The Cutie Mark Crusaders decide to ask ponies around town where they got their cutie marks, specifically Rarity, who has perhaps the most profound, odd cutie mark of all. On their quest to figure out how a unicorn became a weatherpony, however, they encounter many of the other ponies who have odd tales of their own to share. How did Pinkie Pie join the Apple Family? How did Rainbow Dash become an animal caretaker? Why is Applejack a fashion designer? How did Twilight become Celestia’s student? What made Fluttershy decide to dedicate her life to bringing joy to others? And how did Rarity become a weatherpony, a role so outside a unicorn’s skillset? It may be that everything in Equestria is not kind and peaceful after all.

Waking up in an alternate universe in which you are a supervillain can be hard.

Finding out your friends are rebels trying to kill or overthrow you isn't very easy to deal with either.

But trying to solve the situation? That's a real horn cracker.

Heartbroken after being rejected yet again, Pinkie resigns herself to a life of loneliness.

However, love has a way of sneaking up on you, and a chance meeting leads to Pinkie finding a pony who’s just perfect for her. A pony who may just be a little too perfect for her...

With her newly blossoming love life causing friction between her and her friends, will Pinkie really find happiness with her special somepony?

Or will Surprise turn out to be more than she could dream of?

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A collaborative story with HighOctaneWildebeest

My unicorn parents called me a worthless mud pony. They pushed me every day to overcome my lowly status. When I woke up one morning with my cutie mark, I thought they would love me. I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

It was not destiny or enjoyment that led me to discover the cello and composing. My parents made that decision, deciding before I was born I would continue their family legacy of famous musicians.

They did not realize what that decision would cost them.

Special Thanks and Links:

Cover Art: Dreampaw. The inspiration for the story.
Dramatic reading of Act I-III by Malao567. June 2013
Reading with music by ObabScribbler. June 2014
Song: Hooks and Strings by Reverb Brony. May 2014

Style inspired by H.P. Lovecraft
TypeWriterError: Editor & Rating Board
Gage of Grandiloquence: Editor
The11thWonder: Pre-reader
Nharctic: Pre-reader
Breath of Plagues: My Pinch Editor.
ArgonMatrix: Bad Grammar Exterminator
Daemon of Decay: Advice, also inspired me to write fan fiction. Blame him!

Tensions grow hotter in the mining town of Farrington after the events of one disastrous night. The fallout from this blaze will test many citizens' relationships in fire. Some will falter, but some may perservere.

Before any repairing can begin, ponies—and one griffin—will have to take stock of their pasts, or else their futures may end up strangled by their scars.

Note: This is a sequel to Summer Days. I strongly encourage reading that story first.

Special thanks to Gaiascope for this awesome cover!

Sequel to The Return of Princess Nightmare Moon! After having made a full medical recovery Princess Nightmare Moon tries her hoof at wooing one of her subjects, Nurse Bandaid. Meanwhile, Chrysalis returns to feed on Celestia, still vying for the position of godhood. (Coverart by Mewaponny!)

It has been more than one hundred years since Celestia banished Nightmare Moon. While Equestria has enjoyed a century of relative peace and prosperity, there are still lingering tensions between the three pony tribes.

Shadow Kicker, a proud warrior of Pegasopolis, must navigate the treacherous noble court of Canterlot and address the concerns and wounded pride of her own tribe in a desperate effort to prevent matters from coming to open warfare.

When I was young, I woke up in the Everfree. I couldn't remember my name or where I came from before waking in that cursed forest. All I could remember was hunger and the need to hunt. Yet I travelled with a filly I should have turned into a snack. The only thing that held me back was that she held a clue to my missing past.

Danger surrounded us in that evil place; a pack of wooden wolves, an angry dragon, little blue flowers with a twisted sense of humour, and something else even more terrible than the rest combined. But the biggest threat of all lay hidden in my past. After all, what is worse, the threat you see coming, or the one that you trusted?

For as long as any of the Cutie Mark Crusaders can remember, Diamond Tiara had always been the biggest bully they knew. But when that said bully dies in an accident, each of them starts to go through their own emotional experience from this sudden change in their lives. Each will learn more about themselves and about the pony who they all thought they knew before she is laid to rest.

***Takes place just after season 3 but before season 4. This story is completed.***

Now with TV Tropes page

WANTED:

The newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle has set up a bold new initiative to discover new magic, and is sending out an open call to the unicorns of Equestria to apply for her research team. No experience in magical theory or research necessary. Enthusiasm and out-of-the-box thinking a must. The Equestrian government is not responsible for any physical, emotional, or magical trauma experienced during the course of the project or the application process.

Cover art by Page Turner