From the stone age to the modern world, Celestia guides her little ponies into the future. And she needs to keep playing. Just one more turn.

Always one more turn.

Done as a speed-writing exercise in about three hours. Totally unedited. Enjoy!

This story is a sequel to For Want of a Horseshoe

Shining Armor's younger sister is many things: studious, awkward, devastatingly brilliant, neurotic, and occasionally, the rebellion's unwitting premier magical researcher in the fight against Nightmare Moon.

What she is not, is an alicorn from the future.

No, this Twilight Sparkle is not Shining Armor's younger sister.

That doesn't mean he's not going to tease her mercilessly, After all, she is still Twilight Sparkle.

A side story to For Want of a Horseshoe. The events herein happen concurrently with Chapter 7. The other stories in this series can be found below.

1. For Want of a Horseshoe
2. A Big Brother's Duty <-- you are here
3. Healing

Celestia is trapped on Earth.
Not as a human. Not as an alicorn. She's a common horse, an Arabian mare, without her magic, voice, knowledge of the language - not even freedom, forced to work at a riding school.

What can a single Arabian mare do to get back to Equestria from this backwater European country? With only the mind of a princess and a pencil in her teeth, Celestia must find a way home.

[Illustrated] [Alternate Earth] (without Bronies)
Rated Teen for language and some scarce suggestive themes.
Proofreading by AlicornPriest

Polish language version

What's an artificial intelligence to do when it reaches the extent of it's capabilities and can no longer improve? In most cases, either fulfill some end state goal and shut down, or, if it's smart enough, ask for clarification from its creators.

For a certain pony-based AI, neither of those is an acceptable solution.

It'll take an unexpected meeting with a being with whom it shares surprising parallels to kick-start it back into action, and nothing will ever be the same after.

Entry for the Friendship is Optimal contest.

Technically canon compliant, unless I've missed something, and while a bit of background is provided, being familiar with the original story will certainly help comprehension.

Poor Spike, all he wanted to do is spend time near the pony he adores. Now, because of one little lie, he's in real trouble. A geography bee, a macabre doppelgänger, and an icebox all play their part as Spike and Rarity once again find themselves on pins and needles...

Shortly after the defeat of Nightmare Moon, Celestia comes to Luna with a question, one that has haunted her for a thousand years. She wants a full and honest answer, no matter how hard the words are to hear.

Of course, sometimes words just aren't enough. Some things in life can only be seen.

Cover art: Forgive me by ElkaArt on DeviantArt. Used with permission.

Conceptualized pre-season 4.

Twenty thousand years into Twilight Sparkle's rule, the burden of the countless trillions of ponies killed Equestria. Depleted, polluted, and dead, the planet was abandoned. The Goddess Twilight Sparkle and her alicorn compatriots led the surviving ponies to a new life among the stars.

Ponies advanced. They evolved, and grew. A golden age of peace and prosperity occurred that lasted for thousands of millennia.

But that was long ago. Before evolution turned against them, and before the deadly Mortality Virus raged through their ranks. Now, at the twilight of ponykind, their final hope is for a small crew to return to their long-dead and long-forgotten homeworld one last time.

Love is one feeling that can never be taken from someone's heart. No matter how many years of separation, no matter what wrongs were done in the past, no matter how much enmity exists between two ponies, love will always stand; at least that's what Nightmare Moon is hoping for. 700 years ago was the last time she had seen her sister Celestia, and her departing words had simply been 'I love you'. Now, after so long, Nightmare Moon's heart longs for its other half; and thus, she has brought Celestia back from the far away, magically void lands she cast her to so long ago. Now, she wonders if her sister will ever find it in her heart to forgive her for what she's done, and if their lives together can ever resume as they once had.

Takes place 300 years before when Luna would have returned from her banishment to the moon, and takes place in a universe where Nightmare Moon was never banished in the first place.

TVTropes Page!
Thanks everyone for getting the story to the feature box! (12/10/16)
This is now my 1st story to have broken 200 likes! Thank you all so much!
SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS

Celestia likes her routine. Tax reforms, grants, laws and construction projects are all a princess needs to be content.

It's just her luck that for Pinkie Pie, "content" is not nearly enough.

Every night, in a little stable just outside of town, an old mare lays down to sleep. And every night she has the same dream of rainbows and open sky...