House Everfree: ancient, pure, and on the brink of disaster. Despite bowing to the ruling of the Thaumata fourteen years ago and taking on a neophyte, Everfree's very way of life is still under fire: House Whitetail is pressuring the chamber to decree that the burden of impurity be more evenly shared by the ancient lines. With a vote of no confidence in Consul Quercus scheduled to be debated next month, all of Equestria is watching House Everfree's every step—and all are ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness.
The pressure is even felt by Maria, the first neophyte of Everfree, student at Canterlot Arcana. At times, it seems as if almost everything she does will bring shame to her House—her family. Maria must learn to navigate the treacherous waters of student life and politics, all the while juggling her schoolwork with her social life. A difficult act, but such is the life of a neophyte.
She should be careful, though. There's something moving in the dark.
Well, I am intrigued! Take me on a journey, Scorpius.
7417067 I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the story so far! I hope you continue to enjoy it—I'm hoping it'll be one heck of a ride
7417080 If you bail on me you're fired.
7417094
... looks like the accountability thing's working out for me
This is definitely the most unique story I've read on here thus far.
This story looks like it could be absolutely awesome, but I feel like I need some more backstory/context to this world.
Hmm... very much a Harry Potter vibe going on here, which I kind of like. Curious to find out more about her House. Also, dig the way the story is laid out.
7420049 Yeah, the first chapter alone gave me the feeling that this was kinda like the, "Harry Potter" series. If only just a little, which of course, is not a bad thing. They are good books, after all.
7418902 I'm trying to avoid dropping exposition on everyone's heads, but hopefully the context you need won't take me too long to get around to?
7420049
7420278 Funny you should mention that—I got the inspiration for this story whilst reading a Harry Potter fanfic. While I'm trying to keep the worlds fairly distinct, I will admit that there will probably be some overlap in the tone and the approach I'm taking (particularly with regards to the school itself!) but hopefully this story will be able to stand on its own four hooves.
7420681 Well, I think that's good, 'cause the tone and setting of Harry Potter is a cool one and one potentially well-suited to ponies. And I'm liking where you're going with it so far.
Huh, a friend. So are these more like royal houses rather than those in Harry Potter?
7423875 That's about the gist of it, yeah. They're like large, sprawling families—it may take a while to get there, but I'm really looking forward to exploring House Everfree (and Maria's family in particular) in a lot more detail when we get to the Hearth's Warming break.
7420681 You appear to be a good author by how the description for the story is lain out and by this comment here. I don't have time to read the story yet, but I'll get to it soon. Have a fav and a follow
Is this story at all based off of Just Before the Dawn?
7427842 Thanks!
Hope you enjoy the story when you have the time.
7428071 I have to admit, that's not one I know (I'm assuming it's a fanfic, since a cursory google search only gave me links to the history of the phrase and things like that. If it is, would you mind dropping me a link in a PM? I'm always interested in finding new things!)
Oh, hope you're feeling better soon.
This Zama is intriguing, but she seems to be an ally, at least, which is good.
7429052 I can't, it's rated m. I'm not sure if you're allowed to link m rated stories in PMs, but just in case, I'm not going to. I can, however give you a link to the author... Here.
Ooh, this is interesting with the whole scriptures/magic stuff. And I love the footnotes, here; disputed words in texts interest me.
Oh crap, that's dangerous magic.
This is really very good. Keep up the good work!
7860186 Thanks Wolf! I hope you continue to enjoy future updates
Yay, new chapter!
Hmmm. Judging by the excerpt I'm willing to bet that the poem was banned because it glorified an intertribal relationship between Clover and a pegasus.
Have you by chance read any Liaden novels? The set up so far reminds me of them. Though I can easily see where it diverges. Anyway, nice story.
7860787 I'll be honest: I haven't heard of those books before. I'll certainly be looking into them. They seem quite interesting! Thank you for telling me about them, and I'm glad you've enjoyed the story so far.
