The worlds are changed.

Where Equestria was set to follow a familiar path of harmony and friendship, the path is waylaid by the appearance of a creature out of myth, bearing grave tidings.

On Earth at the dawn of the third millennium, a war that should have never been rages between humanity and the ones who would seek to perfect it.

For down the road less travelled, Equestria is Empire, a dark mirror of what it once was and should be.

Lyra Heartstrings, musician and dreamer, previously content to spend her life in the shadow of Princesses or their faithful students, must now decide the role she’ll play in this new reality. But within the threads that connect us all, just as even Princess Celestia can have the humblest desires, the smallest person may change the future.

Authored by Team Spectrum, currently consisting of Sledge115, VoxAdam, and RoyalPsycho.

Cover by skysayl.

Our TV Tropes Page.

Our Group
Equestria Timeline
Dramatis Personae/Character Sheet
Story Outline

Side Stories

Equestria
The First Second of Eternity, by Sledge115.
A Sun in Winter, by Sledge115 and VoxAdam.
In Night's Garden, by Sledge115.
Celestia Regina, by Sledge115.
The Rose of Florentina, by Sledge115.
Wallflower of Canterlot, by Sledge115.
Sogno di Volare, by Sledge115.
Velvet Quill & Sunny Skies, by Sledge115
Joy to the Worlds, by VoxAdam, TB3 and Sledge115.

Earth
Story of the Asian Front, by Kizuna Tallis.
Snowbound, by DoctorFluffy.
The Slow Mutants, by DoctorFluffy.
The Light Despondent, Remixed, by DoctorFluffy.
Dissonance, by RanOutOfIdeas.
Starvation, by DoctorFluffy.

Twenty years before the Summer Sun Celebration that would set Nightmare moon free, Princess Celestia and thousands of other ponies simply slumped over dead with no explanation. A new lavender Alicorn with a magenta colored starburst cutie mark appears suddenly and takes the throne on virtue of her being the only one who can now raise and set the sun. Twilight, now calling herself Penumbra, is the only one who remembers the normal history of Equestria and her friends from Ponyville. Accompanying her are a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane, known as Spectra, and an orange earthpony with a blonde mane called Malus - her daughters who appear to be some mix of their mother Alicorn and two unidentified regular ponies.
Now, on the longest night of the thousandth year, Luna has returned to Equestria, free of the Nightmare and her own powers mysteriously drained.
Soon Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter, and Vinyl Scratch, a down on her luck DJ, find themselves on a quest to assemble the Elements of Harmony while being forced to evade Penumbra and her children.

Special thanks to:
-Timefather64 for helping me make this idea not a bad one.
-Jonshine for writing the line in his own story that in the end inspired this idea.
-OrphiusOlyandra for pre-reading and helping me be a less awful writer.
-AlicornPriest for pre-reading and giving me pointers on grammar.
-Slayerdarkcross on deviantart for letting me use his image. You should check out his other stuff.

Twilight Sparkle broke time when she got her cutie mark. Now Twilight and Sparkle are sisters from another time. Twilight is hailed as the potentially greatest light magician of all time, and already has a reputation as a hero by the time she goes to Ponyville. This isn't her story, not primarily.

Sparkle is an orphan - her dark magic killed her parents. She lives with her brother in Canterlot's industrial sector because they can't afford anything better. She can't leave either. She's a natural dark mage; while Sparkle won't go mad like Sombra, her reputation is hardly any better. Worse, the law doesn't see her as a good pony.

The fact that the dead don't stay dead around her, or that Thorn - Spike's double - is an undead, soul-eating abomination, are other matters altogether.

(Also has some Slice-of-Life, but fimfiction tags won't let me put it with Adventure.)

Has an ask blog to go with it: Ask Sparkle and Thorn.
Also has a TvTropes page: Split Second Tropes.

Featured on EQD.

Cover art by Swirling Line.

This story is a sequel to Split Second

Twelve years ago, she broke time. Two alternate timelines exist, each with a different version of Twilight Sparkle. Both versions of her are able to see the other. In this timeline, Sparkle is a Necromancer.

Or rather, she was. Sparkle is dead now, not that she cares. She's got a new body. With Thorn (her undead dragon son) and Cobalt (her apprentice and an assassin for hire) at her side, she's ready to take on the world. Again.

