Sister Twilight of the Celestial Order makes an unsettling discovery in the bowels of the abbey.

Small world-building one-shot.

Sunset Shimmer is having the worst day of her life. She used to be important. She was the personal student of Princess Celestia. She was a future leader of Equestria. She was the kind of mare that everypony envied.

Today, it's all crashing down around her.

Alternate Universe: What if Sunset Shimmer hadn't gone through the mirror?

When your daughter dresses in all black, talks to changelings and tells you that life is meaningless, you know she became an irredeemable villain.
She must be killed. Shining Armor knows it.
Cadance says it's just a phase, but he knows.
It's definitely not a phase.

Made for the Shining Armor is a Terrible Dad contest. Couldn't resist writing about that big dumb unicorn.
Cover by emmaneiac.
Featured from 15/03/2024 to 19/03/2023. Thank you.

It has been ten years since the defeat of the Changling Queen, and Equestria is again at peace. Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony have reached their prime, and have begun to settle down. Love and life abound in Ponyville, especially for Twilight's friends, but she has nopony to call her own.

There is a reason.

A series of events lead to a horrible revelation, and Twilight is thrust deep into a terrifying web of secrets and lies. Her peace is over.

This time, however, she won't be fighting monsters or madponies. What she faces will be much, much worse.

Act One of Two.

Act Two is here.

Currently undergoing editing by the wonderful Mstar!

This story is a sequel to Dusk's Dangerous Game

Twilight Sparkle, known to all but the three Goddesses as Lady Everstar, the Evening Sage, has ruled over her kingdom for nearly five centuries with all the wisdom and grace of which she is capable. Her lands are wild and exciting, the prospects good for those with brilliant minds and daring hearts. But now something has changed in the Evening Kingdom, something has changed the balance of power so profoundly that even Twilight herself cannot tell how events may unfold.

Across the ocean, an ancient evil is stirring, its dark hunger can finally be realized. Its servants are many, brutal, and cunning. They are found among the lowest of lows, and the highest of highs. With the balance of power so disrupted, it is at last time for their shadowy plans to come to fruition, to cast off the darkness and strike against the night.

It will take the power of goddesses, magic both familiar and ancient, and the most unlikely of heroes to save not only the Evening Kingdom, not only Equestria, but the entirety of Creation as we know it.

Sequel to Lines and Webs and Dusk's Dangerous Game. Knowledge of the previous stories is not needed, but reading them is, of course, encouraged.

Followed by Courts of The Magi.

This story is a sequel to Lines and Webs

For four long years, Celestia's apprentice Twilight Sparkle, once a model pony and a hero among heroes, has waged a bitter and secret struggle with her onetime mentor. Though she works from the shadows, directing her forces from the Old Capitol in the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle is unable to gain any advantage,

Likewise, Princess Celestia finds her once-faithful student far more cunning and elusive than she had anticipated, and even now searches for a way to bring Twilight Sparkle's rebellion to its knees.

It is a game of greys, of knives in the dark and of poisoned wine, where pawns are moved and traded and exchanged for greater advantage, all the while drawing both sides nearer to the conflict which shall tear Equestria in two.

At the center of this conflict is a new pawn, one who only wished to see the truth for herself. Drawn into a deadly game whose rules she does not understand, Sweetie Belle must learn to survive in a world where all is darkened, and nopony can be completely trusted.

Because when gods play chess, all pieces are expendable.

A nation will crumble, old enemies shall return in the most unexpected ways, and regardless of who is victorious, only one thing can be certain.

Nothing shall ever be the same.

Followed by Stormsinger.

As Rarity stepped into her workroom, her sewing machine stashed in the corner and half-finished designs chucked into an overflowing trashcan, she felt her already hollow heart somehow crumble further, still in denial over one simple fact: 

Rarity used to be a designer. A good one and a bad one all at once.

But... she wasn’t a designer anymore. 

And if she wasn’t a designer, then she had no use to anypony. 

And if she had no use to anypony, she was worthless.

And if she was worthless, she was better off dead.

Thank you to Maxima for the cover art, and to Jykinturah and RBDash for seeing the absolute worst parts of me as I went through hell last year yet staying with me as if it was the most natural choice in the world. Thank you as well to my supporters on KoFi and Patreon for having faith in me even when I didn't.

This story is a sequel to A Wish for the Ages

Rarity never thought she’d be asked to reprise her role as Princess Platinum, especially not this way, and especially not involving her sister as well. But she understands the importance to Equestria and Unicornia.

Even if it might mean that she can’t be Rarity ever again.

An honorable mention in Imposing Sovereigns IV, using the prompt Princess Platinum/Courage

This story is a sequel to In the Moon’s Platinum Glow

A special moment between sisters happened that first Hearth's Warming Eve. Star Swirl the Bearded saw the significance, but too late. Another will happen this year, and with his guidance, maybe Twilight Sparkle can make this the best Hearth's Warming Rarity ever had.

Featured on Equestria Daily!

Cover art by stabzor

shortdesc

The simulation ends.

info

thank you to The Sleepless Beholder and EileenSaysHi for prereading.

an entry for the Imposing Sovereigns IV contest under Midnight Sparkle/Unorthodoxy