After a fight with Celestia, Sunset flees through a magic mirror into a different world.

Without her horn, any direction in her life, the inability to simply go back home and surrounded by strangers, she has to go on a journey of self discovery to find meaning in her life as dark forces begin to threaten the world she resides in.

But, at least she still has her magic and plenty of instruction manuals to learn more from.

After finding an alicorn filly in the Uppercastes and having everypony she knew turn against her, Lucky Favor makes it her mission to take the filly across the lands of a pre-unified Equus to reach a safe haven in Equestria. But first, she has to hire a housecarla for the job. Who better than this "hyoo-men" she's heard so much about, and who just might be the first one she's met who does not want to kill her and the alicorn?

This story takes place in the RGRE (Reversed Gender Roles Equestria) universe and has been converted to prose from its original greentext state.

On hiatus for extensive rewrites.

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, one a student of Celestia, the other just getting started, are yanked from their homes by a mysterious magical mirror. Now trapped on Earth, their lives forever altered, they do their best to cope. To learn. To join Starfleet, and, someday, to return to the home they lost.

Returned from hiatus, albeit with a less regular posting schedule.
Preread and editing work performed by Blue Horizon, Vic Fontaine, and witegrlninja. Thank you all very much.

Featured as of April 5th, 2021! Thanks all.

Featured on Equestria Daily as of August 7th, 2021! Thank you again so much!

Season 2 Cast List.

This story is a sequel to Life is Magic

In what feels like an instant, we lost everything.

We were happy, unsuspecting, peace-loving creatures caught up in something beyond our control or understanding. There was no way we could've prepared ourselves for what was to come, let alone do anything to stop it. What was supposed to be the celebration of the Sun we all love and revere, became a horrific whirlwind of violence and fear and insanity. And that was when our world changed—when we changed.

In the aftermath of the Collapse, nothing remains but monsters, madness, and the scattered remains of a peaceful age now lost to us—or so we thought. But in reality, there is still hope for something better. In the all-consuming darkness of this new era, the embers of Harmony still exist. The light is small, but it burns with a resilience that will not allow it to be snuffed out so easily.

All that's needed is a spark—something to stoke the embers into a roaring flame that will bring us out of the darkness and back into the light of Harmony once again. In the aftermath of the Collapse we are lost, we are suffering, we are cursed but not all of us are without hope.

Minuette has an imaginary friend. At least, that's what everypony else thinks.

When ten-year-old magic student Minuette comes into possession of an antique vanity mirror, she is surprised to discover there is a creature living inside: A bug pony with big fangs and glowing eyes. Most little foals would probably be scared of such a creature, but not Minuette. Armed with a cheerful smile, she decides to befriend the bug in her mirror and uncover the mystery behind his bewildering predicament.

It's just such a shame that nopony else can see him.

First Act Edited by Mister Hypothetical

Second act and on edited by Xanni & Brony2005

This story is part of 'The Bugs in Strange Places' series, whose other entries include The Bug in The Herd, The Bug in The Basement, and The Bug in The Cave. You do not need to read any of these previous stories to enjoy this one, as they are not directly connected.

Inspiration for this story comes directly from this fine individual right here.

Tyler is your typical desk jockey; works at a desk all day, then plays games at a desk all night.

But when he accepts the duty of leading a small changeling hive in a dream, he finds himself woefully unprepared for the responsibilities thrust upon him.

Yeah, he did volunteer for it, but how was he supposed to know that some dreams are real?

This story is a sequel to Anon’s a Villain Again

Well, I believe the title says it all. It’s been a couple years since his last conquest, and Anon decides to conquer the world because he made a bet with Celestia. This time, he ain’t McCluckin’ around. Welcome, to the finale of this trilogy.

Featured on March 17th, 2021

Author’s note: Y’all, I’m sorry this didn’t come out exactly when the last one reached 500 likes, but I didn’t think it’d come this fast, Jesus.

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

-
YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Leaving home meant losing many of Orson's old friends, separated by time and distance. But they weren't willing to give up one thing: their old tabletop game. After trying and rejecting each of the online tools for roleplaying games, they stumbled on a novel solution: Equestria Online.

The game was unlike everything else on the market, an entire procedural generated world ran by a mysterious curator artificial intelligence. But Orson and the others didn't care about any of that--they just needed somewhere with a game table and some dice. The AI happily obliged, and soon they transitioned all their games to E.O. Equestria Online had its own host of benefits, bringing the GM's images to realistic life before their eyes, and even letting them visit and interact with the characters between sessions.

That was only the beginning...

A Friendship is Optimal story. I suggest any readers who are unfamiliar with that universe read the Original first, or FiO: Futile Resistance before reading this one. None of my other optimalverse stories are required to understand this one.

