Sometimes, decades of your life go by without a single pony noticing any of your efforts to move up the ranks. Sometimes, you fall into a hole in the ground, wind up trapped in a political plot, and meet a cute librarian in the middle of it all.
The last part's nice.

Due to the nature of the AU, the story deserves a [Dark] tag, but it's not a good fit for the story's genre. I also strongly hesitated between Mystery and Adventure.
Mild [Profanity] included (but not enough to warrant the tag).

Updates weekly.

Huge thanks go out to: Everfree Pony, for saving this fic in at least a dozen different ways, Sir Mediocre, for holding my writing to a certain standard and correcting my broken English, Aisteru Fìre for pre-reading, and Cyeion, for his detailed and thought-out critique.

Before her banishment, Luna established a colony in the hope that it would reinvigorate the broken kingdom. Dozens of orphans disappeared off the streets, not missed by most. Though Princess Celestia searched Kingdom of Equestria for decades, the Children of the Night were never found.

A thousand years later in the small town of Ponyville, Scootaloo receives a visitor carrying a grim message. What starts off as a journey to help a dear friend quickly becomes tangled in a conflict that has been brewing since before the rise of Nightmare Moon. These are histories not archived in any marble library in Canterlot. These are stories of seafarers and inkeepers, of orphans and griffins, and of an ancient race that Equestria has long tried to ignore.

Based on the Children of the Night music video by Duo Cartoonist.

Pre-reader: TheGreatEater

[img]http://i.imgur.com/6MrWqNZ.png[/img]

Trouble looms in post-war paradise. Rarity’s overly generous sales strategy coupled with her unsavory dealings in the illegal Equestrian fur trade have sunk her deep into debt. With every day bringing her closer to homelessness, she is forced to assume her ex-life as a highbrow thief under the hoof of Equestria's last great crime lord, Don Noir.

Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle searches for a way to help her friend. Her solution: bank robbery! Teaming up with a disgraced and disfigured con-pony, Twilight dives headfirst into the murky depths of the Equestrian underworld. Will she be able to sort everything out by the time Rarity's rent is due? Or will she wind up behind bars just in time to see Rarity wind up on the streets?

Set seven years after a cataclysmic war between pony and griffonkind, An Artist Among Animals chronicles a leader’s descent into corruption, a coward criminal’s mad dash for redemption, a broken veteran's struggle to save his soul, and an artist’s battle to retain her morals while still finding a way to make tons of cash.

Cover art by Acreuball.

Gilda only wanted the humble things in life. Cheap rent, copious bits, the respect of her peers, the occasional juicy field-mouse.

Being captured by the Equestrians and dragooned into the Territorials wasn't quite what she'd dreamed of, but at least the rent was free.

And the rats were nice and plump.

This story is a sequel to Triptych

For Applejack, the Bearers' most recent adventure had consequences. She was the first in her family to break the Secret. She volunteered to become Twilight's teacher for earth pony magic. And with the chains of tradition still falling away, she did something else. She asked Snowflake to go out with her. To see if they were compatible. If it was possible for love to appear. Whether they could take the first steps together on a new road.

But Apples go out with earth ponies. The line marries pure.

And it won't be long before the rest of the family starts to find out...

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Cover art by Harwick. Please contact him for commission rates.

There's been another sighting of the mysterious Mare Do Well...but this time, all of Rainbow Dash's friends plead ignorance, insisting that they've put aside their costumes for good. Rainbow Dash is determined to uncover the masked mare's true identity before she's humiliated yet again, but this time around, the vigilante seems especially interested in her as well. Will Rainbow Dash be able to solve the mystery before the culprit takes the hoax too far? Or is she in danger of losing not only her mind, but her heart?

Featured on Equestria Daily.

This story is a sequel to Hinterlands

Two years ago, bounty hunter Bitterroot turned a lich and her necromancer apprentice over to the authorities. Now, that apprentice, Amanita, has been released on good behavior. She has no more interest in necromancy. In fact, she asked Bitterroot to turn her in all those moons ago and helped capture her master. With nowhere for Amanita to go, Bitterroot takes her in until she can get her hooves under herself.

But all isn’t well in Canterlot. A killer is stalking the streets, striking with impunity and leaving no trace. The Royal Guard is befuddled. Bitterroot’s investigations have yielded nothing. And night is turning into a time of dread. Something needs to be done. If only the dead could speak. If only there was a moral necromancer around.

Amanita doesn’t want to admit it, but the part of her past she hates the most might be the most useful part right now. Just because ponies are dying doesn’t mean they need to stay that way. What she buried needs to be dug up again.

Her demons are rearing their ugly heads. It’s time to face them.

Reading the preceding story will provide some context for this, but isn't required. Cover art is modified from this image. Other entries in this series:

• Hinterlands
• Urban Wilds
• Death Valley

Strange nightmares are plaguing the ponies of Equestria.

Somepony must help ponies to face their deepest fears, but unless Princess Luna is able to discover who—or what—is responsible, the nightmares may never end.

Scootaloo is ready to prove that she can be as fearless as her big sister, Rainbow Dash, even if it means never having a peaceful night's sleep again.

This story is a sequel to Seashell

I never thought I would see the Seawall again. Fate, though, seems to enjoy odd twists. Thirteen years ago, it was roses. Now it's feathers. Somehow they've both brought me back to this place, back to the edge of the world to where I really belong most of all.

My name is Sunburst, and as a guard of Princess Twilight, her student Azure Sky is both one of the ponies I protect and my friend. I watched her grow up. I, and everypony else, thought we knew exactly where she was headed in life. It seemed so obvious - how could the personal student of a princess have anything but the brightest of futures? We were all so sure.

What did we really know?

A happy life, a good life, can't be built on a lie. The heart of a unicorn and the heart of a pegasus are different things in some ways, but in the ones that really matter, they're the same. Nopony can endure the misery of an existence devoid of real meaning in their hearts, going through empty motions they feel nothing for, dead on the inside. I think all ponies, deep down inside where it counts, are the same in this way. That's what Azure and I needed to learn, here on the edge of the world, so that I could help her share the things she so desperately needed to find a way to give voice to.

Approved by Twilight's Library on December 11, 2014!

Sunset flees Equestria through a magic mirror, but not before altering the spell matrix in charge of determining the destination coordinates.

Now a new world lies before her, brimming with potential.

And danger.

This was an experimental project written to test a few new writing approaches and specific setups. See the opening author's note for more. Not related to any of my other works, though technically in the same setting.

Light editing passes only, as this was experimental (again, see note). But hey, if you like what you see, check my other stuff. It's more polished.

Crossover with Gears of War.
Updates daily until complete. Merry Christmas folks!