SF (canon species only; no humans) Ponies were magically and genetically engineered to be the perfect servitor race. They are powerful, adaptable, intelligent and completely under the control of their creators. A laboratory accident frees one such pony from her mental chains, but how can one mare save herself and the rest of her kind if she doesn't even know she's a slave?
This is not the Equestria you know and these are not your little ponies... not yet, anyway.

Tags: Adventure, Diamond Dogs, Gryphons, NO HUMANS (did I mention that already?)
Other tags: historical, mind control, Clarke's 3rd Law, excessive use of high energy physics, before they were famous.
Detailed review by PaulAsaran.
Cover art by endrome , used with permission.
Russian translation (partial -- 'unofficially' completed in the comments)
A Soot-Covered World, book 1.

This story is a sequel to No Heroes Part II - The Journey Home

In No Heroes Book II, Lightning returned to the orphanage that raised her only to watch it – and all the children she loved – burn to ashes. Yet the tragedy wasn't a total loss: she was able to rescue one filly. Burdened by failure, Lightning decides to take tiny Keen Arrow into her care.

Lightning has never considered what it might take to raise a child. Has she rushed into another task too big for her wings? Now she's in a position she never would have imagined, and Lightning must make a choice between her dreams of glory and her new responsibilities.

But is Keen willing to wait for her to figure things out?

This story expands upon the events established in No Heroes. Although reading the series will help in understanding the background material, it is not essential to enjoying the content of this story.

Thanks to Mercury Gilado and Absolution for pre-reading!

Cover Art Credit: EternityFaprio

The No Heroes Series
Chronological from Top to Bottom:
Shadow Pony
Reddux the Tyrant
No Heroes Part I - The Roster
No Heroes Part II - The Journey Home
Lightning's Bolt
No Heroes Part III - For Dreams
No Heroes Part IV - The Crystal Empress
No Heroes: Beyond the Everfree
No Heroes: Life of Pie
No Heroes: Hot Chocolate at the Isekai
To My Uncle

The Fleur-Verse
Chronologically from Top to Bottom:
Shadow Pony
Reddux the Tyrant
No Heroes Part I - The Roster
No Heroes Part II - The Journey Home
Lightning's Bolt
The Weed
The Challenge of Fleur
Ordinary World
A Challenge for Fleur
Sweet to Eat: Tales of Nightmare Night

Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom makes headlines across Equestria. Every reporter is out to cover the story from their own angle. Sometimes they get it partly right.

She’s going down in history. Maybe.

Applejack, while surveying the border between Sweet Apple Acres and the Everfree forest, stumbles across a perfectly ordinary, garden-variety talking snake. In an apple tree. The mane six, of course, decide to be neighborly.

What's the worst that could happen?

A story with religious themes, funny and thoughtful in equal turns, and without any super-depressing grim-dark or blatant preaching. It was conceived, written and edited in just three days, and won first place in the "Deal with the Devil" Writeoff competition. You can find the original (unedited) version, along with plenty of other great entries, right here. It's been awhile, but be sure to check them out if you haven't already!

Once upon a time, Equestria burned in the fires of war.

Now it falls on two sisters to reclaim what they can.

Third-place winner of the More Most Dangerous Game contest. Proofreading credits, with my highest compliments, go to Danger Beans.

Cover art by Harwick.

Reading by My name is R.

Ponyville is shaken to its core when everypony's favourite pink party-pony is revealed to be a murderer.

Her friends struggle to deal with the staggering revelation as all of Equestria turns its focus on the little town to learn more about the now infamous Cup Cake Killer...

Winner, 8th Place, Equestria Daily's More Most Dangerous Game contest.

A full-cast reading can be found here.

Celestia has always been more interested in the future than the past. She does not dwell on mistakes – hers, or others'.

But sometimes memories lurk in the oddest of places, and when they strike not even a god can resist their gravity.

A short story written for the recent Writeoff competition.

Long before Twilight Sparkle was taken under the wing of Princess Celestia, another pony was given a chance to prove himself. Your history books will tell you that he was a bitter, lonely, powerful old Unicorn who never really understood the magic of Friendship. But history, as we all know, only ever remembers one side of the story.
This is the life and the tutelage of Star Swirl, one of the greatest pony minds to ever walk Equestria.

Featured by Seattle's Angels on July 6th, 2014.
Featured on Equestria Daily on September 23rd, 2014.

Sometimes, dreams are all we have. Sometimes, that's enough.

Hidden deep within a maze, well away from prying eyes, there is a statue. The last great work of an artist long forgotten, her time-worn visage watches the raising and setting of the sun and the moon as though enraptured.
Who created such a marvel, this sculpture of copper and brass, of crystal and cog, and why, is unknown, lost to the mists of time... until now.

This is the tale of a painter and a clockmaker, and the love they shared.
This is the tale of a dreamer, who knew only her dream.

Now with reading by Illya Leonov: Listen to it here.

This story is a sequel to Upheaval: Breaking Point

Following the events of Breaking Point, Twilight Sparkle and her friends discover that Equestria's demise may not come from an enemy invasion, but from within. The Barrier Lands and the Heartland begin the slow and uneasy process of reuniting into a single Equestria, but this long-delayed joining is already in danger at its conception.

With Celestia's power in her grasp and her agents by her side, the wheels of Black Rose's plans for Equestria's future continue to turn. However, her brazen gamble has done more than just bring down a centuries-old barrier. Ancient powers begin to stir: the remnants of a dark period in Equestria's history, the immortal inhabitants of Celestia's homeworld, and a rising tide of darkness coming ever closer.