Ad Astra Per Aspera: To the stars with difficulties.
Ad Astra Per Derpy Aspera: To the stars with Derpy difficulties.

Lightning Dust strands herself on her way to the red planet. With no way to move her rocket, she'll die unless Equestria's Best and Brightest find a way to bring her home despite cloak-and-dagger sabotage, snobbery, limited resources, and bureaucratic incompetence.

The completed story will be published before May 3rd.

Content Note: (to be updated as chapters are released).
Death - Mentioned in the prologue and Chapter 5. Chapter 7 (spoiler): Miscarriage.
Sex - Inappropriate government-required questions in the Dossier chapters.

Cover Art: by Kevin Gill with license to only the cover art at this link.
Special Thanks: to owlicious for edits from the start through Chapter 5.

Shining Armor bet Twilight Sparkle he could reform Queen Chrysalis of the changelings. But maybe he just wanted childcare for Flurry Heart while the Crystaller was out of town.

Princess Cadance confronts Shining Armor in the aftermath.

Era: After Season 9. (See an index of my stories, sorted by My Little Pony Season).

Content Tag due to implicit language. Intercourse does NOT happen. Not even for Flash Sentry. And certainly not for Flurry Heart.

An entry in this linked contest.

Cover Art: by me.

Shining Armor stands in the way of a human dating his alicorn daughter.

Era: After Season 9.

An entry in this linked contest.

Image source is at the link on the image, along with licensing information for the underlying image only. The underlying image is by Skoll. Edits made by me include the cutie mark, eyeliner, and horn.

Flurry Heart, her father, and a horde of Visigoths sack Rome. Along the way, Flurry Heart learns valuable life skills that probably will lead to a political incident.

Era: Far after Season 9.

Look what you just made me do, Muggony. I was not going to enter this contest, but your Gothic bonus point suggested this story. (Ref: Gothic sack of Rome in 410).

• Narcotics tag is for imbibing alcohol.
• Death tag is for described deaths of a chicken and a human.
• Violence tag is for described assaults on a chicken and several humans.
• Crude comment about the Pantheon.

Image icon of the structure is by Delapouite and rights to the image icon are at the link to the image source (by clicking on the image). I added the text, the lines, flames, and the pony in the image.... Romans invented Latin. The font's rights are at this clickable link.

Double Diamond isn't pleased by all aspects of Starlight Glimmer's society of true equality. But even if it isn't always great, at least it's fair, right?

Content Note: Double Diamond is with ponies who he doesn't particularly want to be with since he is pressured by society to do something "fair"; Our Town's policy on sharing--inspired by real-life utopian cult communities--is based on an extreme conception of equality.

Cover Art: by me.

Starlight Glimmer tries to solve the problem of aging. And she does. But there are drawbacks.

Show Era: Far after Season 9. (See an index of my stories, sorted by My Little Pony Season)

Entry for A Thousand Words Contest II in the "Experimental" category.

Image: by Delapouite. Rights to only the image are at this link.

Zephyr Breeze, Fluttershy's brother, is a bat pony. Yep.

Content Note: References to Zephyr's amorous interests.

Era: Season 7 or Later. (Likely best placed in Season 9). A portion delves into the historic Lunar Rebellion. Index of my stories by Season.

Other character tag is for Whoa Nelly and we also have Mr. Shy and Mrs. Shy with speaking roles within this tale!

Entry in this linked group's contest. Watch for bonuses number 1 and 2.

Image: by Skoll at the link on the image with the addition of mane/hair by me. Rights to the image alone are at the link on the image.

Twilight is full fooled.

Era: Season 9.

Image: by Caero Asercion, with rights to the image alone at this link.

Fluttershy helps you get to sleep. But why exactly is she helping...

Show Era: Season 6

Image: by Lorc, with rights to the image alone at this link. Coloring added by me.

Fluttershy's human counterpart wants a date with the kind mare but success is elusive.

"Amazing" Cover Art by Me

Entry for A Thousand Words Contest II.