With a research paper due date on the horizon, Twilight Sparkle recruits Rainbow Dash to help her unlock the secrets of the princesses’ Everfree castle. The further they go, the more it seems like they’ve stumbled into a Daring Do novel. They must escape before they drive each other crazy. Or fall victim to the traps.

(A revision of one of the Hearth’s Warming Care Package stories for Kiki.)
(EDIT: R.I.P. Kiki.)

Beta Reader Special Thanks
Sessalisk
Clever Pun
Meta Four
Japanese Teeth
Fox_E
Gawain Victor Royale
Curious Black Cat
Invidlord
Kegisak
Kayeka
Sereg
The Librarian/Quarter Note

Without their help, this story wouldn't be nearly as refined as it is.

Also note that the old version is still up as a courtesy to my older readers.
EDIT: Change of plans. I have been informed of a way to archive the old version, but still keep it on FIMFic. So if you're looking for the old version, it can now be found here.

Equestria Daily
Equestria Critics Society

Spike has been rejected by Rarity after helping her for a very important client and a fashion show. He disappears shortly afterwards, leaving Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of the gang saddened by his absence.

It has been three years since that incident, and the girls have gotten past the sadness, but still get together to remember the purple dragon every year. On this day, a new pony comes to Ponyville, and although he knows nothing of what his life was like, helps the group have more fun and fills part of the hole left in their hearts from Spike.

Idea for the fashion show goes to LordPlagus777's story Heart of Scales.

All is well in the Apple Family, until Granny Smith decides that Big Macintosh, Applejack, and Apple Bloom need to get flu shots. Two of the siblings accept their fate maturely, while one tries to avoid it at all costs.

New cover art by SketchinEtch

You've made a lot of assumptions. You've been told a lot of lies. Could you even know the truth if you read it? After all, everything depends on your point of view...

"There is a dark edge to everything underlying this fic. Like a stone caught in the threads of one’s sock, it grates against the comfortable coziness that is the show, a niggling point of misanthropy against the heel of the reader’s perceptions."
—Belligerent Sock, Seattle's Angels

Twilight Sparkle flagrantly abuses her Come-To-Life spell, and learns a little bit about love in the process. Also, puns.

Now with actual cover art, thanks to the generous SuddenlyFerrets!

Now with a Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi!

When the young Twilight gets her mind set on something, nothing will pull her away. Sometimes this determination leads her to do great things; other times it dumps her in the pouring rain. And, of course, she drags princess Celestia along for the ride.

King Sombra is now the ruler of the Crystal Empire. His first order of business? Stairs.

After the mess with "Gabby Gums" Applebloom still has to apologize to one last pony. She learns that no matter what, some ponies are always there for you.

Edit: I cleaned up the grammer as best as I could myself.

Edit: Mucked up the first time, now the edited version is up.

Apple Bloom had always dreamed of the day. She just never dreamed that it would be a nightmare.

Every scholar wants to discover a new fact, something true and constant that changes the way they see the world. For Twilight, that discovery might come from a place she never expected. . .

(Proofread by DbzOrDie, who's patient enough to be my friend even when I forgot to credit him at first.)