After many hard years of living with weak and stunted wings, Scootaloo finally decides to end her life. On her way to her grave, she wanders through a snowy Ponyville night, reflecting on the past that has haunted her life. But despite her determination, some friends are too stubborn to see that there are things too broken to fix, too proud to lay down their belief that you can be more than is possible. Some friends are just too loyal to let you go.

Pipp Petals is many things. A princess. A drama queen. A fan of anything paranormal. But most of all, she is an entertainer, and after she and her friends had a spooky adventure renovating the abandoned Canterlogic building in Maretime Bay, she had an idea. Why not livestream a full-scale paranormal investigation? More than that, since they now know where it is, why not hold said investigation in the ruins of Canterlot Castle? It's rumored to be haunted, after all! Oh yeah, this livestream will blow the Pippsqueaks away!

If only Pipp knew the true nature of Canterlot Castle, or the things that still dwell within.

Sometimes, history is better left alone.

Diplomacy has failed. Six years have passed Equestria's crowning of the princess of friendship, ushering in a supposed unprecedented age of peace and harmony. The concept of warfare is, to most ponies, nothing more than an unfathomable legend. They have let their guard down.

An unknown enemy has seized the opportunity to attack Equestria with terrifying new weapons of war, bent on taking the fertile land and restoring an ancient order. The valiant efforts of the Royal Guard have given Princess Twilight and her arcane scientists time to research and develop a response to their attackers, and the time has come for that response to be implemented. Utilizing weapons and tactics borrowed from another world, five squads under the command of Princess Luna will infiltrate the forests of the Equestrian Northwest to destroy a revolutionary magical matrix that Twilight refers to as the "radio" - a tool that allows enemy ponies to communicate across vast distances instantly.

Nightmare Two is comprised of three foalhood friends who, rather than be separated from each other in the draft, volunteer to become one of the five Nightmare squads. With their bodies forever altered to suit the needs of their mission, the three young mares join legions of ponies armed with powerful weapons to partake in a horrifying new breed of warfare - Equestria's first in over one thousand years.

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Heads up, folks. If you wouldn't mind leaving a comment alongside the thumbs-down, I'd appreciate it. This is my first foray into fan fiction and although it's a hobby I nonetheless wish to get better. :)

Got some FAQ's for you guys as well!

- Alternate universe in which the events of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" did not occur. (As much as I loved it! :D)

- Numerical age tends to vary with headcanon, but the CMC here were just getting started with their adult lives when the draft went into effect.

- The war is pony v. pony, utilizing firearms and the Equestrian equivalent of a tank. The underlying headcanon is that ponies used firearms similar to muskets and tracked armored vehicles akin to our tanks in times of old, and what the enemy currently employs is essentially the natural progression of these technologies.

- There are no real-world weapons or equipment i.e. "Panzer IV," or "M16 assault rifle." Particularly acute details such as the caliber of weapons are also absent.

- Technology is based on that of WWI with some WWII elements. Firearms are primarily bolt-action.

- The "radio" spell matrix functions as what we know to be a radio, but is not identical.

- All four of a Night Mare's legs are permanently replaced by the augments.

- Night Mares are female. Stallions proved unable to properly animate the limbs.

--

Hold up, now - fanart? You guys rock. Like, for real. Thanks a lot!

1. A great YouTube video coming from The_Pegasus_Box. Thanks, bud!
Check it out!

2. Click here for the collection on DArt.

3. https://derpibooru.org/740375?scope=scpeac921b191f688d04521575f31608785cbc3bbaa1
[img]https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/10/10/740375__safe_anthro_apple+bloom_gun_artist-colon-pusspuss_night+mares.png[/img]

This story is a sequel to Unnoticed

Do you know the mare? So many believe they do. A single glance is more than sufficient to teach them everything. And given that they now know everything, there's clearly no need to make any further inquiries. She is what they've decided her to be. No more, and it would take quite a bit of effort to create any degree of 'less'.

Do you know the pegasus? The mailmare, the single mother, the incompetent, the town's lowest-flying joke? Is that what you've told yourself?

Do you know her?
You don't.

(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.

While this story is tagged as a sequel, it's just following up on her previous appearance there: no knowledge of that piece is required.

A long, boring trip through seemingly endless desert was not how Diamond Tiara had wanted to spend her summer vacation. Her parents, however, insisted that she be brought to their newest real estate acquisition: a tremendous and ancient house, built long before any pony could remember and for reasons that nopony could even recall situated hundreds of miles from even the dustiest and most rustic of towns.

At first, Diamond Tiara managed to tolerate this dusty, strange dwelling. After all, at least Silver Spoon, her dearest friend, was with her. Until her parents were called away on a business meeting, and the servants that they sent for never arrived. Until a strange figure clad in rags began to appear in the emptiness, watching the pair of fillies from the horizon. Until the dark and terrible history of that ancient house began to come to light. Until the voices started to whisper from the blackness.

Until it was already too late.

Written by Unwhole Hole
Edited by Unwhole Hole's sister
Cover art by μm

In the cold winter of Ponyville a single spirit walks alone.

Scootaloo is just like any other filly. She goes to school, she plays with her friends. Sometimes she feels a bit insecure about her wings, but that's okay.

And then she has to go home.

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?

One day, Twilight finds a stallion staring at a hole in the wall. He seems strangely fascinated with it.

Rainbow Dash awakens after a major accident, but something is horribly wrong.

This story was written for the Thousand Words Contest