After receiving an urgent letter from Princess Celestia concerning a grave danger to Equestria, Twilight Sparkle undergoes a crisis of faith. Can she perform a grim task for her beloved mentor, even if it means sacrificing all that she cares about?

Based on a story prompt by TraleRayne. Extra special thanks to Dream of Ponies and Noble Jury.

Captain Scootaloo of Equestria's Royal Air Force has been assigned the mighty Helicopter-Tank-Castle-of-Chickens for a special mission: Rescue Princess Rainbow Dash (Celestia's daughter, duh) from the clutches of the Shadowbolts!

With Celestia's beard in danger of getting soggy, can anyone else perform this feat of amazing consequence? Will Scootaloo earn the princess' hoof in marriage? Will a second beard grow? Only one word holds the answer: Cluck!

In a dark place named Tartarus, a subterranean hellscape between worlds, humans and ponies are paired together at random to survive a gauntlet of horrible monstrocities while the future of their realms hang in the balance.

Now, are you buying that? Good. Cuz I'm friggin' tired of having to explain it all on top of dragging this annoying-ass unicorn around the effing corridors of purgatory along with me. You'd think the damn, burning yahoos who run this place would give us rest stops to drown ourselves in beer or something. Friggin' A.

Oh, and some ponies and humans spill blood together and stuff. I dunno. Stop playing BattleDuty: Future Football and read this, or whatever. Like I give a crap...

An alarm sounds. There's a planet nearby. I wonder if anyone can hear me.

You see things and ask why. We dream things that never were and ask why not?

A horrible Cataclysm has turned all of Equestria into a Wasteland of barren ash and twilight desolation. The Sun and the Moon have been destroyed. Everypony has died--including Princesses Luna and Celestia. But one pony miraculously survives; she is a lone wanderer, the last of her kind, surrounded by menacing creatures that hate her. She navigates the Wastes in an airship and scavenges off the blighted landscape to keep herself alive.

Then one day she meets an old companion who grants her a gift, the chance to go back in time to the warm and sunny days of Ponyville, where her dead friends live in happiness. How far will the last pony venture into this joyous age of Equestria, even if she fully knows that there is no way to change the horrible fate of everypony she loves?

2013 Edition: Smaller Chapters, Better Grammar, and a Few New Scenes

(A shout-out to Vimbert, pre-reader and gentlecolt)

"My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and you will not remember me. You won't even remember this conversation. Just like with everypony else I've ever met, everything I do or say will be forgotten. Every letter I've written will appear blank; every piece of evidence I've left behind will end up missing. I'm stuck here in Ponyville because of the same curse that has made me so forgettable. Still, that doesn't stop me from doing the one thing that I love: making music. If my melodies find their way into your heart, then there is still hope for me. If I can't prove that I exist, I can at least prove that my love for each and every one of you exists. Please, listen to my story, my symphony, for it is me."

Cover pic by Spotlight: askspotlight.tumblr.com