A young mare prepares to leave her home and set out on her own, but there's a special somepony she needs to speak to first. If only he already knew what she needs to say...

Well, this sort of thing isn't supposed to be a breeze. Maybe the cuddling will help.

Written for CategoricalGrant's 2021 Cuddlefic Contest for some reason.

Twilight Sparkle has ruled Equestria for over a thousand years. From her throne atop the floating city of Concord, she enforces ruthless harmony over the handful of surviving settlements. But Twilight is afraid: Equestria's survival always hangs by a thread, as enemies more ancient than the Alicorns threaten to return and devour what she has built.

Twilight selects her star pupil, a young unicorn named Star Orchid, to travel down from the perfect city of Concord into the dangerous ruins beneath, so that she might locate these forces, and help Twilight to destroy them. Only when every threat to Equestria is finally dismantled will she be able to rest. Until then, there is much left to purify.

Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha

Updates Wednesdays.

This story was commissioned by TyrannisUmbra, with additional funds donated by my enabler, Two Bit. If you'd like one of your own, drop me a PM!

This story takes place in the same universe as Why We Dig. I'm not going to call it a sequel, since none of its characters will be aware of anything in that story, so you won't have to be either.

Starlight and Trixie, as part of their duties as staff of the School of Friendship, traveled outside Equestria for a recruitment drive. However, their trip to Mount Aris was waylaid by a problem with the railway. Still wanting to make good time, Starlight decided they should hoof it through the wilderness south of Equestria.

Just south of the MacIntosh Hills, the two find a vast forest before them. With every step inside, the canopy above grows thicker and thicker. They may never see the sun again.

This story was written for the Barcast's Halloween in April Horror contest.

Thanks to The Seer for some feedback/prereading.

Now with a reading by Cloud 9, starring Magpiepony and Celaena Winters.

What do you get when you combine an empty Ponyville library, government cost cutting on strongbox locks, and a particularly mischievous unicorn? Sweetie Belle with a top-secret list of military tele-spell network addresses.

What do you get when you combine three clever fillies with terrible official password discipline? The Cutie Mark Crusaders with access to the central strategic armaments computer.

What do you get when you combine two-factor activation with a tremendously short-sighted and very arrogant Celestia? Nothing good.

Takes place in the same universe as, and is set immediately after (but isn't "canon" to), Fluttershy: Royal Game Warden (?). You don't need to read that one. You should, because it's a Certified Hood Classic, but you don't have to.

Death and Violence tags are general. No blood and guts, but if you're faint of heart, there's an intentionally squicky sequence that probably hits a lot harder if one has a fear of hypodermic needles, so be aware.

Spoilers for S8E6

Scootaloo was overjoyed to discover the Cutie Map was sending her and her friends across Equestria for a friendship mission. It was her first time flying outside her dreams.

If she didn't do something, it would be her last.

Cover by Zutcha. Quick editing by Bitera.

Princess Luna is supposed to be her sister's equal. She watches over 12 of every 24 hours, after all. But she isn't, and everybody knows it. Equestria adores the one who brings warm, sunny days, and ponies sleep through her nights. Even her sister sometimes seems to forget that she's supposed to be one of Equestria's ruling diarchs.

Luna seeks help from the only pony she thinks can make a difference: Star Swirl the Bearded. He provides a spell, one she can use to change herself into the pony she wants to be.

Unfortunately for her (and the rest of Equestria), things don't go quite as expected.

Updates Wednesdays, though it may update a little quicker at first as the Fimfiction version of this story catches up to the one posted on Patreon. Cover by Zutcha, as always. These just keep getting better, don't they?

This is a Patreon-sponsored story, written for Aurora Gleam. So tremendous thanks to them for making this adventure possible.

Monster attacks. Crime. Illegal hallucinogens made from electric fruit.

They say things didn't use to be like this. They say things were different, before Luna came back 60 years ago, but Detective Hard "Hardy" Boiled of the Detrot Police Department has never known any world other than that demarcated by the seedy streets of his beloved decaying metropolis; a world in which the coroners sing and dance, surveillance bugs have personality disorders, and the Chief of Police is a scarier entity than most of the eldritch things the city attracts.

The grey unicorn who turned up dead outside the posh High Step Hotel seemed like just another case, but her missing horn is the pointy tip of a very large and nasty iceberg. It's up to Hardy and his friends - a rejected monster hunter, a psychic cab driver, and an underground antiques heir - to find out what’s going on in an investigation that promises to stick more than a cupcake into the very eye of Detrot.

Especially if Hardy has anything to say about it.

By Popular Demand, there is now a Patreon

Additional editing by coandco Sig_Awesome, Hinds, Clint, and Raccoon!
Featured on EQD - 5 Stars!
Cover art by MisterMech (http://mistermech.deviantart.com/)
Now with TVTropes page here!

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

-
YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Keith, local human, happily wiles away some time by painting himself a picture with his imagination brush and the aid of some figurines, thinking that he is doing so in private.

He is not.

Twilight and Applejack walk through the orchard in the darkness just before dawn, as the rancher describes a strange happening on one of the hills at the edge of her property.

A commission for a benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous, and wondered what conversation might take place under these circumstances. Thanks to you for this story <3
Slight spoilers for the tags: All of them are for one specific part of the tale when he lifts his hat. You'll know what I'm talking about when you hit it.

Edit 3/17/21: Holy shit guys, we didn't think a cowboy would go over so well Uh, I guess if enough people want it I can continue writing this pro bono? Yeah, let me know
Edit 3/19/21: Well hell, after three days, two hundred likes, and staying on the front page for this long, I guess you guys want more of this one. Changing from Completed to Incomplete