A soldier, an archeologist, and an android move to a small town in the furthest reaches of Equestria—a town run by a classified institution that safeguards the odd and inexplicable. A town built over the ruins of an ancient pre-Equestrian civilization. A town in the middle of a corruption scandal relating to an ancient artifact of unknown power.

It has been nearly a thousand years since Twilight Sparkle died. Celestia and Luna are gone. The Holy Equestrian Diarchy, ruled by a bigoted and brutal theocracy, has driven ponies apart and divided them along tribal lines. Unicorns are driven from society, feared and hated.

The lessons of friendship, painstakingly written down in the journal of friendship by Princess Twilight and her friends, have been warped and twisted to fit the Diarchy's hateful ideology. But to the average pony, this is the truth and reality of the world they live in, beset on all sides by enemies monstrous and magical.

Emberglow, a young pegasus mare, aspires to join the elite Knights, magically enhanced warriors dedicated to the holy Saints worshiped by the state religion. Can she uncover the lies and deceptions that have led the world to this bitter place?

Thanks to QueenChrysalisForever for prereading Chapters 1-24. Prereader for chapters 29-31 is MrRTS.
Prereading for chapter 34-? by Horsetorian
Additional pre-readers: bananachips/CommissarVulpin, Thought Prism, Chyre
Special thanks to my amazing editor, Cyonix
Cover Art by JodTheCod

Note on timing: I began writing this long before Season 9 aired, so none of those events happened as far as the narrative of this story is concerned.

Come join us on the Rekindled Embers Discord!

Edit: Featured 8/7/20! Yay and Thanks!

A refined mare fresh out of high school and a dropout following her dreams find themselves forced to spend a lot of time together.

With the help of a meddling psychology tutor and their new classmates, can they find what they've been looking for?

French Translation!

Fan Stuff!

From birth, Luna was a gifted unicorn.

So gifted, in fact, that Princess Sunset, the Solar Diarch, personally took notice of her abilities when she applied to attend Princess Sunset's school for the Gifted and Talented. When her pegasus sister, Celestia, hatches a phoenix egg, their entire life is changed.

Now, as Princess Sunset's personal students, the two sisters must figure out why sources of knowledge are disappearing, being stolen, or forcibly taken by dark shadows. Could the weird behaviours of the changelings explain the reason?

The one thing they do know is that something dark and powerful is plotting something in the shadows. And only they can stop this evil.

And why does Princess Sunset insist that the situation is nothing to worry about?

Cowritten by Meowofy and iAmSiNnEr

The story is a roleswap AU, we hope you enjoy!

Cover art commissioned, drawn by Cyonix, link to his Deviantart here.

For clarification: Luna and Celestia are not princesses in this story, even if tagged as such. There is just simply no non-princess Luna and Celestia to be tagged.

Preread by Jes
Helped and Edited by Sleepless!

After years of shame and ridicule, archaeologist and explorer Lyra Heartstrings stumbles across a discovery that validates all her theories and ideas in one fell swoop. Along with her best friend, Bon Bon, and her old classmate Cadance, they find themselves faced with a mystery and marvel that may change everything.

Following the next greatest lead found in the database of an ancient race, another international team is formed. Led by Doctors Carter and Jackson, they strike out to explore another network of Stargates discovered in a galaxy on the edge of the local cluster. In the process, their findings will cause them to question much of what they thought they knew.

The adventures continue and unlikely allies will face dangers new and old as the Legacy of the Ancients continue to unravel in the latest chapter of the universe.

[Co-written by Thunderclap and Shagohad12] Formerly co-written by Grey Cait. [Edited by: Lithl and m2pt5][Cover art: 1, 2 modified + vectors]
Now with a Russian reading by SviMik

When the Gardens of Equestria were activated, many ponies believed the trying times were over and Equestria would become the paradise it had once been within a few short years.

As if the wasteland would give up that easily.

Monsters still roam the wasteland. Apex predators left unchanged from before the war. Mutant horrors born of balefire. Sadistic people whose hearts went black long ago... The Gardens did not kill. They did not reform. The Gardens did the one thing they were designed to do.

The Gardens cleaned up toxic waste everywhere their light could reach. No more, no less.

With radiation all but gone in most of the wasteland, taint entirely eliminated from Equestria's heartland, and much of the old farmland fertile once more, ponies everywhere banded together to take advantage of the world Pip healed... By forming large yet isolated settlements which over time joined one of two nations: The New Canterlot Republic, or the Herd.

These two ideologically opposed nations have clashed for over a decade. Border skirmishes are frequent. Black ops have been preformed by both sides. All out war has nearly broken out several times.

You can take the waste out of the wasteland. It's much harder to take it out of the wastelanders.

It is into this politically charged world that a newcomer arrives. A zebra from a remote northern kingdom, separated from Equestria for these many years by a megaspell induced winter that is at last dying down. A pity she arrives just as the other newcomers are enacting their bid for power.

This story is based on the story Fallout Equestria written by Kkat. It has been written with permission.

Featured on: Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 7:18 AM UTC

Twilight Sparkle was only a filly when Equestria detected the enigmatic Signal. A series of increasingly complex mathematical proofs, the Signal transformed from an intriguing curiosity to reliable evidence of extraequestrian life.

And as it happened, Equestria's exploration of their own solar system was nearly complete. With colonies orbiting every planet and large body, and an asteroid belt filled with miners and prospectors, Twilight's civilization was just about ready to turn its focus outward. The signal was less than ten light-years away, within reach of a daring, experimental voyage. A voyage Twilight Sparkle would lead.

Along with a small crew of the most skilled scientists and engineers Equestria could offer, Twilight is determined to uncover the mystery of the Signal, and brave the final frontier for future generations of Equestrian explorers.

A comment-driven, CYoA story. Please use the links provided in the author's notes of each chapter to vote, rather than the comments.

This story is a creative experiment of mine, one meant to explore the general idea that creativity is often most fostered by restrictions. As a result, I've imposed a number of restrictions on the writing of this story, which I'm stating explicitly here so I can be called out if I break any of them.

1. Brevity is the soul of wit
No chapter may be more than 1000 words long. This wordcount only includes prose, and not the questions/rolls.

2. Every choice matters
When a choice is offered in a chapter, at least one sub-optimal choice must be present, with no indication about which is which other than the prose itself. Every chapter should end with a CYoA-style decision tree when possible.

3. Fate is cruel and the universe is heartless
The decision of the vote must be respected. This means any character could be killed, or the entire story could end in failure, if that's what the votes decide. Where numbers, stats, and randomization appear in the text, these elements are not verisimilitude, but are decided by public diecrolls in my discord server.

Note: Because of the unusual production of this story, its chapters won't be edited in the same way as my usual fare. Feel free to point out any mistakes you encounter.

Awesome cover by Zutcha as you can probably tell. Editing stuff by Two Bit and Sparktail, where applicable.