Twilight Sparkle was presumed to be dead. Destroyed without even a body to bury, the young victim of a deadly magical surge that claimed the lives of many others along side her. More than a decade later, reports of a violent murder by a pony bearing her name are brought to Celestia and Luna's attention. A trail of carnage leading directly towards Canterlot's doorstep, brought by a pony who strikes without mercy. As Twilight approaches, in service to an unknown master, the Alicorn Sisters desperately try to uncover what happened all those years ago.

Edited by Zintegy and The Pink Mugsy

Chapter Heading Art by KirillK
All Sketches and Artworks can be found HERE

The government recently revealed the existence of peaceful, alien life from a planet known as "Equestria". The natives, which are colorful, talking ponies, have reached a peace treaty with Earth. Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, and the nations of Earth have made the mutual agreement to send ponies to Earth and humans to Equestria to keep relations peaceful and learn about one another's culture.

Enter the Wallace family. They were just your average, slightly wealthy family of five, who just wanted to enjoy life. One way they do that is by taking in a foreign exchange student each year for the learning experience it provides both the family and the student. But they start to wonder why they were told nothing other than that the student is a very nice girl who wants her identity to be a surprise. The only thing left to do is wait for her to arrive.

Twilight didn’t know what to say. How easy it sounded, to just not think about things that hurt, but thoughts were all she had.

Thoughts were the only thing that were hers, for better or worse.

Special thanks to lilfunkman for the cover art and for generally being the best support I could ask for.

This story is a sequel to Twilight's Diet

It's been six weeks since Twilight started her diet. She's been getting results, but she absolutely HATES being hungry all the time. Her thoughts keep drifting back to the episode with the Metabolism Potion, and she desperately wishes she could re-experience what happened, or even better, pick up where she left off.

If only there was an immortal being that was in charge of such things; one that happened to be indebted to her, or something. Perhaps she might then be able to enlist their help in making that desire a reality.

Too bad there's nopony like that.

Wait.

Picture by Cosmonaut.

Twilight wants to lose a few pounds, but everything she's tried hasn't worked. She decides to create a potion that will increase her metabolism and help her burn off the unwanted weight. Little does she know that her potion is going to have some unexpected side-effects.

Picture by Shieltar.

The local human, finding himself possessed of strength beyond measure in this strange world, decides to be a brutish nuisance. You know, running around half-naked, stealing cider and that sort of thing.

When his behaviour lands him in jail he casually breaks out and - more on a whim than anything else - breaks out the other jailbird too. Because that's mischief, and she had to have done something wrong, right?

They then run from Twilight, sit around a fire and sleep in a cave.

-

Ahahaha I got featured and I don't even have a picture what even is this.

Twilight Sparkle was only a filly when Equestria detected the enigmatic Signal. A series of increasingly complex mathematical proofs, the Signal transformed from an intriguing curiosity to reliable evidence of extraequestrian life.

And as it happened, Equestria's exploration of their own solar system was nearly complete. With colonies orbiting every planet and large body, and an asteroid belt filled with miners and prospectors, Twilight's civilization was just about ready to turn its focus outward. The signal was less than ten light-years away, within reach of a daring, experimental voyage. A voyage Twilight Sparkle would lead.

Along with a small crew of the most skilled scientists and engineers Equestria could offer, Twilight is determined to uncover the mystery of the Signal, and brave the final frontier for future generations of Equestrian explorers.

A comment-driven, CYoA story. Please use the links provided in the author's notes of each chapter to vote, rather than the comments.

This story is a creative experiment of mine, one meant to explore the general idea that creativity is often most fostered by restrictions. As a result, I've imposed a number of restrictions on the writing of this story, which I'm stating explicitly here so I can be called out if I break any of them.

1. Brevity is the soul of wit
No chapter may be more than 1000 words long. This wordcount only includes prose, and not the questions/rolls.

2. Every choice matters
When a choice is offered in a chapter, at least one sub-optimal choice must be present, with no indication about which is which other than the prose itself. Every chapter should end with a CYoA-style decision tree when possible.

3. Fate is cruel and the universe is heartless
The decision of the vote must be respected. This means any character could be killed, or the entire story could end in failure, if that's what the votes decide. Where numbers, stats, and randomization appear in the text, these elements are not verisimilitude, but are decided by public diecrolls in my discord server.

Note: Because of the unusual production of this story, its chapters won't be edited in the same way as my usual fare. Feel free to point out any mistakes you encounter.

Awesome cover by Zutcha as you can probably tell. Editing stuff by Two Bit and Sparktail, where applicable.

IRS Scammers. We all hate them, and in Equestria, it's no different. Once technology advanced to the point of phones and computers, scamming came with it.

Unfortunately, not everypony is as gullible as some other nasty people would like.

Find this story and more in a print copy! Just click these words here!

Featured on EQD 11/26/18!

During a climatic battle, a panicked magical blast from Twilight results in Chrysalis receiving a crippling wound. Twilight dedicates herself to Chrysalis' recovery and, hopefully, redemption.

As Twilight will soon learn, Chrysalis' frozen heart is one that won't easily be melted.

Won 1st place in the"Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord" contest. Rated for suggestive content.

Special thanks to Midnight Quill and Peerimagination for help with editing/being my lifeline and Setokaiva for pre-reading assistance.

10/3 - Updated tag based on feedback.

Toby was looking forward to a very interesting project for his English class: writing to a complete stranger somewhere in the country to learn about them. However, through some anomaly, his letters make their way to Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn princess in the land of Equestria.

Though confused over how this is possible, Toby and Twilight decide to continue writing to each other, getting to learn all about each other and developing a strong friendship through only their written words.

Inspired by the movie Her as well as a short story I read in middle-school, along with a since-deleted story called Pen Pals by user Justin Daniels.

Just something I’d update now and then.