The Cutie Mark Crusaders experiment with a new spell.

Cover Art is by DrTuo4.

Written for the Thousand Word Contest II, under the Experimental category!

Big thanks to ScarredVirtue for checking over this one for me!!

Now with an amazing audio-reading by StraightToThePointStudio!

On the last mission to save Equestria, Rainbow Dash was hurt. Not critically and she'll heal, but for now she's grounded. But she also promised that she'd do a Sonic Rainboom at the next Wonderbolts show for Scootaloo's parents, and she is not going to let her girl down.

Solution: get another Rainbow Dash.

There's just two problems.

First, Spitfire knows her team backwards and forwards and she's not fooled.

Second, the human Rainbow Dash doesn't actually know how to do a Rainboom as a pony.

I'm sure this won't cause any problems.

Written as part of the Quills & Sofas 2024 Wonderbolts Contest.

Featured 4/30/2024 - 5/5/2024!

Also appearing on Equestria Daily on 5/3/3024!

When Shining Armor was in high school, he was given an assignment to take care of a bag of flour decorated like an infant filly. By the end of the week, "Floury Armor" was a prize-winning batch of muffins and the yearbook committee had unanimously voted him "Most Likely to Appear in a Future Villain's Tragic Backstory." This really should have been a red flag, but for some reason the Queen Bee of the school still married him anyway.

When Shining Armor found out that his wife was pregnant, he was quick to introduce the Crystal Empire to the idea of a gender reveal party. Luckily, that quarter of the city had been due for extensive renovation anyway and his explosion-proof wife appreciated the sentiment.

Now, when his daughter is turning into a pony he no longer recognizes (and he can't even blame the changelings this time), it's up to him and his self-proclaimed stellar parenting skills to save her from herself.

My entry for the Shining Armor is a terrible dad competition.

Proofreading and pre-reading very helpfully contributed by Light Striker, GreyTheGriffon, RB, Pneu, and Scream Queen

Despite her redemption, and strong friendship with Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer is was still feeling envy and rage. Until her friend gets everything that Sunset wanted.

It was Cozy Glow's first Nightmare Night in Ponyville. She had chosen the best costume, one that really suited her and expressed who she was, and she would be spending the night with her new, best friends: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
Cozy Glow was an angel. And maybe she could find her second wing tonight.

A story written for the 4th Annual Cozy Glow Short Story Contest. And also my first Nightmare Night story for 2023, this year a little earlier than usual.
This story uses the following prompts from the contest:

1. Cozy and the House of Horror

2. It wasn't a problem, until.....

If Rarity saved half her meals to feed to the fairies so she could stay pretty, Sweetie Belle wasn't going to argue. Rarity was always right, after all.

CW: Eating disorders, anorexia specifically. Hopeful/happy ending, I promise.

Thank you to Snow Quill for prereading!

While visiting the Crystal Empire with his good friends Twilight and Spike, Anon accidentally makes quite the impression on Princess Flurry Heart, the young child of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor. However, the foal still has yet to figure out her alicorn magic, and one unfortunate spell later, she and Anon find themselves lost in the wilderness. Now, with nothing but the clothes on his back, Anon will have to brave the unknown to get Flurry Heart back to her home.

If only he was good with kids.

Twilight has had a very eventful week: Fighting Tirek, getting her home blown up, defeating Tirek, and getting a nifty replacement home would already be pretty exciting on its own. But now she has been summoned to Canterlot by Celestia, who has some big news to tell her.

After long consideration and no small amount of pestering from Luna, Celestia is about to grant Twilight access to the files of the Equestrian Secret Service so that she and her friends can be better prepared for future threats to come.

What will Twilight learn in the depths of the archive? Surely nothing that could shake the very foundation of the friendships she so painstakingly built in her new home ...

Obligatory edit: Woohoo, featured on the front page . Thank you all so much for liking my story .

Many thanks to silent_user for proofreading and editing this story.

Written as an entry for BWG's 'New Blood' Contest. I would greatly appreciate some feedback from any of the judges.

If any of you would be interested in an epilogue, where I unveil some of the secrets or thoughts behind them, let me know in the comments.

Tax season is almost over, and Pinkie hasn't paid hers yet.

Thanks to 6-D Pegasus for proofreading.

Entry into A Thousand Words Contest II.

Translated into Chinese by keezwus, available here.

Now with two readings, one done by StraightToThePointStudio, and one done by Pony&Wolf Productions.

The CMCs find an Instascam account impersonating them.