Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers a centuries-old mystery hidden in the Royal Archives. Her investigation leads through layer after layer of deception and misdirection, setting her hooves on a path that seems to be leading to a mysterious secret. Along the way, she learns that some friendships can be very, very strange.

Book 1 of the Alicorn Adventure series.

AUDIOBOOK by VisualPony
Featured at the Royal Canterlot Library
TV Tropes Page (Courtesy of Sandtalon)
Goodreads Page (Courtesy of Facedeer)
Equestria Daily Page

WARNING: Major spoilers in the comments. Takes place several months after the end of season four. (Not a Da Vinci Code crossover, BTW!)

Do you see a dark tag? No, you don't. Not dark. Well, okay, there are a couple of dark-ish bits, but that's all. Not enough to warrant a tag. Speaking of tags, there really ought to be "Badass Twilight" and "Friendshipping" ones.

Sequels and side-stories (and more) can be found here Offprint and AO3, and a hardbound two-volume set of all that can be ordered from The Ministry of Image.

My editor for the first edition of this story was Gogito, and I can't thank him enough for all the hard work he did. My editor for the revised version was PresentPerfect, and he did a terrific job of getting the story into excellent shape.

*If you'd like to purchase a physical copy of this story, click here*

One of Equestria's greatest traits is tolerance. Every pony, whether Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth, is accepted for who they are, and have their own parts to play in keeping Equestria running.

But what if an Earth pony decided he didn't want to play his assigned part? What if he wanted to rise above everyone else and become an Alicorn? Such a thing is possible... but the path to fulfilling one's dreams is never simple. Risks must be taken. Sacrifices must be made. And the question is always asked: How far would you go to get what you wanted? And would you be willing to pay a terrible price to get it?

This story is a sequel to Where Loyalties Lie: Honor Guard

After risking her own life in a daring adventure across the world to save Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash wants nothing more than for her life to return to normal. In her mind, what happened is in the past, and she wants nothing more to do with it. But a past abandoned is doomed to be repeated, and with an ancient threat rising beneath the snows, Rainbow may be the only mare who can truly save Equestria.

A Price of Loyalty story.
No longer canon to the 'PoL' universe; see author's note on chapter 1.

This story is a sequel to Where Loyalties Lie: Honor Guard

Honor Guard Captain Red Ink is a proud warrior, the son of the Stalliongradi Tsar, and something of a legend amongst the Equestrian Guard. Until his mistake, some would have said he was atop the world. But a reckless violent streak and a disrespect for the common pony carry him away from his lofty post aside Celestia.

He expected a frigid post on the dragon border to carry the rest of his days. Compared to that fate, delivering a letter to the Princess's student in Ponyville seems a delightfully easy task. If he had known the fate the Princess had prepared for him in the tiny city, he might well have exiled himself. Fate can be cruel indeed to a warrior staring down at a nearly blank piece of parchment, knowing his life depends on filling it with words. The beginning, after all, is always so very easy.

"Dear Princess Celestia..."

A Price of Loyalty story.

A spin-off of Where Loyalties Lie, though you don't need to have read it.

Waking up on a rooftop on Nightmare Night alone wouldn't have been so jarring for Eyewitness if it weren't for the dead body. Struggling with the harsh wake up call, and the arrival of the mysterious 'guardspony' Chocolate Malt, she must help him solve the murder while keeping her own secrets intact.

Won 3rd place in the Equestria Daily Batpony Writeoff, 10/31/2013!

"Equestria's Guard: the Bravest and the Best. Do you have what it takes?"

So the advertisements say. When Rainbow Dash saves the life of Princess Luna, however, she quickly comes to learn that there's a lot more to the guard than what everypony knows. As she faces down threats to her friends, her Princesses, and her country, Rainbow will have to decide exactly who she is loyal to.

A Price of Loyalty story.

How far will you go to save your family? Your friends? Your empire? Twenty years before the events of the Hearth's Warming Eve story, long before the pegasi had even met the other two races, Commander Hurricane was a simple farmer in the great Cirran Empire. When the neighboring griffon nation declares war on Cirra and everything it stands for, the young Hurricane finds himself thrown into the middle of a conflict with the fate of his very race put into question. Will he rise to be the pegasus Cirra needs him to be, or will the mighty empire fall to the claws of the griffons?

Officially part of "The Price of Loyalty" storyverse, in collaboration with LoyalLiar.

Now with a side story! Come check out my friend Ruirik's Wind and Stone and follow along with the journey of another legionnaire who struggled through the Red Cloud War at the same time as Hurricane. (*contains references to events in the sequel to OSLF, Snow and Shadows, so be wary*)

Cover art by Ruirik

When a group of Titanfallers are summoned to Equestria, their unique skills will come in handy with helping the locals with their problems. After all, there doesn't exist a problem that guns can't fix.

Rainbow Dash's latest flying routine was interrupted by a sudden mountain, and Twilight can hardly sleep at night. No pony should be this excited to play with necromancy.

Edited by Deceased and JustAnotherTimeLord.

Cover art courtesy of pony-berserker.

Dramatic reading by WritingStylus

Polish translation by atom2004
Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi
Russian translation by NovemberDragon

Ten years ago, Twilight made the ultimate sacrifice in order to defeat Tirek. Equestria has been in a state of civil war ever since.

Canterlot has at last fallen, and the six heroes of the rebellion now go to face the ultimate challenge: defeating the godlike Twilight Sparkle. What they expect to be a brutal, hard won quest for glory and Equestria's salvation turns into something entirely different... and now they face a choice.

This story is a reaction piece against the Tyrant Sparkle trope.

Special thanks to Absolution for pre-reading and Danger Beans for proofreading.

Cover art credit: BluestreakFUS

Now with a Chinese Translation courtesy of Hellagur.