He was a king. The mightiest unicorn to walk the earth since Starswirl the Bearded. The unicorn who defied the alicorn sisters five times and lived. He terrified an entire race into servitude, and cast fear and darkness over all of Equestria.

He is a shadow. And soon, perhaps, he's not even that.

What does it mean to be immortal? Celestia has lived for too long. Her memories are old. She has seen many ponies, and many places, and many times, and many stars, and many dreams. She wakes one night to find she does not know the ponies and the stars of today from the ponies and the stars of any other day she has lived. She no longer knows what was real and what was only dreamed.

She desperately searches for the one pony she knows could not have been a dream.

When Pinkie Pie is charged by Rarity to promote her cloth dyeing competition, she does it in one of the many methods she is familiar with.

She trots around town with a huge sign strapped to her back. However, reactions seem to be mostly panicky... there couldn't be any reason for that, could there?

Twilight Sparkle is in a foul mood and wants nothing more to be alone after a magic mishap with Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie wants to help cheer up Twilight, and decides to write a story for her, with the help of Spike.

Little did Twilight know this was a bad idea from the start.

As reviewed by Seattle's Angels!

ETA: I am relieved to state this story predates issues #15-16 of the IDW comic series, which similarly involves book stories coming to life, albeit in a different setup and resolution. Also, as this was already set canonically before the finale of Season 3, I don't consider there any retcon issues with the reveals of S4E4 of the show, as well as working within the premise that S4E6.

Reeling from the loss of his father, a young Will attempts to sort through the feelings whirling inside of him.

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Second place winner of the World Building Alliance's March contest.