Either a pony is capable of being something, or she is not. Either she is what she should be, or she is not. Either Luna comes back a penitent or a conquering revenant.

This story is a sequel to Memento Mori

Twilight learned a valuable lesson, long ago. Memento Mori: you too, will die. It was a bitter pill, but she accepted it and her boundless curiosity about the darkest of lores was for a while sated. But when she discovers a curious volume in the bottom of Ponyville library, hidden in the most unsuspecting of places (for after all, who would look in such a sleepy town?) she begins to feel a pull that she is not sure she wishes to resist.

(A sequel of sorts to Momento Mori, featured on EQD.)

Twilight and Celestia go off alone, and Twilight will not say what is the matter, only that she may not return at all. Her friends and Luna gather in a vigil at the library the night of the Twilight's unknown trial, waiting for her to come back to them. Twilight faces the most terrible of all decisions, and learns the nature of what she is, and what hopes she may yet have when the sun rises and she returns to her friends.

Twilight and Applejack are engaged. Life seems wonderful... yet Applejack doubts. Twilight seems happy, but she's so busy everywhere but Sweet Apple Acres. Two ponies are stuck in their own worlds, or at least that's how it seems to Applejack. When Twilight is called away from the harvest for an important political summit in Canterlot, Applejack decides in her loneliness that the only way to bridge the gap she fears is forming is to head off into a world of magic and intrigue after her favorite unicorn. She will place herself as a seal on Twilight's heart, come hell or high water.

Luna and Celestia leave the safety of their home in the city of Jannah to seek out a prophecy of power and destiny far to the west, at the end of the world, that only Celestia remembers.

And Luna is sick of the whole business. It has been a long, long journey.

The Law of the Desertborn is harsh, and it is constant--as anything can be constant. Decisions in the badlands where Braeburn guided his family and friends and settled them come quick and are irrevocable. When disturbing bandits who call themselves the Walkers attack the buffalo and close in on Appaloosa, Braeburn is reminded of the thin line between the quick and the dead.

Applejack flees before the spectre of death, taking up writing as solace and succor. In the process, time moves on around her, and wounds heal. While the Apple family struggle with a death, Applejack writes a novel.

Vinyl lives a rough lifestyle, and it grates on more than just her health. When Octavia comes looking for her, Vinyl flees out of shame.

The Batter, a mare who hides her cutie mark and speaks with a slow, rustic drawl, must purify the zones that make up this world. It has to be done. It's better this way. A young pegasus named Cheerful Skies is cast down from the aether to guide her and be her Puppeteer with no knowledge. Only a lingering sense of doubt and dismay accompanies her as she tries to aid the Batter in her inexorable and holy quest.

(New cover art soon by Seldom Needy!)

Her relationships frayed, and her future causing her anxiety, Applejack heads down to the river with many of the earth ponies in town to see her aunt, an itinerant clergymare of Gaia. Accompanying her is her friend Twilight and a host of regrets.

(Though you don't need to know this to read the story, this is part of the Splinter Songverse, a re-imagining of what might have happened if Rainbow had died in "Where the Sun is Silent" which you can find on EQD. My Love, a Ghost also is about Rarity and Applejack. The real Songverse can be found on my page.)