A chance encounter with a mysterious stranger and a card game leads Applejack down a winding and shadowed path, deep into the murk of history and legend. Cursed to wander through time and space, she criss-crosses the history of the pony tribes in search of the true stories of creatures' lives, discovering things that shake her understanding of what came before to its foundations.

As she begins to understand the stories ponies tell themselves and each other, she confronts the difficult and painful task of ensuring that the important ones are heard, understood, and remembered, weaving them into the great tapestry of tales that, in the end, is what Equestria is built on. And in the end, maybe she'll find that glorious place every creature she meets talks about, dreams of, and journeys onwards to find, where the water tastes like wine.

A crossover with Where the Water Tastes Like Wine.

Update 7/2023: On hiatus due to unemployment and other real life issues, but I fully intend to return to this work.

Many thanks to Scribblestick for proofreading and to Plumicorns for the amazing artwork! And a very honorable mention to Anonixar, although things didn't wind up working out (which was absolutely no fault of theirs), I want to acknowledge all the time and effort they put in and their very kind and generous attitude.