She is as beautiful and graceful as the moon, and just as hard to reach. He is a young artist with much to learn about the world. When he accepts her challenge to create an artistic masterpiece, will he win her heart, or learn a terrible lesson in the nature of beauty and love?

"It's so nice to see you again!" said the thing that was not Celestia. "Oh yes, I know who you are, Twilight Sparkle. I had a taste of your magic the first time we met. Mortals forget things so easily, I find. Allow me to refresh your memory: you tried to kill me. But you failed, Twilight Sparkle. You only mostly killed me. And I guess that makes you one very unlucky little pony."

Twilight is invited to Canterlot to compete with some of the greatest magicians in the world for the Moonstone Cup, a prestigious award for the most powerful and skillful magicians, unicorn and otherwise. Can she win? What sort of competition will she face?

Awesome cover image was taken from NoOneBahtim

After Dashie's disappearance, her dad ("daddy") desperately tries to find a way to get her back. He tries everything, but nothing seems to work. After months of research, he finds a solution. Or rather, the solution finds him. He realizes that his life is pointless without his daughter. A visitor from another dimension? Why not? The plot thickens...

Rainbow Dash is a headstrong, athletic pony who is utterly faithful to her friends and doesn't keep any secrets from them. Or so she pretends. Yet a surprise visit from Twilight Sparkle is about to blow the secret wide open, and the multi-hued pegasus will find out just how strong their friendship is.

Note: This story was written in the week following the airing of "May The Best Pet Win", and well before "Read It and Weep" was even known about. As such it haws since been overtaken by canon, but most folk tend to like it still so I will upload it here so I have a bit of a presence on FIMfiction beyond "lurker #347,921".

This story also includes "The Unrelated Epilogue" which is a mini-story based on a loose bit in the main one that I felt did not stand on its own, but that I wanted up nonetheless. It has Luna, but not RD or TS.
Cover image is a screencap from the show.

Twilight wakes up with a serious head-ache caused by her horn spontaneously growing due to a sudden increase in her magical power. Nopony seems to have an answer for it, but it has attracted the attention of an unusually powerful militant foreign nation intent on her capture and execution. When a string of events lands Twilight before Celestia's father himself he tasks her and her newfound magic with tying up some loose ends he'd left behind long ago, ultimately connecting with this foreign nation's goals. With their powerful enemy baring down on Equestria, intent on taking it in a stranglehold, Twilight and her friends have little other choice than to travel the world and hunt for the rest of Celestia's family and end several thousands of years worth of feuding to prevent the war coming to Equestria before they themselves are caught.

Image Picture by Lostzilla of DeviantArt.
(find him yourselves)

Ech is a whiny bitch, but he helped edit a little I guess. (you too bats)

With each others help, Spike and Gilda fight to find their place in a world that will not accept them.

Credit: Larince, Newer, Varanus, DPV, and Mad Brochacho
A more classical approach to the noir genre, Mad Brochacho's "On the Docks": http://www.fimfiction.net/story/6590/On-the-Docks
Heralded as the greatest Twilestia around and more, Varanus' "Composure": http://www.fimfiction.net/story/5623/Composure

Thank you to all my readers.

Pinwheel is a simple earth pony. She lives in a little cottage outside Sweet Apple Acres, she makes pinwheels for a living, and she has plenty of friends. But one day, when she goes flying with her good pegasus pal Dizzy, she takes a fall and lands in the dark crossroads between life and death! If that's not bad enough, the Grim Reaper is forcing her to bargain for her life! And what will she do when that bargain takes a somewhat more...personal turn?

This is the story of the end. This is the story of the death of Equestria. It is the story of the reign of her royal majesty, Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Fading Sun.

The alicorn sisters are dead and Equestria has turned to Twilight Sparkle to guide it. However, just maintaining a dim sun a fraction as bright as her mentor's keeps the new princess near her limits.

Years have passed and Twilight Sparkle is sure of only one thing. Equestria is dying.

NOTE: Written before "It's about Time" in season 2. Everything after "Read it and Weep" was ignored throughout this story.

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.*