This story is a sequel to The Alchemy of Chemistry

  Somepony has raided the border of the desolate Badlands, abducting every musician, singer and bard in the realm. Now, four brave adventurers will journey to the depths of this forsaken land to seek the meaning behind these strange disappearances.
  ...assuming Sunset doesn't strangle Minuette, Lemon Hearts or Twinkleshine in the real world first.

Featured on FimFiction multiple times in January and February of 2017!
Featured as a sequel on EquestriaDaily!

Historian’s Note:
Set in the Wavelengths timeline where the Sonic Rainboom didn’t happen, Bards of the Badlands occur about two months after the events in The Alchemy of Chemistry during the summer after Sunset’s first term as an aide at Gifted Unicorns.

Cast: Sunset Shimmer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts & Twinkleshine.

Stories set in the Wavelengths Timeline in chronological order:

Origins Arc
The Alchemy of Chemistry
Bards of the Badlands
Grading on a Bell Curve
Habits of the Equestrian Phoenix
How Not To Use Your Royal Prerogative

Applications Arc
The Application of Unified Harmony Magics
Princess Celestia: A Brief History
The Cloudsdale Report

Dreamers Arc
Tactics of Snowbound Unicorns
A Study in Chaos Theory
Teahouses of Saddle Arabia
As the Raven Flies

Cover Design by Amber Spark
Sunset Shimmer Cutie Mark By Millennial Dan
Dawn Break component of Garnet’s Cutie Mark by Sankam
Garnet Gem component of Garnet’s Cutie Mark by zutheskunk
Epic Hydra Artwork by Zilvart

Special Thanks
Roll For Initiative by Prak - A big part of the inspiration for this tale. Go read it. It's hysterical.

Beta Reader & Editor Credits
Ebon Quill - Quest Designer & Worldbuilding Writer on The Manehattan Project
Little Tinker - Master of Systems at Poniverse & Scripting Engineer on The Manehattan Project
Beltorn - Commenter-at-Large on FimFiction
Painted Heart

Word Count: 28,500
Version: 7.0

This story is a sequel to Manifest Destiny

Equestria is in a state of war, and has been for nearly half a year. One quarter of the country is in the hooves of the enemy, but fighting has ground to a standstill. Hemmed in by the Unicorn Range to the south, and the imposing Canterlot line to the southeast, the enemy turns its eyes east to the the Neighagra River and city of Cloudsdale. If they can cross it and circumvent the Canterlot line, the war may well be theirs...

Protecting the Neighagra and Cloudsdale is the Royal Equestrian Airship Force and Griffon Foreign Air Fleet. Amongst this multitude of ships is Her Majesty's Airship Dawn, the ship that Rainbow Dash serves on as part of the flight team. When the enemy commits its forces to one decisive final attack, Rainbow and the crew of the HMA Dawn find themselves in desperate battle not only for the fate of her hometown, but the entire country.

a parallel story to Manifest Destiny

With Celestia's death and Luna's disappearance, Twilight and Cadence are forced to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the Kingdom. The battle against the griffons had been long and arduous, but after years of struggle, they are finally about to push the griffons out of Equestria.

But many questions still remains: Why did Celestia die? Where had Luna gone? And what made the griffons decided to attack their pony neighbours to begin with?

After hearing Nightmare Moon's perspective of what happened 1,000 years ago, the mane six agree to help her, instead of Celestia.

So Nightmare Luna knows this isn't a trick, she puts up six trials for each pony, each with the same theme: Their worst fear.

Rated T for Tia's behavior in the second Prologue. (nothing really bad. )

Not all chapters are sad, here are the ones to look out for if your feelsy.
Apples to the Corpse
Blind and Homeless

In this day and age, who has time to be a God? Prayers come in 24/7 and fancy dress is compulsory. Rainbow Dash certainly doesn't have time. She's got bills to pay and things to do. Besides, she isn't qualified for Godhood, surely.

The ponies who say her control of the weather is divine disagree, unfortunately. They've given her a funny spear and a robe that doesn't quite fit. They've got their own temple and they take church seriously.

And it turns out she's not the only pony recently undergone apotheosis...

Teen for immature jokes.

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)

There's a man who works at my job in the basement.

He says his name is Derek. Not many people like Derek. People say he's weird and tends to lie. Derek says he was tricked and isn't supposed to be here at all.

He also says he used to be the Chaos King back home.

And here I just wish he'd stop screwing around with the coffee in the breakroom.

I consider myself a lucky guy. Good job, good family, and best of all, really, really good friends. We call ourselves MMPD, and together we've had tons of crazy adventures, helped one another discover ourselves, and always have had a good time. It's a shame we've drifted apart since high school, but at least we get to see each other once a year on our shared birthdays.

That tradition turned out to be a lifesaver, because as my friends and I just found out… well, let’s just say we’ve known each other a lot longer than we thought. Now we’ve gotta find a way back home, and hopefully we won't drive each other nuts along the way. We know we’re not the big heroes, and we’re all in WAY over our heads, but hopefully we can do enough to make a difference in the end. If we can do that, then I know we’ll have made our families proud.

I just wish we still had our capes.

Side fic to Five Score, Divided by Four by TwistedSpectrum.The reading of that story is NOT required in order to understand what is going on in this one.

Now with a Chinese translation!

The Last Crusade Tv Tropes Page
Five Score Divided by Four Group

Cover art by Sonson-Sensei.

In a parallel universe, there exists an Equestria where the Princess of the Sun is not a pony, but one of the most advanced war machines ever created.

Featured on the front page! Thanks, everyone!

Check out an audio reading of this story by No One and Nobody here!

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
Yet stranger still is,
Lost Carcosa.
Song of my soul, my voice is dead,
Die thou unsung as tears unshed,
Must dry and die in,
Lost Carcosa.