"Unicorns are wonderful!"
"Unicorns are fantastic!"
"Unicorns are marvelous!"
"Unicorns are glamorous!"
"Unicorns are enchanting!"
"Unicorns are terrific!"

They also like to twist words. What would happen if you asked what they really are, without the wordplay?

Unicorns provoke wonder. They create fantasies. They cause marvels. They project glamour. They weave enchantment. But most importantly, they spawn terror.

Massively A.U.

Twilight's had some time to think about what happened during the Tirek crisis, and now she has only one question on her mind:

Did Twilight get Celestia's immortality or not?

When she confronts her former mentor about it, she learns some interesting things about definitions, technicalities, and necromancy.

More importantly, she learns that even the greatest of ponies have their weaknesses.

A/N: Mostly TwiLestia friendshipping, and lots of headcanon. Also one or two cameos.

Strange dreams are haunting the night in Ponyville.

The dreams are lucid and clear, indistinguishable from reality. And sometimes, when ponies wake up, the dreams don't go away.

Hallucinations stalk the waking world. Reality is bending in ways that Twilight Sparkle doesn't understand. But she intends to get to the bottom of this mystery and save Equestria from whatever is hiding in the dark.

Twilight Sparkle wonders, sometimes, if the pony in her dreams is the real her. If that is her soul laid bare.

She's about to find out.

Written for the Distant Shores Writeoff. Cover art by CosmicUnicorn, used with permission.

She is the last. All her kin are gone. They'd either been blown apart by the Friendship spell so many ages ago or, in the case of her sister, changed their diet from hate to love. Cryoxia is the last of the windigos, but she is determined to be different, to never go back to those days ever again.

She'll make friendship from hate. She'll adopt an alicorn foal as her sister. She'll take physical form and learn how to move the celestial orbs with her mind. Celestial... has a nice ring to it. And she'll ally with the other nations in the world, establish friendship and preach harmony, no matter how they may diminish her food source. She'll make a world so wonderful that it will starve her to death.

Or die trying.

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For antiquity, featured 10/9/14, 10/13/14 -10/16/14