"In The Precocious Princeling's Guide to Diplomatic Relations, there are three rules for how a royal ought to conduct himself abroad.

1. A diplomat of Equestria must obey all local laws of the nation they are assigned to.
2. A diplomat of Equestria should advocate for the interests of Equestria to the best of their abilities.
3. Under no circumstance should a diplomat of Equestria get involved in the following: Political parties, popular uprisings, peasant revolutions, class solidarity movements, coups d'etat, or other attempts at regime change, violent or otherwise.

By the time I had finished my tenure in Saddle Arabia, I had broken all three."
-Prince Blueblood, First of His Name

With the end of the reign of the Two Sisters, Celestia and Luna decide to raise the sun and moon together in one final solar eclipse. Where it once represented the rebellion of the moon against the sun, it would now represent a display of stellar beauty where the sun and moon rise together in harmony. It would mark the transition to a new time of peace for Equestria, under Princess Twilight.

Too bad they forgot to notify Twilight about this. Or anypony else for that matter.

This will end well.

Huge thanks to Soaring for pre-reading and helping me get off my flank to finish this, and thanks to ThePeer for pre-reading as well!

Written in celebration of the last total solar eclipse to be visible from the US for the next 20 years!

Yes, I know it was a week ago. Yes, it's a skill issue.

Everypony knows the Hearth’s Warming Eve tale of tribal unity and the shared rule which followed. Everypony also knows that alicorns - singular or dual - have sat on Equestria’s throne for well over a thousand years.

Very few have really looked in to what actually happened between those points.

Even Twilight Sparkle, until a chance encounter leads her to an alarming discovery: Neither she, nor any other alicorn, has actually held any legal right to Equestria’s throne. They are technically usurpers, autocrats - even tyrants.

Still struggling with her own personal rule, having the fundamental basis for her authority swept from beneath her leaves Twilight with one simple, yet impossible question: 

Now what?

Many thanks to Commawriter and Kirtai for pre-reading!

Cover image was edited by Vinylshadow. They deserve all credit for it!

A young Vinyl meets a young Octavia at her house. Antics ensue.

In a separate universe, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle were born into the world as alicorn princesses, twin daughters of Empress Celestia. One day, they were sent away to Ponyville, where they were destined to meet 5 special ponies. The story is as we know it; with loyalty, kindness, honesty, generosity, laughter, magic... betrayal, distrust, danger... and so much more.

This story did not explode! What a relief and/or letdown.

Part of OPERATION CRACKFIC STORM 2024 ( group | stories ).

Thanks to Silk Rose for coming up with the idea, writing chapters 22 and 9, and developing the code; thanks also to Meadowsys for general code help.

Thanks to IrradiatedPirateBooty ( tumblr ) for the awesome character art.

And thanks to everyone in the comments who stuck around for the final countdown!

This story is a sequel to The Twilight Enigma

With the queen of Twilight Town present, the Storm King's invasion of Canterlot goes badly for his commander and minions. Not satisfied with a mere victory, Captain Blackmane and her friends go on the hunt. Twilight is determined to find the Storm King and make sure he will never be able to harm anyone ever again. It's obviously a mission of reasonable prevention, not murderous revenge. Obviously... Right?

Book 4 of the Alicorn Adventure series.
Sequel to The Twilight Enigma and prequel to The Skyla Pseudonym.

In every world, era, and species, adolescents think they're the first to invent or discover whatever they come across. It's not hard to see why. In the flower of youth, every experience is new and fresh and exciting, especially the ones previous generations won't discuss. Not in polite company, anyway. Certainly not with their children.

Well, "exciting" isn't always the best word to describe those discoveries. Sometimes it's "horrifying." Especially when it involves certain alicorn princesses.

Rated Teen for discussion of topics that would be rated Mature. Also rated C for Crackfic. Graciously preread by Comma Typer.

My name is Comet Tail, and I have died many times.