Long ago, the founders of Equestria built a magical portal on sacred ground, hiding their greatest secret on the other side. Generations of leaders stepped through the portal so that they might emerge as the equal of their forebears.

Celestia and Luna were the last to enter. For a thousand years, the portal lay forgotten, its purpose lost.

Luna thinks it is time that Twilight learn what it means to rule.

There is now a Spanish translation of this story, courtesy of Spaniard Kiwi

Twilight takes a walk in the woods near Canterlot to clear her mind, when a mischievous little phoenix starts dropping chestnut shells on her head. Quite a familiar mischievous little phoenix.

Somewhat inspired by the song "Evermore" by Alison Krauss, a story to perhaps make its reader smile.

Thanks go to Skywriter, GhostOfHeraclitus, and "Nettle" for pre-reading; and Ziom05 of deviantART for permission to use "Sun Springs" as the cover art.

Twilight gets drunk and ships Rainbow Dash with everything in the universe.

Rainbow Dash is not amused.

It turns out that ponies don't need to go to the bathroom because they run on cold fusion.

Meanwhile, Maud Pie has found a bunch of glowing, green rocks. I wonder what they could be?

Princess Celestia finds an iPhone, and, like most intelligent creatures, when given a smartphone, she proceeds to take a picture of herself with it.

I only did this because nobody else seems to have done it - to the best of my knowledge, that is! The soundtrack for this fic is '#Selfie" by The Chain Smokers. Enjoy. I know I certainly did.

#oneshot
#silly
#selfie

Twilight buys a toaster. It doesn't work very well. Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, she happens to be in earshot—and trying to check out a Daring Do book.

Rainbow Dash begins to question her life choices.

Dash. Rainbow Dash.
A mare oscillating between extreme obsession and dislike of books, both having their roots deep down in her youth. Coupled with a name with such... literary meaning, the young sporty filly surely has a lot to deal with both at home and at school.

And yes, that’s a hyphen in the title.

Celestia did not wake that morning thinking her life would change that day, but it would. She would be united with a creature as timeless as herself, one who looked to her as a peer instead of a subject.

Flitter doesn't like most ponies. There's hardly anything in the world Flitter likes, very few which she can even remotely tolerate, and only a couple which she truly loves. Fluttershy is not in the last two categories. Flitter sees Fluttershy as weak, and weakness disgusts her.

But when you're trying to help someone you love, you'll look for help in a lot of places -- including the cottage of the weakest pony in the world.

And for those willing to listen past their pain, it might be the place where they start to learn what true strength is.

(This story takes place about five moons before Triptych and well after On The Application...)

Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Audiobook production by ObabScribbler.

Trixie had made mistakes. Trixie had lied. Still, nopony had expected it to send Celestia into a rage. But nopony but Celestia understood the true importance to Equestria of trust.

Reading by AShadowOfCygnus here.
Reading by obabscribbler here.