There once was a story about the beautiful dark alicorn who moved the moon. In the tranquil countryside, a young boy listened to the story, looked at the stars, and imagined. He grew up and fell in love with the ruler of the night … and she loved him, too.

It was perfect, except for one nagging doubt in the back of the quiet boy's head: she was a character from a children's story.

Winner of the Writeoff Association's "Written In The Stars" competition! ** Featured on Equestria Daily ** Featured by The Royal Guard (twice! )

Rated ★★★★★ by Louder Yay! "This is, perhaps, a Lucky Dreams story for grown-ups. ... Plenty of magic and friendship here, but also sadness and loss ... a clear classic."

Highly Recommended by Present Perfect! "An excellently written story about an emotional encounter between the titular characters … yet a good bit more than that. If you like reading, you will like reading this."

Recommended by Titanium Dragon! "This story had an excellent style to it, a sort of fairy-tale-like quality … really, this is a work of original fiction which pokes at MLP in only the barest of ways. But that doesn't mean it isn't relevant to your interests."

Art: Assembled by me. Luna vector by azur-wing.

Young Nictis had one dream: to serve his hive by becoming an Infiltrator, the most vital and vaunted role a changeling could aspire to. To hide in plain sight among the other species, blending in, while gathering the vital emotional energies that fueled his people. Few were deemed worthy of the dangerous job. He was one of the few nymphs selected for training, in the hopes that one of them would develop the skills needed to be entrusted with such a treacherous task.

But when a training expedition ends in tragedy, Nictis finds himself thrust into the role not to serve his hive and people, but to preserve his own life. Separated from the hive, alone, he must put what little training he has to the test. He must blend in with the hive's greatest source of food, and its most dangerous enemy: the ponies of Equestria.

(This story takes place in the same continuity as Fragments, but stands on its own. Reading that story isn't necessary for this one.)

TV Tropes page

Book cover art by viwrastupr

You remember Canterlot. You remember the taste of victory. Across a thousand years and a hundred lives, it was the greatest joy you had ever felt.

And then, in a flash of heat and unbearable light, it ended.

Now you are alone. The rest of your kind are dead or scattered, and you cannot hear their thoughts.

There is a void inside you. A gnawing, endless hunger you cannot escape. It is killing you.

You need love to survive, but there is none of that here. Not for you. You can only steal it from them, these ponies for whom we are hungry.

[My entry in and winner of the "Most Dangerous Game" contest."]

Thunderstorms have always put Scootaloo on edge. A pegasus afraid of the weather. What's wrong with her? Rainbow Dash helped create this storm, too—Scootaloo should just stop being such a baby about it.

Slightly lengthened version of a minific that finished in the middle of the pack in the /fic/ write-off "Illusion of Choice."

Twilight has been alone for a long time. She's not sure how long anymore, but the color of the sun is giving her some ideas.

Twilight stopped dreaming a long time ago, but she is now plagued by visions. Visions of the past. Visions of the worst moments of her life.

Twilight is feeling really annoyed right now.

Edited by the amazing NameGoesHere.

Reading by S Ninja

Partially inspired by It's Such a Beautiful Day by Don Hertzfeldt, if only because it put me in the mental state to write this.

The day after Hearth's Warming, Snowfall Frost thinks back to her encounter with Applejack and decides that maybe she hasn't learned her lesson, not entirely. Maybe she needs a refresher.

It's time to put the romance back in necromancy.

Celestia invites Twilight over for tea and chess. Things don't quite go as planned.

"...Present Perfect unironically uses the term Chineighse here and I don't actually know if I can forgive him for that." -Obselescence!

"-- oh, no..." -Estee

Despite herself, Twilight starts to think that Rainbow Dash might be right about Rarity having a crush on Big McIntosh. And, well, friends help friends out in situations like this, don't they?

Many thanks to Present Perfect for editorial advice and to the following artists whose work I cut up for the cover image: The Crusius for Twilight and Rainbow; Fehlung for Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy; RedInk853 for Big Mac; and Jeatz-Axl for Spike.

Twilight has always wondered what it was like to be in love. Madly in love. She might just get the answer she desires in the form of the Love Countdown; a spell that, for one hour, sets the caster in a state of hopeless infatuation towards the first pony she sees.

But what she didn't read, was that the Countdown isn't specific to just one pony...

Title inspired by the Fastway song of the same name, "Love Countdown."

Mac and Dash end up having drinks with a couple they meet in Manehattan. The couple makes some assumptions they shouldn't have about Dash, and she gets her feathers ruffled.