There are no new cadets being trained, the big annual Wonderbolts party extravaganza isn't until this weekend, and Spitfire will only be away from the Academy for three days.

Fleetfoot is definitely ready for this responsibility.

Except she's not.

Somepony is totally getting fired.

Spanish Translation from Spaniard Kiwi!
Featured on Equestria Daily!
Apparently hit the feature box for like twenty minutes!
JohnPerry confirms: is a fic!
You Might Like This--May 2015 Spotlight!
Featured in EFNW's Fanfic Spotlight #34!

Soldiers don't just stand there, blindly following orders and throwing their lives away. Sure, some of them do, but they aren't the ones who come back. The ones who come back have spent hours, days in the trenches, waiting for that brief moment of terrible and bloody action. And thinking.

You have a lot of time to think, in a hole in the ground waiting to kill or be killed.

There aren't any trenches in the Crystal War. Sombra throws his soldiers in wave after wave at the enemy, and the bodies of those soldiers only rest when there is nothing left to fight and their master is briefly perplexed about where all the squishy targets went. The Equestrians aren't much better, retreating to tents and clouds and once in a glorious while, maybe a cave. But even without the trench, there is time to think.

And when you might die tomorrow, you don't think in silence. You talk. You ask questions.

They aren't all easy questions.

Now what do you do?

When you've been gone for more than a thousand years, you have a lot to catch up on. You may even owe a ton of apologies. Heroes old and new must deal with the consequences of their choices, each in their own ways.

And before they settle down in the new realm, the Pillars will become acquainted with the Spirit of Chaos himself.

After Twilight and her friends rediscover Starswirl’s last spell in the ruins of Golden Oaks Library Rainbow Dash asks, ‘why can’t we all become alicorns?’ Now Ponyville is host to five brand new alicorns and the girls have everything they could ever want; magic, flight, power, influence and all of Equestria wide-open before them... but being a Princess is far more than just having wings and a horn.

With thanks to Luna-tic Scientist, Lord of Dorkness, docontra, and JCatt for their help pre-reading. Cover image by Pixel-Prism.

Twilight Sparkle's wildest dreams have just been met, and exceeded. Due to an unexpected magical outburst during her entrance exam to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the Solar Princess herself took an interest and took Twilight on as her personal student.

This was a pleasant shock for Twilight and her family. However, a few months later, a less pleasant shock would reach Twilight in the form of Celestia returning to Canterlot with a new daughter, a freshly adopted pegasus filly named Rainbow Dash. As the two get to know each other, Twilight can clearly see something eating at the self absorbed and competitive filly's mind.

To make matters even more confusing, Princess Celestia is now hiding something. Twilight dares not question it, but it is quite clear that Celestia isn't being wholly open with anypony about her decision to adopt some random orphan.

Could the answers have something to do with the cryptic dream Twilight had the night before she met Rainbow Dash?

**Apparently, this was featured on August 12th, but I slept through that brief window. All the same, I am flabbergasted and humbled!**

Cover Art by the wonderfully skilled Novaintellus

Now with a TV Tropes Page.

This story is a sequel to Rigid

Sombra's forces are in disarray. The EUP has advanced swiftly, smashing his armies and cutting off his supply lines. Now they have the Crystal Empire surrounded, completely cut off from the outside world. Victory is a certainty; it's only a matter of time. Dash can feel it. Everyone can.

But Sombra won't go down without a fight, and he has one last trick up his sleeve...

It was supposed to be easy. A simple ambush. Jump a flanking force of Sombra's before they reach the battlefield. Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Wonderbolts had done it a thousand times before. She could do it in her sleep.

But then things go south for Dash, and she's taken behind enemy lines. Everypony knows her fate: to be brainwashed into serving Sombra. But what seems to be hopeless may just reveal more about Dash than she knows about herself.

Everyone knows that Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash are the bravest girls at CHS. But when the duo travels into Sunset’s mind to fight her literal inner demon—a shapeshifter that will take the form of their worst fears—they'll have to face a threat they never expected: each other.

Originally written for the Writeoff Association's September contest, "True Colors," where it won 4th place.
Thanks to Light Striker, Quill Scratch, Maskedferret, Not_A_Hat, and Chudo for pre-reading, as well as the whole Writeoff Association for their critique on the first draft.

When Fluttershy went to bed, she was a normal mare. When she woke up, she could see numbers floating over everypony's heads. They were timers, each one counting down to some unknown event. Most ponies had timers that wouldn't end for years, some for many decades. But everypony had different numbers.

So why does Rainbow Dash's timer end in three hours?

Editing provided by TheMaskedFerret and SolidFire.
Cover art by HopefulSparks!
Spanish translation by SPANIARD KIWI!

For a thousand years, there was just Celestia. Then Cadance appeared, Luna returned -- and now Twilight has ascended. There are ponies who are very curious about just what happened, why -- and how. Especially the how. Twilight herself is on that list, a freshly-minted princess with far more questions than answers, about to face a brand new one: what truly makes an alicorn?

And what happens if it goes wrong?

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Cover art by Harwick.