A brief moment between friends.

In an Equestria where Discord never was, and the Pony Princesses never came to power, a young Twilight Sparkle loses her family in a crowd during the Summer Sun Celebration. Little does she know that her very existence is about to set a series of events into motion that will take her far beyond the borders of Equestria itself—and change the fates of both her nation and her life, forever.

Princess Celestia is an ageless, immortal being. Almost entirely unique except for her sister Luna, and she was gone for a thousand years. One would assume that no other pony in the entire world could possibly be able to truly relate. One would be wrong. There is one other. He's no all-powerful alicorn. His greatest power is his intelligence. He comes and goes at will, but always seems to be there during her worst moment. Sometimes he has a different face. Once he was a unicorn. And at times, it seems she meets him out of order. But he's a fantastic friend. Simply fantastic.

*Note: Even more than "A Friend of the Night" this story is going to be more along the lines of a series of interconnected short stories. Some chapters might end up being a bit short as a result.*

How would things be different if Twilight had never made it to Ponyville? Twilight Sparkle finds out just how different things could be when she is forced to travel to her own past while chasing down a mystery; a plot to erase Princess Twilight Sparkle from history.

Landing in a time just weeks after the one thousandth Summer Sun Celebration, she finds a world shrouded in an eternal night, where the Elements of Harmony were never recovered. Can she fix the things that should have, but didn't happen? Or is this Equestria destined to head down a different path?

Chinese Translation by Hell Organist

Twilight Sparkle learned how to be a unicorn at Celestia's knee, and few know more about her than magic. She learned how to be a pony from her five PFFs, and they count her as one of their most treasured friends. Now, Celestia wants her to learn the science of living deliberately, which will take all of the skills and resources she's accumulated so far.

A note on tags: FIMFiction considers 'Adventure' and 'Slice of Life' to be opposed tags, but I wish I could have both. A mighty river is fed by many streams. (Maybe I should just alternate each week.)