Chrysalis is beaten. Her invasion of Canterlot has failed. Her hive has been scattered to the winds. And with Equestria on guard, love is in short supply. She has failed her people, and now the future looks bleak and grim.

But there’s a change in the air. Chrysalis can feel it in her bones and in her dreams. Something is calling to her, drawing her and the remnants of her hive north. To the place the changelings once called home.

Placed sixth in the August 2015 Write-Off Event: Distant Shores.

Ahuizotl stands above the remains of his mortal foe. Mrs. Do’s sudden passing evokes a great many feelings in the ancient immortal.

Triumph is not one of them.

Fourth Place in the August Write-Off - I Regret Nothing.

Yesterday, the Cakes put Pumpkin and Pound on the train to head off to their first year at college.

Yesterday had been a very, very hard day.

Today will be worse.

Twice. That's how many times Tirek has tried. Twice. On two occasions he fought in what he believed and twice he has been put back in an eternal prison.

Not long after Tirek loses and is sent back to Tartarus, the centaur is visited by someone. And the two decide to have a discussion, where Tirek reflects on his abhorrence of the Equestrians.

Discord has long since been forgiven for his betrayal and conspiracy with Tirek. The six mares and dragon have given him a second chance, one he knows he surely didn't deserve and gradually they have all been able to become a bit closer in the circle of friendship. While everyone has put his treachery in the past, Discord himself never forgets. There are times Discord recalls how Tirek betrayed him, there are times where he remembers how he hurt Fluttershy and all the others, because, for one brief foolish moment he thought Tirek was his friend.

And these moments infuriate him to no end. So on one fateful day the Lord of Chaos makes one heck of a decision.

He pays Tirek, a visit.

Pinkie Pie throws excellent parties. This is a fact of life, like Fluttershy being rather demure, or Rarity having a sense of style. But the fact is, Pinkie's parties cost bits, and her job at the bakery isn't supporting her passions anymore. So she dusts off her degree and opens a side business...

On an otherwise ordinary day at Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash unexpectedly demands the use of Applejack's barn for a day. Of course Applejack agrees to help out, but something's up; Dash is trying to handle everything herself, arrange for the Apples to be out in the fields, and doing her best to make sure neither Rarity nor Pinkie even hear about the whole thing. With her suspicions rising by the minute, the farmer goes to confront her friend and discovers something she never suspected...

Cover Artwork by Takua

[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a331/brittmcgee/MLP%20Minecraft/TLSOA_zps2aa17c49.png[/img]

I have lived my entire life among the ice at the top of the world with my pod. I knew little of the world outside of the ways of We of the Sea, and as a filly, that suited me just fine. But one day, the steel whales came, and on their backs, they carried creatures not unlike myself, yet wholly different. For while I swam in the sea, they walked on the land and flew through the air. Yet they reminded me of my kind, so curious, so tragic, and so infinitely precious. Where they did not understand, they sought to learn with a foolish stubbornness. Where they wandered far from home, they extended their hooves in friendship.

Where they waged their wars, they fought with a violent savagery that was frightening to me.

As I held a dear friend close, the breath fleeing from his body, I only wanted to know one thing.

Why?

Cover art and inspiration by JhonnyRebel. Pre-reading provided by djthomp.

Featured on Equestria Daily!
And an awesome reading by Illya Leonov!
Another awesome reading by Scribbler!

Russian translation of this story can be found here, courtesy of NovemberDragon!

While on her way home from work, a young mare encounters a large, winged creature.

Based on the stories of the cryptid Mothman.

Pre-read by the awesome Amethyst Dawn, who also read it.

Also read by Swift Blade Productions.

In the wake of the Canterlot Wedding, Fluttershy has to ask Twilight a very difficult question.

Now available in spanish! Spinoff stories can be found in Would It Matter If I Made This Group?

Now with a TVTropes page.