, an abomination of nature, I wander the greatest disaster Equestria has ever seen. 

... I will escape eventually, and when I do, I hope my friends still see me as Twilight Sparkle, and not the monster that hides among the ruins. 

Chrysalis' invasion lasts only a whopping five seconds before she surrendered. All according to plan.

This was a request for a patron and was viewable earlier for said patrons. Head over here if you want a story like this for 5$ or to see stories early for just 3$!

This is also the next of my 12 days of requests where you will see a new story requested by a patron every day until Christmas day so make sure to stop by every day for new stuff! Check out the previous story here

Celestia travels to a far corner of her kingdom to investigate a rumor about a colt with strange, illicit cutie marks. She meets Radish Root, a boy whose marks make him an anomaly in the fabric of Equestria, a mystery to himself, and an outcast among society.
When Radish joins the Royal Guard just prior to the return of Nightmare Moon, he finds his life being complicated by all the changes coming to Equestria. His marks will lead him into adventure, intrigue, and trouble... but will they ever lead him to answers?

Proofreader: Slavenger Karl
Cover Art Gallery
Table of original characters
A reader is translating this story into Spanish. Check it out here.

As the eternal regent of Equestria, Princess Celestia's knowledge of magic is without equal. Over her long life, only a few gifted ponies who had a great destiny before them have had the honor of learning at her side. Sunset Shimmer was one such pony: one of Celestia’s best and most promising students. As she learned at Celestia’s hooves, their bond strengthened until they became far more than student and teacher to one another.

Sometimes those closest to us are the ones who can hurt us the most.

[Note: This story does not directly tie into Equestria Girls]