Every night, in a little stable just outside of town, an old mare lays down to sleep. And every night she has the same dream of rainbows and open sky...

On a dark night filled with even darker magics, an insane cult attempts to give Nightmare Moon a body and life of her own, utterly separate from Princess Luna. But, when the spell is interrupted by Celestia, something unexpected is created.

Now, a little black alicorn filly named Nyx finds herself living under the care of Twilight Sparkle, only to be haunted by memories and emotions from her past. Is she Nightmare Moon reborn or is she simply a doppelganger with a soul and mind of her own? Can Twilight Sparkle protect Nyx from those who refuse to see past her dragon eyes and black coat?

Or, will Nyx be forced to inherit the sins that may not even be hers and become the greatest evil Equestria has ever known?

Guardians come in many colours and personalities, protecting others or misusing their power. Rainbow Dash is just one of them. As she encounters her favourite filly Scootaloo alone after dark, she soon finds herself tangled up in a complicated network of protégés and presumed protectors, both from the present and the past.

VoxelTron has started a reading of this one. Check it out! click
Proofreader(s): twilight-the-pony (also The11thWonder, Nonagon )

Sequel: Lonely Mountains
Trigger Warning: non-descriptive (sexual) abuse of a minor
Rated Teen for adult themes and violence.

The events are set somewhere after Sleepless in Ponyville, but before the coronation.

This is my very first fanfiction (in the hope that this doesn't scare you of).

Image by DavidMRyan

Twilight Sparkle finds herself inside a cocoon in the throne room of Canterlot Palace along with her friends and many other ponies. She is thrust into a dream world by Chrysalis who is feeding on the feelings of love and friendship she and the others will experience in their alternate realities. In her dream, she finds Princess Celestia, who has been able to cross between dream worlds. Twilight and Celestia must now travel between dreams in order to awaken their friends and stop Chrysalis. However, some dreams are not as happy as they expected, and some secrets held in the subconscious may be better left unawoken.

Additional character tags: OC's, Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, Princess Luna, Nightmare Moon, Trixie, Zecora, Diamond Tiara, Snips, Flitter, Cloudchaser, Roseluck, Big Macintosh

Inspired by the fan video of an alternative ending of season 2. Click here to watch it!

Featured on Equestria Daily 9/14/2012.

Now a comic illustrated by Zoarvek! http://zoarvek.deviantart.com/gallery/48143295

"Sex" tag added on 10/12/2014 due to sexual themes here and there. It's not the focus of the story, but it's in there. For a more detailed explanation of why the tag was finally added, see the author's note on "Corruption Ch 10"

Old cover art here: http://i.imgur.com/Tgt974q.jpg
Full size: http://i.imgur.com/9uWAX.jpg

When your life is as dull a gray as the world that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color -- or six -- to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

*6-16-2017 Edit, added Rainbow Dash tag because it triggered knighty.*

Meet Spike, Canterlot's greatest private investigator. How great? You've probably never heard of him. But he's had hundreds of cases, big and small. He's tracked down missing ponies, engaged in shoot-outs with smugglers, and almost single-handedly took down the Pastia, the biggest gang of organized crime to date (lawyers, politicians, and academics aside).

But he's put the whole P.I. game behind him, and he's ready to settle into a quiet retirement (or as quiet a retirement you can get in Ponyville). That is until a familiar mare pays him a visit about her sister's disappearance. Armed with with only a loaded CARA. millimeter and his years of experience and cynicism, he calls upon an old friend, a certain wall-eyed pegasus. He soon finds himself embroiled in one of his toughest cases to date, one that has the fate of Equestria resting on the shoulders of everyone's favorite purple and green dragon.

Author's Note: I suffer from an advanced case of Footnote Fever, and so I wrote it with footnotes. I am since discovering that every website doesn't have a good way of doing them. So I'm just making them silvery and putting them right after the paragraph they were in. Sorry 'bout that.