This story is a sequel to Melt

This is a sequel to Melt, but can be read independently.

The common cold is, for Celestia, quite rare. Whenever she does catch one it's a time for privacy, reflection, and no shortage of small miseries.

That said, she's never had Twilight Sparkle on her side before. Maybe, just maybe, this cold won't know what hit it.

My thanks go to CosmicAfro for prereading

Now with even more perfect cover art!

NEW PRINCESS ATTACKS GRIFFONSTAN IMPORTS

The Equestria Daily can exclusively report that newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle became embroiled in an argument with the Griffonstani trade minister about the inferior quality of griffon quills, alleging that "they just don't hold ink as well as pegasus quills". Import markets tumbled overnight, threatening the solvency of numerous Equestrian quill merchants. Princess Sparkle could not be reached for comment.

(When you're done, bookplayer has a fun "Let's Read" commentary version!)
(Also, GhostOfHeraclitus wrote a prequel from the perspective of Dr. Spinning Top!)
(Also also, now available in Spanish thanks to Spaniard-Kiwi!)

This is the story of a very ordinary pony's extraordinary day. Carrot Top and Derpy are good friends indeed, and sometimes friendship can lead to wonderful surprises. It can also lead to arguments, frustration, and general grumpiness, of course, and this story has all of those things as well. But mostly, this is a story about the day Carrot Top learned how to fly.

*****

Originally written for the Hearth's Warming Care Package contest. Many thanks to the contestants who commented on this story, to my EqD pre-reader, and especially to Sessalisk, for helping to polish this story to its present state. Cover art by the incomparable Elosande, used with permission.

Fanart here, courtesy of lalieri!

Audiobook here, courtesy of Deftfunk and Scribbler!

Now available in Spanish, courtesy of SPANIARD KIWI.

To Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia, it is a simple surprise visit to Canterlot. To the ponies of the Equestrian Civil Service, it is twenty-four hours of chaos, politics, weaponized dessert, politics, underhooved manipulation of media, politics, and things batrachian and tentacular. Who said bureaucracy isn't exciting?

This story is a sequel to The Best Night Ever

Final Arc - The Black Wedding
CH63 - If I Had a Heart
- The ponies of the Fourth Tribe are ascendant. Shining Armor hunts down his changeling "daughters," and even Lady Antimony won't get in his way. Meanwhile, high above the burning city of Canterlot, a long awaited reunion occurs, and Twilight confronts Alpha Brass and makes a final decision.

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It began with a mare from Ponyville and a time-looping Prince from Canterlot. This most unlikely union now stands at a crossroads: a ruthless changeling invasion; a conspiracy within the highest circles of the Equestrian aristocracy; a half dozen power hungry noblemares looking to become a Princess in all but name. With the prize of Canterlot and its Platinum Crown at stake, it falls to six Elements of Harmony to once again save not just Ponyville, but all of Equestria.

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TVtropes page is here: link

The prequel to TPC, "The Best Night Ever" is here. link
The side-story crossover with "Sweetie Belle Chronicles" is here. link

Someone out there made a playlist for Platinum Crown: Rarity, Blueblood and Chrysalis. Pretty sweet!
Wish I knew who, or even when they did it, though. I especially like the Chrysy playlist.
https://8tracks.com/explore/this_platinum_crown/hot/1

I've gotten some cool TPC related art done, too.
So Sweet and Tasty's TPC Cover Art
link
Thanks to Madmax for these two:
Rarity, Blueblood and Antimony
link
Dash and Ritterkreuz
link
The Terre Rare Founder - Lady Arsenic
link
Twilight and Alpha Brass Battle Duet
link

Prince Blueblood thought the Grand Galloping Gala was over. He thought he could just go to sleep and put it behind him. He never expected to be reliving the same disaster of a day, over and over... and over.

TV tropes page here:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/TheBestNightEver

Thanks to all the people who wrote the page and all the people who gave me a little wakeup call and comment to become aware of that fact! You can't see it, but you guys put a real smile on my face tonight.

Also, recently, extra thanks to RD Dash for giving TBNE a thorough editing. I've updated the fic accordingly (7.11.12)

Dragons. Big. Selfish. Treasure mongers. No other creature in Equestria is as selfish as they. The spend their entire centuries long lives building and hoarding huge stockpiles of treasures, which they guard fiercely and frighteningly. Many are the treasure hunters who've attempted to cash in on the goldmine that is a dragons hoard. They almost always regret it.

One dragon is actually really strange about it, however. Oh, he has a hoard, which he guards just as fiercely as any other. But! But, he actually has the capacity to trust certain ponies and other creatures enough to let them gaze upon his most precious of treasures. This isn't the most surprising thing, however, despite its seeming impossibility. No. The most surprising thing is just what treasures his hoard contains...

Cover image by Wildheart Wolfsong, used in a dramatic reading by Dr. Wolf.

Can now be read in Spanish here. thanks to Spaniard Kiwi.

Princess Celestia tires of constantly being surrounded by decorum, deference, and formality, and decides to take a day off from being Princess. But visiting Ponyville incognito is harder than she expects. Will she be able to fit in and make friends without blowing her cover?

Twilight isn't having a very good day. An experimental spell blew up in her face, an army of changelings is attacking Canterlot, and she just died. Yet somehow, it looks like it's going to keep going downhill from here.

Given the chance to correct what's gone wrong, Twilight swears she's going to fix all this even if it kills her. Which it will. Frequently.

Cover art by Pixel Prism
Spanish Translation
Series TV Tropes page

Twilight looked over to her dear mentor, Princess Celestia, and found she had once again fallen asleep mid-lesson. Her intense debate on awakening the princess was cut short when the decision was taken out of her hooves.

“Huh? Oh. Twilight, I am so sorry for falling asleep again. I think we need to reschedule this for tomorrow morning.”

Twilight nodded. After all, Princess Celestia was obviously overworked. If only there was something she could do to help.

Now with a dramatic reading courtesy of DRWolf.
Additionally, there’s a Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi over on Deviant Art.

Current Episode: Season Zero – Episode One
Next Episode: Twin Twilights

Art created from images by Tim015 and ShilaDaLioness.