Twilight Sparkle failed her entrance exam, and the consequences were far more deadly than anypony could've predicted.

Where many ponies would see this as a terrible tragedy, a creature only spoken of in the darkest of legends sees the poor filly's fate as an opportunity...

Twenty years. It has been twenty years since the Rainbooms graduated from Canterlot High. Their high school careers, finally looking up after befriending their one-time tormenter, Sunset Shimmer, took a dramatic turn for the worse when she disappeared without a trace, only for them to learn months later that Sunset had died in Equestria.

They never got to say goodbye.

Looking back, some days Twilight Sparkle can hardly credit her own memories. Friendship, Magic and the fiery-haired girl who extended a hand to her when she lost herself... Life moved on, memory faded into dreams, and dreams into mere nostalgia, these days, she can't even recall her face - only a pair of lambent wings and a crown of fiery hair.

Until the day when she found a leather-bound journal with the two-faced Sun sigil of Sunset Shimmer buried deep with the rest of her relics from her school days, and in it, a message from herself...

"Please help Sunset."

Set in the middle of an alternate Season 6, after the events described in the Sunset chapters* of The Sun Never Sets, up to about half way through Chapter 40 - Happy Birthday, this can be read stand-alone but the enjoyment is doubled if you read The Sun Never Sets first.

The prologue functions as a bridge linking The Sun Never Sets to False Dawn, and readers unfamiliar with the former may start reading at chapter 1 with little loss to the overall narrative and reduced confusion.

All credit to the redoubtable Mr Fislewait, pre-reader and editor, for making this entire enterprise possible, and for greatly improving the flow, pacing and consistency of the work. Any mistakes, plot holes and typos are, naturally, entirely his fault my own.

*In other words chapters 2,4,6,8,10,11,12,14,16,18,19,20,21,23,25,27,28,29,31,32,33,34,36,37,38 and the first half of 40. Except certain minor variations which will be made clear in the story itself, the chief amongst which is that Sunset's adventure took place after the events of Friendship Games.

It's been 100 years since her friends have passed. Deprived of her royalty, her magic, and her will to keep moving.

Deluded into believing that she could bring her friends back, she is tricked into giving up all of her magic, it being sealed in a scroll. Now she roams Equestria, the evil spell leaving her wingless but still immortal, regaining magic and power through ancient scripts. Searching for the one who took the little she had left away from her.

Hlight foresetten pliht

(Art by NCMares)

Ah, Nightmare Night. A holiday where happy little foals get to dress up as pirates and witches and whatever else tickles their fancy while roaming around getting delectable candies. The kids have fun, the adults think it's cute.

Yet under the giggles and playful cries... there are screams. The stories told to amuse the kids aren't all made up, the monsters they pretend to be don't live only in the imagination, and not everyone is out for the same kind of 'fun.' Dark things creep in Equestria's unnoticed corners, and Nightmare Night is their time to play. Tonight we shall watch them at their games. These are the tales of Nightmare Night that parents don't share with their children.

A big thanks goes to Cerulean Voice for taking time out of his busy schedule to edit Wonderful, Aurora and Sweet to Eat, and to RainbowBob for pre-reading.

A huge and happy 'thank you' also to Kvernikovskiy, originator of Researcher Twilight, for the commissioned cover art.

The Fleur-Verse
Chronologically from Top to Bottom:
Shadow Pony
Reddux the Tyrant
No Heroes Part I - The Roster
No Heroes Part II - The Journey Home
Lightning's Bolt
The Weed
The Challenge of Fleur
Ordinary World
A Challenge for Fleur
Sweet to Eat: Tales of Nightmare Night

This story is a sequel to Clash of the Bolts: Battle for the Skies

It has been eleven years since The Shadowbolt Battle in the Crystal Empire and Equestria has seen peace. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are happily married with a young Colt named Zap Apple, Fluttershy and Discord are dating and some Romance Between Twilight and Pinkie Pie is going on nothing could be better, Except for the fact that Princess Cinch is back and has backup with her but not just any back up, she has teamed up with Tirek, Now the Main 6 with the help of Sunset Shimmer must defeat Tirek and stop Princess Cinch from Taking over Equestria before it is too late.

Contains: Appledash, Fluttercord, and Twinkie

I would also like to thank my Proofreader 0_0

This is an alternate timeline set in the same universe as The Ties that Bind -- a "what if?" scenario, or "sister story" if you will. Reading The Ties that Bind is not required, but it is recommended.

On a cold winter night, tragedy befalls Twilight's family and she barely manages to escape with her life. Now she's lost and alone in a place she doesn't recognize.

She's left to wander aimlessly with nothing but the dark memory of that night to keep her company, but that's about to change.

Something awoke in the lavender filly that night -- a new kind of magic she's never had a chance to study before, and she soon finds she's not the only filly with dark memories and something new to learn.

Thankfully they both come across a strange town with a pony that just might be able to cultivate their new talents.

Peace and Harmony have gone with the sudden disappearance of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. What followed soon afterward was an internal struggle to fill the void left by the regal sisters... and a gradual decline that plunged Equestria into an evil era of hardship and uncertainty.

All that is left now is a land ruled everyday by violence and death... with six factions competing against each other for supremacy of the land... and the annihilation of all others.

This is...Equestria Divided.

Mercenaries. Sellswords. Rōnin. The Siren Sisters are considered many things. Honourable samurai to some, and lawless scoundrels to others.

Adagio Dazzle doesn't much care what you call them, so long as she's paid for the blood she spills.

Many of these so-called ponies believe they were the first to discover the land that is now known as Equestria. They were wrong, of course. Those idiotic Humans, inebriated Dwarves, and the pitiful vomit-inducing, tree hugging, frolicking Elves littered the landscape first all the while living their simple, boring lives. The ponies and the other smattering of races moved here over time from some other land. If they were still here, the various original races meeting the ponies would have made for a bit of a chaotic first contact considering they used dumber cousins of the ponies as labor and mounts. It's too bad that didn't happen, oh I could have enjoyed watching that carnage with a nice bowl of salamander eyeballs.

But, well, one or one-hundred powerful wizards attempting magic beyond their capabilities on magical artifacts beyond their comprehension tend to make things go... explodey. In a single snap of my claws the entire human race, and all of the other "intelligent" races as well, were simply gone. Vaporized in a magical wave of energy. The landscape left even more magically scarred than when the Tower Heart of the old Dark Tower went kaboom. We minions fled back to the Netherworld from whence we came and waited for the land to heal, and hopefully for some other race capable of thought to come knocking at its gates.

We waited a long time for that and now we should really get around to finding a new Master, none of the races showed any real promise so we need to do this ourselves. Giblet seems to have found something promising while digging around the cave of a local dragon (the dragons seem to have gotten smarter too), so I'll have to go give that a look-see and pray to Darkness nothing weird comes out of it.

But as I always say... Evil always finds a way.

-Gnarl, the Minion Master, on the origins of Equestria

Rainbow Dash was enjoying her new unlife. Partying all night, doing whatever, whenever she wanted. Her new gang, the blood pact, were more then happy to indulge the mare's lust for violence and mares until she gets a letter, delivered by an old friend. One she didnt think knew of her little secret.

Features some very minor violence.

Hey hey, top of the popular stories! Neato!