This story is a sequel to In the Absence of Sunset Shimmer

Continuity diverges after Rainbow Rocks.

Twilight Sparkle's power over magic has grown since she visited the strange parallel world populated by ponies. She's trained under Sunset Shimmer, learning new spells daily, earning herself greater focus and stronger friendships.

However, magic can be found outside their small circle of friends. Sunset Shimmer is invited overseas to visit a school that is dedicated to teaching humans the mystic arts. The headmistress, Starlight Glimmer, appears to have good intentions, but Sunset's doubts rise as she meets the source of their knowledge: Another visitor from the far reaches of the multiverse.

Meanwhile, Twilight encounters a murder committed through the use of magic. Danger closes in on every side as she unravels the mystery clue by clue. With Shining Armor at her back, and magic flowing through her veins, she's sure she can conquer any challenge.

But the school and the murder are connected, and when the plots converge, Twilight will have to face her greatest challenge yet...

In an infinite multiverse with infinite possibilities, there is a third Twilight Sparkle.

And she's made Sunset Shimmer's home her own.

Ten years is a long time, so Sunset Shimmer thinks. Ten years since she was last a pony. Ten years since she started her life anew as a citizen of Canterlot City. Ten years since making a group of wonderful friends. Ten years of absence from Equestria.

She's perfectly fine with that absence continuing for many years to come.

Twilight Sparkle doesn't appreciate Sunset's reluctance to talk about the past. She's been studying the strange activities surrounding Shimmer since they were teenagers, and has only found further questions. But a murder with ties to Equestria gives Twilight the chance to learn the truth about magic. To stop a terrible enemy from rising again, they must both journey through the mirror. Enlightenment is at Twilight's fingertips.

She doesn't quite know what to think when she meets Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Written before Friendship Games was released.

Princess Celestia has been planning for this day for years: the return of Nightmare Moon, the restoration of the Elements of Harmony, and the ushering of Equestria into a new age of friendship and love. Now that it's finally arrived, all she has to do is wait for Twilight to get to Ponyville, make some friends, hunt down the Elements, and save the...

Wait, what'd that letter say?

She didn't get on the chariot?

She went to whose party instead?

Oh. Oh, this could be bad. And more importantly, it's gonna need some hooves-on interference from Celestia to get her master plan back on track. But it'll probably all work out in the end. After all, how big a deal could one party be?

Third-place finalist in Aragon's "Comedy (Is Serious Business)" contest

Sunset Shimmer is having the worst day of her life. She used to be important. She was the personal student of Princess Celestia. She was a future leader of Equestria. She was the kind of mare that everypony envied.

Today, it's all crashing down around her.

Alternate Universe: What if Sunset Shimmer hadn't gone through the mirror?

Sunset Shimmer has always been a hot-headed, impetuous girl. She's always been prone to making snap decisions, and later finding herself regretting them. It was exactly this temperament that had brought her to the human world, penniless and alone. When the opportunity to get back on her feet presented itself in the form of a stranger's outstretched hand, she leaped at the chance.

This is the story of a woman who has made many bad choices, and the life those choices have made for her.

Tags, and even rating, may change as the story goes on.

Thanks as usual to Magello for the cover art!

The last thing Applejack remembers, she was going out to tend to the south fields one day. She had just left the house and then... a blur. She found herself someplace else entirely. Loud, spattering noises surrounded her. Strange people were trying to hurt her. Her very body was twisted and wrong.

When she awakes from what should have been a nightmare, she discovers it was all too real. She's been trapped in another world, in a body that she can't even recognize, let alone control. To make matters worse, her natural Earth Pony magic is reacting to her new environment in strange and disquieting ways, intensifying to truly dangerous levels causing her to break nearly everything and everyone she touches.

Thankfully she's been offered help. A group of remarkable people is offering to take her in... assuming she can aid them in return. There's a man in a suit of armor. Another who carries a shield. One who carries a hammer. One a bow and arrow. One is a woman who lies just a little too much for Applejack's taste. And one of them is very, very angry.

Applejack will have to come to not only understand her new body and abilities, but also come to try and understand the meaning and value of honesty itself as she's put to the test in ways she's never anticipated. In this world of endless conflict and threats beyond any she could have ever imagined, does Applejack even stand a chance of finding her way back home?

Teen rating for mild blood, some death, and occasional mild nudity and lewd jokes.
Character and genre tags may be altered as necessary as the story progresses.

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle have a few drinks together... Okay, maybe more than a few. This is followed by a desire to do some science. This simultaneously goes much better and much worse than the girls would have expected.

Thanks to Novel Idea for the story prompt inspired by this great comic by Crydius.

Princess Luna, Sunset Shimmer, and the Great and Powerful Trixie meet in a bar every Friday for drinks and to chat.

This is what they chat about.

An episodic story updated whenever I think of anything new. Will probably never be marked "Complete".

Rated Teen and Sex for risque conversations. No actual sex. Has a little Sunlight shipping; as usual, I cannot help it.

Cover image compiled using the super-cute vectors created by arifproject and used with permission. Go take a look at all his adorable art!

Many thanks to FanOfMostEverything for being kind enough to preread the first three five all the chapters for me!

A day following his horrific attack on both Canterlot and Ponyville, Tirek returns to lay claim on what remains. Including the dead.

Because they're all dead, right? Like, seriously, there's no way they could've survived that, right?

Right?

One day, just like that, Celestia decides she's going to go mad with power.

Full-cast audiobook by Illya Leonov.

Edited by MrNumbers and Themaskedferret. Winner of FanofMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns contest!

As seen on EQD and the Royal Canterlot Library.