After the return of Princess Luna, Equestria entered a period of unparalleled innovation. Space flight and faster-than-light travel became not only reachable goals, but reality. And so equine civilization expanded throughout the cosmos. But in their search for other intelligent life, they discovered a race that could not be befriended, appeased or reasoned with. The race they encountered existed only to feed.

Now, in a war where defeat means extinction, any victory counts.

All Princess Celestia wanted was to open a window. A simple window into another world, for no reason other than to prove their existence. She never wanted it to become a door. And she certainly never wanted anything to come through. But, as is proven so often, we don't always get what we want.

It's not all bad. What comes through is a perfectly ordinary pony. So ordinary that its very presence risks the destruction of magic itself.

Ordinary, after all, is highly relative.

Dreams. In some ways they are the most delicate, ephemeral part of one's consciousness. In others, they are a direct path to the mind's deepest hidden desires, fears and doubts. Despite this, ponies are told from a young age that they are harmless. That dreams have no power over them. That they hold nothing that must be feared.

Nothing... save the nightmares that strive to prove them wrong.

Twilight hates it.

Pie. There's nothing Pinkie likes better. Up until this point, she thought she'd experienced just about everything related to it.

But Twilight has a decidedly different application for pie. And it doesn't involve eating it.

Throughout all of history, one concept has kept both the written and spoken word from becoming an unintelligible mess. That concept is that most holy of grounds known by some as "grammar." It sets down rules for language to follow, and keeps it free of distortion.

Yet something is wrong. The rules are failing. And only one pony so much as suspects that something is wrong. Something that goes deeper than a simple appearance of errors. Something that could be an attack on the very root of language itself.

Ah, the tropics. Sand, sun, and all the fruity cocktails your liver can handle. Just spend the day lying on the beach, soaking up the sun and listening to the waves gently lap against the shore...

Too bad you don't get any of that in the frozen north. A hideous mix-up has sent the mane six to the far northern land of Caneighda. But this land of ice and snow is quick to reveal a deeper, hidden warmth. You just have to look at it the right way.

Disclaimer: I am Canadian, so I'm exempt from any flak you might decide to throw at me because of the stereotypes I use.

In the long-forgotten past, the solar princess welcomed a black unicorn into Canterlot Castle. He was an artist who quickly found a place in the hearts of all who met him. His name, likened to the colour of his coat, was Midnight.

Nearly a millennium later, the discovery of an unusual book leads Twilight to Canterlot. And directly into a whirlwind of events where the secrets of the past are finally brought to light...even as all is eclipsed in madness...

The nightmares had been haunting her. Robbing her of sleep, the one refuge every sentient being deserves. They all said they'd help her. But she knew they were lying. They just needed an excuse.

But she wasn't going to give it to them.

A minor accident at Sweet Apple Acres sends Big Macintosh to Ponyville in the middle of applebuck season. At first, things seem fine. But then some of the mares begin acting a little...oddly.

Then very oddly. Turns out every other stallion skipped town for a very good reason.