If there was something that broke Rarity's heart more than seeing her best friend getting stood up, it was seeing Twilight go back to the library with a matching broken heart.

Luckily for Twilight, Rarity would be damned if she let that happen.

Strumming Heartstrings of the Equestrian Intelligence Services is on a mission. A mission from ... well, actually she just made one up for herself. Sure, she has her actual job of keeping an eye on Celestia's ex-student Sunset Shimmer, but that's not enough to occupy all her time. After all, Sunset seems to have gotten a bit better about not getting herself into too much trouble. Sometimes. Occasionally.

Thus, when Strumming encounters a mad zebra seemingly obsessed with getting revenge against the gryphons who injured him years ago, it seems like it might be an interesting diversion. Little does she know there's more to this case than meets the eye...

Twilight Sparkle, pulling another late night, is finally confronted about by Spike and Starlight Glimmer. She reveals that she's been studying one of the realities she saw, specifically the one seemingly ruled by Flim and Flam. She just can't figure out how those two con artists could be as much of a threat as, say, Tirek or Nightmare Moon.

And then Discord shows up, telling her that she's looking at her information wrong. He volunteers to show Twilight, Spike, and Starlight what that reality is really like...

#1 in the Featured box on 4/25/2016. WOW. I'm... honestly surprised that so many people like this little dialogue heavy stream of consciousness fic. Thank you all very much!

Okay, first off, you don't get to call me Flurry Heart. Not unless you have special privileges which are only afforded to those who are related to me and/or are national heroes. Or, I guess, if you're that guard that mom sends after me...

Point is, I'm Skyla. Got it memorized? SKY. LA.

Now these are the stories of how I earned myself that name. And a few other titles. And look, maybe mom and dad say I'm just going through a phase, but I say PHASES ARE FOR WIMPS. This, is who I am!

And the only reason I'm using Circus-Cinnamon's photo is because I can't find any other photos with how I really feel on it. I mean seriously, crystal ponies, I'm yelling half the time, is it that hard to take an angry picture?!

There is a secret in Equestria. A secret the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle doesn’t dare to believe. Like puppeteers pulling on marionettes, they have influenced Equestria for better and worse since the fall of Discord. So far they have been benevolent, but their potential for evil is vast. What’s worse, she doesn’t know their name. She doesn’t know their mission. All she knows for certain is one thing.

That they all seem to be zebra.

Sunset Shimmer's experiencing a night of living hell. Thankfully, Twilight Sparkle shows up and lends a comforting shoulder to lean on.

Celestia had a problem. Somepony wrote a novel about Nightmare Moon's rebellion. This made Luna quite unhappy, and unfortunately for her sister, Luna has not yet gotten the hang of modern traditions like freedom of speech, the abolition of the death penalty, and not bothering Princess Celestia when she's trying to sleep.

Fortunately, Celestia also had a faithful student, one who is now a Princess with an ill-defined portfolio and perfectly capable of dispensing justice by the laws of both today and one thousand years ago.

Now Twilight Sparkle has a problem.

(Title image hacked together from vectors by Martinnus1, Hawk9mm, and Paulie15.)

What started as a normal friendly visit ends up taking two ponies on a trip down memory lane that leads them both to realize their friendship began even before Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom.

This story is a sequel to The Freeport Venture

As Freeport's best problem solver, Puzzle Piece finds himself helping the Magus-for-hire Sunset Shimmer with a job once again. The Sweetash family, one of the richest families in Freeport, has contacted Sunset with a new job to investigate ugly new rumors surrounding one of their rivals.

While the job seems straightforward enough, they quickly find out how a sweet deal can become sour.

Failing once in her attempt to take Canterlot and failing again in her attempt to take down Twilight, one would think Chrysalis would have cut her losses and let things be, but the queen has once again appeared, this time in broad daylight with no disguise and no army. Her weapon of choice? Diplomacy.

Now Twilight is having to deal with the changeling queen, but surely putting up with her antics will be worth the knowledge she's willing to provide about her mysterious race and the potential undiscovered agents still within their midst...right?

Takes place before Magical Mystery Cure and diverges from there.

With thanks to MisterGunpowder for proofreading and editing.

Revision History:

05/09/2015: Chapter 1 updated with millions of little corrections.
05/20/2015: Chapter 2 revised and edited with another million small and large corrections.
06/12/2015: Chapter 3 given a thorough editing and revision.
06/23/2015: Chapter 4 taken to the gutter and edited twice to be sure.
07/14/2015: Chapter 5 thoroughly brutalized with the editing stick.
08/03/2016: Chapter 6 finally edited. Yes, I'm still alive, dammit.
09/29/2016: Chapter 7 fell out of the editing tree and hit every editing branch on the way down.
10/26/2016: Chapter 8 has emerged from the editing emergency room.
11/17/2016: Chapter 9 found and edited. No casualties reported.
11/30/2016: Chapter 10 treated for whiplash after lightning fast editing.
12/22/2016: Chapter 11 edited. Chrysalis shot first.
01/17/2017: Epilogue edited. Time to hit the cider.