“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” -Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Twilight Sparkle has come up with an inspired idea for Rainbow Dash’s birthday present, the best one she can imagine. She’s made a living, breathing copy of her favorite fictional character for her. The new pony has one goal in mind, and one purpose that crowds out all others: Be the best Daring Do she can be.

A collaborative work with the incomparable Eakin.

Daring Do returns to the Riverlands, the home she left behind years ago. On the road to the farm where she was born, she wonders if you can ever truly escape the past. Sometimes, the river comes up, the levee breaks, and you have no place to stay. No amount of crying can stop its inevitable progress.

The first time we danced, she broke my jaw in three places.

The life of a disposable minion in the service to the Dread Ahuizotl is filled with acts of senseless violence and hardship, normally ending in a hospital or unmarked grave, but for Disposable Minion #3, the job just got more interesting.

He fell in love.

And love hurts.

Credits to the amazing Luvlessi for the cover art
Background music: The Masochism Tango by Tom Lehrer
With a wonderful reading by Luvlessi
And a second reading by Crafty Reads
Featured on Equestria Daily

When asked why she delves into the most ancient and treacherous temples in known and unknown Equestria, Daring's most likely response is a shrug and a casual, "Eh. It's a living."

At some points, however, the most petrifying ventures have the potential to be those merely within the complex ruins of the inner city. This is one of those ventures. Daring Do, with her heaviest load of cold hard cash strapped firmly to her back, must walk through the cold hard streets of Manehattan... at night.

Written for the The Great Shipping Collab.

Few ponies know that Daring Do is a real pony, her adventures only rarely bring her back to Equestria. But any time they do, she's drawn to a hut inside a gnarled tree in the Everfree Forest, where the zebra she loves waits for her. This time, Daring offers Zecora a choice, to send Daring off on another dangerous adventure, or keep her safe at home. To find the answer, Zecora will have to weigh heart against soul, and love against desire.

Based on a pairing randomly generated by Garbo802, preread by Garbo802, DbzOrDie, Jackie and First_Down.

Daring Do, the legendary treasure-hunter, having recently retrieved her latest artifact, now has to face her rather awkward family.

*Character portraits redacted to avoid spoilers*

When an old ruin is unearthed under Ponyville, it will take the boldest and most adventurous of ponies to dare sound its depths. Daring Do knows she's such a pony.

So what if she's eight and a half, and Dad says she can't go? That's a big age to reach, and he doesn't have to find out. So what if millennia-old dangers and secrets lurk in the darkness? That's the point of adventures.

She's got a saddlebag full of useful tools, countless stories telling her what ought to happen, and her Mom's old helmet. You don't need much more for your first adventure than that.

Cover art commissioned from Ruirik. Proofread by themaskedferret.

Spanish translation, by SPANIARD-KIWI.

There are a lot of relics, artifacts, and other ancient items of power strewn throughout the world. I should know; I've found safe homes for a lot of them, and even destroyed a few. A good rule of hoof is that the older it is, the more powerful it is. Not because it's old, but because it's survived that long, either because of its own toughness or the defenses its creators put around it.

The Weapon of the Ancients predates written language. Ahuizotl wants it for himself. I can't let that happen.

(Fourth place entry in the April 2015 Writeoff Competition. Prompt: Great Expectations.)

It's finally over. The games, the traps, the taunts, the meddling...it's finally all over.

With his most hated foe finally gone, Ahuizotl does what any good villain would do:

Monologue.

It's a good thing Daring Do is such a good listener.

Art by Kna

Approved for Celestia's Library.

Approved for Twilight's Library

Featured on Equestria Daily.

[Part One of the Riflepony Series] When an unexpected heat wave scorches Appleloosa, Braeburn finds himself unable to save his family's apple orchard. That is, until he meets a certain pony whom he thought to be fictitious. The mare tells him of a treasure that is said to be buried in the town of Dodge Junction, and asks for his assistance in finding it. Will the tales of Cunning the Colt's treasure prove to be true, or were they simply folktale?

Proofread and edited by JohnPerry.