After the Friendship Games, Sunset feels it's time to return home.

Only when she gets there, Twilight's castle is nowhere to be found, Cadance just got her horn, and Princess Celestia is still calling the bacon-haired pony her prized student rather than a failed one. And just reliving her past isn't on the table thanks to a pair of wings Sunset seems to have sprouted upon her return to Equestria.

With Sunset being back before she's supposed to, will the world stay as harmonious and on track, or will everything go down in flames as Sunset has to deal with allegations that she's really a changeling in disguise, a nerdy stallion with blue hair that wants to be her coltfriend, a pretty pink princess in need of remedial magic lessons, and an annoying purple pre-teen pony that will absolutely not go to bed without first being read Starswirl's Complete Mystical Mysteries Compendium?

Only time will tell

Earth-pony Twilight Sparkle has always been a little "out there". But while testing her latest crazy idea, she finds that there are places even farther than that...

For more of this AU, check out the entire series:

• When Ponies Fly
• The Two Unicorns
• Pinkie Pegasus
• The Muse of Fire

This story is a sequel to When Ponies Fly

Earth-pony Twilight Sparkle and her friend Rainbow Dash visit a realm of forest and magic. And find that all is not quite right, in the place where the unicorns dwell...

For more of this AU, check out the entire series, starting with:

• When Ponies Fly

It was supposed to be simple. Coco would head to the Crystal Empire, design some new uniforms, collect a paycheck and head back home. But a few wrong turns in a confusing castle led her to a place she’d never even imagined. And after a few chance encounters with some very attractive mares, she’s not so sure she wants to leave.

Cover art by Robin Daydream, proofreading and moral support by GaraTheAuthor. Inspired by Alex Zandra's light novels.

Sex tag for references and innuendo. Check the rating, folks, this isn't a clopfic.

Updates: Weekly, hopefully.
Don't think about this too much, it hurts the squishy sponge.
WOO, FEATURED! 18.1.2020

EDIT: Added a character cheat sheet in the bottom of this section due to requests.

The only thing that's known about changelings in general is that they came from the Badlands and that they eat love. Oh right, and that their queen is evil, cool, and certainly does not star in some of the wilder pony dreams.
Not much, is it?
The thing is, it's not as if they know too much themselves. For example, how many of them there really were? How many of them survived the invasion? How silly was it to attempt to disrupt princess Celestia's cake supply?
No one can fully answer such burning questions. Only one thing is for certain - they're now everywhere, and they all have their own stories to tell, some long, some short, some violent, some silly, some happy. Changelings all over the place.
Not every creature minds, though.

--156,387--
156 - infiltrator, F, hive loyalist.
387 - warrior, M, knows strangely too much.
918 - infiltrator. F.
47989 - drone, hit head on rock, a bit confused
559, 791, 2899 - warriors, M
10013, 13887, 19441, 31214 - drones

--1988,9999--
1988 - infiltrator, M, in charge of the lumber camp lings, totally femboy looking.
9999 - currently the highest ranking drone in the hive, involuntary drone Jesus.
36658, 57999 - drone bark meister, drone bark padawan. Definitely not opiate dealers.
13415 - drone, second-in-command after 9999.
17070 - cooking drone, deaf.
20100 - moving pictures drone
54331, 74989, 33125, 65661 - drones
3x Silent

--1313--
1313 - infiltrator, M, breaks easily, is put together easily.
Zamira - F, Blueblood's zebra bodyguard

--65536--
65536 - drone, requires no details here.
Sharp Biscuit - Batpony, M, Nightguard Commander.
Beacon - Unicorn, M, paladin Grandmaster
Pink Sunset - Batpony, M
Gloom - Batpony, F
Night Hunter - Batpony, M
Steel Glimmer - Batpony, F

Princess Celestia sent her student, Twilight Sparkle, to meet five mares in Ponyville who will help set up the Summer Sun Celebration.

She just never said they'd be hot.

Chinese translation by SoothingBell!

Sunset Shimmer is in the hospital. Fluttershy is in a coffin. Neither of them is very happy about it.

Written as an entry to the FimFiction Feghoot Festival.
(Most of it) pre-read by Ludus.
Edited by Lofty Withers.
Art by twilite-sparkleplz.

A failed assault, a shamed monarch, and a spiteful sister.
The world has taken much from Chrysalis, but when her own nation is stolen from her, with her life almost following suit, she finds herself granted kindness from an unlikely source; the very ponies who she had wronged.
What kind of future can she hope to have, now that everything that she holds dear has been stripped from her?

This story is a sequel to Changeling Courtship Rituals

Queen Chrysalis attacked Canterlot, brainwashed Twilight Sparkle's brother, kidnapped her former foalsitter, defeated her mentor in combat, and conquered her kingdom. She kidnapped the sisters of Twilight's friends, turned them against one another, and tried to drain all of Twilight's magic. Queen Chrysalis has, at every opportunity, done her very best to utterly destroy Twilight Sparkle's life.

For some reason, this has not caused the pony to fall in love with her.

However, due to Twilight's misunderstanding of changeling customs, it does mean they are now married. Twilight eventually managed to tell the Queen the truth, but she forgot that whether it's a kingdom or a heart, changelings conquer.

And since the changeling way of conquest didn't work, Chrysalis is determined to try the pony way. The only problem is, of course, she has no idea what that is. But she knows someone who does: Princess Cadance.

Now, with the absolutely sincere help of her mortal enemy, the pony she once locked in the caves beneath Canterlot while trying to steal her husband on their very wedding day, Queen Chrysalis is going to woo the sister-in-law of that very pony.

Surely this is the most perfect plan ever devised.

***

Proofread by ShutterflyYay.

Takes place roughly after season five (so Starlight Glimmer is running around occasionally)

Trixie's line of work is dangerous. But she's a careful showpony, and that's why she's only died a few dozen times in her career.

She thinks this is normal.