Capitalizing on her reformation from being a former terror to Equestria, Starlight decided to start a group to help reintegrate former villains in Equestria, as well as offer support for those having trouble adapting. Thus far, her group has grown to include Tirek, Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, Stygian, and Luna. Unfortunately, these meetings stay about as on-topic as Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush giving a speech about the best kind of dessert.

This is the fifth meeting of the support group, and they find themselves with a new attendee: Fluttershy. Not to mention, it turns out that the former villains finding jobs or hobbies that suited their skills may not have had the best of consequences.

Will Starlight be able to help them all become model citizens? What sort of devious terrors have these former villains unknowingly wrought upon Equestria despite their best of intentions? Will Starlight ever learn just what it was Fluttershy did last Thursday? One thing's for sure, she's gonna need a pay raise at the end of all of this.

Rated T for some slight profanity.

Cover art made by Nevel Yashgi. Give the guy a follow over on Twitch, would you?

Proofread by 0_0, many thanks for that and the suggestions.

Featured on 17 February 2021. Thank you all kindly.
Featured on Equestria Daily, 07 April 2021. I'm glad this story made it.

This story is a sequel to The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan

Now with TVTropes page!

It has been four years since Nova Shine and Twilight Sparkle sealed away Envy at the base of the Everfree Vaults and got engaged, and a lot has happened. Nova has been training to become the archmage, Twilight and her friends defeated Cozy Glow, Tirek, and Queen Chrysalis, and now here they stand, with Nova's Ascendancy to come, his and Twilight's wedding (finally) on the horizon, a new apprentice for Nova to teach, and Twilight's coronation as the Ruler of Equestria set for the coming weeks. Though it's time to say goodbye, Nova and Twilight have made their peace with their lot, and are happy to begin a new chapter as they prepare for their new lives ahead of them.

But this happy life, in the midst of upheaval and transition, does not last.

Nova discovers that his old nemesis, whom he had believed sealed away for several years more, has escaped. He also learns she is now seeking out several objects with the potential to cause untold horrors and devastation. With Equestria still reeling form the attacks by Cozy, Chrysalis, and Tirek, Twilight and Nova are forced to leap into action once again, to stop Envy before she can acquire the mythical Gems of Being, and use them to assemble the Crown of Life.

And on top of all of this, Envy isn't the only one who wants to assemble the Crown. Someone else is after it too. And if he acquires all of them, it could mean the true end of all things.

Racing against time and against their enemies, and battling themselves just as much as their foes, Nova and Twilight, his apprentice Bright Gleam, as well as their friends Aegis, Trixie, the Princesses, Star Swirl, and Sharp Eye, have their work cut out for them. They must find these Gems of Being first, or at the very least, keep them out of the hooves of Envy and the other mysterious being, in order to win a battle that will determine the very fate of the entire world, and everyone in it.

Cover art by Winterline13
Chapters 1-2 proofread by Karibela.

It's movie night at the Castle of Friendship, and James has brought along one of his favorite comedy movies along. Featuring copious amounts of wordplay, visual gags, suicidal passengers, and drinking problems, Airplane! is hailed as one of the greatest comedy films of all time on Earth, but will that standard of comedy carry over onto Equus? James certainly hopes so.

Unfortunately, while Spike is easily entertained, James discovers that Twilight is a bit of a comedy snob. What follows is overanalysis, overthinking, and the cardinal sin of talking during a movie. How will they all make it through the night? Will Twilight find legitimate entertainment at even one joke? Will Ted Stryker land the plane safely? Will Leslie Nielsen's career ever resurge? Surely Twilight will at least come to understand that Jive isn't an actual language, right?

Probably not.

This story is a submission to the writing group Movie Night which is a collaborative effort that looks to engage as many people, be they writers or not, to try their hand at writing about their favorite ponies and movies! Go give it a look and add your story to the club!

Pre-read by Clopficsinthecomments
Cover art by 123TurtleShell.

Ten thousand years after Night Zero, and the Republic of Equestria is in a state of prosperity like never before. President Sunbeam and the citizens of the Republic are preparing to celebrate the Deci-Millennium and it seems as though nothing can go wrong...

..which of course means it all will.

Twilight Sparkle, a student at Canterlot University, lives about as normal a life as any quadruple-majoring college student can live. She helps out at a local library, she aces all of her classes, and she still has no idea what she wants to do when she graduates. But when she finds a mysterious man in a black cloak watching her, her life is changed forever as she finds herself involved in a plot to free an ancient enemy from her lunar exile.

"No, this is not a Star Vs. The Forces of Evil crossover. This is a story written purely for fun, with a semigeneric title on purpose. It will be serious a lot of the time, but on the whole, it will not be a story that takes itself too seriously. The story is rated T for some swearing, maybe a few lewd jokes, and for a few darker things that will happen way later, but not enough to really cast a shadow over the whole story. With that in mind, I do hope you all will enjoy this!" --Rytex

It is Hearth's Warming Eve in Equestria, and the four princesses are having a private gift exchange for themselves. In what seems to be a spur of the moment decision, Princess Celestia gifts Twilight a nutcracker doll and tells her the Legend of the Nutcracker Prince, a story about a pegasus captain who was trapped in the form of a nutcracker doll.

