This story is a sequel to Too Close to the Sun

"I have experienced a change. For the first time in many years, I find myself uncertain of what step to take next. I am not one to be so perturbed, but here I stand- as unsure and inexperienced as a young girl.

I have... a companion. A champion to call my own. In all my years I have stood alone, yet now I have a hand to hold in the darkness. It is... difficult to know whether or not I have made a wise decision.

Recently I discovered this journal, a gift from dear Luna that has been left untouched until now. I believe that I will, for the time being, use this diary to record my thoughts on the matter. Perhaps this will help clear my mind."

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She's a princess. If not THE Princess. You know- the ruler of Equestria, keeper of the sun, most powerful being on earth, all that jazz.
It's not your fault she's also unbelievably, irrefutably, incomparably gorgeous.

But it was your fault that she overheard you saying just that. Oh yeah, it really was. And let me just tell you something:

To let that happen was really freakin' stupid.

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!!Woo, featured on 16.10.2018!! Thanks everyone.

It was supposed to be simple. After drone 200234 learned about the incoming invasion into ponyland's capital city of ponytown, or whatever the thing was called, his only dream consisted of finding a pony to suck (that's what we do, right?). Changeling drones normally don't own anything, nor are they allowed to take love on their own from captured prisoners, that is for infiltrators or warriors (smug buggers). Anyway, a drone's job is to do what it's told. So, this little guy ended up in a much unwanted position of leadership.

How? Well, it started like this...

(Suggestions or any comments are always welcome.)
AU - added AU tag for the origin of changelings story.

Twilight has a secret coltfriend who nobody knows about.  Not even her.

And he’s not too sure either.

Then Luna gets involved, and it only gets weirder.

Editors: Tek, Mitch H, Airy Words
Cover photo: Getty images

Princess Cadance, just like everypony else, needs some time of leisure from her many duties. While Shining Armor is taking care of their daughter, Cadance enjoys her lone trips to the nearby Nephrite Forest, where she can be away from all of her burdens and obligations for at least a short while.

She was simply destined to get mugged eventually, wasn’t she? Why not by somepony who takes his job very seriously.

Also available in Mandarin Chinese (translation by keplebletbett) and Spanish (translation by SPANIARD KIWI).

"It's not easy to be the bad guy. Sometimes you've got to raise towers of iron and magic in a testament to your power. Sometimes you've got to blanket the land in black flame just to uphold idle threats. And sometimes you've got to remind a filly that she is grounded - that's right, I mean you, missy. Don't give me that look, you've got homework to do."
- Excerpt from An Interview With Lord Ironblood.

Forgath Ironblood is a man who values power and might. He spent untold years developing his dark magics, and years more using ice and iron and balefire to claim and rule his domain. But it didn't last; a group of bold and plucky rebels broke into his inner sanctum and unleashed a magic he was unprepared for, a magic that cast him into the void between worlds. At that point, he was no longer their problem and the peasants rejoiced.

The world he fell into, however, was another story. It was a world rich in magic. A world full of innocents. A world he could bend to his will and carve a new domain out of.

He never knew what hit him.

Idea adopted from Whiskylullaby, as seen here, written entirely for the fun of it.

Chapters are dated for the reader's convenience; BNM for "Before Nightmare Moon", and AB for "After Banishment".

After the Friendship Games, Sunset feels it's time to return home.

Only when she gets there, Twilight's castle is nowhere to be found, Cadance just got her horn, and Princess Celestia is still calling the bacon-haired pony her prized student rather than a failed one. And just reliving her past isn't on the table thanks to a pair of wings Sunset seems to have sprouted upon her return to Equestria.

With Sunset being back before she's supposed to, will the world stay as harmonious and on track, or will everything go down in flames as Sunset has to deal with allegations that she's really a changeling in disguise, a nerdy stallion with blue hair that wants to be her coltfriend, a pretty pink princess in need of remedial magic lessons, and an annoying purple pre-teen pony that will absolutely not go to bed without first being read Starswirl's Complete Mystical Mysteries Compendium?

Only time will tell

I like to think of the Company as an island of order and sanity in a sea of chaos, selfishness and irrationality. My fellow soldiers tell me I'm a damn foal, and an idealist, and I white-wash the mercenaries of the Black Company in ways that doesn't serve either the Company or them. But I've been given the role of Annalist, in the absence of anyone better-suited and properly lettered, so until they take the Annals away from me, I'm going to write them as I see fit. The Company has been my home since it forcefully recruited me from my unending apprenticeship, and I've seen more interesting medicine in the years since then than a hundred apothecaries, a dozen chirurgeons, or three other doctors with, pfft, "degrees". Most of it screaming for its mama and bleeding out on my surgery table.

They call me Sawbones, and this is the story of the last of the Black Companies.