This story is a sequel to The Empress and the Goose-Girl

Rarity is beautiful, elegant, talented. She has to be, to survive as Seneschal to her Dark Majesty. But now a newcomer arrives at the court of the Empress Nightmare Moon, and she threatens to unsettle everything Rarity has worked so hard to build.

Technically a sequel to The Empress and the Goose Girl, but works fine as a standalone if you don't want to read that. TW for some violence and blood, but it's not massively graphic. Written as a gift for the lovely Zontan, as part of an anthology.

Fluttershy lives a peaceful life with her geese, taking them every night to graze in the meadows above the palace, hurrying home before the forbidden sun rises. She tries not to look at the statues of the fallen princess with her sun cutie mark, broken and half-buried in the undergrowth. She tries not to look at the Midnight Spire as it rises before her, dark and terrible.

Trigger Warning: and please take these seriously, as this story gets dark - blood, injury, violence, elements of abusive relationships, and even some slight suggestions of non-consent. These aren't used gratuitously and are treated with the appropriate horror by the main character. Please do not read if any of this will be triggering to you. This is an exploration of what the Nightmare Moon AU would be like for poor Fluttershy, and is correspondingly dark.

This story is the first of four. The second is The Sorcerer and the Seneschal, with the others coming soon.

This was originally written as a christmas present for Zontan and if you like the tone of it I suggest you read his Shadow Within.

Starlight Glimmer finds out that a part of her memory has been erased. And not only hers, Twilight Sparkle’s, too.

But when they have their memory restored, they have to deal with the terrible mistake they have made. They have to come clean with Starlight’s fillyfriend Trixie, and somehow figure out with how it could have happened if they want to salvage Starlight’s relationship.

Vivid memories of the night in question are not proving to be particularly helpful.

An entry for the Two-Faced Charade Contest.

Cover credits:
Everfree Forest, Trixie, Twilight, Starlight

In the days before Equestria was even a dream and mares are second-class citizens, a pony with a solar cutie mark, Sunny Daze, decides to help her brother become a mage. She doesn't realize that she and the sun have an appointment with destiny.

Sequel novelette: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/430769/to-keep-light-in-eternal-darkness

Accepted for an Equestria Daily Story post on September 24, 2017.
Shelved in the Royal Canterlot Library on August 12, 2019.

The Teen rating is for 10th century AD gender issues faced by a mare that are no longer experienced by the characters in modern (show canon) MLP.

Thanks to DoContra for pre-reading, plenty of suggestions, and copy-editing assistance. Thanks to Equestria Daily submission editors for a lot of stuff I fixed after they pointed out I missed it!

"Between the time when the oceans drank Marelantis and the rise of the Elements of Harmony there was an age undreamed of.  And unto this Celestia!  Destined to bear the jewelled crown of Equestria upon a troubled brow.  It is I, her chronicler, who alone can tell thee of her saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"

Celestia is many things to her little ponies: princess, leader, and teacher, to name a few.  Yet her past is unknown to her subjects, lost to the depths of time.  After she passes her crown to her student she descends into a place unvisited for over a thousand years, and there remembers a time before the Magic of Friendship, before Equestria, and before the Elements of Harmony -- the Hyponian Age.

It was an era of cruelty, violence, and hope.  Into this harsh world, Celestia the Cimmareian ventured out alone in search of gold, glory, and adventure.  The Tower of the Fallen Star and the horrors within await.

Cover art by EZTP, commissioned by Yours Truly.

Pre-read by SockPuppet, Steel Quill, and Sledge115. Thank you to all in the site's Discord who helped bring this idea to life.

We have many tales of Celestia the Princess, Celestia the Ruler, Celestia the Lover. This is a Celestia who can keep the pages turning all day long.

-Steel Quill

Shining Armor goes to sleep one night and wakes up in the future, having been resurrected by his wife Princess Cadance for the fourth time. All of his memories of the past century are missing, and his kingdom is nearly unrecognizable.

