Suppose you found yourself in a strange body and on an unknown planet, with only a lonely dentist for company. What are you willing to do to get home? How hard would you fight? Does it matter if you're a princess or just a person?

Princess Celestia has been planning for this day for years: the return of Nightmare Moon, the restoration of the Elements of Harmony, and the ushering of Equestria into a new age of friendship and love. Now that it's finally arrived, all she has to do is wait for Twilight to get to Ponyville, make some friends, hunt down the Elements, and save the...

Wait, what'd that letter say?

She didn't get on the chariot?

She went to whose party instead?

Oh. Oh, this could be bad. And more importantly, it's gonna need some hooves-on interference from Celestia to get her master plan back on track. But it'll probably all work out in the end. After all, how big a deal could one party be?

Third-place finalist in Aragon's "Comedy (Is Serious Business)" contest

This story is a sequel to The Alchemy of Chemistry

  Somepony has raided the border of the desolate Badlands, abducting every musician, singer, and bard in the realm. Now, four brave adventurers will journey to the depths of this forsaken land to seek the meaning behind these strange disappearances.
  ...assuming Sunset doesn't strangle Minuette, Lemon Hearts, or Twinkleshine in the real world first.

Historian’s Note:
Set in the Wavelengths timeline where the Sonic Rainboom didn’t happen, Bards of the Badlands occurs about two months after the events in The Alchemy of Chemistry during the summer after Sunset’s first term as an aide at Gifted Unicorns.

Cast: Sunset Shimmer, Minuette, Lemon Hearts & Twinkleshine.

Beta Reader & Editor Credits
Ebon Quill - Quest Designer & Worldbuilding Writer on The Manehattan Project
Little Tinker - Master of Systems at Poniverse & Scripting Engineer on The Manehattan Project
Beltorn - Commenter-at-Large on FimFiction

Cover Art by Neon Overlord
Cover Text, Chapter Header, and Break Designs by Amber Spark
Sunset Shimmer Cutie Mark By Millennial Dan
Dawn Break component of Garnet’s Cutie Mark by Sankam
Garnet Gem component of Garnet’s Cutie Mark by zutheskunk
Epic Hydra Artwork by Zilvart

Special Thanks
Roll For Initiative by Prak - A big part of the inspiration for this tale. Go read it. It's hysterical.

Featured on FimFiction multiple times in January and February of 2017!
Featured as a sequel on EquestriaDaily!

Stories set in the Wavelengths Timeline in chronological order:

Origins Arc
The Alchemy of Chemistry
Bards of the Badlands
Grading on a Bell Curve
Habits of the Equestrian Phoenix
How Not To Use Your Royal Prerogative

Applications Arc
The Application of Unified Harmony Magics
Princess Celestia: A Brief History
The Cloudsdale Report

Dreamers Arc
Tactics of Snowbound Unicorns
A Study in Chaos Theory
Teahouses of Saddle Arabia
As the Raven Flies

Word Count: 28,500
Version: 7.0

This story is a sequel to How Not To Use Your Royal Prerogative

  In an Equestria where the Sonic Rainboom never happened, Sunset Shimmer is the prized pupil of the Princess of the Sun. As Sunset struggles to make up for her past misdeeds and come to terms with the pony she wants to be, Celestia sends her to find the classic work The Application of Unified Harmony Magic from the Royal Canterlot Archives.
  Right after lunch, some meddling by her friends and meeting somepony with firsthoof experience of the Sunset she used to be.

Cast: Sunset Shimmer, Moon Dancer, Minuette, Twilight Sparkle & Princess Celestia

Featured on Equestria Daily on August 18, 2016!
Appeared in the FimFiction Featured Box!

