Spike has always considered Ponyville his home, and has always held Rarity a special place in his heart. That is, until a group of dragons showed up after years of looking for him. After meeting his real family and hearing why he was brought into the ponies' care, he starts to rethink his old thoughts.

Now he only has a week to make a decision: either stay with the ponies who loved and cared for him most of his life, or go with the dragons and finally be with his real family. The decision would have been all so clear...

...if there wasn't another factor in the equation.

Much love to those who oversaw the story:

Pre-Readers: Skeeter the Lurker & Mr101
Editors: The Abyss & Man_Demon

Twilight's years at Celestia's school were far from ordinary. Here are the challenging trials, dangerous spells, and important lessons that made her the mare we know today.

A long time has passed since Twilight and her friends first discovered the Elements of Harmony, and she has since become a full-fledged alicorn princess. In that time, she's done many great things.

But the one thing she hasn't done is tested herself. She's never seen the full extent of her powers.

Growing bored of Equestria, and seeking the ultimate challenge, Twilight decides to see just how powerful she really is by attempting the impossible.

Creating her own world.

Idea taken from a brainstorming thread and used with permission from Kapuchu.

Special thanks to Conicer for the epic cover art!

This story is a sequel to Hatred

Many ponies think they know Princess Celestia. She's kind, warm, a giver and protector, much like the sun itself. What many ponies don't know is that Princess Celestia isn't as put together as ponies think she is. Actually, she's barely holding on, and during the day meant to celebrate the day she met someone important to her, someone she wants badly, she finally hits her limit and breaks down.

If she were a normal pony, this would be okay. But she's not. She's an alicorn. And Princess Luna fears that she could fall into a darkness very much like she did, becoming something much worse than Nightmare Moon. Desperate to save her sister before she falls into her darkness, she reaches out to the one pony she feels knows Celestia the most.

Her former student.

Now its up to Twilight to help Celestia in her darkest time. She's never seen Celestia in such a state, and seeing her so devastated scares her almost as much as the idea of her becoming something worse than Nightmare Moon. What she doesn't know is that the shadow around Celestia is getting stronger, and its taking the form of someone from her past. Will Twilight be able to protect her former teacher from this darkness?

...have a tendency to go awry in the most unexpected of ways.

When the Crystal Heart's power destroyed King Sombra, all of the Empire rejoiced. Little did they know, they had played right into the ancient tyrant's hooves.

Having over a millennium to plan, Sombra knew that if a pony managed to get past his traps before he could reconquer the Empire, their was little chance of him surviving. So, he let himself be 'killed', in order to get closer to his true goal undetected; the Umbrum trapped beneath the Empire.

Hiding as just his horn, Sombra laid low in the very heart of the Crystal Palace, biding his time, until the entrance to the underground section was opened by the new Crystal Princess and another princess with a purple coat and familiar magic. Recognizing that magic as that of the pony that foiled his most recent efforts, and knowing of only one princess-to-be with a coat that color, Sombra swears to make Radiant Hope pay for moving against him once again.

Using his magic to reach the deepest depths beneath the Empire, Sombra reached the sealed Umbrum undetected, and reformed his body. Having devised a way to free them during his own imprisonment, Sombra began so, fulfilling his goal even without controlling the Empire. Bursting free in a wave of shadow that left no doubt of their return, Sombra gives Cadence a message for Celestia before following his own subjects into the night:

“Give this message to the Two Sisters. Deliver unto me the princess that yet again hindered my efforts to free my people to me within a week, that I might exact my revenge against that traitorous Radiant Hope, or I shall show all of Equestria why the Umbrum were so feared!”

However, when a week passed, and Sombra found out that the princess in question was not Hope, but rather a new princess named Twilight Sparkle, he finds his plans for revenge derailed. Bound by his word, when she offers to go with him to prevent a war, he finds himself with a 'prisoner' against whom he holds little ire.

And as time passes, Sombra begins to see that he and his 'guest' have more in common than he initially thought.

AU as of Chapter 34 of the 'Friendship is Magic' comics.

This story is a sequel to Shattering a Heart of Darkness

After returning to the side of good and banishing a threat to Equestria, Sombra is dealing with new changes, both physically and emotionally. He is now dating Twilight Sparkle and has moved to Ponyville with hopes of a fresh start. What kind of wacky adventures can the former Shadow King get into?

Twilight Sparkle, prized student of Princess Celestia, has always been very good at magic. Too good.

This is the story of how she solves every problem all by herself, because she is the best pony and my favorite.

Another super villain appears in Equestria! A former villain that was sealed away by Celestia and her sister, Luna, over a 1000 years ago (again). But now he is free and causing a rampage throughout the world! Now it is up to Twilight and her friends to stop him! But first, Twilight has to give Celestia a piece of her mind by withholding information about ANOTHER sealed away villain that escaped because of moronic reasons. Seriously, this is like what? The sixth one?!

Started Writing this in early 2017 but never finished due to reasons, so it takes place before season 7.

Featured 7/4/19 - 7/8/19!

Twilight is frustrated when a fight with her friends over the merits of foal's tales like the tooth fairy leaves her more confused than anything else. Worried that she has offended her dearest friends Twilight writes to Princess Celestia for advice, only to discover that Celestia already has an adventure planned for them.

Together they travel to the coldest and most mountainous region of Equestria to visit a town that celebrates a ridiculous story about a magical Gift Giver who flies overhead giving out toys to foals. Naturally Twilight doesn't believe it. Can the Solar Princess show her former student the importance of fantasy?

This story was completed before Season 4 began airing and was initially set to go out around Christmas, but some confusion with different editors left it in the lurch for awhile. Still, it should be Season 4 compliant.

With the defeat of Tirek and all of Equestria once again saved, life seems to return to normal. However, despite her best efforts, Princess Celestia has come under intense scrutiny for her decision to trust Discord into capturing Tirek before they go on a mad spree and deviatate the land. Now locked away in her room, she feels all the guilt of her failure as a ruler come back to haunt her. These doubts though are about to be corrected however by the same three alicorn princesses that she feels she had failed the most.