Twilight Sparkle was only a filly when Equestria detected the enigmatic Signal. A series of increasingly complex mathematical proofs, the Signal transformed from an intriguing curiosity to reliable evidence of extraequestrian life.

And as it happened, Equestria's exploration of their own solar system was nearly complete. With colonies orbiting every planet and large body, and an asteroid belt filled with miners and prospectors, Twilight's civilization was just about ready to turn its focus outward. The signal was less than ten light-years away, within reach of a daring, experimental voyage. A voyage Twilight Sparkle would lead.

Along with a small crew of the most skilled scientists and engineers Equestria could offer, Twilight is determined to uncover the mystery of the Signal, and brave the final frontier for future generations of Equestrian explorers.

A comment-driven, CYoA story. Please use the links provided in the author's notes of each chapter to vote, rather than the comments.

This story is a creative experiment of mine, one meant to explore the general idea that creativity is often most fostered by restrictions. As a result, I've imposed a number of restrictions on the writing of this story, which I'm stating explicitly here so I can be called out if I break any of them.

1. Brevity is the soul of wit
No chapter may be more than 1000 words long. This wordcount only includes prose, and not the questions/rolls.

2. Every choice matters
When a choice is offered in a chapter, at least one sub-optimal choice must be present, with no indication about which is which other than the prose itself. Every chapter should end with a CYoA-style decision tree when possible.

3. Fate is cruel and the universe is heartless
The decision of the vote must be respected. This means any character could be killed, or the entire story could end in failure, if that's what the votes decide. Where numbers, stats, and randomization appear in the text, these elements are not verisimilitude, but are decided by public diecrolls in my discord server.

Note: Because of the unusual production of this story, its chapters won't be edited in the same way as my usual fare. Feel free to point out any mistakes you encounter.

Awesome cover by Zutcha as you can probably tell. Editing stuff by Two Bit and Sparktail, where applicable.

Toby was looking forward to a very interesting project for his English class: writing to a complete stranger somewhere in the country to learn about them. However, through some anomaly, his letters make their way to Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn princess in the land of Equestria.

Though confused over how this is possible, Toby and Twilight decide to continue writing to each other, getting to learn all about each other and developing a strong friendship through only their written words.

Inspired by the movie Her as well as a short story I read in middle-school, along with a since-deleted story called Pen Pals by user Justin Daniels.

Just something I’d update now and then.

Sometimes life just sucks, doesn't matter if you live with a bunch of callous humans or friendly little ponies.

What really matters is how you cope when things get hard, when your lost and can't find you're way, when you're alone and have no one to rely on.

Because in the end I am who I choose to be, and NO ONE will take that away from me.

You want to know how I ended up in Equestria?

Well, it all started on that one, fateful walk in the woods. Oh, sorry. You were supposed to read the story to find that out.

Anyway, I find myself in Equestria. Although, not when I thought. I still knew what would happen in the future, but I arrived during the Starswirl era. After the defeat of Discord. Turns out I'll be needed one day. Oh well, wait, what? You're going to WHAT?!

Fine, fuck it. I haven't got anything to lose.

This story is a sequel to The Conversion Bureau EarthGate Saga: Through the EarthGate

Book 2A: Corporal Zachary Jenkins of the Clerisiac army was captured by Princess Birthright in the battle of New Hoofington, and is now the bratty princess' personal prisoner. The ponies need a Protean test subject to create a ponification potion that can overcome the Proteans' immunity to the original potion, and it looks like they're going to be using Zachary. Can he hold out until he's rescued? Will he even be rescued? Or will he eventually succumb to a successful serum and become the first former Protean newfoal?

And so begins the second installment! This is branch A, with more branches to come in the future. There's now a group for this Saga, and it's right here! Check the forums for information, join if you wish to be alerted whenever a new fic is added to the saga, and if you want in on the project, join and PM me with a request to become a contributor, and I'll gladly promote you to that status!

For eons, we’ve labored beneath the iron hoof of our pony overlords, never talking back, never resisting, only silently mourning the loss of our once grand position:  the dominant race. Our birthright, our destiny, our purpose. The ones made in the image of the Creator. We were struck down eons ago by the ponies and their strength, magic and weather.  Our unparalleled minds were unprepared, and we’ve been shackled ever since. Most ponies don’t even know we exist, or so I’ve heard from my taskmasters. They’ve ruled unopposed for so long that they no longer try to recall what came before them.

