Once upon a time, ponies did not know how to count very far. Clover the Clever tells her two young fillies the story of how her mentor, Starswirl the Bearded, learned the secret of counting from the dragons.

A first-in scout from the Associated Worlds investigates the anomalous star system IGS 254672, expecting to find the home of a machine god. She finds herself making first contact with sophont ponies instead. A couple of them are weakly godlike ponies, but still...

Neither world will be quite the same again.

Side stories and notes can be found here.

(This is actually a crossover with the original SF that I write as my day job, which is to say with the universe of Vignettes of the Star Empire and The Core War and Other Stories, and if you like - although it should not be necessary to read this - you can read a whole selection of the nanofiction I write in that setting over at the Eldraeverse blog. I also have a Patreon which exists to fund my ongoing original writing, but if anyone wants to give me money for this instead - I'm not asking, in this case, but you never know - I surely won't turn it down.

The Eldraeverse also has a Discord, which has an #advancedverse channel specifically for this fic's AU; feel free to drop in at: https://discord.gg/SnzkKhf

As such, I should warn you in advance, gentle reader, that updates may be erratic, because I also have said writing-as-a-day-job to do and it has to take priority. I hope that won't put you off.

Timeframe-wise, it's safe to assume these events start sometime in the middle of S3, and continue from there. The situation will of course butterfly-effect away from canon with reasonable speed, and there may be a few changes needed in the course of the fusion, hence the AU tag.)

You are entering another dimension, a land not of sight or sound, but of mind and magic. It is a realm where light hides amongst the shadows, and your enemies wear the faces of your friends. This is a dimension we call … The Gray Zone.

Submitted for your consideration: Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, the gleaming city on the mountain. Just yesterday, the city was host to a lavish Royal Wedding—and it fought off an invasion of shapeshifting insects. Today, the ponies fancy themselves safe. But as they will soon discover, their worst enemy still walks among them, unseen. The real nightmare has only begun …

———

My tribute to a classic episode of The Twilight Zone.

Many thanks to my pre-readers:
JapaneseTeeth
KuroiTsubasaTenshi
Yami Vizzini

———

Review and such.

Every filly dreams of having her birthday party in a Princess's Castle. When Sweetie Belle offers just that—for the low price of a hundred bits—Silver Spoon can't help wondering if she's being scammed.

Written for the WriteOff prompt "Princess not included"

Huge thanks to Fahrenheit for pre-reading, advice, and helping fill in the plot holes.

Special thanks to fourths for editing.

The following are my submissions to the various Writeoff Contests and other interesting story bits that I can't fit anywhere else. Genres and characters will vary.

Inspired by the Pony Demand Mod for Victoria 2.

In a world where a nation of sapient, logical horses hold sway in the Nineteenth Century, the stage of world politics is...different.

On the West Coast of North America, in a land known as "California" to the humans, Equestria lies. It is a peaceful land, untouched by the ideals of liberalism, war, etc. That peaceful ignorance, however, will not last for long...

NOTE: Ignore the official map of Equestria. Instead, use these:
NA in 1836: clicky
Equestria: clicky
Griffonia: clicky
Rated Teen for occasional language, and epic battles between modernized ponies and humans.

Holy Shit! Featured: 2/21/16!!!! Thank you so much!

In the darkness of a malfunctioning elevator, there's little else to do but lay your heart bare.

This is Equestria. But something went differently this time. The Everfree is even more out of control, and has become a breeding ground and nesting place for thousands of dangerous creatures. With so many new threats constantly changing, evolving in the darkness, no one knows what the next monster could be capable of. In such a world, the Unknown means Danger.

Meet Pinkie Pie. She's an earth pony who likes parties and making everyone smile. She's very, very good at it.

That's a bad thing.

You see, some of the things she does are... strange. Unnatural. Sure, parties may be her special talent, but that doesn't explain where she got a cannon that can decorate a room. And it doesn't stop at parties. There's something unnatural about that mare. No one can explain it.

Pinkie Pie is an Unknown.

Unknowns are dangerous.

Princess Celestia has taken the poor pony under her wing, and raised her away from unfriendly eyes, allowing her to live what approaches a normal life. Soon, Pinkie will be reintroduced to the world at large, starting with a little town called Ponyville, on the day of the one-thousandth Summer Sun Celebration.

Let's see how that goes.

Over a thousand years ago, two royal siblings fought for the sky and were exiled, one by her sister's hoof, and one in penance for what she had done.

In the present Republic of Equestria, no one remembers them as anything more than legends and old pony tales. Save for one shy filly who fell from the sky one fine summer's day.

An Alternate Universe "What If" tale, reconstructing the beginning from a different angle.

This story is a sequel to Earth & Sky

Set three years after the founding of Harmony Aeronautics and the Grand Pegathalon.

The best and brightest (or at least flashiest) minds in Equestria are at it again. An accidental combination of Harmony Aeronautics and Lulamoon Studios' latest magical technologies leads to Twilight finding a new way of looking at the world. What will be revealed by her new found perspective, and how will it shake things up in Los Pegasus?