I never asked for power or leadership. Royalty was a collar around my neck and a weight on my heart. A mask of superiority was born to keep them from realizing how our world was crumbling down to dust. No longer will my people live in the shadows. This plan has to work.

Art by Yula586 on Deviant art https://www.deviantart.com/yula568

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.

A three arced story that begins slowly as partially Comedy and Slice of life and rotates more towards Adventure and Dark in later chapters.

Some school fillies have to deal with school crushes. Others with bullies. Sometimes they have to deal with both. But no filly has ever had to deal with an Evil Tyrant being bound to their shadow and have the power to control their every action. This, of course, seems to be no big deal for Sweetie Belle who seems to even enjoy the stallion's company. Though the feelings aren't mutual. The small filly reminds the old king too much of a filly he used to know... Though it's strange the only place he'd seen her before are in these strange dreams of his. Recollections of a past he can't remember.

Perhaps Sweetie Belle will awake in him that version of himself before he was a Tyrant. Before he was labeled evil. A time from when he was a father. Perhaps she will help him forgive.

First featured on 9/4/2014!

The cover art was sketched by me and colored by the very talented Midnight Sonare

As Twilight Sparkle awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, she found she had been turned into a changeling.

How has she become a changeling? How will she adapt? How will her friends respond? And what new terrors will her metamorphosis bring?

Cover image by the fantastic Carnifex... or Siansaar... I can't tell which. You can find more wonderful works here: http://siansaar.deviantart.com/

EDIT: Featured... nearing 1000 Favorites... multiple pages of comments (swoons)

Thanks for everything guys. I never expected this thing to get so popular. I need to rework the second chapter, but it looks like there's going to be a blue moon every Friday for a while yet. Thanks again for your support and please keep reading and reviewing!

EDIT2: I've updated the character list again, a little preview of the second story arc...

EDIT 3: Just doing a quick character update to account for changes made to the next Arc...

Waking up in an alternate universe in which you are a supervillain can be hard.

Finding out your friends are rebels trying to kill or overthrow you isn't very easy to deal with either.

But trying to solve the situation? That's a real horn cracker.

This story is a sequel to And Hell Followed

A plague ravaged Equestria, turning all of the unicorns and alicorns into bloodthirsty monsters bent on killing all the other races in a genocidal rage. A small cadre lead by the Elements of Harmony survived and persisted in Ponyville, and even managed to reverse it all at the cost of their lives.

Now Equestria must rebuild.

In Manehattan, Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna must find a way to ease racial tensions while keeping the teetering nation safe and also rebuilding the lost trust of the little ponies of Equestria. Elsewhere, Cheerilee and Scootaloo must find their way in this new world.

There are only two options left. Rebuild Equestria stronger than ever, or be scattered to the winds of history.

----

Updates every Wednesday

Edited by Silver Mint

Cover art by MirAmore

There’s no end to the monsters that lurk in the dark.

Ghosts, werewolves, mad scientists, cultists, mutants, zombies, vampires, aliens and more lie in wait in the dark corners of Equestria, terrorizing the night. But the most infamous and dangerous of them all is the legendary witch Twilight Sparkle, with a five hundred million bit bounty on her head.

Seeking fame and fortune, Rainbow Dash sets out to defeat the legendary witch and collect the massive reward. The one thing she wasn't counting on was Twilight being less evil than she expected.

More stories set in this AU can be found here.

Cover art is a work in progress by Abode_WTF

Ever since he was a foal, Light Flow had always known he was destined to be a villain—but not just any villain; no, he wanted to be a Necromancer.

He had always been obsessed with reading fiction stories about the forbidden practice of Necromancy, and much to his delight, his cutie mark spelled his unavoidable destiny as a member of his oh-so revered profession!

But Necromancy is extremely taboo, and very illegal. Equestria hadn't even seen a genuine Necromancer since the times of the fabled Nightmare Moon.

Substituting joy for dread, Light Flow knew that he would have to hide his especially special talent at any cost. Whether in his daily, mundane life as a bookish nerd, or in the heat of extreme danger.

Good thing he doesn't have any friends, right?

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I have deleted the old AN in favor of a new one.

Hello all! If you don't know me, then good! I'm a stranger, and it'd be weird if you knew who I am!

This is my first story, and basically my first experience writing something long-term. To that end, the beginning of the story is a bit rough, but I grew as a writer somewhat significantly as time went on, so it doesn't stay quite as bad!

The story itself has somewhat wavered from goal to goal as I argued with myself about what I wanted from it, though I eventually managed to settle. In its current state, it's mostly managed to stick to a strange blend of comedic tragedy interspersed sporadically with magical jargon and slice of life.

An added warning due to justified complaining: this experience can be very subdued. Not for the easily bored or angered. Personally, I tend to use Background Pony as a benchmark for a person's capability to withstand words.

Prepare yourself for lots of rants and barely coherent plot-threads!

Also i'm an idiot who probably tagged wrong.

Also i'm a bad person who stole a Jargon Scott image for the cover. (And then a wonderful person named Adin Terim edited it <3)

Magic, the most forbidden art. Only nobles are allowed to learn from the great wizards and witches, and only from special schools set up by the state. For commoners, learning the mystic arts is nothing but a dream, a fantasy that many strive for but none achieve.

With one exception: Stalliongrad. The great, northern city boasted more magic schools than any other, and among them, the only one that accepts low born ponies. It's a dangerous trek to get there, and even more dangerous to simply stay in the frozen city.

Twilight Sparkle, however, will not be stopped. Destined to become the archmage, destined to sit at Princess Luna's side, she will not be stopped.

After all, Archmage Twilight Sparkle has a nice ring to it.

Updates: Weekly, hopefully.
Don't think about this too much, it hurts the squishy sponge.
WOO, FEATURED! 18.1.2020

EDIT: Added a character cheat sheet in the bottom of this section due to requests.

The only thing that's known about changelings in general is that they came from the Badlands and that they eat love. Oh right, and that their queen is evil, cool, and certainly does not star in some of the wilder pony dreams.
Not much, is it?
The thing is, it's not as if they know too much themselves. For example, how many of them there really were? How many of them survived the invasion? How silly was it to attempt to disrupt princess Celestia's cake supply?
No one can fully answer such burning questions. Only one thing is for certain - they're now everywhere, and they all have their own stories to tell, some long, some short, some violent, some silly, some happy. Changelings all over the place.
Not every creature minds, though.

--156,387--
156 - infiltrator, F, hive loyalist.
387 - warrior, M, knows strangely too much.
918 - infiltrator. F.
47989 - drone, hit head on rock, a bit confused
559, 791, 2899 - warriors, M
10013, 13887, 19441, 31214 - drones

--1988,9999--
1988 - infiltrator, M, in charge of the lumber camp lings, totally femboy looking.
9999 - currently the highest ranking drone in the hive, involuntary drone Jesus.
36658, 57999 - drone bark meister, drone bark padawan. Definitely not opiate dealers.
13415 - drone, second-in-command after 9999.
17070 - cooking drone, deaf.
20100 - moving pictures drone
54331, 74989, 33125, 65661 - drones
3x Silent

--1313--
1313 - infiltrator, M, breaks easily, is put together easily.
Zamira - F, Blueblood's zebra bodyguard

--65536--
65536 - drone, requires no details here.
Sharp Biscuit - Batpony, M, Nightguard Commander.
Beacon - Unicorn, M, paladin Grandmaster
Pink Sunset - Batpony, M
Gloom - Batpony, F
Night Hunter - Batpony, M
Steel Glimmer - Batpony, F