And lo, the hero did find the sword, and having found the magnificent, beautiful, most perfect weapon of the ages, the hero did set forth to roam the earth while bearing the sword, much to the dismay of alicorns and harmonious creatures everywhere. So began the adventures of the handsome, perfect sword and his wacky kensai puppy.

"Shut up, Limey, and stop narrating!"

And thus, Shēdo did began arguing with the narrator, much to the dismay of the narrator himself. Dirty pool, Shēdo, dirty pool. It's bad form to argue with the narrator as the story is being told.

"Shut up!"

Lo... hey, waitaminute! Shēdo! We've become an entry in the Weedverse.

"Limey, some of the things you say are very troubling."

A bit of stupid fun background info.

When Rainbow Dash agrees to temporarily care for an abandoned foal, she ends up getting more than she bargained for. Under the scrutiny of the public eye, Rainbow Dash has to try and bring up little Taboo right.

This story is a sequel to The Witching Hour

Midnight Storm has had one heck of a year. She's gone from being a wandering outcast to a respected and liked member of the community of Ponyville, a captain of a secret guard created by Celestia herself, and even a mother.

That was last year.
This year she'll have to deal with chaos entities, rogue dragons, and her past. And that's all just before Nightmare Night!

Follow Midnight and her friends and family as they chart their way through one life changing event after another in part 2 of The Witching Hour!

Cover Image by Valkyrie Girl

Midnight Storm has had a hard life. She's wandered from city to city for the past three years, and they've all eventually run her out after they've found out what she is. Against her better judgement, she's placed her last hopes on the small town of Ponyville.

The residents here are nice enough, but when they find out what she really is, will they accept her, or drive her out like all the others? And when Celestia finds out about her, what plans does the Princess of the Sun have in store for the mare?

Cover image by Valkyrie-girl

Story now included in The Goodfic Bin

This story is a sequel to The Life and Times of a Winning Pony

Cloud Kicker's life has been going just about perfectly. She's got a good job, two beautiful girlfriends, and she's never been on better terms with her friends. She's even getting more time with her family now that her cousin is serving as Princess Twilight Sparkle's personal bodyguard. She made mistakes in her past, but now all of that is over and she's earned her happily ever after.

Or at least, that was what she thought. Little does she know that her new life is about to start getting very complicated.

Diplomacy has failed. Six years have passed Equestria's crowning of the princess of friendship, ushering in a supposed unprecedented age of peace and harmony. The concept of warfare is, to most ponies, nothing more than an unfathomable legend. They have let their guard down.

An unknown enemy has seized the opportunity to attack Equestria with terrifying new weapons of war, bent on taking the fertile land and restoring an ancient order. The valiant efforts of the Royal Guard have given Princess Twilight and her arcane scientists time to research and develop a response to their attackers, and the time has come for that response to be implemented. Utilizing weapons and tactics borrowed from another world, five squads under the command of Princess Luna will infiltrate the forests of the Equestrian Northwest to destroy a revolutionary magical matrix that Twilight refers to as the "radio" - a tool that allows enemy ponies to communicate across vast distances instantly.

Nightmare Two is comprised of three foalhood friends who, rather than be separated from each other in the draft, volunteer to become one of the five Nightmare squads. With their bodies forever altered to suit the needs of their mission, the three young mares join legions of ponies armed with powerful weapons to partake in a horrifying new breed of warfare - Equestria's first in over one thousand years.

--

Heads up, folks. If you wouldn't mind leaving a comment alongside the thumbs-down, I'd appreciate it. This is my first foray into fan fiction and although it's a hobby I nonetheless wish to get better. :)

Got some FAQ's for you guys as well!

- Alternate universe in which the events of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" did not occur. (As much as I loved it! :D)

- Numerical age tends to vary with headcanon, but the CMC here were just getting started with their adult lives when the draft went into effect.

- The war is pony v. pony, utilizing firearms and the Equestrian equivalent of a tank. The underlying headcanon is that ponies used firearms similar to muskets and tracked armored vehicles akin to our tanks in times of old, and what the enemy currently employs is essentially the natural progression of these technologies.

- There are no real-world weapons or equipment i.e. "Panzer IV," or "M16 assault rifle." Particularly acute details such as the caliber of weapons are also absent.

