Once, I was alone.

I felt neither sorrow nor joy at this. The presence or absence of others meant nothing to me. The universe moved in silence, and I drifted in its flow.

Then came the song.

After Twilight delivers a batch of books to Sweet Apple Acres as a gesture of goodwill, she finds that one member of the Apple Family is not interested in her offerings. Through her efforts to discover why, she inadvertently discovers Big Macintosh's most shameful secret.

Thanks to JBL for the story idea.

Thanks to Holo, Midnight Legend, ajvasquezbrony28, Sir Rustbucket, ValorlordV5, and Sage Runner for editing.

Now with a YouTube reading by Thornquill!

Rated Teen for some thematic elements.

They say the military changes you, all the way to the core. Rainbow Dash is about to learn that the hard way. Surrounded by angry drill instructors and with only nuclear engineers for friends, the path ahead is going to be rough.

Life is looking up for Sunset Shimmer.

With her grandstanding at the Battle of the Bands, Canterlot High has taken a new approach to her. Amends have been made, friendships have been restored, and Sunset is on the fast track to becoming a better person.

But even now, there are still apologies that have to be said.

For her Spring Break, Sunset returns to Equestria to make up with her estranged family: the parents that raised and provided for her, and the sister she left behind. But a lot has changed since then, and some wounds won't heal by just saying 'I'm sorry.'

Fixing friendships is one thing. Sunset will be put through her hardest test yet when she tries to bring her family back together.

Another one edited by Cerulean Voice.

Stunningly amazing cover art drawn by Ayemel!

Featured on Equestria Daily.

Listen to the audio book here!

Rainbow Dash attends her hometown's Millennial Summer Sun Celebration, where she meets a peculiar pink pony. When a strange portal appears during the testing of Twilight Sparkle's latest invention, and pulls their new companion inside, the two friends give chase and embark on the most important adventure in all of history.

Equestria Daily | TVTropes

Being the night security guard for Ponyville General Hospital is a boring and thankless job-- especially for Vigilance, who has his heart set on becoming a member of the Equestrian Royal Guard. Unfortunately both his current job and his future career are now in jeopardy thanks in part to a ridiculous incident in which Rainbow Dash broke in at night to steal a book, of all things. A book!

Now to save his job a reluctant Vigilance is saddled (pun unintended) with a new and frustrating duty: assisting in the treatment of his least favorite patient, an unidentified mare who thinks she's a dog.

Can Vigilance swallow his pride for long enough to get "Screw Loose" the exercise therapy she needs, or will her canine antics drive him barking mad?

Author's Note: Thanks to my prereaders, including Sapphire, Rated,and Ezefilly.

I came up with this idea ages ago as something I could write easily by hand when I didn't have access to a computer. And now thanks to the magic of "long exercise which gave me time to write," here it is!

Special thanks to Arrkhal on deviantart for drawing the picture that gave me the idea for this story in the first place.

Oh, and sorry for the potentially misleading short description... This cried out for a "they fight crime" thing, and I couldn't figure out something more accurate that would fit in the space provided ha ha.

The Chalk Family Cemetery is said to be the most haunted place in all of Equestria. On Nightmare Night eve Miss Cheerilee's class take a guided tour of the cemetery. An old-fashioned ghost story.

Finding herself unable to sleep, Princess Celestia occupies her mind by penning a letter to Twilight Sparkle. But for a weary princess, the mind has a tendency to wander...

Written for Equestria Daily's Writer's Training Grounds #7.

Dramatic readings available courtesy of Goombasa and PhantomBrony.

Cover art by unknown artist; modified version by Goombasa.

Anypony will tell you that Princess Celestia is the most amazing pony in Equestria. She's graceful, she's beautiful, and she always knows just what to say. Her decisions are wise and her manners are impeccable. Some might go so far as to say she's completely perfect.

Celestia has a secret, however. As it turns out, she actually is completely perfect. She's utterly infallible in every aspect. And boy, is she sick of it.

Now she's determined to manage to make just one little thing go wrong.

It won't, of course. After all, she's perfect.

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Written for the Equestria Daily Pre-reader battle: April 2013- The prompt was "Celestia's terrible secret- Revealed!" Unfortunately it didn't work nearly as well as I'd hoped, but hopefully someone gets a cheap chuckle out of it.

Crime was easy before Princess Twilight and the First Five ushered in a golden age of Harmony. Back then, any idiot could plan a robbery, just like any rat could sneak through the cracks in wooden granary walls. But now that everything is cloudstone and clearsteel, with magical countermeasures over the few remaining holes, it takes a different breed of rat to survive.

"Slippery" Jimmy the Grey is one of the rare few ponies who can still slip through the cracks — even with the legendary Rainbow Corps on his tail. Now he's got a billion-bit heist planned in the gleaming skyscrapers of Cloudsdale. If only he hadn't made the mistake of stealing from a dragon …

Now with a reading by Illya Leonov and Scribbler!

* * *

This is a crossover with Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels, but it assumes no knowledge of the series.

Winner of February's Writeoff Association competition! * Featured by Equestria Daily! * Featured by Seattle's Angels!

REVIEWS: "Highly Recommended" by Titanium Dragon; "Recommended" by Present Perfect; rated "Why Haven't You Read This Yet?" by PaulAsaran

WORD OF MOUTH:
"The Iridescent Iron Rat was not only my favorite story from the most recent writeoff... it's my favorite story of anything I've read in months." —Sharp Spark

"What a ride it is. This story is made of awesome moments." —Casca, Seattle's Angels

"[A]stounding on so many levels. … If there’s one story from this round you have to pick, make it this one." —Corejo, Seattle's Angels

"Absolutely beautifully done. It fits the style and feel of the books to a perfect T." —Themaskedferret