Twilight was so excited to have been appointed to head an important diplomatic mission to the distant land of the alphyns, even more so that Cadance, Shining Armour and Spike were coming with her to provide support.

But the truculent Grand Prince Caldrast is less interested in negotiating than he is in advancing his tenebrous personal agenda. As she deals with the machinations of the Grand Prince, Twilight discovers some members of her family hide secrets of their own...

Cadance isn't Sombra. But Sombra's leadership is all the crystal ponies remember, a ruler they had to love at all costs, with the final payment being their own lives. And as they gradually come to see their new Princess as leader instead of savior, too much of that residual fear is being transferred to her. They praise her, adore her, refuse to correct her no matter what she does -- because they live in terror of the consequences for doing anything else. They have yet to find their own voices, and may go on repeating hers until Celestia and Luna switch shifts. So how can she make them tell her when she's wrong, see that there's nothing to be afraid of, and take the next step in coming back to themselves once and for all?

Forbidding them to do anything other than criticize her should do the trick, right?

...right?

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group -- but can be read as a stand-alone, and no knowledge of the other stories is required. New members and trope edits are welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

This story is a sequel to A Moment in the Sun

Sunset Shimmer is on the run. It's been six months since she left her life as Princess Celestia's student behind, but she can't escape her own past. Her parents are offering a reward for her safe return home, and Celestia's agents are watching her every step. She might have gotten out of Canterlot, but the runaway student is still a long way from freedom. Especially since her education with the Princess of Equestria didn’t cover things like how to make a living wage with her magical skills.

However, there might still be one place where she can escape all of them. The infamous island nation of Freeport has long had a reputation as a haven for pirates, criminals, and exiles, but there's no better place in the world for somepony who wants to disappear. The only question is whether Sunset will live long enough to pull it off.

This story is a sequel to The Sun Burns Brightly

When you're the immortal ruler of an entire kingdom, the most important quality to possess is a passion for your work. No princess can rule her nation if she can't find it in herself to give her best effort every day and night. Luna knows this better than anypony, and puts her whole heart into everything she does.

But passion, unless tempered by restraint, has a way of biting one in the flank.

Twilight still isn't having a very good day. An army of changelings is attacking Canterlot, and the experimental spell that blew up in her face has stuck her in a time loop until she gets everything perfect and saves Equestria.

She's got a plan. She's also got a problem: Suddenly, she's not the only one whose day is repeating. And when you're caught between unstoppable force and immovable object, life has a tendency to get complicated.

* * *

This story is an authorized alternate-universe re-imagining of Eakin's Hard Reset, in which multiple loopers turn the time shenanigans up to 11. (Knowledge of Hard Reset is not required, but based on reader comments, will help in sorting out the early chapters.)

Cliff's Notes versions: RampantArcana has started a GitHub repository to codify the time-loop rules and the early-story timeline. Hawthornbunny has posted a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of all the loops, including the ones we don't see, with a lot of critical analysis. Those links contain spoilers (of currently posted chapters). If you're confused, either one of those fan projects is a great starting point, and story comments have a lot of insightful discussion as well.

Publication schedule: 2014 kicked my plot, but as of November I'm picking up the writing again and hope to have something by the end of the month.

Cover art by Alexstrazsa.

Cadance receives a letter which no one delivered, written by two little fillies who never lived. It mentions a daughter Cadance didn't know she had, and a great wolf no one's ever heard of. Cadance decides to find the two and grant their wish, but why did she go alone, and what did Clover the Clever write on a rock in the middle of nowhere?

Update (March 12 2015) The story is complete, and the first six chapters have been updated a little. If you already read those chapters, it may be worth reading them again, or it may not. I've listed some of the most obvious changes below, but I can't say that's all.

I am not very happy with this story, to be honest. I think it suffered from some real mistakes, and I've come to realize that it should have been written from a different perspective entirely. Since I can't change that now, I leave it as it is and hope some of you still enjoy it.

Changes
- The village where Silica and Silene live now has a name: Glimmerville
- Silica and Silene's mother now has a name: White Rose.
- Since it seems I never established this, the two fillies and their mother are all crystal ponies.
- A few hints of Cadance's pregnancy have been added to the early chapters.
- The guards who follow Cadance in chapter 2 now include Flash Sentry in place of one of the previous OCs. The guards are now: Wing Commander Jade Eye, Flight Lieutenant Skyline, and Flying Officers Rimelick, Flash Sentry, and Greyhound.
- There are now implied to be additional groups of guards out patrolling and scouting under Jade Eye's command.
- I wanted to be more consistent about the structure of the pegasus air force units, though it's not exactly important. A flight is a group of 3-5 pegasi led by a Flight Lieutenant. A squadron is three flights, and a wing is three squadrons under the command of a Wing Commander.
- In chapter 2 there used to be a small mention of a sun-like symbol on the rock next to Clover's message. I decided to remove that detail.
- I wanted the timeline to be more consistent as well. The story begins not long after Twilight's coronation, six or seven years after Luna's return from the moon I imagine. Fenris first appears and is chained a few years after that. He escapes his bonds some 40 years later, a few years before Silica and Silene's mother is born.
- In chapter 6, after she wakes from the dead, Cadance's magic no longer shows traces of black magic.

After putting on the Element of Magic, Sunset Shimmer was shown just how much of a monster she really is. But that wasn't all the Elements did to her.

Sunset has now been forced to serve penance by answering any question truthfully and by doing anything asked of her, whether she wants to or not.

And she really doesn't want to.

Until all of the hatred in her heart is gone, Sunset is at the whim of her peers, unbeknownst to them of course. Can her new "friends" help her down the road to redemption?

If not, there's always that other Twilight Sparkle she keeps running into.

Current editor: Nomad_Sigma
Guest editors: Cerulean Voice, Flint Sparks, Starlight Nova, and Sholan
Extra thanks to Icarus_Gizmo, JustAnotherTimeLord, and HenryAnthonyCourtler

Cover art customized by Amber Spark!

Now with it's own TV Tropes page!
Posted on EQD June 25, 2014
Wanna read it in French?
Or, read the E-Pub version here or the online version here
Now available in print format!

Apple Bloom is home alone on Nightmare Night and invites her two best friends over. They each tell a scary story about bat ponies, but one of these stories may just turn out to be a little too scary, and a little too real.

What would My Little Pony be like if it were British? Let's all don our top hats and monocles, sip some tea, and watch a jolly good show, guvnah!

Now with its own reading!

Luna was never banished, Discord is Celestia's court jester, the Elements of Harmony do not exist, and Twilight grows more pompous and more egotistical every day.

Celestia is not amused.

This story is on indefinite hiatus. I might revisit it, so it's not cancelled, but I'm not currently skilled enough as an author to do some of the things I wanted. Believe me, I've got the drafts to prove it.