Vinyl Scratch, the mare behind DJ PON-3’s purple shades, is boldly exploring new frontiers of electronic dance music. Meanwhile, Spilt Ink, music critic for Sound on Sound magazine, is just as boldly exploring how far he can stick his head up his own rectum.

Trace the trajectory of one mare’s career—and one stallion’s sanity—through this peek into the music world’s sordid underbelly: the album reviews.

“If you want to see a pure distillation of the most conceited reviewership possible, look no further!” —Chris
“Overimportant pretentiousness ...” —Present Perfect
“The complete verbal destruction evoked from this critic is so outstandingly cruel, it feels like I’m viewing a different kind of art.” —Tired Old Man
“Enough WUT in it to potentially scare away some readers.” — PaulAsaran

Sold out on 31 Jan 2017.

This story can be enjoyed on its own, or as a companion piece to Octaves, by JapaneseTeeth. Basically, JT asked me to help with the music reviews in one chapter of his story. I enjoyed writing in the voice of a stuck-up indie music critic so much, I couldn’t stop myself from writing more, and then this story happened.

Big thanks to my pre-readers/editors:
JapaneseTeeth
KuroiTsubasaTenshi
War877
EQD Pre-reader 63.546

Cover art kludged together by yours truly. Vinyl Scratch vector by hfbn2. Sound on Sound logo is a parody of the Consequence of Sound logo.

There's a problem at the Pie Quarry. One that Sunset Shimmer is uniquely equipped to handle.

Dealing with magic is easy. Dealing with cute quiet girls is too, but to solve this one, Sunset is going to need to dig deep. Real deep.

This story is a sequel to Man Cannot Live On Tea Alone

Jake is a human, pulled into Equestria by a magic mishap. Rarity is a fashionista, businessmare, and all-around interesting pony. Jake and Rarity go out for coffee and conversation, and enjoy each other's company. Can Jake match wits with Rarity? Can he keep up with the savvy, sassy mare that he's come to appreciate?

No. No, probably not.

Rated T for Sassy Waitresses, Blushing Ponies, and Ponies That Are So Cute They'll Make You Die. (Oh, and violence!)

Story inspired by gign-3208's beautiful art.

It is highly recommended you read the prequel story first, but this story can stand on it's own thanks to a preface at the beginning that can bring new readers up to speed.

Special thanks to SS&E, Fourths, and Jern for editing.

This story is a sequel to Entry #649

These are the final pages of the diary of Fluttershy, collected from her home and from the waters of the pond by her retreat. We hope she returns to us soon.

My name is Hayseed Pear. I’m ten years old and I don’t think I’ll get any older. I’m scared for myself, but I’m more scared for all you in Canterlot. I’m writing this down hoping that someone sees it before it’s too late.

(Based on the Robert Bloch story of the same name.)

Trixie has a strict lunchtime regimen:
One container of apple slices, with a dipping cup of caramel.

Unfortunately for her, the school health officials just went screwing with the menu.

Trixie is less than pleased with this latest development.

Lightning Dust just wants a peaceful lunch.

Set in the Equestria Girls universe

Rainbow Dash was beautiful, the most beautiful pony to be born in a century — and so her fate was sealed. Beauty must be sacrificed, and so Rainbow Dash must die.

Winner of the 2023 EFNW Iron Author Contest. I think I beat out about 40 other writers, and it was hugely exciting to win. Hope you enjoy the read!

Prompts were: vibrant vestigial, vexing volcano, verdant vegetable. Pretty insane for prompts, but Xepher had to pronounce all the Aztec words in my story so I think we're even.

This story is a sequel to Sunset Shimmer's Very Respectable Class Reunion

Sunset Shimmer tries her hoof at Equestrian diplomacy. After all, she had an entire high school full of hormonal primate teenagers eating out of her hoof... hand. A bunch of pleasant, sedate ungulates should totally be a cinch, especially with Twilight's help.

What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah.

This time at least, it is very clearly all Sunset's fault.

The awesome cover vector is by Umbra-Neko (who also has a whole gallery of similar vectors with different ponies) and used with her very kind permission.

This story can be enjoyed without reading its prequels.

Rated Teen and Sex for mentions of egregious sexual irresponsibility. No actual sex.

Contains minor (Pony) SunLight shipping. I'm sorry, I can't help it.

This story is a sequel to Log of the UNS Twilight Sparkle

In her quest to reach Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer must accept that new frontiers aren't always safe.

Note: this is actually a prequel, but you really need to read Log of the UNS Twilight Sparkle first to understand this.

Edited by Solstice Shimmer.
Thanks to Oliver for fact-checking.

“I really like what you have done here. You have taken the wonder for the unknown and the strive for a better tomorrow from the science fiction genre, and molded it with FiM perfectly.”

— The Observer

Featured on Equestria Daily
Review by Loganberry
Review by Ghost Mike
Review by Undead_Wanderer
Review by PaulAsaran

Life is full of challenges.

Pinkie Pie knows that, and will always try to help her friends smile no matter the circumstances. But when Pinkie's newest friend Sarah, a little girl from a strange new world, is faced with more challenges than anyone so young should ever have to handle, Pinkie begins to wonder if she really can keep the smiles coming.