Once upon a time, there was a lonely shark. She swam in the sea and never had any friends, mostly because fish are stupid and have no concept of friendship.

Once upon a time, there was a totally awesome unicorn DJ. She wandered all over the land of Equestria, playing all kinds of gigs and hoping for some kind of meaning to come out of them.

Once upon a time, they ran into each other, and things were never the same again.

Cover art by Lord Destrustor.

I regret nothing. Merry Christmas.

Rainbow Dash was the Iron Wing. She was a war hero, the Slayer of Shadows, the Liberator of the Crystal Empire, the Wrath of Celestia. And depending on who you ask, she still is.

But the war is over. There's little need for a pony like her in peacetime. So she keeps telling herself that she needs to adjust, that she needs to find a new role to fill in the world that she saved. But Equestria seems content to let her remain what she has become, even though they have no need of a warrior.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be", is something she keeps telling herself. But every time she says it, the only thing she can reply is, "so what should it be?"

One whole year after the close of the war, and Rainbow Dash still doesn't have the answer.

Art by NCMares.

There are many who say that evil has no place in the world. These people are wrong. There is a place for everything, but evil especially. Without evil, we wouldn't have any context for what is good. The world needs villains so that it knows who its heroes are.

But as someone very unhelpful once said, there's evil and then there's evil. Some villains go over the edge, and instead of quietly filling their role as the natural antagonist, they try to overturn the chessboard. Instead of conquering, they destroy.

It's these sorts of villains that give evil a bad name. It's these sorts of villains that King Sombra is dedicated to hunting down.

Made as a birthday present for the utterly brilliant Evehly.

Magic: The Gathering. Popular, nigh-omnipresent, and like anything of that scale, mired in complaints. Some complaints, like deliberately bad rares, are universal amongst even the most passionate fans, while only a few seem to take umbrage with issues like planeswalker-heavy storylines. However, hidden amongst these complaints is one often unvoiced by fans, not for fear of retaliation but because they secretly believe they are the only ones who take issue with it:

There's just not enough pony in Magic.

In an effort to balance the scales, you are invited to follow along as we attempt to rectify this grievous error. Over the month of October, thirty-one cards will be randomly selected, and used as inspiration for stories that are undeniably pony.

Categories, characters and quality will vary.

Most ponies don't know every single detail about their friends. And even when certain details are known, they usually don't bother mentioning them without rhyme or reason. For example, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both know each others' families pretty closely, but nopony's looking for an excuse to remind themselves that Zephyr Breeze is a thing.

Conversely, when your friends first find out about a heretofore-unmentioned sibling, they will probably want details. So when Twilight receives an invitation to her brother's wedding, her friends are naturally curious about him.

Turns out, there's a good reason why she doesn't talk about him.

Written for F*** THIS PROMPT #14.

My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm an alicorn princess in the land of Equestria, and I've made a terrible mistake.

Five months ago, I created the Borealis Institute. Its purpose, to perfect through science what magic cannot be relied upon to accomplish. A scant few weeks ago, we began our experiments with cloning. Owing to my high resiliency, I volunteered to be the initial template for equine experimentation.

Twelve minutes ago, the first clone came off the assembly line. And just by looking at her, I know we have done our jobs too well.

Because she says that her name is Twilight Sparkle, and that I am the rogue clone.

Story concept and art come to us courtesy of Pedro Hander. Check them out.

There are many different kinds of immortality. Some achieve immortality through great deeds of heroism. Some do it by discovering a spell custom-made to kick Death in the teeth. There are a select few who are immortal simply because they consistently avoid dying.

But perhaps the rarest breed of immortal is the one who escapes death by dying so suddenly that they come back to life.

The phoenix is one such immortal, and Philomena is one such firebird. But for all the time that she spends in the company of alicorns, Philomena rarely thinks of herself as immortal or ageless. When one defines the passage of time by one's death, immortality can be a difficult label to wear.

But life has a way of reminding us of our labels. Sometimes it uses traumatic events. Sometimes it takes the form of a blessing nobody else can enjoy. And once in a very rare while, life makes us fall in love with somebody we can never stay with.

There's a lot of unpleasant surprises that can be found in photo albums. A third pony in what you thought was a private moment, inexpertly applied bodypaint, or just evidence of that time that your mother dressed you up like a burrito.

Twilight Sparkle was expecting to come out of Family Night with a few fresh blushes on her cheeks. What she wasn't expecting was a mysterious pair of wings in her baby pictures.

Hopefully Celestia will have some answers.

Many thanks to Present Perfect for supplying the brilliant concept, and to Evehly for the beautiful artwork.

The cultists thought they couldn't go wrong with a resurrection of King Sombra. They'd get a cool ruler, rad hallucinations, and he'd probably chain them up and whip them! It was the perfect plan...

Until the police showed up, hit the Dark Lord of Crystals with a paralysis spell, and dragged him off to court.

"All rise, Princess Celestia presiding..."

Inspired by the utter hilarity of naturalbornderpy's 101 Interesting Facts About Draconequi.

Trixie's Pilgrimage of Penitence (working title) wasn't supposed to be perfect. In many respects, the entire point of the tour had been to exhibit how the former showboat had changed for the better, even if that meant deliberately performing sub-par lest she be accused of boastfulness. Trixie had planned for almost everything to go wrong.

One thing she hadn't counted on was a dangerous lapse into depression, leading her to perform the Moonshot Manticore Mouth-Dive as the opening act without any safety measures. And while everything turned out more or less fine, the local newspapers are going to have a field day with this story.

Unless, of course, a credible source can swoop in and convince them she wasn't in any danger.