Something sleeps in the waters of Bilge

Content Warnings for Implied Mutilation, Abuse, Eldritch Horrors

Written for the A Thousand Words Contest II Contest in the Horror Category.

Preread by The Sleepless Beholder.

Written for the Gay Contest Speedwrite in the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Group.

One night, half-awake in the dark, Twilight hears the knocking of pipes in the castle.

First place winner of The Seer's Spookfest, a Quills and Sofas Speedwriting group horror contest. We were given prompts at random from others, and mine was "Sweating Bullets."

A reading can be found here.

Behind an ancient stone wall lies an Apple family secret.

Speedwrite for Q&S Spookfest 2023.

Sometimes the best stories come from the most unlikeliest of encounters.

In 'Rich in Flowers, Unlucky in Love', one of the flower girls struggles with her growing feelings for a customer, suffering as she watches him stumble into romantic disaster after disaster.

In 'Perspective', Pony Joe shares with one of his customers a tried-and-tested method for resolving a Code Sparkle(otherwise known as a pre-test meltdown).

In 'Late to Class', Lemon Hearts is quite excited to be filling in for an injured professor... until an unexpected student appears in her roster.

And in 'Historical Inaccuracy' Sunny and Zipp go on a scavenger hunt through history to answer a pressing question: is it even possible for one of Sunny's ancient heroes to have had an extramarital affair?

These four stories were written as part of the Quills and Sofas 'May Pairings' contest, where prompts were given matching ponies that didn't have much of a chance to interact onscreen. It was quite fun and challenging. Pre-reading help provided by the Quills and Sofas participants, as well as horsetorian and Celestilune.

(Tags are for brief mentions of alcohol consumption and discussion of an extramarital affair)

Twilight and Discord go out to lunch. I'm sure nothing interesting will happen!

Cover art by my good friend @squidbly on Twitter!

Featured from 1/20/24 to 1/21/24!

Twilight had to save Equestria. She had to try.

Minor Content Warning: This story includes mentions of bloody ice spikes, and a slow, painful death, as well as brief descriptions of character death.

Written for the 1000 words contest, hosted by Bicyclette.

Equestria is a cold and lifeless place, but in Canterlot, a little spark of hope remains. Protected by the Princesses' own shield, Derpy Hooves and her new companions try to find some semblance of warmth in an unforgiving world.

Written in 1hr 10 for a crackship contest. Derpy x Fleur de Lis, an underrated couple.

Princess Celestia gets legit deaded by everyone's favorite bacon head.

Nighmare Moon was banished for one thousand years. She had more than enough time to plan her return. Every aspect was intricately planned down to the letter, for maximum dramatic effect to instil sufficient terror in her future subjects that they would bow down without question.

At least, that was how the plan was supposed to go.

Cover artwork courtesy of BudgieFlitter on DeviantArt.

Sometimes, a dream can seem so close, yet so far.

Cover Image from here.

The original speedwrite (in author's notes) was written for the Quills and Sofa's "Fiddlesticks" Speedwrite Contest, on Sep 9, 2023. This version was polished for publish since then.