This story is a sequel to Iron Wing and the Demolition Crew

Everyone knows the story of the Iron Wing. They all know how fiercely she fought at the battle of Rainbow Falls. Soldiers measure their worth by where they were when she routed Sombra at the gates of Canterlot. Even now, there's a pilgrimage some take that follows her entire campaign.

And anyone who knows anything about the Iron Wing knows about the Demolition Crew. The story of the Crystal Collapse is one fraught with thrills and chills for fillies of all ages, and the closing of the Ghastly Gorge continues to inspire and terrify all who hear of it.

But legends seldom begin as the titans they become. Heroes are not born, but made, through fire and pain and loss. There isn't a pony alive who doesn't know the story of the heroes, but the story of the soldiers who became those heroes is one known only to them.

This is not the story of Iron Wing and the Demolition Crew. This is the story of Rainbow Dash and the Pie sisters.

The Crystal War. A battle so long and brutal that it has shaped an entire era of righteous bloodshed. Ponies don't have slumber parties, or read bedtime stories to their foals, or even so much as smile. And when they do smile, it's the kind of smile that would keep ponies of a more peaceful era awake for days.

The madness of Sombra and his slave army claims lives every day. Soldiers in service to Celestia fight tirelessly to hold onto even a shred of what Equestria used to be. Its citizens do everything they can to feed the bloody machine, from canning food to holding funerals.

And at the heart of it all, there stand three mighty warriors. They have lost a great deal to this war, though none of them know just how much. What they do know is that they made promises back home, and they are not in the habit of breaking promises. No matter the cost.

This is the story of Iron Wing and the Demolition Crew.

Soldiers don't just stand there, blindly following orders and throwing their lives away. Sure, some of them do, but they aren't the ones who come back. The ones who come back have spent hours, days in the trenches, waiting for that brief moment of terrible and bloody action. And thinking.

You have a lot of time to think, in a hole in the ground waiting to kill or be killed.

There aren't any trenches in the Crystal War. Sombra throws his soldiers in wave after wave at the enemy, and the bodies of those soldiers only rest when there is nothing left to fight and their master is briefly perplexed about where all the squishy targets went. The Equestrians aren't much better, retreating to tents and clouds and once in a glorious while, maybe a cave. But even without the trench, there is time to think.

And when you might die tomorrow, you don't think in silence. You talk. You ask questions.

They aren't all easy questions.

Rainbow Dash was the Iron Wing. She was a war hero, the Slayer of Shadows, the Liberator of the Crystal Empire, the Wrath of Celestia. And depending on who you ask, she still is.

But the war is over. There's little need for a pony like her in peacetime. So she keeps telling herself that she needs to adjust, that she needs to find a new role to fill in the world that she saved. But Equestria seems content to let her remain what she has become, even though they have no need of a warrior.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be", is something she keeps telling herself. But every time she says it, the only thing she can reply is, "so what should it be?"

One whole year after the close of the war, and Rainbow Dash still doesn't have the answer.

Art by NCMares.

When Rainbow Dash needs somepony to pretend to be her date for a social occasion, the choice is obvious. When she develops feelings for that friend, things aren't so simple. But Rainbow might find her inexperience ending their new relationship before it begins.

Edited by R5h and Space Jazz
Special thanks to Tailspin and Flareshard
Cover art by ShiroPoint

Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi

Arceus has been imprisoned for many millennia, and in that time he has watched his world fall apart. But once he is finally freed from his prison he decides that to protect his Pokémon, and his family, that he will move the Pokémon, and a few select 'humans' to a world where they might live in peace, Equestria. However, not everyone on this new world shares his view of peace and the very presence of the Pokémon upsests some of the citizens of the world, even some of the ones he brought with aren't too happy with the situation. But a god's will is a strong thing and without his willingness the Pokémon and the citizens of Equestria are going to have to learn to get along, or at least tolerate each other. And there's a slight problem with some of the humans too, well, former humans that is.

Big thanks to tdnpony for proof reading, editing, helping me with ideas, and so much more.

Just a few of the side stories from my growing collection.
Pokemon, A Whole 'New' Frontier
A New World, A New Way-Swarm.
The City is Always Bustling On the Other Side
A Brave New World
A new World, Burning an Old Way

The rest can be found here, in my Fan Group. Group Linky.

Big thanks toxBUBBA1995x for the amazing new cover art!

I also have a Tvtrope page that is kept somewhat up to date by Kingofsouls if you know how to Trope, and want to help set it up, go here Tvtrope Link.

Since a lot of people keep aking this I'm gonna put an explanation here. I'm not following any one canon-verse here, I'm making a hodge podge universe with bits from the Manga, Anime, Games, and Movies, as well as some etcetera concerning issues addressed in none of them to great lengths. (Arceus' power is far beyond what he has in the games or movie and this does contain some Pokephilia, which comes from pretty much no canon material ever.)

When it came to matters of the heart, Anthony just couldn't win. In his path, a rainbow coloured trail of broken hearts were left. With the final relationship he had, his strange exes decided they had enough. Now crashing through the universe and robbed of everything that makes him who he is: Anthony has been abandoned, branded and renamed by his exes. Find out how a pony named HeartBreak has to learn -her- place in this new world.

Rainbow has been feeling uncharacteristically down about herself lately. The ponies she's been interested in seem to gravitate towards more feminine mares, and she's convinced that if she wants to find somepony to love, she needs to work towards that ideal. In her efforts to improve her chances of finding love, she finds a book full of questionable spells that infects the mind of anyone who reads from its aging pages. She has no idea what the book may hold, but it promises to give her what her heart desires most.

Will her friends figure out what's happening in time to help, or will they lose the Dash they know and love forever?

One of the positive things about being enlisted in the Solar Guard is all the mares Rainbow Dash could possibly chase after.

A negative? The one she's really after is in the Lunar Guard, and she's pretty… batty.

Cover art by silbersternenlicht on Derpibooru.
Pre-read by Not Enough Coffee.
Proofread and edited by Dreams of Ponies and AAIQU.
Winner in the 2017 Thestral Writing Competition and 2nd place in the 4th Flutter-Dash Contest.
Featured 10/20/17 - 10/24/17.
With an audio reading!

"Hey, uh, Rick, what did you want me to, uh, write down here again?"

"Look, Morty, it's not that urp complicated, just, just write down a generic description of what we did."

"But Rick, we did a lot of things!"

"Then figurp it out, Morty. Christ, and here I thought you were getting at least a bit smarter. Just, write down something about, uh, 'Rick and Morty Get Stuff From Horse Land'. 'Morty and Rick and something something horse pun'. I dunno, something."

"I want to go back to the ponies..."

"Oh, I bet you would like that, huh, MMMorty? Go back to the girly dimension full of urp friendship and magic and all that. Look, just give it here, I'll, uh, just put it up as it is."

Now with coverart by some guy named Shadow Bolt