Scootaloo wasn't quite sure what she expected when she found a letter from her "secret admirer" asking to meet her after school, but it wasn't an invitation to the school dance. Nor was it spending Hearts and Hooves Day with Silver Spoon.

Prereading and editing by Formerly Committed, Jondor, and Timaeus.

Special thanks to bats and Formerly Committed for giving me the prompt this came from.

Art originally by Cuppae

"Hey, you used to be Celestia's student, right? Did you know Sunset Shimmer?"

Twilight Sparkle was a daughter to Nightlight and Twilight Velvet, a sister to Shining Armor, and a student to Princess Celestia. That was who she was, nothing more and nothing less.

However, on the longest day of the thousandth year, her world will change forever. A secret kept even from her will be revealed and her life will be forever changed.

A different take on the Nightmare Moon incident with a slightly darker outcome.

I'm not sure where the cover came from. If you do, please let me know. Cover art belongs to rosahadoodle

For years, Twilight Sparkle and Queen Chrysalis have been at each other's throats. Both have experienced victory over the other, and both have experienced defeat. Out of all the creatures in Equestria, none despise each other the way the pony Princess and changeling Queen do. They seemed destined to remain locked in battle forever, or at least until one is finally dead at the hooves of the other. The cruel insults, the vicious loathing, and the powerful spells that have passed back and forth between them at each meeting have become the stuff of legend.

Imagine Twilight's surprise when she finds out changelings consider this dating.

And now they're married.

***

Sequel: Pony Courtship Rituals

***

Some beautiful fanart of the end of chapter three was done by Dmann892; you can see it here.

More awesome fanart, this time from chapter one.

Now with a TvTropes page (obligatory TvTropes warning goes here).

If you want a Russian translation, you can find it here.

There is now a reading of the story on Youtube, which starts here.

Supreme Overlord of the Dominion of Equestria.
Wonderful title isn't it?
Capture the Country, Marry the Princess, Take over the world.
Sounds like an Adventure story doesn't it?
Well this is no story.
How do I know? Well I'm not stupid for one.
All those other dolts that came before fell into too many simple traps.
They're all so easy to avoid.
That's why I work to rule.
The rules.
The Rules of an Evil Overlord.

General Iroh. Fire Nation hero. First born son of Fire Lord Azulan. The Dragon of the West. It was thought he would be the greatest warrior in the history of the Fire Nation.

But all that changed when the war claimed his son's life. This changed him, and he turned his back on the war.

This was a necessary event. Iroh had a role to play in bringing balance back to the world...but to play that role, he first had to be broken down, so that he could be rebuilt. This truth was self evident in the spirit realm.

But one particular spirit felt this was unfair to Iroh. The wheels of fate are cruel to those caught in the gears, but this particular spirit felt that Iroh deserved kindness. And so this spirit sent Iroh one who would help him to rebuild himself.

And so, shortly after his son's funeral, Iroh would find a creature sent by the spirits, the likes of which he never would have imagined...a pretty pink pony princess.

Somepony to love...and be loved by.

Part of the PWNY-verse.
Edit: Now with Fan Art by Mewappony.
Edit 2: New Cover Art by Sanyo21!

Everyone knows how fairy tales go: We meet a dumb protagonist who does something foolish. Things go wrong. We learn a moral.

Clearly, fairy tale authors have never met Clyde Pie.

In this collaboration, a number of your favorite ponyfic authors take a fresh look at classic fairy tales, and what we can learn from the wisdom of an eminently sensible earth pony. (This is an open collection; submission rules can be found here.)

List of authors:

Salivanth
Horizon
Cloud Wander
Benman
DJ TR33
SirTruffles
Meta Four
chankl2
Nonagon
Quixotic Enigma
Caffeinated Pinkie
Farsan
SoothingCoffee
Thomas Hunter
TheLevelHeadedBrony
Goldfinch142
Kandagger
Ghost Pikachu
SwiftStroke
GroaningGreyAgony
The Iguana Man
DaeCat
JumpingShinyFrogs

Cover art by Veggie55

A few days after the Nightmare Moon Incident, Spike awakens to find Twilight acting a little...odd. Or odder than usual anyway. All of a sudden she's being all motherly, sure of herself in ways she's never been before, and even more outgoing.

But…it’s kind of creepy how she just seems to know everypony’s name, or their habits, and even some stuff nopony else should know.

But she's still good old Twilight...right?

Featured 5/28/2014

"Ponykind must have run out of colours when they finally got to this pony. Everything from his mane to his ass was all seven colours of gloom and doom. He was so dark and brooding he probably ate glittery emos and shat vampire bats.” - Quote of the Week

1000 years the ponies have prayed for a saviour to deliver them, whether it was their long lost sun goddess Celestia, or even Nightmare Moon, maybe even the chaos lord Discord, anypony! After suffering under the yoke of a tyrant god for so long, they decided any saviour will do, even a dark demonic overlord. One unicorn sorceress finally decides to take matters into her own hooves. She sets out to the frozen ruins of a long lost Empire in the Crystal Mountains bearing a grand sacrifice of 1000 ponies in an attempt to summon the dark demonic overlord of the Crystal Empire.

When the dark ritual turned up a blank, the universe decides to shuffle in the next best thing. Will he rise up to the expectations of his newfound flock? He'd better, and quickly, for the tyrant god's inquisition is out to get him and the 1000 'blasphemers' involved in his summoning. With a nation to build and an evil tyrant god to fight, never has there been a taller order to fill. But it's alright, he's a dark demonic overlord, right? He quickly finds that with some smokes and mirrors and the help of 1000 very magical ponies, anyone can look the part, even an entirely magic-inert pizza delivery dude.

Now a long-haul fic! Many thanks to everyone who convinced me to make this a reality!

Many many thanks to the Editing team, Dumbgamer99, Not A Hat, and Brad The Brony. Be sure to thank them by checking out their pages!

Our lovable number one overdude assistant, Crystal Heart, now has a musical theme, aptly titled 'Dual Core A.I.', kindly provided by AdmiralTigerclaw! Epic now comes in an entirely new flavour! Many thanks!

Somebody kindly messaged me and told me I should announce here that the story was featured from 27 - 30th of April. I completely missed that but many thanks for making that possible, everyone!

Cover Art: Placeholder drawn by me. Will be a background for a full cover at some point.

Rainbow Dash develops an acquired taste.

At least, that's what everyone thinks.