An inspired linguist. An ancient stone tablet. And the story of how a new species, made in love and forged in fire, came to be.

1st Place in the Everfree Northwest Iron Author Competition 2022. Many thanks to the judges -- Aquaman, Grand Moff Pony, and Xepher -- for their kind comments, and to my fellow winners: FanOfMostEverything, Mica, Scampy, Steady Gaze, and Admiral Biscuit.

Editing by LevelDasher (who is now on a much-deserved editing sabbatical).

Cover Art by CadetRedShirt [DeviantArt] [Twitter]
(I commissioned this one. Give Cadet monies and she will make art and/or sing for you!)

Story notes in this week's MT File.

Featured on EQD, 10/23/22.

Custom Tag: [First Person Zecora]

When Zecora is asked to show cosmetics from her herbal collection,
She finds herself in the middle of an elaborate misdirection.
Caught in the struggle to thwart a changeling plot,
She must find a way to help guard Canterlot.

Judge Prize winner in Bicyclette's Crackship Contest hosted by the Original Pairings group
Edited by: TheAncientPolitzanian
Cover Found Here: Guard Fleur de Lis

Featured from 3/2/2022 to 3/5/2022 (JST). Thank you very much for your readership!

Lyra takes Princess Luna shopping for a Hearth's Warming present, with extreme prejudice.

A Jinglemas present to Alex_

By some cosmic happenstance, a young woman is transported to Equestria, and finds herself in a precarious situation. She's taking it in stride so far. Maybe because finding herself in an alien world and in an alien body is not the worst thing that's ever happened to her.

Some wounds, especially those of the soul, can take a long time to mend. What healing arts can the ponies of Equestria offer a scarred young woman? What can she offer them in return?

Timeline-wise takes place starts off in the later parts of season 4 but before the season finale. It also mentions events from the EG-movies and the comics, but neither of which are required watching/reading in order to understand this story.

Trigger-warnings:
- Human-turned-into-pony-
- Who's kind of okay with being a pony-
- And becomes friends with the Mane 6.
- Being a pony is pretty awesome.
- Has both slice of life and adventure.
- Equestria Girls happened.
- Like the source material, it has adventures.
- And Celestia is not a jerk.

Cover art by the extraordinarily skilled viwsrasputr.
The piece in particular has been uploaded here: https://derpibooru.org/1478347
Really cool art by Cyanjames2819. Also found here.
Leave a comment if you so desire. Simple praise also appreciated.

Once upon a time, Silver Spoon's life made sense. She had the right friends, the right house, and the right school for a young lady coming up in the world. Once upon a time, Silver Spoon lived amongst proud towers in a vibrant, bustling city that never slept.

Now she lives in Ponyville. Not so terrible once one gets used to it. Silver's learned to appreciate some ponies, harbor grudges for others, and tolerate the rest. But sometimes, she wonders if one pony in particular is as popular as she thought.

Preread and edited by Autumn Wind, Cthuluigi, and SaddlesoapOpera

Chinese translation by hehelover

Vignette Valencia is the worst person Wallflower Blush has ever met. She's vain, petty, materialistic. She's the kind of person that shouldn't exist outside of horror stories about social media influencers.

She's also easier to talk to than anyone else.

Struggling with conversation at the best of times, Wallflower finds Vignette's existence so baffling that it's impossible for her to be uncomfortable around her.

Winner of a committee prize in the 2022 Crackship Contest.

Huge thanks to VoxArachne for editing and prereading.

Night Glider, having a difficult time readjusting to her career as a search-and-rescue worker, takes up a position as a fire lookout in Smokey Mountains National Park.

Though she is physically isolated from the rest of ponykind, the voices on her radio ensure she is never truly alone.

Winner of Bicyclette's Crackship Contest!

This fic is heavily inspired by Firewatch, but should be enjoyable to all - those who have played and those who have not.

When Rarity shares that she's been working on a project both professional and personal, Twilight tries to get herself involved.

Paul Zagranski is the best negotiator on Earth. He has ended wars and brokered deals between nations. But now, as humans and ponies prepare to seal the greatest trade pact ever between their dimensions, all of humanity is relying on him. We are willing to offer all our technology, our weapons, our science, every book ever written, every song ever sung and every movie ever screened, all of it in order to have what only the ponies can give.

Ear scritches. Also mane brushing and braiding. And nose boops.

God speed, Paul. All of Earth is counting on you.

A week ago, Appleoosa Station suffered a critical reactor failure that resulted in the station's complete destruction. By absolute miracle, a single tramp freighter piloted by a brave young pegasus escaped the destruction - and carried two hundred of the station's residents to safety in its hold.

Young Scootaloo has been widely celebrated for her bravery, ingenuity and talent in saving so many lives.

Problem is, the version of the story she insists on isn't the same as the official accounts.

Written for the Science Fiction contest.

Proper credit for the inspiration/original form/etc to the legendary Leslie Fish and her work on the nearly-lost filk album Carmen Miranda's Ghost. In particular the song which inspired this fic, Some Kind Of Hero.

Featured 11/30/2021 - 12/3/2021!

Featured in 25 of the Best Fanfics to Read for Cutie Mark Crusader Day on 11/20/2022!