Guard
noun

1. a person who keeps watch, especially a soldier or other person assigned to protect a person or to control access to a place.

There is more to a Royal Guard than meets the eye. Capturing crooks, chasing ruffians, fighting monsters, stopping assassinations, and protecting the Princess with all their worth -- with a thousand years of peace time, they have become more and less. But the future is uncertain, and within the horizon, the dark storms are a brewing.

Aiming to become a Royal Guard had never been Twilight's first choice of career -- it certainly was not what Mom and Dad wanted her to be. Still, that didn't stop Twilight Sparkle to pursue that dream. Now that she was one, she had to deal with monsters, cultists, vengeful ghosts, prickly teammates, forgotten childhood friends, and a Sunset Shimmer. Not exactly what she had expected out of her military career in peaceful Equestria, but perhaps it wasn't far off from what she wanted.

Serious thanks to Sunglow for offering proofreading and commentaries.

Link to the Spacebattles Thread

Twilight's plan was perfect. Sunset just needed something to make her feel special - and it worked! What happened was wonderful. Magical, even.

... but then why did Sunset look at her like that the next morning?

Special thanks to Zaridan and JWolfSilver for helping with some editing and prereading. Thanks to Wanderer D, Cynewulf, and Skeeter The Lurker for prereading as well. Final thanks to SoloBrony for giving me the idea long ago, even if it took me a while to figure out how to use it.

A sort of spiritual sister story, but in not in any way related continuity wise, to So You've Just Slept With Your Best Friend. If you're curious for more details, check here.

Love can take root in the most unlikely of places.

In Equestria's darkest moment, when Tirek seemed unstoppable, when the princesses lay chained in Tartarus, when the Elements were helpless, two ponies discover that no one is so weak that they cannot fight back. And what matters more than victory is what you discover along the way.

What if pony princesses were actually highly social carnivores?

What if a National Geographic team began following them around to film a documentary?

What if nopony saw anything unusual about this?

A metaphor about growing up. Or possibly a metaphor about living in a surveillance society. Or maybe just a very, very weird idea that needed to become a story.

It's a week after Nightmare Night, and the dead have risen. Zombies, ghosts and skeletons walk Ponyville's streets. It would be pretty terrifying, except for the fact that they're so nice. Also, they don't seem to realize they're dead.

But not everypony is happy with their new undead neighbors. Rainbow Dash is a little freaked out, Twilight Sparkle is on trial for murdering a skeleton, and Rarity conspires against her ghostly business partner. Will our heroes be able to keep up in a world where busy ponies don't have time to let death slow them down?

Once upon a time, everypony spoke the same language.

Then came Discord, and everything changed. Was it a malicious prank? Boredom? An attempt to teach everypony a lesson? We can't ask him, because he's gone, and who knows when he'll be back.

If language is the glue that holds society together, what happens when it turns to sand?

Winner of the October Writeoff competition, "Illusion of Choice."

Strange dreams are haunting the night in Ponyville.

The dreams are lucid and clear, indistinguishable from reality. And sometimes, when ponies wake up, the dreams don't go away.

Hallucinations stalk the waking world. Reality is bending in ways that Twilight Sparkle doesn't understand. But she intends to get to the bottom of this mystery and save Equestria from whatever is hiding in the dark.

Twilight Sparkle wonders, sometimes, if the pony in her dreams is the real her. If that is her soul laid bare.

She's about to find out.

Written for the Distant Shores Writeoff. Cover art by CosmicUnicorn, used with permission.

Why do ponies dream? Why do we all seem to dream the same dreams?

What if we started to dream new things?

Discord said he wanted to make our dreams more interesting. Add some spice to our boring nocturnal lives. Nothing dangerous – just a bit of excitement to talk about in the mornings.

"Stop worrying so much, Twilight Sparkle," he said. "After all, dreams never hurt anypony."

How I wish he’d been right.

Gold Medalist in the Under the Sun Writeoff Event.

Now with Russian translation, courtesy of Cloud Ring! https://darkpony.space/the-archetypist-1/

The Sphinx catches a stallion trying to enter her lair without permission. He has an offer for her.

All Chrysalis ever wanted was a big, brave stallion who would sweep her off her hooves and love her forever. That's not too much to ask, is it?

On her first trip into Equestria, she meets the perfect pony for her, the pony she knows she's destined to be with forever. In one world, she goes back home and returns years later to take him by force. But what if she decided to go after her knight in shining armor another way?

And what happens when everything goes wrong, and she ends up stuck serving a pink pony princess instead of working alongside the stallion she's interested in?

Credit goes out to King of Beggars and his story Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard, and all the awful pitches we throw at each other for knockoffs and parodies.