Shining Armor and Princess Cadance celebrate the birth of their first child, blissfully unaware that her arrival fulfills a dark, ancient, malevolent prophesy of doom. Calamitous events set into motion by Flurry Heart’s birth tear apart reality. The ground is torn asunder as sinister invaders emerge from the underworld. Ancient cults emerge from the shadows to herald the foretold arrival of their dark overlord. The Crystal Empire faces its most dire threat yet as a new, evil, and most adorable master launches her campaign to lay claim to the world to bring about a new era of unsurpassed evil.

Flat teeth or fangs? Velvety smooth coat or firm carapace? Mane or headfin?

Thorax frets over which face he wishes to show the crystal ponies his age. Fortunately, there's somepony willing to offer a word or two of comfort and support, as well as teach him a life lesson that will stick with him forever.

Preread by Fahrenheit and Timaeus.

Loosely inspired by this piece by Starshade001. Used as cover art with permission from the artist.

Youtube reading by Chaotic.

Ponies like snuggles. Spike likes to give snuggles. But Spike is a five-hundred-foot tall dragon, and finds it difficult to give snuggles without accidentally popping the pony like an overripe tomato in a hydraulic press. Spike believes he has found a solution.

Part of the Hellpiercer 'verse, but knowledge of that story is not required.

Reviewed by TitaniumDragon!
Art by Harwick.
Featured on Equestria Daily and Fimfiction.

This story is a sequel to Secrets of a Royal Guard

Duty, honor, and loyalty above all else. That was what Silent Knight had been told ever since he was a colt. They had guided him all his life and he was more than ready to follow in his father’s hoofsteps by dedicating himself to the Royal Guard. Then he discovered something else he had never expected: friendship and love. He learned that he owed these values not just to his job, but to his wife, his friends, and his family. Unfortunately, he learned that too late.

War has broken out between the gryphon kingdoms and Equestria is stuck in the thick of it trying to protect their ally, Nordanver. As Silent marches off to war, he must contend with the guilt that battles within him. He played right into the claws of Sudramoar's sovereign, and now he must leave his newlywed wife behind so that he can pay the price for his foolish actions.

Knowledge of the Quill & Blade AU is recommended to understand this story. It is a direct sequel to Secrets of a Royal Guard.

This story is a sequel to Memoirs of a Royal Guard

From the outside looking in, life has never been better for Silent Knight. He is the first pony in a long line of Royal Guard ancestry to earn a commission, he has a loving mare by his side, and he bears the kingdom’s highest honor for bravely risking it all to protect Princess Luna. The future shines bright with potential, but the shadows of the past lurk at every twist and turn that lies ahead.

Guilt, anger, and regret are constantly at war in the depths of Silent Knight’s mind. Despite his best efforts to enjoy the life he has, he finds himself trapped in the past, reliving the moment when his unit was ambushed and his ponies were killed. He refuses to show any weakness, instead hiding everything behind a tough face to protect himself and those he loves. But his true feelings—and what he plans to do with them—shackle everything he holds dear with chains forged in secret.

Secrets of a Royal Guard is a comedy series with romantic, dramatic, and adventure elements. It features an original character cast and their interactions with the princesses they protect. It is recommended that readers be familiar with Memoirs of a Royal Guard.

Quill & Blade Universe

To Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia, it is a simple surprise visit to Canterlot. To the ponies of the Equestrian Civil Service, it is twenty-four hours of chaos, politics, weaponized dessert, politics, underhooved manipulation of media, politics, and things batrachian and tentacular. Who said bureaucracy isn't exciting?

Apple Bloom was simply trying to live out her life with her adoptive family. You know: grow up, earn her cutie mark, master a furycraft or two, help bring in the harvest, that sort of thing. Until one day, aged thirteen and still with neither mark nor fury, she is thrown into the metaphorical deep end when she learns of a plot to start a war with the griffons. Can she find a way to preserve peace, even when there are warmongers on both sides?

A fusion-style crossover fic, combining My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with Jim Butcher's Codex Alera, a world in which everyone has the ability to commune with and control at least one of the six types of furies, the spirits of nature.

I've tried my level best to explain fury-related concepts within the story, so no reading of the Codex Alera should be necessary.

A nurse has seen it all. A combat medic has seen even more.

Princess Celestia sends her elite Household Battalion—"Celestia's Own"—south, far beyond the borders of Equestria, to break the slave trade and to free the oppressed. Medic Redheart, a young rookie among the Guard's hardened veterans, is with her Battalion every step of the way.

She's never told anypony her story. Until now.

A side story/prequel to my The Ponies in the Caves and A Story to Relate To, but reads independently.

This story is fantastic. There wasn't a single chapter that didn't give me chills or bring a tear to my eye. The way you describe the selflessness of the soldiers, and Redheart's unrelenting drive to save them, no matter the personal cost, was exemplary. I look forward to more of your work.

-SGTBRONY

Has a Black Company feel to it with the medic POV. Great story so far!

-Lerris

Cover art by Pabbles, by commission. Thanks!

With massive thanks to the folks in the Discord for comments and advice, and Totallynotabrony, Raleigh, Sledge115, and ChudoJogurt for detailed pre-reading, in whole or in part. Any remaining errors are fully my own.

Author's notes and commentary blog, with big spoilers.

Everypony has a story. Some tell of heroic feats and grand adventure. Others tell of villainy against the forces of Harmony. The story of an average guard, however, is one of obscurity. They live in the background, unnoticed but ever-present.

Silent Knight assumed his tale would be like that of his father's: join the Royal Guard and serve Equestria. He would be just another helmet and spear, part of the rank and file. And that was all he ever wanted.

However, when Captain Shining Armor asked for volunteers to form a House Guard for the recently returned Princess Luna, it was Silent's hooves that stepped forwards to set his new life in motion.

Dee was a very brave batpony who always obeyed her Mama, but every year during the full moon, when the leaves began to change and the cold winds blew, she felt the tug of a city far, far away, where the other children told of monsters who came out to play for one night. This year she is determined to travel all the way through the forest to the city and see with her own eyes just what is so special, no matter how dangerous the trip is, no matter how far she has to fly, or how frighteningly different the monsters are.

Or how similar.

Thanks to my editors: Tek, Peter, Seether00, Pascoite

Cover picture Inkscaped together from several online vectors and files
Nightmare Night in the Everfree Forest by Hellswolfeh
1000 Year Slumber by Chromadancer for the Pre-S1 Moon.
Dragoart.com for the vectorized and modified bat image.
Now on Equestria Daily!
With review by Paul Asaran