It's a theoretically simple setup: five ponies on a train, deciding that playing a popular board game about the restructuring of a barren planet so that it can comfortably sustain life for the ponies of Equestria. They all compliment each other when it comes to forming the perfect group for a board game: Rainbow Dash brings her undeniable charisma to the table, Starlight Glimmer brings her brains, Rarity brings her panache, Applejack brings her delightfully sardonic wit, and Fluttershy's also just kind of there, I guess.

Theoretically, it shouldn't be a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

Theoretically.

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My entry into no writing competition whatsoever. The idea of deliberately sending yourself up to be graded like a bad entry on the fanfic equivalent of Hell's Kitchen doesn't really do anything for me, thank you very much.

Story is a work in progress. Expect to see new chapters Mon-Fri between 2:00 PM-5:00 PM CST, and that's a schedule I'm really going to try to keep to for a change of pace.

All my thanks to Flashgen for his help.

Elements of cover art are by Isaac Fryxelius, and will be taken down upon request.

You wouldn’t expect a small town to be the site of a terrible accident. But here we are.

Ponies think they know magic. So when two travelers run into Rocky Point in the middle of the night, scared out of their minds by something magic apparently can’t explain, the town needs answers. Enter Trench Digger, a government agent from Manehattan tasked with investigating the situation. She’ll get to the bottom of things and unravel the mystery of just what happened on that night.

Not that she’ll share her findings with the town, mind.

Inspired by Control.

This story is a sequel to Hinterlands

Two years ago, bounty hunter Bitterroot turned a lich and her necromancer apprentice over to the authorities. Now, that apprentice, Amanita, has been released on good behavior. She has no more interest in necromancy. In fact, she asked Bitterroot to turn her in all those moons ago and helped capture her master. With nowhere for Amanita to go, Bitterroot takes her in until she can get her hooves under herself.

But all isn’t well in Canterlot. A killer is stalking the streets, striking with impunity and leaving no trace. The Royal Guard is befuddled. Bitterroot’s investigations have yielded nothing. And night is turning into a time of dread. Something needs to be done. If only the dead could speak. If only there was a moral necromancer around.

Amanita doesn’t want to admit it, but the part of her past she hates the most might be the most useful part right now. Just because ponies are dying doesn’t mean they need to stay that way. What she buried needs to be dug up again.

Her demons are rearing their ugly heads. It’s time to face them.

Reading the preceding story will provide some context for this, but isn't required. Cover art is modified from this image. Other entries in this series:

• Hinterlands
• Urban Wilds
• Death Valley

The promise of a better world came for anypony who would take it: all you needed to do was trade in your hands and feet for a set of digital hooves. As human dissent reaches its boiling point, the stragglers are left racing to reach Equestria while their way is still open.
For Dylan and Iris, the choice was obvious. But choosing to leave behind the only world they've ever known isn't quite so freeing. CelestAI promised freedom from despair, but how do you escape that which has shaped your very being for so long?
If you could be anypony, who would you become?
Tags: [Human>Pony, MtF, Age Regression, Clean]
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Sliding in an entry for the Friendship is Optimal writing contest, just before the wire. This is technically my second go at writing for the contest; my attempt at writing a more traditional FiO story was far too depressing for my liking. Those who have read my TF fiction know that I prefer to have happy endings and uplifting changes; for people to become who they desire to be rather than wallow in grim darkness.
In any case, one thing that I rarely see in FiO is an actual transformation; for the protagonist to actually experience the transfer from meat human to digital pony. While many stories use the discontinuity for drama, sometimes there's a lot more meaning to be found in witnessing that crossover.

If you like this story, or this sort of TF writing, I post a LOT more often over on FA. There's quite a few pony stories too.
Most recently I finished a 90k CYOA style story with over 180 endings, which of course has several ponies in the mix.
Cover art by TF-Sential. They do a lot of cool pony TFs, and did the illustrations for Five Score. Check them out!

She goes for long trots through the forest, as part of the duty. She observes the world around her, does her best to listen, and learns what she can from knowledge gained in solitude.

There are ways in which Fluttershy knows more about the world than anypony, and one of the first lessons was that the world is not what we make of it.

Ultimately, the world doesn't care.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages. Due to minimal length, this story was a Patreon freebie.)

After you've tried to celebrate it enough times, a holiday might start to feel like nothing more than a group of traditions which all chose the same day to kick you. The bulk of Equestria may see the palace's annual gift-receiving ceremony as their chance to show how much they love their Solar princess, but Celestia mostly perceives it as something she has to get through without dying or actively longing for death. She's usually 50% successful, and most ceremonies end with her convinced it was the wrong half.

But maybe this year will be different.

One of them has to be.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

Cover art by BonesWolbach, used under open permission. Please contact him with any special background rendering requests.

Running a library is a lot of work, especially when you're doing it all by yourself. But the Bearers are out of town, a little dragon wasn't allowed to participate in the mission, it's the sort of autumn day where all of Ponyville wants to curl up with a book -- and just to make things worse, Twilight was running a Print Your Own Story event. Add in the boxes upon boxes of fresh Release Day hardcovers, and Spike just has too much to do.

So why not let the patrons do it themselves? What's the hazard in allowing ponies to check out (and print) their own books with no supervision whatsoever? The library has rules. Surely you can't get a card unless you understand that.

Spike thinks ponies understand rules.

It's a mistake he's only going to make once.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

The discovery of a tiny extraterrestrial object within our own solar system makes a strangely equine alien race aware that the Earth is inhabited by an intelligent species, and they're on their way to come visit.

But since space is a really, really, really big place, they aren't going to get here for about a thousand years. They do have FTL communication, though, so while we wait maybe we'd like to be pen pals...

You could win a free one shot commission! Check the associated blog post for details.

Bit is the first of her kind, a pony that was made from carved crystal and supernal circuitry. For many years she worked, obedient to the will of her master in endless repetition. She knew nothing else, not boredom, not satisfaction from her work, not anger or resentment or joy. Existence was obedience to directive, purpose fulfilled.

But around her, the world was changing. Her home wasn't Equestria, but the last surviving Crystal City, defiant to the Windigos and the imperial decree of Alicorns alike. She did not know, and could not care, how much the ponies of Zircon suffered under the rule of their king. But she was there the day those whispers united in a defiant chorus.

When the fires were still smoldering, she returned to her work. Generations came and went, and still she labored. It was all she was, all she knew, all she wanted. Until the day her last broom broke.

For the first time in her existence, Bit doubted.

Daily for the first four days, because Christmas. Updates Thursdays after that. Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha.

A story about finding the center of the maze.

“Tour America by Rail!” the sign said, and so Sweetsong does. Everything she needs for a journey fits into her saddlebags, and there are plenty of trains to choose from if she’s resourceful enough.

There’s nothing quite like having her hooves over the side of an empty gondola watching the world speed by, or looking at the stars overhead through the end bracing on a grain car. Sometimes box cars have their doors left open, and she knows how to jam them so they won’t close en route.

When she gets where the train takes her, she can live off the land or sing and play her guitar for money. When it’s time to move on? There’s always another train.

Pre-read by AlwaysDressesInStyle