I read it over a year ago and really liked it--but forgot to favorite or bookmark it and now I can't find it again. I can remember most of the plot, but I can't remember the name and it's driving me nuts! I think I read it here on fimfiction, but it might have been fanfiction.net or google docs. I can't remember that either.

The basic story idea is that it takes place in Equestria's future. Discord is on the loose again and was never reformed. The Elements of Harmony are hidden away, and the Bearers disbanded and dead. Spike is an ancient dragon, and a young alicorn-born pony comes to him seeking help.

Here's the rest I remember of the story if you don't mind spoilers:

The alicorn filly convinces a reluctant Spike to help her (he's turned into a hermit by now), and he teaches her about magic and friendship, and she eventually brings others to his lair because a harsh winter is coming (I can't remember if it was from windigos or just Discord). Also I think there was something in there about pony magic fading as well, but I might be thinking of something else. Anyway, Spike and his lair are massive, so there is plenty of room for the ponies to live in, though the filly is surprised to find pony-sized things and rooms already in there (from when the Mane 6 would visit Spike). There are a couple of flashbacks to Spike's younger days when the Main 6 were breaking apart.

The filly makes contact with an old pony who reveals the elements of harmony were hidden away by Rainbow Dash within a nomadic herd of Pegasi (without Twilight's knowledge, and this caused a rift between them before their deaths). At the end of the story, Discord shows up and the alicorn battles him, nearly being killed in the process until Spike comes to help her. Discord is turned to stone again, but Spike is mortally wounded. The alicorn turns him to stone as well, so that the last of his magic and life force can keep Discord trapped forever. Back in his lair, the alicorn and her ponies build a city within the caves, and it's discovered that some of Spike's magic rubbed on some of their foals, making them more powerful. The alicorn becomes the ruler of that community and decides to open a school to teach the foals blessed by Spike's magic. There's also an experiment with a dragon egg to see if the hatchling would turn out like Spike, that failed, as the hatchling tried to kill his pony guardian. It's debated if only an egg hatched by pony magic would turn out like Spike, so the alicorn finds another abandoned egg and keeps it safe until one of her students can figure out how to hatch it.

That's all I can remember^.

If you were like me and compulsively added all the fics you read to a bookshelf, you wouldn't have lost it, unless of course you have some 3387 stories in your bookshelf that you keep everything in, at which point you will find it, but it will take balls forever.

~Crystalline Electrostatic~
17:57_9/21/2016

5503400
You might wanna try the Writer's Group. There's a lot of bibliophile's on there.

5505131 This one?
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group

5505199
Yep. That's the one. Sorry, should've linked that. Sorry.

5505208 It's ok, and thanks for the advice. :)

5505131 Well that went nowhere pretty fast.
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/278265/does-anybody-know-the-name-of-this-story#comment/5505300

Thanks anyway.

I'll see if Shortskirtsandexplosions' "The End of Ponies" is what I was looking for though...

No, that wasn't it.

Might have better luck in their chat thread. But I'll keep this one open in case anybody here remembers the name.