Whilst enjoying the company of Twilight Sparkle and her friends in the doughnut shop immediately following the events of The Best Night Ever a disappointed Princess Celestia send a letter off to Prince Blueblood explaining the implications of his failure of the "Rarity Test", among other things...

When your life is as dull a gray as the world that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color -- or six -- to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

*6-16-2017 Edit, added Rainbow Dash tag because it triggered knighty.*

Fluttershy's kindness to all creatures is legendary in Ponyville. When a freak storm blows in from the Everfree Forest, however, she and her friends discover the limits of compassion, and the dangers of living with your heart wide open to the world.

This story is a sequel to In the Eye of the Storm

A half-remembered dream leads Twilight Sparkle to test a new "window" spell by looking at an alternate Equestria. What she sees there will lead her and her friend Princess Luna into adventures they had never imagined possible. A season one fic.
As featured on Equestria Daily.

This is technically a sequel to In the Eye of the Storm as it's using the same versions of Twilight and Luna, but you can absolutely read this story without having read that first.

I began writing this story during season 1. I've updated some things to reflect canon changes in season 2, however at that point I decided that having to constantly go back and change things every time something new happened on the show just wasn't going to work, so the story ignores most of season 2, and everything from season 3 onward.

This story owes much of its quality to Jordanis, who is practically the co-author at this point.

Princess Luna is slowly recovering from her thousand year exile. Meanwhile on another world entirely Princess Elspeth of Valdemar is trying a new sort of portal spell, which will eventually turn Luna's world upside down. Now she has to face her past and choose her future, all the while dealing with the excitement, adventure, danger, and Pinkie Pie parties.

As featured on Equestria Daily.

Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar meets Friendship is Magic. Although you do not have to be a huge Valdemar fan to understand and enjoy the story!

If you liked this, you might also enjoy the technically-a-sequel-story, The Spark to Light a Candle.

Cover pic by Vermin06