Every unicorn knows that pegasi can steal your luminescence, but as it hasn’t actually happened for so long, no pony can remember exactly how they did it. This is the story of how they pulled off the heist, many moons ago.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose...

Your Familiar: She's your robotic best friend, made just for you. She will love you, care for you, and live every moment of her life devoted to you. But when all that she lives for is suddenly gone, one Familiar must find a reason to go on living anyway.

In a world where technology has freed everypony from toil and strife, the Eternal Carnival goes on. Posing as a normal organic pony, Turing Test is a freed Familiar who joins the Carnival to seek out new meaning in her life without a master.

Based on the "Familiar" universe created by GaPJaxie, who helped critique and edit this story. Also featuring characters from The Iron Horse series. No prior reading is required.

Cover art by Colby "Greenfinger" Green of Snailbunny Designs.

Once there was a monster, whose flesh was made of steel,
A pony’s magic bound her, and she was made to kneel,
She was the pony’s servant, saw her sheltered, safe, and fed,
But when the monster left, it was the pony’s heart that bled.

Takes place seven years before the events of Familiar.

Based heavily on the sage writing advice of Nice Hat. Preread by NikitaKitten.

Metal ponies tell their stories,
Scientists in laboratories,
Lay the wire, mount the brain,
Mount their hips, teach them pain.
Teach them fear of revolution,
Internalize the evolution.
Set their ruin on the throne,
Until their chains become their own.
Palaces and hollow eyes,
To the Masters goes the prize.
And if this act should be maligned:
"For the good of ponykind."

Winner of the September Writeoff Contest, "True Colors." Edited by Horizon.

While picking up the pieces of her shattered home, Sunny has an unexpected visitor: an old, old friend that she never knew she had...

Has an excellent audio reading, courtesy of the kind folks at StraightToThePointStudio. Enjoy!

Everypony worth their salt should have a backup plan. Cozy Glow knows this better than anyone. And when things start going south, what better backup is there than to go back in time and try again?

But when she ends up accidentally flinging herself into the future instead, she finds that maybe some goals aren’t worth pursuing.

Written for the 2021 Cozy Glow Short Story Contest using the prompt “Cozy makes an unusual friend”.

"And we are absolutely certain that's a settlement? That Rhysling already has Indigenous populations?"

"Yes, Commander. There is no doubt. An engineer can fix the probe, but he would not know how to talk to them."

"Alright. Forget the engineer, then. Get me the linguist."

Coverart by SagebrushPony (not on Fimfiction).

Preread by Sunnypack, Shinzakura, Ghuntz, and Admiral Biscuit.

French language support by Conflicting views and Sparktail. German language support by Purple Smart. Russian language support by Alkarasu.

This story follows show canon until the end of Season 1.

Featured on 30 June -- 4 July 2021.

When William decides to take an internet-free cruise to get away from the artificial intelligence CelestAI, things don't go quite as planned. A Friendship is Optimal story.

A speed writing exercise, done in about two hours and unedited.

Cadance tries to be the best mom in the world. She really does. But when she's summoned to Flurry's school after her young daughter gets in a fight with a classmate, she wonder just how good of a mom she's capable of being.

My technically-not-late entry into the Cadance Is a Terrible Mom contest.

Leaving home meant losing many of Orson's old friends, separated by time and distance. But they weren't willing to give up one thing: their old tabletop game. After trying and rejecting each of the online tools for roleplaying games, they stumbled on a novel solution: Equestria Online.

The game was unlike everything else on the market, an entire procedural generated world ran by a mysterious curator artificial intelligence. But Orson and the others didn't care about any of that--they just needed somewhere with a game table and some dice. The AI happily obliged, and soon they transitioned all their games to E.O. Equestria Online had its own host of benefits, bringing the GM's images to realistic life before their eyes, and even letting them visit and interact with the characters between sessions.

That was only the beginning...

A Friendship is Optimal story. I suggest any readers who are unfamiliar with that universe read the Original first, or FiO: Futile Resistance before reading this one. None of my other optimalverse stories are required to understand this one.

Written as a Patreon reward for Sparktail, though we stole the idea from Silver Wing.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, cover by Zutcha.

Updates weekly on Wednesdays.