A young man lost in the hilly embrace of a mountain sleeps the night away under a knot of tree roots. When he wakes he will find himself thrust into a strange new environment, the Everfree Forest. With only his pack and his experience as a Boy Scout to aid him, he must survive, make sense of his surroundings and with some luck, ultimately find his way home. What does one do after wandering beyond the edge of the map? And better yet...

What if you are not alone?

I have been reading fan fiction here for a while and wanted to give something back.
My first fiction ever so constructive criticism is welcome. Fair warning, it takes a while for me to write a chapter so expect gaps between updates.

[Hiatus notice: As of 10/1/2022 this fiction is on hiatus so I may focus on other projects and items, will resume at a later date.]

Rated teen for strong language

Awesome cover art by Carnelian. Seriously, the guy has major skills with how fast he drew this up.

and of course ALL CHARACTERS / REFERENCES BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. “MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC” IS OWNED BY HASBRO

NO PROFIT WAS MADE IN THE CREATION / DISTRIBUTION PLEASE DONT SUE ME OR ANY PARTY THAT DISTRIBUTES THIS WORK (unless they try to sell it, then by all means go nuts)

The Canterlot Caverns are a strange and enigmatic place, untouched and forgotten by pony-kind for centuries. So when a strange metal object is unearthed in their depths, it's up to Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings to discover the many secrets it holds.

Together, the two of them will have to do their best to understand the remnants of an ancient civilization, and decipher what remains of Those Who Came Before.

The cover-image is a cleverly edited stock image, which was modified by the stupendous Corvo.
Proofreading was performed by the equally fantastical writers:
Timetraveling Pony (Who started as a proofreader when Cloud was writing this. Hats off to him for being dedicated and staying on as a proofreader for me.)
DustyPwny
Tidal
Superluminous
Night Spark
PhiliChez

And a special Thank You goes to The Sentient Cloud for allowing me the honor of continuing this great story after he retired from writing fimfictions.

As it turns out, this story is eerily similar to Lyra Heartstrings and the Hand of Man. Due to their similarity, I feel that it would be appropriate to give said story a mention.

After GLaDOS is uploaded into a potato battery, Wheatley humiliates the AI even further by uploading her into a project that was abandoned by Aperture a long time ago. In the blink of an eye, she finds herself in a deformed body of flesh and bone that resembles an equine, and is just as powerless as one too. It comes with all of its needs and bodily functions as well. To make matters worse, she's trapped in a land full of insufferable creatures that just want to make 'friends.' Will GLaDOS' cold, sadistic sense of humor and morals get the better of the ponies? Or will they peel away the once artificial being's metallic shell and find that there's a softer side? Probably not, but it's worth a try.

Story Theme: Tyler Bates - I Love You (Watchmen OST)

Thanks to Meeester, MrJoshy, and funkyferret for proofreading/reviewing.

Cover by Fedte16.

The star system Omega Centauri was just another oddity on a map to scientists in the not too distant future. However when they found the star was orbiting an earth-sized, earth-like planet instead of a black hole as its motion had suggested, a mission was scrambled to investigate this most unusual of celestial behaviors.

Hamstrung by politics, and nearly crippled before it began, the 'Lone Ranger' mission was reduced to just one crew member and left to his own devices.

These are the logs of Arrow 18 and its lone commander. This information is classified TOP SECRET by the Global Space Agency.

Do NOT tell the princess.

It occurred one peaceful night. Half of Equestria awoke to the sound like a double-shot thunderclap. A percussion heard in the skies and rattling windows from Apploosa, to Canterlot, to Ponyville. Nopony knew what it was or what it heralded for the world as it drew a line across the nation.

For Twilight Sparkle, this isolated incident might have faded from memory after a time, if not for the strange rumors of a creature sitting on the hill on the outskirts of town.

These are her thoughts given written form. These are Sparkle's Notes.

Report EVERYTHING to the Princess.

In the year 2745, humanity's grasp of the sciences has advanced to an almost unfathomable level. Sub-space matter transfer technology grants almost instant access to countless worlds across thousands of light years. These advanced machines are not without their limits. The vast energies which constantly course through them put immense strain on their inner workings, and it is your job as a highly trained maintenance tech to fix what breaks. On your way to a typical repair job things take a turn for the decidedly weird, and you suddenly find yourself thrown into a world both familiar and alien. Will you ever learn the cause of your displacement, or will you be forever subject to the whims of this strange new world?

One thing does become quickly apparent. The citizens of your new home are frightened to learn of your species' carnivorous ancestry, the signs of which are made painfully obvious with every toothy grin. What's a pony to do when these ancient surges of primal fear sow a quickly growing seed of carnal need? A tumultuous avalanche of the deliciously devious awaits.

A mysterious group of men has been kidnapping young women and turning them into ponies against their wills to sell them as slaves to some of the corrupt rich for profit. One such victim has been turned into a purple unicorn pony and was dubbed Twilight Sparkle by her captors. She has resigned herself to her fate as a pony slave and was awaiting the day for IT to happen... That is until the man who bought her has no such plans for her...

-

This is an Alternative Universe where the mane cast are originally human but were turned into their pony forms. Each chapter will begin with a transformation of the character who has the more prominent role in the current one and most of the plot happens afterwards, that way if you don't like transformations or view them as a fetish (when it really isn't in this case), you can skip it and continue with the story at hand.
While I did add Adventure to the tags, the characters don't really travel that much, but since there isn't a Mystery and Drama category in this site (which is what this story is), I had no choice but to use this tag for the both of them.

I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Red Bomber here, but my actual internet name is Guilrel and I am the actual author of this Dark Alternative which is based off on Toongrowner's ideas of Dark Alternative Universes and I got his permission to post the story here. The reason I didn't do this before because I was a closet brony I didn't want to let my watchers know that I like the show too, especially since my first fanfic to the show is a story like this. I was actually afraid of losing them because alot of people just do that to the authors and artists they're watching and go "Oh no. Not you too." and then de-watches them. But now I don't really care about that anymore and I'll go into more detail about this on my own journal. Anyway about the nature of this story, while this isn't a clopfic, I feel like that this is the furthest almost mature story I've ever written and I'm afraid of how many people will not like it. But I have to accept it that this will happen and I hope I'll actually have the heart to finish what I started. Because I really wanted help Toongrowner expand his idea and he's a really nice friend of mine for a while now, I can't really let him down now that I'm this far.

Please view the stories in our individual galleries as well.
Toongrowner (My Provider and the one who thought of it all):
Chapter 1: http://toongrowner.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-1-277696514
-Chapter 2-
Part 1: http://toongrowner.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-2-part-1-302867563
Part 2: http://toongrowner.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-2-part-2-302867753
Part 3: http://toongrowner.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-2-part-3-302867983

Me (Guilrel The Author):
Chapter 1: http://guilrel.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-1-304382847
-Chapter 2-
Part 1: http://guilrel.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-2-Part-1-3-304385451
Part 2: http://guilrel.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-2-Part-2-3-304385954
Part 3: http://guilrel.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Alternative-My-Little-Slave-Ch-2-Part-3-3-304386294

Humanity has fallen.

After only a year of plague, savagery, and drought, the temple of humankind could sustain itself no longer and the world was plunged into the darkness of extinction.

But it was not the end, not truly. Far below the dirt and abandonment, humanity lingered. It was here, within sprawling concrete and steel, that the last remnants of mankind remained, locked away from a changing world.

It is here that two men awoke. It was here that a revolution began. And it is here that the fate of humanity will be decided. Because, here, there is no turning back. Here, there is only one direction to tread:

Forward.