Sunset Shimmer wants to become an alicorn more than anything - it's the entire reason why she's Princess Celestia's student. But she's run out of ways to research it and Princess Celestia has blocked her at every turn.

Fortunately for her, there's a new Princess on the block - Cadance. One who's already ascended. One who knows personally and intimately how she did it.

To get her to talk, Sunset will do anything. Even if it means pretending to like - really like - the Pink Pony Of Passion.

Cover art by daOtterGuy.

Featured 8/28/2021-08/30/2021! (And basically every update date after that.)

Now with a TVTropes page thanks to ZanarNaryon!

In the modern era, it has become common for foreigners to mock Equestria, seeing the pony nation as weak, naive, unwilling to commit to hard decisions. More belligerent neighbors often view the ponies as easy prey or targets, to have their magic stolen, to be devoured and pillaged, or conquered as a ready supply of slaves.

It was not always thus. In ages past, Equestria was a land of heroes and legends, of darkness and bloodshed. In time, the princesses learned to temper strength with mercy, power with forbearance, and righteous conviction with benevolence.

But now, a thousand years after the younger princess was banished to the moon, the long peace is drawing to a close. Forces both within and without Equestria awaken, seeing a nation weak and easily toppled. Seeing a people grown fat on peace and luxury, who have long forgotten the hardships of war and conflict, or the glory of bloodshed.

Woe betide to all who come to Equestria with ill intent. For in all these long years of peace, the Princess of the Sun has never forgotten the lessons of war, and her eyes watch over her beloved subjects with not only patience and understanding, but an implicit promise of protection.

The time will come soon, when those who would do Celestia's Little Ponies wrong will come to learn... That even an Empire of Mercy is still paved upon the bones of its enemies.

[...]
Alternate universe story based on two main principals: First, that Rainbow Dash is taken in as Celestia's student in addition to Twilight. Second, that the threats to Equestria are both larger in magnitude, but also countered by a more competent and militarized Equestria. Also, it will follow my headcanon that alicorn's are gender neutral.

It is also somewhat based on my love of story threads that are disconnected but still intersect. The continuity will not really have a single group of main characters (Though it will start with mostly Rainbow Dash and Celestia), but rather a number of different story threads playing out simultaneously across the world. I have plans for the Mane Six, Celestia, Luna, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, and Scootaloo at the least.

I will be posting every 14 days on saturday, at least for the time being. Story is in present tense, third person. Genre will kinda be all over the place, parts of the story will include the whole spectrum from war story to slice of life to drama to who knows what else.

Ever since the Ponyville clone massacre, one survivor who escaped capture has been living undercover in Manehattan. But when a changeling mistakes her for one of his kind and brings her back to Chrysalis, it marks the beginning of mayhem for everypony.

Set in late season 6. Started for Camp NaNoWriMo, July 2019. Cover art by gordonfreeguy.

There are six pony virtues. Six. And fortunately for the pickup artists, confidence stallions, and desperate of the world, there's also a lot of sapients who can't count that high. Princess Luna's Return produced a few side effects, and one of the more consistently annoying is a never-ending parade of those who claim to be the hitherto-unknown virtue of This Is Worth Some Free Drinks. Others take it further.

Division Seven is an international, multispecies effort, created in an attempt to find and discipline those charlatans. And ideally, to do so before something... happens.

The planet has strange ways of reacting to the presence of true Bearers.

Imagine how it might deal with some of the fakes...

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

Cover art created by RamblingWriter.

In the first days of attempting to establish the foundation of a new nation's currency, a pair of rookie rulers decided to back Equestria's economy with the greatest offering they could make to the world: the promise of their own labor. And it worked -- but there was a certain problem with the way that promise had been made, and so the original currency was eventually recalled. But the sisters never got all of it. And legally, that promise is still good.

Whether Celestia likes it or not.

(A stand-alone, no prior-reading-necessary part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome. )

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

You can never tell when something will become collectible. A coloring mistake in the printing, part of a stamp's artwork gets rotated by ninety degrees, and otherwise-sane ponies are shelling out thousands of bits for the honor of owning something which no longer has a practical use. But not every mistake qualifies, and so Twilight has to directly teach Rainbow the differences: some errors are just that.

