After the student body of Canterlot High is swayed by yet another surprise musical number during lunch, Sunset Shimmer muses the students are easily influenced by songs at this time. Pinkie quickly comes up with a song of her own.

Sunset Shimmer considers this a high point of her week.

It's a perfect day in the life of Twilight Sparkle. Ponyville's chief librarian has everything she wants: her books, her studies, a faithful dragon assistant, and the opportunity to go visit Sugarcube Corner on a beautiful afternoon, hanging out with the best friends that a young unicorn could ever ask for.

And yet, in spite of all this, Twilight has the distinct feeling that something is missing...

Fiddlesticks walks the dead earth of the Badlands, and plays her song to the listening shadows.

(Audio version by Illya Leonov AKA Morgan Freepony.)

I thought that I was past sadness. I thought that I had defeated it, but now I realize that I had just hidden it away to let it grow stronger. Now it's trapped somewhere deep inside of me where I cannot get it out. The longer the sadness festers inside of me, the stronger it gets, but the key to letting it out was lost a long time ago.

Nothing is without a price, as many discover to their sorrow. Few are those who truly know themselves, and fewer still are those who know which prices are worth bearing—and which hide perils threatening that which they most treasure.

*****

My gratitude to all of the participants in the "There Is Magic In Everything" writeoff event, for the comments, reviews, and appreciation which helped bring this to its current form.

Audiobook here, courtesy of Neighrator Pony!

And a second reading here, courtesy of Illya Leonov!

Now available in Spanish, courtesy of SPANIARD KIWI.

A little piece of fluff about how two friends started dating, thanks to an ill-timed slip of the tongue.

Cover Image © the impeccable Equestria-Prevails
Made for The Batpony Writeoff on EQD
Update: Second Place! Congrats to Ponydora Prancypants for getting First!

"All my life, I've wanted to fly
But I don't have the wings, and I wonder why
I can't break away..."
Most pegasi figure out flying easily enough. Heck, most of them figure out how to do it before they even get their cutie marks.

But not me. I couldn’t do it, no matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t even hover. Not for more than a few seconds, anyway. And not even Rainbow Dash, the greatest flier in Equestria, could seem to help me. We tried everything, and I failed every time. Day after day, I tried – and day after day, I failed, until finally I was ready to just give up. I’d never be able to do it. Nopony would ever be able to help me to fly...

...until one day, somepony did.

How far will you go to save your family? Your friends? Your empire? Twenty years before the events of the Hearth's Warming Eve story, long before the pegasi had even met the other two races, Commander Hurricane was a simple farmer in the great Cirran Empire. When the neighboring griffon nation declares war on Cirra and everything it stands for, the young Hurricane finds himself thrown into the middle of a conflict with the fate of his very race put into question. Will he rise to be the pegasus Cirra needs him to be, or will the mighty empire fall to the claws of the griffons?

Officially part of "The Price of Loyalty" storyverse, in collaboration with LoyalLiar.

Now with a side story! Come check out my friend Ruirik's Wind and Stone and follow along with the journey of another legionnaire who struggled through the Red Cloud War at the same time as Hurricane. (*contains references to events in the sequel to OSLF, Snow and Shadows, so be wary*)

Cover art by Ruirik

Unparalleled flying skills. Limitless charm. A go-getter attitude. Despite claiming to possess such coveted traits and more, Lightning Dust was still unable to achieve her lifelong dream. Years of self-discipline and fine tuning down the drain due to one fatal error, with nothing to show for it but a single nagging question: what was she lacking? With the help of some old friends and the observation of new ones, the confounded pegasus hopes to polish her few flaws and achieve heights most ponies could only dream of.

Breaking the limits of perfection isn't easy, but Lightning Dust obeys no limits.

Vinyl lives a rough lifestyle, and it grates on more than just her health. When Octavia comes looking for her, Vinyl flees out of shame.