The nice thing about living in Appleloosa, Gilda has discovered, is that you don't have to share the skies with anyone else. There may not be many clouds in the sky for perching and napping, but a warm rock on a high pinnacle can work just as well.

The locals are at least tolerable. Earth ponies tend to be a simple, predictable bunch, prone to routine.

It's when you get out-of-towners coming through, though, that problems can erupt. Especially when too much hard cider is involved.

Part of Equestria Daily's Outside Insight Fanfic Contest.

Reviewed by InquisitorM (review one | review two) , PresentPerfect, Cerulean Voice, Seattle's Angels, and Ponyfic Roundup 231

Thanks to Stitchwolf for the beta read and edits.
Thanks to Wargame Brony for the beta read and edits.
A very special thanks to Chuck Finley for assistance with some of the slurs and insults bandied about during this piece.
Thumbnail is a cropped version of an image by Toki Reatle on deviant art.

Once upon a time on a rock farm, two sisters bond over a piece of geometry.
Written for tau day (τ = 2π = 6.28) following a suggestion from Walabio

Ponies gravitate toward Twilight. Through charisma or just getting thrown together by circumstance, she's gained a lot of friends, but when has she ever simply walked up to a pony and said, "I'd like to be your friend"? Time for the Princess of Friendship to fix that.

Featured on Equestria Daily!

Twelve scenes from the many lives of Rainbow Dash, inspired by the songs from Baths' Cerulean. Best enjoyed while listening along to the album.

(Thanks to Fluttersyke, And the Rainfall, and HarryMess for pre-reading, RoughBacon for the cover art, and Baths for the wonderful music.)

Dramatic reading by presentperfect!

Retrograde amnesia is temporary or permanent loss of memory.

Anterograde amnesia is the temporary or permanent loss of the ability to form memories.

Twilight Sparkle now suffers from the latter of the two. Yet nevertheless, her saddlebag continues to increase in weight, filling up with scribbled-down postulations, warnings of the most unsavory kind, trinkets resplendent with lost meaning, and notes detailing a morning that she will never remember. Does she have the ability unveil the truth with evidence and a steel-trap mind in spite of a severe head injury?

If you wish to avoid spoilers and solve the mystery without the assistance of another, I would recommend you avoid the comments section. I would appreciate it if people left untagged spoilers out of the comment section, but since I know that I cannot enforce that, it's better to assume that every single comment is a spoiler.

(Rated T for language use)
The Most Dangerous Contest Entry

Loyalty is not failing to run away, but rather running together in the same direction.

Twilight wakes in the middle of the night, haunted by a terrifying dream—one that's not so hard to see coming true. One that whispers of a grand destiny awaiting her as a reward for all her hard work, discipline, and noble sacrifice.

But what if she doesn't want a grand destiny?

This story is a sequel to Dragonshyness

Four years ago, Fluttershy reached out hoping to make a friend, and instead was abused by a stranger. In response, she withdrew into herself, shutting out the rest of the world. Now she has some friends, but she still fears most strangers, because she never understood what happened to her when she was a teenager. She wishes she could be less afraid of other Ponies, but how can she when she knows that she was rejected for her own lack of merit?

Maybe she'll kill herself. That would be terrible.

Or maybe, with a little help from Rarity, something entirely different will happen.

This takes place around the 1st of October, YOH 1500 and is canon to the Shadow Wars, being part of the Flutterarc. It may also be considered an unofficial sequel to Bad Horse's excellent (and horribly logical) Fluttershy's Night Out, which in this timeline may be assumed to have taken place in YOH 1496. Fluttershy was 16 then, and is 20 now.

In connection to the main TV series, this would be taking place between the start and the end of "Fall Weather Friends" (which is one of the reasons why Rarity is the friend in whom Fluttershy chooses to confide, as Rainbow Dash is in training). It would take place before "Call of the Cutie," which in turn takes place before Fluttershy Is Free.

(Yes, I flipped the order of "Fall Weather Friends" and "Winter Wrap-Up" -- if I didn't, I'd have to assume that the first three seasons covered 5, instead of 4 years).

Its direct sequel in the Flutterarc is Fluttershy Is Free.

Now has its own TV Tropes page!

Twilight receives another visit from Future Twilight Sparkle, who speaks only in questions. Present Twilight attempts to deduce the reason for her future counterpart's vagueness - and the reason for her visit.