In her dreams, Moondancer is a unicorn.

In her dreams, in the magical land of Equestria, Moondancer has a girlfriend. Her name is Sunset Shimmer, and she's smart, talented, confident, and kind.

In her dreams, Moondancer knows what it's like to love, and to be loved.

The worst part about a good dream is waking up.

An entry in the May Pairings 2022 Contest. Loosely inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion, but has no relation to it. (By 'inspired by' I mean 'inspired by the vibes I got while binging it on my phone through the night'.)

(Minor CWs: A brief mention of non-sexual nudity and an allusion to suicidal thoughts. Neither of these elements are present enough to justify full warning tags, at least in my opinion, but they are there and I get anxious about not warning people, just in case.)

Cover art by the fantastic MemPrices! Please check them out, they do great work.

Thanks to Roxylalolcat and SigmasonicX for pre-reading and editing.

Edit: Featured for... some period of time? Like, two days or so I think? It may have been at the top or maybe it was kept off by a clopfic, I don't remember but apparently this is something people like to keep track of, I dunno.

EDIT 2: Now with a reading from Rainbow Infinity, which can be found here!

Mann Co. is a battleground for the most psychotic minds on the planet. From a shapeshifting assassin to a delusional masked man-child. Perhaps the most crazy of these individuals is the Soldier, an idiot geared for war and a passion to blow everything to shreds with a rocket launcher strapped with Christmas lights. Today, while on a rampage on 2fort the soldier comes across a conundrum featuring teleporters and piss. What happens when this small mistake leads soldier to a peaceful world that finds murder the most abhorrent act of all? It seems Soldier is out of place here, and the locals feel the effects of this war-loving patriot.

(Story takes place right after episode 1)

I will update this whenever I feel like it. Previous system didn’t work so I’ll update it when i am inspired to write

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

-
YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

This is a fic based on the Time Loop Files, the format of which was first codified by Innortal on fanfiction.net.
Here's a brief guide.
The basic idea is, one character (the Anchor, usually the main character of a fictional setting) is looping back to the very first moments of their parent series every time either they die or some kind of time limit expires. They of course end up monumentally stir crazy given enough time.
Eventually others start to loop as well.
The reset is not always perfect. Sometimes a loop's history will be different to the "prime" loop, or canonical plot.
"Crossover" or "Fusion" loops also occur, randomly. These can involve the home loopers having a guest, or the anchor for one universe spending time in another, or replacements of one character by another.
Vacation Loops are where the Anchor (or others) decide/s "buck it" and lets off steam by doing whatever comes to mind. There's little or no attempt to maintain the original timeline.

In addition, and particularly more recently, it should be known that this story has a collaborative element to it - people may submit loop ideas or loops, ideally at the Spacebattles thread (a link to the current version of which is on the Trope page), and they may become included.

There's two page image options, thanks to Filraen - the current page image has been edited by the original creator from this work of theirs.. The other one is here:
http://hourglass-vectors.deviantart.com/art/MLP-Loops-466030169

It's do or die time.

Button doesn't get out much, but tonight he will. Tonight, he's going to party.

And, you know, resolve the hoard of personal issues he's built up in the past few years. Stuff involving his best friend and his own mind and the fact that he needs to be alone sometimes. But that'll be easy. He has a whole night to do it, right? He'll get it done. Hopefully.

Probably not.

Maybe.

Once upon a time, the School of Friendship was praised and accredited, after its lessons drove a little filly mad. Imprisoned in Tartarus with only an ancient monstrous centaur to keep her company, Cozy Glow was in the perfect place for Grogar to whisk away so that he could force her to do his bidding.

Twilight Sparkle's friends, bastions of Equestria's highest virtues, left Cozy Glow forgotten and alone, locked in that rusty cage deep underground. Nopony ever attempted to visit her, check up on her, care for her, reform her, or try to find out what was wrong with her.

This is not that story.