A nurse has seen it all. A combat medic has seen even more.

Princess Celestia sends her elite Household Battalion—"Celestia's Own"—south, far beyond the borders of Equestria, to break the slave trade and to free the oppressed. Medic Redheart, a young rookie among the Guard's hardened veterans, is with her Battalion every step of the way.

She's never told anypony her story. Until now.

A side story/prequel to my The Ponies in the Caves and A Story to Relate To, but reads independently.

This story is fantastic. There wasn't a single chapter that didn't give me chills or bring a tear to my eye. The way you describe the selflessness of the soldiers, and Redheart's unrelenting drive to save them, no matter the personal cost, was exemplary. I look forward to more of your work.

-SGTBRONY

Has a Black Company feel to it with the medic POV. Great story so far!

-Lerris

Cover art by Pabbles, by commission. Thanks!

With massive thanks to the folks in the Discord for comments and advice, and Totallynotabrony, Raleigh, Sledge115, and ChudoJogurt for detailed pre-reading, in whole or in part. Any remaining errors are fully my own.

Author's notes and commentary blog, with big spoilers.

It's New Year's Eve. Do you know where you and your friends are?

Have you ever felt like you didn't really belong? Like no matter how hard you tried you'd never be able to fit in anywhere? After I lost the Memory Stone, Sunset and her friends told me I could finally have people around that cared, but I should have known better. Nothing was ever really going to change. I was always going to be cursed to a lifetime of being ignored and forgotten...

I was never going to be anyone but the odd one out.

After four harrowing years of civil war brought about by Nightmare Moon's return, Canterlot has finally fallen. Princess Celestia has been banished to the moon, and now a new alicorn rules over Equestria. For the supporters of Nightmare Moon, the new eternal night is a time for celebration. For the ponies who fought for Celestia, it means something else entirely. For when the war is lost and the victor demands fealty, the vanquished are given only two choices: bow low and kiss the ground beneath her hooves, or die.

Not everpony who bows does so out of love for the conqueror, of course. Some do it to bide their time. Some do it out of a sense of opportunity. Most bow merely to survive. All of them are liars. But how long can a pony tell the same lie before it becomes the truth?

And what happens to that pony when their lies are lies no more?

Edited by SolidFire. Inspired by the Nightmare Moon timeline in the season 5 finale, a particular scene from a particular show, and an entertaining game of Equestria at War.

This story is a sequel to Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead

“Look, I know Mom and Aunt Luna said I shouldn’t work ‘the business’ without them. And I know they’re right – college will be hard enough without battling the hungry dead. But people out there need a bad-ass monster hunter to save them, and that’s what I’ll be.”

“Just don’t tell Mom. You know how she gets.”

(Slice-of-life adventures of Canterlot College's rookie band of monster hunters.)

Now with a Tropes page, courtesy of AnoneMouseJr.

And check out this fan art!

A few weeks before her college graduation, Sunset Shimmer attends Twilight Sparkle's funeral. She'd rather be anywhere else but here. She'd rather think about anything but what role she played—or didn't play—in her girlfriend's premature death.

We don't always get what we want, though. After the last several months, Sunset knows that better than anyone.

Winner of Oroboro's "Sunset Shipping Contest: Endings." Rated T for language, not-exclusively-adult themes, and brief tobacco use.

Another one of Pinkie's parties is winding down, and Dash sits alone in the corner. She feels another knot tightening in her chest, clenching harder by the second. She just can't seem to make it go away, not alone.

Expanded from an entry into one of the Quills and Sofa Speedwriting group's contests, with the prompt "Spurred to Action"

Thanks to Zontan and Petrichord for some proofreading and feedback.

When Wallflower Blush tries to take her own life, Sunset does the only thing she can think of to save her. By witnessing the entirety of Wallflower’s memories all at once, she hopes that part of her friend may live on within herself.

However, possessing the memories of two lives leaves Sunset doubting her own identity. Now that she's inherited all the same memories and traumas that led to Wallflower's suicide, is she even the same person anymore?

Drawing used in cover is by avirextin.

Based on an idea by shortskirtsandexplosions.

This story is a sequel to Feedback

A terrible loss has been averted, but even that has a price.

Between the disappearance of several hundred ponies from around the world, strange portals leading to alternate versions of Equestria, an unknown alicorn frequenting Ponyville for secretive reasons, and the arrival of a new race of ponies bringing some ulterior motives, the pieces sowed by Twilight’s fight with the Nameless are set to crash back down.

What happens when friendship fails? Who will take Twilight’s place within the grave?

The Crystal Ball Trilogy is a series of stories which deal with time travel, parallel universes, and other manipulations of time and space. Substitute is the middle story; it is preceded by Feedback and is succeeded by Divergence.

Digital pdf version here
Print book version here

Featured on 7/19/2016!
Goodreads entry~

Ask Me Anything 10/22/16
Ask Me Anything 1/18/17

Edited (with varying degress of contribution) by
sourichan, Kuairu, Thought Prism, Orion Caelum, Corejo, and AlicornPriest

"Sunset, you weren't the first unearthly threat to come to this world, and you won't be the last. If we seem calm in the face of strange events, it's not because we're oblivious or indifferent to them. It's because they're not strange to us. The Fall Formal may have been the most important night of your life, but to us... it was Thursday."

(Slice-of-life adventures of Canterlot High's unlikely band of monster hunters.)

Now with a Tropes page, courtesy of AnoneMouseJr.