No more.  This planet was ours once, and it shall be again.  Ponies who support our cause will be adopted into the human family and seen as our equals, while the heartless tyrants will be crushed beneath our boot.

Note that this fic is not going to update on a regular schedule, as it's just a side project. Also, the list of characters and tags is likely to increase over the course of the story, and the cover art is just a placeholder until I can get a better one.

EDIT: Now has a proper editor/coauthor! My good friend Brasta Septim is helping me out yet again! Please, if you haven't re-read chapter 1, I highly suggest that you give it another read! It has improved a lot, I promise!

Cobalt never wanted to rule, he never wanted to be a prince of Equestria. He just wanted to see the world. Of course, he didn't realize how defenseless he was leaving his country, and his little sisters the Princesses Luna and Celestia.

Now, three thousand years later, He returns to Equestria, but not as he knew it. New towns and cities have sprung up in his absence, and everything seems unfamiliar. Even his family has changed and expanded. Still, he's visited culture of all different verities. He should be open to new experiences...right?

To preemptively avoid any issues with cannon, revealed later in the show, I'm going to make a point to say this story was mostly written between season 6 and 7, and therefore is set in that period

Special thanks to PlatinumPony for editing!

On July 17th, 2023, satellites around the world began to pick up a strange radiation source coming from the North Pacific, just above Hawaii. Just as the US, Japan, Australia and other such nations along the Pacific begin to investigate, something covers the entire North Pacific in blinding light, a loud crack rippling through the air. When the light finally died down and humanity rubbed it's eyes in shock, they saw none other than Equestria.

The first contact had gone well enough, with pony and human delegations meeting in New York, Celestia herself showing up for a moment. They claimed that the appearance of Equestria was purely accidental, a 'magical mishap' as they put it. They established 'Conversion Bureaus' around the globe, establishments for the sole purpose of permanently changing a human into a pony.

As it turned out, this was all a ruse. Shortly after the final conversion bureau was built, Celestia herself declared humanity to be a 'vile' and 'unfit' species, citing examples such as their wars, their pollution, and so on. All at once, the Conversion Centers released hordes of Pegasi and Unicorns, bent on forcibly turning all of humanity into 'peace-loving' ponies.

All at once, millions of humans were transformed. Military bases sabotaged. The world couldn't even get a missile out of the ground in time, much less perform a coordinated counter-assault. Humanity simply wasn't prepared for this.

But as it turned out, there were other players in the game. Humanity had gotten out of fixes much worse than this before, and they didn't even realize it. Organizations, unknown to even the world elite, sat beneath the surface of the Earth or disguised as ordinary facilities, prepared to do everything in their power to prevent the extinction of humanity.

As humanity panics, the SCP Foundation takes action.

THIS STORY IS A CROSSOVER WITH MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC AND THE SCP FOUNDATION.

THE SCP FOUNDATION MYTHOS IS A COLLABORATIVE WRITING SITE CONTAINING THOUSANDS OF USER-SUBMITTED ARTICLES DESCRIBING FICTIONAL, ANOMALOUS OBJECTS AND ENTITIES.

I DO NOT OWN MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC, NOR DO I OWN THE SCP FOUNDATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

You know the typical TCB fare, right? Either humans or ponies are "pure evil", and the "pure good" comes out on top. However, this time it isn't so simple...
A good Celestia that replaced the original Celestia of this reality.
Ponies that somewhat question Celestia when the truth gets out.
An immortal human that judges all Celestias as monsters, and believes that none could ever be pure.
Humans that are indoctrinated to hate Celestia before they even meet her.
And a long-destroyed relationship that is trying to heal...

Y’know, I try to be open-minded, but I still never thought I’d wind up taking a trickster god’s place in a world of candy-colored horses. My name’s Chance, and I’m in way over my head.

What? Suppose I should back up a little. I'm just your average guy. I try to be nice to folks, when I'm near them, but mostly I just like to be alone with my stories. In hindsight, I should have been more suspicious about the old man in the bookstore, but no point crying over it now. I'll admit, this is exciting! A whole new world of magic and whimsy to explore? Count me in!

...It's a shame though. It's not quite as nice as I expected...

---

Part of Rust and Blackwing's Chessgame of the Gods.