Night and day. Fire and ice. Creation and destruction. Everything has an opposite, and Chaos is no exception. Princess Celestia tells Twilight the true history of Discord's rise, the Alicorns' fall, and the creation of the Elements of Harmony.

She tells her student the story of Order and Chaos.

This story is a sequel to The Irony of Applejack

Warning: this story is a sequel. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you read the prequel first before continuing!

Over half a year has passed since the changeling attack on Ponyville, and Applejack would like to think things have finally settled down. Much has changed for the young changeling, and all of Equestria in kind. The new district in Ponyville proves that, along with the town's many new residents.
But there is much the young queen does not yet know about being a changeling. Some things, she will learn, can be chosen, while others will be chosen for her. With new allies and enemies emerging all around her, Applejack must discover what it truly means to rule before the choice is taken from her forever, and the history of the changelings repeats itself, once again...

Image provided by Heilos.

For most of Applejack's life, she didn't know what she was. True, she understood who she was well enough.
But ponies don't change shapes, nor do they get strength from love.
Applejack never thought too hard on it... until the events of a certain wedding brought about some harsh realizations.
Now, with Equestria still reeling from the surprise attack, will Applejack manage to come to terms with what she is? Will she even be able to keep her secret safe?
For if the royal guards don't get her first, the conspirators in the shadows just might...

Image provided by Heilos -

Luna is a happy filly, and wants her sister to be happy too. She doesn't know why Celestia cries at night, so she's going to raise the sun and let her big sister sleep in.

Celestia watches her waiting to raise the sun from inside her chambers, torn between a love that she wants to acknowledge and the machinations of politics that have kept her from doing so.

What would a good sister do?

What would a good mother do?

Proofreading by Minds Eye

Cover Art: Then I Heard Your Heart Beating - Riz Cifra

Featured on Equestria Daily

In the far reaches of Canterlot Castle, high above in the towers lived the archmage. Everypony knew her, yet few had met her.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, having teleported away another noble seeking favors before reaching the top of the stairs for the second time today. They never learned. As the archmage, she already dealt with political squabbles far too often without inviting them into her home. Aside from personal favors for Celestia, she did what was required of her position and then returned to seclusion and research.

The nobility grumbled that no archmage should be a commoner, and Twilight’s disrespect toward them proved it. Each and every time they were forced to bow to her, they hated what they saw: the position, the status, the deference.

Was she not powerful? Was she not great?

Twilight, now reading through dusty scrolls and long forgotten tales, wrote in her notes — notes gathering dust of their own. A brief thought flashed through her mind.

Am I not powerful? Am I not great?

And then Twilight picked up The Tale of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Defunct side stories told in Across the Boundary. They can still provide a little context, but when in doubt, the main story here is canon.

Cover art provided by Lafiir

When Twilight Sparkle slipped beneath the covers last night, everything had been fine. She had friends whom she loved, a teacher she adored, and a bright future ahead of her. But when she woke up, her blankets and quilts had been replaced by hospital gowns and padded restraints.

Everything is wrong and nothing makes sense; even her friends have changed. The doctors keep telling her that she is sick, that none of it was real and that it was all in her head. Yet she remembers a life far beyond the hospital walls. She couldn't have made it all up on her own. They must be lying… right?

Ask Asylum Twilight - Still updating regularly!
Equestria Daily
TVTropes
Asylum Fan Group
The Tartarus Project
Russian Translation
The Asylum 20,000 View Spectacular Stage Show!

Art:
Asylum Cover by conicer
Twilight and Twilight Smiles by dreamingnoctis
Mirror Twilight and Plague Doctor by Jaestring / BloodGoldWings
Twilight Smiles and Doctor AJ by conicer
Nurse Ratchet and Silas and What's in the mirror? by Archonix
Doctor AJ Sketch by Archonix | Colored and vectored version by ReFro82
Twilight's Asylum by Khan the Cake Lover
Smilight by HappySwitch
Twilight Waking Up by Dombrus
Fan Art by toxicdemon10
Asylum Twilight by Madness-With-Reason
Asylum Fluttershy and Asylum Ch 26 by Downburst-Backspace
Twilight and her Twin by v747
Birdgirl by sirValter

Readings and Videos:
Asylum Animated Trailer Video by formuladash
Reading by Gammarobot (SugarCubeRadio): All Chapters Here
Reading by Ender Brony: All Chapters Here
Reading by VisualPony: All Chapters Here
Reading by MelancholyIguana: All Chapters Here
Fan Trailer by Kaidan: Asylum FanFic Trailer Cuckoo's Nest

Sanctuary by Kaidan
Broadhoof Files: Dr. Humors by TypewriterError
Broadhoof Files: Corporal Phalanx Spear (Ret.) by Phalanx Spear
A Hearth's Warming Tragedy by Seven Fates

A special thanks to Breath of Plagues, Rex Ivan,
ChudoJogurt, Cynewulf, Death the Kid, Selbi, PrinceDolph, Blahman2816, Queue, and Gage!

Axan Zenith - Dr. Dreamer
Dratini4 - Way Finder
psychicscubadiver - Bright Mind
Velkaden - Dream Chaser
Reese - Silver Glow
Viola Heartstrings - Clover
Archonix - Spinney Whiteacre

All Princess Celestia wanted was to open a window. A simple window into another world, for no reason other than to prove their existence. She never wanted it to become a door. And she certainly never wanted anything to come through. But, as is proven so often, we don't always get what we want.

It's not all bad. What comes through is a perfectly ordinary pony. So ordinary that its very presence risks the destruction of magic itself.

Ordinary, after all, is highly relative.

After the Changeling invasion, Celestia and Luna make the decision to have Twilight investigate the Elements of Harmony and solve the mystery of their power.

A thousand years later, Rainbow Dash awakens in a world she does not recognize. She has no idea how or why she came to be there. She does not know the language, the geography or any of the rules of this new time. She soon finds allies in Star Fall, a scholarly pegasus whose Talent is Magic, and Astrid, Star Fall's Griffin guardian. Together they set out to discover why Dash has been sent to the future, and how she might return to when she belongs.

War threatens the nations, a Nightmare stalks the shadows, and Rainbow Dash's arrival has turned her into a wild card in a deadly game that pits the law on both sides of a broken Equestria against a mysterious criminal figure, Max Cash. Yet the stakes are higher than anyone knows, for in her research Twilight Sparkle discovered a dark secret about the Elements, something that will shake the foundations of the world.

Cover image by SierraEx
Has a TvTropes page

A lovestruck knight in Equestria's early days, unconvinced of his own worthiness, decides that he must prove himself to the mare he loves. With Princess Cadence as his guide, he is put on a quest by the Crown to go forth and right wrongs and ease sorrows associated with latent Chaos, all while learning of the Elements of Harmony from the ponies' companion races.

The entire piece is written in iambic pentameter, with the exception of a few English sonnets, which are italicized.

Twilight and Celestia go off alone, and Twilight will not say what is the matter, only that she may not return at all. Her friends and Luna gather in a vigil at the library the night of the Twilight's unknown trial, waiting for her to come back to them. Twilight faces the most terrible of all decisions, and learns the nature of what she is, and what hopes she may yet have when the sun rises and she returns to her friends.