Sombra's takeover took everyone in the Crystal Empire by surprise. No one saw it coming, none were prepared for it, and almost no one got away. Almost.

A few hooffuls of daring souls managed to break out of the city and flee southwards, towards Equestria. Some ran to beg the Princesses for aid, others - just to save themselves and their families from the mad tyrant.

But as the refugees are about to learn, it's the dead of winter outside the Empire's shield, and the crystal ponies are far too used to their warm life in the city. One filly that gets separated from her parents while trying to get away learns that fact all too painfully...

Cover art by Marbo, Allfather of the Snowponies.

Additional tag:snowpony

This story is a sequel to They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Ayyyy, featured despite the sequel curse on 16.10.2023! Can we keep the last spot in the box? What's in the box? Why is the box?
EDIT: Added a character cheat sheet on the bottom.

Updates: Weekly-ish

Six years have passed since the Canterlot invasion. While the relationship between the Changeling Hive and Equestria is warmer than ever, the relationship between the deadly tunnels under the Badlands and the small, mostly defenseless changeling drones who live there isn't.
However, thanks to the knowledge granted in the recent years by a mysterious "smart box", and the guidance of drone veterans who survived under the "old rules", the post-Canterlot "new rules", and the terrifying "shippy time", fewer and fewer drones perish daily while mining materials for the hive's day to day operations.
Fewer, though, still means far from zero, and there are those among the drones who are doing all they can to finally transform the underground from fatal threat to something the drones deserve - not just a place to hide, but a true home. With copious amounts of goop, unstoppable curiosity, copyrighted board game, and a blessing from High Score, there's no way they'll fail, or at least not for long.
Drones know that everything is a trade and life is just a price. Unfortunately, sometimes there are near-invisible asterisks.

--High Ranks--
Chrysalis - no need to explain.
99 - a classless changeling. You figure out her rank on your own.
156 - current highest rank infiltrator. She and 387 might be an item.
387 - current highest rank warrior. There's nothing special about him.
2119, 3012 - unlucky top floor guards
--Drones--
10000/10k - drone leader
20100 - a drone supposedly out on a mission for the hive. Painter, the worst nightmare of casinos
57999 - the closest Ds have to a doctor, grows plants in a greenhouse
65536 - a drone living in Canterlot, a Nightguard. Sort of Luna's adopted kid.
99380 - hive mind manipulation specialist, that might be a curse.
99111 - mechanist, tinkerer. Engineer would be too... successful.
99856 - alchemist
99200 - explorer/survivalist
99012, 99066, 99971 - quicktrotters
99911, 99158, 99112 - drone crisis response team
99999 - a drone.
Smiley - a Silent who surived long enough to gain some mental capacity. Can't talk.
--Other--
Gloom, Night Hunter - Canterlot Nightguards

Being the eldest sibling is hard, especially when you have no parents to raise your younger sisters. In this story, that's just the case in Adagio Dazzle's life. Unlike the Dazzlings we've come to see so far, this Adagio and her sisters have always lived on Earth, showing just a peak into the human counterparts' lives. During a normal night at home, Adagio has to remember the thoughts of her mother, all while keeping her promise to keep her sisters happy. Life can be unfair at times...

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This oneshot has been on my mind a lot and I've been wanting to make this into a full fledged story, but I want to see how my audience reacts to this type of prompt before I write something like it~ Please tell me what you think of this dynamic and enjoy the show! P.S. This story now has a sequel called Dreams and Reality!

“Please look after my children.”

Pear Butter’s last words were spoken to the stranger who found their crash: the cruel, otherworldly siren named Adagio Dazzle, who sees in her death a golden opportunity.

What starts as a plan to raise willing minions for sustenance and protection goes… a little differently than Adagio had in mind.

Cover art by Uz Naimat!

AKA Chrysalis vs The Rolled-up Newspaper of Harmony

AKA How To Unalone Yourself At Hearth’s Warming

Chrysalis has been inexplicably spared the wrath of Discord and the Princesses, although frankly, she'd really rather have preferred the stone! Now burdened with an awful, dreadful, wicked curse that... gah, fills her with love and joy any time she tries to think a vengeful thought! And worse! Now she's been roped into pretending to be Applejack of all ponies on some errand to the middle of nowhere with a filly named Diamond Tiara and some lovely wretched mare named Cherry Jubilee.

Not that she'll fail at all in this. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

Plus, it beats getting lost in the woods in winter.

Written for Camaleao for Jinglemas 2023!

Co-written with SoloBrony. Thanks for helping me out, man.

Starlight does a slightly better job at attempting to reform Chrysalis after freeing her friends and reforming the rest of the hive, and finds herself quite unexpectedly the new Princess of Empathy. Whether things go uphill or downhill from here will depend on who you ask. Twilight is thrilled, Chrysalis is miserable, Trixie is gay, and Starlight is just trying to cope with becoming royalty scarcely a year after being Equestria's most dangerous supervillain.

I've always thought Starlight more than earned her wings in the show, but, given that I also love Chrysalis, I decided to grant them in a way that ends with my two favorite characters not trying to kill each other.

This will be a series of mostly one-shots dealing with various aspects of Starlight's life after ascending, with a variety of tones; while it's marked as incomplete, the majority of chapters form complete stories. Obviously, there are an enormous amount of things to be done with such a premise, and, if you have anything you'd like to see explored—and also enjoy the story enough to comment—please feel free to request topics for future chapters!

Note: Chapters are usually, but not always, in chronological order. Where they aren’t, it will be made clear.

Sunset, after becoming the victim of one of Twilight's experiments gone awry, sits down and has a long conversation with the mare she secretly hates the most. Herself.

Matilda was one among many griffons sent as tribute after Equestria defeated Gryphonia in a great humiliating battle. There she is put to work the great boilers of Canterlot Palace from morning till evening, constantly providing hot steaming water for the day's use.

Making friends is difficult for Matilda, though she wants to try. Living life is harsh because she was a citizen of a disgraced nation, though she is proud of her heritage. Having ambitions is impossible because it would take a lifetime to earn her freedom, though she does not stop dreaming about it.

Until she begins to discover the power of Friendship and Harmony for herself.

Follow her as she writes about her thoughts, feelings, opinions, and wishes, in a simple journey of self-discovery, humor, and longing.

Cover art courtesy of RexySeven. Title added by me.

Featured on 18/2/2022! Thank you so much for your support!

This story is a sequel to Raging Fire

For as long as she can remember, Sunset has been a mare split in two.

Powerful, but weak. Smart, but brash. Ambitious, but wild.

Human, but pony.

As she turns the next page in her young life, this duality rises to confront her yet again. Once a demon, now an angel, in order to understand who Sunset Shimmer truly is and what kind of future awaits her she must delve deep into her complicated past.

Because while her past is no longer today, it may be tomorrow, and devils thought forgotten are not so easily buried.

Written for the tenth-year anniversary of Equestria Girls, dedicated to the character and series who has meant so much to my life.

Cover art by Shaslan.

Beta-read by:
Visharo
AFanaticRabbit
& The Red Parade

If you would like to apply, shoot me a message.

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.