The Trial of The Champion is a time honored event between Celestia's Sun Guard and Luna's Moon Guard. The event is used to remember the founding events of their forefathers who had guarded the princesses long ago. This year, however, two newly formed regiments have been allowed to compete in the week long events. Princess Cadence's Legion of the Heart and Princess Twilight's Witch Brigade.

Physically and emotionally tired from her latest tour, Vinyl decides that a pet would help to calm her nerves. Of course not just any pet will do, and Vinyl picks the most exotic pet in the store, an Octaviapus. But when “Octy” begins to grow at an alarming rate and ponies begin to disappear, Lyra begins to wonder if “Octy” is really as innocent as Vinyl claims. Could it all be a misunderstanding or does “Octy” have an insatiable thirst for pony flesh?

After the defeat of nightmare moon, Celestia and all the other ponies of Equestria have gone back to life as usual. Although Celestia is still worried about her little sister. Luna is back and loved by all once more, but she isn't acting the same. Luna reassures everyone that she's still a little shocked over he ordeal, but is she telling the truth...?

Twilight's friends may not be immortal like her, but she's not going to let a stupid little thing like death get in the way of friendship. Now the ruler of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers the truth of life after death: More life. Armed with this new knowledge, Twilight ventures from Canterlot Castle to find and befriend the reincarnations of her oldest friends, whether they like it or not.

Image used with permission of Heavens and Asteri

Feature box story of December 27, 2013. Thanks, everyone!

From a young age, Ditzy Doo knew she wasn't like most ponies. Jinxed and uncoordinated, she was shunned from all social circles as she grew up. When a friend finally comes her way, Ponyville's residential mailmare will surprise everyone—including herself—when she demonstrates how far she's willing to go to keep that friendship.

Kissing

For grown ponies, it's a normal display of affection between couples. For fillies and colts, it's the most evil thing that a pony could do with another pony.

When Shining Armor and "Cadenza" share a kiss, Twilight takes it upon herself to slay this evil enchantress and save her brother before it's too late.

As Twilight Sparkle continues to go to Canterlot for private study sessions with Princess Celestia, she notices she feels less alone. This however raises more questions than it answers, forcing Twilight to figure out things she has never really even gave much thought to. Relationships. Love. Meanwhile, Princess Celestia has to struggle with her own emotions and fears, caused by centuries of loneliness and fear of getting too attached to anypony.

Cover art: "A Kiss Goodnight (coloured)" by Bri-sta. Used with permission.

Hey, I'm Rainbow Dash. You probably know me, right? What am I saying, of course you do. Best flyer in Equestria, and all that.

Well, the thing is, I'm kind of in trouble. You probably heard about my friend Twilight becoming a princess, right? Well, she cast this crazy spell and now I don't know where I am. I mean, it looks like Ponyville, but I know it isn't. It doesn't feel right. Ponies are paranoid, and the guards are everywhere.

Worst of all, though, everypony seems to run in fear at the mention of Twilight Sparkle.

What am I going to do?

AU. Based on the first season. Twilight and Celestia begin to drift apart due to a misunderstanding. Will Luna speak up and repair the breach, or will she remain silent to keep her new friend, Twilight, all to herself? What other challenges will face everypony involved because of this new relationship?

It's a simple little love story. Unfortunately, love's not simple.

When Twilight comes back from her week long visit to her brother's house, she finds out that everything has changed. Canterlot High is babbling about some magic girl from another world, but Twilight knows better. There's no such thing as magic, or portals into other worlds.

Right?

EDIT: Wow. Never expected the feature. And by the way, thank you for anyone who commented with a consructive criticism. I'll be reading as many as I can and keeping them all in mind for the future chapters as well as going back to edit the past ones periodically. Enjoy the story!

EDIT 2: Went into the first chapter and tried to fix up the 'Twilight did X' issue that many people commented on. (Thank you to those who did.) Hopefully it is a bit more readable now.

EDIT 3: After fan feedback on a massive error I made where Princess Cadence was an out of control lunatic, I rewrote the Twilight meets Twilight scene so that it flows better and actually stays in character. Thank you for anyone who made a comment about this, I am listening to your feedback and writing my future chapters accordingly. (If there are any more of these, I'm going to keep these in a changelog in a blog post.)