UPDATE: Winner of Random Romance's prompt contest for June. Thanks, guys!

After the disastrous events of the Grand Galloping Gala, Octavia decides to relax in the Castle Gardens. Using her music to relax, she is discovered by the mysterious Princess Luna, who still fears public opinion. Over the coming months they find comfort in one another's gentle presence, and Octavia finally finds the inspiration she needs to fulfill her oldest, most ambitious of dreams.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

What would you do to protect those you love? What actions would you take in order to guarantee their safety? What lines would you cross in order to ensure their freedom? How far would you go to safeguard their well being?

How far is too far when seeking to help those dear to your heart? And would you even recognize the point of no return as it appears before you?

Would you realize that, even the best of intentions can lead one astray, before it’s too late?

Embark alongside Snowdrop into a story of pain and loss, hope and redemption, defiance and determination, as she journeys against all odds in search of a way to help her dearest friend in her moment of greatest need; no matter what.

This story starts right after Discord’s defeat in ‘The Return of Harmony’ of the canon timeline; and if the presence of Snowdrop hasn’t been a clear enough sign, and the Tag up above, let me make it clear and state that it will be an AU.

Knowledge of the awesome animation "Snowdrop" by the SillyFillyStudios is not necessary to read this, but it would make the read far more enjoyable in my opinion.

Something has happened and Twilight finds herself in a strange and dark new world. The Bipeds here have strange magic, advanced technology, and a lot of problems. She needs a few friends, and they just might need her. WORM crossover. Deadpan29 has created some great supplementary material that is canon to the story.

Octavia Melody is calm, patient and longing to break the boundaries of class through her career as a musician.

Princess Luna is lost in the eddies of her past, struggling to belong in a new age that doesn't seem to want her.

A chance meeting after a disastrous gala gives these isolated souls a chance to find companionship and comfort. As Luna seeks solace in Octavia's soothing music, Octavia comes to recognize the princess's loneliness and fears. When it's your duty to protect other ponies' dreams, who protects your own? Octavia might just be willing to try.

...a fantastic fic, with one of the best paced romances you can find on this site, great prose, and one of the best characterized Octavia's I could point out. — Soge, TPCaRG (Read the review!)

PaulAsaran has crafted what may well be the best LunAvia ship on the site. —Cerulean Voice

Highly recommended if you like romance instead of the more typical shallow shipping. —City of Doors

If you're a fan of Luna and or Octavia, it's a crime not to indulge! —Wanderer D

I guarantee you will enjoy it. —vren55

Technically, this is flawless: the writing, the pacing, you name it, it's great. —PresentPerfect

Print copy now available for purchase on Lulu!

Now with a YouTube reading by Never After All Readings!

A re-imagining of The Gentle Nights, reworked from the ground up to be bigger and brighter.

Special thanks to Mercury Gilado, Absolution and Starlight Nova for pre-reading and editing.

Artwork commissioned from the talented viwrastupr.

[11/11/2014]: Now featured on Equestria Daily!
Featured 11/22/14.

Now featured by The Royal Guard!

Bellikos. Odd golems from an EverQuest expansion released long after the game had any relevance. The players helped them turn against their divine creator. Landshark is one of these creatures. Since those events, years have passed. She has traveled far and built herself a life among mortals, far from the divine domains of her creation. Now she's stranded in Equestria.

By instinct, she distrusts gods, and the ageless alicorns seem to be just that. She can't ask beings of such power to break through into other worlds to return the construct to more familiar places. So Landshark tries to make the best of her current situation and settle into Equestria to 'retire' and make friends.

(That's the pitch. If you want to know more about bellikos in the actual EverQuest game, click More.)

But what even is a bellikos? They're an enemy type from EverQuest's 16th expansion, Underfoot. But they're not just mooks that screech like rusty hinges and try to bite you. They're that, too, but they had a story.

Brell Serilis runs the Underfoot, populated by his servants and by the souls of worthy worshippers. He created most of the subterranean sapients. But his unique First Creation secretly turned against him. The First created hosts of servants, the elite of which were the Bellikos. Not primarily meant to fight, the Bellikos were sent out into the Underfoot to preach the ideals of freedom and the absolute supremacy of the Self over the needs of society. They were meant to be relatable, charming and cunning to aid in their purpose. It's not clear why they needed jaws like bear traps. Pictures do not do justice to how far these things can open up their maws to chomp at enemies.

The secret goal: Disrupt the ordered workings of Brell's realm, where every being has its duty and its purpose, or is a former mortal experiencing their afterlife reward.

But some Bellikos started believing what they preached. With the aid of mortal champions (following a quest line and doing an instanced raid), they discovered that the First's other servants were taught only obedience and sacrifice in preparation for open war with Brell's divided followers. This sparked a fight to share the knowledge of self with the First's slaves and reveal his plans to the rest of the Underfoot.

Landshark, then still known by the name she was crafted with, was one of these renegades, fighting to share the idea of free will among the First's slaves and sabotage his evil plans for the divine realm.

I do not own MLP or any intellectual property related to EverQuest.

"My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and you will not remember me. You won't even remember this conversation. Just like with everypony else I've ever met, everything I do or say will be forgotten. Every letter I've written will appear blank; every piece of evidence I've left behind will end up missing. I'm stuck here in Ponyville because of the same curse that has made me so forgettable. Still, that doesn't stop me from doing the one thing that I love: making music. If my melodies find their way into your heart, then there is still hope for me. If I can't prove that I exist, I can at least prove that my love for each and every one of you exists. Please, listen to my story, my symphony, for it is me."

Cover pic by Spotlight: askspotlight.tumblr.com

Can Equestria handle the impact caused by Wild Pony, who is actually the somewhat scrambled and ponified martial arts prodigy and weirdness magnet otherwise known as Ranma Saotome?

Set after the failed wedding at the end of Ranma ½ and approximately three years before the return of Nightmare Moon, then rapidly skips ahead to just a few months prior.

Now has a side story: My Little Sphinx

On a side note, like MLP:FiM itself, the story will mainly be Slice of Life, with the occasional sections of Action/Adventure popping up now and then. I mention this because I couldn't choose both tags, and of the two, this story weighs in more on the Slice of Life side.