What if Rainbow Dash never existed to turn six young lives upside down with her Sonic Rainboom?

Harmony will always find its Element-bearers, and something certainly would have united six friends to wield them ... but a change as small as the flapping of a butterfly's wings can have enormous effects on everything that follows.

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Second-place winner in Skeeter the Lurker's "Switcheroo!" competition! This entry centers around the episode "Sonic Rainboom" (with influences from several others).

"Recommended" by Present Perfect: "Though this is well-worn material, the directions in which horizon takes it are remarkable. ... That alone makes it worth the read."
Reviewed by PaulAsaran: "horizon's re-imagining of Equestria is almost complete, defying the norms and tossing most of our expectations to the four winds. ... I am very impressed."
★★★★ rating by Louder Yay * Reviewed by Titanium Dragon

Sirens? Check. Villain songs? Check. Pinkie Pie? ...Uh-oh.

Musical mayhem threatens Equestria so often you can set your watch by it. That's where the Versebreakers come in. They're often mistrusted and always misunderstood, but these brave souls won't rest until everypony's safe from the threat of out-of-control musical numbers.

In this anthology, eight authors offer ten stories on ponies whose job is to halt songs. Each chapter is a stand-alone, unrelated story with its own unique take on the core Versebreaker concept. An anthology overview, and a brief introduction to each of the included stories, can be found here.

CONTRIBUTORS: AugieDog • BlazzingInferno • Caliaponia • FanOfMostEverything • Flink • horizon • Orbiting Kettle • Sharp Spark
Cover art: alittleofsomething

Stories reviewed by Louder Yay! "Some interesting twists ... it's more than worth reading all 25,000 words if you find the concept catches your imagination enough."

Anthology reviewed by PresentPerfect! "This anthology features some excellent authors doing excellent work ... So if you like the idea of comedy, read Manehattan Takes Rarity and 4th District Court, Canterlot, 11:35 A.M.. If you want to try the darker side, read Song and Seal. Everyone should read Heart of Silence, which is a ponification of Heart of Darkness and absolutely spectacular."

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!

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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

Stress levels were already high, with Twilight directing her first royal Hearth's Warming pageant and unexpected snowstorms escaping the Everfree. Then the changeling army arrived.

Now, with Queen Chrysalis holding Ponyville hostage and the clock ticking on suspiciously pointless negotiations, it's up to Rarity to match wits with the invaders and save the holiday. However, as she digs ever deeper into the queen's tangled plot, what she learns could force her to choose between her friendships and her conscience.

Off-season note: This is a Hearth's Warming story like Die Hard is a Christmas movie (but with espionage instead of explosions). Don't skip it just because the holiday's over.

Critical praise:

"A high-tension thriller where nothing is what it seems." — Titanium Dragon (rating: "Highly Recommended")

"An entertaining ride from start to finish … watching all the pieces fall into place is fantastic." — Present Perfect (rating: "Highly Recommended")

"Props to horizon for an intricate web of deception. Most writers have difficulty with crafting mysteries … this one, however, had me completely fooled from beginning to end." — PaulAsaran (rating: "Why Haven't You Read This Yet?")

"It’s a rare mystery and thriller that can keep things tense and make the mystery actually tough to guess as you go along, while still feeling like a natural conclusion. ... The end result of layers unveiled and red herrings contradicted makes it sing." — Ghost Mike (rating: "Really Good")

Second-place winner in the "Behind Closed Doors" December writeoff, now expanded and revised! Featured on EqD! Rated "Recommended" by MLPmatthewl419!

Big thanks to Titanium Dragon for post-Writeoff editing assistance.

Comments contain spoilers!

It's a plan as foolproof as it is audacious. In pursuit of an artifact that could spell the end of changelings' ability to infiltrate pony society, two spies in deep cover just intercepted an extremely interesting top-secret report. The influence of the Elements of Harmony has created emotional cross-contaminations inside Princess Twilight — which means that they know exactly what they need to do to get some involuntary Honesty out of her …

CONTAINS: Nonconsensual tickleplay, light bondage, hoof-licking. (No explicit content.) Written as a commission for yamgoth.

