"Equestria's Guard: the Bravest and the Best. Do you have what it takes?"

So the advertisements say. When Rainbow Dash saves the life of Princess Luna, however, she quickly comes to learn that there's a lot more to the guard than what everypony knows. As she faces down threats to her friends, her Princesses, and her country, Rainbow will have to decide exactly who she is loyal to.

A Price of Loyalty story.

Daring Do seeks a favor from her sister in Ponyville. Due to buried grudges, things quickly get out of hoof. She soon finds herself on her most perilous mission yet... with her biggest fan in the world. In the midst of truth and lies, loyalty and treachery, love and hate, one thing is clear ― some family situations are stranger than fiction.

The story extends in Through the Looking-glass and What Pinkie Found There and The Daughter Doo: Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader.

Many thanks to Honey Mead and statoose for their watchful and helpful pre-reading.

Ckat_Myla and statoose (CatNStat) have started an excellent reading of TSD.

Play this song first!

Twilight Sparkle has always been looking forward to her 21st birthday. It's the day that she's finally recognized as an adult mare, but also the day she's finally able to learn magic on the highest level. What should have been a great day though, turns out to be the most horrific day in her life. She finds a prophesy talking about the next great evil in Equestria, and it's HER! Now she's falling, slowly becoming the very evil she swore to fight against, and not even her closest friends can pick her up in time. In the end, she may even...

Apple Bloom is tired of being the last in her class to not have her Cutie Mark, but her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo aren't going in the right direction to get their Cutie Marks, and she knows it. In order to get her Cutie Mark the right way, Apple Bloom begins to have thoughts of separating from her friends, and getting her Cutie Mark on her own. But her search for her Cutie Mark opens up to a major mystery in Equestria, and Apple Bloom will discover much more than just her special talent...

friends become enemies...

destinies are revealed...

light fades into the darkness...

and through it all, a hero is born...

This is the first main story in the series.

New cover art by my friend The Spectralist.

Link to the TV Tropes page!