Rainbow Dash knows that she's done something absolutely deplorable when she lets her rage get the best of her, and it seems to her like the only thing she can do is run away. Can she sort out her feelings before things go too far, or will her friends have to deal with two losses?

An alternate series of events from "The Last Roundup."

A year after her encounter with Twilight Sparkle, long after accepting her 'defeat' and admitting her mistakes, The Great and Powerful Trixie has thrown herself across time and space into a parallel reality of Equestria. With an opportunity to have a second chance at her meeting with Twilight, the magician mare finds the element of magic to be taking the form of a stallion in this realm. Between the plethora of colts, numerous changes in history and more, the once failed heroine will turn her life around and attempt make something of herself in this new existence.

This story is a sequel to My Little Alicorn

After the events of "My Little Alicorn," everything seemed to be back to normal...except for one pony. Prince Blueblood is now trapped as a colt, his title, possessions and birthright stripped for his crimes. Before Princess Celestia will return him to normal, however, he must prove himself by attending Magic Kindergarten. Even worse, his current situation has attracted the vengeful gaze of two ponies he has offended in the past: the Captain of the Royal Guard and the Moon Princess.

Will Blueblood rise above his past self and emerge a better pony? Or will he sink back into his old depravity, and be stuck a colt for the long term?

Note: This is a sequel to "My Little Alicorn," so you might want to check that out first.

Twilight Sparkle may believe in Pinkie Pie's myriad abilities, but when an opportunity to study them from a perspective she never thought possible arises, how can she resist the chance at the understanding she's always truly wanted? More importantly, can Ponyville survive the trade-off necessary for this opportunity?

For almost a thousand years, the immortal Nightmare Moon has reigned over Equestria as Empress. To the average pony, Nightmare Moon is an overarching enigma whose rule is absolute and whose wrath is terrible. But to Twilight Sparkle, who as an orphan has never known her parents, the Empress is something else entirely. When the young unicorn is brought under the royal wing as an apprentice, she learns a great deal more about the supposed tyrant than she ever knew. But as Twilight is introduced to life with her new mentor, she is thrust into a world of political intrigue, conspiracies and secrets. Secrets that were never meant to be revealed. As allies and enemies plot against the very peace of the nation, will Twilight fall prey to the perils of her new position? Or will she prosper and find in Nightmare Moon the mother she never had?

============

My eternal gratitude to my editor, LordOfTheWrongs, without whom Night's Favoured Child would not be the story it is today.

Now with added TVtropes!

Princess Celestia tires of constantly being surrounded by decorum, deference, and formality, and decides to take a day off from being Princess. But visiting Ponyville incognito is harder than she expects. Will she be able to fit in and make friends without blowing her cover?

The Cutie Mark Crusaders ask Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy about what happened just after the events of the Cutie Mark Chronicles; specifically, what happened to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash immediately after the race. Reluctantly, Dash and Fluttershy delve into a tale. A tale of a young Fluttershy's amazement at the world she had landed upon, and a filly Dash's desperate quest to save her from that most evil of places: THE GROUND.

Thrust into the world of her favorite book-series, Rainbow Dash finds herself dragged along for the ride of Daring Do's latest adventure. Mind-boggling as it may be, things are about to get far more complicated. For Rainbow Dash, breaking the fourth wall may very well prove to be a learning experience.

TAGS: Learning curve, Breaking the Fourth Wall for beginners, "Rainbow Sense", Where is Pinkie Pie?

This story was conceived long before the episodes "Daring Don't" and "Power Ponies".
For the sake of this story, Daring Do remains a fictional character, the author remains anonymous, and there is no such thing as a store selling "enchanted" comic-books.

This story is available as an audio-book (text-to-speech synthesized), see individual chapters for links.

Story excerpt:

It still bothered her how she had gotten here, how it was even possible that she was walking side-by-side through some buried underground-structure, with her favourite fictional character become flesh. But as they resumed trotting deeper into the temple, Dash's thoughts kept going back to the event.

"No", Dash told herself, sternly. "That's - that's not it."

She almost would have compared the experience to "Pinkie Sense" of all things!

But she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. It had been... letters. Words. A sentence.

Something along the lines of "... the characteristic noise of a ... spikes closing in right behind ... Rainbow Dash slammed her body into ... ".

And then she had acted, before the trap was even visible. She had known what was going to happen, before it happened.

She ... she had read the next paragraph.

Story-related artwork:
[1] [2]

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.

Don't expect quality from this fic.

Being a creator means creating your own world, where you pour your love and heart into it.

In a stormy night, after a strange event in her office, Lauren Faust gets teleported into the magical land of Equestria. The land... that she created. What will she do now? How will she return to the reality from her own imagination? Will she even be willing to leave?