It's the 749th year of the hero program and what a class it is! Everycreature here wants to become a hero for various reasons, but will they make it? The program is grueling and not for the faint of heart. These are their stories in a world of eternal darkness, where every filly and colt dream of being a hero, of protecting their Queen.

Part of the Dark Road universe.

Twilight Sparkle, a studious unicorn and faithful protégé of Imperatrix Celestia, discovers a disturbing prophecy during her studies. Her curiosity leads her down a path of uncovering a deep and hidden mystery from Equestria's past.

With her sense of duty, Twilight must also juggle the responsibility of organizing the Summer Sun Celebration and her own social awkwardness as she learns about the ponies in Ponyville. Will she be able to balance it all and uncover the truth before it's too late?

XCOM Record: Operation: Rising Star
11:52 am, 18th Febuary, 2016
Northwestern Territories, Canada.

Summary: Witness reports contact with extra-terrestrial creature. X-ray is unconcious and unresponsive. X-ray does not match description of previously observed species.

Response: Strike-One dispatched on high alert, orders are to recover X-ray alive. Alien Containment prepared for the new arrival.

***

The war ended. They were beaten back, their mothership destroyed, their command structure in ruins. Lost ships and soldiers continued in vain, but thanks to XCOM, humanity won, and the world was saved. The Volunteer saw to that - everything changed because of one man.

And then suddenly, everything changed again. Only this time, it's not a man's doing - it's a mare's.

Proofreading by the aweome Setokaiva, entirely without me asking!
Tagged Dark and rated Teen: Gore, because there is going to be some blood shed by the end of this.

When Luna first fell, and became Nightmare Moon, her mind split. Her memories shattered like glass, and were stitched back together. And when Nightmare Moon was defeated by the new bearers of Harmony, the fragile balance that had been crafted vanished, like a puff of smoke. While Luna, the pony everypony else knows and sees, may be fine, the rest of her, the majority of her, is still fractured, still broken.
It's going to take help from everypony who can help, both those closest to Luna, if they ever find out, and those trapped in her mind, if they can ever escape.

This is a total rewrite of my previous story by the same name. I've taken that one down and am separating this one so it can stand alone, and earn its own place. Stargazing Together was my most well known story, and I want this version of it, which hopefully you all will agree is better, to have a chance to be something else, not tied up by the expectations of the other story.

Cover art is by the wonderful TehJadeh on DeviantArt, used with permission.

5000 years ago, the alicorns invaded the planet for the first time. 1000 years ago, the celestial alicorn sisters staked their claim over the pony tribes. Then the Everfree burned, and now the Empress of Equestria rules alone. Celestia may reign, but she does not rest, for ever are there terrors lurking: Things great, ancient, and inapproachable, older than the alicorns.

It is an age of great advancements in Equestria. Gunpowder, oceanic trade, and new ideologies have shifted the balance of power and pony attitudes to the powers that be. The alicorn ordained hierarchy is challenged daily, as bitterness grow between the insecure knights and nobles, and the resentful burghers and commoners. Though many speak as though as if the Equestrian universal peace is already a dead letter, desperate reformers fight their own battle to preserve their princess's empire.

But it is not by mortal striving alone that the wheel of history is turned. The supernatural adversaries of Celestia's reign have returned at last, to conquer ponykind for themselves. Nightmares return to stalk under moonlit skies, but they are just the first and do not even bear the deepest grudge.

In an age of growing crisis, will the ponies be found wanting? Will the princess herself be found wanting? Will naked ambition, arrogance, and evil shatter the very concord of the tribes? It is a fraught time to live, where the pony world faces both peril and possibility. The ponies, the alicorns, the monsters- all have but one goal, to survive and see the world remade to their desires.

Twilight Velvet has lived in this changing world long enough to despise it, while Twilight Sparkle is just coming of age in it. Shining Armor thought he found his place but discovers all is not as it seems. This pony family, divided by duty, may effect the world more than the even their alicorn sovereign, if they can survive being close to power. Surely fighting ponies and monsters alike is worth it when there is a nation and a future to win.

Author's warnings: This story has many original characters, a fairly complex plot and lore, and is very long. A story that started as me trying to write Game of Thrones with MLP ponies has grown up with me and has come to include many of my interests in political philosophy and history. I'm committed to finishing it before taking what I learned and writing this story in its own setting, however long that takes.

Luna and Twilight are sunk into a fractured, feudal world, where the knowledge of magic is lost. Penniless and depleted, they're forced into playing by other ponies' rules, all the while trying to discover even where home is.

For as long as anypony can remember, the known world has been divided into three great nations, each keeping the other in check. But at the centre of them all lies the peaceful Everfree Glades, where ponies have only ever lived in harmony in spite of the larger domains that surround them. In the quiet village of Ponyville, a young mare named Twilight Sparkle dreams of a day when all peoples can be as one.

It is three months after the Royal Wedding, and normalcy has returned to Equestria... for the most part. Pinkie is the same old Pinkie, Rainbow Dash is still addicted to the Wonderbolts, Rarity is still trying to learn Prench... but for Twilight, things are not the same. Ever since the Wedding, she's noticed an almost unnoticeable distance from her friends and from Celestia. This alone would be enough to bother her, but to make matters worse, she has been tormented by a dream that she cannot remember and physically cannot rest for fear of.

The tension is building, and something is bound to snap. If you've felt death and loneliness... what would you do to keep your loved ones from suffering the same fate?

Hello, this is your author speaking.
I know you're anxious to get to reading the story with the cryptic description would just like to point out a couple things before you get reading.

First of all, this is my first MLP fanfic, and it is set as an AU beginning just after the S2 finale, so I would appreciate constructive criticism. Not flaming or silent downvotes; give me criticism!
Secondly, it is important to understand that the AU tag seen above possesses two meanings. Not only is it an AU in the literal sense as it utilizes my own expansive worldcanon (dubbed Nidus) but in addition to that, it is an AU in that it does not accept the events of season three as canon. This is due to it chronologically beginning only 3 months after season two. The events of season three may appear, but they will likely be warped.
Lastly, I need to point out that I will probably be editing the tags and characters as this story goes. This being my first story, I'll need time to get a handle on the nuances of the submission system.
Thirdly, Please tell me if any of the fonts I use in the story go wrong. There are bound to be a few errors even with my prereading, so if you find them do say something.
Finally, I'd like to thank RoseyTail for her permission to use this marvelous image as my cover.

Thank you, and enjoy the story of Dark Horizons.

This Story undergoing Rewrite

A freak accident leaves Princess Twilight Sparkle blind. With magic unable to help her see again she is resigned to her fate as a shadow of her former self.

Sadness and depression strike hard and fast nearly every day. But luckily for the disable princess, she may stumble across an organisation that could help her to see again. But miracles don't come freely, fortunately, she may have a guardian watching over her.

:: ORIGINAL VERSION FEATURED 9/6/2014::

This story is a sequel to The Moon and her Star

Twilight and her mother, Luna, return from the moon a year early and though Celestia is suspicious at first she eventually welcomes her sister back and her new niece with open hooves. However, not everyone is so welcoming. Twilight and Luna's relationship is tested time and time again as disaster after disaster stricks Equestria. Will their bond be able to survive, or will it shatter like glass?

Art by littlewashu45

Edit: Made #1 featured on 7/24/18