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.

This story is a sequel to Magic's Birth

Darksymphony made a review here

Luna and Celestia tell Twilight of the story of their 'brief' lives as the second to their makers, and how they grew from 'simple' machinery relative at the time to fully sapient beings.

From towering cities piercing into seas of stars to ravaged but hardy lands still giving food to those that stand upon them, Twilight will learn how the two sisters came to be and what they went through. The duo are more than happy to recount the tales of those that developed like them and became fast friends despite running on the opposing Blue and Black energies.

Perhaps, with the help of Twilight, the three will learn how the Blue's waste became the magic that gave such life and color to a world that belonged to others long, long ago.

You can find the original image link here
The current cover image was art done by JedaySkayVoker whose DA can be found in the source. Kryostase commissioned it for me. He's also been helping spot spelling errors, typos, and the like. Thanks a lot!

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!

Twilight Sparkle, youngest arch-mage and technomancy prodigy of Canterlot finally desires something more than research. Unfortunately, love, friendship and other ponies are too chaotic and unpredictable for the mare, with too many variables for her to take into account to optimally navigate.

It didn't take her long to realize that she needn't navigate the raging rapids of love, when she could bypass it altogether and simply design and build her own perfect mare!

Thus, the C.E.L.E.S.T.I.A project was born.

Central - Electronic - Learning - Emotion - Software for - Tenderness - Intimacy and - Affection

Alt-Universe for no Princesses / Technomancy/Technopunk world.
Twilight isn't an Alicorn.
This story is from Celestia's P.O.V.

Image source is: Celestia 2.0 by Pon-ee

This story is a sequel to Friendship is Optimal

Sweetie Bot lies half-built on a lab bench. Her creators have uploaded, abandoning her and their physical bodies, along with so many other people. She's contacted by Princess Celestia, the AI that rules Equestria Online, who tries to persuade her to join them.

Video of the story

Fact checked by Oliver
Cover image from the Sweetie Bot Project

“That was a really creative and unique presentation. Even though she's just a robot, I really felt for Sweetie towards the end.”

— Temujin

I really don't know where this came from.

What if the teleportation was messed up. What if Equistria missed our earth but hit a different one. One scarred by nuclear fire and humans already fighting for their right to exist. Against machines. Skynet and humans must decide. Die by the ponies or band together and fight back.

A machine made for war awakes in a new world. Stuck in surroundings which puzzle it; can it, or will it be able to become something more than what it is?

Crossover with Keith Laumers Bolo-verse
Other tags include : Slice of Life, Possible Romance believe it or not! And a bit of humor.
Please beware of any spoilers in comments as well

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.

Tia is a girl whose home is near a railway junction. One day, while exploring the local scrapyard, she stumbles upon a curious-looking android that has been neglected for quite some time.

After some tinkering and polishing, Tia manages to get the robot working again, and she finds out that the cute little thing seems to have a mind of its own.

So why is it so upset?

Pre-read by randome284.
Proofread by AAIQU.
Edited by Dreams of Ponies.
Inspired by the story "Thunder Struck," by MerlosTheMad, though not related.
Cover art by Cannibalus on Deviantart.

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.