Expectations. Fame or infamy. Family. Friends. Work.

They all define everypony in different measures. Sometimes the feeling is positive... and sometimes... sometimes it gets to be a bit much.

While moving to her new home, Zecora find the strangest creature - a large, nigh-hairless talking monkey-thing. Seeing how it lacks basic knowledge on surviving in the wild (and that it's quite tall and probably good at manual labour) she decides to adopt it as her assistant. Hopefully, she won't come to regret her decision.

This story contains 100% saturated sugar. Exposure may induce diabetes.

Once upon a time there were three filly sisters. They were a unicorn, a thestral and a changeling, but that was perfectly normal. They had also adopted a human for a father, which they thought was awesomely normal. Their lives seemed perfect, but their father felt there might be room for more; A mother's touch, perhaps? Enter the slightly accidental but otherwise perfect nannies, Luna, Cadence and Celestia...uh...Dark Side, Sweet Heart and Sunrise Splendour. Though the question remains; Will these three successfully infiltrate their little family and achieve their top secret mission bring the much-needed maternal touch, or will they end up a victim to the fillies' devious matchmaking schemes?

Well, it would have helped if the three nannies didn't lose their memories on their first day, for a start.

Written to the sound of BlackGryphon's Cutie Mark Crusader Theme Are We There Yet and Taking Off

Cover Art: I swear this began as me doodling a bowl of sugar.

This story is a sequel to Daughter of Discord

A series of one-shots detailing the adventures of five fillies on a quest to find what makes them special and earn their cutie marks.

Prism: the flightless pegasus overshadowed by her Wonderbolt parents and her talented older siblings, eager to prove herself to her family.

Gemstone: the spoiled yet slightly absent-minded unicorn hailing from Canterlot, seeking out friends who will accept her for who she is.

The Tri-Pies (Blueberry, Raspberry and Cherry): the energetic triplets, joined at the hip since birth (not literally), but cannot seem to handle themselves individually.

Artwork courtesy of Nstone53

Stories (no real spoilers, just brief synopses):

A New Beginning: Prism is tired of being picked on for not being able to fly and for being a blank flank, so with the help of her Aunt Scootaloo, she gets her best friends Blueberry, Raspberry and Cherry to form the new generation of The Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Odd One Out: Gemstone wants to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but Prism won't let her.

Trial and Error: The new Cutie Mark Crusaders spend the day trying new things and will hopefully discover their super special talents.

Words, Words, Words: Gemstone isn't doing so well in school and believes herself to be stupid. Will her friends discover her secret?

Three of a Kind: The Tri-Pies are very special fillies and are able to do all kinds of things, but for some reason can't seem to get their cutie marks. Even though they are triplets, are they truly as alike as they think?

The Secret Admirer: It's Hearts and Hooves Day and Prism gets a beautiful card from an anonymous pony. Who is her secret crush?

The Strange Case of Cheese Sandwich: Blueberry discovers that there was another stallion in her mother's life and is determined to find out what happened to him.

April Foals: Prism's prank on the Tri-Pies leads to unexpected results.

Weekend at Uncle Discord's: Days One and Two: While Scootaloo is away, the Dash siblings spend the weekend with Discord, Fluttershy, Screwball, Mothball (Screwball's changeling boyfriend) and baby Zany. During this weekend, Prism is determined to prove to her older brother and sister that she would be a better older sibling than them. Her wish comes true, but not in the way she had in mind.

Weekend at Uncle Discord's: Day Three (completely unrelated to the plot of Days One and Two): Gemstone and the Tri-Pies come visit Prism at Discord's castle for a play date. They decide to explore the many rooms there in hopes of earning their cutie marks, but there's no telling what lies behind each door in the Castle of Chaos.

Weddings: At their Aunt Twilight Sparkle's wedding, the CMC ask their parents about their weddings.

Until We Meet Again: Rainbow Dash and Soarin are going to Afghanisteed, and Prism is worried that they won't come back.

First Crush: The Tri-Pies have always been inseparable, but a cute new colt in class causes friction between them.

Baby Boo: Gemstone's new baby sister arrives, and Gem is determined to be the best big sister ever. However, with her family handling everything, she feels useless. When Nightmare Night comes around, she gets the chance to prove herself.

Politically Incorrect: Friction develops between the CMC when it is announced both Gemstone's and the Tri-Pies' fathers are running for Mayor of Ponyville.

Compromises: Lemon Drop gets into a fight with Raspberry. Is this the end of their relationship?

