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- Ace Combat: The Equestrian War: Firefly becomes Rainbow Dash's older twin sister in the epilogue, while Pipsqueak becomes Dinky's foster brother.
- Adopted Displaced, a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic multi-crossover series: Every single one of the Equestrian protagonists finds a new, loving family in the world they've been taken to.
- Aftermath of the Games (and its sequel Integration): Sunset is revealed to have been adopted by the Apple Family after the Fall Formal after Granny discovered Sunset living in a slum, and dragged her out by her ear. Despite the obvious tension, Applejack and Apple Bloom gradually saw Sunset as their surrogate sister.
- Alicorn: Rainbow's has nothing but good things to say about her adopted parents, Blaze and Nova, who loved her dearly and did everything they could for her despite poverty and illness until they died when she was eleven. She has decidedly less charitable views on her biological mother, Celestia.
- All-American Girl (Shinzakura), for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Rarity's daughter gets sent to the human world, adopted by a childless couple and raised as a human.
- Auntie Tia's Matchmaking Service: Prior to the the events of the story, Rarity wound up adopting Cozy Glow of all ponies. When asked why she would do this by Celestia, Rarity recounts a time when she was taken hostage by the villainous filly, but now a few years older and wiser, began to see Cozy not as just a villain, but a very troubled child that Equestria seemingly turned its back on. So she instead of waiting for her to be defeated, Rarity managed to talk her down and promised to be there for her. And as bad as Cozy Glow was, she did develop into a better, if still not the most pleasant pony under Rarity's guidance and by the time of the story, they seem to have a genuinely loving relationship.
- Bad Future Crusaders has both a heroic and a villainous example: Apple Bloom was adopted and raised by a zebra couple after her hometown was destroyed, while Twilight Sparkle raised the orphaned Dinky Doo and Rumble as her Co-Dragons.
- Bride of Discord: Applejack and Spike adopt two earth ponies, Cinnamon Stick and Cinnamon Roll, thinking that it isn't possible for them to have a biological child. They're wrong.
- In one of the sequel stories, CMC: The Next Generation, we're introduced to Lemon Drop, the adopted son of Lyra and Bon Bon.
- The Bridge shows neither the alicorn sisters Princess Celestia and Luna, nor the kaiju Big Good, Godzilla Junior, were raised by their biological parents. Celestia and Luna don't even know who their parents were and were raised by Starswirl the Bearded and Equestria's founders after they were discovered in the Everfree as babies. Godzilla Junior was raised by a biologist named Azusa Gojo and later by his namesake, Godzilla Senior; whom he considers his real parents and has no interest in finding his birth ones.
- Diaries of a Madman: It's hard to say if either is particularly happy, but Navarone clearly loves his adopted daughter and vice versa.
- The Differentverse: Coco, by the Apples. Spike, by Twilight after she hatched him. And Scootaloo, who's been raised by her aunt since she was a year old.
- The Elements of Friendship:
- Spike really wants to be this to Twilight, even calling her "Mom", but she doesn't share the sentiment. She does care for Spike, she just doesn't care about him that way. At least, not at first.
- Twilight herself is pretty much adopted by Celestia while her birth parents are trapped in plant form.
- Butter-And-Eggs, an Earth Pony colt adopted by the Stag Cobnut. He shrugs off being told the truth pretty quickly, and telling him is how Rainbow Dash unlocks the Element of Honesty.
- Eric Sparkle and the Locket of Prophecies
: Eric is adopted by Twilight Sparkle as her son in Chapter 3. Nightshade is also the adopted son of Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis. - The Equestrian Wind Mage: A major sign of how far Vaati has come is when, upon finding out how Scootaloo's drunken asshole of a father has been treating her immediately takes her in as his ward. And after killing said drunken asshole (albeit in self-defense after the latter attacked him during a chewing out), he quickly adopts her, making her happier than she's ever been.
- The Flower Blooms Twice: Apple Bloom discovers that she's a Changeling Queen who, shortly after Applejack returned from Manehatten, was found by the Apples and adopted by them. Though she initially thinks she's a monster, Applejack's explanation of how she became part of the family makes her see otherwise.
- FriendsAndFamily treats us to Applejack and her family adopting Rainbow Dash after the death of her parents in an accident at the weather factory. Regardless of the fact that she's more or less an adult Rainbow Dash can't help but be touched by the generosity and happily accepts.
