Spike and Scootaloo talk about family and the everyday things in life they're thankful for.

Written for this contest.

Cover image by haydee.

This story is a sequel to To Live is to Love

One day, Spike finally gets the courage together to ask Rarity out. When he finally goes to ask her, he sees something in the window that quickly shoots down that entire idea. After it happens, and he's trying to move on from the disappointment.

Rainbow Dash is there to help him out.

Spike knows that his good friend will always be there for him.

That's all she is, right?

Thanks to this guy right here for the awesome picture.

When your life is as dull and cliché as the harmony that surrounds you, the mundanities can make it all seem meaningless. Sometimes all we need is a little color—or seventeen-and-a-half—to reintroduce us to what truly makes life worth living.

Twilight Sparkle isn't known to put anything less than her all into magic development. It's only natural she tried her best when Rarity asked her to make an anti-wrinkling re-vitalizing de-aging spell to help smooth some stray laugh lines.

Turns out her best is a little too good.

Now it's up to Shining Armor and Cadence to take care of their little sister, with an emphasis on the "little". Assuming her Royal Canterlot Voice temper tantrum doesn't cause the Crystal Empire to shatter first, that is.

Canterlot's animal shelter needs volunteers. Won't you help an animal that can't help itself?

I trust her with every job around here. Well, almost every job. Anything dealing with scissors is my responsibility, needles and chemicals too.

She names them, every single one of them. That makes my job all the more difficult. She doesn't know that. I won't let her know.

Let sleeping dogs lie, so goes the old adage. Remember Max, don't tell Fluttershy.

A message I've thought much too much about,
Maybe it'll reach somebody, who can say?
Certainly, I've always been this way,
A patched up, crazy matryoshka

Isn't the man suppose to be the bread winner? Isn't the wife supposed to be the house maker?

Spike and Rainbow Dash have always been a little different.

They've come to an agreement; he'll wear the apron, she'll wear the work suit. He'll keep the house nice and clean, she'll make sure they can pay the mortgage.

She'll go on the long business trips, he'll wait patiently for her return.

Looking back, she witnesses the entirety of her world in the window. A single dewdrop of oceans and forests and mountains and storms, just floating there, hushed and still. She squints through an eye, placing her hoof upon the glass. It completely covers the receding planet.

And in that instant, she's alone.

Featured by Seattle's Angels!

Pinkie's run out of helium for her balloons, and she won't be able to get any more for two whole weeks—which is practically forever. Thankfully, though, she's found one last balloon to hold onto, and if she can help it, she'll never it let it go.

Written for April Fools' Day, because everyone loves a good prank—including and especially Pinkie Pie.

Applejack has brushed her mane, put a ribbon on her hat, and there's a sway in her step. Most ponies just want to know who the special pony is.

Rainbow Dash doesn't buy it. Love is mushy, and AJ isn't mushy. Love means liking somepony more than her friends, and AJ would never like another pony more than Dash. Love means missing a game of horseshoes to go tell a pony that she's in love with them, and if there is one thing Dash is sure of, it's that AJ is not going to miss that game... no matter what Applejack thinks about it.