This story is a sequel to Keeping It Simple

Octavia has fought hard in her life for three things: her art, her career, and her new boyfriend. She never learned to stop fighting.

It's a mistake that might cost her two out of three of the things she's fought tooth and tail for. She's still figuring out which two.

After the Smarty Pants incident, Big Mac ran off with Twilight's Smarty Pants doll, much to his little sisters' amusement. When he refused to return it, an anger fueled spell from Twilight resulted in a BIG problem for Big Mac, with Smarty Pants at the 'heart' of it

Cover art by Paper-pony

After the Storm King's army was disbanded Tempest decides to stay in Ponyville for a few weeks to prove she can be a valued citizen of Equestria.

She expects to be bored. She expects civilian life to be hard to adjust to.

She doesn't expect Rainbow Dash to approach her, asking for combat training. And she certainly doesn't expect to start to like the cocky Pegasus.

But opening your heart to friendship means opening it to some other things as well.

King Sombra is a lot of things if not patient, but even he has a point where things go from bitterly trapped to unbearably boring. Torture would be nice! If she had the guts to entertain him in the old fashion way. No such joy for him...just bored, alone and still dead set on his vengeance, even if it is unanswered for. Just endless waiting. Endless nothing. No freedom to even pace his confines. Just an endless, tormenting nothing...

And yet...

For the first time in over fifty years...

He heard a knock on the door...

(Mind blowing art by futuristicspacetiger )

Sometimes you don't need a sparring partner for your rapier wit; sometimes, you just need a shoulder strong enough to support you.

Fortunately, Octavia can do both.

Side A has a reading by ObabScribbler.

Fluttershy knows it is her honor, her destiny, to have been born into the Lunar Guard. She knows it with all her heart. But sometimes, when she can get away from her drills and be alone with her animals, she is beset by doubt. Sometimes, as she straps on her armor and raises her spear, she wonders why there is so much disharmony in the world.

Sometimes she feels like Equestria is missing a little kindness.

Equestria Daily

Thanks to Rex Ivan, docontra, Reese, and JackRipper for helping to make it readable.
Cover art done by Conicer.

Rainbow Dash usually had her head in the clouds, but she always thought she knew up from down. When an incredible revelation sends her life into a tailspin, she finds herself at the mercy of emotions she never thought she had, faced with hard questions and impossible choices.

Life is full of changes, but none of them are quite as disturbing as having a horn pop out of your skull…

Original Lauren Faust canon; non-alicorn Twilight, non-alicorn Cadance, no ascension. Diverges from the cartoon after season 3, with nods to later continuity wherever possible. Contains mature themes.

Rainbow Dash is many things. Mainly awesome. But romantic, certainly not. Of all the ponies who would attempt a forbidden romance, nopony would have thought she would.

Now she finds herself head over hooves in love with a mortal enemy of the country. On top of that, she has to face the one group of ponies she's terrified of rejecting her new found romance: her best friends.

[Tales of the Carnageverse]

Note: This story was created as a prompt from the RD Random Shipping Game. The game required you to roll a dice and depending on the number, you would then write a 100-500 word ship with a corresponding character. I got number 13 which was a male changeling. The rest of the story is a continuation from the prompt.

Cover Art: The Maiah

Editors: DemonRykuKyuubi, mikemeiers, Cerulean Starlight.

For years, Sweetie Belle has secretly been turning to video games for relief from her insecurities. Now a talented member of an elite team of gamers from around the world, she has come to rely on her new friends for companionship and support as she bears the rising pressures of her coming-of-age.

But when a sudden gaming cutie mark reveals her secret to everyone she knows, she's forced to contend with her uncertainties over what it means for her future, along with a fresh wave of bullying at school, jealousy from her childhood friends, and mounting expectations from her family.

As she takes her first unsteady steps into adulthood, she may learn she's not the only one hiding a secret, and that her journey to self-discovery isn't one she walks alone.

A story about how kids raised in the age of the Internet have come to rely on online communities to escape from society's expectations for them and achieve the best, most authentic versions of themselves.

Rumors and gossip can cause pain more severe than any crash. Big Mac sees first hand the effect it can have on ponies one night in the orchard when he stumbles across a distraught Rainbow Dash.