After accidentally learning that each Princess has their very own secret rooms to retreat inside whenever they wish, Twilight Sparkle makes it her mission to uncover just what could be inside Princess Celestia's.

Perhaps Twilight should have knocked first.

Artwork by Hawk9mm.

Applejack gets a new haircut.

Rarity does not approve.

Twilight Sparkle will do anything to emulate her hero, Starswirl the Bearded.

Anything.

Despite their bickering over the years, Rarity always knew her parents would eventually settle their differences at the end of the day.

It was only natural that her father's triumphant announcement of his recent divorce came as quite a shock.

Even more so that he was already remarried.

An entry for the Thousand Words II contest in the "Comedy" category.

Art courtesy of Shaslan, however, due to a minor miscommunication over narrative details, it has little to do with the story itself beyond representing Rarity's mental state throughout.

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

Community service isn't exactly fun. Sunset Shimmer is learning that the hard way—especially when Saffron Masala keeps cooking extra meals that their soup kitchen couldn't pay people to eat. It's not fun, it's not worth it, and it's never ever ever going to change. And... for some reason, it seems Saffron's okay with that.

Now, six Wednesday nights out from the disastrous Fall Formal, Sunset decides that she might as well ask Saffron why.

Written for the May Pairings 2024 contest. Special thanks to my editors Octavia Harmony and Monochromatic, and to all of my wonderful prereaders. Art by me!

Pinkie Pie has come to a realization.

Since she and Applejack are (kind of, probably) related, the only thing better than that would be to make sure ALL of her friends are related! Good thing she has come up with a plan. And a chart.

Now she just has to convince her friends of the best way to link them all together ...

Things may get a little silly.

When Scootaloo hears from Sweetie Belle that a number of last season's merchandise was leftover at Rarity's Boutique, the young filly gets a mischievous idea regarding her idol. After all, if anypony can make frilly, out-of-style fashion cool... It's Rainbow Dash.

On the last mission to save Equestria, Rainbow Dash was hurt. Not critically and she'll heal, but for now she's grounded. But she also promised that she'd do a Sonic Rainboom at the next Wonderbolts show for Scootaloo's parents, and she is not going to let her girl down.

Solution: get another Rainbow Dash.

There's just two problems.

First, Spitfire knows her team backwards and forwards and she's not fooled.

Second, the human Rainbow Dash doesn't actually know how to do a Rainboom as a pony.

I'm sure this won't cause any problems.

Written as part of the Quills & Sofas 2024 Wonderbolts Contest.

Featured 4/30/2024 - 5/5/2024!

Also appearing on Equestria Daily on 5/3/3024!