"The first time I came back, I thought it was a miracle. By the fifth or sixth time, I knew it was a curse."

Death is a reasonable fear, but it is also a constant reassurance. A promise that no matter how bad things get, they will one day end.

That promise was broken, leaving Rainbow Dash to pay the cost.

A very last minute entry for the 2024 SciFi Contest III.

Special thanks to ScreamQueen and Rb for prereading and valuable feedback.

General content warning: Some depictions of blood, death, and debilitating injuries, but no graphic descriptions. Some existential horror.

Earning a spot among the Wonderbolts will place you in the history books.

It'll also place you on store shelves nationwide.

Hey, somepony's gotta keep the lights on.

A submission for the Wonderbolts Site Contest

Pre-read (with all my thanks) by Pneu, RB, DarkCyan, Grey, and 6-D Pegasus.

When Shining Armor was in high school, he was given an assignment to take care of a bag of flour decorated like an infant filly. By the end of the week, "Floury Armor" was a prize-winning batch of muffins and the yearbook committee had unanimously voted him "Most Likely to Appear in a Future Villain's Tragic Backstory." This really should have been a red flag, but for some reason the Queen Bee of the school still married him anyway.

When Shining Armor found out that his wife was pregnant, he was quick to introduce the Crystal Empire to the idea of a gender reveal party. Luckily, that quarter of the city had been due for extensive renovation anyway and his explosion-proof wife appreciated the sentiment.

Now, when his daughter is turning into a pony he no longer recognizes (and he can't even blame the changelings this time), it's up to him and his self-proclaimed stellar parenting skills to save her from herself.

My entry for the Shining Armor is a terrible dad competition.

Proofreading and pre-reading very helpfully contributed by Light Striker, GreyTheGriffon, RB, Pneu, and Scream Queen

“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, a messenger lost. For want of a messenger, the message was lost. For want of a message, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.”

“All for want of a horseshoe’s nail."

Like many other timelines, the Sonic Rainboom fails to occur. But, Harmony is tenacious. Even without what seems to be a key event, it will have it's bearers. Just perhaps taking a long, winding shortcut around to reach them.

An alternate timeline story inspired by A Minor Variation by notMurphy where the Mane 6 have their elements shuffled. Different events lead to different ponies, so OC tag is here because of how wildly different these Mane 6 ended up.

Cover made by Me.

Something sleeps in the waters of Bilge

Content Warnings for Implied Mutilation, Abuse, Eldritch Horrors

Written for the A Thousand Words Contest II Contest in the Horror Category.

Preread by The Sleepless Beholder.

Written for the Gay Contest Speedwrite in the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Group.

When the leaves turn golden and crisp,

fried by the Summer Sun to a tender perfection,

the salmon come home to die.

Weird experimental piece that took second place in the Quills and Sofas pegasus contest. The prompts were "broken wings" / "hostile skies". It was originally written in 75 minutes. This version has only received minor grammatical edits.

Read the sequel!

Far away, in the magical land of Equestria, grayscale ponies walk the earth. To have hues in one's hair is to be shunned by others.

With every hour, minute, and second, Topaz Glow makes sure she is the mare she has to be.

Even if that means she can never be the mare she is.

Written for Pride Month 2023.

Includes explicit depictions of dysphoria. Reader discretion is advised.

Special thanks to Zenith Sky for brainstorming the story with me, to RubyDubious for stepping up to be the proofreader and editor for this story, and to Hivemind for drawing the cover art!

A short existential horror. Apple Bloom accidentally time travels a fraction of a second into the past, and realises she's the only one there. The world continues on around her, yet she's not in it.

The present is an infinitely thin span of time bordered by endless past and future. Everyone you know and love balances on that line. What if you fell off?

Written to be exactly 1000 words for the 1000 word contest (Horror).

Cover image made by me. Special thanks to SpoonierThanThou and Steady Gaze for pre-reading!

Featured 22/06/23 - 24/06/23. Fanfic reading. Translations: Ukrainian

Mark always knew he was... well, you know. But what was he supposed to do about it? Nothing, really. It didn't matter anyway. Nothing was ever going to change. Or so he thought, until a portal to Equestria appeared in his house. But with that portal, he'll be forced to acknowledge and confront what he is head on.

Preread by everyone's favorite writer, Starscribe. They've helped make this story ten million times better than it was before.

Cover art by CrimsonWolf360. You can find their work here.

Sitting on the bookshelf in Strawberry Sunrise's new home in Ponyville is a diary.

That's not unusual; many ponies have diaries.

Some of her neighbors have seen her writing in it, wherever she goes.

Again, that isn't terribly strange; many ponies like recording their day-to-day thoughts and activities.

If somepony were to snoop into it, they'd find a few pages of doodles, scratched-out notes, and half-finished shopping lists.

This, curiously, is the peculiar part. Not because of what anypony would read, of course, but because it looks exactly nothing alike to what any changeling would read upon those same pages.

Cover art drawn by the brilliant Snow Quill!

Written for Novelle Tale as a gift, with the prompt "a gut punch with FEELS!" I'm grateful she enjoyed it, for she's a phenomenal writer and I highly encourage you all to check out what she's written!

Thank you to Snow Quill, Novelle Tale, Lofty Withers, Zontan, and Mushroom for prereading. Couldn't have written this without you!

Reviewed here by Reviewfilly!