Rainbow Dash, best pony, fastest flier in Equestria, all around awesome mare, was called upon to help with the wedding of her friend's big brother. And hey, she never leaves her friends hanging! Of course, when it turned out some kind of bug thing had replaced the bride, Rainbow was more then ready to fight. Heck, even after it seemed all hope was lost, the pegasus refused to give up.

So when she saw Shining Armor charge up a final spell, she smirked.

But when that spell reached her and flung her against the wall, her smirk devolved into shock...

Cover art is a combination of Deception is Magic vector by Helios and Sonic Rainboom Version One by SkyRings.

Radiant Hope thought she could save Sombra from himself. Instead, she lost everything.

Alone and hurting, Hope finds her way to Seaddle and tries to settle down into a quiet and obscure life where she can be left to her sorrow. That is, until she crosses paths with Starlight Glimmer, who realizes that Hope could be the key to setting her own dubious plans into motion. They may not like each other, but before either of them knows it, a series of events launches them on a perilous journey along the western coast of Equestria and they must depend upon each other to survive.

Enter a devotee of Starlight's who takes this whole "Equality" thing a little too seriously, a quack doctor with an ego the size of Manehatten, a wandering lunatic that's convinced he's Starswirl the Bearded, and a secret agent intent on protecting the princesses at all costs, and things get complicated rather quickly. Everypony has their own agenda and nothing is what it appears to be. Through it all, Hope and Starlight will be forced to take a hard look at their lives and the choices they've made. But if they can manage to make peace with their respective pasts, our heroines might just have a shot at that rarest of things; redemption.

(For Radiant Hope, this story diverges at the conclusion the Siege of the Crystal Empire arc (Issue 37). It diverges between The Cutie Map and The Cutie Re-Mark for Starlight Glimmer.)

Mithra is a cute, little filly that lives in Fillydelphia! Swift Shade is a bat pony colt who also happens to live in the same city! Little Mithra wants a scary slumber party, and her new friend seems like the perfect colt for that. Bat ponies are supposed to be scary, right? Right!

Except looks can be deceiving. Really, really deceiving.

"...The test ends when you open that door."

Princess Luna has begun searching for her own personal student, and her test has hit a small snag: Not a single unicorn, out of the dozens of applicants, has passed. In fact, every last candidate has failed the test in seconds.

But just what is the purpose of this test? And how can somepony pass it?

A young earth pony named Morning Glory is going to find out.

A thousand years ago, Princess Celestia banished her sister to the moon, that much we know. What wasn’t known, and what Celestia kept secret was that before her banishment, Luna had given birth to a foal. Now a thousand years later, as Nightmare returns to Equestria to bring about Eternal Night.

Twilight Sparkle, protege of Princess Celestia, struggles against the tyranny of this ancient foe. But how will she be able to save herself and her friends when the truth of this ancient legend crashes down upon her? Twilight will have to confront herself...and her heritage.

Polaris501

King Sombra came from an old age, a time where darkness and evil were prevalent across the land. The Princesse's power and influence were weaker in those days, for the land of Equestria was divided amongst many kingdoms of lesser Princesses and Princes. But out of all their ruling neighbors, The Four Shepherds held the most power of all, even threatening Celestia and Luna's kingdom. However, all of that changed when they vanished for a thousand years, ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity. Until that is, when the Crystal Kingdom reappeared, along with one of the Shepherds. King Sombra, however, was thankfully vanquished swiftly, but the following peace of his defeat would not last as long as anypony might think. A new force sets its eyes on the recently coronated Princess Twilight Sparkle, one that seeks to restore a lost heritage and remind the land of who is the true owner of the night. For when one evil is smitten, another appears in its place. And King Sombra was only the first in line.

Set before Season 4

Note: Dark tag is meant for Light Dark

Special thanks to my editor Ladrian for his diligent and superb work. I wish I had him when I first started this story because maybe then the early chapters would have been much better.

Special thanks to Stanku for revisions and prereading this story. It would be at a much worse state had it not been for his detailed opinions to each and every chapter, and letting me know where I can improve.

10/2/2014 : Woah... it's on the featured list... *cue squealing and fist pumping* THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

[Featured on EqD] A changeling worker, stranded and far away from her home, is forced to make a difficult choice. Risk her life, or serve the enemy.

This is 100% Approved by Twilight's Library.

Princess Celestia never knew what it was like to be feared. Sure, she knew of the anxiety of those meeting her for the first time, but that was a given. That wasn’t true fear. She knew of the fear of defeat shown by past villains she had brought down, but it was never true fear of her or her actions.

This colt, though? This earth pony who just appeared in her castle? He fears her. He fears her above all else, even death itself. Not even Nightmare Moon was feared this way. So why, oh why was this little colt so terrified of her? What had she done? How can she ever hope to alleviate her little pony of his pain, if her very presence causes him to lock up in terror?

Just where did this colt come from?

(So imagine a character from a grimdark story (ideally the victim) ending up in canon Equestria, and you pretty much have the premise behind this story. Do be warned though; this is much darker than my other stories, mostly because of the setting the aforementioned character came from. Seriously, when I thought of a victim of a grimdark story, I really wanted his old home to be as grim and dark as I could make it.)

While on her way home from a day with her friends, Apple Bloom runs into Twilight on a trip to Zecora's hut. After insisting to join her, little Apple Bloom gets lost in the woods after chasing a mysterious mare hiding amongst the poison joak. She stumbles upon a town completely isolated within the Ever Free Forest, but something about this town just doesn't feel right...

Sparkler has a secret that she's hidden from her mother for many years, a secret that would destroy her if she ever found out. But, with the help of her... special friend, Sparkler decides that she can't lie to her mother anymore. So she sits her mother down and reveals her most shocking secret.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/CUBPvKI.png[/img]