When your life is as dull a gray as the world that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color -- or six -- to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

*6-16-2017 Edit, added Rainbow Dash tag because it triggered knighty.*

The Elements of Harmony are defeated and Nightmare Moon stands on Equestria's throne as their new Queen. Is Equestria doomed to suffer through night time eternal or will they be... perfectly fine? Twilight finds her new job as slave or "personal assistant" to her new ruler to be a bit maddening. But is this evil sarcastic queen really as bad as she originally believed? And just how many others are diabolical enough to cash in on the change in staff? Can Nightmare truly run a peaceful Equestria? Let me just answer all these questions right here in the description...

After another stunt gone wrong, Rainbow finds herself cooped up in a hospital room again. But when she ends up getting roomed with a nine-year-old colt, her stay at Ponyville General takes a turn that's worth just a little more than reading a book about an archaeologist.

“What the hell?” he muttered. “What happened? He cautiously opened his eyes again.
“Oh…”
He wasn’t in his room.
“Oh…” Soarin mumbled again, looking down at the bed beneath him.
He wasn’t in his bed.
“Oh my…” He said, his eyes snapping open as his foggy brain put two and two together.

After being discharged from the Wonderbolts and spending an interesting night with a certain rainbow-maned Pegasus, Soarin moves into a new career, Weather Control.

He has no idea what he's in for.

Now has a sequel.

Celestia leaves to deal with a foreign crisis, giving her sister a chance to rule alone and become more attached to the modern world. She calls on Twilight Sparkle to advise Luna, hoping her student will be able to draw Luna out of her shell. With two major threats to Equestria already defeated in the past year, it seems like the perfect time to let Luna gain some confidence and experience in the modern world. After all, what are the chances of a third disaster occurring?

Now comes with complimentary tropes.

Rainbow Dash has always been fond of Scootaloo, cheering her on from the sidelines and admiring her with almost religious reverence. But when her parents are absent from the talent show Rainbow Dash learns that this is in fact a common occurrence and begins to suspect that there's more to the filly than she originally thought. She takes it upon herself to find out the truth and help her number one-fan.

Princess Celestia tires of constantly being surrounded by decorum, deference, and formality, and decides to take a day off from being Princess. But visiting Ponyville incognito is harder than she expects. Will she be able to fit in and make friends without blowing her cover?

After a long day of flight practice with Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash discovers the filly knows next to nothing about preening and takes it upon herself to teach her.

Warning: May Contain Feels and/or D'aww moments.

Featured on FIMFiction on 7/20/2013. Yay!
Featured on EQDaily on 09/12/2013 Double Yay!
Reading by TheLostNarrator (excellent!): Here
Reading by DRWolf: Here
Reading by Joehighlord: Here
Riffed by Draklox: Here
Korean Translation: Here
Spanish Translation: Here
French Translation: Here
Chinese Translation: Here

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...

One week ago, Twilight Sparkle was crowned the fourth Princess of Equestria. Tonight, Ponyville hosts the 1003rd Summer Sun Celebration, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna want a vacation. With two fine young princesses like Cadance and Twilight to take over for them, nothing could possibly go wrong.

(Title image hacked together from vectors by sakatagintoki117 and Chrome-MMVII.)