Stories set in the Wavelengths Timeline in chronological order:

Origins Arc
The Alchemy of Chemistry
Bards of the Badlands
Grading on a Bell Curve
Habits of the Equestrian Phoenix
How Not To Use Your Royal Prerogative

Applications Arc
The Application of Unified Harmony Magics
Princess Celestia: A Brief History
The Cloudsdale Report

Dreamers Arc
Tactics of Snowbound Unicorns
A Study in Chaos Theory
Teahouses of Saddle Arabia
As the Raven Flies

Cover Credits
Cover Design by Amber Spark
Sunset Shimmer Vector by TigerBeetle
Pony SciTwi Vector by Osipush
Canterlot Bookshelves Vector by FavoriteArtMan
Sunset Shimmer Cutie Mark by MillennialDan

Beta Reader Credits
Ebon Quill - Worldbuilding Writer on The Manehattan Project
Quantum State - Technical Director of The Manehattan Project
The Albinocorn - Master of Sunset Shimmer Stories

Strongly Recommended Stories:
The Brightest and the Best by Pineta - The events in this story are considered to be completely canon to this timeline and explain Twilight's entrance exam to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I cannot recommend this story enough.
MLP Annual 2013 - "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer" - As above, the 8-page short comic in the beginning of the Annual is also considered to be canon, though with some major variations.

Version 3.0 Edit: Extensive grammatical and mechanics changes. Adjustment to timeline of Sunset's second mirror experience.

Minuette tries to understand the universe and her powers by throwing herself at the same problem as many times as possible, or at least until she gets bored.

Proofread by Casketbase77.

Hit trending on 4/17/2021, I believe. Idk, I barely ever check trending anymore.

Pinkie is forced to go to Colgate - the new dentist in town - to get her teeth checked out. Unfortunately for Colgate, Pinkie is her first customer in Ponyville - she wasn't really counting on looking at the teeth of someone like that.

Naturally, you are going to be tired after a long, stressful day.
Naturally, your next moves will lead you into your bed as quickly as possible.
And naturally, this is going to be quite the challenge when you're sharing your home with a certain blue unicorn.

Credit for the cover goes to AviAlexis25.

[First Person] [Alternating Perspectives][Equisverse Era 1]

Twinkleshine has a secret, one which defines her very existence. Colgate knows her secret and it has her head over hooves in love with the oblivious mare. Fed up with Shine's failure to notice Cole, their mutual friends Lyra, Bon-bon, Vinyl, and Octavia hatch a scheme to get Shine to fall for Cole. However, they choose to hatch their little plot next week at Princess Cadence's wedding, where Twinkleshine's secret catches up with her. Can friendship survive a dark secret kept for longer than the friendship has lasted? Can the friends emerge from a Canterlot Wedding unscathed?

This story has been completed before any of it was uploaded for your enjoyment.

On May 23, 2015, I woke to find myself transformed into some kind of horned alien horse, and everyone else has vanished. I searched for survivors and I found one; however, she is much younger than I was prepared for. She needs a parent and the only one who can fulfill that role is me, just not in the role I had originally envisioned.

I already found one survivor, so maybe there are others out there. I just hope they’re not all children; I don’t get enough sleep as it is.

Part of the Ponies after People Universe

Update 10/08/15 New Cover art by PaintSplotch
Note: 12/15/16 Apparently Mandatory Motherhood was in the featured box at some point? I just found it in the featured community folder.

Update: 4/20/17 SevenSerenity has joined the team! Expect chapter art from her soon!
also I finally saw MM on the front page in the featured box today! Thank you all so much everypony!

Chapter 1 edited by Canaryinthecoalmine Pre-read by Westphalian_Musketeer, Starscribe, anonymous, Stablestahl, secondVendetta, Baileyjrob, Nitrous Rainbows, bluemoon1996, as well as two FimFic users I don't have user names for.

Chapter 2 edited by Canary and Musketeer.

Chapter 3 edited by Musketeer

Chapter 4 edited by Holyme, anonymous, and Musketeer.

Tags will be added as needed.

On the eve of her departure, Lyra pledges her love to Bon Bon.

Featured in the Pony Fiction Vault.