"All life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other."

-H. P. Lovecraft, The Silver Key

Ever since the conflict with Nightmare Moon, Dusk Shine has been having strange visions. Visions of the future, visions of what could have been, and visions of things that don't make any sense. Will he unlock the mystery behind these anomalies that only he seems to be aware of? Or will his obsession combined with the lack of social experience break his new friendship with five extraordinary girls before it can even form?

One thing is for sure. this is more than just a simple retelling of Twilight Sparkle's journey.

Don't forget to take a look at the Appendix for expanded explanations on the lore of the world.

Inspired by Meme-asaurus' The Unexpected Love Life of Dusk Shine and Psi-nova's Dusk Shine's Saga

Rated T for violence, some sexual humor and very mild language.

Rhys, the local human, is not particularly socialable. Indeed, he spends most of his time in house out towards the edge of Ponyville or else with Twilight working on how he is going to get home. He talks about home a lot.

One night, quite unexpectedly, Rarity finds him outside her door. He is very drunk.

She's annoyed by this, though less annoyed when she discovers the reason why.

Chrysalis might be one of the most evil, vile, and dastardly villains that Equestria has ever known. She might have been responsible for nearly destroying the world more than once, she might even be a soul-sicking, shapeshifting monster, but she is still a mare.

She had never been given a genuine, honest compliment from someone that wasn't under threat or stuffed into a feeding pod or mind controlled. Today that is going to change.

Cadence really hasn't happy about the whole thing.

Artist is llamacheesecake

You are a unicorn stallion, who serves as a professor at Canterlot's Magic Academy, aiding the gifted youth in their magical training. However, due to your diligence, you have been unable to find your special somepony, something which has been weighing heavily on your mind as of late.

As Nightmare Night begins you decide to work late in the library when you hear a noise. Investigating you discover a few of your students performing a magical ritual. After sending them away, you attempt to clean up the mess. Unfortunately in doing so, you accidentally managed to complete the ritual, summoning an exotic and understandably surly creature into Equestria.

Warning! This story contains: an alternate take on succubi, suggestive content, annoyed individuals becoming friends (and perhaps more), maids and cuddles?

I've always wanted to create a story about a succubus that could also be safe enough to make it onto the Monster Mare Story List and here it is. I hope you all enjoy.

I came up with this story for Nightmare Night (🎃Halloween🎃), one of my most favorite holidays.

Preread, proofread and edited by: Quillian Inkheart.

The cover art was made by: marking. They are a great artist. If you need some cover art, then you should totally commission some cover art from them.

There is also a reference sheet for Silken Soul that was made by: ZettaiDullahan, which you can see here.

This story is a sequel to The Philosophical Substitute: Discord

Warning: The following you're about to read contains philosophy in plain English. If you do not like this, you know where the exit button is.

Also, please remember that this is an anthology, in which each chapter is their own independent story.

After the events of "The Philosophical Substitute," Discord is now taking on as a full-on teacher in Twilight's School of Friendship. Even though his past students (the Young Six) have technically graduated his class, they still come to him time to time to ask him some of life's toughest questions. Eventually, even their teachers come to him for guidance.

What follows is an anthology series of what each character learns from the Ex-Lord of Chaos.

A special thanks to Azaclop for proofreading.

Lesson Plan (in no particular order):

Sandbar - On Fate and Free Will (Dealing with cutie marks? Do ponies have a choice in what they can or can’t be?) ✅

Smolder - On Life and Death (possibly afterlife? Cost of longevity?) ✅

Silverstream - Should Power Belong to the Few or Many? ✅

Yona - What’s the point of Spirituality? ✅

Gallus - On Envy and Jealousy. ✅

Ocellus - On Identity and the Self. ✅

Twilight - On Balance of Governing. ✅

Applejack - Why do nice people lie? Why does dishonesty exist?✅

Rainbow - On Bad Faith (Sartre) ✅

Rarity - What Luxury Couldn’t Buy (Epicurus? Diogenes?) ✅

Fluttershy - Why Others are Mean? ✅

Pinkie Pie - On Cheerful Sadness. ✅

Starlight - If worse comes to worse. ✅

? - Know thy Self. A Philosophical Mediation.✅

(My interpretation of Vdrake77's Idol Hooves during the Canterlot wedding)

*Edits for the first two chapters kindly provided by Airy Words!

