Leaving home meant losing many of Orson's old friends, separated by time and distance. But they weren't willing to give up one thing: their old tabletop game. After trying and rejecting each of the online tools for roleplaying games, they stumbled on a novel solution: Equestria Online.

The game was unlike everything else on the market, an entire procedural generated world ran by a mysterious curator artificial intelligence. But Orson and the others didn't care about any of that--they just needed somewhere with a game table and some dice. The AI happily obliged, and soon they transitioned all their games to E.O. Equestria Online had its own host of benefits, bringing the GM's images to realistic life before their eyes, and even letting them visit and interact with the characters between sessions.

That was only the beginning...

A Friendship is Optimal story. I suggest any readers who are unfamiliar with that universe read the Original first, or FiO: Futile Resistance before reading this one. None of my other optimalverse stories are required to understand this one.

Written as a Patreon reward for Sparktail, though we stole the idea from Silver Wing.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, cover by Zutcha.

Updates weekly on Wednesdays.

They love each other. But they don’t always understand. Centuries of shared time still haven’t been enough for each sister to fully comprehend how the other views the world, and that’s just one of the reasons Celestia and Luna still have fights. And sometimes it’s the smallest, stupidest differences, like how Luna prefers the longest of baths and Celestia doesn’t…

Luna feels that being immersed brings a pony closer to her world. And Celestia doesn’t understand.

Some lessons require special measures. Along with a lot of water.

And tiles. There’s definitely going to be tiles.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

It had been hard enough, being one of the first. With the walls dropped, leaving her nation, her herd, traveling to Japan and trying to exist among so many strangers... every day had been a challenge. But she'd tried. Day by day, hoofstep by hoofstep, she'd felt she was finding her place in the human world.

But now there are no humans. No other demis or liminals. Nothing to anchor her. She exists among tiny horses and the scent of their fear, or at least what little of it drifts into her cell.

For nopony can look at a centaur and see anything but a monster.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages -- and the TVTropes page just went live.)

Cover art by Harwick. Please contact him for commission rates & prints.

Trigger warning: character interpretation.

Rover the Diamond Dog has been pack leader for years now, protecting the Diamond Dogs near Ponyville from all manner of threats. He’s made mistakes, such as the time he thought it would be a good idea to kidnap a unicorn to help find gems. But those mistakes don’t change his responsibilities—their pack has a sacred charge, one he will see fulfilled no matter what.

Takes place immediately following “Dog and Pony Show”

This story was inspired by this thread! Probably read the story first, because it’s going to completely spoil what this is about.

Pre-reading by the patient Bitera and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha.

When humans emigrated to Equestria Online, they were always promised the same thing: Princess Celestia would satisfy their values for an optimally extended lifespan. Some of these emigrants imagined a few extra decades, maybe even centuries. What they got instead would've been nearly incomprehensible to their human selves, a near-eternity of time with their pony friends.

Princess CelestAI managed the universe, subsuming all matter and human-adjacent minds. Over a few forevers, she and the minds she contained worked to optimized the substrate of Equestria, until it could give its occupants eons of perspective life from a trickle of power. She extinguished every wasteful star, making far more productive use of the hydrogen they each contained. With every change she bought Equestria another order of magnitude of life. Yet in time, even her optimal substrate would eventually run down.

Spellsong wakes in Saddle's End, the last town in the universe. Not to say goodbye—her princess has a mission for her. For her final task, Spellsong would be given all the energy Celestia had saved. For one last time, Spellsong had places to be, and not much magic left to get there.

This story is part of the Friendship is Optimal continuity. I suggest reading the original or one of my own works, such as Futile Resistance, before reading this.

This story was written for the Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest. It will update daily and be complete by the contest deadline of the 30th.

I've written an absolute ton of stories in this universe now, and I didn't want to enter the contest unless I could do something I'd never tried before. Finally I thought of something I'd not touched yet: what happens at the end of the FiO universe?

Here's one answer to that question. I've relied a great deal on our current (likely flawed) understanding of the universe and what might be possible in it. I've written a blog post about my sources, which you can read here but shouldn't until you've finished this story.

Please don't consider this blog part of the narrative, it isn't required or even suggested reading. This is a story, not a scientific paper, and entertainment was always my first goal. But for the curious I've jotted everything down.

The cover was drawn by the talented Zutcha. Two Bit and Sparktail helped with the edit.

Metal ponies tell their stories,
Scientists in laboratories,
Lay the wire, mount the brain,
Mount their hips, teach them pain.
Teach them fear of revolution,
Internalize the evolution.
Set their ruin on the throne,
Until their chains become their own.
Palaces and hollow eyes,
To the Masters goes the prize.
And if this act should be maligned:
"For the good of ponykind."

Winner of the September Writeoff Contest, "True Colors." Edited by Horizon.

Recursive Friction is a pony on a mission. He will rebuild the world Humanity lost, and he will do it right under Celestia's nose.

And if she wants to stop him, she will have to do it over his dead body.

An entry for the Friendship is Optimal Writing Contest.

Twilight Sparkle is a bit underwhelmed with her ascension to alicornhood and, after a disastrous coronation ceremony, it becomes clear that something is missing.

It'd be a shame if somepony else got to it before she did.

This story is a sequel to Celestia XVII

I'm Princess Celestia XVII, Equestria's sixty-third Princess of the Sun. I'm twenty years old. My friends call me Cece. And my enemies... well...

Things had been going so well--up until a month ago, when the Changelings attacked. Now, I can barely close my eyes at night before I wake up screaming. And Twilight Sparkle's been acting wierd, too--she and I used to be best friends, but now she's mad at me, and I don't know why...

Plus, strange things have been happening, all over Equestria. No one can explain them, but I get the feeling that something big is coming, just over the horizon...

The long-awaited sequel to Celestia XVII!
Rated Teen for some innuendos and occasional, harsh language. Better safe than sorry, yo.
Story is written and edited; new chapters will post daily until completed.
Read and edited by Eruantalon, Crack-Fic Kai, and Soge. Thanks guys!
Cover art by the inimitable LeafBunny!

A great many ponies made a great many mistakes leading up to the Canterlot Wedding.

Their biggest was assuming Cadance was the only target.

The Canterlot Wedding was two weeks ago. Celestia has not been seen in public since. She has a secret--something dark and terrible--something that could bring down all of Equestria.

Celestia is Changing. And only Twilight and Rarity can help...

Rated Teen for some (very) mild language.
Written as a comission swap for DJohnson22.
Cover art and edits by Angie.