Follow a familiar duo as they endeavor to change one another for the better and share an unexpected adventure.

For Captain Twilight Sparkle this is a chance to get her charge to start taking his station seriously as she guides him along his first royal task.
For Prince Spike this is a long awaited chance to make new friends, and maybe get his no nonsense guardian to loosen up a bit.

This story is a sequel to The Poisoned Barb

Prequel reading is recommended to enjoy, as well as a steady reading pace.

I was once a woman in her twilight. I was once a mother and a wife. I was once a respected human being. I was once unquestionably happy.

Now I am Barbara The Dragoness; property of House Shine, Squire to Prince Solaris, Assistant to Apprentice Dusk Shine... and master of my own fate.

This is the story of my second childhood, and how I found the strength to keep moving forward.

Welcome to my new life.
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Cover Art by Koviry!

Be Generous
Be Kind
Be Honest
Be Loyal
Spread Joy
Be like Twilight

These are the first six lines of Spike's Noble Dragon Code, the manifesto Spike trust to guide his actions. So what's a dragon to do, when the code lets him down?

A big thanks to Lanehugo and FamousLastWords for thier help in getting this story off the ground. And HMXTaylorLee for his usual pre-reading and editing services. (Also, thinking of yet another title for me. Seriously if you ever can't think of a title just shoot him a pm).

A Nonpareil Story

~Completely Re-edited as of 06/13/2021~

I was once a woman in her twilight, my children both old and fresh.

Now I am the child.

I was once a mother and a wife, my family held importance above even my own well-being in my heart.

Now I am orphaned.

I was once a respected human being, a woman to treat as an equal.

Now I am simply an assistant.

I was once happy.

Now...

... Now I am Barbara The Dragoness.

Barbara the assistant.

Barbara the child.

Barbara the widow.

Barbara...

The Lost Soul.

This is the story of my second childhood, and how I found the strength to keep moving forward.

Rarity keeps having dreams about a certain purple dragon, and they're driving her mad, but she loves them...

All Spike wanted was a fun, relaxing, and possibly romantic Nightmare Night. So how did he wind up in the middle of Canterlot, stuck between an overbearing Twilight, hyper Cutie Mark Crusaders, and a desperate Princess Luna? To make matters worse, all this candy is starting to give his greedy side one hell of a sweet tooth...

Cadance isn't Sombra. But Sombra's leadership is all the crystal ponies remember, a ruler they had to love at all costs, with the final payment being their own lives. And as they gradually come to see their new Princess as leader instead of savior, too much of that residual fear is being transferred to her. They praise her, adore her, refuse to correct her no matter what she does -- because they live in terror of the consequences for doing anything else. They have yet to find their own voices, and may go on repeating hers until Celestia and Luna switch shifts. So how can she make them tell her when she's wrong, see that there's nothing to be afraid of, and take the next step in coming back to themselves once and for all?

Forbidding them to do anything other than criticize her should do the trick, right?

...right?

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group -- but can be read as a stand-alone, and no knowledge of the other stories is required. New members and trope edits are welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Twilight has come to discover that royal politics are complicated, but foreign policy is the worst. When the minotaur king decides to pay a visit, Celestia invites Twilight to be part of her first meeting with a foreign leader. This is her first big chance to impress on an international level... but the king isn't here to celebrate the Magic of Friendship, and he has more than a few choice words for the rookie princess. Twilight might just want to go back to world-saving after this.

Originally written for the write-off prompt "There's Magic in Everything." I was too late, then changed it up, and was left with... well, this. Brilliant!

Thanks to my prereader BlinkyPony along with my editors PaulAsaran and ultra1437 for all their help!

Cover art can be found here.

My name is Kadie, and when I was eight years old, my people, the griffins, went to war with the ponies of Equestria. My mother never wanted me to think about that, so she never talked about it. The Emperor told my father that he had to go off and fight the ponies, though, so I know that she thought about it a lot.

A few months after I turned ten, a messenger came into our town and told us that our emperor didn't want to fight anymore, so the ponies won, and we lost. Mother said that since we lived so close to our capital, we needed to go see the pony army meet our emperor.

I did not like that.

Edited wonderfully by Prak

Mis-communication has started many a war, but in this case maybe calling it a war was too generous.

The "war" is over, Twilight has successfully orchestrated a bloodless end to the Griffons' aggression, but only now does she realize that there is more to winning than she had first assumed, especially against a nation that holds war as a central part of their culture...

Now Twilight must deal with the aftermath while facing a challenge she never anticipated: being seen as a conqueror.

This can be read alone, but I recommend reading the letter that started it all for a chuckle and a little exposition. This series of expositional one-shots can also give some additional world-building.