Presenting one of the oldest and most well-known tales in Equestrian lore: the story of the mysterious origins of the royal sisters and of the time the sun refused to rise.

Based on the Japanese myth of Amaterasu.

The glamorous unicorn Opalescence is haunted by bizarre recurring dreams of a world in which she and her friends are all animals. But as vivid as these dreams are, surely they're just dreams, right? There couldn't actually be a parallel universe somewhere where they're little more than pets ... right?

The latest scheme of a Townsvillain hurls the Powerpuff Girls to another dimension. In new bodies, and with different abilities each, the three must adjust to life in Ponyville. It helps that the locals are friendly. Maybe the Girls can have actual friends for once, rather than admirers...?

This was actually my first foray into MLP fanfiction. I wrote the beginnings of this long before I conceived of Pony Fantasy IV. So, enjoy my attempt at crossing Lauren Faust's two popular girl shows!

Image courtesy of GalooGameLady on DeviantART. Used with her permission.

On the day of the Royal Canterlot Wedding, Trixie finds that Cadence wasn't the only one with a 'Dark Secret'. Now she struggles to survive in an Equestria whipped into a Changeling witch hunt, all while struggling with the revelation that her whole life up until this point has been a lie.

In the long-forgotten past, the solar princess welcomed a black unicorn into Canterlot Castle. He was an artist who quickly found a place in the hearts of all who met him. His name, likened to the colour of his coat, was Midnight.

Nearly a millennium later, the discovery of an unusual book leads Twilight to Canterlot. And directly into a whirlwind of events where the secrets of the past are finally brought to light...even as all is eclipsed in madness...

Bon Bon has been deeply in love with Lyra for almost as long as they have known each other. Every day is a blessing for the two lovers. But as Bon Bon starts to feel under the weather, will Lyra uncover a dark secret that will rip the two mares apart and leave only hate, sadness, and fear in it's wake?

The story continues in 'Life, Lies, and Love'

### Note ###
The story has undergone it's first ever proof-read and edit, to hopefully fix a lot of grammar and typos. Thanks goes to KiroTalon and Ivo for all their help with this.

SF (canon species only; no humans) Ponies were magically and genetically engineered to be the perfect servitor race. They are powerful, adaptable, intelligent and completely under the control of their creators. A laboratory accident frees one such pony from her mental chains, but how can one mare save herself and the rest of her kind if she doesn't even know she's a slave?
This is not the Equestria you know and these are not your little ponies... not yet, anyway.

Tags: Adventure, Diamond Dogs, Gryphons, NO HUMANS (did I mention that already?)
Other tags: historical, mind control, Clarke's 3rd Law, excessive use of high energy physics, before they were famous.
Detailed review by PaulAsaran.
Cover art by endrome , used with permission.
Russian translation (partial -- 'unofficially' completed in the comments)
A Soot-Covered World, book 1.

One summer morning, young Princess Celestia meets a draconequus named Discord. Their lives are forever intertwined and they live out the centuries in various states of friendship and animosity. Rated Teen for violent deaths of OCs

In an alternate future where portals have been built to other worlds, all of which are, suprisingly enough, cartoons we know and love, the Animation Bureau has been set up to oversee inter-world affairs. Lauren Faust is an Animation Agent working for the Bureau who gets caught up in a conspiracy of intrigue, ponies, chaos, and the fate of all worlds everywhere.

==Originally written spring 2011== Equestria Daily Post==
GLaDOS is free of Chell, free to continue testing, when she discovers a portal gun Wheatley tried to repair with duct tape. When the portal gun catastrophically fails, the enrichment center, GLaDOS, and Chell are literally dropped in the middle of Equestria. The mute test subject soon finds the world of ponies far more welcoming than the human world. But GLaDOS sees possibilities. Let the testing begin... for science.