Twilight Sparkle, Arcane Mage, knows that there is some truth to the story of Nightmare Moon, but her mentor, Princess Celestia, dismisses the matter in a heartbeat. She sends Twilight to the town of Magiville to oversee preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, much to Twilight's distaste.
Unbeknownst to her, the darkness is gathering in Mystica. Assassins lurk in the shadows, Undead gather in the forest, werewolves sharpen their claws, and criminals and mercenaries prepare themselves.
To win the coming battle, Twilight will have to rely on her wits, her magic, and the five mages she's been saddled with. No matter how much they annoy her.
Rated teen for violence and language. Humanized, action-y. Based on the first two episodes, with some large changes made.

Nightmare Moon spends a thousand years banished to the Moon, fighting herself and the Shadows both within and without. She watches civilization rise and spread, a quarter-million miles away.

Can she reclaim her power? Can she overcome the six champions her sister has sent to defeat her?

Why do three of the champions look terribly familiar to the renegade Moon Princess? Why does the sight of one, in particular, break her heart?

And why, as the battle continues, does she increasingly hope that she does not win?

This is an expanded version of the two-part Series Opener. From Nightmare Moon's point of view.

Now with its own TVTropes page!

If you want to find out what the Great and Powerful Trixie was doing in Manehattan, and what happened in some other parts of Equestria during the Longest Night, read An Extended Performance. The direct sequel, however, is All the Way Back.

This story is a sequel to Harmony Among The Stars

The ES Harmony has returned home, Princess Twilight has been reunited with those she holds dear and everything has returned to complete normality.

Then there is the mirror portal to Canterlot High, which she and the senior staff of the Harmony had discussed at one point in their journey, filling the Princess' curiosity. It has been closed for around two millenia, so who knows what could be on the other side?

And then there is Discord. He seems to know something, and urges the Princess through.

All this, so the Princess can meet some very enterprising people. Discord has brought the popcorn.

(Featured on 12/12/2017)

The USS Burning Age is a small, understaffed Miranda-Class starship that does a variety of every tasks for Starfleet in out-of-the-way, low-risk, low-priority worlds. Picking up a a confused, marooned life form might have been the highlight of its service, but that's barely the beginning of the story.

Twilight didn't mean to travel faster-than-light, but here she is, on a space ship, with no idea how to get home. She has high hopes, though: surely, this 'Federation' will send her straight home as soon as they can. Hopefully she'll survive that long.

(The continuation of this story-verse is Star Trek: Pegasus.)

This is a direct sequel to my previous fic The Quandary of DisQord and is, of course, another Star Trek: The Next Generation / Friendship is Magic crossover. This time, however, Q has decided to bring the crew of the Enterprise-D along for the ride as well.

This is a much lighter story than Quandary was (since Quandary was the story of Discord's reign prior to his first defeat, it was bound to be a bit on the dark side). Also, be warned, though I tried to keep them to a minimum, there are still a few references to and spoilers for Quandary in this fic here, so I'd obviously recommend reading that one first before reading this one. Though, at the same time, this one is hopefully self-contained enough that you wouldn't necessarily have to read Quandary first in order to understand anything, if you don't care to.

Also beware, there is a bit of very mild one-sided shipping between one of the ponies and one of the humans, but nothing super serious or squicky or anything like that. And the Discord/Celestia ship from Quandary is touched upon again, of course. Just thought I'd mention it here, in case someone might be turned off by that sort of thing.

As with Quandary, extensive (and spoiler-filled) Author's Notes can be found after the end of the final chapter.

(Cover image is a direct screen-grab from the Next Gen episode "The Arsenal of Freedom" that I played around with in GIMP.)

[img]http://oi58.tinypic.com/b3x10k.jpg[/img]

Congratulations on choosing this, the first edition of A Brief History of Equestria!

For far to long, the vitally important role of educating our foals of the history of our nation has been delegated to Folk Lore and word of mouth, while the realities of the past have been documented, stored and educated only to the elite. It is therefore the intent of myself, the Royal Historical Society, and the Royal Ministry of Education to provide the common pony with access to a document that offers as full a history of Equestria as can be practically provided, which is the tome you now hold in your hooves.

Keep in mind that no single book cannot replace a properly structured and scheduled classroom on the subject, and while an Encyclopedia format would give a much more comprehensive narrative, the copious amounts of information would render the exercise counter-productive. As such, this book can only give what amounts to a summary of an abridged version at best. It is my hope that everypony who reads this gains an insatiable thirst for more. Hopefully with further editions, more knowledge can be included, along with a collection of tie-in texts that focus more closely on specific areas of interest.

-Twilight Sparkle, M.B.A., on behalf of the Royal Ministry of Education.

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OST

In the far reaches of Canterlot Castle, high above in the towers lived the archmage. Everypony knew her, yet few had met her.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, having teleported away another noble seeking favors before reaching the top of the stairs for the second time today. They never learned. As the archmage, she already dealt with political squabbles far too often without inviting them into her home. Aside from personal favors for Celestia, she did what was required of her position and then returned to seclusion and research.

The nobility grumbled that no archmage should be a commoner, and Twilight’s disrespect toward them proved it. Each and every time they were forced to bow to her, they hated what they saw: the position, the status, the deference.

Was she not powerful? Was she not great?

Twilight, now reading through dusty scrolls and long forgotten tales, wrote in her notes — notes gathering dust of their own. A brief thought flashed through her mind.

Am I not powerful? Am I not great?

And then Twilight picked up The Tale of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Defunct side stories told in Across the Boundary. They can still provide a little context, but when in doubt, the main story here is canon.

Cover art provided by Lafiir

One timeline after another, Twilight and Spike are thrown into a world of Starlight's morbid machination. Another tragic end to Equestria, another circumstance of failure.

The frigid wind does little to ease Twilight's thoughts as a simple question plagues her mind:

"What happened here?"

Takes place during the Season 5 finale.
Proofread and edited by Dreams of Ponies.
Third place in the Nightmare Moon 2017 Summer Contest.
Featured 8/6/17 - 8/8/17.

At 3:15 AM, Adams woke me with a loud knock on my front door.
"Put your boots on," he said when I answered. "There's a biblical monster in my house."

* * *

A Visual Companion, by the author
Interview with the author, from the Royal Canterlot Library.
Audiobook by Robin Jacks and Wubcake.
Audiobook by Scribbler.
In-depth analysis by the Heroic Tales cast.
Literary Analysis by ScarletWeather.
Special thanks to GaryOak.
Reviews:
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Bad Horse

Gilda only wanted the humble things in life. Cheap rent, copious bits, the respect of her peers, the occasional juicy field-mouse.

Being captured by the Equestrians and dragooned into the Territorials wasn't quite what she'd dreamed of, but at least the rent was free.

And the rats were nice and plump.