To sleep, perchance to dream. But for Lyra Heartstrings, sleep is a distant memory.

Ever since the royal wedding, her dreams have been filled with the horror of being a slave to the changelings. And they seem to be getting worse. They're getting so bad she can't even sleep through the night anymore. And with her sleeplessness comes new obsessions. Obsessions with a strange song. Obsessions with a strange word that doesn't seem to be in the dictionary - any of them!

Lyra must discover if she's going mad, or if there's something more sinister at work.

Cover pic is "The Stars in Her Eyes" by Zephyrsdaemon on DeviantArt.

thanks to sqarishoctagon for prereading.

Spike decides to create a love potion to try and win over Rarity, but this decision soons come to haunt him when he accidentally gives it to Twilight. Creepy stalking ensues.

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?

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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!

After Ditzy has a cordial meeting with her dear friend Spitfire, a friend who believes her memory to be damaged, their worlds are changed when their friendship is no longer secret. Ditzy begins to remember things about who she used to be, while another, more sinister force has never forgotten who she was...
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Preview image is © TheParagon and is used with permission.
(http://theparagon.deviantart.com/).

Prince Blueblood thought the Grand Galloping Gala was over. He thought he could just go to sleep and put it behind him. He never expected to be reliving the same disaster of a day, over and over... and over.

TV tropes page here:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheBestNightEver

Thanks to all the people who wrote the page and all the people who gave me a little wakeup call and comment to become aware of that fact! You can't see it, but you guys put a real smile on my face tonight.

Also, recently, extra thanks to RD Dash for giving TBNE a thorough editing. I've updated the fic accordingly (7.11.12)

Octavia Philharmonica is a desperate mare. Her involvement in the ill-fated "pony pokey" at the prestigious Grand Galloping Gala has left her blacklisted among the elite of Canterlot who form her clientele. Faced with the possibility of being evicted from her apartment for inability to pay rent she decides to take a temporary job at a local nightclub. Of course, she's never set hoof in a club before and has no idea what she's getting involved in . . .

There was only one explanation. For all of it. All of the strange, erratic behavior. Her irrational fear of the sun. Her nocturnal habits of locking herself in in the dark and closing all the blinds. Wearing her sunglasses everywhere, even inside! It was time to invest in some silver, garlic, and a wooden stake.