- Technology is based on that of WWI with some WWII elements. Firearms are primarily bolt-action.

- The "radio" spell matrix functions as what we know to be a radio, but is not identical.

- All four of a Night Mare's legs are permanently replaced by the augments.

- Night Mares are female. Stallions proved unable to properly animate the limbs.

--

Hold up, now - fanart? You guys rock. Like, for real. Thanks a lot!

1. A great YouTube video coming from The_Pegasus_Box. Thanks, bud!
Check it out!

2. Click here for the collection on DArt.

3. https://derpibooru.org/740375?scope=scpeac921b191f688d04521575f31608785cbc3bbaa1
[img]https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/10/10/740375__safe_anthro_apple+bloom_gun_artist-colon-pusspuss_night+mares.png[/img]

This story is a sequel to The Guardian of the Night

The newly formed Star Guard has been given an impossible task: purge the world of the Nightmare Forces once and for all.

Pipsqueak, Captain of the Star Guard and Guardian of the Night, must lead a select few through the dreams of, not only ponies, but all sentient creatures. Acting on Princess Luna’s behalf, Pipsqueak has vowed to travel the lands of Equestria until his impossible task is completed, no matter the personal cost.

But the Nightmare Forces lurk in every shadow and every dream, waiting for Pipsqueak to falter. Can an earth pony, not gifted in magic, fight against the darkness? Only time will tell.

Edited by: mikemeiers, neon scar and Greenhat. These guys are amazing.

Some lessons are too big for one letter. Others are so important that they need to be shared with ponies everywhere. When these two come together, Twilight Sparkle tries something new.

She writes a book.

Everypony remembers exactly what they were doing when they first found out about the griffin invasion. Many saw it as a growing shadow that threatened to overtake all of Equestria. To those in the towns and cities that would become the front lines, it was a terror made real. With Canterlot in flames and Princess Celestia injured, many wondered how anypony could make everything right again. I was among them.

But we did it. Together.

These are my experiences and lessons learned during The Great Griffin Invasion, and it’s not just my story. War is a dark affair, but we can always learn something from the worst of times. In fact, we have to. The lessons are too costly to let them go to waste. And maybe, with a little help from this book, we won’t ever forget.

-Princess Twilight Sparkle

(Valor is Magic is a story of war and values set between seasons two and three of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. As of the end of season three, the events of this story do not justify an AU tag.)

War is a rare occurrence in Equestria, but after over a century of peace, it has come again. To defend their home, ponies have answered the call to arms from far and wide. For one young pony, that decision may have come a little too easily. Will the weight of war prove too much for her, or will her new found comrades be the foundation she needs?

***

Originally created alongside this image.

I wish I had posted this earlier, but here is an incomplete visual list of the characters of The Line. For the characters not listed here, please consult the cover image.
You can also find a depiction of the standard armor suit here.

Idol Hooves holds a special place in Equestria. He's probably the only exiled changeling to serve in the Royal Guard, or at least, that's what he expects, as exiles don't really broadcast that fact. However, it's well known that Princess Celestia loves all of her little ponies, and her guards perhaps more so, and that makes it one of the best ways for a changeling to discreetly feed.

But how does a changeling even get there, let alone get exiled in the first place? For that matter, why would it ever go to Canterlot? Set a number of years before the series proper, before Luna’s redemption, Idol details how he was exiled, the ponies he’s met, and the series of misadventures that led him to joining the Royal Guard, and should continue a good ways into the series, as something of an alternate perspective.

Soon, he’ll have to deal with a boisterous new princess to serve and a royal wedding in the works bringing a third to power. Will his old instincts bring this new life crashing down around him? What precipitates Chrysalis’s ill-fated assault on Canterlot? Is it really so wrong for a changeling to enjoy good craftsmanship to an obsessive degree?

New cover art provided by the fantastic Carnifex

And a TVTropes page here.

And an Ask Blog of questionable canonity!
Out of Idol Curiosity

Fanart by Norad2! Major thanks! Short For a Royal Guard

Art by Egophiliac of Idol and his Daring Duckie Please don't tell him what that brush is meant for.

Rating updated to (T), it's a bit darker than (E)
Comedy Tag added as well
And changed the character tags a bit.