Sometimes, getting your cutie mark doesn't mean you have all the answers.

(please make sure to have a look at the disclaimers below the description)
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Also, make sure to check out Robipony's AMAZING reading of the story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpoWCYLSkWM
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Did they really think they lived in a magical cartoon world? Where they controllled the weather? Where they had created and maintained an advanced civilization all by themselves, despite the fact they didn't even have thumbs?

They did believe that. At least for a while.

But one by one, they are waking up to a much harsher, much more disturbing reality.
Pityful, spliced creatures, they will try to fight their way out of a nightmarish place ruled by cold and sadistic entities.

Then again, who is to say what is real and what isn't. Perhaps this is nothing but a nightmare. A very long, painful nightmare. Perhaps the truth is something different altogether. So many mysteries, so many paradoxes, so many horrors. Only one thing is sure.

Friendship is magic.

Real Friendship. The one which won't abandon you, even in your darkest hours.

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Disclamer 1: I'm not coddling you saying this, it's just one (alleged :P) human being to another. Just as a hand-granate, this works on the principle to whom it may concern: The story, whether or not it's any good at it, relies on an atmosphere of brave but vulnerable creatures fighting against (and ultimately overcoming, if severely scarred) a system of nightmarish injustice with no regard for even basic bodily autonomy. What is happening is sometimes described/summed up with harsh keywords or illustrated with devastating events. If any of this sounds alarming to you, please tread with caution or stay out. This of course does not exempt the story from criticism if you do chose to go foreward, especially for the ways it fails to do these subjects justice.

Disclaimer 2: BTW, I remember some parts of the fandom (and some movies) seem to interpret even the older protagonists (such as the "mane six") in the show as being children/teenagers. Just because I can, I hereby declare for the purpose of this fanfic, and really all of my other fics, that no creature in this story, at the time that it is set in, is the equivalent of a human "minor" unless they are unambiguously described that way.

Hope is the faith of the young. Losing everything she holds dear, Puppysmiles embarks on the adventure of her life to find her mother, her hopes of meeting her again driving her through the horrors of a world not of her making. Too bad the Wastelands doesn't care about hope.

Dinky enjoys staying with Sparkler, but is still anxious to go back home to her mom. The bright young filly and the young-at-heart mare use their time together to teach each other about growing up and what it means to be family.
A sequel to Ditzy Doo's Dismally Derpy Day.

In an effort to keep her mind occupied, Twilight Sparkle decides to delve once again into the grand mysteries of Pinkie Pie. This time, Twilight's focus is on her claims of growing up on a rock farm: like so many things related to Pinkie Pie, the idea that somepony could grow rocks as an agricultural product makes absolutely no sense. However, the investigation eventually leads Twilight to a rather... surprising discovery.

This is the first story in The Petriculture Cycle.

Artwork by Page Turner. Now with a TV Tropes page.

Time is a fickle thing. It never seems to spend much time with you, nor does it seem to depart when you want it to the most.
This story is about an alicorn who has all the time in the world, but desperately wants to give it all away.
Because forever is a long time...

Inspired by a certain Book of Living Magic and a cat named Screech, and Dreaming with Ponies.
Featured on Equestria Daily.
Proofread by Ex-Nihilos.

Twilight and her five friends are transported during a botched spell, across dimensions to... Ponyville, Equestria? But not the same one that they knew. Sitting on a bench is Harpsy and Babar. The Doctoress avoids apples from an aspiring Applebuck. And in a library across town, six stallions join their forces as they try to decipher the appearance of filly look-alikes of themselves around Ponyville!

A meeting of some fanon incarnations of Celestia.

Sometimes, fiction matters.

Now with a Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi!

The sequel to this story: Sweetie Belle and the Quest for Knowledge is now available!

When Sweetie Belle finds a mysterious artifact of a now lost civilization, how will she come to terms with the wealth of knowledge it provides? It says it can be ignored, it says it will never try to influence her, but can an artifact of such power really be so harmless?

Book I of III

Prologue and Chapter 1: Thanks to TheOtherSideOfFluttershy for pre-reading and editing.
The whole story: Thanks to RaylanKrios for editing.
Chapter 4: Thanks to AuthorGenesis for editing.
Epilogue:
Thanks to Malefactory for editing.