S9, Ep1. "The Beginning of the End" Part 1...
Except...it wasn't...
What if it happened differently?
What if a certain purple Alicorn had a plan?
What if she put that plan in motion?

This...is that story...

Friend of mine on a military brony page had a bad experience with an antibiotic. I decided to make it worse.

So sue me...

Buckball was a low-key thing. Something the Apples played around with at family gatherings; where fancy horn 'n feather in-laws could get involved with their Earth type kin.

Nothin' serious...

Then, cuzin Braeburn had ta open his big mouth ta Applejack. That wouldn't have meant nothin', usually...'cept Braeburn wuz bringin' in ringers...

Might've worked, too...'cept Applejack knew some ponies herself...

Then they held that little contest, which kinda broke along the town lines there in Appleoosa...cuz Ponyville showed up ta root 'their team' on...and with everypony watchin'...

Ponies jest don't go in for half-measures...do they...??

(Just a small sample montage of ponies...being nuts...)

Sunset Shimmer has had a long year. Now Canterlot High School is taking a small break. Sunset wants one as well; because it's time to own up to some things, and to see if she can fix them.

The Dazzlings are broken. Aria is in retail, and went Goth. Sonata, of course, went to the Taco Hut. And Adagio?

Adagio lives with Sunset, in a small back room. Alone. Without friends.

Sunset needs some face time with the Princess of Frienship. But in Equestria...?

Starlight Glimmer gave up her march for equality. She now has six new friends, and a new future. A town of ponies she treated terribly have forgiven her. And all those new ponies in Ponyville she can be friends with.
But can that bright future accomodate her past?

For those of you that need the context for this story...

https://youtu.be/do6RDSwaWek

Princess Luna is a dreamwalker, a mage that moves in the realm of slumber. She spent years discovering, experimenting, and learning the art of Dream Magic. Not even Celestia, with all her power, could do what she could...

Then...Nightmare Moon...

What she learned to help, could also be used to punish...and what pony deserved punishment more than the blue Alicorn who almost brought extinction to Equestria?

(This was written for the Writers Training Ground challenge of Equestria Daily, and is submitted for that. The imagery can be a little...strong. Especially if you love the Benevolent Princess of Kind Nights a lot. Because I do.)

But I also admire the hell out of her. To take on what she did...rash and foolish as it was, speaks of a spirit of tremendous love and character.

And I was surprised at just how much my characterization of her in "Derpy Meets The Doctor" parallels that of Larson and Co. To find out all of you were thinking the same things about her long before they made this episode?

Damn. Maybe I really am good at this...

The young mare from Our Town fled as the Alicorn Twilight Sparkle and her friends tore down the Utopia she had built. Now, on the other side of the mountains near the Canterlot Canton, she contemplates the next move to re-establish her legacy of Friendship and Equality. Her way.

Thanks to Mysticalpha for the inspiration for this story...

Ponyville's favorite mailmare starts the day in her usual way. Wake up. Toothbrush. Then breakfast, toothbrush again, a pass through her mane with a comb to try to get it to behave. Then, goodbye to Dinky, and off to work...
First, Discord. Then The Doctor. Princess Luna. Princess Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia. A fight for everyone's very lives...and a grey Pegasus mare with bubbles for a Cutie Mark right in the middle...
Don't you just love it when the universe decides you're really not a background pony?

The companion literary piece to the commissioned artwork by dori-to, "Relaxing on a Saturday Night", the story describes the events both before and after the scene illustrated...a barfight in the "13 Shots Bar" just outside the Canterlot Training Center. This artwork was featured in the "Equestria Daily" Drawfriend.

What happens when you put twenty-eight war ponies in a bar with a gaggle of Griffons?
Do you really need to be told? Not everything in Equestria is magic and friendship.

Link to dori-to's original work.
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Relaxing-On-A-Saturday-Night-483288805

Applejack is the Element of Honesty.
What could she be like if she was something else?