There is a secret in Equestria. A secret the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle doesn’t dare to believe. Like puppeteers pulling on marionettes, they have influenced Equestria for better and worse since the fall of Discord. So far they have been benevolent, but their potential for evil is vast. What’s worse, she doesn’t know their name. She doesn’t know their mission. All she knows for certain is one thing.

That they all seem to be zebra.

When Twilight and Applejack have a falling out over who can claim to have the best big brother, each will stop at nothing to prove theirs is better.

And their brothers will stop at nothing to make their sisters happy.

Twilight Sparkle has always admired Princess Celestia. Her fortitude, her wisdom, her eternal grace and love for all her subjects. Twilight has often fantasized about what it would be like to be in Princess Celestia's horseshoes. She never imagined those fantasies would come true.

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Events take place a short time after the Crystal Empire's return (early S3).
Proofreading from chapter three-onward provided by Daemon of Decay.
Cover image used with permission from TexasUberAlles, thanks!
Inspiration for Sunny Skies from PhantomFox.

To Holmes, she is always the mare. In his eyes she eclipses the whole of her sex, and fills him with admiration and loathing. Whether she in fact stole the Starry Night was ultimately beside the point. What mattered to Holmes was that he had been matched at his own game, by a mare; that it had not been altogether unpleasant; and that she had caused him, however briefly, to turn his keen and unflinching gaze upon himself.

On EQD July 31, 2012.

On secret assignment from Princess Celestia herself, Twilight investigates a powerful magical artifact for clues to the mystery of Luna's transformation in the evil Nightmare Moon. Incautious use of the artifact sends Twilight hurtling back in time. Can Twilight discover what caused Luna's transformation? And will she ever make it home again?

Kickass cover art used with permission from Bitz.
http://allthebitz.tumblr.com/

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” -Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Twilight Sparkle has come up with an inspired idea for Rainbow Dash’s birthday present, the best one she can imagine. She’s made a living, breathing copy of her favorite fictional character for her. The new pony has one goal in mind, and one purpose that crowds out all others: Be the best Daring Do she can be.

A collaborative work with the incomparable Eakin.

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

North of Canterlot, in the far marches of Equestria near the border with the Griffon tribes, there is a mountain that flies.

West of Canterlot, beyond the Galloping Mountains and a desert painted in the pastel hues of a faded rainbow, a tower sits at the edge of the world.

South of Canterlot, past the Everfree forest and the desolate badlands, a city of gardens waits to be born.

The Lost Cities Challenge! Awesome authors who have taken it upon themselves to explore other abandoned places:

- The Land of Glass and Stone, by RazgrizS57
- The City that Breathes, by Pearple Prose
- Aletheia, by Foehn
- Far Kobresia, by Baal Bunny
- Keskiyönnon, by Bradel
- Unknown Architecture, by Not_A_Hat
- The Gentle People, by Bad Horse
- The Seal of Wax and Glass, by DuncanR

Dramatic Reading by Illya Leonov: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4.

Royal Canterlot Library interview for Lost Cities.

After being marooned on an icy world in unexplored space, Lumina must now face the perils of this frozen wasteland and search for some way home. But in this dark place, she discovers something that was lost to pony kind ever since the fabled Equestria sank into the ocean over 10,000 years ago. Something that will change her, and possibly the entire galaxy, forever.

Not a cross over, and not an alternate universe. This is the far future, and this has happened before.
Cover art by CSImadmax

Now in the FimFiction Gold Archives!
Now on Equestria Daily!
Now featured in Fort-Book Reviews!

One hundred years ago, ponykind discovered they were not native to their planet, Equus. For the past sixty years, they have been working on a spaceship to return them to their true homeworld. The young unicorn scientist Twilight Sparkle has provided the final piece of the puzzle needed to complete the gigantic mothership intended to lead their return, a technology to fuse pony and machine into a single organism. Refusing to allow anypony else to undergo the highly experimental procedure, she sacrifices herself to become Fleet Command. In just months, the Mothership will finally launch, and an age-old journey will begin.

Elsewhere aboard the ship, six ponies who would, in another universe, have been her close friends and companions prepare. Shining Armor is commanding the vessel's final assembly, including the permanent integration of his sister into its computational core. Applejack commands life support, keeping fifty thousand ponies alive in the depths of space. Fluttershy has just come aboard as the ship's lead zoologist, a renowned expert in animal behavior whose talents will, hopefully, extend to alien life. Rainbow Dash is a scout pilot, one of the ship's complement of defenders, as well as the tip of the ship's mission of exploration. Rarity is a master machinist, ensuring that the new and experimental technology the ship is working on always has a certain artistic flair. And Pinkie Pie is a pastry chef by day and entertainer by night, ensuring in her own inimitable way the ship's continued morale.

But none of them have the power to see what awaits them in their mission...

(MLP/Homeworld crossover)