Rarity is a successful fashion designer slowly growing to hate what she's doing.

Gertie the Dinosaur is one of the first cartoon characters ever animated.

Winsor McCay is her creator, a pioneer of early animation.

...At night, the three of them dream together.

Click here to see Gertie the Dinosaur! (watch it, it's fun!)

A crossover with Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur, considered by some wikipedia editors to be the first proper “character” brought to life by animation. McCay, a newspaper cartoonist, pioneered for the film several techniques that remain essential to animation today – including keyframes, registration marks, and animation loops. McCay's animations were variously successful, but as time went on he became increasingly disillusioned with the burgeoning industry, and in 1921 was forced by his editor to give up animation almost entirely. In 1934, he woke to discover his drawing hand completely paralysed, and was pronounced dead later that afternoon.

Winner (!) of Estee's Who Crossed Over My Little Pony? contest. Check out the other entries here!

Who is Applejack?

A mechanic working in a world of endless gears, trying her best to keep the Mesh up and running. She is just a small part of a much larger whole...

Why do ponies dream? Why do we all seem to dream the same dreams?

What if we started to dream new things?

Discord said he wanted to make our dreams more interesting. Add some spice to our boring nocturnal lives. Nothing dangerous – just a bit of excitement to talk about in the mornings.

"Stop worrying so much, Twilight Sparkle," he said. "After all, dreams never hurt anypony."

How I wish he’d been right.

Gold Medalist in the Under the Sun Writeoff Event.

Now with Russian translation, courtesy of Cloud Ring! https://darkpony.space/the-archetypist-1/

Sometimes young Petunia Paleo's dreams seem impossible.

Good thing dreams are Princess Luna's specialty.

This story was expanded from its original appearance as a finalist in the December 2016 Writeoff, "Has That Always Been There?" Cover art assembled from here and here. Featured on FimFiction 26Dec.2018-28Dec.2018! Featured on Equestria Daily 4Jan.2019! Also featured by the Royal Canterlot Library!

Buried beneath the Dragon Lands, there is a city. It rots, and it bleeds.

And it breathes.

A writing exercise inspired by the magnificent Lost Cities, written by Cold in Gardez.

Enormous thanks to Undome Tinwe, without whom this story would probably not exist.

Audiobook by Illya Leonov!

Audiobook by Jman14102!

Celestia famously believes in redemption and rehabilitation. Only the vilest, cruelest offenders find permanent homes in her prisons. Only those lost and damned, and a singular mare kept captive in relative comfort in a high tower of the palace. Her cell is well furnished, and food is brought to her from the royal kitchens from which Celestia herself dines. Among those privileged few in her lady's service, the mare in the high tower is a curious ghost story. What awful crimes must she have committed? What could she do? What but the power to slay gods could keep one small mare in the quadruple sealed apartments they call Death's Vault?

Commissioned by SPark.

Celestia tells Twilight the story of the beginning of the world.

There are three of them, all Alicorns living to the desert land south of the Everfree Kingdom, which is the land that will one day be Equestria. They are a family of three: an elder sister and the younger kin she raised long before Celestia and Luna had even been born.

Elinora of the White Flame rules wisely, alone until the others are of age and get their marks. Hasad is charismatic and an excellent mediator. Stellaura is nervous, paranoid, and wants nothing more to be like her brother and please everyone, including herself by overcoming her inferiority complex. All of them have their own wishes for the world.

Only one of them will have their wish fulfilled.

Major spoilers in the comments and groups! The cover art is by turnipberry but was edited by me. Contribute to the TVTropes page!

Celestia discovers a lingering trace of Nightmare Moon's soul still lodged in Twilight's mind—a survivor of the lingering effects of the Element's magic.

Faced with the threat of gradually losing her friend to Nightmare Moon's evil influence, Celestia realizes the only way to save Twilight is to let the storm of dark magic take its course all at once.

And yet, as Nightmare Moon's corrupting magic tears away at Twilight's forgiveness and understanding, and Twilight begins dredging up unexpressed doubts once kept controlled, Celestia must face a lifetime of confrontation her student has kept covered.

It is going to be a long night for both alicorns.

This story was written for the Tenth Bimonthly Twilestia Contest. It placed somewhere.

Being an alicorn is wonderful... except when it isn't. There are plenty of things that put a damper on limitless vistas of possibility afforded by such a long life: Court, mortal needs and expectations, the occasional decade of ennui.

And the dreams, of course. Agelessness comes with its own special kind of dreaming. Celestia finds that her own "Inner Court" is a bit too literal, and it--and she--are troubled at the prospect of a near-immortal Twilight Sparkle.

If only she could articulate exactly why that was.

art by spectralunicorn

Part of the Monophysite Quartet, which also includes Celestia Isn't Real, Have You Considered My Servant, Twilight?, and The Esoteric Rites of Darkness. All four stories have a common origin point in an old story idea I called "Monophysite" and touch on who or what Celestia really is in some way. They are otherwise unrelated.