Applejack realizes one morning that Rainbow Dash has apparently moved in with her. This discovery surprises Dash more than a little, too, and sets off a chain of events neither could have imagined.

The original minific version of this story came in fifth in the Dec. 2015 Writeoff Association contest, "Things Left Unsaid." And the full, three-chapter-and-an-epilogue version won 3rd place in The Fourth AppleDash Contest: A Little Twist of Lemon using the categories "A Life-Changing Event" and "An Important or Memorable Date."

Rainbow Dash doesn't care for love. Applejack doesn't have time.
So when a simple game goes wrong, then Dash's favourite fictional heroine's latest tale takes a turn for the romantic, why does she suddenly find herself with a rose between her teeth?

A/N: I wanted to try something entirely safe for work again, and here we are. Not completely happy with how it turned out, so sorry about that. A (hilariously belated) birthday gift for the amazing RatOfDrawn, who draws cute ponies and has a bit of an AppleDash fetish.

This story is a sequel to A Pony's Sympathy

Following Discord's last escape from stone [as seen in A Pony's Sympathy], Twilight Sparkle sought to understand his role in the keeping of Balance in Equestria

Her want to understand sparked an alliance of sorts, a kind of understanding between them. Although having one pony in his corner has done little to convince the rest.

His lack of empathy and understanding of a pony's sensibility has been tolerated by Celestia.

But while both the princesses and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony struggle with even more dire problems, Discord is forced into a lesson of his own, and it could not have come at a more inopportune time.

Continuing the story of A Pony's Sympathy, the fledgling friendship between the Spirit of Chaos and the Element of Magic may determine the fate of the ponies, and the way both sides of harmony regard one another.

[Written/published between Nov. 2012 and Nov. 2013, based loosely on Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 3x13 'Deja Q']

Twilight discovers Discord in-hiding - which is strange enough - but the discussion they have causes her to consider the particulars of true harmony, and whether or not a being such as he should be allowed to live freely to retain his part in it.

[Written/published between Sept. 2011 and Oct. 2012]

When facing Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare Moon was given a choice: redemption or revenge. What if she had chosen the latter? A grim fate awaits Equestria, but in a time of greater strife and conflict, Discord's return is accelerated. While he expected to bring chaos, he did not anticipate that he would end the Longest Night and bring hope and joy back to the land.

Discord struggles to reconcile his nature with his desire for admiration. While Twilight's friends strive to carve a new life in the ever-shifting Equestria, she searches for Celestia, the only one who can bring harmony back to her lands. But Nightmare Moon also seeks her sister in a desperate attempt to find her place in the world. New dangers lurk in the wild and more threaten to fall over Equestria. Nightmare Moon's decision broke the balance of the world. Will Equestria ever turn to peace, or will the spiral of chaos and destruction be the end of everything?

(An alternate history, this story takes the universe established by the canon and explores one possible outcome if Princess Luna had not been redeemed.)

Comments contain huge spoilers. Walk softly.

Special thanks to my pre-readers, MmmandarinOrange and DarkmatterButterflies for keeping my head on, taking the journey of the story, and making it so much better than it would have been if I wrote it alone.

King Sombra’s dark influence was obliterated by the Crystal Heart, and the villain is well and truly dead. But when he attempts to steal the afterlife of an innocent victim, a human spirit is left hurtling towards Equestria, where this unfortunate soul is revived into the only vessel available: the reconstituted body of King Sombra himself.

Thus, a cheerfully oblivious alien is crammed into the form of the most evil and malicious being Equestria has ever known. Not that Shining Armor and Cadence know this, of course. As far as they are concerned, the King is back and he’s lost his fricking mind.

Click here for the TV Tropes page!

This isn't where I belong. I left all this behind years ago, moved on with my life. But a mare from my past brought me back, and now she won't let me go. So I'm stuck here, trying to make the best of it with ponies that don't understand me, don't even like me. But when something moves in the darkness, and when things go wrong in the cold, dead night, they'll turn to me to try to set things right.

Why? Because once a police pony, always a police pony.
~~
This is a spin-off story to 'Why am I Pinkie Pie?!', and will contain spoilers for that story, but it's not necessary to read that story to understand this one.
Cover art by the talented Conicer
Need more Cinnamon Swirl? Merlos the Mad wrote a fanfic of this story!

There is now a side-story: A Hard Day's Nightmare Night

When Rainbow Dash's newest trick backfires spectacularly, she and Fluttershy find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Together, they'll have to survive and find their way back to Equestria and Ponyville...no matter how far the journey.

Now with a Spanish translation by SPANIARD KIWI: https://www.deviantart.com/spaniard-kiwi/art/Apoteosis-1-3-857109863

(Originally submitted to Equestria Daily)
Art by katwalk.

Anon likes his life to be simple. He wakes up, goes to work and sometimes gets himself a good book to read while he is home. It's a routine that he likes to follow, it makes him feel like he has a bit of normality with his life in Equestria. The fact that having Celestia come crashing into his home as part of his routine should prove that his life is anything but normal.

(Thanks to PeerImagination for editing!)

Prince Blueblood thought the Grand Galloping Gala was over. He thought he could just go to sleep and put it behind him. He never expected to be reliving the same disaster of a day, over and over... and over.

TV tropes page here:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheBestNightEver

Thanks to all the people who wrote the page and all the people who gave me a little wakeup call and comment to become aware of that fact! You can't see it, but you guys put a real smile on my face tonight.

Also, recently, extra thanks to RD Dash for giving TBNE a thorough editing. I've updated the fic accordingly (7.11.12)