While Princess Luna is away celebrating Nightmare Night in Ponyville, Celestia tries on a strange black bauble from her sister's jewelry box. The result will be the creation of the most terrifying thing Equestria has ever seen. The Sun herself turns against all the ponies in Canterlot. Can Luna and her Lunar Stallions possibly hope to stop her? And if so, does Luna have the fortitude to strike down her sister in the end?

FEATURED May 16th 2012!

Princess Luna falls comatose and is revived by the love-sick kiss of one of Celestia's guards. As a reward, she leads him to the ancient hidden barracks of her long forgotten guardian force. Their slowly blossoming romance gives birth to a breed of royal guard not seen in 1,000 years. The Lunar Stallions!

A human stays among ponies, mystifying them with his odd traditions and customs. It will be five years before Celestia and Twilight can send him back to his homeworld. Until then, Twilight wants to study him and have him experience pony culture. These are their stories.

Luna discovers a lone member of the Royal Night Guard stationed beneath her private balcony. As a question becomes a conversation, as an evening becomes a week, and as an annoyance becomes a friendship, an unfortunate truth looms large in her mind: nothing is ever as it seems, neither in dreams nor reality.

Comments contain spoilers
Edited by PresentPerfect and Grand Moff Pony

Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape.

After one-thousand years of being bound in the celestial body, Nightmare Moon is free! Right alongside the poor sap that got bound with her.

Thrust into an unfamiliar world, with scars and memories that are now drastically out of place, this is the story of the former guard captain, Magic Barrier.

Do the words above sound familiar? If they do, then you've probably read my other story, A Pony Displaced. This tale isn't a sequel. It isn't a rewrite, though you might consider it a re-imagining of sorts. It is a tale of progression, one that I hope will show my development as a writer in both skill and quality. But more importantly, it is a story that offers exploration into one simple question. What if Magic Barrier had trotted down another path?

As always, thanks go out to everyone who helped me get to this point. In particular, thank you to Alticron, for editing, proofreading, co-writing, being my idea-wall, and arguably the single biggest reason this story saw the light the day, and thank you to Word Worthy, formerly Izanagi, who also edited, proofread, and threw ideas around with us. It wouldn't be possible without these two. In addition to those two I'd like to thank the newest member of the group Omnicron25 for his efforts in proofing/editing as well. Damn glad to have you on board mate.

Additional thanks to Wing for keeping me company late nights and for being a wordsmith when I needed one.

All he knew was his globe. He was left inside of it as punishment for his devious crimes, but that was hundreds of years ago. Still, he sits inside his spherical home, his mind slowly degrading as each day passes.

He can't even remember what he did wrong in the first place.

The scary thing is, neither can the alicorn who put him there.

Cover image by HoodwinkedTales
Story input by Enigmatic Otaku and ROBCakeran53

This story is a sequel to Inexcusable

She looked just like Princess Celestia, except marred and broken. Her ceremonial barding had rusted slightly, and dirt matted her coat. Most noticeable was her hair; black streaks accompanied its usual multicolored luster. They looked like discolorations in an old photograph.

Worst was the scar across her chest. Her armor covered it, but nothing could hide what it meant.

The tarnished Celestia smiled at Luna. "H-hello, monster. I would say I am glad to see you, but that w-w-wouldn’t be quite accurate."

A big thanks to AlicornPriest for editing/prereading.

Russian translation by MLPMihail, with editing by Randy1974.

Comments contain spoilers. See here for a complete series timeline.

Almost a year after what seemed to be the concluding battle in Celestia's great crusade against necromancers, something Mortem believes to be borderline discrimination, he discovers one of Celestia's armies setting up camp just outside his stronghold.

Not wanting to jump to any conclusions or risk angering the very powerful Princess, he concludes a diplomatic solution would be the best way forward. And so, he writes a letter.

Proofread by the wonderful Soren Mercer
Featured on Equestria Daily here
Audiobook versions by Illya Leonov and TheArchitect are here and here respectively
SoundCloud verion of Illya Leonov's is here

You know the drill. Comicon. Cosplay. Merchant. Boom, Equestria.

I woke up not in a land of technicolor ponies, but within the lands of their dreams. They had no protector, no one to stave off the nightmares and keep them safe. So I took on that role, and watched over them as if they were my own.

Until recently, when their previous protector finally came back.

A thousand years ago, the Protector of Dreams, Princess Luna was banished to the moon. And tonight she finally returned.

Thanks to Arxsys for the wonderful cover art work!

"Thanks, Mom." Two simple words said by a simple guard.

Not so simple when those words are accidentally addressed to Princess Celestia.