Idol Hooves is the only changeling in the entire Equestrian Guard, and has been proudly serving for over a decade (while disguised). His enlistment buddy and friend, Shining Armor, the current Captain of the Guard, is finally taking the next step to officially becoming Princess Cadence' s personal guard, 24/7.

With most guards being reassigned to the wedding, Idol (by Luna's demand) is given the temporary assignment to be Princess Luna's personal gaurd due to a shortage in the Night Gaurds numbers.

Now, after another all-nighter looking for potential threats and with Idol's persistence, Luna finally agrees and turns in for the day. With Idol Hooves being the sole guard watching Luna's door, a promise was made that could ruin Eqauestria.

Princess Luna will get her well deserved rest, and nothing short of Princess Celestia herself will wake the deathly tired princess.

Clover the Clever never asked for his life to get so complicated.  It was bad enough tricking a drunk Imperatrix Celestia, war goddess of the Three Tribes, out of her accidental coup against Queen Platinum.  But now the most dangerous pony in Equestria has returned to trade her claim on the sun for a chance to woo him.

On top of that, his erstwhile mentor Star Swirl the Bearded has saddled him with a mysterious magical necklace and a uniquely bleak and pointless prophecy: If he's brave enough, and if he's clever enough, he just might survive Celestia for long enough to break her heart.

Now with an audio reading by ScarlettBlade!

Recommended by PresentPerfect! "horizon gave me the story I needed rather than the one I wanted ... along the way we get some very strong lessons about love, and meditations on the value of a lifetime and what one pony can achieve on their own."

Featured on Equestria Daily!

First place, "Out of Time" Writeoff! (11/2015) At long last, expanded to novella size! The world-spanning, centuries-spanning romance as it was always meant to be told!

PRAISE FOR THE WRITEOFF VERSION:
"One of my favorite depictions of Celestia in a long time." –billymorph
"To the top of the ballot with it." –AugieDog
"There’s going to be a lot of tears shed when this one hits publish." –Georg
"You need to read Time Enough For Love. I literally swore out loud when my computer crashed when I was halfway through, and then I immediately whipped out my smartphone to finish it. And now I'm reading it again in a desperate attempt to figure out how it does its job so damn well." –Bachiavellian
"I can get behind some historical revisionism for such a brilliant story. The writing is second-to-none … I laughed, I cried, and I felt other things too." –Trick Question

Cover art by Nadnerb.

Time is a neutral party. It takes no sides, only proceeding without a care for those caught in its trap. That is how it should be...
But not all traps are foolproof.

When a pony seeking the Night Princess's counsel intervenes during an assassination attempt, Luna knew there was more to this stallion than met the eye.
However, even her expectations had limits. That, Luna discovered, was a mistake.

One question troubles her thoughts as a new problem presents itself in the form of this stallion; how does a heart and mind cope when one escapes the trap of time? What happens to a good heart when it is worn away, year after year, all stemming from a single mistake, no matter how good the intentions?

Equestria Daily seal of approval: https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/11/fanfiction-timeless.html

Takes place during/after Season 9.
Sequel: Sunspots

This story is a sequel to 1000 Years

1000 years later after the events of 1000 Years, Null will be thrown into the deep end, seeing if he will sink or swim. How will he cope with his newfound freedom? Will it be what he hoped for? And most importantly, what will crack first? the eggshells he treads on, or he himself?

WOOOO. featured already from the first chapter with a couple hours! 5/9/19

Charlie is dead. He is still dealing with this fact, but he's on the road to recovery. Of course, being in a land of talking ponies doesn't really help a man accept his own death, or in this case, undeath. Being a ghost is not easy, it's quite a bit of boring nothingness. At least, that was true, until one pony was suddenly able to see him.

Now he's got a new friend, but the whole ghost thing is still a pain.

Featured 5/6/17!
Featured 1/3/19!