Spike and Rarity end a long day of work by doing nothing.

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Assistance and pre-reading courtesy: Cinder (personal friend)
& ericremotesteam.

Cadance and Twilight have discovered something about the Alicorn Amulet. Whenever someone rejects its promises of power, it weakens the Amulet's magic. In theory, if enough ponies should be tempted by it and reject it, it would destroy the amulet forever.

They summon the help of volunteers from across Equestria, in the hope of destroying it for good.

Project Lead/Lead Editor: cleverpun
Additional Editing: Kai Creech

All chapters written by their respective authors;
Titanium Dragon
No Raisin
Chris
FanOfMostEverything
Moosetasm
Kai Creech
nioniosbbbb
Sollace
Winston

Submissions are closed, sorry. I may, however, do another collaboration in the future. If so, I'll announce it via blog post; following me is the most reliable way to be notified. Or you can join the group. (Make sure to leave notifications on!)

Shaping a loose collective of dragons into a formidable and regimented empire isn't the easiest task. But with the proper application of wit and willpower, she's started to chisel out edges in the previously dull kingdom, started to sculpt it into something powerful enough to stand the test of time.

Spike was only supposed to visit her as a diplomat, to help her hammer out a trade agreement between The New Dragon Empire and Equestria. But he's everything a dragon shouldn't be: conciliatory, spineless, peace-loving, friendly. He sees what she has to do - executions, browbeating, delegation - and balks, has the audacity to think he can help her.

And he's getting popular. Among them. They're supposed to hate him, but they're doing the opposite. And in a world where he's treated like royalty and could have been king, what room is there left for Ember? How's she supposed to govern when the mere presence of a foreigner is enough to shake the empire's principles to their roots?

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This story is designed to be able to be read as a stand-alone long story. Similarly, Flint. is designed to be read as a stand-alone short story. For fullest reading experience, however, read the two of them together; chronologically, the events of Steel. come literally right after the events of Flint.

I'm gonna be honest, I haven't done multi-chapter stuff in a while, and I might have bitten off more than I can chew here. I've got it all plotted out, in my head and on paper, but actually making good on my promises feels daunting at best. "Bear with me" applies until I've published everything, I guess, and I'll try to release chapters on a semi-regular basis until it's done (and add a tag when it starts actually cropping up in the story proper.)

All of my thanks to Flashgen for helping me with this.

Ruling an up-and-coming empire is largely an unpleasant task: there are disputes to be resolved, budgets to be balanced, infrastructure to maintain and policies to enact - and made sure they're followed through on. This isn't helped by the fact that, as a dragon, Princess Ember is supposed to perform these duties without complaint, clemency or compromise. It was thankless for her father and thankless for her, especially when they were supposed to perform duties above and beyond their normal tasks.

Ember really doesn't want to have to personally execute a traitor. But that's part of her job, part of what she's expected to do, part of how she's expected to show strength of character.

He. Must. Pay.

All of my thanks to Flashgen and Regidar for pre-reading the story.

Picture was created by bassybird, and will be deleted upon request.

If you woke up in Equestria as your pony, what's the first thing you would do?
Tabitha St. Germain: "I'd pop bubble wrap with my unicorn horn!"

Unfortunately, Derpy Hooves has a problem with that. Bubbles are serious business.

A collab with CapnLexCrunch, aka Rusty Poopy.
Now with an audio reading by The Living Library Player Society!

Also read: Don't Pop

The past is the past. Gone forever, untouchable, unchangeable. Accepting this is one of the great struggles of life, but if such a power did exist...
Where else but in temptation are our true values revealed?

Royal Guard Silver Birch knows Princess Luna's history, and her... extreme reactions to being neglected in the past. When it seems Luna has been snubbed yet again, he and his partner Winter Garden take action to shield their Princess from this slight, and spare Equestria her terrible wrath.

(Inspired by a really dumb blog I did.)

After Twilight and her friends rediscover Starswirl’s last spell in the ruins of Golden Oaks Library Rainbow Dash asks, ‘why can’t we all become alicorns?’ Now Ponyville is host to five brand new alicorns and the girls have everything they could ever want; magic, flight, power, influence and all of Equestria wide-open before them... but being a Princess is far more than just having wings and a horn.

With thanks to Luna-tic Scientist, Lord of Dorkness, docontra, and JCatt for their help pre-reading. Cover image by Pixel-Prism.

Twilight has never been one to leave an endeavor half-baked, so when she decides to learn to cook, she demands nothing less than the best teacher gems can buy: renowned chef Spike the Dragon.

Eggheads will crack, nerves will grate, and longstanding national institutions will be shaken to their starchy, tuberous roots as Twilight grapples with the art and science that is cooking.

Rainbow has always said that she'd go anywhere with Applejack. This promise has led her to the Pies' rock farm as Applejack and the rest of the family go to support Macintosh during the Choosing Stone Ceremony.

But of course, there's more than just watching going on. On the rock farm, there's time to just... talk.

More of an experiment in dialogue-heavy chapters than anything else.
Written for AppleDash Contest 4 (family, a place outside of Ponyville).