Today is Princess Twilight Sparkle’s 500th birthday, and her most faithful student, an earth pony with a familiar name, can’t wait to celebrate!

Notes:
- Cover art by ErinKarsath, used with permission. Check out her DeviantArt page.
- This is a story in the Birthdayverse, and you can find the sequel here.
- Many thanks to my faithful Pre-Reader and all around super-duper best pony, Blood Lord. Go read his story, too!
- This was written during the season 3 hiatus of MLP:FiM.

It had been on the news and in the papers; The Equestria Games Tragedy was what they were calling it. Dream Chaser, the star racer from Manehatten, was found barely alive in the Crystal Empire Stadium's locker room. Through magic and medicine, they saved his life, but they couldn't repair the damage done to his legs. With his career over, what would become of him?

Canceled. Still want to know how it ends?
What would have been.

It's a perfect day in the life of Twilight Sparkle. Ponyville's chief librarian has everything she wants: her books, her studies, a faithful dragon assistant, and the opportunity to go visit Sugarcube Corner on a beautiful afternoon, hanging out with the best friends that a young unicorn could ever ask for.

And yet, in spite of all this, Twilight has the distinct feeling that something is missing...

Macabre has spent the majority of his life locked up and hidden away for demonstrating his special talent. With his cutie marks obscured by scars and his horn completely removed, he is known as a Marked One. When Twilight Sparkle learns of the Marked Ones, she aims to rehabilitate them, and find uses for their unsavory talents, starting with Macabre. To her, he's just an unfortunate, misunderstood pony. To him, she is everything.

Special thanks to enti0 for the cover art!

It's Summer vacation for the school aged of Ponyville, and the children of the Mane Six are looking forward to it.

Inspired by kilala97's awesome artwork. Check it out! Click pic source link.

Twilight Sparkle's imagination as a child was unbelievable, probably due to all those books. Which also make up the amazing Fort Book, Twilightopia's first stronghold against the country of Armor! With the help of Captain Smartypants and Private Cadence, General Twilight defends her fort against her brother's advancing army of one!
A tale of Twi's childhood told from her point of view.

Inspired by the cover picture.

You'd think that being trapped in stone would mean that, if nothing else, I could get some peace and quiet. Unfortunately, it seems that Celestia has other ideas.

She has appointed these ponies... these 'Keepers', as she calls them, to keep me entertained during my incarceration.

Honestly? I'd prefer the boredom.

Cover art by matrosha123
Spanish Translation by SPANIARD KIWI found here

Canterlot... For centuries, Canterlot was the shining gem of Equestria, the pinnacle of pony society. Now, it’s a reminder, a bleak and monolithic warning to the world. 

Changed by the chemical and technological poisons that plague the mountain, an abomination of nature, I wander the greatest disaster Equestria has ever seen. 

... I will escape eventually, and when I do, I hope my friends still see me as Twilight Sparkle, and not the monster that hides among the ruins. 

It was a night that will forever be burned into the memories of everypony. One fateful night in Equestria everything changed. The princesses who had ruled over the world with kindness and heart were gone, and a new ruler had taken their place.
Years have passed since that event. Ponies have grown up, aged, and moved on with their lives. Equestria has become a very different place over the span of these years.
Our story begins when a face resurfaces in Equestria. When a weathered, scarred, but familiar face steps into the light.

This is the fanfic based on Astringe's Bad Future series on DeviantART. He did some great designs of the characters, so make sure you give that gallery a peruse before you read the fic.

Also worth mentioning, he's been nice enough to plop any pics he does based on chapters I've written into this separate gallery, so there will be less spoilers for readers just jumping in to the story.

NOTE: The canon of my story picks up at the start of Season 3, where it begins to diverge away from the canon of the show. I've never read the IDW comics nor have I seen Equestria Girls, so the events of my story aren't canon at all with them.

Now has it's own TVTropes page!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/BadFutureCrusaders

As Twilight Sparkle awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, she found she had been turned into a changeling.

How has she become a changeling? How will she adapt? How will her friends respond? And what new terrors will her metamorphosis bring?

Cover image by the fantastic Carnifex... or Siansaar... I can't tell which. You can find more wonderful works here: http://siansaar.deviantart.com/

EDIT: Featured... nearing 1000 Favorites... multiple pages of comments (swoons)

Thanks for everything guys. I never expected this thing to get so popular. I need to rework the second chapter, but it looks like there's going to be a blue moon every Friday for a while yet. Thanks again for your support and please keep reading and reviewing!

EDIT2: I've updated the character list again, a little preview of the second story arc...

EDIT 3: Just doing a quick character update to account for changes made to the next Arc...