With a research paper due date on the horizon, Twilight Sparkle recruits Rainbow Dash to help her unlock the secrets of the princesses’ Everfree castle. The further they go, the more it seems like they’ve stumbled into a Daring Do novel. They must escape before they drive each other crazy. Or fall victim to the traps.

(A revision of one of the Hearth’s Warming Care Package stories for Kiki.)
(EDIT: R.I.P. Kiki.)

Beta Reader Special Thanks
Sessalisk
Clever Pun
Meta Four
Japanese Teeth
Fox_E
Gawain Victor Royale
Curious Black Cat
Invidlord
Kegisak
Kayeka
Sereg
The Librarian/Quarter Note

Without their help, this story wouldn't be nearly as refined as it is.

Also note that the old version is still up as a courtesy to my older readers.
EDIT: Change of plans. I have been informed of a way to archive the old version, but still keep it on FIMFic. So if you're looking for the old version, it can now be found here.

Equestria Daily
Equestria Critics Society

Unseen horrors lurk just beyond the horizon, but the future is not immutable.

A strange new pony arrives in Canterlot bearing knowledge that could help avoid the dark times ahead. What begins as a straightforward mission soon develops into an adventure that will carry all involved to the borders of Equestria and beyond.

5-star Featured on Equestria Daily... for some reason. I've been meaning to add this disclaimer for a while, and so here it is: this was a first fic of a first-time author, and it really shows. Know that whatever well-founded critique you have to level at it, I will almost certainly agree with. It has problems, of that there is no doubt, and significant enough ones that I'll always be bothered that the story is up. Taking it down feels like bad form, however, and bringing the writing in line with my current standards would require a full rewrite, which would be dishonest to the readers who have been through it already. I leave it up as a badge for having completed something, but just be aware that if you start in on it, you will almost certainly finish bewildered and dissatisfied.

Three weeks have passed since Twilight Sparkle was crowned a Princess of Equestria; but many things have not changed. For instance, one hour every day, all of the animals at Fluttershy's home take a nap, and she has tea.

One day, though, her routine is spontaneously interrupted by the least spontaneous mare she knows, eager to talk about anything, except what brought on her visit in the first place. Fluttershy is left to wonder: Just what is going on in Twilight's mind, and can she help her unravel it?

Applejack and Rainbow Dash knew this would be hard, but a long distance relationship was in their future from the start. A Wonderbolt and an apple farmer don't have a lot of time in the same place, so they do their best with letters and the occasional weekends. But when Applejack finds out that Rainbow Dash is on the cover of Flyers Illustrated: Wet Feathers Edition, it plays on a fear she never mentioned to Dash: Everypony knows that famous ponies are different from normal folks. . .

Right?

"Wet Mane Rainbow Dash," used in the cover image, is by Suikuzu.
Prereading by DbzOrDie, First_Down, Tchernobog, and Jackie

Derpy Hooves is secretly a changeling.

Nopony particularly notices, or cares.

(New 9/15/19: Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi! Thank you!)

Shocking, how Celestia never taught Cadance the Royal Canterlot Voice. And Twilight will need to learn it as well. What can a Princess of the Night do but hold a class to teach this essential art for princesses? Hopefully she knows how to maintain classroom discipline....

Cover by Guardian Core.

Rainbow Dash is many things. Awesome, radical, amazing, and at least twenty percent cooler than any other pony in Equestria.

She is also lost, lonely and uncertain. Not that anypony else would know.

During the day she is everything everypony expects her to be: she is fast, daring, and adventurous, but when the sun goes down, she is left alone with her thoughts. Tired of simply yearning for something more, she sets out on a night of soul searching and stumbles onto a friend in need, and maybe, underneath the vanilla twilight, she finds something more.

Princess Celestia always knew that Twilight Sparkle was destined for great things, but she never revealed the source of that knowledge, not even to those closest to her. When the day of Twilight's true destiny finally arrives, can Celestia fulfill an ancient promise to save Equestia's past, present, and future, even it means saying goodbye to Twilight forever? How can Celestia refuse her mother's last wish?

Art by the inimitable Harwick

A random question about who's the better baker - Pinkie Pie or Applejack - leads the two Earth pony friends to think back to when they were fillies and how they met, became friends, and learned to bake from one of Ponyville's most notable bakers.