Sometimes, bad things happen to good ponies. A year following a tragic incident, Twilight Sparkle returns to Ponyville to visit what she has been missing - her town, her memories, and most importantly, her friends. But will everything be as she remembers it?

This story has a sequel titled "In History, Maybe".

"Oh come on, Applejack! Just one trip around the clouds! One!"

It's an invitation that Applejack has heard countless times. However, no matter how often Rainbow Dash bugs her to experience an air ride, the farm filly flat out refuses.

Then one afternoon, on a day when Applejack is strangely quiet and distant, she suddenly agrees to Rainbow Dash's persistent request. The pegasus happily oblidges, not knowing what has truly motivated Applejack to give in, nor the fact that--more than anything--Applejack could really use a good friend right about now.

Equestria is a land of magic and harmony, a peaceful realm ruled by immortal and benevolent monarchs. At what cost is this possible?

Following the discovery of a strange and powerful device, Twilight Sparkle is whisked away to the edges of a land she thought she knew so well. Here, surrounded by ponies whose very existences have been kept secret, she must contend with vicious enemies, hostile allies, and the truth.

Chapters 1-16 edited by KiltedKey

A horrible Cataclysm has turned all of Equestria into a Wasteland of barren ash and twilight desolation. The Sun and the Moon have been destroyed. Everypony has died--including Princesses Luna and Celestia. But one pony miraculously survives; she is a lone wanderer, the last of her kind, surrounded by menacing creatures that hate her. She navigates the Wastes in an airship and scavenges off the blighted landscape to keep herself alive.

Then one day she meets an old companion who grants her a gift, the chance to go back in time to the warm and sunny days of Ponyville, where her dead friends live in happiness. How far will the last pony venture into this joyous age of Equestria, even if she fully knows that there is no way to change the horrible fate of everypony she loves?

2013 Edition: Smaller Chapters, Better Grammar, and a Few New Scenes

(A shout-out to Vimbert, pre-reader and gentlecolt)

War comes to Equestria: with despair, with starvation, with suffering and with sacrifice. And the ponies must learn how to keep true to their values while surviving not just the rigors of battle, but the desolation of total war.