When Twilight and Applejack explore a mysterious cave on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres and things go awry, they are quite literally swept away into a world of darkness and ancient secrets, in a cave far beyond the reach of the Sun--where a relic of the past lives on and flourishes under the light of the Moon.

Deep within the heart of the earth, a colony of nocturnal ponies lives on who left Equestria in disgust after the defeat of the Night Mare at the hooves of Celestia. However, what will they think if they learn that their Princess has returned after a thousand years of waiting?

Inspired by DuoCartoonist's "Children of the Night".

What is a dream?

How slowly does time pass in a timeless realm? Does it pass like a roaring river, rushing past before you have a chance to blink...? Or does it pass slowly and painfully, long and drawn-out, giving you endless time to reflect on your mistakes?

What could you remember of a land inherently beyond memory? If everything done in a dream is forgotten, lost like a wisp of smoke on the wind, is every choice and action made in a dream all for naught?

Could somepony lose themself within their own mind? Could they become only a figment of their own imagination, a wisp of a memory drifting in an endless abyss? And most importantly...why?

Huge thanks to RandomSketchMan for the cover art.

Side-story to my Elements of Disharmony fic. Puzzle Master, for whatever reason, decides to invite Discord over for a lovely spot of tea; predictably, shenanigans ensue.

I apologize that this is so short...I was going to add a lot more to it, but then I had to focus more to write another story (quite a bit deeper and whatnot) called Wisp. On a side-note, you have no idea how relieved I am to finally not add the "Dark" tag to one of my stories. :P

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." -Friedrich Nietzsche

A brief fable about a child who walks a journey that none should travel, a journey that all must face eventually: the journey to face reality.

Interpret it however you like.

This story is a sequel to The Shadowed Nightmare

The Elements of Disharmony have been discovered. As they choose their new masters, it is a race against time to find the wielders before they discover their Elements, or the safe streets of Canterlot will erupt into a full-blown war between the masters of Harmony and Disharmony. However, it will not be that simple. Somepony is working behind the scenes; somepony is pulling at the strings of the Elements of Harmony and Disharmony alike. Who is this certain somepony? Twilight Sparkle is summoned to Canterlot to find out, where Princess Luna and a group of scholars are studying the Elements that they have found.

A storm is coming to Equestria...a storm that, when it hits, could destroy everything in its path.

Sequel to The Shadowed Nightmare. If you have not read that, what happened in that story should become apparent as you read this one--though if you want to go read it, by all means go ahead. My personal/"ponysona" OC will not be a character in this story, although this story includes the original villains The Shadow and Puzzle Master from The Shadowed Nightmare.

UPDATE December 12, 2012: New chapters (which is to say Chapter 6 on) will feature cover art by Youkaiyami.
UPDATE May 6, 2013 (Geez, I've been working on this for a long time...but don't worry; I haven't abandoned it): Yeeaah, it's been a few months since I've seen any activity from Youkaiyami, so....welp. So much for the whole cover art thing. :( ah well.
UPDATE May 13, 2013: Next chapter will be released May 27, and from then on new chapters will be added much more often.
UPDATE November 29, 2013: The final chapter will be released at the end of next week at the absolute latest. Also, since I am going to submit this story to EqD, I will be revising some of the earlier chapters to fix some basic writing mistakes and flesh out the scenes with better descriptive imagery.

UPDATE February 18, 2024: Haha, okay, so it turns out that I may have slightly overpromised when I wrote the previous update a decade ago. Best I can do for now is quote Douglas Adams: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by!” I plan to finish on chapter 20. Hopefully this time I can make the wait a little shorter.

Fluttershy's pleasant dream is transfigured into a horrible nightmare, and nopony sees her the next day. A book about dream magic is stolen from Twilight's house. One of the Mysterious Mare Do Well costumes Rarity kept goes missing. The hot-air balloon has been taken. All of this in a single night, and it all revolves around one mysterious pony who then breaks into the Canterlot Library. What is happening? Why is this pony doing all of it under the cover of darkness? Whatever the reason, Twilight Sparkle is determined to find out.

Author's Note: Story is written based on a format as if it is the script of an actual episode, which is why the story arc is two parts that take approximately 22 minutes to read. and an epilogue to set up for the soon-to-come sequel, Necessary Corruption.