Nothing lasts forever, not even a planet. In the distant future, Equestria no longer exists, the land stripped of all its life and resources. As a final resort, the princesses who guarded their world put into motion the only plan that could save their people. Colony ships, each one led by a princess and sent to a different candidate planet, ensuring redundancy.

It was the best plan they had. But any plan needs to have room for adaptation. The planet of Eldyrea was not forgiving to Equestrians. To survive, those who landed had to accept a new change: the chimaera. They walk Eldyrea on two hooves, in the scales of dragons. They wear the manes of kirins and look through the sharp eyes of griffons. And for as long as they could remember, they were alone in the world.

When two young chimaeras, Nisus and August, find themselves face to face with the creatures of their legends, the secrets of how they grew from a seed of metal and magic will force them to question their identities as Eldyreans. United with their kind to face their new rivals, they will understand why they have been left alone under the light of a wild star.

Hundreds of rats, mice, and rabbits fill its staff. A mongoose of exquisite culinary taste and skill, aided by a team of two dozen guinea pig cooks, prepares only the best foods for its guests. Its rooms stretch ten floors down, accommodating pets of every taste. All managed by a single, highly organized owl.

That is the Hotel of Animals. And on the outside, that's all there is. Opalescence can choose her own pampering without her owner's poor, though good-natured, decisions. Winona is free to taste the life a luxury for one day, to see if her owner was right or wrong about the pointless whims of the fancy. Philomena is able to escape the adoring eyes of passing politicians, the same way her owner wishes to as well.

But there is genuine joy, and then there is the mask of it; it is one a sad soul wears to brave the world, one a hunter abuses to lure its prey. And that mask is here, in the Hotel of Animals.

"A must have bookshelf stuffer! They're a great gift to pass on to my kids because I've grown up with so many of these stories myself." --A.K. Yearling

"Winter season can be a challenge for designers. I just want a book I can experience with a cup of hot chocolate, and this is it. All my favourites are beautifully compiled in this book. Plus, there are some stories I've never even heard of before! --Coco Pommel

Historia Writ's works have always been in the Manehattan Times' "Top 100 Best Sellers" for a reason. This is just another wonderfully written season piece you can enjoy with your family. -- The Canterlot Chronicle

This story is a sequel to Fighting to the Top

After meeting at the Interregional Fencing Tournament, Sunset drew Marionette into everything she did with her friends. They sang, watched movies, studied, and talked about the last season of Match of Crowns. Summer was short, and soon it'd be time for them to split up and find their future at college.

But tonight would not be a night for the group. Marionette had helped Sunset see a clear path ahead of her. As thanks tonight, it would just be the two of them.

Sequel: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/428969/new-years-future

Black water runs in the veins of all life here on the Isle. The trees drink it up from the deepest wells of the earth, and in turn, all life graze on their sap. But the special ones, the kith, they are revered. Black-barked trees as hard as steel, their sap gives more than life; they give magic.

Every pony on the Isle made from something that should be dead. To the north, the Waterforms have their kingdom on a lake. Rich groves of kith are guarded by their Cultivators. The same to the south, where a vast desert land is ruled by Sandmolds, whose lords are ever anxious about their lands becoming too dry for their kith.

Times of strife sit on the horizon now. Smaller clans have already rebelled against the major kingdoms as their own kith groves run dry. Black water rivers become the site of vicious skirmishes as kingdoms struggle to maintain the order of the Isles.

It is the toughest change for the young. Generations have lived never knowing war. At least that is how it is in the kingdoms. Now the desperate are knocking on the gates demanding life. Will future generations be able to give a little of their future for this request? Or will death be the only thing left outside the kingdoms on the Island of Magic?

Advance, lunge. Retreat. It's about speed, but no one can run away. Sunset never thought she'd get the chance to show how far she had come, not in this. Her friends were by her side and they'd always be the greatest change in her life, but this was important too.

Changing bodies when she crossed over to the human world was hard enough. It was a challenge to write, and even harder to learn how to play the guitar. But this sport, fencing, felt nigh-impossible to master. But that was years ago.

Feint, disengage, lunge for the feet. Every time it's a lunge, firing the body like a magic blast from a unicorn's horn, only stronger. Every time she could feel the impact. The bending steel, it spoke volumes about how good the hit was.

Canterlot High had only ever had a fencing club, but the Inter-regional Fencing Tournament would be open to every young fencer, including upstart professionals. Schools like Crystal Prep would be sending their own team members, real competitors who lived with a sword in their hand. But none of them had to go through what Sunset did. She'd win for CHS, and finally give back to the one place that had done so much for her.

Sequel: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/414838/a-summers-gift

Hundreds of years before the legendary Starswirl opened his eyes, a moment of change shook Equestria without even being noticed. Such is the way of the Changeling hive.

A new brood has hatched, unlike any other the hive has seen in generations: Changeling princesses, destined to lead the hive in a new direction that their mother could not. But the path is not easy for any one of them. Pony settlements dot every corner of Equestria, spreading thin the hive's hunters across the vast hunting ground.

Faced with the possibility of a divergence, a splitting of the home hive across Equestria, the princesses are thrust into the savagery of the world around them; their hive, their world, even their prey, show no mercy. To keep their kind alive, the princesses have no choice but to unleash their wrath upon those who would challenge them, lest they lose their hold on their family.

Frost Wing wasn't great at self expression. His friends understood that, and saw the personality behind his dull mask. But once, he did express himself. He opened all that he had because the emotions he had to express were too great to keep inside. He didn't know what would happen after, but in the end everything went exactly as he expected. They were good friends, once. Or maybe that was just his imagination too.

Once done with the Card Master's wishes she got her world back, her world stolen by his games and the Princess with whom she shared a name. No more loops, no more looking at her family knowing what's to come.

With her children grown up, each taking on lives of their own as monster hunters, her pleasant life of farms and vineyards and orchards seems duller by the day. That is, of course, until the war, across all of Equestria's kingdoms, breaks out.

Driven out of the orchard she earned to live in by the High Mountain Kingdom, there is nothing but the road. War and chaos and corpses let monsters thrive, and where there are monsters, there will always be hunters.

Whatever is to come, Fiora de Battaille will stand for the life she fought to get back.

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Author's note:
This story takes place after the Card Master Trilogy, following the continued life of one of the characters in the trilogy. However, the time and story is specifically designed to be independent from the original trilogy.
The only details of significance are this: Fiora de Battaille is an "alternate" version of canonical Twilight Sparkle, who, in the events of the Card Master Trilogy, was raised from young as a monster hunter. Non-earth ponies are infertile mutants, with the exception of Fiora, who has started the only line of fertile mutants with a pony as the father, who has long since been deceased.

Pick a card.

What do you see, when you look into the cards. Stories? Lessons?

We stand at the edge of an era, Princess.

Look deeper into reality and you will find our truths and knowledge are not what we think it to be. How do we know things? Why are we here? The purpose of life and death and cards are always questioned.

Princess, I want to take you there, to where we find meaning. I want to take you to a place where life is vibrant and death is a gateway. It's always a gateway, path, portal, or doorway. All stories have change, and with change they are loved.

How will you change? How will you change?

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Additional categories
+Contemplative, +Alternate Universe(s)?

Book 1 Cards of Prophecy
Book 2 Cards of Legacy
Optional Reading Broken