Twilight talks to Celestia about her deceased grandmother.

A snippet of life in story form.

What is the cost of freedom?

It is not free, as many would like to think. It isn't guaranteed by words on paper, or by ideas formed in the minds of great thinkers. It's paid for at a cost; a dear cost.

Three little fillies are about to get a lesson in the true price that is to be paid to remain free.

Oriole has a problem. She can't stop eating stallions.

Rarity has a problem. Her new friend can't stop eating stallions.

Twilight Sparkle has a problem. A stallion-eating monster has moved into her town.

Spike's just glad he's not a stallion.

We all know how the end of the story went. Starlight was shown the disastrous consequences of her time travel spell, she revealed her past, Twilight took her under her wing as her own student and she mends her ways.

But what if that wasn't the case?

Even when the results of Starlight's meddling of the past is shown to her, she rejects the offer of friendship and still vows to never stop her attempts to exact revenge on the Mane Six and ruin their connection. Thus Twilight is faced with only one final option...

Starlight Glimmer vector by Godoffury

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Reading by DragonFirePrincess7

When all encompassing dark surrounds the soul threatening to devour it whole, leaving the shattered within to feel completely betrayed and isolated...
... at that moment, no matter where, when, or how; there is someone willing to be there for you...

...even if they don't even realize it.

(Yes, that is Vincent Van Gogh)

Previously owned by Paton Pendeng.

Marble Pie has lived on the rock farm her whole life. Every morning, when she goes to fetch water from the well, she looks out at the horizon to watch the sun rise. One day, she begins to wonder what lies beyond that horizon...

Cover Art by ANTI1MOZG (used with permission!).
Edited by Knight Templar, GenerousGhibli, and E3gner.

Entered as part of the Everfree Northwest Scribblefest Contest (2016).

Sunset Shimmer weathered the storm. She returned from the darkest depths, and now she has good friends. People like her.

If I haven't sunk too far myself… maybe she'll help me. Then I can help Sonata and Aria.

Please, Sunset.

Thanks to Present Perfect for his help.

Featured on Equestria Daily!

A pair of sequels, of sorts, are posted here and here.

It's every young filly and colt's dream -- the moment they get their cutie mark. It is the instant they leave childhood behind.

For Firecracker, getting his cutie mark was a dream come true. Literally: he woke up, and there it was.

Now if only he could remember what his dream was about.

For hundreds of years, Twilight Sparkle has managed to go through her life by working day and night as the sole ruler of Equestria. Sensing her life coming to an end, Twilight looks back at her achievements and believes like something is missing since the last of her loved ones died.

One day, Twilight finds some old relics with her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter with one of them being her old doll, Smartypants. Memories of the time she used to play with her favorite doll, even bringing it to life with a spell, flood her as long-buried emotions come out. It is with Smartypants that Twilight will find what she has been missing all this time.

***

Inspired by BerrryPAWNCH's Growing Pains Comic, who I thank for the permission to do this fic.

Thanks to my Editors: Darth Link 22, First Down, Chaotic Note, BronyWriter, and Socks

It's been years since Twilight Sparkle has seen Spike—not that she's had any particular desire to find him since their friendship turned sour. However, with Equestria facing an imminent invasion, Twilight's advisors convince her to make a final effort to mend her relationship with her former assistant.

Artwork by Page Turner.