Twilight initially dismisses such fanciful talk, but deep down, something about the story resonates with her. The doll intrigues her far more than a simple toy should, but when she falls asleep that Hearth's Warming Eve night, she awakens to find herself face to face with the very being she believed wasn't real, and now she must help him escape the curse. But there is far more to breaking the curse than she originally thought. But with this knowledge in mind, can she save the cursed stallion and return him to Equestria?

A/N: This is based on the Koala patches of the indie game Starbound. The game has since seen a full release and things have changed. These changes will be nodded to, but otherwise do not appear in the story.

Princess Twilight Sparkle is given the honor of being the first pony on all of Equus to engage in interstellar travel. Her mission: to explore unknown space, discover new planets, find new life, boldly go where nopony has gone before, and report back her findings five years in the future.

Things go wrong during her flight, and she soon finds herself stranded above a planet many worlds away from her home, with no fuel and dwindling power. If she wants to survive, she has to gather resources from the planet below. She slowly starts to develop her survival skills, but along the way, she encounters a friend who can help.

Jack Thomas, a "human" from a planet called "Earth," happens to be exploring space as well, and he seems to have a head start in figuring out where exactly she's at. Together, the two of them set out to find a way to return Twilight to her home.

NOTICE: Gore will be minor, and will appear most prominently in later chapters.

09 June 2014: 100 likes, 8 dislikes! Thanks a bunch, you guys!
05 October 2014: Featured! Thanks, guys!
02 April 2015: Computer Science milsetone! 128 likes! That's 2 to the 7th, or 80 in hexadecimal! Only 127 more until I can say I have FF likes!

This story is a sequel to The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan

NO LONGER THE CANON SEQUEL. Perhaps you are looking for The Archmage's Last Bow?

It began with The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, but now the story continues, Even In Other Worlds.

Nathan Samuel is a normal guy. Decent grades in college, a girlfriend, an apartment, and a stable source of income. That much he thinks he's sure of. One fateful day, however, the spellwork of a curse surrounding everyone he knows suddenly drops from around him, and he is able to remember who he is: Nova Shine, the Night Master of Princess Luna.

Meanwhile, a coalition of villains to Equestria has been assembled to keep things in check. Queen Chrysalis, whose job it is to use her changeling forces to prevent any kind of organized uprising; Sombra, who was the one who cast the memory curse in the first place, is to keep it in check; Discord, who is doing little more than standing for back-up; and Nightmare Moon, watching the Elements personally and reporting back to their mysterious "benefactor."

Following a conversation with Princess Celestia, Nova now knows what he needs to do to return to Equestria. The Elements of Harmony were restored to the Tree of Harmony, but the spirits of the Elements live on in their Bearers. With all six of them unable to remember who they are, and worse, with all six hating each other, Nova Shine now has to work to restore the Elements, and in the process try to make his fiancée fall in love with him again, to return all of them to their home.

NOTE: Gore is rather light; tag is included for safety.

Fifteen years ago, Princess Twilight Sparkle, creator of the computer and fourth Princess of Equestria, vanished without a trace. She had been hard at work on something only she had any knowledge of, and when she disappeared, her knowledge and work did with her. Her son Arcturus took the loss hardest of anyone, and began a life as a delinquent, nothing more than a hacker and prankster.

But when a mysterious message appears on his mom's friend Trixie's phone, from a number that once belonged to his mom's old lab beneath her castle, Arc sets out on a journey to find his mom that will take him to the very place he thought was just a bedtime story: inside the computer itself.

Inside, he finds himself entangled in a plot to lure his mother into the open, so that these malignant programs may escape to the outside world and enslave all of Equestria. Only one pony he knows could possibly help him stop them -- the one pony he has been searching for his entire life.

Now with an audio drama produced by truesailorcomet, as well as TVTropes page!

Princess Luna takes on a Night Apprentice, her counterpart to Princess Celestia's Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle. Nova Shine, a wandering unicorn from Canterlot, is given the position for the first time in a thousand years. What neither of them know is that there exists a long and secret history between the positions of the Faithful Student, the Night Apprentice, and a mysterious shadow that seems to keep popping up in Nova's and Twilight's dreams. This shadow, whatever it is, and the dreams it appears in do not bode well, but the Princesses remain tight-lipped about these nightmares.

Nova and Twilight agree to investigate the nightmares themselves, and this mission occupies them for some time. But as they continue their search, their relationship starts to develop into something more than just fellow students. As if to make matters any more chaotic, Trixie Lulamoon arrives on Twilight's doorstep announcing that she, too, has been dealing with nightmare problems.

Finally, there's also the shadow itself. An ancient and dangerous enemy, it has lain dormant for the last thousand or so years. Why it chooses to reveal itself now is anyone's best guess, but unless Twilight and Nova can stop it, there's no telling what will happen to Equestria...

First featured under the old system on 25 November 2013, with occasional reappearances in the new system.
Featured again on 19 November 2022, on its 10th anniversary, and again on 19 November 2023 when the final chapter of the rewrite was published. Many thanks, everyone.