This is not the Equestria we are all comfortable with.

It is an Equestria as it could have been. An Equestria which exists during an age of empire. An Equestria ruled by steam and gunpowder, set against familiar foes and alien powers which would unmake reality. Where brave mares, stallions, and peoples not of the pony folk must tame their fears and hold the line.

It is an Equestria as it might have been. An Equestria which exists during an age of exploration. Where steely eyed stallions and mares set forth into frozen tundra, boiling jungles, and fetid swamps just to see what mysteries they contain.

It is an Equestria as it would have been. An Equestria which exist during an age of technology. Where advances in the arcane sciences and natural philosophy promises new wonders and convenience, yet bring forth the risk of social unrest and the toppling of the established order.

It is the Equestria this story is focused on, an Equestria given its own time to shine. It is a strange yet wonderful world, one which is ready to share its secrets.

Original SpaceBattles thread

Cover image is the property of Equestria-Previals. It is used without permission, though the artwork did inspire me to write this.

There's a conspiracy surrounding Rainbow Dash, and she's sick of it. There's the pills and what they do to her body. There's the fact that when she ditched them, she started feeling better then ever. The behavior of the ponies around her as she started to read, as though reading was some great sign of the end times. Then there's the whole remembering facts without knowing how she learned them.

Rainbow Dash wants this whole stupid conspiracy to go away. But what you want isn't always what you get, or even what you need.

(Self rated around PG-13 for mature language, depictions of warfare, and potentially sensitive topics.)

Twilight Sparkle is tired. Tired of spending every other month saving Equestria. Tired of being the bearer of the Element of Magic. Tired of having no romantic prospects. She's tired of dealing with the politics that comes from being the Dean of Magic at Princess Luna's university. And most of all she's tired of being at a dead end in her life. Some days, she just wanted to wake up, and not have to deal with any of those things.

Sometimes ponies get their wishes in the most unexpected ways.

[Reboot of The Trouble with Time Travel]

Banishing Queen Chrysalis was not without complications. Twilight has found herself on the plane of Innistrad, a dark place wrestling with ghosts, spirits, vampires, curses, and other things that should not be. Now she's on a world with no backup, no books and no plan beyond basic survival. Yet friendship is still a powerful thing, even in this new world of gothic horror. Now Twilight must find a way home, while still trying to do the right thing. [MLP:FiM][MtG:Innistrad block][Horror-genre themes]

Commissar Twilight Sparkle has a problem. She is expected to be a brave, fearless leader who can coerce a regiment of common ponies to perform great feats of courage and skill through a combination of inspiration and fear, often times against genetically engineered super-soldiers, warped cultists, demons from hell, soulless murder machines, an inscrutable precursor race, their fallen brethren and the naive upstarts known as the Human Empire. Unfortunately, she considers herself a cowardly, self-serving mare with too much knowledge and not enough guts to use it. In short, she's the sort of pony she's supposed to shoot.

Yet her actions, through minor acts of heroism, critical thinking and sheer dumb luck have landed her quite the reputation as a heroine. The parties and liquor are nice, as is the companionship. But the generals simply pin on another metal, tell her that she's done a good job, give her a pay raise and find new, more creative ways to try and kill her.

She has to survive a hostile universe and execute her duties, without earning the ire of her superiors or dying in a 'unfortunate friendly fire incident'. All while trying to find a way to retire with honor, or at least find a nice and quiet posting with a good book, a good looking colt and a steady supply of tea and cider.

[Taken from the 'Sparkle Archives', and edited by Inquisitor Trixie of the Ordo Xeno. Unauthorized distribution punishable by enhanced interrogation techniques, torture, drawing and quartering, and execution.]

[MLP copyrighted to Hasbro. Warhammer 40k copyrighted to Games Workshop. Caiaphas Cain copyrighted to the Black Library and originally created by Sandy Mitchell. This is a derivative work, created for entertainment by Solvable Sphinx, aka fijkus. Unauthorized distribution is frowned upon.]

[Cancelled and rebooted] It has been thirty years since Twilight Sparkle gathered the Elements of Harmony and went on her first adventure. Now a certain "John" appears in her library, deciding that she needs a break and sending her back to a "simpler time". Once again, she must stop Nightmare Moon. Only this time... things are different. Details are out of place, added or removed completely. She may not be in the past she remembers at all.