This story is a predecessor to Operation Homecoming

We are S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s: Scavengers Trespassers Adventurers Loners Killers Explorers Robbers. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the most dangerous place on Earth, is our home. Radiation, killer mutants and deadly anomalies are just another day at the office -just another day in the Zone, as we say. We get by, day after day, by scavenging gear, trespassing and exploring in forbidden areas, seeking for new adventures, all on our own; we kill for money, loot or survival and sometimes rob each other. Well, not everyone does the robbing part, that would be the Bandits' job.

I named myself Strider. I am a free stalker and I do not even know what I am doing here, not that I care anyway.
My name is Vano. I'm a free stalker and one of Strider's rare friends. It's a peculiar predicament, trust me.
My name is Celestia. I'm a free stalker and just want to get back home. Well, I wanted. Maybe I still do.

This is our story.

First time writing a story ever. Constructive criticism and comments are appreciated and encouraged, just don't kill me in the process. Romance is a sub-plot thrown in there for exercise and because it's popular, apparently. I made the cover art. I was bored and felt like drawing something.

I was never the sort’a pony with the time to ponder about who I ought to be kissin’. I was never the sort’a pony with the time to ponder about who I ought -not- be kissin’, neither, but... well. There I was all the same. Because the honest truth, the only truth I never dared speak aloud in my life, was that I put a lot more time into thinkin’ on the latter.

And it ate at me.

Rated T for implied sexual themes.

At 3:15 AM, Adams woke me with a loud knock on my front door.
"Put your boots on," he said when I answered. "There's a biblical monster in my house."

* * *

A Visual Companion, by the author
Interview with the author, from the Royal Canterlot Library.
Audiobook by Robin Jacks and Wubcake.
Audiobook by Scribbler.
In-depth analysis by the Heroic Tales cast.
Literary Analysis by ScarletWeather.
Special thanks to GaryOak.
Reviews:
City of Doors
One Man's Pony Ramblings
PresentPerfect
Louder Yay
Between Lines
Bad Horse

Rainbow Dash is many things. Awesome, radical, amazing, and at least twenty percent cooler than any other pony in Equestria.

She is also lost, lonely and uncertain. Not that anypony else would know.

During the day she is everything everypony expects her to be: she is fast, daring, and adventurous, but when the sun goes down, she is left alone with her thoughts. Tired of simply yearning for something more, she sets out on a night of soul searching and stumbles onto a friend in need, and maybe, underneath the vanilla twilight, she finds something more.

Twilight and her friends have faced several villains, but were they really that evil? Sure, Nightmare Moon wanted eternal night, Discord likes to mess with ponies, and Queen Chrysalis and king Sombra both wanted power; but no one ever killed anypony. No one ever stood against Equestria that couldn't be reformed or sent away with a bit of love and happiness. No doubt the main six can defeat true evil, but at what cost to the friendship that they need to fight it with?

The characters in this story are protected by OCRA

Thank you McPoodle for editing the first chapter.
I found a new editor their name is Starlight Nova.

Magic, the most powerful of the Elements Of Harmony, it binds them together and helps keep stability over Equestria. Cut that off and what happens? What happens when the threads of friendship are severed, and the flames of chaos are rekindled? For Twilight, her existence's end is simply the beginning to something much bigger. How will she act in a world deprived of the harmony it once held as a creature that must thrive on the blood that Equestria has lost?

As it turns out, Rainbow isn't as good at skipping stones as she thought she was. Luckily for her, she'll end up getting help from a place that she didn't expect.

Maybe there will be more to this that she didn't expect either.

(An uncomplicated shipping story. Proof-read by Desol starting at Chapter 2.)

Twilight Sparkle is a gifted student and scholar. When she attempts to harness her creative side by writing a science-themed sensual romance novel, however, things rapidly get out of hoof. Can her friends stage an intervention before she humiliates herself (and them) at a prestigious literature recital?

No. No, they cannot.

It occurred one peaceful night. Half of Equestria awoke to the sound like a double-shot thunderclap. A percussion heard in the skies and rattling windows from Apploosa, to Canterlot, to Ponyville. Nopony knew what it was or what it heralded for the world as it drew a line across the nation.

For Twilight Sparkle, this isolated incident might have faded from memory after a time, if not for the strange rumors of a creature sitting on the hill on the outskirts of town.

These are her thoughts given written form. These are Sparkle's Notes.

Report EVERYTHING to the Princess.

Set between The Regal Sisters and Discord and Time.

In the two weeks that Twilight and her friends have been travelling with The Doctor, they have been to many different places, and had many adventures. These are just a few. Come and see what life is like for a pony, travelling throughout all of time and space.