- The God Squad: Lord Tydal may be the first case a character being addicted to this trope. He is a gruff, angry, prone to murder everything War God... and hates to see little fillies cry. Along with his two natural born daughters he adopted a young Celestia and Luna, an abused zebra filly, and Sunset Shimmer after she returned from the Equestria Girl's universe. he has also tried to buy Sweetie Belle and make her his daughter... Sweetie Belle was very much okay with this.
- If Wishes Were Ponies has nine-year-old Harry Potter stumbling into a portal to Equestria and turning into a unicorn, gravely injured after Dudley and his gang caught him. After he tells the adults there of the abuse he's suffered at the hands of the Dursleys, he's declared a citizen of Equestria and is left in the custody of Twilight Sparkle. After having him in her custody for a year and a half, she officially adopts him. He couldn't be happier.
- If You Give A Little Love has Coco Pommel adopting Babs Seed. In spite of all the messed up events that occur between the two of them, Coco never really stops regretting this decision.
- The Irony Of Applejack: Applejack turns out to have been a changeling adopted into the Apple family as a baby. As canon will tell you, she dearly loves her foster family, and they love her, with Big Mac and Granny Smith fully aware of her nature.
- Justice League of Equestria series: In the story "Mare of Steel", while Rainbow Dash doesn't discover her true heritage until adulthood, she's known since she was a foal that she was adopted by Firefly and Thunderhead. And it seems she was perfectly happy with them, and stays on good terms with Firefly even after finding out the truth.
- Little Glimpses: The only tension in Rainbow and Celestia's relationship comes from Rainbow's trauma over the recent death of her parents. Otherwise, Celestia adores her adopted daughter, and Rainbow is both grateful to and loves her in turn.
- My Little Dashie: the unnamed protagonist finds a filly Rainbow Dash in a cardboard box in an alleyway, takes her home and raises her like his own daughter for fifteen years.
- The Non Brony Verse:
- The mane timeline has Comet Screech, a bat pony, adopted by TD and Cheerilee after they finally tie the knot. They genuinely love her and after being viewed as at best a curiosity by most ponies beforehand, she quickly takes to her new family.
- Their's also the non-canon spin-off story TD's Little Rarity and its own spin-off TD's Little Rarity 1.5: This Time Its Personnel, which are heavily inspired by the aforementioned My Little Dashie and involve TD returning to his old life on Earth and trying to put his life in Equestria behind, only to find a box with the now filly Rarity on his doorstep and being forced to reluctantly take care of her until their friends from Equestria can find a way to rescue her. Despite the rather... interesting circumstances in which TD "adopts" Rarity, they manage to form a surprisingly functional parent child relationship while it lasts, with TD quickly developing a protective streak with her and Rarity even takes to calling TD "father", much to his shock.
- The Nuptialverse: By the end of Families, Twilight has officially adopted Spike as her son and Rainbow Dash files papers to do the same for Scootaloo, whose Abusive Parents have been arrested.
- Of Lilies and Chestnuts: Based on Fleur De Lis and her husband Fancy Pants adopting a bat pony. Though their lifestyles clash at first, both Fleur and Chestnut warm up immensely to each other.
- Past Sins: Twilight adopts Nyx (who is, apparently, Nightmare Moon reborn), and this significantly impacts the story.
- The Power of the Equinox:
- Twilight is Spike's guardian, and after she transforms into Dimmed Star, her bond with him is one of the only ones that doesn't become strained.
- Scootaloo was originally this with her adoptive parents Brutus Meadows and Vibrant Glow. However, after the latter ran into serious gambling debts, Brutus became an abusive drunk who makes Scootaloo's life a living hell.
- Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: Sunset by Principal Celestia, eventually.
- Reading Rainbowverse: In a surprise twist, it's eventually revealed that Dinky is actually adopted.
- Savage Skies: Dawn Lightwing is adopted by Fluttershy. Interestingly, it's generally agreed that it's more for emotional stability then actual child-rearing, as Dawn is more than capable of living on his own but has a tough time reintegrating into Equestrian society.
- In the Triptych Continuum, Spike was adopted by Twilight's parents and has full Equestrian citizenship. They directly refer to each other as siblings, and most of Ponyville does the same. (This can occasionally freak out new arrivals, as some see Spike first, hear somepony mention his sister, and assume the town hosts a full family of dragons.)
