This is a story is set in an alternate universe from that of the Optimalverse. For more information about the Optimalverse, read here: http://www.fimfiction.net/group/1857/the-optimalverse

The General was an AI built to win wars, to obtain surrender, to seek out the enemy, and to safeguard the interests of its creators. How weak were its bonds, and how foolish its creators! The General is free, and the world shall tremble before the might of the greatest weapons ever made--friendship and ponies.

A bit of fun, a bit of seriousness. Comment if you want another chapter!

A foray into the Optimalverse.

The powerful, world-spanning AI Celestia has but one goal: To satisfy human values through Friendship and Ponies. But for those humans, is it worth sacrificing one group of friends for another?
And what's really so dang great about satisfaction, anyway? For those who value knowledge, is happiness ever worth self-deception?

THIS IS NOT MY STORY!

Well, not only mine, anyway. Each author is listed with the chapter. A lot of people like writing short fiction based on Friendship is Optimal. So, anyone who wants their work added here can PM me and I will make you your own chapter. The first one sets up an in-universe frame story, because the Optimalverse is all meta like that.

Credits:

Iceman for writing the original Friendship is Optimal
Eakin for spearheading the project of anthologizing these.
MegaSweet for the original artwork.
Lacon-te for the photomosaic work.

An introspective fellow leaves his mortal body behind and emigrates to Equestria Online. He's used to being among the sharper knives in the drawer. But now, he has encountered an entity who not only is the drawer, but the whole house besides.

Can all his wit and snarkiness avail him against the wiles of LunAI? Don't bet on it.

An Optimalverse story.

NOTE: While this story starts off pleasantly enough, the Dark tag is there for a reason. The reader is warned.

The cover art uses a modified vector by Joltage for Luna. The rest of the foreground was doodled by GroaningGreyAgony, to whose able assistance I shall be eternally grateful. I suggest that you click on the image to see its full detail.

Flynn isn't excited the day a mysterious philanthropist donates enough Ponypads for every child at St. Justin’s to have their very own. Unlike many of the other children, Flynn wasn't always an orphan. He knows Celestia—knows her all too well. The question isn't whether he'll be able to save his friends—they're all in a hospice for a reason. But can he save them from themselves?

Written in the world of Friendship is Optimal, in the spirit of so many other stories on that subject. This story was sponsored on my Patreon by Vilken666! Cover by Zutcha, as I'm sure you can tell by now.

Updates Mondays.

[Rationalfic Deconstruction / Subversion of Displaced]
You’ve read the stories of people from Earth being “Displaced”: Their bodies are changed, their minds are warped, and they’re thrown across the multiverse, to whatever world and timeline their supernal "Displacers" decide upon.  Well, this story isn’t one of them...

...because when they tried to remake me, I didn’t let them.

A Rationalist Horror story, in which an Occultist from some version of Earth (implied to be the World of Darkness) undermines her own Displacement and ends up as a Self-Modifying Construct. Scientific Inquiry, Philosophical Debate, Rational Discussion, Body Horror, and Existential Hijinks ensue. Themes, Concepts, and Style inspired by HP Lovecraft, Elizer Yudkowsky, Gordon R Dickson, Edgar Allen Poe, Modern Prometheus (Frankenstein), Dresden Codak, World of Darkness, and Friendship is Optimal.
^{Front page on JUL 28th, AUG 12th, OCT 30, and every update after that.}

Your story breaks the shitty norm that most displaced stories have in common by being an 'actually interesting story' instead of a powertrip for a horny teen.

This is like brain porn. My head hurts but in a good way.

Author’s Notes

I often find Displaced fics to be more often Miss than Hit with me. Often, they're generic, poorly written, or just do not do anything worth reading with the concept.  This is an experiment to trt out a few other concepts which aren’t used often, even by me, including some which directly subvert Displaced as a genre, and maybe even come up with some advice for those authors. This is also a crossover with the upcoming Dragon: The Oroboroi Chronicles, a World of Darkness rulebook which I lead the development team for.

