Dobbin's been sneaking bites from the National Strategic Wheatgrass Reserve again ... and it finally occurs to his parole officer to wonder why Equestria has one. She asks Princess Celestia for the story.

It turns out there are some things ponies weren't meant to know.

A bunch of Writeoff Association authors got bored while waiting for the October 2015 prompt, and did a silly collaborative story jam on the Writeoff thread. This was the result. This story was co-written by myself, Georg, Not_A_Hat, CoffeeMinion, and Morning Sun, based on an unintentional prompt by Monokeras. (You can see who wrote what at the source thread.)

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Reviewed by City of Doors! (what)

Featured by Equestria Daily! (what)

Recommended by Present Perfect! "I'm with Parade Rest: What."

Long, long ago, the Age of Dragons ended in fire and ruin. The greatest of the dragons challenged the races of Equestria to prove themselves worthy to rule the next age.

The fast, the strong, and the clever all journeyed to answer his call … but sometimes true wisdom is found in the most unlikely of places.

★★★★★ rating from Louder Yay! "To create such a rich and evocative setting in barely a thousand words is deeply impressive. ... Clever, enjoyable and very well written."

Very Highly Recommended by MLPmatthewl419! "horizon accomplished the impossible to get this much world-building, feeling, and such wonderful characters with only 1k words … a deep and evocative story."

Highly Recommended by PresentPerfect! "With a great story and solid classic fable-style execution, this is a must-read."

Reviewed by PaulAsaran!

Third place in the Writeoff Association's "Just Over The Horizon" minific competition! Now revised and expanded for FIMFiction.

Three dark comedy finalists from The Writeoff Association's "It's Your Funeral" contest.

Dying for Attention: Trixie is late to her own funeral.

Celestia's Vacation: Luna covers for her sister's absence.

A Deal to Die For: Applejack goes coffin shopping.

The World Famous Flim Flam Brothers, having been forced to put their cider-making days behind them, have "collected" all of the rare and exotic creatures they've encountered during their travels in order to create a circus of mythology the likes of which has never been seen before! Spike, being the final addition to the show, must use everything he's learned from Twilight Sparkle in order to take back his freedom, rescue his comrades in captivity, and return home.

A big thanks to Bad_Seed_72 for pre-reading and editing!

"Every time these jokers get knocked out by a flailing unicorn or decide the best plan against a magic-sucking centaur is to fly towards his mouth, I'm the one who makes them look good anyway."

Publicity Stunt is the head of the Wonderbolts PR division. Her job isn't glamorous, or even easy, but it is one she is proud of. And once a week she gets to catch up Equestria's most famous flyers on rumors and news about them that show just how wild an imagination ponies can have.

An entry to Aragon's Comedy (Is Serious Business) Contest with the prompt "We Learned Something Newsworthy" and Manaphy's Wonderful Wonderbolts Contest.

Inspired by and the (unofficial) sequel to FanOfMostEverything's Team Cohesion.

Preread by GPizano and FOME himself.

Edit: Thanks to your efforts this story has now surpassed its rival. Huzzah!

Princess Celestia has been planning for this day for years: the return of Nightmare Moon, the restoration of the Elements of Harmony, and the ushering of Equestria into a new age of friendship and love. Now that it's finally arrived, all she has to do is wait for Twilight to get to Ponyville, make some friends, hunt down the Elements, and save the...

Wait, what'd that letter say?

She didn't get on the chariot?

She went to whose party instead?

Oh. Oh, this could be bad. And more importantly, it's gonna need some hooves-on interference from Celestia to get her master plan back on track. But it'll probably all work out in the end. After all, how big a deal could one party be?

Third-place finalist in Aragon's "Comedy (Is Serious Business)" contest

Hey there. Name's Discord. I'm the janitor at a high school. I clean up after bratty teenagers and the odd drama queen or two that turns into a demon and wrecks up the school. Ain't my job grand?

Birthday gift to my bro Skeeter The Lurker, a really rad dude everyone should check out!

Awesome art from the greatly talented ManiacPaint, who you should definitely check out for more good art!

"And here you'll see the statue of the Lord of Chaos, Discord, imprisoned in stone..."

A group of students from the School for Gifted Unicorns are given a chance to visit Celestia's royal garden and a curious filly decides to ask about a statue that's in their tour, where they all hear the story of how the spirit of chaos fell into a stone imprisonment for the third and final time.

Art by: Kabudragon

Upon Nightmare Moon's return, the leaders of other nations gather to discuss the situation.

They're not especially happy about it.

Cover art from the gallery of WingFlyte.

Spanish translation, by SPANIARD-KIWI. Russian translation, by Dark Room Collaboration.

This story is a sequel to If You Came to Conquer

Princess Nightmare Moon had tried to keep it secret. She had suppressed her power, feigned ignorance, played the outdated fool at every opportunity. She should have known that something like this would happen. A threat that would reveal her, whether she played dumb or not.

If she had to reveal herself, then at least she could protect Equestria in the process. She nocked the arrow. The bow felt so flimsy, but she could not risk him absorbing a spell. She laced magic across the arrow and the string and the air, enough to make it fly faster and aim smoother. She sighted him easily; Tirek was a large target. Now he only had to turn around. An arrow to the spine would kill him simply and instantly, no matter how much magic he had absorbed.

Once he was dead, the hard part would come: explaining herself to Celestia.

Prereading thanks; Meta Four, Blank!, Yami Vizzini, and especially Craine

Russian translation by Doof
Chinese Translation by Dreams Set Free

Comments contain spoilers.