The CMCs find an Instascam account impersonating them.

When Princess Luna goes missing, Private Lucky Break knows there's more at work than a simple breach of court protocol.

For most, Hearth's Warming is an occasion to celebrate family and friends, a time for reflection and goodwill to all of Equestria's residents. But for two ponies, their relationship with the holiday is much more complicated.

Lucky, batpony soldier of the Night Guard, is assigned to escort Princess Luna to the grand reopening of her Night Court mere months after her return to Equestria. Everything goes well at first, until a visitor inadvertently offends the princess. Incensed, she cancels court and sends everypony away. However, when Lucky goes to offer comfort to a distraught Luna, she storms out.

Spurred on by an old wound buried deep in his heart, Lucky strives to mend a bond between sisters that feels all too familiar, and find the missing diarch before her grief consumes her.

Updated Author's Notes

Thanks to Auburn Arc for general feedback and editing assistance with this version of the story, and also to WolfVenom for further editing assistance. Credit goes to Magello for the new cover art. And thanks, as always, to the #fimfiction chatters for their endless mockery impatience support as I revised this story.

Original Author's Note

Thanks for help with the first version go to:
Editing: Norm De Plume, Deceased, and CinnamonSwirlTheBreaded
Synopsis assistance: CheeseDeluxe and PegasusMesa
Original cover art by sinsays

Wanted: Porter, assistant, jack-of-all-trades, minion. Applicants should be strong, loyal, pain tolerant, cold tolerant, unambitious. Must be capable of following simple instructions. Ideal applicant should be of low to average intelligence and mildly deformed, but exceptions will be made for extraordinary candidates, with extraordinariness to be determined by employer. Must be willing to begin work immediately.

Remuneration will be in the form of room, board, and insight into the true nature of the cosmos. Extremely generous bonuses up to and including subcontinents may be awarded if merited and if circumstances permit. Interviews for the position to be conducted at 108 Haybale lane at 10:00 AM sharp on 4/7. Applicants are expected to be punctual.

—The Dark Lord Sassaflash

Editing and indispensable writer-prodding by The Masked Ferret

Conflict has been boiling between the two Apple siblings for a while now, but when the trouble between them seems to reach it’s climax, an unexpected twist leaves them back at square one. Big Macintosh, the hardworking backbone of Sweet Apple Acres, claims he isn’t Big Mac. He denies being himself, and denies being the big brother to Applejack.

At an impasse on what to do, Ponyville’s local psychiatrist is called to help find out what happened to Big Macintosh. Can she find out what is going on with him? Whatever the truth is, the mind inside of Big Macintosh makes one thing perfectly clear. “I Am Not Big Mac.”

Content Warnings: Discussion of Death, Loss, Grief. Explicit Language.

WARNING: Spoilers in the comments.

Have you ever just been having a regular day, then suddenly, BAM, you're dead? Well, no, of course you haven't. But what do you expect to happen after you die? If the answer was getting shoved into an overly pink copy of a pony princess, you'd be lying. Worse yet, she made me an alicorn just like her, which causes a whole new set of problems.

Unfortunately, she was adamant that I stay and become her twin sister. I ditched her immediately in my bumbling confusion and fear, and who could blame me? The last thing on my mind was being here! Ponies, princesses, and twin sisters? What kind of fantasy story was that? I was on the run, hiding from guard patrols, and fighting for my next meal. However, my own hubris caught up to me in the end, and her super powerful mother, Cadance, found me and made me see how stupid I was being. And Cadance, is an absolutely crazy powerful pony, with an even more powerful maternal instinct. So when it came down to her word against mine, she was really hard to convince, and she wasn't taking no for an answer.

(AKA, Super wholesome, fluffy, found family. And me having fun tugging on heartstrings.)
(Cover image by: me)

Daring Do, Professor of Archaeology at the Golden Oaks University in Ponyville, is known as a pony of adventure, the protege and partner of the treasure-hunting Dorado Caballeron, a mare who has traveled the world and discovered great treasures since she was a filly under the wing of her Uncle Adventure. What most don't know is her drive to discover the unknown, born the day that she witnessed her beloved uncle killed by shadowy monsters after taking an idol of a strange dog-like monster.

After one of her colleagues vanishes while searching for the legendary Sunken Church, Daring Do crosses paths with private detective Phillip Finder and sets out to search for her friend and for the hidden temple. From that day, the two form a partnership that spans Equestria, facing eldritch threats, monsters from beyond their world, insane cultists, and deadly assassins from the sinister Order of the Golden Sphinx. Their partnership grows to encompass Twilight Sparkle and Luster Dawn, two of the brightest students at Golden Oaks University; Zecora, the mysterious shaman from the Everfree Forest; Rainbow Dash, a cocky Wonderbolts reservist; and the Anomalous Investigations Unit, a small, ill-respected branch of the Royal Bureau of Investigation that handles cases beyond the pale of reason.

Obsession drives Daring Do forward in a quest to uncover lost secrets and magical treasures and to protect Equestria from impossible threats...but what might it cost her and those around her? And all the while, an ancient evil stirs beneath Equestria, hailed by the haunting chant:

Dead Ahuizotl waits dreaming...

A reboot of sorts of my former series Ponyville Noire, Daring Do: Shadows Over Equestria is an adventure-mystery story with heavy influence from the Cthulhu Mythos and related spinoffs, particularly the Arkham Horror franchise. It features many of the same characters but under different designs and inspirations.

Cover art by Redahfurerking!

Proofreading by Jade Dawn, Eagle--Paladin of Shadows, and TheLegendaryBillCipher !

Centuries ago, when the heart of Equestria was still wild and untamed, corrupted and twisted by powerful ancient magic, Annie and her family, exiled from their former homeland, settled near the edge of the then-unexplored Everfree Forest. Her efforts to protect her family from certain doom will, unintentionally, change her and Equestria forever.

It has been nearly a thousand years since Twilight Sparkle died. Celestia and Luna are gone. The Holy Equestrian Diarchy, ruled by a bigoted and brutal theocracy, has driven ponies apart and divided them along tribal lines. Unicorns are driven from society, feared and hated.

The lessons of friendship, painstakingly written down in the journal of friendship by Princess Twilight and her friends, have been warped and twisted to fit the Diarchy's hateful ideology. But to the average pony, this is the truth and reality of the world they live in, beset on all sides by enemies monstrous and magical.

Emberglow, a young pegasus mare, aspires to join the elite Knights, magically enhanced warriors dedicated to the holy Saints worshiped by the state religion. Can she uncover the lies and deceptions that have led the world to this bitter place?

Thanks to QueenChrysalisForever for prereading Chapters 1-24. Prereader for chapters 29-31 is MrRTS.
Prereading for chapter 34-? by Horsetorian
Additional pre-readers: bananachips/CommissarVulpin, Thought Prism, Chyre
Special thanks to my amazing editor, Cyonix
Cover Art by JodTheCod

Note on timing: I began writing this long before Season 9 aired, so none of those events happened as far as the narrative of this story is concerned.

Come join us on the Rekindled Embers Discord!

Edit: Featured 8/7/20! Yay and Thanks!

Minuette is determined to have a nice date with a nice stallion, no matter what that takes.

Twilight Sparkle just wants her to stop wreaking havoc on the time-space continuum.

Things get complicated.

Edited by Exuno
Preread by Barbeque

Daring Do cannot believe her luck when she is asked to help explore the most ancient tomb known to ponykind. But terrible danger awaits her, for beneath the earth rests something beyond equine understanding.

Warning: comments contain ending spoilers.

TVTropes page.
Alternate ending by Duplex Fields.
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