Ooooooh, I know how I should start the story! I do I do! It should start with 'once upon a time'! Right?

No?

Awwww, I guess you're right, Cola. Everyone likes it the way it is now!

(Oh, and it's a story about when I was a little filly and my friends were all colored rocks! She said it needs that or else nobody'll know what it's about when they click it -- whatever that means! Cola also wants me to tell you it placed second in the TWG Contest and got on Equestria Daily!

Oh, oh, oh, oh! It even won this! I didn't even know Twilight kept a library of stories about all of us!

[img]http://24.media.tumblr.com/a257ad5165644b1f79354634dfdee284/tumblr_mqo61uYbwk1rj6vd5o1_400.png[/img])

Celestia is struggling to come to terms with her true feelings for Twilight.

Unwilling to watch her sister suffer under apathy and indecision, Luna takes it upon herself to help Celestia confront her newfound feelings.

Under assault by the plunderseeds, the Tree of Harmony remembers the first morning of the world, and her delight in discovering life, laughter, love and serenity.

Princess Luna knows a thing or two about nightmares and dream magic. Her duties at Night Court have become tedious. With the help of some forbidden power she reaches out to a certain Element of Magic for the companionship and knowledge of modern Equestria she desires. But while Luna is distracted and Celestia sleeps, an old evil returns with plans both dire and terrible and a new evil plots under their noses.
(Story takes places roughly between season 2 and season 3, so post-changlings, pre-Sombra)

Cover image by JJ at lovetomorrowlove.tumblr

The gryphons were not always monsters. That came later.

In the earliest days, they were our friends. They flew alongside pegasi. They shared the land with earth ponies. They studied beside unicorns. There was no fear between us. That came later too.

Time drew our people apart, but it was not time that made them monsters. They made that choice themselves; they chose their fate. And it was the greatest gryphon who sealed it.

He was born, many years ago, on a mountain far to the north...

For almost a thousand years, the immortal Nightmare Moon has reigned over Equestria as Empress. To the average pony, Nightmare Moon is an overarching enigma whose rule is absolute and whose wrath is terrible. But to Twilight Sparkle, who as an orphan has never known her parents, the Empress is something else entirely. When the young unicorn is brought under the royal wing as an apprentice, she learns a great deal more about the supposed tyrant than she ever knew. But as Twilight is introduced to life with her new mentor, she is thrust into a world of political intrigue, conspiracies and secrets. Secrets that were never meant to be revealed. As allies and enemies plot against the very peace of the nation, will Twilight fall prey to the perils of her new position? Or will she prosper and find in Nightmare Moon the mother she never had?

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My eternal gratitude to my editor, LordOfTheWrongs, without whom Night's Favoured Child would not be the story it is today.

Now with added TVtropes!

Twilight becomes alicorn of the stars. This is sort of a problem, because Luna kind of already was alicorn of the stars. Oops!

TV Tropes

After Nightmare Night, Luna invites Twilight to tea, and they start spending more time together. Princess Celestia teases Luna about it sometimes.

In the distant future of Equestria, Luna is recalled to Canterlot against her will to participate in a court case that will decide the future for sentient machines.

Twilight takes a walk in the woods near Canterlot to clear her mind, when a mischievous little phoenix starts dropping chestnut shells on her head. Quite a familiar mischievous little phoenix.

Somewhat inspired by the song "Evermore" by Alison Krauss, a story to perhaps make its reader smile.

Thanks go to Skywriter, GhostOfHeraclitus, and "Nettle" for pre-reading; and Ziom05 of deviantART for permission to use "Sun Springs" as the cover art.