Blueblood finally gets a chance to earn his wings, and he's not going to waste it. He'll do anything.

Also read: When an Angel Loses his Wings

It turns out that Sunset Shimmer's final letters to Princess Celestia before her exile were not filled with resentment or remorse.

There might have been a lot more frantic running away involved.

But whatever the case, it was definitely not Sunset's fault.

At all.

Cover Art designed by Novel-Idea from my original cruddy screencap!

Rated Teen and Sex for mentions of egregious sexual irresponsibility. No actual sex.

Contains minor Sunlight shipping. Much apologies.

Equestria has just entered the first era of movie-making. Ponies now have a brand-new medium to express themselves in any way they wish, with no limits whatsoever, showing anything and everything they might dare to dream of.

Well, clearly nopony of morals would ever allow that!

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Once upon a time, (if the term even applies) two young ladies, (if that adjective even applies) decided to visit a magical land of Equestria, selected seemingly at random from about a million.

• One of the two is a time traveler deprived of her time machine, the other is an eldritch abomination out of her element.
• One would prefer the world of pastel-colored ponies to stay as it is, and can’t help but alter it. The other one is anxious to see how it can change, and can’t help but maintain it.
• Both believe that this is not their story. But while they disturb the delicate world of ponies, they don’t even notice ponies doing the same to them.
• Sandwiches are involved somehow.

There are many things this story is and some things it isn’t.

It’s not a fix fic, no matter what some of the characters think. It’s written in multiple first person narration, which happened for a pointlessly clever reason, that will eventually become quite obvious. It’s not a crossover, it just comes with an unhealthy amount of backstory. It could be a rational-fic, but since idealistic philosophy is typically not seen as very rational, it’s only a philoso-fic instead. It’s quite meta, in the original definition of metafiction: fiction concerned with fiction as a concept. In any case, it’s either a small monument to overthinking things – I’m trying to reexamine many fanon ideas here – or a digital paperweight, I’m not sure which. It’s quite a bit more subtle than it could be, and everyone talks way too much when they should be having glorious adventures.
I know how it starts, I know how it ends, and most of what happens in between. Readers say it’s a slow burner, but we’ll get there eventually.

Acknowledgements

With special thanks to my editors, Thainen, Shrink Laureate, and MitchH.
Further special thanks to ScarletWeather and Themaskedferret for valuable input.
The artist who made the cover image stubbornly wishes to remain uncredited, but thanks to her anyway.

One beautiful morning, Twilight Sparkle decides she wants a free salad. After a small amount of theft, assault, battery, and arson, she sits down to enjoy what is sure to be the best tasting salad ever.

...Or she would have, if it weren’t for the Equestrian Intelligence Service locking her up as a potential threat to national security. Now, Twilight must escape a maximum security holding facility hidden deep underneath Canterlot. And to do it, she’ll need a paperclip, a spymare catsuit, an escape plan, and an alliance with the dastardly Drakbog, King of Frogs.

This story is a sequel to Stardust

Everyone knows the story of Hearths Warming Eve. They know the tales of the three pony tribes and how their strife brought the Windigoes upon them, and how the Fires of Friendship saved them from their frozen fates. For countless generations the tale has been told, but how has it changed over those years?

Or is any of it true in the first place?

Only one pony knows, and Celestia would prefer that the past stay forgotten.

(Based on a 'What If' line of thought that was born from the Stardust storyline. While some familiarity with Stardust and Mente Materia doesn't hurt, this story can be enjoyed on its own)
(Coverart available soon from the amazing FoxInShadow!)
(Many thanks to Arzoo, BradTheBrony, Vandenbz, and Setokaiva for prereading!)
(Complete with it's own TVTropes page as part of the Stardust continuity)
(Character tags will be added as chapters are added!)
(Possible spoilers in the comments! BEWARE!)

This is a series of one-shot chapters that tell the stories of important events in griffon (and potentially world) history as pertains to the world built in Diplomacy for the Strong.

Chapter 1 - What is Griffonstone? How did a tiny decrepit village get the title of a Kingdom?

Chapter 2 - The Crystal Empire just accepts Cadance as their ruler? Why?

If you read these without the context of DftS, you do so with the understanding that this is expanded world-building and therefore innately head-canon territory. (Oh, and you won't really understand what's going on... so there's that too.)

Trade negotiations. Board meetings. Formal garden parties. Not the definition of a fun weekend for Princess Celestia at all.

However, Celestia has a plan. Rarity’s going to join her this year, and by their gossiping powers combined, they may be able to turn this upcoming convention into something a little more unconventional.

Rainbow Dash comes to Fluttershy for help with her next big prank. Fluttershy agrees reluctantly, but as their masquerade begins, she finds herself actually enjoying it. Then the Cutie Map calls the two of them to Cloudsdale, and things take a turn for the peculiar.

This story was inspired by a bit of discussion with my fellow curators at the Royal Canterlot Library and was the "runner-up" in The 3rd Flutterdash Group Story Contest. The cover features artwork from EmilyVans and RDbrony16.

Twilight confronts the Tree of Harmony about the way it never sends her on Friendship Missions. The Tree explains itself. Kind of.

The original version of this story got 4th place in the Writeoff Association's 56th contest, "*Princess Not Included."