Two passengers on a train ride toward an uncertain future. One is a pony. The other only pretends to be.

Sex is tame and non-explicit. Don't be afraid to read.

Written expressly for Equestria Daily's Outside Insight Summer Fanfiction Contest.

Now with a dramatic reading by Illya Leonov!

Russian translation courtesy of Arsus.
Chinese translation courtesy of viczhn.
French translation courtesy of BroNie.

Inspired by the artwork of RubleGun and Raddjuret. Musical accompaniment by Patrick Poe.

Featured at Equestria Daily and the Royal Canterlot Library.

Reader Testimonials

"Vinyl + Octavia is one of the fandom's most cliché and mismatched pairs, and yet this is a real romance with genuine depth and emotion." - horizon
"Holy shit this is impressive. Like... Holy shit, man." - Skeeter The Lurker
"You have crafted something wonderful here, a true gem. You should be proud." - Illya Leonov
"Note that I hate this ship when I say this is far and away the best ScratchTavia I've ever read." - PresentPerfect
"Fuuuuck it's so good!" - Luminary

A little piece of fluff about how two friends started dating, thanks to an ill-timed slip of the tongue.

Cover Image © the impeccable Equestria-Prevails
Made for The Batpony Writeoff on EQD
Update: Second Place! Congrats to Ponydora Prancypants for getting First!

Everypony enjoys myths and ponytales, even if they know such things aren't real. Alicorns fighting against a spirit of chaos? An ancient princess trapped in a library under a tree, waiting to be found? Quite enchanting and fantastic tales yes, but nonetheless as fictional as Daring Do and other such stories. At least, that's what Rarity used to think.

She doesn't anymore.

Dedicated to Annuska for being as amazing a writer as she is a friend.

Now a physical book!!!
Patreon!
Based on an old oneshot.
Chapter Art by Arctic Waters // Graphic Design and Typography by Swan Song.

Sea Swirl loves Sassaflash.

Sassaflash loves Caramel. Caramel loves Sassaflash.

It'd be so much easier if Caramel was a jerk. It'd be so much easier if Sassaflash really loved Sea Swirl all along. It'd be so, so, so very much easier if Sea Swirl didn't have a mind as wide and vacant as a deserted seabed.

The trouble is: love is like life, and both are like the sea. As simple as they look on the surface, they're so mind-bogglingly strange and complicated underneath that it's easy to get lost without a guide.

Life, love, and the endless sea: Sea Swirl herself can only manage one of those three. But she's always trying her best. And sadly, her best might not be good enough, not when it comes to the one thing that matters most:

A happily ever after.

Most ponies seem to love like the sun, a single spot of intense, blazing passion. Starlight Glimmer is different. Her love feels like planets in the night sky. So many scattered lights, so far out of reach, and so hard to tell from the fixed stars.

Fortunately, she has a teacher who's very good at astronomy.

An entry in Bicyclette's Polyship Contest, written at the last minute because that's when the idea came to me. Rated Teen for frank discussion of physical attraction and a brief mention of suicidal ideation. Takes place immediately after "Uncommon Bond" (S7E24, the one with Starlight's favorite board game.)

Now with a reading by The Mystery Fluttershy Fan.

Spike is growing up, a little bit at a time. It has its upsides. He can carry Rarity's luggage more easily, he gets to have a bigger bed, he doesn't fall asleep all the time, and, hey, wings are pretty cool, too!

Unfortunately, part of growing up is outgrowing things you used to take for granted. Alicorn Princess or not, Twilight's still a pony, and ponies weren't built with carrying adolescent dragons in mind.

Something random that popped into my head while rewatching some of this season's episodes. It could be read as something of a tie in to my previous story, "Seven Hour Bubblebath", but it can be read as a standalone story as well.

Dragons are remarkably resilient creatures. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this is their ability to bathe in molten rock as casually as a pony might relax in a hot tub. The temperatures involved would burn a pony before they even got close enough to touch it but dragons are made of sterner stuff.

For a dragon living among ponies this means it can be difficult to feel warm.

Long before moving to Ponyville, Spike struggles with this problem when Canterlot slips into the grip of winter. Eventually he braves the cold of the world outside his basket in search of warmth.

But it's Twilight who will be faced with the collateral damage.

A random standalone story that popped into my head the other day. Set a few years before Twilight and Spike move to Ponyville and before Spike becomes Twilight's assistant.

The newly coronated Princess Twilight suffers an abrupt tragedy. Having lost two loved ones, she begins to question her own mortality, and that of her friends.

AJ, Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy. . . they are just the beginning. Twilight will live for thousands of years, so every pony she cares about—every pony she will ever care about, will die.

She could barely handle the pain of one funeral, let alone the thought of hundreds of them. Twilight finds a clever way to ensure all of her friends never die. They can’t all be ageless alicorns, but they can all move into Twilight’s Dollhouse. Then they can be best friends forever.

Sequel: Twilight's Dollhouse 2
Fanmade Song: Twilight's Dollhouse

Source: Dreampaw
Editor: Gage of Grandiloquence, Breath of Plagues
Pre-read & Idea pony: TypeWriterError,
v1.1 Revised chapters 1-10 on May 1st 2013
--Pending a few more revisions, including ch. 14
Now on TV Tropes.

Fluttershy thought Discord's gift- a day all by herself as a tree- was a dream come true.

Then she heard the voices of the Everfree...

An entry for the Arboreal Yearnings contest.

Part of the Remember Fort Libris print anthology, thanks to our Kickstarter supporters!

Dear Princess Celestia,

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. Things seem to be falling through the cracks lately. Spike thinks I should go see the doctor, but...