Every year, a funeral is held for Celestia’s dearly departed daughter, Aurora. Every year Aurora grapples with the consequences of facing her mother and the public eye once again.

Rated T for themes of death - albeit lightly touched on. Constructive criticism is always encouraged.

On a dark night filled with even darker magics, an insane cult attempts to give Nightmare Moon a body and life of her own, utterly separate from Princess Luna. But, when the spell is interrupted by Celestia, something unexpected is created.

Now, a little black alicorn filly named Nyx finds herself living under the care of Twilight Sparkle, only to be haunted by memories and emotions from her past. Is she Nightmare Moon reborn or is she simply a doppelganger with a soul and mind of her own? Can Twilight Sparkle protect Nyx from those who refuse to see past her dragon eyes and black coat?

Or, will Nyx be forced to inherit the sins that may not even be hers and become the greatest evil Equestria has ever known?

After the Elements free her from Nightmare Moon, Luna asks Celestia, "What happened to my daughters?"

Celestia escorts Luna to the Canterlot Sculpture Gardens and shows her the Reliquary of the Heroes.

Under the statues of her millennium-dead daughters, Luna learns how they lived in the shadow of Nightmare Moon's treason, and how they died as glorious heroes of Equestria.

Sequel: With Her Majesty's Coast Guard.

Recommendsday!

Content warning: Pandemic. Note that this was published before current events.

Luna is on a mission and she will not rest until her mission is completed. Her objective?

To snuggle with her big sister.

Gallus doesn't want to go home for summer. With a little gentle persuasion, he gets his friends on board to keep him out of Griffonstone, though none of them are quite sure how to do it; that is, until Silverstream hatches a scheme.

All he has to do is join the Hippogriff Navy. It's not the relaxing summer away from school that he hoped for, but hey, it promises to be interesting! Who knows what three months as a sailor could bring?

Adventure? Certainly.

Self-discovery? For sure.

A sea battle with a band of renegade pirates? Anything's possible.

Romance?

Pssh. Yeah, right.

Edited by a crew of scallywags who mean the world to me. In no particular order: MissyTheAngle, Freglz, Muggonny, Semillon, FamousLastWords

Special thanks to Pascoite for his assistance.

Cover art commissioned from the incomparable Marenlicious!

Curious about how the next chapter is coming along? Check my user page for regularly updated progress reports!

This story is a sequel to A Day for Family

Friends and Family Day has come and gone, leaving behind both many happy families with a plethora of newly-forged, long-lasting memories, and one exhausted griffon with a multitude of hauntingly bad memories that he would rather forget.

Of course, he also made quite a lot of good memories as well. Funnily enough, almost all of them focus on a certain pink hippogriff. These are memories he wouldn't trade for the world.

Unfortunately, it's never really that easy even if Gallus wishes it would be. So while he may be in a far better place than he was before, he's still far from being as well as he could or wants to be.

Luckily, he has a great number of others, willing to stand by his side to help him heal. His teachers... His friends... Silverstream... All of the ones that he loves are standing with him as he makes his journey toward serenity. And while that long, arduous journey is still his to walk...

He doesn't have to walk it alone.

WARNING: Though the Suicide Tag is included, the act itself does NOT occur! In fact, it is added specifically because of Chapter Nine - and ONLY Chapter Nine - where the topic is brought up and discussed briefly.

All other chapters are devoid of any major discussions of the subject matter.

EDIT: Apparently, as of 1/15/2021, this story got featured! Thank you, everyone, so, so much for this! It really means a lot!

EDIT(8/18/2021): Much thanks to Johnerose126 for being awesome and gracing us with a brand new cover art!

Here's the link to the Cover version: https://www.deviantart.com/johnerose126/art/The-Bonds-of-Love-COVER-889056152

The full image version: https://www.deviantart.com/johnerose126/art/The-Bonds-of-Love-889054653

And Johnerose126's DeviantArt account: https://www.deviantart.com/johnerose126

Now go give them some love!

For anyone interested, the original cover art was found via Google Images; here's the link to it: https://www.deviantart.com/ejlightning007arts/art/Gallus-and-Silverstream-773813568

This story is a sequel to Seven Years

Family had always been a strange notion to Princess Skyla, and anypony who knew her history would never wonder why the filly had such a vague grasp of the concept. Every memory she had of her family was tainted and dark, the photographs of her life smeared and marred by the decisions made by her mother and father, and she couldn't remember a time when she could even think about the word "family" without a black veil of disgust and sadness drawing over her heart. As such, family was never something that Skyla had ever given much thought, unless it was how she was going to get away from them.

Now, however, family is all Skyla can think about. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor have welcomed her with open hooves into their home, and their daughter, Princess Flurry Heart, is overjoyed to suddenly have a "big sister" to learn about and play with. She hasn't been officially crowned a Princess yet, but despite that the whole of the Kingdom is abuzz with news of her, and all of the Princesses of Equestria have all set aside time to come and see her for themselves...

...but try as she might, Skyla can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. Not with anypony else... but with her. She doesn't know how family is supposed to act around each other when they're not trying to scheme and stab you in the back; she has no earthly idea how sisters are supposed to behave around one another, or how a mother and daughter are actually supposed to talk to one another in normal, every day situations. She's a mess, with her heart and head all tangled up in knots that may never come undone -- and that's even before the nightmares start.

Flurry Heart, however, isn't about to give up on her, and with a little bit of help from a lot of different ponies, she'll work hard to show Skyla that a family isn't about the blood that you share, but about the bonds that you forge.

It takes a certain kind of pony to become a personal servant to the princesses. One must have patience, grace, a clever head, and be a problem solver.

Dapper Dash is one such pony.

Although skeptical about the idea of having a personal butler, Dapper Dash soon proves he is anything but an ordinary butler. While most ponies would be rattled or nervous around Celestia and Luna, he seems to be calm, and even managing to keep up with them.

He's a true gentlecolt, and not only that, he is quite the learned stallion, impressing even princesses. Clearly he is more than than he seems, but not much is known about him. With the drama around the palace it may be good to have an ally that can think on his hooves.

After all, a butler is there to make life easier for their charges.

Big thanks to Hoodwinked MCShelster for the amazing cover art! Really love how it turned out! ^^

Twilight Sparkle is called to Canterlot Castle where something has happened to Princess Luna that has reverted her to a weakened state, she has to live with Twilight whilst she recuperates her magic.

Set during Season 5.

Twilight has finally settled down in her new home. She is happy and has returned to her normal routine. One day, however, Celestia assigns her a royal guard. Twilight is not happy about having a guard. But an event forces her to change her views and learn just what a royal guard is and what it entails.