7860627 I don't want to confirm or deny anything by comment, but I would like to make it clear that the passage quoted is from the edited version of the poem that was not banned. But I'm liking your train of thought!
7860558 This fic should update daily, unless something big comes up irl for me. Hope you enjoy today's chapter!
I get the feeling that Heavyweight is going to end up being rather important.
I'm definitely enjoying these! Take as long as you need to get the best quality possible.
I wonder if we are close to finding out what neophyte means, considering the original definition I believe it has something to do with adoption, specifically unicorns adopted from non unicorn parents.
7868028 If you'd like a sense of time, the absolute latest it will be made clear is the Hearth's Warming break, but there's a decent chance it'll be explored more fully by then.
I guess I'm a bit late to the game with this one
. I'm very interested and I'm actually very eager to read more later when I get the chance 
! So far, I'm getting this weird (and very intriguing) Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones meets MLP kind vibe.
7870333 It's never too late to join the party
Welcome to Solstice!
I'm glad to hear you're looking forward to catching up with the rest of the story so far, and I hope you enjoy it. I must say, I like the way you've described the vibe you're getting from the story—it sounds like exactly what I was aiming for
That last part really makes me wonder what's in the Starswirl Wing. Can't wait!
Another thing that interests me is what are the different classes of magic and how do they differ from each other?
There's two things that I'm really digging with this story:
The world building I find to be very interesting. It seems a bit bleak and the little openers in some of these chapters are structured so interestingly to me, especially the bits from scriptures and history books. It's fragmented, but in a good way. It leaves you wanting to know more.
I'm also really loving the dynamic of Maria's character so far. The struggle of balancing her being her and looking out for her family is tense
. It makes me feel kinda bad that she has to. Especially with what happened here, I'm a bit worried with how she'll recover. 
This story is really looking good so far!
Very nice, it's good to see that the headmistress at least, is taking this seriously.
Hmm... so the princess sisters were still a thing, makes me wonder what happened to them. Possibly overthrown by unicorn supremacist?
I may have just missed it, but when is this placed? It kind of sounds like pre show, but the more I read it the more it sounds like it's a distopia set after it.
Or is it a distopia at about nightmare moon-ish era where the princesses disappear? So many questions... good work though.
Edit
That moment when you notice the AU tag...
7879137 It's okay, I'm pretty sure I stopped actually looking at tags before I read stories about half a year ago
In all seriousness, I'm glad you seem to be enjoying the story so far! To answer your original question as best as I can (can you really compare timelines in universes whose shared history is uncertain at best and downright contradictory at worst?), I would place Solstice at a point in this Equestria's history that is before the equivalent time of the first episode in the show's history. How much before? I'll be perfectly honest with you: I have no idea, because AU histories are weird, but I'm looking forward to exploring that and any further comparisons between the timelines as we come to them!
7879117 All I will say is that you might not want to trust everything you see in the Starswirl Wing. Not all heresies are false, but not all histories are true. Just some food for thought
7873918 I'm glad to hear you're still enjoying the story (and I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to get around to replying!)
Maria's character has been a fun one to write, so far, and I'm looking forward to writing more of her. She's at a very tumultuous stage of her life, right now, and she's dealing with a lot of conflicting desires. Writing her trying to come to terms with those and to figure out what really matters to her is a real challenge, but one that I am enjoying immensely. And I'm glad you're enjoying the chapter structure! I swear, sometimes it feels like I put more time into those tiny little fragments of imaginary books than I do into the main body of the chapter...
Hmm, well,
comments on the writing its self: really good, I wasn't actively looking for mistakes or structure errors, but I didn't find any and it really drew me in and made me feel like I was there, especially the ending.
Comments on the chapter: very nice, it was interesting seeing how they reacted in class, and I'm sure I would do the same, and getting a little tid bit of her. Also that ending is quite the hydrogen bomb (invisible cookie to all who know that) no not the cleaning up lol.