She’s here. The demigod. I can taste her. The air is thick with the scent of marigolds. The scent of death. “Where are you, Princess?” I call, and the point of my rapier scrapes along the ground. “I’ve been looking for you.”

My entry for the third Cozy Glow contest, with the prompt 'Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow develop a strong friendship that turns into something more'. A twisted romance between a goddess and the killer who loves her.
TW: Blood, violence.

Thanks to Snow for vibe checks, the title, and proof reading.

Twilight thought she was coming into her own as Princess of Equestria.

With each passing day, she grew more confident in herself, her choices, and her ability to rule. She even began holding her own court these days, and enjoyed hearing out problems and working on solutions for her subjects.

Yes, she really felt like she was getting a handle on it all, and could deal with just about anything her subjects and the position of princess could throw at her.

Then a little green filly waltzed in and threw her one heck of a curve ball.

"I believe Cozy Glow should be freed."

Excuse me, what?

Twilight had no idea what she was in for, and all the aspirin in Equestria wouldn't be enough to sooth the headaches to come.

Was there something in the Equestrian water supply that was turning cute fillies into devious little monsters, or is she just that unlucky? Well, at least this one didn't seem bent on world domination. At least, Twilight hopes she isn't. This green nightmare might be even harder to stop than Cozy Glow if she ever put her mind to it.

This is not a "Cozy did nothing wrong and the main cast is evil," fic. Just a little filly who may or may not be more than they seem offering a different perspective on the whole situation involving an evil little villainess and what is the best thing to do with her.

For almost a thousand years, the immortal Nightmare Moon has reigned over Equestria as Empress. To the average pony, Nightmare Moon is an overarching enigma whose rule is absolute and whose wrath is terrible. But to Twilight Sparkle, who as an orphan has never known her parents, the Empress is something else entirely. When the young unicorn is brought under the royal wing as an apprentice, she learns a great deal more about the supposed tyrant than she ever knew. But as Twilight is introduced to life with her new mentor, she is thrust into a world of political intrigue, conspiracies and secrets. Secrets that were never meant to be revealed. As allies and enemies plot against the very peace of the nation, will Twilight fall prey to the perils of her new position? Or will she prosper and find in Nightmare Moon the mother she never had?

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My eternal gratitude to my editor, LordOfTheWrongs, without whom Night's Favoured Child would not be the story it is today.

Now with added TVtropes!

When Nightmare Moon’s rebellion tore across Equestria, leaving a trail of blood and horror in its wake, Princess Celestia knew that merely banishing her sister wouldn’t be enough. Her army was too powerful, and too bloodthirsty, to be left behind without a leader. When she finally turned the Elements of Harmony against her, she didn’t just banish Nightmare Moon. She banished thousands.

Now they’re in a race against time, to find a way to survive in an environment so alien that every aspect of it is trying to kill them. They face suffocation, freezing, boiling, starvation, radiation, meteorite impacts, low gravity… the list goes on.

Nightmare Moon thought she should be the ruler of all Equestria. Now, in a world nopony was ever meant to survive, her abilities will be put to the ultimate test.

This story now has a hardcover! If you'd like one of your own, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

Editing by the indulgent and patient Two Bit and Sparktail. Coverart by Zutcha.

Note: I intend this story to be as faithful to our current scientific understanding of the moon, and I’ve consulted for help with the aspects outside my technical purview. That said, I fully expect to make decisions that some may see as mistakes, based on their own independent interpretations.

I am a storyteller first, and I realize it’s likely I’ll eventually make a mistake, or an arbitrary decision to simplify the storytelling over accuracy. I’m doing my best here, but this isn’t a NASA white paper. Set your expectations accordingly.

This story was commissioned by Canary in the Coal Mine on my Patreon, feel free to contact me if you’d like one of your own!

Friends, family, cutie marks. Everything seems to be changing around Pound Cake.

Prince Blueblood is many things.

He's a Unicorn, He's royalty, He's a stallion, He's entitled, He's high-class, And most importantly he's not here right now.

If Blueblood isn't here right now, then who's that?

Well, That's Blueblood, the new Blueblood that is, a human in the body of Blueblood.

What will follow the actions of the new prince can be nothing short of disastrous.

Warning, this story contains Jokes, Magical Politics, a human-turned pony who doesn't know about MLP, Prince Blueblood doing Blueblood things, "Wine-Moms", and a very large sum of money.
You have been warned.

Featured for the first time two hours after being published :) 24/4/2023

Being a detective on the Canterlot Police Force was exactly where I was meant to be. When that was taken away from me, I started down a path that was not likely to end well. Then I found a unicorn filly lost on a rainy night. I was less than enthusiastic, but I couldn’t just leave her. The search for who she belonged to sent us down a path more dangerous than I would have thought possible. The destination would change the course of both of our lives.

This is another in the spin-off series from The Quicksilver Chronicles featuring the private investigator Dark Steel.

Featured on 1/21/22 and 1/25/22.

Cover art by Calena.

Thanks to my pre-readers OConnerGT-R, Airy Words, With a special thanks to my editor EverfreePony.

College is easy, most of the time. As long as you keep yourself fed, show up to classes every once in a while, and don't help your former best friend through a rough night of over-indulgence and then accidentally imply you're exactly as much of a party animal as she is, you're good to go.

But if you're like Button Mash, and you're dumb enough to do the third thing, you can get through it no problem. All you have to do is go out for fraternity rush week, pretend you're not a socially stunted dork in front of the hardest-partying guys on campus, and keep faking it until you make a girl you've had a crush on since middle school think you're interesting enough to actually be interested in.

It'll probably work out fine. And it definitely won't teach Button exactly who he really is, or who Sweetie Belle has always been, or what both of them could maybe be for each other. Because that would be complicated, and college is supposed to be easy.

A romantic comedy about college, identity, and discovering the second thing through the first one.

It had been nearly a decade since Cozy Glow was freed from the binds of her petrification. Still at large, and at the tail end of a visit to Kludgetown, she stumbles across a battered up filly who had just escaped some nasty creatures.

An aging partier and a mare married to her work. One red carpet event. Can two ponies who long believed they’d missed the train for love make a new connection? And more importantly, can they fit it in their busy schedules?