This story is a sequel to Changeling Space Program

The space race is over, and the third flight of ESA Amicitas is not yet even contemplated, but life goes on for the first changeling queen on the moon and her hive.

Faced with the necessity of keeping track of all her subjects and proving that they are, in fact, hers, Chrysalis decrees the Badlands Hive's first ever census. And normally this would produce merely normal levels of changeling stupidity, silliness and shenanigans...

... but what happens when a name pops up, and you can't prove that the changeling attached to it even exists?

Takes place in late winter after the end of Changeling Space Program and about two years before the beginning of The Maretian.

Written for FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns IV contest, pairing Chrysalis and Unorthodoxy. (Group here.)

It has been a decade since Twilight Sparkle was crowned sole Princess, and Equestria is at peace.

The Crystal Empire, not so much. King Sombra is apparently unkillable, despite all efforts. He returns several times a year to be destroyed, leaving behind his horn and always swearing vengeance. The jaded Crystal Ponies, some literally jade, have grown used to their tyrant attempting to return. Princess Cadance rules with her husband Shining Armor, while their daughter Flurry Heart excels in school. All is well.

All seems well, until Cadance begins to suspect that something is wrong with her daughter after the latest battle with Sombra. Flurry quite literally walks off a blast of concentrated dark magic. What Cadance discovers will shake her family to the core and upend everything she thought she knew about her daughter.

Flurry Heart is evil. If Cadance cannot save her daughter, she must stop her before it's too late.

Note: This is a side story to "Everyday Life With Guardsmares", but you don’t have to have read that first. All you need to know is that these batponies were created a thousand years ago when Nightmare Moon was banished to the Moon, and developed their own militaristic culture there in anticipation of Her return. They assaulted Royal Guard strongholds during that event, but had to submit when Luna rejoined her sister in peaceful co-rulership. Also, they're Spanish.

After years of poor relations following Nightmare Moon's defeat, a Royal Guard attaché officer sent to improve relations with the batponies and learn more about their alien military culture & traditions is permitted to attend their "Caça de Bruixes": the "Witch-Hunt", a harrowing ritual in which one of their number is willingly given over to a dark power in order to allow other warriors the chance to learn how to fight the possessed monster under semi-controlled conditions. The Maestro Cazador, the Master of the Hunt, presides over the affair and is responsible for the safety of everyone involved.

This story was originally written for the 2022 SPOOK contest.

Rainbow Dash is determined to get married. The most successful apple orchard in Equestrian history is going broke. Pinkie Pie is unemployed.

Twilight is finding all this rather suspicious. Is she really the only honest pony in Ponyville? And can she keep it that way?

In the beginning, The Great Weaver brought together the world, from the mountains to the forests. Stitching it together, the Great Tapestry connects all living and nonliving things.

The Changelings found themselves especially connected to this Tapestry. Legend says that the first Changelings fell through the world as it was woven together, only to be caught on the First Weave beneath it all.

But what happens when something else is caught in the Weave?

Prince Phasmatodea, son of Queen Chrysalis, remembers what it was like before he hatched. He remembers being a human. He remembers dying. And he fully intends on avoiding another death.

But being gifted a new life does not matter when one failure, one false step, will lead to your untimely demise in the Changeling hive, for Prince Phasma must survive his toughest adversary from the start: Mother Dearest.

Cover art as of 1/18/21 by Nixworld

Millennia after being banished from the face of Equestria, King Sombra stirs restlessly in his lightless prison, held alive only by his dark magic and the desire to take vengeance against the Elements of Harmony. Especially the one who sent him there.

Harmony, however, is an inscrutable force. One willing to grant him a second chance in a world far different from the one he remembers.

For now though, he only needs to head towards the light.

Many thanks to Equimorto for spending almost two months on meticulously proofreading and critiquing this story.

After escaping the Changeling gladiator arena at the cost of a friend's life, Equestria's lone human is attacked and befriended by Twilight Sparkle. This begins a long, strange, and confusing adventure to return home, and discover why he even arrived.

Complete, and edited twice... but If you see something I missed, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd leave a comment.

Cover art made in Blender.

There's a crime wave gripping the sleepy town of Apple-Morepone, and nopony on the City Watch seems to care. Corporal "Rainbow" M. Dash naps through her patrols, her partner Dobby is an infamous kleptomaniac, Captain Rhymes is a drunkard, and the entire Watch is a group of burnt-out misfits.

They're about to meet a batpony (adopted) by the name of Carrot, visiting town to return an overdue library book.

And none of their lives will ever be the same.

A crossover/homage to the "City Watch" books of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, written to be readable without any familiarity with the series (though they're excellent, and if you do read them you'll catch my Pratchett in-jokes).

Winner of Aragon's "Comedy Is Serious Business" Contest! "I was quoting this offline for days, forgetting where I was remembering the lines from. … This story made me legitimately jealous, both of its cleverness and of its funniness." –Contest judge MrNumbers

Rated ★★★★★ by Louder Yay! "The best comedy I've read in a long time."

"Highly Recommended" by Super Trampoline! (Video review here @ 09:17) "It's 13,000 words long, but it doesn't feel long, because so much fun stuff is happening."

Reviewed by Ghost Mike! "It features meticulously laboured-over prose, rhyming with actual metre for Zecora, perfectly-timed jokes and reveals that are often outrageous, a sneakily clever plot and character investment that works its magic throughout ... This is a phenomenally executed piece of work."

Other reviews: Present Perfect | City of Doors

Thank you to Themaskedferret and Caliaponia for prereading, and GaPJaxie for motivation/inspiration!

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

-
YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Song and magic are two parts of the same whole in Equestria. When Rose saw Anon, it was love at first sight, and as if to shake any doubt, she heard their song, the one they're meant to sing together. It was the happiest moment of her life.

Until she realized he couldn't hear it.

An RGRE story