When a dark enemy begins hunting the young wizard Twilight Sparkle, the walls of the fortress library of Candlekeep cannot protect her. Not even her mentor, the archmage Star Swirl the Bearded, can keep her safe. With a price on her head and the shadow of death on her heels, her only hope for salvation is the Magic of Friendship. Perhaps, with powerful allies at her side, she can find answers and uncover the truth about her destiny.

(This story is inspired by the Baldur's Gate CRPG series by Bioware, but you do not have to be familiar with BG to understand its events)

Featured on Equestria Daily
Cover by Bluest Ayemel
"I love this fic. Keep it up!" – Sethisto (on the EQD page)
"From it's fantastic character development of Twilight and fast pace and exciting action, The Sword Coast is an excellently written and well thought-out story." – Amy Clockwork

Side stories: Tales of the Sword Coast
Sequel: Shadows of the Crystal Empire
Warning: Comments contain spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

At first glance, Princess Luna's charioteers might appear to be little more than Royal Guards dressed in festive apparel for Nightmare Night. However, there is far more to the story than that - the Night Guards once played a pivotal role in the history of Equestria, and have sacrificed more for their beloved princess than most ponies are even aware of.

Three years after the 'Cupcakes Massacre', Pinkamena Diane Pie is held in the Canterlot Prison for the Mentally Unbalanced. The state declared that ponies like her were beyond treatment or reason... but one doctor took interest into the mare's case and wanted to crack open her psyche in order to better understand her actions. Soon, a mental game of cat and mice takes place; in which you never know when one will be cornered.

~ Sequel: Dysphoria

[Cover image by LavosVsBahamut]

When your life is as dull a gray as the world that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color -- or six -- to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

*6-16-2017 Edit, added Rainbow Dash tag because it triggered knighty.*

The ponies of Ponyville are typically noted to be the happiest, most well adjusted, and harmonious beings in all of Equestria. Whether this is because of their innate goodness, their close proximity to Canterlot, the continued presence of the Elements of Harmony, or just sheer happenstance, it is not uncommon for other towns to grow jealous of the pillar of perfection that the happy community appears to be.

However, whenever night falls in Ponyville, a different side of the town is exposed. Where the day is dominated by the bustling of ponies throughout the town, the night is occupied by only one being and he is something entirely different than what you would expect to find in the ‘paradise’. Bitter, cruel, rude, and sociopathic, this pony is an example of what happens when harmony fails.

Though his life had always been quiet, monotonous, and unimportant, everything changed as the walls of his sanctuary were burnt down thanks to a hapless accident. No longer hidden away from innocent eyes, Ponyville became a stage of sorts as the stallion was forced to start his life anew.

Take a moment and clear your calendar before you decide to burden yourself with entries from the diary of this stallion. Entries that detail the story of the happiest pony in all of Equestria, Ipsa Unica.

----------------

Cover art by Ghost Townsend

Applejack is known for a lot of things: being honest, being strong, loving her family... apples. But the thing she's most known for is having a really incredible set of eyebrows. It's for this reason that Celestia has seen fit to bestow upon Applejack that highest of honors. She's going to make her a princess... of eyebrows.

It takes less than 24 hours before Ponyville is literally on fire.

You can thank the last Seattle's Angels Podcast this time.

Deep in the earth, a shadow grows in strength. The Gates of Tartarus are breaking. The fires of revenge are burning.

A lone prince, a traitor to his kingdom, is waiting. He is waiting for power, waiting for the dawn of his new day. Yet the moment his victory is all but ensured, when Twilight Sparkle herself lies helpless before him, the prince starts to forget the line: the difference between who he was, and who he is now.

Can a traitor ever be anything more?

For so long I've been living life like a marionette on its last string. Only one thing kept me from falling into emptiness. That one thing that kept me going. It gave me a reason to pretend that life still mattered.

Only one pony in the world ever showed me a speck of kindness when I never deserved it. And now she's gone.

I'm falling, and the only thing that scares me is what I'll find when I hit the ground.

(Comments contain spoilers.)

A big thank you to PresentPerfect for his tireless help in editing this fic.

Lyra Heartstrings, who is not exactly the most responsible adult out there, is driving a train. A train with no brakes, on fire, full of orphans, which is approaching a broken bridge at terminal velocity.

Hmm. Well, at least things can't get worse.

Fair warning: Dark humor ahoy, guys. Horrible things played for laughs.

Proofread by:

• Selbi
• Octavia Harmony

Out on the frontier, the only friend a pony can really trust is the gun in her hoof. Out where the land is wild and the buffalo roam, more than a few ponies have foregone scratching out a living on the farms or mines to seek riches and glory on the wrong side of the law. As a particularly mysterious and valuable cargo heads west on a long train journey, six mares follow with trouble in their wake, each intending to claim the prize for her own.

Also, a lot of ponies get shot.

Edited by: Exuno
Preread by: barbeque
Inspired by the art of: Coin-Trip39
(Make sure you take a look at the cover image full-size! It's fantastic!)