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.

After having told the world's funniest joke, Pinkie Pie ascends to alicornhood. Discord is less than pleased by this.

This was a request for a supporter, and was viewable earlier for said supporter. Head over here or here if you want a request for 5$ or to see stories early for just 3$!

Tanya Degurechaff gets tossed into Equestria and transformed into a Changeling Queen. It's a nice retirement from modern warfare as an aerial mage. Then Queen Chrysalis attacks and forces her out of retirement. Historians refer to this as 'a bit of an oopsie.'

After Sunset is left with no family to take her in, Celestia decides to take in the young and extremely gifted mare as an adopted daughter.

This story expands on the background of Sunset Shimmer, how she was shaped by her new found mother, how she developed into the mare she was and how she ended up going down a dark path.

Editor: Skylarking the Stargazer https://www.fimfiction.net/user/229362/Skylarking+the+Stargazer

Twilight has taken notice that Pinkie Pie has an extremely unusual set of abilities, and Twilight is determined to find out the source of Pinkie's Power. However, she might not like what she finds

After attempting to impress the judges during her entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, something transpires that alters Twilight's life irrevocably, as well as the destiny of all Equestria. In a very literal manner, Twilight metamorphoses into the embodiment of magic, much akin to how Discord embodies chaos. How will this unprecedented transformation shape forthcoming events? And how will Twilight grapple with mastering the newfound god-like abilities that have been unexpectedly thrust upon her?

Starlight does a slightly better job at attempting to reform Chrysalis after freeing her friends and reforming the rest of the hive, and finds herself quite unexpectedly the new Princess of Empathy. Whether things go uphill or downhill from here will depend on who you ask. Twilight is thrilled, Chrysalis is miserable, Trixie is gay, and Starlight is just trying to cope with becoming royalty scarcely a year after being Equestria's most dangerous supervillain.

I've always thought Starlight more than earned her wings in the show, but, given that I also love Chrysalis, I decided to grant them in a way that ends with my two favorite characters not trying to kill each other.

This will be a series of mostly one-shots dealing with various aspects of Starlight's life after ascending, with a variety of tones; while it's marked as incomplete, the majority of chapters form complete stories. Obviously, there are an enormous amount of things to be done with such a premise, and, if you have anything you'd like to see explored—and also enjoy the story enough to comment—please feel free to request topics for future chapters!

Note: Chapters are usually, but not always, in chronological order. Where they aren’t, it will be made clear.

A mistake with an ancient book of dark magic results in Twilight being 'living-impaired'. What follows is a series of (mis)adventures involving tax evasion and constant decapitation.

The chapters are short. I know. I like small bite-sized scenes, and it burns me out less.

Though this story is a comedy, please take note of the Gore and Dark tags. If that kind of stuff and dark comedy is unpleasant for you, I'd recommend reading something else.

Art is AI generated using Stable Diffusion 1.4

After the sonic rainboom, Celestia shares some words with the creature that bound her long ago.

As a professional athlete, Dash goes to regular physicals. As an Element Of Harmony, she goes to regular magicals too. Soul examination is her least favorite part, but at least the patient blacks out while their spirit is in capable hooves.

Starlight Glimmer's hooves have questionable capability.

This is an entry in the Snippet Series, an anthology of old oneshots that I (and my good buddy Str8aura) wrote based around interesting pics I found. New ones will be posted every other Thursday for the foreseeable future.