As Shining struggles to make sense of the new world around him, he begins to suspect there's more to the story he isn't being told...

Written for The Writeoff Association's "All the Time in the World" contest.

This story is a sequel to The Runaway Bodyguard

Now includes AU sequel starting with Ch 31: Starlight and the Persistent Princess. Starlight Glimmer's magic is self-taught. To fix the holes in her education, she won entrance to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She has secrets, however, a past she wants to forget, and she knows how to fight very well. Despite her assumed name, certain facts are discovered—fortunately not by Celestia. She really wants to attend the school, and must compromise with ponies who want her as their tool. Sometimes it sucks being popular!

[Ratings are weird. I suspect instant downvoting. PM to discuss.]

The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers is the original story in the Enforcerverse. It was originally a standalone one-shot, and I’ve tried to preserve that feel. (The characters demanded I write more after the fact, including the prequel.) Remastering it added and corrected it with details from the prequel, carrying forward threads written four years subsequently. It is still standalone and can be read that way.

Carrying forward the threads from The Runaway Bodyguard implied a possible fulfillment of Celestia’s plans and Starlight’s education, experience, and uniquely fungible ethics—if I were to allow the one action by Celestia that prevents Starlight from becoming the canon “Our Town” Starlight in the show. I’ve added those chapters and they are clearly marked as an AU ending.

I've added the [Sex] and [Violence] tags. Nothing particularly graphic, but Starlight does talk from her experience, and some fighting has to be described. Starlight tells her story with brutal disregard for what ponies think about her. She is not shy.

Image (c)2016 by Riakoh-Illust, commissioned for this story. (Click source to see final artwork.) Titling by me.

Thank you to Javarod, the pre-reader for this story.

Her best and only magic teacher, Sunburst, abandoned her when he got his cutie mark and she didn't. Her butler and guardian, Proper Step refused to teach her magic, saying it wasn't "lady-like." Magic is in her blood, so she has no choice but to run away. She learns to fight with hoof and magic, first to save her life when she’s brutally attacked, but later because she is very good at it. She doesn't realize she's being honed to become somepony's sharp tool.

This is Starlight Glimmer’s pre-redemption The Gangs of New York and Anakin Skywalker Star Wars I, The Phantom Menace novel-length origin story.

The cover image is a commission by a very talented artist, Pony-Way. Please visit Pony-Way’s page.

About the warning tags: [Sex] Off screen, rare, unmistakable; [Violence] Street gangs, mafia bosses, prizefighting, becoming a bodyguard (naturally)—blood, occasionally. Please don’t be shocked and give the story a thumbs down because bad things happen to Starlight at a level that can’t be shown in show. Adversity always makes her stronger.

The sequel to this story is The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers. This is an Enforcerverse novel, and you can view that link if you want huge amounts of context.

A big shout-out to my pre-readers: Javarod and DoContra

Applejack has had a secret crush. Not only that, she has another secret know to only her family. When Twilight was nearly raped because an old classmate was acting on false rumors from school, Applejack comes to comfort her friend. In doing so, the apple brandy (not AJ’s cousin) AJ brought to calm Twilight down allows Twilight to confess her deepest secret to Starlight Glimmer. But Starlight Glimmer is a lavender Unicorn, not the orange Earth Pony there with her.

A comedy of errors will fulfill four pony’s dreams.

Secrets can not always be kept secret.

Oh, and can you believe Princess Twilight Sparkle knew those words?

The sex label if for implied, not actual graphic. However, the attempted rape scene could be disturbing to some.

In the dark forests of Tramplevania dwells a coven of vampires, led by a deadly draconequus named Discord. For many years, his only interests have been in his own survival, until he stumbles upon a beautiful mare with a heart pure enough to care for a monster like him.

Music to listen to.

Cover Art by IduChan

Alternate Cover Art

More fanart by Whiteheart7
CandySweets90240
autumnruby18

AJ Pony's review