Matthew was a normal child when the end of the world happened. Darkness erupted from the Earth, casting demons onto the people of Earth. Matthew should have died when the demons poisoned his soul with darkness, but he survived.

He fought for humanity for years alongside others of his kind.
Humanity in return, cast him out and into the void with no hope of returning home.
Now Matthew will remain in the realm of Equestria for the rest of his days.
With some luck, he might just find the happiness he has always longed for.

Some slight swearing, but kept to a minimal.

Rainbow Dash usually had her head in the clouds, but she always thought she knew up from down. When an incredible revelation sends her life into a tailspin, she finds herself at the mercy of emotions she never thought she had, faced with hard questions and impossible choices.

Life is full of changes, but none of them are quite as disturbing as having a horn pop out of your skull…

Original Lauren Faust canon; non-alicorn Twilight, non-alicorn Cadance, no ascension. Diverges from the cartoon after season 3, with nods to later continuity wherever possible. Contains mature themes.

This story is a sequel to Becoming One With the Night

It was supposed to be a good day. Twilight and Luna were sharing the news of their relationship with their closest friends and family. However, Celestia's largest secret yet finally came out. Now, relations are strained between Celestia and everypony else. After all, what's Twilight to do when she finds out her second mother is actually her birth mother?

On top of this massive bombshell, soon Twilight will be sporting a pair of wings of her own. If she thought things were complicated now, just wait until Canterlot gets wind of a new alicorn. Life is about to become one giant nightmare for Twilight. But hey, at least she has Luna, right?

As stated above, this is a sequel. I highly encourage you to read the first story (the writing is extremely rough early on, mind you), but it's not entirely required to understand most everything that will be going on here.

EDIT: Takes place during S3, when it was originally conceived, thus the Alt. Universe tag. There was no redemption of Discord. There was no ascension. Yes, the Crystal Empire is back, and Cadance and Shining Armor are the leaders there. This should cover the more critical aspects of the season in regards to the story.

Applebloom just wanted to spend a day with her friends, crusading for her cutie mark. Instead, she found something even deeper and more troubling about herself. Turns out she's not even a member of the Apple Family by blood. In fact, she's not even truly native to Equestria! She's an alien! An alien robot no less!

Now Applebloom will have to deal with the reality of her origins and try to cope with them and her newfound abilities as she moves towards her future; a future that just might never come to be if her new foes have anything to say about it. Decepticons are, after all, a monstrous cabal.

Now, it's up to Applebloom to light Equestria's darkest hour.

Cover image credit goes to Inspectornills