After a long day of work, Applejack and Rainbow Dash spend the evening at their favorite bar, the Golden Mug. There they talk about AJ's past, how she lost her parents and how she and her family made it through those times. Besides that, Rainbow Dash has to find out that even in a nice little town like Ponyville, there are a lot of rumors flying around.

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Note: This is a side story to A Silver Summer, but it isn't necessary to read that story to understand this one or vice versa.

Isolated from her friends and taken prisoner in the middle of a war, Twilight must deal with the very real dangers of being percieved as an enemy as well as the nightmares of her arrival on 'Earth'. Can she overcome her own fears and the fears of her captors? Will the wayward unicorn's assistance be a boon or a curse to the 'humans?' Most importantly, will she ever find her way home?

"In short, it's a story of friendship and plasma rifles, with the emphasis on the friendship. The characters are well written, the XCOM setting is fleshed out very well, and the story is compelling. If you love XCOM, you'll love the story, but even if you've never heard of it, it's more than worth giving the first 3 chapters a read.

There's excellent action later on, but the real strength lies in the collision between the friendly and naive world of Twilight Sparkle and the desperate world of humans fighting a losing war for survival and willing to do anything to turn the tide."

--Arzoo

(XCOM/FiM crossover)
(Cover art commissioned by a friend and created by the magnificent FoxInShadow!)
(Original cover art by the amazing Carnelian can be viewed here!)
(Gore tag for blood and some violence)
(Many thanks to the studius OminousTen, Arzoo, xXFluttershyForeverXx and finally Setokaiva for giving my rambles a once-over)
(Now with it's own TV Tropes page! Get to tropin' folks!)

Finally, the summer vacation has started. But for Silver Spoon, this doesn't mean fun and play. She has to go to summer class. And if going to school during precious summer time wasn't bad enough, Apple Bloom is there, too. But what seemed to become a nightmare of a vacation slowly turns out to be a chance to finally change a lot of things in Silver Spoon's life.

As of chapter 22, docontra is proof-reading this story. I can't thank you enough for the help :).

Side story: A Night at The Golden Mug

Princess Luna has raised the moon countless times in her life, but tonight was the first time she received a gift and an invitation to Celestia's chambers after doing so. While she accepts, she can't understand why the offer was made. There was nothing special about the day.

But she's wrong. Today was the day the newest letter from Ponyville arrived.

Cover art: My Sis by averagedraw.

With the power of the sun, it was only obvious that Celestia was hot, but Pinkie Pie never realized just how true that was.

A special thanks goes out to DanMcIntosh for doing a reading of this story on youtube. Here's the link.

Finding herself unable to sleep, Princess Celestia occupies her mind by penning a letter to Twilight Sparkle. But for a weary princess, the mind has a tendency to wander...

Written for Equestria Daily's Writer's Training Grounds #7.

Dramatic readings available courtesy of Goombasa and PhantomBrony.

Cover art by unknown artist; modified version by Goombasa.

Hearts and Hooves Day is a time to appreciate that special somepony that makes your life complete, or in the case of Rainbow Dash completely forget. Can she find a gift in time for Mac who had already surprised her with gifts or did he ruin it all? Join in Dash's race to find the perfect gift for her coltfriend, or has the damage already been done?

Thank you to Jake the Army Guy,jszellmer, and Crowquill Symphony for the edits.

Credit for picture goes to horsefan999

When Applejack starts dating an old pegasus friend, she thought the worst part would be making time in her busy schedule for romance. She didn't expect a whole truckload of unusual complications.

Complications like splinters. A hostile home environment. Being confused for an egg. A book that contains the secrets of the universe, and a theory about a rubber band.

Some ponies just have to worry about their jobs and who did the laundry. Applejack has to worry about her species tearing her love life apart. Pegasi are weirder than she thought, and the universe isn't making it any easier.

Preread/proofread/nonsense-checked by Tchernobog and Timaeus.

Look, I heard you the first time! Yeesh, I wish you'd stop staring at me, as if you're reading my thoughts. 'Cuz if you could, then you'd know that while this is the first thing I'd want to do, it's also the last! I mean, horseapples, things would be a heck of a lot easier if I'd known ahead of time that Twilight and the rest of the girls had only packed three sleeping bags instead of six for this mountain hike! For realsies, if you had any friggin' clue how many restless nights I've spent thinking about you, fantasizing situations like this, then you'd know... you would freaking know how impossible it is for me to actually... sh-share a sleeping bag with my totally not-sexy-in-any-way best friend... (*ULP*) ... overnight... s-so that we could keep our bodies warm in the cold, cold forest. Grnnnng! Alright... alright! I'll do it! Of c-course I'll do it! I'm awesome! I'm not afraid of anything! Okay... I can do this... I can totally do this... I can... I can... I-I...

After a little incident at the Equestria Games tryouts, Cheerilee finds herself apologizing to Ms. Harshwhinny and taking her out to drink as penance. Things won't get weird between them over alcohol, right?

This is probably the only Harshilee story that exists, or ever will, so I suppose this is part of my ongoing theme of pairings basically nobody loves.

Sex tag is for risqué jokes and situations.