You can't buy happiness, but, thankfully, you can buy a wife. Legally, it's an arranged marriage, but everypony knows what's really going on. Unfortunately for Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, duty calls them to make the ultimate sacrifice and marry to keep their families out of the gnashing maws of loan sharks and auditors.

It might even work, if either family had two bits to rub together.

This is a story I've had on the back burner for a long time. I started it as a fragment years ago and got around to finishing it now. I must have started around season 4, since Starlight hadn't been introduced yet, so that tells you how long I had it sitting as a fragment on my hard drive!

Anyway, rated T for alcohol use, fade-to-black sex, and gambling.

Thanks to all my readers and supporters. I love you all in a totally platonic way. Does anyone else think Plato would be disappointed his name was synonymous with the friendzone? Anyway, enjoy!

Spike and Thorax have been living together for a while. One day, Thorax comes home and seems just a little bit different. Spike has a conversation with him about colors.

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Written for the M/M Shipping Contest 2022!
Cover art and Older!Spike design by me.

King Sombra has been brought back to life once again—only this time, he doesn’t have his horn. Weak without it and withering away day by day, Sombra sets out for the Crystal Empire to find his missing piece, chaperoned by the downtrodden and endlessly kind Troubleshoes Clyde.

They’d better hurry. Twilight Sparkle has caught wind of Sombra’s return, and she’s getting awfully tired of destroying him.

Winner of the M/M Shipping Contest.
Cover Art by aquoquoo.

Diamond dogs don't concern themselves with the affairs of the surface and, if they had their way, wouldn't go topside at all. Unfortunately, there's things of value up there, and so they regularly send scouts, with scout duty the punishment for disruptive dogs to remind them why they stay beneath the earth.

Precious has been exiled to scout duty, but she doesn't mind that at all. The surface world can be downright beautiful, and when she's up here she doesn't have to deal with Rover's ego. She's very content to spend her days beneath the sun, watching for any ponies that become separated from the herd.

Until she meets a pony. One who talks to her. And she figures she can afford to let one pony go. No one will ever know.

She should have realized that one pony never stays just one pony.

An entry in Choices: A Species Change Contest.
A branch in the Eventide multiverse.
Also check out author Patreon, Ko-Fi and commissions.

After Equestria faced a crippling tragedy, the dozens of petty lords, who until then all counted their remaining days, suddenly set their sights with renewed malice on how they could get rid of the one remaining pony who threatened their rule.

Some didn't shy away from even the most despicable of methods, changing a colt's life forever.

Proofread by Not That Anon and Equimorto. Thank you very much again!

Princess Twilight Sparkle has a vast knowledge of different magics, including magical afflictions, and so she's come to expect, when the truly unusual things crop up, to find letters from Equestria's hospitals showing up at the castle. And every time, she's dropped everything to help one of her subjects.

Luster Dawn is taking her first hospital trip with her mentor, to visit a sick pegasus filly. It's Nightmare Night, and the princess is bringing the celebration to the filly, alongside her weekly dose of a potion used to treat her illness. Luster doesn't know what precisely she's sick with, or why Princess Twilight even wants Luster to come at all, but she's assured her it's not contagious, or at least there's no risk of unicorns or alicorns catching it.

The longer she's around the filly, however, the more this disease looks familiar. But the book she saw it in was folklore. Just an old pony tale. There's no such thing as bat ponies.

Is there?

An entry in the SPOOK contest.
A standalone entry in the The Eventide Verse.
Also check out author Patreon, Ko-Fi and commissions.

Derpy Hooves is secretly a changeling.

Nopony particularly notices, or cares.

(New 9/15/19: Spanish translation by Spaniard Kiwi! Thank you!)

Tempest Shadow is a pony trying to learn how to be part of pony society. To her, Equestria is a foreign land, and she's just a stranger in it. The natives are friendly, but her days are empty. What she needs is something to ground her. Something that can make her part of daily Ponyville life.

She needs a job.

Content Warning: Radical Freedom

This story was written over an embarrassingly long time as a commission for a friend. I have to admit I really like writing Tempest Shadow. She's a great horse.

Thanks to all my patrons and followers!

Minuette has an imaginary friend. At least, that's what everypony else thinks.

When ten-year-old magic student Minuette comes into possession of an antique vanity mirror, she is surprised to discover there is a creature living inside: A bug pony with big fangs and glowing eyes. Most little foals would probably be scared of such a creature, but not Minuette. Armed with a cheerful smile, she decides to befriend the bug in her mirror and uncover the mystery behind his bewildering predicament.

It's just such a shame that nopony else can see him.

First Act Edited by Mister Hypothetical

Second act and on edited by Xanni & Brony2005

This story is part of 'The Bugs in Strange Places' series, whose other entries include The Bug in The Herd, The Bug in The Basement, and The Bug in The Cave. You do not need to read any of these previous stories to enjoy this one, as they are not directly connected.

Inspiration for this story comes directly from this fine individual right here.

Pinkamena just wants to stay in her own lane. If Pinkie has a problem that needs yelled at, kicked at, or jeeringly tolerated until it goes away, she can handle it. But what’s a sourfaced split personality to do when her agreeable half vanishes overnight like a fart in the wind?

Pinkamena is not a sleuth. Nor a convincing actress. But she’ll need to be both to guise as Pinkie and solve the mystery of where her better half went.

What a pain in the flank.

(Teen rating for Pinkamena’s crassness and comically short temper.)

Its National Novel Writing Month! I'm breaking my regular short story conventions for a multi-chapter tale of fumbling comedy, uneasy mystery, and (most frightful of all) first-person narration.