This story is a sequel to The One Who Got Away

A frustrated young orphan colt with a talent for painting is determined to run away from his dead-end rural village for the distant cultural haven of Baltimare. All he needs to do is slip aboard a raft and drift down the river Fen until he reaches his destination. It’s a simple plan, and would have worked just fine except for one thing.

Seaponies.

Editors: Tek, Docontra, Themaskedferret,

Image credit: Pen Mightier(pencil) and Manifest Harmony (colors)

Now Featured on Equestria Daily
And a wonderful review by Paul Asaran
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This story is a sequel to Inexcusable

She looked just like Princess Celestia, except marred and broken. Her ceremonial barding had rusted slightly, and dirt matted her coat. Most noticeable was her hair; black streaks accompanied its usual multicolored luster. They looked like discolorations in an old photograph.

Worst was the scar across her chest. Her armor covered it, but nothing could hide what it meant.

The tarnished Celestia smiled at Luna. "H-hello, monster. I would say I am glad to see you, but that w-w-wouldn’t be quite accurate."

A big thanks to AlicornPriest for editing/prereading.

Russian translation by MLPMihail, with editing by Randy1974.

Comments contain spoilers. See here for a complete series timeline.

This story is a sequel to If You Came to Conquer

Princess Nightmare Moon had tried to keep it secret. She had suppressed her power, feigned ignorance, played the outdated fool at every opportunity. She should have known that something like this would happen. A threat that would reveal her, whether she played dumb or not.

If she had to reveal herself, then at least she could protect Equestria in the process. She nocked the arrow. The bow felt so flimsy, but she could not risk him absorbing a spell. She laced magic across the arrow and the string and the air, enough to make it fly faster and aim smoother. She sighted him easily; Tirek was a large target. Now he only had to turn around. An arrow to the spine would kill him simply and instantly, no matter how much magic he had absorbed.

Once he was dead, the hard part would come: explaining herself to Celestia.

Prereading thanks; Meta Four, Blank!, Yami Vizzini, and especially Craine

Russian translation by Doof
Chinese Translation by Dreams Set Free

Comments contain spoilers.

Nightmare Moon won. She defeated Celestia, broke the Elements, banished the sun. This all happened a very long time ago. So long ago, that she has had plenty of time to change her mind.

Of course, fixing our mistakes is never so simple, and never without consequences. Even with particularly potent help.

"If you came to conquer, you'll be king for a day. / But you too will deteriorate and quickly fade away."
— "No Control" by Bad Religion

A big thanks to Craine, Sorren, and Idylia for prereading and editing. If you enjoyed the story, don't forget to check out their pages.

Equestria Daily
Royal Canterlot Library (FIMfic version)
Russian translation by Doof
Chinese translation by Dreams Set Free

Kitsune Heart has done a dramatic reading of this story! Find it over here.
ObabScribbler has done a dramatic reading of this story! It includes a full cast of voice actors. Find it over here.

Comments contain spoilers.

Scarlet Letters is a lot of things. A Mare. A pegasus. A former member of the guard. And now, a librarian. She's looking forward to the post-war peace and prosperity that's been promised.

Now if only she could get some sleep.

Notes:
- Cover art by Minibot-1, check out their DeviantArt page here.
- This is a story in the Birthdayverse.
- Blood Lord is best pony and best pre-reader.

Songbird and the Blademaster make a perilous journey through the harsh lands of the North. Their goal is an artifact of great power that has been lost to the fallen world for a long time. They will have to use every bit of skill and magic they possess to battle their way to the frozen temple that guards the artifact and escape with their lives. For this is the Madmare's domain, where vicious monsters and killing storms are the least of the dangers.

Set in the same world as The Archer and The Smith

"Featured 7/8/2014! Sweet!"
ADOPTED FROM HIS ORIGINAL AUTOR, Zelkova48 TO BE CONTINUED

Jump into the rich and vast continent of Metallos! Where magic meets machinery and the sword meets gunpowder.
Join up with your friends. Together, become involved in an adventure undreamed of!
Be a group of hardened mercenaries, elusive members of a spy ring or even be a band of swashbuckling pirates!
Explore the world! Learn it's history! Battle nefarious villains! Stab your friends in the back! Hog all the pie!
Experience all of this in "Forge World!"

-Learn the basics or creating a campaign and understanding the mechanics of "Forge World"
-Learn the history and lore of the great continent of Metallos! From the frozen tundra of Silverus to the blazing sands of Bronza!
-Choose from several different race and classes to mix and match to be your very own! Be a unicorn magus, a diamond dog pickpocket, even a changeling spy!
-Outfit your character with all manners of weaponry and equipment! Learn all sorts of spells to blast your foes and assist your allies in combat!
-Detailed explanation on crafting and alchemy to further your adventuring experience!
-All with highly detailed illustrations and writing in this massive 432 page rulebook!

What are you waiting for? Those brigands aren't going to stop themselves you know? Into the "Forge world" you go!

Twilight continued to stare at the the back of the book cover before sighing in exasperation "I know I like books and all but this is outrageous, even for me"

Without even giving the book a second look, she quickly went and shelved it back to Spike's own personal bookshelf as she was cleaning up their room. As she was leaving the library, she only thought to herself

"How can somepony enjoy a book as ridiculous as that?"

Princess Cadence tries to legally change her name to "Princess Cadance." Footnotes ensue. Part of the "Cadance of Cloudsdale" cycle, and a crossover with Ghost of Heraclitus's Civil Service stories. Familiarity with neither is required.

In the stars, a hundred years' journey away, the alicorns gather, to mourn, to mate, and to give birth to the new. They call to their sisters across the galaxies, and Celestia hears them.

Meanwhile, Dotted Line wants her to review tax rebate applications.

(2nd place out of 113 in the "No Regrets" write-off. Dotted Line is from "Whom the Princesses Would Destroy" by GhostOfHeraclitus. Picture by Earthsong9405 & AquaGalaxy, found by Georg. Reading by Super Trampoline. Russian translation by Doof Ex Machina.)

Once upon a time, (if the term even applies) two young ladies, (if that adjective even applies) decided to visit a magical land of Equestria, selected seemingly at random from about a million.

• One of the two is a time traveler deprived of her time machine, the other is an eldritch abomination out of her element.
• One would prefer the world of pastel-colored ponies to stay as it is, and can’t help but alter it. The other one is anxious to see how it can change, and can’t help but maintain it.
• Both believe that this is not their story. But while they disturb the delicate world of ponies, they don’t even notice ponies doing the same to them.
• Sandwiches are involved somehow.

There are many things this story is and some things it isn’t.

It’s not a fix fic, no matter what some of the characters think. It’s written in multiple first person narration, which happened for a pointlessly clever reason, that will eventually become quite obvious. It’s not a crossover, it just comes with an unhealthy amount of backstory. It could be a rational-fic, but since idealistic philosophy is typically not seen as very rational, it’s only a philoso-fic instead. It’s quite meta, in the original definition of metafiction: fiction concerned with fiction as a concept. In any case, it’s either a small monument to overthinking things – I’m trying to reexamine many fanon ideas here – or a digital paperweight, I’m not sure which. It’s quite a bit more subtle than it could be, and everyone talks way too much when they should be having glorious adventures.
I know how it starts, I know how it ends, and most of what happens in between. Readers say it’s a slow burner, but we’ll get there eventually.

Acknowledgements

With special thanks to my editors, Thainen, Shrink Laureate, and MitchH.
Further special thanks to ScarletWeather and Themaskedferret for valuable input.
The artist who made the cover image stubbornly wishes to remain uncredited, but thanks to her anyway.