Talk to someone on the telephone enough and you get an idea of what they look like.

And then you meet them for the first time, and they're not at all what you expected.

Twilight Sparkle wakes up one morning to a harsh dose of unreality. She is stranded, without her friends, on an island which matches no known locale on Equestria. Surrounded and harried on all sides by the alien and the dangerous, she will find her mettle sorely tested, and find perhaps that the best friends you will ever have in your life are the ones you make when your back is to the wall...

Thanks to CedricBale and noobie56xx for tracking down the name of the artist so I could give them credit.

Railway stations are strange places to be stranded in late at night. Places of passing that exist outside of normal time and space. Sometimes they contain unicorns. Working as garbage collectors.

Inspired by stories written by Admiral Biscuit, especially Silver Glow's Journal and Turnpike.
Edited by CandyCanine

Now with a mini-review by PresentPerfect

Frankfurt Calling now has a sequel: Track Switch - Steel Dreams

Matthias Síðasta Von has always wished to visit the magical land of Equestria, see the wonderful colors, talk to the ponies that live there. Perhaps even, should he be so lucky, live there permanently. Help Fluttershy with the animals, listen to Twilight talk about her most recent lesson or experiment, lift baskets of apples with Applejack, tell Lyra about humans.

One day, a connection is made, an offer: step through the gate. It was warned that the cost might be hefty, that the journey might be hard, but anything was better than this drab, grey life. So he stepped through.

But, this is not the Equestria he knew. Buildings aged and decrepit, roads cracked and eroded, the Everfree slowly reclaiming the Apple's farm and the last barn finally given out under the strain with nopony to raise it anew. What happened? Where did they go?

The colors bleached, the ponies gone, the Harmony and love that once sustained the land dried up and blown away like so much dust.

Except...

Song and magic are two parts of the same whole in Equestria. When Rose saw Anon, it was love at first sight, and as if to shake any doubt, she heard their song, the one they're meant to sing together. It was the happiest moment of her life.

Until she realized he couldn't hear it.

An RGRE story

A human, having suffered due to the mysterious means of his transmission from one world to another, is stuck in bed recovering from his injures. While a little alarmed to find that the one looking after him is not human herself, he can't do much about it.

It helps that - as he finds - she's also rather good company.

Now that I was living in Equestria, it was time to finally buy a new house. I’d settled on the charming little town of Haywards Heath, and found myself a decent house that just needed some work to spruce it up.

Or so I thought.

I might have gotten more than I bargained for.

Rainbow Dash doesn't get hurt often, but this time it's pretty bad and the doctors are making sure that she doesn't make it any worse. Thus, she's been given the dreaded cone of shame. The doctors have also asked you to help her get around and carry on with her daily life. You're a good friend to her (and just a friend), so that should be easy, right?

Done as a commission for Flutterpriest, who likes cute things.

Art by steffy-beff, go and give their work some love.

The local human is not especially happy being stranded where he is, finding the natives too brightly coloured and too friendly and all-in-all a little daunting. He is rarely seen outside the house on the edge of town. They give him space.

One very early morning an especially loud, house-rattling sounds draws him outside though, and rather makes his day.

I've spent the past few years coming up with plans for every fictional situation imaginable, and with a 'recent' influx of X-turned-Nightmare stories, I've already come up with several but I never thought I'd be able to field test 'em!

Unfortunately, it looks like practice is harder than planning.

May contain beaten horse.

Tagged sex for possible innuendo as I usually can't resist.
Tagged the other bad things for the repeated failure of the MC to not be horribly maimed.

I've wanted to create one of those nutty over the top stories where the author blatantly doesn't give a flying fangdoodle for ages. So here I am making a lighthearted story despite all the horrible death and gore. Consistency of tone, I barely know her.