A human living in Equestria owns a restaurant in Canterlot. Hearth's Warming is approaching. Demand is high.

Life is a series of challenges, and running a restaurant is undoubtedly a big one. Jean does his best as anyone can while dealing with other things that have come into his life as of late.

A thousand years ago in Equestria, Luna's frustration and desperation has been building for years and years as her social and political isolation grows, but just before Luna's jealousy and resentment can turn into murderous hatred against her sister, a new event triggars Luna's mental collapse and pushes her over the edge. When Luna by circumstance finds herself alone in Celestia's room she reads her sister's diary out of curiosity and discovers all of the disparaging criticism that Celestia has leveled at her over the years about how much of a nuisance Luna has been to her, but has been too polite to say directly to Luna's face.

Luna and Celestia had always supported and stuck with each other all their lives. Even when the common-ponies critisism and shunning of her was at its worst, the knowledge that her sister loved her kept Luna going. The realization that nopony, not even her own sister valued her or thought she was fit for the throne completely shattered whatever remained of her fragile psyche.

And so Luna just gave up...

She gave in...

If no one wanted her there...

Then she wouldn't stay there...

She would leave.

Sunset Shimmer's life was good, she had plenty of friends and greatly enjoyed where she had eventually ended up in life. It's a shame then that reality had a different opinion on where she belonged. Now stuck in the past prior to first leaving for the human world, Sunset will have to figure out what kind of direction she wants to take in life this time around.

After all, the future she herself lived with her friends was not reachable without doing things that she now found appalling. Even so, she knows that staying in Equestria could very well doom the world to a much darker future. If she had time to draft a plan she could probably figure out something that would keep herself out of the way while also not affecting the timeline, it's a shame then that the two princesses of Canterlot would just not leave her alone!

Apparently this thing got feature mere days after publishing... somehow.

While returning from a political summit in the dragon lands, King Thorax and Prince Pharynx navigate their way through a dense woods. When gnarled branches and twisting shadows take shape, the brothers find themselves holding their ground against the changeling's former tyrant. But while one brother readies himself for a fight, the other faces his predecessor unarmed, seeking not victory, but answers.

* Edited by Double R Forrest
* Part of the Love Bug Continuity!
* Covert art commissioned by me, created by the always fantastic Percy-McMurphy!

The problem with being an explorer in this day and age is that unexplored lands are few and far between. Almost everything's been charted, catalogued, analyzed, and what have you. But that's an almost; there are still those rare, blank spots in the maps, inexplicable, untouched by hooves, unsurveyed. One of those corners is Needle Vale in the far north. Supposedly cursed, yet everyone who's gone in has come back out. It has more stories about it than Celestia herself, yet every single adventuring group that's gone in has found nothing. Thanks to a nonstop snowstorm that's been blowing for centuries, no one's even been able to map it out.

Daring Do thinks there are too many stories about it to be a coincidence. Something is inside there. The source of the legends and of the snowstorm. And no one has a will quite as strong as Daring's (or so she tells herself). With a small team at her back, Daring makes a decision: she will go into Needle Vale, she will withstand the storm, and she will discover what’s going on in there.

But, as Daring is about to find out, there's a reason no one’s been able to pin down what's going on in that valley. Not everything that lies in the dark corners of the earth should be studied.

Loosely inspired by Annihilation. Has a dramatic reading done by Quinch: Pony.Tube, YouTube.

After an expedition into the Everfree Forest ends in disaster, Applejack and Rainbow Dash take refuge in an abandoned cabin until morning.

This is probably a poor decision, but it's only one night, after all. How bad could it be?

For almost a thousand years, the immortal Nightmare Moon has reigned over Equestria as Empress. To the average pony, Nightmare Moon is an overarching enigma whose rule is absolute and whose wrath is terrible. But to Twilight Sparkle, who as an orphan has never known her parents, the Empress is something else entirely. When the young unicorn is brought under the royal wing as an apprentice, she learns a great deal more about the supposed tyrant than she ever knew. But as Twilight is introduced to life with her new mentor, she is thrust into a world of political intrigue, conspiracies and secrets. Secrets that were never meant to be revealed. As allies and enemies plot against the very peace of the nation, will Twilight fall prey to the perils of her new position? Or will she prosper and find in Nightmare Moon the mother she never had?

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My eternal gratitude to my editor, LordOfTheWrongs, without whom Night's Favoured Child would not be the story it is today.

Now with added TVtropes!

Luna is a happy filly, and wants her sister to be happy too. She doesn't know why Celestia cries at night, so she's going to raise the sun and let her big sister sleep in.

Celestia watches her waiting to raise the sun from inside her chambers, torn between a love that she wants to acknowledge and the machinations of politics that have kept her from doing so.

What would a good sister do?

What would a good mother do?

Proofreading by Minds Eye

Cover Art: Then I Heard Your Heart Beating - Riz Cifra

Featured on Equestria Daily

It's reached the point of ritual. Every year, on the day the inductees are announced, the sisters wait for the courier to bring the news. And every year, their father fails to gain the hoofball athlete's ultimate honor: induction into the Immortal Livery, and a bronze statue within the Legendarium. By one vote. And in their opinion, he's been taking it a little too well.

But this year, he's going to attend the ceremony -- so he can provide the induction speech for his greatest rival. And he's invited his daughters along. A chance to trot among the greats of the game, and a day out as a family. That's how he sees it.

Rarity and Sweetie see it as a chance to find out why their father hasn't been voted in.

In the interests of attendee safety, all sewing needles will be confiscated at the door.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits are welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Title and name of inductee hall suggested by Tipper.

While this story follows up on a previous work, the only connection is in establishing character occupations. No knowledge of the earlier story is required.

As rationales go, you shouldn't allow first-year Gifted School students to have a project fair for the same reason you don't test dynamite by kicking it into the nearest wall. But since everypony else has moved on, the current school staff decided to show Celestia just how they were going to repeat the same old mistake. Because while this day may host ideas waiting for their time to come, that time is not now.

No matter how much anypony wants it to be.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group: new members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.