Born blind, Snowdrop has always lived a life of limitation. Two years since the glorious event that changed her life and unearthed the blessings of winter, she has again fallen into a rut.
An unexpected visit from her favourite Princess and best friend is about to change that.
After the Princess insists that only Snowdrop can perform a certain dangerous task, she heads into the Everfree Forest to confront a mysterious, previously unknown creature. But how can a helpless blind filly possibly succeed where elite members of the Royal Guard have failed?

Sometimes it takes the blind to see what everyone else cannot.

The extended version of my entry in the Writeoff Association's April event, the prompt being Great Expectations.

Preread by BlazzingInferno, Foxy E, Comet Burst, Quill Scratch, Thornwing, Horizon, Not_A_Hat, PaulAsaran, and NightWolf289. Edited by BlazzingInferno, Foxy E, and PaulAsaran. Proofread and finalised by PresentPerfect and Cold in Gardez.
Thanks to Obselescence for letting me pick his brain in regards to the title.

Cover art by Cold in Gardez.

Featured on:
Equestria Daily!
Recommended by PresentPerfect!

Octavia Melody is calm, patient and longing to break the boundaries of class through her career as a musician.

Princess Luna is lost in the eddies of her past, struggling to belong in a new age that doesn't seem to want her.

A chance meeting after a disastrous gala gives these isolated souls a chance to find companionship and comfort. As Luna seeks solace in Octavia's soothing music, Octavia comes to recognize the princess's loneliness and fears. When it's your duty to protect other ponies' dreams, who protects your own? Octavia might just be willing to try.

...a fantastic fic, with one of the best paced romances you can find on this site, great prose, and one of the best characterized Octavia's I could point out. — Soge, TPCaRG (Read the review!)

PaulAsaran has crafted what may well be the best LunAvia ship on the site. —Cerulean Voice

Highly recommended if you like romance instead of the more typical shallow shipping. —City of Doors

If you're a fan of Luna and or Octavia, it's a crime not to indulge! —Wanderer D

I guarantee you will enjoy it. —vren55

Technically, this is flawless: the writing, the pacing, you name it, it's great. —PresentPerfect

Print copy now available for purchase on Lulu!

Now with a YouTube reading by Never After All Readings!

A re-imagining of The Gentle Nights, reworked from the ground up to be bigger and brighter.

Special thanks to Mercury Gilado, Absolution and Starlight Nova for pre-reading and editing.

Artwork commissioned from the talented viwrastupr.

[11/11/2014]: Now featured on Equestria Daily!
Featured 11/22/14.

Now featured by The Royal Guard!

This story is a sequel to Dreams and Disasters

Rainbow Dash has a new problem.

It isn’t that her relationship with Twilight Sparkle has diminished in the year that they have been together, even despite Twilight’s new position as an Equestrian Princess. If anything, the past year has brought them closer together than before. As far as Rainbow Dash is concerned, her life is pretty much perfect. That is, until she notices that her colors are fading.

In a panic to discover what is happening to her, she stumbles headfirst into an ancient secret dating back to long before the formation of Equestria, with her family in the middle. With Twilight and her friends, both old and new, at her side, she will once again venture out into the wide world of Equus, not for love, but for answers. About her family, her heritage, and the theft of the oldest artifact known to pony kind: The Celestial Prism.

Takes place canonically shortly after the Season 3 finale and well before the Season 4 Premier

Ponyville, Equestria. Population 5000.

Fallow Meadows, Indiana. Population 8000.

Two towns, two species, two worlds.

But worlds will collide when both are hit by mysterious storms that transport them to a third world unknown to either. Trapped in a place hostile to them both, can human and pony learn to work together? Well, yeah, the story wouldn't be called Unity otherwise.

The real question is what happens when it turns out that they are not alone...

Stress levels were already high, with Twilight directing her first royal Hearth's Warming pageant and unexpected snowstorms escaping the Everfree. Then the changeling army arrived.

Now, with Queen Chrysalis holding Ponyville hostage and the clock ticking on suspiciously pointless negotiations, it's up to Rarity to match wits with the invaders and save the holiday. However, as she digs ever deeper into the queen's tangled plot, what she learns could force her to choose between her friendships and her conscience.