White Swan: Cherry and Gemstone work on a school project together and become closer friends than ever. When Gemstone wants to hang out with some pony else, Cherry starts feeling icky and she doesn't know why.

Rock Pies: The Tri-Pies receive a visit from their cousins from the rock farm.

Lonely Apples Club: Cherry gets crush advice from an unlikely source.

Whinny Land: On a day trip to the amusement park, Cherry and Blueberry seek to solve an urban legend, Gemstone and Raspberry play matchmaker, and Prism runs into an old friend.

Gift of the Raspberry Lemon: While making Hearth's Warming cards, Raspberry makes a startling discovery about her coltfriend.

Stories: For Hearts and Hooves Day, the class must write a report on how their parents met. Raspberry worries her report is going to sound exactly like her sisters'.

El Tango de Triángulos: At the Hearts and Hooves Day party, Raspberry decides to help a friend with a romantic dilemma while Blueberry helps Cherry with her own. Unbeknownst to them, another pony has their own little romantic scheme cooked up.

Over a thousand years ago, two royal siblings fought for the sky and were exiled, one by her sister's hoof, and one in penance for what she had done.

In the present Republic of Equestria, no one remembers them as anything more than legends and old pony tales. Save for one shy filly who fell from the sky one fine summer's day.

An Alternate Universe "What If" tale, reconstructing the beginning from a different angle.

A little blue foal is born to the perfect family and every one in the river village is happy. The foal is a playful, Upbeat little one. They will have much adventures.

Everypony remembers Tirek, the infamous, magic-stealing monster that walked Equestria all those years ago. However, few remember his brother, or the sacrifice he made to secure the future of ponykind.

Spike on the other hand remembers Scorpan quite well. Far more than he should, in fact. When memories from the distant past begin to emerge, memories of Scorpan and a dragon that looks uncannily similar to Spike, he has many questions, and very few answers.

Why does Spike have memories of a time eons past, and more importantly, why does the name ‘Scorpan’ sound so familiar?

Special thanks to Marshal Twilight for helping me touch up the story and plot, as well as editing.

Twilight recieves rather late invitation from Princess Celestia for the first "Winter Solstice" celebration for Princess Luna. And while staying there, something is going to change...

Proof-readers: paxtofettel, Kooshster and GunsmithPete338.
Cover Art by: SilFoe

Featured: 5.10.2014

"The pieces are set, and the dice are in play. But does every pony have the heart for this day?"

Nearly two hundred years have passed since Rarity Belle merged with the Crystal Heart and took the throne of the Crystal Empire. Since then, through her care, determination, and vision, the Empire has flourished like never before. Now Empress Rarity stands as not a ruler of a providence, but the monarch of a rising superpower.

Today though, is the Empress' Birthday, and Lady Merry Sapphire, seneschal to the Empress, is determined to make this the best birthday Rarity has ever had. Little does she know that not everypony shares her enthusiasm for today...

Notes:
This is an official prequel to the Princess Twilight Sparkle's Birthday stories, created by Autumnschild. This story will develop and expand much of the world we made, but taking place 250 years before PTS500 and its sequel, PTS505. Due to its time gap and status as a prequel, you do not need to read the stories created by Autumnschild, and I have done my best to help that. However, knowing what happened in them will help you be a bit more aware of what is going on, and I encourage you to go read them for they are very enjoyable.

We now have our own group! Come check out the Birthdayverse!

Credit goes to Autumnschild for the proofreading for this story.
Razalon The Lizardman is credited for the grammatical overhaul.

Great thanks goes to these two, for this story would not be as good without them.

To celebrate Tirek's defeat, Pinkie has a huge party at the Friendship Castle. During this party, Fluttershy says how she wishes she had a foal, but doesn't think she'd be a good mother.Twilight tells her she'd be a great mother and that, if Fluttershy had been her mother, she'd have been a great one to her. Pumpkin, hearing this, casts a spell, just as Discord, for a joke, is about to turn Twilight into a foal for the night. When Twilight wakes up the next morning, she finds she's become an alicorn foal and fluttershy is her mother.

They both remember that that isn't how it use to be, but other than Discord and Pinkie nopony else seems to remember it and, for some reason, Discord can't reverse the spell. What will they do now?

FEATURED 30/6/2014

inspired by the photo in this blog by Twi-Fi.

the new cover art is by Princess Glitzy, but the blog was what inspired this fic.

In case you were wondering, no, twilight isn't a unicorn in the picture, she's an alicorn; you just can't see her wings because she's laying on her back is all.