Set roughly two years after Luna's return and redemption, Spike has begun to question whether or not non-ponies have protected rights in Equestria. When he raises his concerns to Twilight and Starlight, the Princess is offended by criticism of Celestia's system, while Starlight begins dreaming about her old ideals once more. Twilight sends their concerns to Celestia and Luna, but they soon develop very different views on how to handle the situation.

The entire time, the non-pony nations are increasingly agitated by the overwhelming influence of the pony city-states and the need for them to forsake their old cultures in favor of becoming more "civilized". An ancient prophecy foretells that a hero will emerge to unite the non-ponies and strike at their oppressors when they are at their weakest.

As the battle lines are drawn and diplomacy fails, two things are certain. The first is that no land or nation will be unscathed by the conflict; the other is that whomever succeeds will set the political precedent for the next thousand years...

Title is a reference to the MGS: Peace Walker song. This will eventually evolve into a Lunar Republic v. Solar Empire fic, but their creation will probably only be the end of this fic and the setup for a sequel. This is an AU set roughly two years after the beginning of the TV series, where the point of divergence is the Season 7 finale. There are some references to Equestria Girls and the comics, but since I haven't read very much of the comics, I'm mostly cherry-picking. There will also be a plot involving Spike as a sort of "chosen one" and the introduction of a third-party competitor in the form of an alliance between non-ponies. I'm not sure why I did it, but I thought it would be good to throw in something extra instead of just NLR fighting SE, since there's already a dozen of those out there.

I added the romance tag because the relationships of the characters have developed into important plot points.

Below are my three major warnings.

WARNING: This fic is political, though I'm trying to present each side as both an aggressor and as a defender rather than pick obvious "heroes" and "villains". That said, topics such as race form the initial crux of the fic, though in this context race means dragon/griffon/pony, etc., and the races don't have real-world racial equivalents, so please don't get worked up about it. Feel free to root for or condemn any side you want; I'll withhold my personal bias, since the point of MLP is building bridges, not walls.

WARNING 2: There will be fighting. One of my mistakes with my last NLR/SE fics was the over-the-top dramatic flare of the war, and the introduction of modern weapons. These battles will be fought using technologies shown in the show: spears, arrows, magic, and Pinkie's Party Cannon (when she wills it). I've left the casualties ambiguous because some readers prefer lots of death and some don't. Read into it however you wish.

WARNING 3: Getting sick of these, yet? There will be a lot of shipping. I tried to prevent it, but I can't help it, and now it's part of the main plot.

After the debacle of the Storm King's short-lived invasion and the fall of Canterlot, the former attacker, Fizzlepop Berrytwist (Commander Tempest Shadow), muses that the princesses' ability to fight was sorely lacking. Considering that she pretty much took them all down in seconds.

In order to prevent such an abysmal display in the future she has, through a few contacts around Princess Twilight, recruited the aid of a combat master who should be able to teach four princesses avoid such embarrassments in the future...

...Or kill them trying.

In an effort to find the couple that truly needs her help to find some romance in their life, Cadance develops a spell to send her to them.

It's just that when she gets there, neither of the creatures seem that interested in her help. They want to talk about silly stuff like her magic, the existence of other dimensions, stupid government conspiracies meant to keep aliens under wraps, and whether she is a winged unicorn, or a pegasus with a horn when they should just KISS ALREADY!

Spike only wants things to stay the same. Time, however, has other ideas. He's going to need a lot of help... An everypony story.

(Cover image by Rannva)

Twilight Sparkle gathers her friends after receiving a rather distressing letter from her mentor, Princess Celestia. She's not happy about the contents, at all.

It seems her friends all went on some magical adventure without her. And now they're all in a lot of trouble.

Sex tag and Teen rating for some crude humor.

This story is a sequel to NOW YOU BUCKED UP.

When a new, strange kingdom of magic is discovered to the far west of Equestria, the Royal Sisters take an entourage and investigate. Which nearly sparks ANOTHER international incident.

Once again, they don't bring Twilight. And ONCE AGAIN, she's left to clean up the mess. Which involves yet another very long letter.

Libraries have a way of accumulating excess reading material. Periodicals pile up. Ponies who fail to sell off their own books at stable sales decide donations are easier than just waiting for the next go-round. And of course, a truly dedicated librarian will be adding tomes at every opportunity, until the shelves are full -- and then some. There's a cure for this situation, and Twilight's been avoiding it for a few years.

Time's up.

(A stand-alone, no prior-reading-necessary part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome. )

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Ripped from home with no explanation to a place that is both incredibly strange and eerily familiar. What world he walks on, what these creatures are, why he's here. There are many things Rajrishi does not understand about Equestria. He hopes to fix that.

But mostly he just wants to go home.

How do you kill a pegasus's soul? Put her in charge of the town's weather, then only let her schedule sunny days and gentle evening showers. Not thunderstorms, not blizzards, certainly not hail or tornadoes.

Nothing fun, in other words. Celestia forbid the weather team make some real weather, the kind Rainbow Dash dreams about. The farmers would never stand for that.

Well, screw the farmers. Screw the fashionistas and screw the library princess too if she complains. Rainbow Dash has a dream and she's going to share it with the world, whether the world wants it or not.

A story dedicated to anyone who's ever been passionate about something.

This story is a prequel to Injuring Eternity.

Life is like a train ride, don't you think, dearest? The tracks have been set, destination picked and the ticket is well in hoof. What a shame that so many, myself included, are so focused on the destination that they fail to realize a universal truth.

Destinations will change, trains will be caught and missed, but there will always be somepony willing to journey with you—so long as you let them.

Thanks to the amazing lilfunkman for the gorgeous cover art.

Now with a russian translation!