The education on how to defraud the public through creating your own collectibles, however, was completely unintentional.

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

One moment leads to another. There's a box sitting outside a house at night. It brings thoughts about the contents during the small hours and in time, there's a new kind of box. Something small, something which leads to little meetings in the dark.

The smallest things can change a life.

(A stand-alone, no-prior-reading-necessary part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

It has been six months since Princess Luna's return to Equestria, however everything is still so new to her. Equestria is not as it once was, and so much seem new and strange. From the words, to the customs, and even the way they conduct their ruling.

Luna felt lonely for a long time, that is until she discovered the joys of gaming. She even found a new friend, just one small problem, he is human, and not from their dimension. Well, it would not be a problem, not if Luna would not have used a certain spell to drag her newest friend through their online game and into Equestria.

Turns out dragging a human through a game and landing him in Equestria has some unforeseen consequences... Other than the fact he is a pony now...

Editor: SoloBrony

Story Inspired by the cover used.
Cover Owner: RedchetGreen from DeviantArt

This story is a sequel to They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Ayyyy, featured despite the sequel curse on 16.10.2023! Can we keep the last spot in the box? What's in the box? Why is the box?
EDIT: Added a character cheat sheet on the bottom.

Updates: Weekly-ish

Six years have passed since the Canterlot invasion. While the relationship between the Changeling Hive and Equestria is warmer than ever, the relationship between the deadly tunnels under the Badlands and the small, mostly defenseless changeling drones who live there isn't.
However, thanks to the knowledge granted in the recent years by a mysterious "smart box", and the guidance of drone veterans who survived under the "old rules", the post-Canterlot "new rules", and the terrifying "shippy time", fewer and fewer drones perish daily while mining materials for the hive's day to day operations.
Fewer, though, still means far from zero, and there are those among the drones who are doing all they can to finally transform the underground from fatal threat to something the drones deserve - not just a place to hide, but a true home. With copious amounts of goop, unstoppable curiosity, copyrighted board game, and a blessing from High Score, there's no way they'll fail, or at least not for long.
Drones know that everything is a trade and life is just a price. Unfortunately, sometimes there are near-invisible asterisks.

--High Ranks--
Chrysalis - no need to explain.
99 - a classless changeling. You figure out her rank on your own.
156 - current highest rank infiltrator. She and 387 might be an item.
387 - current highest rank warrior. There's nothing special about him.
2119, 3012 - unlucky top floor guards
--Drones--
10000/10k - drone leader
20100 - a drone supposedly out on a mission for the hive. Painter, the worst nightmare of casinos
57999 - the closest Ds have to a doctor, grows plants in a greenhouse
65536 - a drone living in Canterlot, a Nightguard. Sort of Luna's adopted kid.
99380 - hive mind manipulation specialist, that might be a curse.
99111 - mechanist, tinkerer. Engineer would be too... successful.
99856 - alchemist
99200 - explorer/survivalist
99012, 99066, 99971 - quicktrotters
99911, 99158, 99112 - drone crisis response team
99999 - a drone.
Smiley - a Silent who surived long enough to gain some mental capacity. Can't talk.
--Other--
Gloom, Night Hunter - Canterlot Nightguards

This story is a sequel to They're EVERYWHERE!

Update schedule: Hopefully once a week
As always, commenting and engagement is always appreciated and can help steer or polish the story.

Several years after the changeling invasion of Canterlot, queen Chrysalis gets an invitation to attend a cruise followed by a stay in a luxury holiday resort on an island belonging to the Griffon Empire. Supposedly, this is to introduce the new friendly changeling power in Equestria to existing nobility. Chrysalis takes one of the new infiltrators - 93, an old warrior 387, and a group of drones led by 10013 with her.

Chrysalis? Caring for the tiny and easily replaceable drones enough to give a few of them a chill two weeks? 387 doesn't buy it.

There must be something else going on... surely.