Everypony knows the Hearth’s Warming Eve tale of tribal unity and the shared rule which followed. Everypony also knows that alicorns - singular or dual - have sat on Equestria’s throne for well over a thousand years.

Very few have really looked in to what actually happened between those points.

Even Twilight Sparkle, until a chance encounter leads her to an alarming discovery: Neither she, nor any other alicorn, has actually held any legal right to Equestria’s throne. They are technically usurpers, autocrats - even tyrants.

Still struggling with her own personal rule, having the fundamental basis for her authority swept from beneath her leaves Twilight with one simple, yet impossible question: 

Now what?

Many thanks to Commawriter and Kirtai for pre-reading!

Cover image was edited by Vinylshadow. They deserve all credit for it!

"The first time I came back, I thought it was a miracle. By the fifth or sixth time, I knew it was a curse."

Death is a reasonable fear, but it is also a constant reassurance. A promise that no matter how bad things get, they will one day end.

That promise was broken, leaving Rainbow Dash to pay the cost.

A very last minute entry for the 2024 SciFi Contest III.

Special thanks to ScreamQueen and Rb for prereading and valuable feedback.

General content warning: Some depictions of blood, death, and debilitating injuries, but no graphic descriptions. Some existential horror.

Equestria has been destroyed. Now it is nothing but a wasteland where nopony is safe. With no options left, Twilight and friends venture to the dragon lands in hopes of eking out a home there.

Tempers flare and personalities clash, but Twilight is determined to keep herself and her friends safe in the land where the dragons roam.

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This is a collab work between myself, Patient X, and Stars SteelxPaladin.

Somehow, I've always known.

Cover artwork courtesy of Cloud-Drawings on DeviantArt.

My entry for the Dialogue-Only Contest!

Melody, short for Melodic Heights, had come home from school just to leave again and run toward the cliff where the vast ocean sat. Under the warm light of the setting sun, Melody gets to talk to somepony she loves most.

Her mother.

ShadowLegacy13 did a read of this story on youtube that you can find here

Spotify alternate link.

Twilight has had a long reign. She has watched ponies develop technologies that those of the past considered mere mythology. She has watched them scour the world and discover continents that were hidden from view or simply lost beneath the waves. Many creatures and tribes of ponies have come and gone, and the sea of stars is where they went last.

The alicorn accompanied them and acted as a figurehead and council before retreating back to Equestria. Now she is crumbling apart in the final years of her life as her magic consumes her body and the ponies are on the verge of dying out. As she watches the sky, engulfed by a black hole crowned in light, Twilight is approached by a still young mare, unfortunately born in an age where she will be all that's left of her people in just a few years.

She asks Twilight a question not about herself or her future, but about the alicorn herself: How does a god die?

Apparently it's on EqD too.

Hover over the image to find the source.

Celestia was a mortal once. She had dreams and hopes. Like any other mortal being but has long since forgotten what it was like to be a unicorn.

As the generations have passed, she has grown to hate what she is. She has grown to hate the sun who made her immortal. She hated the voice she buried deep down, clawing its way up with dreams of blood-red infernos and fire.

She hates she listening to it.

Rarity has a secret but is unsure if she should come out or not. She is a changeling. She had hoped to tell her friends after Cadence's wedding, but due to Chrysalis crashing the party she now fears what her friends will think of her once they know the truth.

Cover Image credit: https://derpibooru.org/tags/artist-colon-acharmingpony

Commissioned by: Tailsic

Rated T in case of mild language

After a long day of ruling over Equestria Princess Twilight Sparkle reminisces the past and lets herself grieve.

At Twilight Sparkle's end, she faces one last monster. With a fraction of her magic and a fraction of her strength, she must prevail as she always has.

Anthroquestria yaaaaay! Gimme a break, it's easier to write fight scenes for humanoids.

Partially inspired by The Last Days of Animal Man. More obviously inspired by Fimfiction's long history of stories about Twilight outliving her friends, which I've always called 'I'm Immortal And Sad' stories in my head. I wanted to write a subversion.