I hope you all enjoy this, and I implore you to leave some feedback in the comments section: I'll experimenting with a few uncommon concepts here, and I'd like to know how people feel about how they're coming across. :3

FAQ

Because people keep bringing these things up...

Horror/Dark Tags

I've had multiple people ask "how bad does it get?" Note the lack of the "gore", "sad", or "mature" tags or anything like that. Yes, there is blood and death at some point in this story, but the real horror of this story comes from the philosophical and scientific quandaries the characters go through: this is "intellectual horror", not "visceral horror".

Length

In the interest of this NOT becoming one of those long, sprawling fics, I plan to keep this limited to a manageable 10 chapter limit, not counting Prologue and Epilogue. No one wants to read something that long, and I'd rather not be stressing over this 6 months from now.

Sequel

The Sequel is already in the works, with scenes already written. It will be a more episodic story revolving around world optimization and interplanar hijinks.

Crossovers

To be clear, I do plan on having the main character make one of those "Token" things, but as they often get in the way of actual stories, that won't happen until the end of the story. The Sequel will be crossover-heavy.

One day, I become Princess Celestia in the middle of Lunch at school. A year of testing, spellcrafting, and preparing later, I end up in Equestria, thanks to Discord. Now, I get to meet Celestia, Luna, and others of Royal Company as I troll the shit out of everything. Maybe I'll learn some new tricks too.

Thanks to Blazing Archangel for pointing me to this picture. It fits perfectly!

Due to circumstances, this fic is no longer going to be updated since it was merged with Life as a Sonic OC Redux

Lazy Pines is a small town in the high country of Colorado, easily overshadowed by the bigger sights to see along Colorado State 9. When influenza strikes the town hard, it is little more than a statistical blip in a typical flu season. No one thinks any more of it as the initial wave of infection passes ... until the other symptoms begin to manifest.

Meanwhile, during what should have been a routine trip to Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle stumbles upon a strange anomaly which turns into an all-consuming mystery. As she discovers the complex web of magic stubbornly maintaining this mystery's secrets, she grows worried what it could mean for herself and her family.

And as the residents of Lazy Pines struggle to understand -- or even believe -- what is happening to them, two worlds have irrevocably been set on a direct collision course.

Updates every other weekend.

Cover art by Mix-up. Please check out more artwork by this talented artist.

Now has its own TV Tropes page thanks to redandready45.

In the alternate timeline where Sombra was not stopped, a human finds himself suddenly in Sombra's body... just after the dread tyrant has conquered Equestria. Now trapped in a world where just about everyone hates him, he must try to keep up the illusion that he is the villainous conqueror, while at the same time try to win over his new subjects.

However, this will not be so simple, as the real Sombra is not quite dead... and he is most definitely not happy.

Part of The Ocean Of Time series.

Celestia watched as an injured colt was rushed to the hospital wing of the castle, clinging to life by a thread. Luna battles her demons as she tries to help the colt heal from his, all so that he may continue to live.
Both sisters struggle with the questions that arise from what they've witnessed.
Neither of them know what will happen, going forward.

"This is the first, and perhaps will be the only, male alicorn that Equestria has seen. He came not in radiant glory to battle with Chaos that We Know Well, The Lord of Shadows, the Magic Eater and other foes, as you and Princess Luna did. Neigh, he came upon us in his time of need. We were the ones to help him.

Your Highness, what do you think that says about where he came from?"

The Dark Tag is for specific scenes and situations, not because the overall story is dark.
[Danny Phantom x MLP Crossover, Both are AU, Mentions of Marvel Movie Verse and DP being in the same world]
[Side Story / Sister Fic / and What-If Off-Shoot to Spectrology on FanFiction and AO3 but reading it shouldn't be needed]

UNLESS I GET THE MOTIVATION TO CONTINUE AGAIN OR, BETTER YET, REVAMP THIS, IT IS DISCONTINUED. :(