After his death, South African former president and national hero Nelson Mandela finds himself in Equestria. However, it looks like he has some work to do with ending apartheid in the afterlife, as well. After all, none of the unicorns and pegasi own farmland, and none of them farm. And Cloudsdale is an exclusively pegasus city. Being an equality-minded person, Mandela won't rest until all races of ponies can live there.

Things are hard in Ponyville for Fluttershy and Discord; mainly because of Discord. But when magic starts to go on the fritz and eventually starts failing altogether, it's up to the main six and the Draconequus to find out what's causing it and, more importantly, how to fix it.

This would be a lot easier if anypony trusted the King of Chaos to begin with, but with bigger problems on the horizon, some things will have to wait to be dealt with. Like trust. Or loyalty. Or friendship.

Of course, sometimes what we think isn't important to deal with right now, is exactly what's needed to prevent things from getting far, far worse.

Petra Alice Bettencourt, a child of the lost Earth's ruling corporate elite, nears her fourteenth birthday. The earth is years gone now, and Petra lives on with the elite in special mansions on the backside of Canterlot Mountain. But Petra, like all the Worldgovernment elite, has had her experience of Equestrian life determined by the agreement that made the Conversion Bureaus possible at all - she is still completely human, in Equestria.

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...

When your life is as dull a gray as the world that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color -- or six -- to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

*6-16-2017 Edit, added Rainbow Dash tag because it triggered knighty.*