For Harshwhinny, the end of the year is simultaneously the most relaxing and harrowing time of the year. On the one hoof, she spends two months organizing the Equestria games from top to bottom. In the last month, however, she gets to unwind with ample free time, and plans on spending her month off in the wonderful Crystal Empire.

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Written for TheJackOfTales for Jinglemas 2022!

Vinyl remembers the doll. It's unmistakably hers, right down to the peanut butter stain on the left foot. Except it's in Octavia's closet, and Octavia insists it's always been hers. Why do they have the same doll – and the same memory?

Thanks to Solstice Shimmer, BaeroRemedy, Oliver, Mitch H, Cursed Quill and Admiral Biscuit for editing, feedback, writing assistance, fact checking and extraordinary patience.

“These otherworldly phenomenons are surprisingly interesting.”

— MrWolfeyes2

“This has been one hell of a ride. I would go so far as to call this a minor masterpiece. It is quite unlike anything I have read up to this point (and I have read, approximately, a metric shit ton,) and it has left a real impression on me. So many try for the psychological mystery and fail horribly, but this was incredible. The reinterpretation of classic characters, concepts, and scenes from the show were amazing. With so many, I expected a few to fall flat, but you nailed every one.”

— FallenFromGlory

“So intriguing...
I can't stop reading it!”

— artofwar77

“I like that this story is bringing up topics now that are incredibly complicated from both a moral and existential standpoint. [...]
Ok, ok, tldr; I like this a lot, because it’s making me and others think about the possibilities.”

— Moosetasm

Twilight Sparkle's clone does not want to work for Chrysalis. Fortunately, she's bucking brilliant and has a plan to get her and her sisters out from the Changeling's oppressive rule.

Unfortunately, her plan goes sideways quickly and now she has to herd five annoying clones while traversing the social nightmare of Pony society.

((This is a rewrite of the episode The Mean Six so that the clones all stay alive. It goes beyond the episode and into how the lives of everypony would be affected by this change. Because gosh darn it I like them too much for them to stay dead.))

Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers a centuries-old mystery hidden in the Royal Archives. Her investigation leads through layer after layer of deception and misdirection, setting her hooves on a path that seems to be leading to a mysterious secret. Along the way, she learns that some friendships can be very, very strange.

Book 1 of the Alicorn Adventure series.

AUDIOBOOK by VisualPony
Featured at the Royal Canterlot Library
TV Tropes Page (Courtesy of Sandtalon)
Goodreads Page (Courtesy of Facedeer)
Equestria Daily Page

WARNING: Major spoilers in the comments. Takes place several months after the end of season four. (Not a Da Vinci Code crossover, BTW!)

Do you see a dark tag? No, you don't. Not dark. Well, okay, there are a couple of dark-ish bits, but that's all. Not enough to warrant a tag. Speaking of tags, there really ought to be "Badass Twilight" and "Friendshipping" ones.

Sequels and side-stories (and more) can be found here Offprint and AO3, and a hardbound two-volume set of all that can be ordered from The Ministry of Image.

My editor for the first edition of this story was Gogito, and I can't thank him enough for all the hard work he did. My editor for the revised version was PresentPerfect, and he did a terrific job of getting the story into excellent shape.

Rainbow Dash taught Scootaloo everything she needed to live her dreams. Scoot is a Wonderbolt now, while Rainbow Dash never even tried out. But when Dash passes away suddenly, Scoot is left with one lesson Rainbow Dash refused to teach her, the lesson that tore apart their friendship.

But maybe there's still time to learn something from her idol, and the way she lived her life.

Welcome one and all to Cowwarr, a sleepy little town in south-eastern Australia. Strange things have started happening, but it's all okay, the new school teacher just arrived and soon the new doctor will be getting here. Just don't mind how folks look around here, something odd happened. Something magical.

This story has a lot of backstory and world-building behind it, as well as a huge plot ahead of it. Sit down, strap in, and relax with a beer (or apple juice for the foals), this will be a long ride.

Art by the wonderful Ghostly Muse.

See This Blog for licensing.

Luna and Sunset talk on the roof of Canterlot High School.

Sunset has no desire to kill herself; what concerns Luna is that that isn't the same as wanting to be alive. In fact, it's not even close.

Note about the content:
The "Suicide / Self Harm" tag is only for stories that actually contain those things. There's no warning tag (or any kind of tag) for stories that contain discussion of those things, or related things, without actually featuring them. So I'm warning you here.

This is about a specific kind of deep depression: the kind where you don't particularly want to live. At one point Sunset talks about possible ways she could die, and how none of them would bother her. So if you're not up for reading things suicide related and suicide adjacent, steer clear.

Now that I've spoiled almost every aspect of the story, let me ruin the rest. I didn't tag this as "Sad" because I don't think it's sad. It's definitely heavy, but that's not the same thing.

You might disagree about whether it's sad, though, so take that into account when deciding whether or not you want to read it. If you do read, and you think it should be tagged as "Sad", please tell me in the comments. (The last thing I want to do is bring people down when they're not prepared for it.)

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

-
YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Necromancy gets a bad rep.

Oh, sure, some ponies like the whole cliche of the evil zombie master, pulling his puppet strings to make corpses dance and kill for their amusement. And yeah, you kinda do have to work with dead bodies a lot, and most ponies find that a bit creepy. Oh, and you learn a lot of spells to kill things and gain power from it.

But, come on, that doesn't mean all necromancers are bad... right?

Feature on Equestria Daily

"I'm not sure you wanna take that job, Spike. The score-keepin' can get a mite intense."
"Yeah. Starlight used to do it, but now... Well, I can't even say the word "trivia" around her."
-Applejack and Sunburst, A Trivial Pursuit

Starlight tells the harrowing story of her experience score keeping at Trivia Trot.