It's a simple agreement: Rarity will take Applejack to a proper gallery opening, and in turn, Applejack gets to take Rarity to something called a 'hootenanny.' What could possibly go wrong?

(apologies to René Magritte for the shameless appropriation of his work for a cover image)

This story is a sequel to An Earth Pony's Guide to Magic

When Pinkie's sisters dig up an ancient living weapon designed to fight Discord, they don't know that they have unleashed a massive threat to Equestria. How will the Princesses and the Mane 6 fight a force that keeps growing stronger and which they don't want to harm? After all, how can Pinkie fight a creature with her sister's face? (A sequel to An Earth Pony's Guide to Magic, though probably possible to read without having read the first fic in the series)

The Princesses find an alien creature barely clinging to life at the scene of a terrifying crash. Can the Combined Power of the Elements of Harmony save it, or more importantly, should they save it? Will the arrival of this strange creature tear Equestria apart?

TV Tropes
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/Article2

Prince Blueblood thought the Grand Galloping Gala was over. He thought he could just go to sleep and put it behind him. He never expected to be reliving the same disaster of a day, over and over... and over.

TV tropes page here:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheBestNightEver

Thanks to all the people who wrote the page and all the people who gave me a little wakeup call and comment to become aware of that fact! You can't see it, but you guys put a real smile on my face tonight.

Also, recently, extra thanks to RD Dash for giving TBNE a thorough editing. I've updated the fic accordingly (7.11.12)

Celestia dreads 'Drudge Day,' the weekly time she spends dealing with legal affairs. As problems roll in she finds herself melancholy; has she really seen all of this before? Surrounded by a parade of pleading ponies, Celestia begins wonder if immortality is all it's cracked up to be.

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...

One week ago, Twilight Sparkle was crowned the fourth Princess of Equestria. Tonight, Ponyville hosts the 1003rd Summer Sun Celebration, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna want a vacation. With two fine young princesses like Cadance and Twilight to take over for them, nothing could possibly go wrong.

(Title image hacked together from vectors by sakatagintoki117 and Chrome-MMVII.)

Princess Luna, only recently recovered from the events of "Friendship is Magic: Part Two," is struggling to adjust to life in present day Equestria. And Captain Bucephalus, Commander of the Lunar Guard, is having a little trouble adjusting to having a Princess to look after.

This was my submission to Equestria Daily's "Happy Luna" competition. After "Luna Eclipsed," it no longer conforms to the series' canon, but I'm fond of it anyway.

A day in the life, and a glimpse into the mind, of Ponyville's favorite mail carrier and single mom. But if she had the choice of any one day for everyone to read about, it probably wouldn't be this one...

As a descendant of the greatest conjurer of the pre-classical era, Star Swirl wishes to live up to her namesake's reputation and their shared cutie mark. But how can she emulate a powerful unicorn when she is an earth pony? Taking the advice of her psychologist, she heads off to Ponyville to try and find out. (Image property of Cybertoaster) (Now the first in a series)

Rock's as solid a unicorn can be without being an earth pony. Then most of a life time growing up in a mine is going to leave a whole bunch of rough edges. Still Rock's always figured that it was pretty good preparation for when the sun went down for the last time ever over a year ago.

Now though she's stuck in a whole other Equestria and there's another unicorn that looks just like her that also lives in Ponyville. Just she's still calling herself Rarity and is far too prissy for her own good.

Soon she's going to meet other ponies in the same predicament, linked in ways they don't yet understand and try to find a way home to the Equestria that they know.

Course first off she's going to have to work out how to get along with herself...

***

Courtesy of an awesome brony Random Elements now has a tropes page : http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/StrykesRandomElements.

This fic was completed in the week between One Bad Apple and Magic Duel, so consider anything before that as having happened for purposes of this fic and everything after as not happening yet, or at all.

Original chapter publish dates:
Chapter 1 - 24th July
Chapter 2 - 29th July
Chapter 3 - 2nd August
Chapter 4 - 8th August
Chapter 5 - 12th August
Chapter 6 - 30th August
Chapter 7 - 1st September
Chapter 8 - 5th September
Chapter 9 - 9th October
Chapter 10 - 5th November
Chapter 11 - 28th November
Epilogue - 28th November