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

This story is a sequel to Urban Wilds

Amanita. Quiet. Awkwardly self-conscious. Necromancer. Reformed. Newly hired by the Royal Guard and the apple of its eye. How could she not be? She’s a peerless expert when it comes to necromancy. But only because she’s the only pony with any knowledge of necromancy beyond the basics, she tells herself. She needs to be more than just a static source of knowledge; she also needs to apply that knowledge, to expand her mind. She can’t live her whole life in a lab. She needs experience out in the field.

Which is how she finds herself assigned to a ley purification team. There’s something wrong with a ley line. It’s not immediately dangerous, but if left alone, it could corrupt the land, killing crops and creating monsters. Amanita is part of a small crew that will head to the line’s source, the small mining town of Tratonmane, to identify and correct the problem. Fortunately, ley purification is a well-known science. It’ll be easy.

At least, that’s the idea. Far to the north, swathed in frost and snow, walled in by vertiginous mountains, Tratonmane is as isolated as can be. Miners and subsistence farmers eke out a living in what little land they have. Ravenous wolves stalk the forest at its border. Whispers abound at the team’s arrival. Tratonmane has existed outside the Crown’s influence for centuries and many of the townsfolk don’t appreciate it sticking its nose in now. Especially since no town lasts for that long without getting a few skeletons in its closets. Amanita and her team will have to navigate hostile environments — personal and terrestrial alike — if they want to get to the bottom of this.

For if they don’t, heads will roll. Perhaps literally.

Nothing a necromancer can’t fix.

Updates TuThS. Reading earlier stories will provide some context for this, but isn't required. Other entries in this series:

• Hinterlands
• Urban Wilds
• Death Valley

Beyond Equestria, the lands to the north are hostile and unforgiving. Ponies eke out a subsistence in uncontrollable weather, separated by mile after frigid mile of snow and mountains. A land where only the hardiest survive is no place for civilization.

Yet civilization encroaches from time to time. When a colossal bounty is placed on the head of a unicorn deep in the arts of necromancy, a motley crew of bounty hunters assembles and gives chase. It’s too good a chance to pass up. They’ll bring her to justice, no matter what stands in their way. Not her dark magic. Not the inhospitable environment.

And certainly not each other.

Other entries in this series:

• Hinterlands
• Urban Wilds
• Death Valley

It shouldn't have been a big deal. Celestia was kidnapped or knocked out or just generally made to seem powerless by whatever idiot with ill intent decided to show up on a nearly weekly basis. As the mighty and immortal Sun Princess, she could escape at any time, but she was happy to play these little games. The daring rescues and bloodless battles gave her ponies such a sense of confidence and purpose!
But this one didn't go as planned. One small, stupid mistake got her thrown to the twisted reaches of the world-prison, Tartarus. Now alone, unarmed, and barely more than mortal, Celestia wakes in a living landscape where everything has every reason to hate her.
And, far worse, she has accidentally picked up a passenger.

Sidenote: This a repost (I tried to go through official channels, I promise!) of a story I wrote long, long ago on an account I foolishly deleted. Back in those days, Tartarus hadn't shown up in an actual episode yet. It's not exactly an alternate universe situation, but it has nothing to do with the canon portrayal of the place.

Super amazing cover art by Cold In Gardez.

This story is a sequel to The Education of Clover the Clever

History is full of mysteries.

Before the first Hearth's Warming, when the pony tribes were divided and weak, the Griffon Empire threatened to conquer the lands of ponies. The Unicorn King sent his court wizard Star Swirl the Bearded to the Griffon King to persuade him not to.

When the dust had settled the Griffon Empire ceased all expansion, and for many decades afterwards the Griffon King sent assassins to kill the wizard.

No-one knows what the two of them said to each other when they met, and over time the meeting between them became shrouded in myth. Legends sprang up about what had happened, each wilder than the last.

Now the story is told.

(New to the series? Unsure where to start? Don't worry! While they share a history, all these stories are meant to work on their own, and explain themselves along the way. Feel free to try this one, or start with one of the others. The Education of Clover the Clever is considered the best, and is a great place to begin.

This is an AU I started writing in 2013, and it has diverged from canon in ways large and small, but it rarely matters. When this story begins Starlight Glimmer is here, and the Castle of Friendship, but Star Swirl the Bearded hasn't returned to G4's present.)

Ebony Dew has a friend that nopony believes is real.

However, she knows in her heart that he exists.

After all, it's his heart in the first place.

An entry for the Science Fiction Contest run by Bicyclette.

For a thousand years, there was just Celestia. Then Cadance appeared, Luna returned -- and now Twilight has ascended. There are ponies who are very curious about just what happened, why -- and how. Especially the how. Twilight herself is on that list, a freshly-minted princess with far more questions than answers, about to face a brand new one: what truly makes an alicorn?

And what happens if it goes wrong?

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Cover art by Harwick.

This story is a sequel to A Confederacy Of Dunce Caps

He's supposed to go on. There's a foal to care for, employees constitute another level of responsibility... in theory, he has so many reasons just to get up on the morning after her death. And the next, and the next, until he meets the lost in the shadowlands once again. When his part of the contract comes due, and he can finally feel whole again.

But he can't seem to remember having gotten up. Going to work. There's snippets, but... just that. Because if he pays attention, he has to live, and living means he has to remember, and if he remembers...

Mr. Rich knows he's supposed to go on alone. He just doesn't know how.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. (New members and trope edits welcome.) This story takes place years before the one linked, and no knowledge of the other is required for reading.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

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.

Waking up one autumn morning, Twilight finds that Discord has put together a giant festival with carnival rides, food, and games just outside Ponyville to celebrate the end of Daylight Saving Time.

Something tells her it's going to be a very long day...

The original version of this story won 1st place in the 95th contest at Writeoff.me, "The Nightmare After Nightmare Night," and the cover art is a commission from hazeyhooves.