(Spoilers in the comments. Read at your own risk.)

Featured on EQD.
The Tv Tropes page
The Ask Blog

This story is a sequel to Split Second and won't make sense without it.
This story also loosely shares continuity with Lupine Tree. Reading that is not required.

Cover art by Swirling Line.

This story is a sequel to The Code's Apprentice

Sequel To : The Code's Apprentice

The land of Equestria has been changed forever.

New monarchs sit upon the thrones of the Sun and Moon, the once almighty power of Harmony overturned to make way for a new Diarchy of Balance. Political unrest and turmoil have engulfed the land, and at the very center of it all, Princess Celestia - renamed Tia Sunbeam - seeks atonement for the crimes she committed in the name of Eternal Harmony.

With much of her power sealed away, Tia must live amidst the citizens of Ponyville as the world changes all around them. As Ponyville works to rebuild following the struggle between student and teacher, they must cope with the edicts of a new government determined to bring equality to all creatures, beliefs, and ways of life - even those that were long since banished to the dark places of the world.

Tia Sunbeam will struggle with her own deeply held convictions on the way the world should be, versus the way it will now become. She will face a truth she has long since denied, and realize the true meaning of Harmony. And perhaps, most importantly of all... She must make some Friends.

Cover art by SinSays at http://sinsays.tumblr.com/ - Go spend some money with her! :D
Oh, and go check out my new side story - Rise - It's going to become relevant here!
(character tags are not comprehensive! Some are being kept secret! ;3)

For a thousand years, the Code of Harmony has ruled Equestria, and the Code of Dissonance has sabotaged its works at every turn. Now the war for control over the land will come to a head, and one unicorn's decision may decide the fate of all.

For though she does not know it, Twilight Sparkle is the shining example of the Code of Harmony. Her teacher, Princess Celestia is Harmony's most powerful master and she knows her enemies are hatching a plan that threatens to cast down the Harmony of her throne and all she has sacrificed to create.

What she does not know is her foe seeks a new Apprentice to turn to his dark ways. A unicorn with seemingly limitless potential for magic, whose thirst for knowledge may yet lead her down a dark path, who is known to be such a faithful student of magic, eagerly seeking the truth no matter how forbidden it might be...

Sequel: Code of Harmony

Ol a viking warrior from old scandanavia is sucked into Equestria while in the midst of battle. He appears before Twilight and her friends soaked in blood and unable to understand a word of what they say, can Ol live in the peacful land of Equestria or is he too stuck in his war torn ways to live alongside the ponies?

Nopony has heard from Fluttershy for three months. Not Rainbow Dash, not Rarity, not even Pinkie Pie. Her friends have been tending to the cottage and her animals, keeping it clean and organized, but even with Twilight's constant magic scans and a semi-constant guard search Equestria-wide, no hint has been found of where she went, how she vanished, or why she didn't tell anyone. Some ponies even think, in their darkest nightmares, that she might be dead.

Then she shows up one day, very definitely not dead, but just as definitely not the same as she was.

And does she have a story to tell. Boy, does she ever...

Coverart by Paladin.

Cover art by the amazing Emosite CC!
Check out her DeviantArt for more fantastic art!

Spike was filled with doubts, confusion and fear on where he fitted in the world. It scared him to think that he was nothing to his friends, to Twilight. After finding out the hard truth in an argument, he realises that this bond he shared with them was nothing but a mere illusion, a painful lie that shattered him completely. Becoming lost in his own misery, he runs away only to be taken by an offer.

A few months pass and struggling to manage, Twilight comes to terms with her mistakes and the search for Spike dies down. Seeking vengeance, past threats are united through fear by a demented alchemist who wishes to twist and ruin Equestria with the power of terror.

In a desperate attempt to try and find Spike once more, Twilight and her friends must overcome their greatest fears.

In the 23rd Century A.D. , (After Departure) four years after the Roamulan War, Commander Starry-Eyes rejoins her ship on Starfleets first voyage of exploration since the War. It has been twenty-two hundred years since the Princesses left Equestria to let Their Little Ponies fulfill their potentials on their own. Ponykind has stumbled on as best they could, learning hard lessons along the way. The Eugenics Wars are over and they have made Friends in the darkness. Now the Stars beckon and Ponies essay the Final Frontier looking for answers... or at least a pair of beloved faces they haven't seen for so, so long...