Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers a centuries-old mystery hidden in the Royal Archives. Her investigation leads through layer after layer of deception and misdirection, setting her hooves on a path that seems to be leading to a mysterious secret. Along the way, she learns that some friendships can be very, very strange.

Book 1 of the Alicorn Adventure series.

AUDIOBOOK by VisualPony
Featured at the Royal Canterlot Library
TV Tropes Page (Courtesy of Sandtalon)
Goodreads Page (Courtesy of Facedeer)
Equestria Daily Page

WARNING: Major spoilers in the comments. Takes place several months after the end of season four. (Not a Da Vinci Code crossover, BTW!)

Do you see a dark tag? No, you don't. Not dark. Well, okay, there are a couple of dark-ish bits, but that's all. Not enough to warrant a tag. Speaking of tags, there really ought to be "Badass Twilight" and "Friendshipping" ones.

Sequels and side-stories (and more) can be found here Offprint and AO3, and a hardbound two-volume set of all that can be ordered from The Ministry of Image.

My editor for the first edition of this story was Gogito, and I can't thank him enough for all the hard work he did. My editor for the revised version was PresentPerfect, and he did a terrific job of getting the story into excellent shape.

The arrow of time moves from past to future. Try to change what’s set in stone, and causality loops as a circle. But with the twist of a paradox reality twins. The journey of life doubles, and what might have become, is...

Much further downstream the river of time, a desperate experiment has unexpected consequences. An unwilling traveler of time and space, Twilight Sparkle becomes face-to-face with herself in an Equestria utterly unfamiliar to her. Gargantuan machines scar the land roaring into the chaos of war, great engines drive the sun and moon across an unfamiliar sky, and the spectre of Discord’s thousand-year reign haunts the landscape, threatening to drown all that stands. The legacy of the mysterious disappearance of Princesses Celestia and Luna over a thousand years ago.

For one Twilight Sparkle, it is all she knows. But the other can see all that is wrong with the world. Equestria shattered, the Elements of Harmony broken, a world torn by unrelenting storms of chaos magic. As the earth-shaking tremors of a Rune War rage, Twilight Sparkle must teach her other self the power of friendship, and bring dawn to a dying world...

Many thanks to Daemon of Decay, NejinOniwa, and amacita for pre-reading!

Equestria Daily

She can swim far and wide across the waters of Equestria, but it's not enough. There are places above those waters, places she plans to reach. Where biology failed her, her mind would succeed. Equestria better be ready, because she plans to visit!

This takes place before "Twilight's Kingdom".

When one gets abused, neglected, and unnoticed too much it can affect them massively. This is what a small dragon living among ponies had to face, sadly. And sometimes, consequences can be brutal, and coincidences can be frightening.

Follow Spike, Twilight, and the rest as all of their lives change.

Cover Art is from yours truely.

Twilight grew up and found her destiny, but there is one pony who feels embittered that it should have been her destiny, her glory. Breaking Dawn, Celestia's former student, is convinced that she is the true Element of Magic and has been robbed of her honours, her fame and most importantly of the love of Princess Celestia without which Dawn is nothing.

Rallying her old friends, Breaking Dawn sets out to bring Equestria's newest princess down and pass the final test her mentor set her all those years ago. As Dawn begins to wreak her vengeance, and Twilight struggles to protect her precious ponies from her elusive adversary, both these students of Celestia embark upon a dark path, paying no heed to the truth that a quest for revenge can only end one way.

Rainbow Dash usually had her head in the clouds, but she always thought she knew up from down. When an incredible revelation sends her life into a tailspin, she finds herself at the mercy of emotions she never thought she had, faced with hard questions and impossible choices.

Life is full of changes, but none of them are quite as disturbing as having a horn pop out of your skull…

Original Lauren Faust canon; non-alicorn Twilight, non-alicorn Cadance, no ascension. Diverges from the cartoon after season 3, with nods to later continuity wherever possible. Contains mature themes.

Unseen horrors lurk just beyond the horizon, but the future is not immutable.

A strange new pony arrives in Canterlot bearing knowledge that could help avoid the dark times ahead. What begins as a straightforward mission soon develops into an adventure that will carry all involved to the borders of Equestria and beyond.

5-star Featured on Equestria Daily... for some reason. I've been meaning to add this disclaimer for a while, and so here it is: this was a first fic of a first-time author, and it really shows. Know that whatever well-founded critique you have to level at it, I will almost certainly agree with. It has problems, of that there is no doubt, and significant enough ones that I'll always be bothered that the story is up. Taking it down feels like bad form, however, and bringing the writing in line with my current standards would require a full rewrite, which would be dishonest to the readers who have been through it already. I leave it up as a badge for having completed something, but just be aware that if you start in on it, you will almost certainly finish bewildered and dissatisfied.

Twilight and her friends are approached by Princess Luna who presents them with a set of questions that trigger a long and perilous journey.

Did you ever stop to wonder what became of Trixie, Gilda and Blueblood after your encounters? What did these episodes truly mean to you? What role will they yet play in the lives of the Elements of Harmony?

Last, are these questions as relevant as the journey towards the answers? Who will benefit from seeking these answers - you, them, or I?

Things are hard in Ponyville for Fluttershy and Discord; mainly because of Discord. But when magic starts to go on the fritz and eventually starts failing altogether, it's up to the main six and the Draconequus to find out what's causing it and, more importantly, how to fix it.

This would be a lot easier if anypony trusted the King of Chaos to begin with, but with bigger problems on the horizon, some things will have to wait to be dealt with. Like trust. Or loyalty. Or friendship.

Of course, sometimes what we think isn't important to deal with right now, is exactly what's needed to prevent things from getting far, far worse.

After an ill-conceived stunt by Princess Celestia goes horribly wrong, and Twilight truly realises the ramifications of her recent apotheosis to Goddess-hood, she goes for the only thing in her life that's ever given her relief – the bottle. But when she finds out that the divine are unaffected by mere mortal liquor, she must track down and brew the booze of the immortals themselves; The Ninety-nine Nectars of Princess Luna.

Pre-reading and editing by Luna-tic Scientist
Cover art shamelessly stolen from wikipedia and crudely edited in Paint
"I don't know what NoeCarrier is on but he needs to stay on it." - herdlesspony, Reddit.
"The whole thing is quite bizzare (sic), really." - Pharohman777, spacebattles.com.