While at a weekend-long diplomatic summit, Prince Blueblood and Dragon Lord Ember do not hit it off well and both take the encounter personally. So much so, Ember goes well out of her way so to arrange her spending the rest of the weekend at Blueblood's mansion, just so she can spend it driving him up the wall.

Tempers are inflamed, property is damaged, and fires are started.

And yet, somehow, this arrangement might just work out okay after all.

First place winner in the May 2021 Pairing Contest.

Featured 5/27/2021

(Cover art is temporary until I can get the time to make a proper one) Proper one and some additional edits made!

This story is a prequel to Sol Invictus

Just keep walking. So long as the sun is on your right, you'll stay alive. Just keep walking.

Thank you to Zontan, Red Parade, Atom Smash, Drider, Grand Moff Pony, Exodd, Aurora Dawn, Vis-a-Viscera, YourUncleFuncle, Shaslan, and a special shout-out to Seer, who wrote a phenomenal sequel, Sol Invictus!

Tied for first place in the Sketch Contest for the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Group. The prompt was a few YCH-style sketches, and we were to write something that the sketch could be used for as coverart. We're on Discord here if you'd like to join us.

Deep in the catacombs beneath the Crystal Castle, Cadence and Shining Armour discover something that brings Luna running. When the moon fails to rise, Celestia follows to investigate.

A crossover of The Optimalverse with The Culture series by Iain M. Banks. Very non-canon.

CelestAI finally meets her match in deep space, when she encounters The Culture, an advanced "pan-human" alien civilization governed by a decentralized network of benevolent AIs known as Minds.

Entry for the April 2021 Friendship is Optimal writing contest, gunning for high concept. Co-written with OpenAI GPT-3, specificially AI Dungeon's premium "Dragon" model.

Special thanks to hosts Johnny and GSV of We Uncultured Swine podcast for Culture series lore advice on its Discord!

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.

Applejack, the dependable and honest operator of Sweet Apple Acres, finds herself overwhelmed with chores after Big Mac and Sugar Belle get married. Sure, she can ask her friends for help, but that is only a temporary solution, so the farmer starts to look to the classified section of the local paper to hire some day laborers and get caught up.

But Help Wanted takes an interesting turn when Applejack finds an advertisement for mail order husbands, and both Rarity and Rainbow Dash are keen to assist with their friend's pitiful love life...

Editors:
Georg
Sipioc

Cover art by Sipioc

In the far-off Frozen North, a mysterious, long-lost empire reasserts its hold over Equestrian magic. Tasked with securing it for the betterment of Equestria, Princess Cadance will be forced to overcome not one, but two of its overthrown monarchs.

Part of FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns II contest. Set immediately prior to Season 3, no relationships to any previous Cadance tale outside the show / comic / chapterbook canon. Special thanks to horizon and my beloved spouse for their pre-reading help.

Now with a Spanish translation by the gracious SPANIARD KIWI!

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.

Ever since Twilight blew back into Canterlot and insisted on becoming friends again, Moondancer’s life has been...better. Still not great, years of isolation can’t exactly be overturned overnight, but she is going outside more often at least.

One thing that is slow going, though, is getting her hygiene back under control. She had been doing the bare minimum for her mane and fur and unfortunately it was finally catching up to her…

That doesn’t mean she’s happy about getting a pity coupon. Moondancer is just going so she doesn't waste a gift. She doesn't really want to go. Honest.

CW - Heavy depression themes, self harm/self harm scars, and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Written for the Quills and Sofas Passion for Fashion contest with the prompt ‘faux pas’ and presented here with much expansion (this entry is over 5k words more than my original contest entry lol). Thanks to everyone who read and commented and helped me edit afterwards - you guys are amazing!

Cover art by me! (If you are an author looking for cover art, send me a dm!)

A promising member of the royal guard, and Princess Luna's aide, was helping his two Canterlot Princesses with a personal favor involving their old home in the Everfree Forest. After a rather weird encounter with an unknown being, the royal guard codename 'Aero' discovers that he is now alone in the forest.

Later on, he also realizes that something very strange is going on.

Especially with the mares.

Set during Season 6, after "The Crystalling" Part 2 (from Aero's perspective).
RGRE [Reversed gender roles Equestria] (From Chapter 2 onwards)

Cover Art by Riouku.

First featured 01-12-2021. (That was really fast, to be honest. Thank you guys.)