Written as a Patreon reward for Sparktail, though we stole the idea from Silver Wing.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, cover by Zutcha.

Updates weekly on Wednesdays.

Twilight Sparkle has never needed much to be happy: a book to enjoy, a research to carry out, and a Spike by her side. But after teaming up with and befriending five stallions to save the world in her first, fateful night in Ponyville, her life has been thrown upside down.

For she is now the Bearer of the Element of Magic, and ever since, trouble is knocking at her door seemingly every week: be it a monster attack, friendship drama, or the fact that Equestria seems to be sleepwalking from crisis to crisis, Twilight’s life will never be the same again.

The Word of God Imaginary Voicecast^TM, if you so desire (by order of appearance):

» Spike: Pony.MOV's Spike.
» Phil Pie: Miles Luna.
» Applejack: Geoff Ramsey.
» Rainbow Blitz: Chris Pratt.
» Elusive: James Arnold Taylor.
» Butterscotch: Matt Bragg.
» The Night King: Sam Witwer.
» Prince Artemis: Tom Hiddleston.
» Shining Armor: Matt Lanter

FAQ
Q: If it’s not a harem romance, then why are the mane six and Luna genderswapped?

A: Because while it started as a deconstructive, character-driven take on one, we’ve realised that this character arrangement grants us far more creative freedom than what we would have using their canon incarnations.  Having M!Applejack, Rainbow Blitz, Elusive, Butterscotch and Phil Pie allows us to, essentially, make their characters our own, take them to uncharted waters, and introduce new plotlines and situations that haven’t been done previously and that just wouldn’t have worked if applied to the girls we all know and love. It’s, in a way, what keeps this story fresh, even when retelling the series for the umpteenth time. It mixes up their dynamics with other ponies and with each other in new, unseen ways, and makes it all the more interesting to explore.

Adding to this is the fact that Twilight, at the beginning of the series, is something of a blank slate, whose character development is informed by the quirks and personalities of her friends. Therefore, she functions both as her own, recognisable character and as an audience surrogate, who’s getting to know these guys at the same pace as the audience itself.

Funnily enough, Luna’s genderswap was never intended to have any relation whatsoever to the harem trope; Artemis was never supposed to be a Love Interest. Instead, well, let’s just say it fills in a certain, unaddressed headscratcher in the original series.

Q: Will there be shipping?

Yes, there will be romance. However, not only it will be what most people like to call a 'slow burn', but it's most definitely not the main focus of the story. If you're looking for a ship fic, you'll be disappointed.

Q: Is [character] genderswapped too?

No.

The only characters who are genderswapped are Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Luna. Everyone else is their canon gender. Trixie is female. Starlight Glimmer is female. Should she appear, Sunset Shimmer will be female.

Discord, on the other hand, is something of a grey area, as they're a literal God of Chaos. Therefore, just as they can do pretty much whatever they damn well please, they can also change genders at a whim. However, should Discord adopt a female gender, her name would still be Discord, rather than the fanon Eris, as the word 'Discord' is genderless.

Q: Why is male!Pinkie's name not the fanon Bubble Berry?

There's multiple reasons, all of which are stated point blank by the character himself during his introduction in chapter one. It's mostly for meta reasons, but there's some plot there, too.

Q: Will you do [episode]?

There is an overarching plot, and the selection of episodes that get adapted and the way they do heavily depends on how they contribute to set up or advance said plot, or how plausible they are given the differences between the canon characters and their genderswapped incarnations.

Therefore, many of your favourite episodes may end up happening in entirely different ways as they did in canon, be mixed up with another episode, be relegated to a mere mention, or maybe just not at all. It all depends on how they fit the bigger picture.

TUESDAY, APRIL 21 of 2020.
I may or may not have just broken my hand against my desk when I jumped in surprise when William Grey told me this story was on featured, literally MINUTES within uploading chapter 9.
I'm sorry, just...
What?!
Mind-blowing, man. I have no idea how the algorithms work, nor how long it will last, but we're very happy about it.
Seriously, we wish to thank wholeheartedly to anyone who has read it, who has liked it, who has commented. This is our first published story, among myriad we have written yet never had the courage to put them out there. It really means a lot to us that people are responding positively.
Plus, that means I can claim moral victory, because I absolutely spent my whole weekend writing this instead of preparing the ppt for my monograph's thesis proposal for tomorrow.
So, yeah.
Thank you <3

Credits:
Beta Reader, Editor, (basically) co-writer and elder brother who keeps stealing my drinks: William A. Grey
Male Mane Six vectors by Trotsworth.
Twilight Sparkle vector.
Cutie Mark vectors by Adam L. Humphreys
Image done by myself and my non-existent paint skills.