Long, long ago, the Age of Dragons ended in fire and ruin. The greatest of the dragons challenged the races of Equestria to prove themselves worthy to rule the next age.

The fast, the strong, and the clever all journeyed to answer his call … but sometimes true wisdom is found in the most unlikely of places.

★★★★★ rating from Louder Yay! "To create such a rich and evocative setting in barely a thousand words is deeply impressive. ... Clever, enjoyable and very well written."

Very Highly Recommended by MLPmatthewl419! "horizon accomplished the impossible to get this much world-building, feeling, and such wonderful characters with only 1k words … a deep and evocative story."

Highly Recommended by PresentPerfect! "With a great story and solid classic fable-style execution, this is a must-read."

Reviewed by PaulAsaran!

Third place in the Writeoff Association's "Just Over The Horizon" minific competition! Now revised and expanded for FIMFiction.

Another subterranean temple. Another priceless magical artifact. Daring has fought him for the fate of the world before …

But now she's discovered who killed her father. And only one of them is going to walk away.

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My entry in the "Famous Last Words" minific competition (14th place out of 51), expanded and polished for FIMFic publication.

"Highly Recommended" by PresentPerfect! Rated ★★★★ by Louder Yay!

In his influential analysis of the coup d'etat that would become known as the Rutting Revolution, Curly Marks wrote that history repeats itself — "the first time as tragedy, the second time as Prince Blueblood."

Marks actually used other words in place of the name, but this is a family-friendly publication.

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This story is a sprawling literary mash-up of Prince Blueblood, the French Revolution, linguistic homicide, male suffrage, Prince Blueblood, educational blackmail, epically bad puns, and Prince Blueblood. Also a story about how to be a hero when you're rotten to the core. But mostly, Blueblood.

First-place winner of the "History Repeats" writeoff * Featured on Equestria Daily
"Highly Recommended (Top 15 Stories)" by Titanium Dragon * "Highly Recommended" by PresentPerfect * Rated "Definitely Read This" by Super Trampoline
"★★★★" from Louder Yay * Other word of mouth

When a story touches you deeply, sometimes the only appropriate reaction is to respond in kind.

This is an open anthology of minifics which continue or revisit other authors' fanfics — embracing and extending, and reflecting on questions raised by the work. Due to the nature of the collection, this contains spoilers for other authors' stories, though each chapter contains a link to let you read the source first (and a spoilered summary, if you want to jump right in).

Sept. 2017 note: This anthology is closed, but the project continues with Never The Final Word, Vol. 2 — now curated by FanOfMostEverything.

Many of the included chapters are reviewed by Present Perfect here. Several are Highly Recommended by Titanium Dragon!

Scansion has a problem. The poems that flow from his pen at night are the most beautiful he's ever written, but he doesn't remember writing them. Drawn ever-deeper into an exchange of letters with a voice that speaks only through his work, he must discover the truth: Is the lonely, recently-returned goddess of the night reaching out to him in the only way she can, or is he chasing shadows?

* Now with a dramatic reading by Neighrator Pony! *
* Chinese translation: 女神 (Thou Goddess) by 卷耳 (estiMaDashie)! *

Holy crap you guys. What have I unleashed? Here's a sample of the word-of-mouth blogstorm that drove it to the feature box out of nowhere:
"This is the best thing I've read in a long time." –Bad Horse (rated: sitewide Top 10)
"'Thou Goddess' is magical and transcendent all the way through." –Skywriter
"[P]oetic beauty. There is scarcely a height of acclaim I would not believe it deserves." –Causal Quill (rated: sitewide Top 10)
"[C]hock full of splendid poetry … a jaw-dropping piece of prose and one of the best fics I have ever had the privilege to read." –Present Perfect (rated: sitewide Top 15)
"I shall keep this brief, because I must finish weeping before lunch is over. This is gorgeous, and has utterly deserved every accolade it has received." –Blue_Paladin42 (rated: sitewide Top 5)

Winner of AugieDog's "Nocturnes" Luna story contest! | Featured on EqD!

Further reviews:
"This is a remarkable fic, beautifully written ... quite simply, dazzling." –Louder Yay (rated: ★★★★)

If the title sounds grammatically incorrect, please read this.