Shattered Skies has lived quite some time. He had done well for himself over the past few thousand years; staying out of the public eye and remaining generally uninvolved from pony society while he tended his forests.

Who wouldn't want that, right?

His job came with excellent security and fringe benefits, but after he was betrayed by a princess he trusted, all he wants to do is to live a normal life even if the world tells him otherwise.

Oc disclaimer: The original characters that appear in the story that are not my own have been obtained from the original owners via written permission.

Bómù Guāng Shǎn, the Prince of Friendship, asks Mèng Huàn, the Prince of the Night, for help investigating a mirror universe. The ponies there call it Equestria instead of Cōng Mǎ Guó, and it might have a few other differences, too...

The original, short story version came in 10th in the Writeoff Association's Feb. 2016 contest, "Look, I Can Explain." The cover artwork is by huhulin from Vectorstock, and overflowing thanks go out to M1Garand8 for help with the Mandarin names and the hànyǔ pīnyīn to render them in Latin characters.

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.

"Hey, you used to be Celestia's student, right? Did you know Sunset Shimmer?"

When a race of powerful ancient beings return to Equestria after an absence of thousands of years, it isn't to the sort of world they expected. Twilight Sparkle is now the first and last line of defense in a conflict that will decide the future of her planet.

Yes, there is life on other planets. This would be fascinating news to Twilight, had they come under more peaceful circumstances. Unfortunately, Thanks to Equestria's princesses, that life is angry and has come for its due.

Art by the fantastic Zutcha, as usual. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.

This story was written based on a simple idea from the HiE group forums. I haven't followed the idea exactly, but there's still a spoiler warning for those who want to check it out.

The Tree of Harmony, a sophisticated magitech intelligence built long ago during the glory days of the Crystal Empire, has recently been awoken from her beauty sleep again by anomalous activity. Much to the surprise of her leaf-like sensory arrays, the disturbance turns out to be Princess Celestia, who's finally figured out how to converse with Harmony directly in hopes of learning more about her.

When the Princess strikes up a conversation, she soon discovers that one of Equestria's greatest defense mechanisms is actually a rather interesting individual, and she's not been alone in the cave for all these years.

The idea is most definitely not my own, nor is it original, but it's one I could not resist writing! Special thanks to those who give me the inspiration to write crackfics

After an ill-conceived stunt by Princess Celestia goes horribly wrong, and Twilight truly realises the ramifications of her recent apotheosis to Goddess-hood, she goes for the only thing in her life that's ever given her relief – the bottle. But when she finds out that the divine are unaffected by mere mortal liquor, she must track down and brew the booze of the immortals themselves; The Ninety-nine Nectars of Princess Luna.

Pre-reading and editing by Luna-tic Scientist
Cover art shamelessly stolen from wikipedia and crudely edited in Paint
"I don't know what NoeCarrier is on but he needs to stay on it." - herdlesspony, Reddit.
"The whole thing is quite bizzare (sic), really." - Pharohman777, spacebattles.com.

One day, Twilight notices something strange : the princess Celestia she is looking at has got no shadow.

Twilight's curiosity then forces her to figure it all out.
Curiosity is such a bad thing.

She should have stayed out of this one.

Rainbow discovers that she has a pest problem in her house. The pest turns out to be both cuter and more annoying than she expected.

A winner of the 2015 Bat Pony writing contest.

Russian translation by KoylanGOLD
Also read: The Most Annoying House Guest

One day, while working at Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie comes to a startling realization.

She has no idea how Fluttershy earns money.

For Pinkie Pie, not knowing something so important about one of her closest friends is intolerable. But when she asks Fluttershy, the only answer she'll give is:

"I do odd jobs."

Now, Pinkie Pie is determined to find out exactly what Fluttershy does to make ends meet...

(Rated Teen for mild risque humor.)