Young Nictis had one dream: to serve his hive by becoming an Infiltrator, the most vital and vaunted role a changeling could aspire to. To hide in plain sight among the other species, blending in, while gathering the vital emotional energies that fueled his people. Few were deemed worthy of the dangerous job. He was one of the few nymphs selected for training, in the hopes that one of them would develop the skills needed to be entrusted with such a treacherous task.

But when a training expedition ends in tragedy, Nictis finds himself thrust into the role not to serve his hive and people, but to preserve his own life. Separated from the hive, alone, he must put what little training he has to the test. He must blend in with the hive's greatest source of food, and its most dangerous enemy: the ponies of Equestria.

(This story takes place in the same continuity as Fragments, but stands on its own. Reading that story isn't necessary for this one.)

TV Tropes page

Book cover art by viwrastupr

Beneath the clear blue waters of the Celestial Sea lies a great city known as The Reef. A metropolis without compare, The Reef is home to dozens of species, each one as colorful as the city's namesake. Together, the citizens of this underwater utopia create some of the greatest artistic accomplishments the world has ever seen, from incredible gravity-defying architecture to breathtaking stage performances. Seaponies, hippocampi, kelpies, and more live in harmony in The Reef, just like they have for centuries.

Toccata works the spotlight at The Reef's most famous musical theatre, Conch Hall. Ever since she moved to the city, she has dreamed of performing on stage, singing hit musical numbers before hundreds of sea creatures gathered in the auditorium. Music is her passion, her greatest pleasure, and her voice could put even the guild's top vocalist to shame.

Her only problem? Toccata is a siren, and The Reef has not allowed sirens to sing in public for centuries.

Edited by SolidFire

Why do ponies dream? Why do we all seem to dream the same dreams?

What if we started to dream new things?

Discord said he wanted to make our dreams more interesting. Add some spice to our boring nocturnal lives. Nothing dangerous – just a bit of excitement to talk about in the mornings.

"Stop worrying so much, Twilight Sparkle," he said. "After all, dreams never hurt anypony."

How I wish he’d been right.

Gold Medalist in the Under the Sun Writeoff Event.

Now with Russian translation, courtesy of Cloud Ring! https://darkpony.space/the-archetypist-1/

Once upon a time, there were two friends who ran a farrier shop in Canterlot. The oldest fed the forge and used his earth pony magic to produce strong steel shoes, which the younger enchanted with his powerful unicorn magic. They worked together in harmony, creating beautiful shoes for all who visited until one day they met a young mare in their local bar. She was a mysterious creature, overstressed by her job in the palace and needing the company of two friends far more than she realized.

Until one night, when her sister returned during the Summer Sun Festival…

Created as a Collaborative work between Georg and Tek, who made all the good parts.
Editor: Snaproll

Cover art Horseshoe and Rose by public domain clipart, edited in Paint3D
Now featured on Equestria Daily

Leave it to Twilight Sparkle to create the greatest spell of the past century – and then want to destroy it.

It's too dangerous to use, she says. It's too tempting. It can't help you the way you think it can.

Well, Starlight Glimmer knows a thing or three about temptation. She'll prove to Twilight that this spell – this magnificent book – is too important to destroy. That it can help ponies.

She just has to survive using it, first.

Second place in the May 2018 WriteOff.

Cover art is "Reformed" by Okaces.

After losing her sister, Rarity buries herself in her work.

Just as lost, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, armed with a personal Ogres & Oubliette's module, try to help the seamstress open more than just her boutique.

❄ Trigger Warnings: death, homophobia (implicit, explicit, slurs)
❄ An intimate epic written for FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns II.
❄ Loosely inspired by the stage play of the same name by Qui Nguyen.
❄New adventurers beware! Spoilers lurk in the comments.
❄ Story is complete and is the silver medalist.
❄ Royal Canterlot Library featured. Highly Recommended by Present Perfect. Review by cleverpun. WHYRTY - PaulAsaran

Every night, Princess Luna soars through the land of dreams, shepherding the minds of her subjects. It is lonely, thankless work, forgotten by the ponies she helps as soon as the sun rises.

Luna is not the only one who stalks in the night. Monsters, yes, predators that glide in the dark spaces between the stars. But there are other wanderers as well, spirits who step easily between the worlds. Sometimes she meets them.

And sometimes she comes back with them.

An homage to Luna and little siblings everywhere. Keep up the good fight.

Apple Bloom isn't crazy. Sweetie Belle knows she isn't, because Apple Bloom keeps telling her so.

And so when Bloom insists that the Cutie Mark Crusaders sneak out of a sleepover to investigate the strange lights she's seen out of her window at night, the ones that Applejack says don't exist, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo begrudgingly agree to help.

This, as it turns out, is a mistake.

A modern-day explorer gets his chance to visit Equestria, and writes down notes about the interesting ponies he meets and the stories that they tell.

It had been hard enough, being one of the first. With the walls dropped, leaving her nation, her herd, traveling to Japan and trying to exist among so many strangers... every day had been a challenge. But she'd tried. Day by day, hoofstep by hoofstep, she'd felt she was finding her place in the human world.

But now there are no humans. No other demis or liminals. Nothing to anchor her. She exists among tiny horses and the scent of their fear, or at least what little of it drifts into her cell.

For nopony can look at a centaur and see anything but a monster.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages -- and the TVTropes page just went live.)

Cover art by Harwick. Please contact him for commission rates & prints.

Trigger warning: character interpretation.