The time comes for all students to step out from under the shadow of their teacher and choose their own path.

On that path, knowledge is power, but if it all goes wrong... if that power is put into the wrong hooves... how far might somepony who is trying to reconcile the position of teacher with the duties of ruler be forced to go to fix these mistakes? What level of personal involvement in being responsible does she owe herself and her people?

...And how much is it going to hurt?

Gold medal winner in the The Brightest Days writeoff event. Thanks to the participants there for their feedback, as always!

Sunset Shimmer is a former tyrant, half-pony freak, and CHS' resident Friendship Chick. Twilight Sparkle is a former loser, absolute genius, and a complete nervous wreck.

When the new Twilight transfers to CHS, Sunset doesn't think much of her. But it doesn't take long for the two to become best friends — and change each other's lives in ways neither saw coming.

The first year of Sunset and Twilight’s relationship, told in real time through vignettes, text messages, snippets, and more.

Every chapter in this story takes place at a specific date and time on the 2023 calendar.

Pre-read by Posh and Quill Scratch.

Cover art by LZjian79 and Hiru315.

An alien scientist is startled when Pinkie Pie stumbles across his ship in the woods near Ponyville. For him Pinkie is a problem: he's not allowed to make contact with intelligent natives.

Pinkie Pie is overjoyed when she stumbles across an alien spaceship in the woods near Ponyville. For her the alien is a new friend, to be given a Welcome to Ponyville party with all sorts of treats.

Of course, the alien is really alien- a methane-breather who can't leave his refrigerated ship. His biochemistry is very different from a pony's. Can Pinkie Pie find something he can eat that isn't poison? And can he keep other ponies from finding his hiding place and forcing him to leave before he's had his party?

Tied for second place in the Science Fiction Contest II. First draft released early as a Patreon exclusive, now posted here in edited form for everybody.

EDIT: Wow! Straight to the top of the Featured list! Thanks, everyone!

Part of the Remember Fort Libris print anthology, thanks to our Kickstarter supporters!

Spike is the perfect assistant. He's been programmed that way, after all.

Unfortunately, he and Rarity and Twilight were programmed by Master Simon to help out around Mistress Olive's apartment before Mistress Olive kicked Master Simon out. And Mistress Olive doesn't like her assistants to have faces and names and personalities, especially when they come from some eighty-year-old cartoon show she's never heard of...

The original version of this story had no Pony content whatsoever and came in 2nd in the 247th Writeoff contest, "The Hurricane's Eye Blinked." It's been extensively rewritten since then and was now an entry in the 2023 Science Fiction contest where it didn't make the Top 12.

Twilight’s hosting her yearly white elephant gift exchange, and Princess Luna couldn’t be more honored to attend.  The camaraderie of spending an evening with friends captures the spirit of Hearth’s Warming in such a way that even a silly yet simple game can mean so much more.  But while the fire of friendship burns strong, so too does the fire of curiosity:

What could possibly be in that box?

A very belated Secret Santa gift for Lopunny. I'm so sorry this took so long! Hope you like it!

Coverart by OofyColorful

The waiter has just made a very funny mistake. See, he thinks Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Rarity are all dating, when it's actually just Twilight and Dash. Rarity thinks it's very funny not to correct him. Now how far can she take the joke?

A spiritual sequel to Flimsy Pretexts, written as a response to the effervescent Monochromatic. An effort to close our loop of RariTwi x Dash, then RariDash x Twi - naturally there needed to be a TwiDash x Rarity for balance.

Preread by Pearple Prose and Undome Tinwe

Twilight Sparkle is sure that Rarity and Rainbow Dash are having relationship issues, primarily because they keep inviting her to join them on all their romantic dates.

Commission for the ever-lovely Kits. Artwork by Maxima.

Read this story and others on my website, Hollow Shades! You can also support me on Ko-Fi!

Something can be a secret even if everybody knows.

Written for WandererD for Jinglemas 2022

Based on the prompt: I'd like a feel-good story featuring Silverstream and Ocellus.

Spike's a young man who works at the local library. Twilight's the parrot-sized dragon who lives on top of the bookcase in his apartment.

Twilight's made it quite clear that she'd rather not talk about where she came from, so Spike doesn't ask anymore. But when five dimes from Twilight's hoard disappear, Spike and Twilight will have to confront her past in order to save their present and the whole world's future.

This is not an entry in Choices: A Species Swap Contest. It's actually an original short story I had published in a couple places nearly 30 years ago. But since I've been taking some of my pony stories, changing the pony stuff into non-pony stuff, and submitting them to the various SF magazines, I got to thinking: would it be possible to turn a non-pony story into a pony story?

Then I saw some entries for the abovementioned contest being posted and realized that the idea of a "species swap" was just what I was looking for. So let's see if it works!

And now it's got a reading on YouTube by Skijarama!

Some grow upset as they age and the world no longer makes sense to them.

For some, it's the opposite.

The first draft of this story was written for the November 2019 Writeoff, where it came in fifth.

Art by the amazingly talented Anon Y Mous.