“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, a messenger lost. For want of a messenger, the message was lost. For want of a message, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.”

“All for want of a horseshoe’s nail."

Like many other timelines, the Sonic Rainboom fails to occur. But, Harmony is tenacious. Even without what seems to be a key event, it will have it's bearers. Just perhaps taking a long, winding shortcut around to reach them.

An alternate timeline story inspired by A Minor Variation by notMurphy where the Mane 6 have their elements shuffled. Different events lead to different ponies, so OC tag is here because of how wildly different these Mane 6 ended up.

Cover made by Me.

Twilight has had a very eventful week: Fighting Tirek, getting her home blown up, defeating Tirek, and getting a nifty replacement home would already be pretty exciting on its own. But now she has been summoned to Canterlot by Celestia, who has some big news to tell her.

After long consideration and no small amount of pestering from Luna, Celestia is about to grant Twilight access to the files of the Equestrian Secret Service so that she and her friends can be better prepared for future threats to come.

What will Twilight learn in the depths of the archive? Surely nothing that could shake the very foundation of the friendships she so painstakingly built in her new home ...

Obligatory edit: Woohoo, featured on the front page . Thank you all so much for liking my story .

Many thanks to silent_user for proofreading and editing this story.

Written as an entry for BWG's 'New Blood' Contest. I would greatly appreciate some feedback from any of the judges.

If any of you would be interested in an epilogue, where I unveil some of the secrets or thoughts behind them, let me know in the comments.

Twilight's been having weird, unfamiliar urges ever since she became an alicorn. Like an intense desire to grow flowers, or the fact she can't stop chewing on her wings when she's distracted. As it turns out, you can't just suddenly inherit the magic of all three pony tribes without getting the instincts to match, and instincts can be a powerful thing. Doubly so when you're not used to them, and especially when they're telling you that your best friend with the gorgeous wings would make the perfect partner to share a nest with.

Wait, what was that last part?

Originally this was supposed to be a birthday gift for Celysus, but I fell in love with the idea so it's gonna be a full fic now. You can't stop me.

(Rated teen for mildly suggestive flirting)

One night, whilst up late reading quietly to himself, Anon is disturbed by a mysterious home intruder scratching at his door. Anon does the unconventional and simply lets them into his house and becomes quite possibly the first person to ever sit down and make polite conversation with an actual ghost. A rather cute and flustered ghost at that.

Originally written for the Kinderquestria thread, where the cute, childlike innocence of ponies is taken to its absolute comedic extent.

It was a week before Nightmare Night, when Rarity decided to take a trip to Canterlot.

And while there, she meets a sweet, classy mare with a prismatic mane, and a habit of saying "Darling". But there's something about her that she finds just too familiar.

And as she'll learn, maybe there's more to this familiarity than meets the eye.

Update (4/8/2023): Now with a Dramatic Reading by Obab Scribbler

Author's Note (11/14):

Sweet Celestia.

Less than 24 hours live and this story has set three milestones for me. This is the first time I've had a story of mine be top of the Featured list, the first time I've had a story of mine get over 100 Likes, and the first time that a story of mine has reached over 1,000 views.

Thank you all so much. I am amazed.

A thousand years ago in Equestria, Luna's frustration and desperation has been building for years and years as her social and political isolation grows, but just before Luna's jealousy and resentment can turn into murderous hatred against her sister, a new event triggars Luna's mental collapse and pushes her over the edge. When Luna by circumstance finds herself alone in Celestia's room she reads her sister's diary out of curiosity and discovers all of the disparaging criticism that Celestia has leveled at her over the years about how much of a nuisance Luna has been to her, but has been too polite to say directly to Luna's face.

Luna and Celestia had always supported and stuck with each other all their lives. Even when the common-ponies critisism and shunning of her was at its worst, the knowledge that her sister loved her kept Luna going. The realization that nopony, not even her own sister valued her or thought she was fit for the throne completely shattered whatever remained of her fragile psyche.

And so Luna just gave up...

She gave in...

If no one wanted her there...

Then she wouldn't stay there...

She would leave.

Rainbow Dash's life is full of colour: of sunrises and sunsets that dance, of skies so blue you can taste them, of prisms that fracture light and fill one's soul with rainbows. Truly, it is a life where she couldn't ask for more.

Why do ponies fear that? It's as if they're scared of beauty. Or maybe scared of her, possibly.

If only they'd let her enlighten them. But maybe today will be a luckier day...

I know I made promises about what my 50th fic would be. Trust me, I do have them in mind and I will finish writing and publish them, for your sakes and mine. I just didn't want to write two romance stories in a row, that's all, and I figured that I could shake things up a little and try something new.

Art commissioned from the ever-wonderful Cyonix!

Thanks to Flashgen for helping me write this. And my sincerest thanks to Hay Tea for making this possible.

As part of Princess Luna's retirement, she needs to hand off her duties in the dream realm to another pony.

She has chosen Rarity to succeed her - but for a reason that Rarity is less than happy about.

Rarity has tried to forget the Nightmare, after all.

Featured 08/28/2022 - 08/31/2022!

Reviewed by PaulAsaran, with a rating of Pretty Good!.

Reviewed in Ghost Mike's Monday Musings with a rating of Really Good!

This story is a sequel to Luna's Daughters

(Can be read without first reading the prequel.)

Centuries ago, in the years after Nightmare Moon's banishment, Luna and Celestia's descendants helped Celestia build the new nation.

Luna's great-granddaughter, Gale Glider, forged the Royal Equestrian Coast Guard, imbuing it with traditions of valor, sacrifice, and bravery. Her final words remain their sacred oath:

Preread by Sledge115 and RDT, thank you!

Cover art found on Google without any attribution, alas.

Author's notes blog, containing spoilers.

"Drink this potion, then answer the prompt written below."

Those are the instructions Twilight Sparkle has sent to a number of her friends, along with a small vial of a mysterious potion.

The following letters were their responses.

Art by Shamanguli, a snippet of the cover art for the Ponies at Dawn album Anthology.

Featured 5-18-21 to 5-20-21, peaking at the #5 spot. Thanks, everypony!