In the distant future of Equestria, Luna is recalled to Canterlot against her will to participate in a court case that will decide the future for sentient machines.

The world has changed in one hundred thousand years. The magic that once shaped life itself has faded into myth and legend. An age of industry has set upon the flightless and hornless ponies who now populate the world. Great metropolises of steel and brick rise from the republics and monarchies that dot the planet. In the seaside city of Gracia, sparkling capital of the Teton Republic, a young museum worker named Starlight makes her living in this brave new world, oblivious to the magical heritage that dwells inside her and the ponies around her.

That is, until one day when an earthquake in the west prompts Starlight and her new friends to embark on an adventure to the desert city of Sundown. It is here that an event not seen in tens of eons has occurred: a unicorn has been born.

~

Edited by JustAnotherTimeLord & presentperfect
Art Design by HyperPonyGBX5 & rambled
Produced by DocDelray

This story is a sequel to Post Negative Comments Only

He's been reassigned so many times as to have a file thicker than his armor. There are ponies who doubt his ability to cross a room without creating a disaster, and he's one of them. Banishment to Moon is in fact too good for him. He's the single least suitable member in the history of the Crystal Guard, and history had better be prepared to take on eternity if it's ever going to see him surpassed. Because Flash Sentry starts every morning with a silent declaration of I'll get fired today and goes to sleep on I'll be fired tomorrow.

Or maybe that's more of a prayer.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome. This story takes place after the events of Post Negative Comments Only, so reading that one first is highly recommended.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

In Canterlot, every foal goes to Magic Kindergarten. Every unicorn, every pegasus... and even a certain earth pony.

I have to be the only earth pony here. Why in Equestria does this have to happen to me?

It wasn't as if Aurora was uninterested. It was that she was bored. Extremely bored. They taught her nothing about theory, nothing interesting. Class time was all about levitation for the unicorns, flying for the pegasi. But nopony really knew what to teach an earth pony. Not really. All of their magic was passive, right?

Right?

Featured: 2/24/17 - What?

That might have been a glitch with my login or something. Because it disappeared when I refreshed the page.

Featured: 3/17/17 - Okay, this one is definitely real. It didn't disappear when I refreshed the page.

An aspiring rationalist gets punted into Equestria - and instead of being turned into a cool griffon, or powerful dragon, or even a standard pony... discovers he is now a milk-cow, part of the herd.

Part of the Chess Game of the Gods crossover.

There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and humanity is determined to explore every one. We send probes, probes with the blueprints to reproduce human explorers upon arrival. Uninhabited worlds the galaxy over can be colonized and populated, until after many years they too can join the vast throng of interstellar civilization. But if a probe is very, very lucky, it will land on a populated world instead. Equestria is one such world.

Even so, it's far from perfect for colonization, not with an environment lethal to human life. But each probe is resourceful and armed with the greatest machine intelligence mankind has devised. If placing a human mind into a newly manufactured human body won't work, it will just have to get a little more creative.

This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

This story was written at the behest of Canary In The Coal Mine, who is sponsoring it on my Patreon. As usual, cover by Zutcha. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.

Fantastic prereading help from: Chyre, Danger Noodle, Doctor Disco, and Doggyshakespeare (who also did the Esperanto translation). Thank you all for helping to make this story more readable and more consistent for everyone.

A few months have gone by since the last season of MLP, and it seemed as though the fandom would slip quietly into obscurity. But strange things are happening, things nobody can explain. People who have never seen the show report sightings of strange monsters wandering at night. Bronies develop strange powers, and sometimes they disappear. Strangest of all are the blurry images of familiar characters, all seeming convinced of terrible danger just around the corner.

Jacob never imagined his life would be anything but ordinary. He’d finish his degree, make a living, maybe have a few kids. Until he almost got eaten on his way home from school and found himself thrust headlong into danger he could barely understand. Jacob (and his humanity) may not survive it.

Updates weekdays.

Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail. Art by Zutcha!

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.