In the world of ponydom, Equestria is but a young and vulnerable nation. It needs heroes to defend it. It needs authority. It needs pillars.

Yet Star Swirl and his legendary Pillars have mysteriously vanished. After guiding ponydom for so long, their absence is sorely felt, their stability lost, their legacy in peril.

Young Celestia knows this. But what can she do? She's just a disobedient student.

Young Cinch knows this too. And in her mind, it's not a question of what she can do. It's a question of what she will do. For she is always working – she prides herself on it – and now she is working on a solution to everything...

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt "Cinch/Integrity".

Fluttershy and Discord keep pushing forward with their relationship even when they have no idea what they're doing.

Especially when they have no idea what they're doing...

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt Fluttershy & Discord/Determination, this story earned an Honorable Mention!

On what was supposed to be a short jaunt to Trottingham, Bright Mac, Pear Butter, and Granny Smith meet their ends leaving the Apple siblings alone.

Big Mac, as the eldest and the only adult, now must take on the mantle of the Sweet Apple Acres patriarch.

He only hopes he can see it through.

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt Big Mac/Perserverance.

This story contains LGBT themes. Emphasis on the G.

Edited by LuckyChaosHooves

Pre-read by Mushroompone, Captain Hairball, and The Sleepless Beholder

Being a princess looks like sunshine and rainbows from the outside; but for research-obsessed Twilight Sparkle, being a princess sounds scary, and those new wings aren't helping either!

So she does whatever any stressed bookworm would do, decides to seek advice from the best: successful rulers from the past! But she's not here for bookish research, oh no; she wants to see these rulers in action! Twilight decides to start off at the very beginning, with the first recognized ruler of Equestria: Queen Majesty. But once Queen Majesty catches her and forces the truth out of her, Twilight Sparkle will be dragged into a whirlwind adventure through time. She will have to face old foes, new foes, old magic, and the most powerful magic of all: friendship.

Written for the Imposing Soverigns III: SOUL of Equestria contest, using prompt Twilight Sparkle and Majesty/Bravery.

This story is a sequel to A Sleeping Rose

Lily's conspiracy newspaper said that there was a monster near Ponyville, and while it was mostly wild speculation, town gossip said that Ginger Gold suddenly had somebody—something—unexpected working in her woodlot.

Lily had her thoughts about that, and so did I. Assuming it actually existed, would Ginger Gold hire it if it was really a monster? I didn’t think so, but the only way to find out was to see for myself.

Pre-read by TheLegendaryBillCipher, The Red Parade and Topaz Moon

In order to make sure her class knows a little more about the world, Cheerilee has them exchanging letters with children in other nations. This allows her students to learn about truly foreign concepts, like 'snow day'. And the mere concept of having a random storm grant an unexpected holiday has taught the Crusaders something big: that Equestria is the worst place in the whole world, because the weather schedule means that's never gonna happen.

Surely there has to be a way to get a snow day of their very own. Surely...

...so what's the fastest way to summon a windigo?

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

Cover art from an image created by LunaticDawn.

“Tour America by Rail!” the sign said, and so Sweetsong does. Everything she needs for a journey fits into her saddlebags, and there are plenty of trains to choose from if she’s resourceful enough.

There’s nothing quite like having her hooves over the side of an empty gondola watching the world speed by, or looking at the stars overhead through the end bracing on a grain car. Sometimes box cars have their doors left open, and she knows how to jam them so they won’t close en route.

When she gets where the train takes her, she can live off the land or sing and play her guitar for money. When it’s time to move on? There’s always another train.

Pre-read by AlwaysDressesInStyle

This story is a sequel to Interview with a Cab Driver

While Spuds doesn’t always enjoy travel for the sake of it, the ponies he meets along the way often make it worth it, and this trip is no exception. The trip up the hill is in a creaky superannuated combine with the entire car to himself, but at the summit one of the railroaders from the helper climbs aboard the coach, and she’s got a story to tell.

While picking up the pieces of her shattered home, Sunny has an unexpected visitor: an old, old friend that she never knew she had...

Has an excellent audio reading, courtesy of the kind folks at StraightToThePointStudio. Enjoy!

Shining and Cadence knew that raising a princess would present challenges above and beyond those of raising a born alicorn. As one might expect of Twilight Sparkle's brother and sister-in-law, they prepared as best they could for many of the problems they might encounter along the way.

Of course, that doesn't mean anypony told Flurry, who feels like this is a bit of an overreaction to her wanting a cookie that happened to belong to somepony else.

Flurry in the cover image courtesy of AleximusPrime, used with permission. Source link to the image can be found by mousing over it.