Poems are a window to the soul—a lens of wonder that reveals the beauty of the world around us. In this collection, nine of the fandom's most talented poets hold that prism up to the ponies we all cherish.

The poems in this anthology cover all main characters and a wide spectrum of Equestrian life, and range in style from strict form to free verse. We've presented them in an order that showcases the collection's wide variety of styles and themes. There's also an index if you're looking for a favorite subject, author, or poetic form.

It is our hope that this effort can make readers unfamiliar with poetry consider ponies in a new way—and in doing so, also show that poetry can be approachable, honest, and amazing.

A list of contributors follows below. Endless thanks—this project would not have been possible without you.

Poets:
darf
Aquillo
Horizon
The Illusive Badgerpony
PersianJuliet
Cynewulf
ambion
ForeverFreest
Defoloce

Fimfic Editing and Arrangement: darf
Organization and Creative Oversight: darf, Horizon
Cover Art: Pony Horse Nice-guy
ToC Lettering: Spaerk

Some accidents are small, and some endow you with the power of a godly ruler. On the opposite end of things, you lose your wings along with your ability to move celestial bodies, and you can't tell anypony. Why, because what would they think if the princess became a librarian? It's going to be "fine". Celestia just needs to switch back with Twilight before either of their true identities are revealed. All Twilight has to do is hold down the castle, fight off scheming villains, run the country, and worst of all... deal with all the noble ponies.

Rated teen for shenanigans and some more serious parts. Takes place at the end of lesson zero. Please tear this apart with comments. I like criticism. Comment if you have issues, don't leave me with a mystery thumbs down.

Giant mutant spiders have ensnared Rainbow Dash's friends with plans to lay eggs in the mares' soft, squishy, bellies. This is the sort of evil that no normal pony can handle. Who should Ponyville call? Who else?

Enter Amethyst Star: Spider Slayer

Dedicated to RazgrizS57 and written in under six hours before a live audience on Google Drive.

Cover art by Darkflame

THANK YOU FOR PURCHASING YOUR ‘PHOENIX-B-GONE’ HOME PHOENIX REMOVAL SYSTEM. USER ASSUMES ALL LIABILITY.

What's better than one phoenix? Two phoenixes.

What's better than two phoenixes? A houseful of them, unless it's your house. Then you have a problem.

Rarity has a problem.

Scootaloo has lived alone for much of her life since her parents' passing, but no one, not even her closest friends, know of her most guarded secret. But this soon changes when a young dragon comes passing by the clubhouse one winter evening. Now, whether she likes it or not, Spike intends to do everything he can to help her. However as the temperature falls, the way these two friends see each other begins to change as well, but it is still unclear if it was indeed for the better.

When Twilight Sparkle invites Applejack and her little sister to lunch with her and the rest of her friends, Apple Bloom is thrilled to be joining the mares on a grownup lunch. She resolves to get Twilight Sparkle a gift to thank her for her thoughtfulness. This gift serves two purposes though, and it's not until much later that Applejack discovers that Apple Bloom was setting up Twilight Sparkle and Applejack to become marefriends from the very beginning.

Warning: Third-person limited with multiple POVs. This is a shipping fic with the Applejack and Twilight pairing.

EDIT: Added the 'Sex' tag because there are a few implications, though no physical descriptions.

Luna starts up a Judge-Judy-like show. But, as time goes on she slowly starts to waste away from some unknown illness. Stubborn as she is, she won't allow it to keep her off the throne dealing with her duties as Princess. Will Equestria watch as she wastes away to nothing, on live television?

Silver Quill's childhood crush was a simple, fleeting thing, although one that he didn't really understand. But when he finally meets the pony that interested him so many years ago, his normally calm and organized mind is thrown for a loop. Now he has to get his feelings under control and not make a complete fool of himself while trying his hardest to get rid of this cursed writers block that got him here in the first place. Easier said than done.

First fic, constructive critisicm welcome.

A young Luna and Celestia build a snowpony.

A bittersweet tale of the younger, pre-Equestria princesses. More convoluted than it appears. Story inspired by Egophilliac's drawing.

Part of the SALT monthly contest, December round. Thanks go to Firebirdbtops for the pre-read on this.

A Note On Sequels: None of them take place in the same location or carrying the same themes. They're more a sort of loosely connected character arc for Princess Luna that can be thought of as 'canonical' to one another.

The world's going to end in one week. It's been doing that for a while now.

Someone in Equestria's broken the world. They've taken time along with it, trapping everything into a single, indefinitely repeating week. Only the elements' bearers move forwards in time, but they've got problems of their own. For each cycle drains their talents from them, each conversation twists old friends into enemies, and not a single one of them knows how to save the world. Some of them have even stopped trying.

And then Twilight finds a way. All that's left to do is gather everyone back together.

Story arcs written about an apocalypse cycling in perpetuity and the effect it has on Equestria. Not as dark as it tries to be.

Additional: Story formatted to look its best in Font Serif, Size Normal, Colour Medium-Dark, Paragraph Spacings 1.2; this as the banner image; no interactive pony, Snow Default, css color #8c8691, Background Pattern Stars and Background Image Night Town . Reading otherwise will expose you towards rogue spacings, silly typography and a severe lack of Luna.

Featured on EQD for crimes against humanity.