A flip of a coin. A twist of fate.

Twilight Sparkle, younger sister of Princess Celestia's personal student, Shining Armor, grew up listening to her brother's bygone dreams of joining the elite of the elite: The Royal Guard.

Now, fresh out of the Academy, this young mare is ready to prove herself equal to the deeds of the great soldiers she read about as a filly. Too bad the princess she ends up protecting isn't Celestia.

This story is a sequel to Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard

Between castle gossip, professional rivalries, a blooming romance, and a mysterious malefactor still at large, Decurion Twilight Sparkle has a lot on her plate. Hopefully, she'll make a few new friends as she moves towards the destiny she's chosen for herself.

As per usual, big thanks to Magello for the rad cover art!

This story is a sequel to A Pony out of Place

Set directly after A Pony out of Place. Flare Blitz, a Rapidash, turned pony, has opted to stay in Equestria, but things won't be so easy for him. Now a full-fledged pony, he has to earn a Cutie Mark, train with the Princesses, survive a love triangle and Arceus knows what else.

And most importantly... get Twilight to go out with him!

It has a TV Tropes pages too, check it out and help add to it.

Every Cutie Mark is the symbol of what makes a pony special. Brawler's Cutie Mark is a pair of Boxing gloves, representing hoof to hoof combat. Nopony's ever beaten him in a fair fight. Unfortunately this worries the ponies around him and after a rather complicated incident he is thrown in a dungeon. Years pass, and Brawler is freed when the enchantments on his cell are drained by Tirek. What will Brawler do with his new found freedom?

Cover art done by Mad Munchkin

1/4/16 How in the HELL did this get featured?!? Whatever, thanks guys!

Twilight Sparkle broke time when she got her cutie mark. Now Twilight and Sparkle are sisters from another time. Twilight is hailed as the potentially greatest light magician of all time, and already has a reputation as a hero by the time she goes to Ponyville. This isn't her story, not primarily.

Sparkle is an orphan - her dark magic killed her parents. She lives with her brother in Canterlot's industrial sector because they can't afford anything better. She can't leave either. She's a natural dark mage; while Sparkle won't go mad like Sombra, her reputation is hardly any better. Worse, the law doesn't see her as a good pony.

The fact that the dead don't stay dead around her, or that Thorn - Spike's double - is an undead, soul-eating abomination, are other matters altogether.

(Also has some Slice-of-Life, but fimfiction tags won't let me put it with Adventure.)

Has an ask blog to go with it: Ask Sparkle and Thorn.
Also has a TvTropes page: Split Second Tropes.

Featured on EQD.

Cover art by Swirling Line.

Twilight Sparkle has too much magic, and it will take her decades to learn to control it. Her spectacular loss of control during her entrance exam only proves that fact. She is a danger to herself and others.

After Sunset Shimmer’s disappearance, Princess Celestia needs a new student to bear The Element of Magic to defeat Nightmare Moon. With all of Equestria at stake, Twilight Sparkle…is not the pony she needs.

Princess Celestia seals Twilight Sparkle’s magic with the distant promise of one day teaching her.

But there are two diarchs of Equestria. Amidst a lucid dream, an offer is made.

“Hello, Twilight. Would you like to be my student?”

Cover art provided by Lafiir.

What should one do when they find their current knowledge lacking? After the changeling attack, Twilight has to answer that question and for her the solution is simple enough. But her chosen path may yet turn out to be her downfall. Will the cost of knowledge be too high? Or will she be victorious in her journey into the paths of darker magic? One way or another Twilight will find it out as she learns under her new teacher. There is however one thing everypony close to Twilight should remember, that history likes to repeat itself...

**********

A/N: Tags will probably be added as the story progresses. Updates may be irregular. Flames will be ignored, constructive criticism is welcomed. Now the image: background by me (and it shows), NMM recolor by DoctorXFizzle.

One would think that the wounded Trixie would appreciate Twilight Sparkle taking her in to nurse her back to health. But for some ponies, leaning on someone else isn't so easy. Their crossing of paths sets them both on a journey that neither of them would've expected...

Octavia Melody is calm, patient and longing to break the boundaries of class through her career as a musician.

Princess Luna is lost in the eddies of her past, struggling to belong in a new age that doesn't seem to want her.

A chance meeting after a disastrous gala gives these isolated souls a chance to find companionship and comfort. As Luna seeks solace in Octavia's soothing music, Octavia comes to recognize the princess's loneliness and fears. When it's your duty to protect other ponies' dreams, who protects your own? Octavia might just be willing to try.

...a fantastic fic, with one of the best paced romances you can find on this site, great prose, and one of the best characterized Octavia's I could point out. — Soge, TPCaRG (Read the review!)

PaulAsaran has crafted what may well be the best LunAvia ship on the site. —Cerulean Voice

Highly recommended if you like romance instead of the more typical shallow shipping. —City of Doors

If you're a fan of Luna and or Octavia, it's a crime not to indulge! —Wanderer D

I guarantee you will enjoy it. —vren55

Technically, this is flawless: the writing, the pacing, you name it, it's great. —PresentPerfect

Print copy now available for purchase on Lulu!

Now with a YouTube reading by Never After All Readings!

A re-imagining of The Gentle Nights, reworked from the ground up to be bigger and brighter.

Special thanks to Mercury Gilado, Absolution and Starlight Nova for pre-reading and editing.

Artwork commissioned from the talented viwrastupr.

[11/11/2014]: Now featured on Equestria Daily!
Featured 11/22/14.

Now featured by The Royal Guard!

“What would you say if I told you, that there was another race of ponies that lived upon the face of these lands? A kind that feeds itself on the blood of others and is said to live for a near eternity. One would declare me crazy of course, others would just walk away without a word said. But what was thought to be just myths and legends, have become a surprising reality. A reality I’m forced to live in. A curse of blood is rushing through my veins and a monster lurks beneath the lady I once was.” -Rarity

What can one simple and humble unicorn tailor do when her life suddenly gets turned upside down? That she finds herself as a being that was by many believed to be nothing but folklore of the dark ages and ghost stories to scare the foals? How would the world react to her when she tells that what she has become?

Only one simple answer could be found on the question and that is to live her life in secret for the rest of time. Never reveal that what she has become to anypony, not even to her own family. If things were only ever that simple. For Rarity, the mare of beauty and fashion, is suffering a curse of blood. A curse she had gained without her even wanting it. But two things are more than sure. Neither Rarity nor her boutique will never be the same again.

Can the graceful unicorn withstand the temptations of the night long enough to keep her sanity in one piece, or will she fall from her stand and crumble into the darkness that is her own madness and new nature? Is she strong enough to fight off her the mental demons that haunt her mind? Blood will be spilled and drunk, that is the third certainty that can be given.

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Donations are welcome.
*featured on 09-16-2013* Thank you all so much!
Rated Teen for suggestive themes and spilling of blood as well as minor gore.
Others tag is for all the other characters that are used within the story, including OC's.
Cover image was created specifically for the story by the ever so wonderful and talented Pokefan271.
Listen to the song made for the trailer by nobody else then then the equally wonderful and talented RaRa Leaire.

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