After reading a book by Spitfire's personal trainer, Rainbow Dash decides that the best way to get closer to her ultimate goal of joining the Wonderbolts is to add strength training to her practices by having one of her friends ride her. However, when she decides that Twilight Sparkle is just the mare for the job, the pegasus gets a bit more than she bargained for.

Artwork by Piggybank12. Used with permission. Thanks to DPV111 for assisting me with story planning.

What if My Little Pony took place in a world where laughing at your fears wasn't enough to make them go away? Where friendship that isn't sealed in blood won't get you through the winter? Where your only shot at paradise is death in glorious combat?

And what if, in such a world, it doesn't take an evening to depose Nightmare moon? If night lasts not hours, but weeks, months, years. If a noble quest to save the land turns into an obsessive hunt for vengeance as the cold and the beasts slowly bring down everybody you ever cared about, if every time you take a step forward, another heart that loved you stops beating?

Gather round, sons and daughters of Heimdall. I am about to tell you "What if?"

Cover art by Malrai (http://malrai.deviantart.com/).