My dear sister Pinkie Pie,

I will be arriving in Ponyville tomorrow.
I have made a reservation for us at Hearty Grains Bistro for seven o' clock.
Please be on time. I'll be bringing somepony special I'd like you to meet.
I think you will be surprised.

Sincerely,
Emp- Your sister Maud

An Entry for Bicyclette's Crackship Contest hosted by the Original Pairings group
Preread by: HapHazred

It is well known, in academic circles, that video games, as a whole, contribute nothing to society other than to lead impressionable young foals to violence. Therefore, any colt or filly who plays such games is bound to become some kind of lunatic dark sorcerer sooner or later and turn on their fellow ponies.

So in the interest of public safety, if their downfall into darkness is guaranteed, why wait? Get them off the streets now before they can commit their heinous crimes.

It's the only logical solution.

Cover art commissioned from MN27

T'was the night before Hearth's Warming
throughout all of Equestria.
Cold wind whipped the windows,
yet inside all kept cozy.
Every mare, every stallion, every colt and each filly,
was sleeping quiet soundly 'neath star-studded skies.
Their souls full of cheer, their dreams full of presents,
no one could imagine a more peaceful scene.
But far off from the land ruled by Princesses two,
someone was awake; with dark schemes for the evening.
Will Hearth's Warming be saved by an unlikely hero?
Or will a spiraling narrative ruin it forevermore?

Written for PastCat for Jinglemas 2021

Special thanks to Level Dasher and ScarletRibbon for prereading and helping to tighten up my prose considerably.

It's Nightmare Night in Ponyville (and presumably everywhere else as well) and Starlight and Trixie have teamed up to host a haunted house attraction. Spooks and frights and guaranteed in this one-of-a-kind experience orchestrated by two mares who, between them, barely make up a single functioning member of society.

What could go wrong in this pandormare's box of horror designed by a former villainous megalomaniac with boundary issues and a compatriot whose worldview is heavily tinted by a lens of narcissism?

Take on the role of Rainbow Dash, fearless seeker of frights, in this branching CYOA experience. Explore different paths to victory, collect items, solve puzzles, and try to find all the hidden endings!

Content warnings: More thriller than horror, with the occasional dip into psychological terror. Some medium-tier body horror, mostly transformation based. Odd snippets of comedy to lighten the mood. Mild spoilers for various horror movies, but nothing recent.

Note: Some artists are credited by name only because their only linkable contact is on nsfw-heavy websites.
Special thanks to SparklingTwilight and Panem et Circenses for helping work out the gameplay kinks and pointing out mistakes that slipped past me.

In one timeline, Discord decided that the best way to get a group of villains to learn friendship was to pretend to be a spooky old goat and strongarm them into trying to conquer Equestria together.

This would turn out to be a terrible plan.

In another timeline, Discord took five seconds to actually think and run this plan by someone else before jumping in head first. Maybe the cashier at Whinndy’s wasn't the best pony to ask for advice, but he loved the plan she suggested even more.

It too, was a terrible plan.

Cover art provided by Mutter_Butter

How do you improve on perfection, once perfection has become outlawed?
Pinkie hopes to find out, with the help of Pinkie and several (mostly) willing volunteers.
After all, nothing bad ever came from mixing high-sugar coffee drinks and highly experimental magic, right?

Written for the Quills & Sofa's "Expanded Universe 2" contest as a sequel to Grand_Moff_Pony's The Amazing Arcane Alicorn Frappe
Reading the prequel is not required, but will make certain aspects of this story clearer.

What's an artificial intelligence to do when it reaches the extent of it's capabilities and can no longer improve? In most cases, either fulfill some end state goal and shut down, or, if it's smart enough, ask for clarification from its creators.

For a certain pony-based AI, neither of those is an acceptable solution.

It'll take an unexpected meeting with a being with whom it shares surprising parallels to kick-start it back into action, and nothing will ever be the same after.

Entry for the Friendship is Optimal contest.

Technically canon compliant, unless I've missed something, and while a bit of background is provided, being familiar with the original story will certainly help comprehension.

Sunset Shimmer is going on a date.
Wallflower Blush is spending the evening with friends.
One of them has it wrong.

A very lately written entry for \o/ Scampy's SunFlower Shipping Contest \o/

No sex, just a dirty joke but who knows where people are going to draw the line.

On a road not taken...
Two young women meet. Both with extraordinary powers. Both with extraordinary grudges.
Between the two of them, nothing can stand in their way.
Not even each other.

My main entry for \o/ Scampy's SunFlower Shipping Contest \o/. Thought I'd take the prompt in a different direction.

Archeology is a young mare's game. At least, the kind of high-stakes, blood-pounding, death-defying archeology popularized by Daring Do's novelized versions of her adventures. Still, even the more mundane variety is often a grueling laborious task, one best suited for young and limber bodies.

The question then, is how do you know when you're no longer young enough for it?

And, moreover, what will happen to your work when you stop?

Written for the Original Pairings Group's Speed Writing Contest.