"Hey, you used to be Celestia's student, right? Did you know Sunset Shimmer?"

Twilight Sparkle is an expert in unicorn magic, but earth pony magic remains a mystery to her. The books in her library have very little information about the earth tribe's abilities, other than their famous strength. Twilight is determined to uncover their secrets.

What she learns will change her life.

And it just might change Applejack's life as well.

Featured on Equestria Daily.

For most of Applejack's life, she didn't know what she was. True, she understood who she was well enough.
But ponies don't change shapes, nor do they get strength from love.
Applejack never thought too hard on it... until the events of a certain wedding brought about some harsh realizations.
Now, with Equestria still reeling from the surprise attack, will Applejack manage to come to terms with what she is? Will she even be able to keep her secret safe?
For if the royal guards don't get her first, the conspirators in the shadows just might...

Image provided by Heilos -

This story is a sequel to A Mad Glimmer

The plan had been perfect, taking everything from Twilight Sparkle and trapping her in a no-win situation. Then Twilight showed Starlight the alleged consequences of her actions.

But there's a bit more to the story. Starlight Glimmer has paid a heavy price, but there's one more debt to call in.

After all, Discord doesn't make idle threats.

Story contains spoilers for the Season 5 finale, potentially disturbing imagery, and nuts. Story still does not contain Nikita Khrushchev or shoes.

The village had been perfect, free from the inequality and misery rampant throughout the rest of Equestria. Then Twilight Sparkle and her so-called friends arrived and ruined everything.

But all hope is not lost. Starlight Glimmer has a plan to restore her lost utopia on a much vaster scale.

After all, it's not like that purple princess was friends with anything worse.

Story contains spoilers for the Season 5 premiere, nonspecific allusions to torture, and nuts. Story does not contain Nikita Khruschev or shoes.

(This description is the description for the story I'm doing to try and retell this story. I had originally planned to rewrite it here but, now that I read the first chapter over, I realize it's changed enough that I am willing to consider it a new story. You can read what is done of this one, but remember that the description now only loosely talks about this story. Thank you).

The Siege of Canterlot, as it has gone down in the history books as, has left the changelings and their hive in a deep depression. They are running low on food, their numbers were only a percentage of what they had before, and the sanity of some of the drones in the hive has fallen so low as to warrant themselves going rogue and leaving the hive to its own defenses.

In order to try and combat this recession and apparent downfall of her beloved hive, Chrysalis, has deployed meetings to be held every three months, a meeting that involves all of the inhabitants of the hive. To get every crucial system within the hive back to full functionality and working order, mandatory jobs are to be given out at every one of these meetings to random drones.

While Hux and his friend Kui have avoided getting those jobs for some time now, they are eventually entrusted with their part towards the reconstruction of the hive after a little bit of a disturbance.

The mandatory, random jobs have sufficed the hive thus far, but during an unexpected encounter with their greatest enemy, the reconstruction plan may have just turned into the destruction plan.

As Twilight attempts to get Starlight Glimmer to see the error of her ways, Spike can't help but interject. If Starlight had a portal to take her to any place or any time, why fixate on one single event when she could accomplish so much more?

As it turns out, Starlight Glimmer has an answer. Several in fact.

Inspired by a conversation with the story's editor Tired Old Man.

Starlight took a chance and decided to give friendship a try once more. With nowhere else to go, she stays with Twilight. Being such a powerful magic user, Twilight doesn't feel like letting her go would be a good idea. But how much has Starlight really reformed? She spent much time following the purple pony princess. Perhaps she can use her understanding of the mare towards another end.

Art by BlackWater (me)

After several bloody years of war, we are about to defeat King Sombra. I almost wish we would have lost.

For years, Twilight Sparkle and Queen Chrysalis have been at each other's throats. Both have experienced victory over the other, and both have experienced defeat. Out of all the creatures in Equestria, none despise each other the way the pony Princess and changeling Queen do. They seemed destined to remain locked in battle forever, or at least until one is finally dead at the hooves of the other. The cruel insults, the vicious loathing, and the powerful spells that have passed back and forth between them at each meeting have become the stuff of legend.

Imagine Twilight's surprise when she finds out changelings consider this dating.

And now they're married.

***

Sequel: Pony Courtship Rituals

***

Some beautiful fanart of the end of chapter three was done by Dmann892; you can see it here.

More awesome fanart, this time from chapter one.

Now with a TvTropes page (obligatory TvTropes warning goes here).

If you want a Russian translation, you can find it here.

There is now a reading of the story on Youtube, which starts here.