Off-season note: This is a Hearth's Warming story like Die Hard is a Christmas movie (but with espionage instead of explosions). Don't skip it just because the holiday's over.

Critical praise:

"A high-tension thriller where nothing is what it seems." — Titanium Dragon (rating: "Highly Recommended")

"An entertaining ride from start to finish … watching all the pieces fall into place is fantastic." — Present Perfect (rating: "Highly Recommended")

"Props to horizon for an intricate web of deception. Most writers have difficulty with crafting mysteries … this one, however, had me completely fooled from beginning to end." — PaulAsaran (rating: "Why Haven't You Read This Yet?")

"It’s a rare mystery and thriller that can keep things tense and make the mystery actually tough to guess as you go along, while still feeling like a natural conclusion. ... The end result of layers unveiled and red herrings contradicted makes it sing." — Ghost Mike (rating: "Really Good")

Second-place winner in the "Behind Closed Doors" December writeoff, now expanded and revised! Featured on EqD! Rated "Recommended" by MLPmatthewl419!

Big thanks to Titanium Dragon for post-Writeoff editing assistance.

Comments contain spoilers!

Everypony has a story. Some tell of heroic feats and grand adventure. Others tell of villainy against the forces of Harmony. The story of an average guard, however, is one of obscurity. They live in the background, unnoticed but ever-present.

Silent Knight assumed his tale would be like that of his father's: join the Royal Guard and serve Equestria. He would be just another helmet and spear, part of the rank and file. And that was all he ever wanted.

However, when Captain Shining Armor asked for volunteers to form a House Guard for the recently returned Princess Luna, it was Silent's hooves that stepped forwards to set his new life in motion.

Lyra Heartstrings is a mare who often goes about life with her head in the clouds. Always dreaming, always fantasizing about what could be. She sees her friends and so many others enjoying sharing their lives with that special someone, and wishes that she could as well. To find that special someone she can be herself with and not be afraid, even if that self is a less than socially graceful.

When a chance meeting with a stallion—who is often too laid back for his own good—occurs, it brings about that possibility she's been dreaming of. Music was always her secret passion, and now, it seems that the song of her heart might get what she's been wanting.

Or are things too good to be true again?

A huge thanks to Meridian Prime for his time to edit this story, my little niece for the cover art, and all the people in the YMLT chat who had to suffer my numerous brainstorming ideas. Also a huge thanks to my pre-readers Zomg and Foals Errand. All of you rock!

After what happened at the Fall Formal, Rarity comes to see that Sunset Shimmer's become little more than a recluse, a mere shell of her former self. It also doesn't help that no one in the school is even willing to give her a chance. Rarity sees this as inexcusable. So, honoring their promise to Twilight, she convinces the girls to try their hardest to get Sunset out of her shell by having the girl take part in their activities.

But will a simple shared interest be enough able to open up Sunset's rapidly closing heart?

Somehow featured! (8/12/14) What an awesome birthday present!
Image by Uotapo
Stolen from and Proofread by Harmony Charmer
Edited By the loyal Ersmiller

Years ago, Coco Pommel rescued a young laborer in Manehattan's textile district when she was on a delivery shift for Suri. Realizing that every reformed villain or assistant needs a project, she sets out to adopt the filly, Babs Seed, as soon as Rarity leaves Manehattan. But between her daughter's troubled past, bitter relatives, and a disputing producer and director on her Bridleway set, Coco soon finds that giving love--and getting it--may be harder than anypony ever imagined...especially when it comes to forgiving herself.

Takes place during late S4 and S5. Romance elements come in Act III. Edited by Smaug the golden, Elusive Element, Harry S Faustin, and pokefreak13. Cover art by DreamscapeValley

Now with an official TVTropes page!

Check it out on Equestria Daily!

This story is a sequel to A Colt Once Forgotten

Their mission was to drop into Pakistan and retrieve a CIA asset, a quick in-and-out rescue op. But the op was more than a little odd; communication with command was immediately lost, a cloud bank appeared seemingly from nowhere, and the CIA lost its people in even an shadier way than usual. Pararescuemen Jack "Frost" McDaniel and Harris "Duke" Sky will soon learn that there is a lot more happening in this not-so-simple rescue operation than anyone could ever have known.

Preread by the incredibly talented totallynotabrony