It's a sunny afternoon, and all of the girls have managed to gather for a picnic on a hill.

Each has drifted in their own way; life has called them somewhere else.

Twilight Sparkle struggles to bring them back together: to make those giddy times return.

You have to learn how to say goodbye in life. Goodbye to friends and farewell to family.

But, sometimes, there's the odd few that will always be with you.

Since retiring and starting a family with Anon, everyday life for Celestia has been mostly peaceful. At least, it has been when compared to what a typical day was like as a princess. However, that doesn't mean her new family isn't really good at keeping her on her hooves anyway.

Just what are they doing now?!

Celestia decides that Big Mac's barn is an excellent place to sneak off to, to take naps on her days off.
Big Mac decides that Celestia is a welcome guest.
Neither Princess nor farmer ever speak to one another, but the silence sings between them.
(Cover art by GrapeParfait!)

The last time she tried to offer Fluttershy's brother a small job to get him back on his hooves, Rarity was rewarded with a trashed boutique and a dreadful cleaning bill for her cat. For most ponies, an encounter like that would lead them to tossing out Zephyr Breeze the instant he tried to come back for another shot.

However, due to his recently-acquired confidence, as well as his sister's approval of his new behavior, Rarity hesitantly decided to give him a second chance after he was fired from his most recent hairdressing job. After all, one of the most important foundations of friendship is forgiveness; plus, the fashionista was meaning to look for a stylist for an upcoming fashion show she was running.

However, a small snag may be enough to put both Rarity and Zephyr Breeze through a rather awkward loop. Since the mare can't exactly get a fair reference from Zephyr's previous employer, she would have to see his skills by example. But since all of her wigs were gone, that meant there was only way she could know how good of a hairdresser he was: By having him cut somepony's mane.

And Rarity was the only pony around.

[Note: This story is my entry for the Make Rarity Not Garbage contest, hosted by the Barcast group.

Twilight Sparkle has spent months researching chaos magic, developing a new spell to unlock magic nopony has ever experienced before. But when something goes wrong with casting, Twilight finds herself turned into a Draconequus and unable to control her new chaos magic. If she ever wants to be a pony again, there is only one who can help her learn to control her new magic.

Of course, learning from Discord was never going to be simple. And after a while, being a draconequus doesn't seem so bad anyway....

Based on the concept by Lopoddity

Editing by DB_Explorer
Proofreading by Mac349 (Ch. 1-11), Trippy998, Just A Fabulous Cat (Ch. 1-5), Doctor Candor and skysthelimit (Ch. 1-11).

The war that is high-school is coming to an end. Two best friends, with nothing left to joint them, must learn how to say farewell.

Spike carries each of the most important ponies in his life home after a long day.

A commission-turned-gift for B_25

UPDATE: A Spanish language translation for Carry Me Home is now available, made by Spaniard Kiwi on his deviantart.

UPDATE (2024): Them's Writin' Words podcast did a wonderful review of this story. I appreciate all the thought and work put in to their critiques and all the kind words.

Fluttershy had read every book there was on motherhood. She read every pamphlet and brochure she could get her hooves on. She was ready... or so she thought.

Neither she nor Spike could have ever prepared for the curveball life decided to throw them and they looked everywhere for help in figuring out what to do.

But maybe they already had everything they needed all along?

Edited by Curify
Preread by Alex_

Cover art by SaphyJay

I've been best friends with Twilight since I was young, but since she's ascended, I've been left with a lot to think about. How will this change things between us?

Thanks to T for commissioning this story.

Once upon a time, Starlight Glimmer told Sunset Shimmer that, she, much like Sunset, was an orphan. Fast forward to Starlight somewhat reconciling with her dad and Twilight keeping her dear friend Sunset, in the loop…

Well…

“Not well” is one way to sum up how Sunset reacts.

References to the third chapter of Sunset Shimmer is MAD about Everything, ahoy!

Thanks to Tired Old Man, Nova Quill/Firimil, and
Steel Resolvefor their edits and suggestions and jhayarr23 for the adorangry Sunset Shimmer Vector.