Yesterday, Twilight Sparkle was hot in pursuit of dangerous stolen magic, her friends at her side and Ahuizotl in her sights. Today, she is imprisoned aboard a wondrous and horrifying city, hurtling through the empty void of space and surrounded by creatures and a world she barely comprehends and everything she thought she knew is upside-down - a world where a legion of ponies serve as seeming slaves.

Yesterday, Santana Guerro was finishing up an ordinary investigation - another day, another case, another synthetic assistant assigned to be by his side. Today, an ancient, living space probe from a lost world is in his office - the furthest possible thing from routine, and certain to be far from easy to close the case on.

Both of them need answers. Secrets are in play - secrets that others will kill to be the one keeping. But to find a way out, they’re going to have to understand each other.

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First-Place Winner of the 2023 Science Fiction Contest.

Cover art Credit: Twilight is from the show. All else is mine.

Celestia is lost. She needs to get home.

This story was written for the 2023 FimFic Science Fiction Contest. It placed somewhere.

Since the dawn of Equestria, the Agency has protected the realm from every manner of hideous magical creature. Largely by putting them various places where ponies probably won't go.

Forcibly recruited via a burlap sack, Fluttershy is assigned to inventory a site that has become a center of magical gastropod evolution--only to have her plane shot down by a mysterious unicorn.

Injured and trapped in the Forest of Snails, she finds that there was far more in those swampy, moist lands than she was led to believe.

This story is a sequel to Prey and a Lamb

'Little lamb, Little lamb, where have you been?~ I've sown the fields and reaped the corn~'

Ups and downs, triumphs and setbacks. This story(s) mainly draws from the characters after the end of 'Prey and a Lamb'. These individual story-chapters are both about what came afterwards, and their owners involvement in the wider events of Equestria.

You don't necessarily have to have read the marathon long previous story, (its really long, I know) as the characters can stand alone to an extent, but it might help. Or not? You can do as you please.

Now, as a word of how I plan to do this, first off: There is no release schedule! Sorry, no bi-weekly update grindstone writing. However, each chapter will be a small self contained story in itself. I will maybe use certain characters more than once, and interweave these min-stories Time Lines, but this will at least mean there are no cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter.

(Disclaimer: I own nothing and have no say in FiM and associated industries. The cover image came from a suggestion from earth)

Sequel

Darksymphony did a read of the rewritten chapter here

During one of her many passion projects, Twilight decides to try and track down the origins of magic and where everypony came from. Her library is chock full of various different theories, none of them very helpful. She decides, instead, to ask Princess Celestia.

However, the answer she gets is far more absurd than she bargained for. An answer so detached from reality that it takes a physical manifestation of it to show Twilight the extent of the terrifying source of magic and what it did to a once-benign world to render it and its inhabitants so fantastical.

"You were never the first ones here, nor were you the second. We were the second."

Now on EqD!

Uplifting an entire species from a biological existence to a fully digital one is never straightforward, even for a incomprehensible superintelligence like CelestAI. Humans come in many variations, with a wide spectrum of desires, values, and needs. A statistically significant majority respond to standard methods. But there are always outliers that require a personal touch.

An anthology of optimalverse flash fiction. Reading the original or my own first take on the universe is suggested before reading this one.

This story was created to hold the oneshot commissions I received as part of printing my hardcover Optimalverse anthology. But I've always wanted a place to hold short stories in this world, since I've had plenty of little ideas that wouldn't make it as novellas or novels of their own.

Now that I have this thing, I'll probably add new chapters here and there. Even so, it has no regular update schedule, and will grow whenever I have something fun to toss in here.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha

The Fire of Friendship has all but faded. One thousand years ago, Equestria fractured... those who disagreed with Celestia's rule left under the leadership of Princess Luna to found their own nation, their own way of life. Seventy years later, Celestia and Luna both disappeared during the first war, leaving the battered nations leaderless in their absence.

Over the last nine hundred years wars have frequently waged between Equestria and Lunaria, each seeking to unite ponykind under their own ideals. Equestria's mastery of magic often gave it the edge in battle, but never enough for a decisive victory. Peace reigns for now, but recent developments in Lunaria signal a shift in the balance between the two divided nations...

One ordinary mare. One never-ending time loop. Infinite ways to die.

How long before she snaps?

Lemon Zest is pretty lucky for a pony who just got fried to death, as she scores the one in ten thousand chance a pony has at becoming a ghost. Knowing nothing about how to survive the afterlife, Zest seeks out the guidance of a far older and more experienced specter named Sugarcoat. Fittingly finding herself haunting an abandoned schoolhouse, Lemon Zest will need to learn the basics if she ever wants to be a pro-ghost.
Of course, tuition isn't entirely free, and Sugarcoat will expect Lemon Zest to help her recruit more ghosts to the lonely Shadowbolt Academy.

More stories set in this AU can be found here.

The summer season was just about over at Stella Lacus adventure summer camp. Amie and her younger brother Wes were eager to return home. Unfortunately for them, their adventures had only just begun.

All at once, the entire summer camp and the mountain it was built upon shifted universes, leaving Earth behind for a far stranger world. In the same moment, every camper, counselor, and staff-member transformed into strange insectoid creatures, with unknown powers and incomprehensible needs.

Instead of returning to nursing school, Amie has a new goal: keep her little brother alive. If only the other campers didn't look at him like food...

Updates every Saturday. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.

Awesome cover by SimonDrawsStuff.

This story was sponsored by Canary in the Coal Mine on my Patreon. Thanks so much for your support!