From the outside, she seems to be a very lucky girl. She has a loving family, lots of friends at school, a comfortable home to call her own.

In her head, things are different. Trapped in her own mind, surrounded by the ruins of her life, the only survivor of the death of her soul. She has no family, no friends, no home, nothing.

And one enemy.

Ruby Pinch is not alone. Ruby Pinch is never alone.

Ever since Dean Cadence became Principal Cadence, she's learned the hard way that running a school as prestigious as Crystal Prep Academy is a bureaucratic knife-edge. Among other things, she has to deal with spiky students, a terrifying janitor, and constant comparisons between her and Cinch – which are somehow always in Cinch's favour.

Hardest of all might be getting one of her students – Sour Sweet – to apologize for years and years of bullying. Not least because she must convince the girl it's for her own good too…

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt "Dean Cadence/Justice".

AUDIOBOOK by The Mystery Fluttershy Fan

This story is a sequel to Impossible Numbers' Flashfic Anthology, Volume Two

Careless talk costs life lessons, as Amethyst finds out when confronted with the insatiably curious mind of Dinky.

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Prompt: "The Most Important Things"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/368072/closed-flashfic-150-august-2018-the-most-important-things#comment/6531432

Fluttershy takes dedication of her animal friends to a whole new realm. A posthumous one, to be precise. Rainbow Dash is curious enough to find out more.

Genres: Drama, Slice of Life
Prompt: "Dead or Alive"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/375831/closed-flashfic-150-october-2018-dead-or-alive#comment/6607215

Take the Cutie Mark Crusaders, add a broken cookie jar, and what do you get? A headache, as Applejack inevitably finds out.

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Prompt: "I Didn't Do It!"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/383925/flashfic-150-december-2018-i-didnt-do-it#comment/6689983

Fluttershy knows that sometimes, you learn the secret of flash bee diplomacy from ancient legends and patient detective work. Rainbow Dash knows that sometimes, you just wing it.

Genres: Comedy
Prompt: "Honesty Ain't the Best Policy"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/387339/flashfic-150-january-2019-honesty-aint-the-best-policy#comment/6730141

Zecora receives a rude awakening when a midnight thief decides to dig up some ancient history.

Genres: Drama
Prompt: "Hidden Motives"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/390888/flashfic-150-february-2019-hidden-motives#comment/6754980

Octavia Melody finds herself in the unexpected position of convincing Lyra Heartstrings of the existence of mixed genres, such as Dubstep Cello. It requires a most unorthodox detour through past seasons.

Genres: Comedy, Random, Slice of Life
Prompt: "I Was Blind, (But Now I See)"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/394488/flashfic-150-march-2019-i-was-blind-but-now-i-see#comment/6782038

The no-nonsense, highly organized Amethyst has to come to terms with an uncomfortable fact: this bumbling, chaotic, well-intentioned pegasus has had a far more interesting life than hers.

Genres: Slice of Life
Prompt: "The Last Thing on the List"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/397877/flashfic-150-april-2019-the-last-thing-on-the-list#comment/6829897

This story is a sequel to Impossible Numbers' Flashfic Anthology, Volume One

Twinkleshine simply wants to bask in the untarnished glory of the heavens with her best friend Minuette. Is that too much to ask!?

Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy
Prompt: "A Lovely Night, Ruined"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/349811/closed-flashfic-150-february-2018-a-lovely-night-ruined#comment/6309117

Despite being sisters, Dinky and Amethyst are as different as rocks and hearts. One must live as her own mare and not as a patronized child; the other just stifles her. But what will Dinky learn once she leaves home for her own life?

Genres: Drama, Bittersweet
Prompt: "What You Leave Behind"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/352754/closed-flashfic-150-march-2018-what-you-leave-behind#comment/6339368
N.B. Since the original version received substantial criticism, this version has been updated accordingly, to meet that criticism without fundamentally changing the spirit of the original text.

From humble beginnings, Lyra Heartstrings just wants to make her parents proud when she finally makes it to Canterlot.

Genres: Drama, Slice of Life
Prompt: "Waiting Time"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/308613/flashfic-150-open-practice-thread-prompt-waiting-time#comment/6365448

Minuette takes part in the Advanced Chronology course. Twinkleshine takes a moment to find out what that entails, and soon regrets it.

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Prompt: "No Time Like the Present"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/355571/closed-flashfic-150-april-2018-no-time-like-the-present#comment/6380855

Somnambula longs for the grand gardens of her forsaken past. So, against all common sense, she hires the Flower Trio to make a new one.

Genre: Comedy
Prompt: "Kindness and a Garden"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/359312/closed-flashfic-150-may-2018-kindness-and-a-garden#comment/6418894
N.B. Similar to Outclassed above, this entry has been edited in order to meet the criticisms of the original.

Twilight wants Applejack and Fluttershy to tell her honestly what they think of her latest friendship-teaching tool.

Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
Prompt: "Now We're Friends"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/363089/closed-flashfic-150-june-2018-now-were-friends#comment/6466140

When Dinky recruits a living Pillar of Friendship for her history project, Somnambula is asked to relate what life a thousand years ago was like.

Genre: Drama, Comedy
Prompt: "What were you thinking?"
Original Source: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212112/flashfic/thread/365346/flashfic-150-july-2018-what-were-you-thinking#comment/6494074

In the world of ponydom, Equestria is but a young and vulnerable nation. It needs heroes to defend it. It needs authority. It needs pillars.

Yet Star Swirl and his legendary Pillars have mysteriously vanished. After guiding ponydom for so long, their absence is sorely felt, their stability lost, their legacy in peril.

Young Celestia knows this. But what can she do? She's just a disobedient student.

Young Cinch knows this too. And in her mind, it's not a question of what she can do. It's a question of what she will do. For she is always working – she prides herself on it – and now she is working on a solution to everything...

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt "Cinch/Integrity".

The first alicorn to be born rather than made. A pony of incredible power. A pony with a very important destiny.

Under the guidance of the fretful Princess Twilight, the sardonic Spike, and the ever-loyal crystal ponies, she will rise from the ashes of a childhood nightmare to become the princess she was always meant to be.

The journey won't be easy, but she won't give up. She was meant to be the Crystal Princess. That is her purpose.

And she will stop at nothing to keep it that way.

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt "Flurry Heart/DETERMINATION".

Sandbar has invited all of his friends from the School of Friendship for a get-together before Nightmare Night. To get into the spirit of the season and learn a bit about each other's races, he decides that they should all share scary stories from their cultures.

Ocellus thinks they seem sort of similar.

Thanks to Petrichord for help with some proofreading and brainstorming.

After being banished for casting a malignant spell on ponies in a fit of madness, Cadence returns to Equestria. Haunted by her actions and eager to redeem herself, she decides that only by serving ponykind will she be able to regain her self-respect and the trust of her loved ones. In going to Canterlot to face Celestia, she finds Equestria in a state of prosperity... but its ruler is acting strangely.

Thanks go out to Pascoite for editing, and Inquisitor M for pre-reading.

Originally written for March 2017 Writeoff Rising From the Ashes.

I'd also like to thank those who offered feedback on the contest version. In no particular order: Novel-Idea, Kritten, Fenton, Posh, Rao the Red Sun, horizon, Cold in Gardez, CoffeeMinion, AndrewRogue

The cover is a drawing by Mi-eau, used with permission.

For Discord, causing chaos is not a hobby or even his job. It is what he does. So when Tirek offered him an excuse to cut loose from harmony and friendship, only to be rebuffed, Discord went against his very nature. For a spirit like him, this is similar to willingly poisoning himself.