There's something dark lurking in the corner of Diamond Tiara's bedroom, inside the closet where she keeps her dresses. It watches her every night, and she knows that if she looks away it will take the chance to creep closer. Maybe that's why she's afraid to fall asleep.

Winner of the Quills and Sofas ‘Mind of a child’ speedwrite contest, with the prompt ‘monster in the closet’.Written in 1hr 15.

Winona is the Apple Family's sheepdog puppy. They adopted her from a shelter after she was abandoned by her previous owners and left to fend for herself as a stray for a while. The dog has been displaying strange behaviour during the fall of night and after this odd behaviour pattern carries on for a few weeks, it's blatantly obvious something isn't quite right with her.

When the family grows concerned for their family pet, Applejack and her two siblings decide to take her along to Fluttershy's cottage in hopes that she can communicate with her and find some answers as to why she is acting so strangely. Unfortunately, what they find out turns out to be rather heartbreaking.

DISCLAIMER: This is an unofficial origin story. It was inspired by a true story of similar events.

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Credit for cover art: https://www.deviantart.com/tsitra360/art/Winona-645824133

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Featured: 16/02/21 - 18/02/21

Limited Liability is a changeling with a very routine life. He works at a bank. He lives with a marefriend. He goes through every day making sure he isn't discovered.

At least, that is, until the day that the hive has planned to invade Canterlot. On that day, his love runs out, and his disguise fails. Trapped in public with a chitinous body for all of Equestria to see, Liability has to find a way not only to survive, but to avoid ruining an invasion years in the making. Along the way, he learns a very interesting lesson about the ponies around him.

Written for the Equestria Daily "Outside Insight" contest.

Cover Art by Ruirik.

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.

Based on the Equestria at War universe.

In the year 1011 ALB, Queen Chrysalis declared war on Equestria. She and her High Command believed that the Equestrians would be easily crushed underneath the treads of their tanks and pushed back by their powerful changeling rifles. However, they were quickly proven wrong as their forces met the heavily fortified positions of the Equestrian military. After months of a painful stalemate, the High Command had a brilliant idea. They began deploying infiltrators into the Equestrian fortifications to weaken and surprise the defenders for the oncoming attackers.

One particular changeling was deployed to an Equestrian fortification, weeks in advance. On the promised day, he sits in a trench, waiting for the arrival of his brothers and sisters. But, will they come? And what happens to the mare that he became friends with if they do come?

Now with reading by Fire Hearth Studios!

Special thanks to Witchery for editing!

Hope is the faith of the young. Losing everything she holds dear, Puppysmiles embarks on the adventure of her life to find her mother, her hopes of meeting her again driving her through the horrors of a world not of her making. Too bad the Wastelands doesn't care about hope.

For years, Twilight Sparkle and Queen Chrysalis have been at each other's throats. Both have experienced victory over the other, and both have experienced defeat. Out of all the creatures in Equestria, none despise each other the way the pony Princess and changeling Queen do. They seemed destined to remain locked in battle forever, or at least until one is finally dead at the hooves of the other. The cruel insults, the vicious loathing, and the powerful spells that have passed back and forth between them at each meeting have become the stuff of legend.

Imagine Twilight's surprise when she finds out changelings consider this dating.

And now they're married.

***

Sequel: Pony Courtship Rituals

***

Some beautiful fanart of the end of chapter three was done by Dmann892; you can see it here.

More awesome fanart, this time from chapter one.

Now with a TvTropes page (obligatory TvTropes warning goes here).

If you want a Russian translation, you can find it here.

There is now a reading of the story on Youtube, which starts here.

Tracy Maxwell is in a desperate situation: find somewhere to live, or lose the internship he needs to survive. After exhausting every property in the city, one last option appears the day before his deadline. Sure the agent selling the place is a little weird, and more than a little overeager to get the property signed off. At the worst, maybe there's a little mold in the bathroom somewhere, and he has to make do until the lease is up.

But then he steps inside and discovers things can be much worse. The property is in another universe, and while he's there he'll have to play by its rules. He's free to continue working his dream job, so long as he keeps to the contract. Even worse, he's got a roommate who has no intention of leaving him alone.

If he ever wants to escape, he'll have to read the Fine Print.

This story now has a hardcover! If you'd like one of your own, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

This story is a commission by _Kenzu_!

Longdesc

Was this all there was? For her and Maud to die out here, at the foothills of the Crystal Mountains, never having had a chance to live their lives beyond that little rock farm?

There was supposed to be something more, wasn't there?

But what?

Author's Note

Based on various thoughts about how weird the Pie family is, my Dr. Maudileena Daisy Pie headcanon, and just how much more would be different in the various alternate Starlight-induced timelines beyond the little bits we saw.

Based off a prompt from Bean's Writing Group Discord server, "From the beginning, you know the end". Thanks to Short-tale, RDT, and Techno Flare for their feedback.

A unicorn's immune system is bolstered by their magic. Any ailments they develop simply dampen spellcasting until things work themselves out internally. Stronger mages tend to not get sick at all, but Trixie Lulamoon is not a strong mage.

Life is a performance for Trixie. Disasters must be kept backstage and away from audience eyes. But the curtains are closing on her solo act, and somepony needs to notice so they can hop onstage to help her. She's too proud to ask for volunteers.

Cover art is the fittingly named Worn Out by the artist Purmu

This is an entry in the Snippet Series, an anthology of old oneshots that I (and my good buddy Str8aura) wrote based around interesting pics I found. New ones will be posted every other Thursday for the foreseeable future.