In the city of Maretropolis, superheroes and supervillains aren't that uncommon. In fact, it's expected of the average resident to encounter some super-powered maniac at least once per month. Many of these villains have their reasons. Whether it's greed or to exact revenge, their motives are perfectly understandable.

Enter Pink Scorch. She has been in the anti-hero game for a while, only choosing to fight crime when she crosses paths with it. She's even had a few rundowns with villains, all of which she could relate to to some degree or another.

This newest villain, however, has her stumped. They spray juice everywhere, complain about poor dieting choices, and cause problems among taxpayers—all in the name of good health.

Her name is Juice Mare, and nothing about her makes any sense.

Now with a sequel.

Special thanks to NorristhePony, semillon, and Petrichord for proofreading! Also, thanks to Flutterpriest and Bandy for helping with the bonus chapter.

Gallus is really bad at buckball. Like, really bad. Which wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that the other team also has a male griffon on it. Which is making this 'friendly game' feel more like a life-and-death competition.

Maybe Ocellus can help him figure out what's going on.

Preread by the wonderful TheManFromAnotherTime!

Twilight's run out of ideas for new inventions, so she invents something to fix that.

No one said the machine would produce good ideas.

Preread by the lovely csos95, Majin Syeekoh, Arkadios, and ChudoJogurt!

No longer featured by Equestria Daily!

She tries to provide a living example. Demonstrating how much better things could be when you're just happy and willing to get close. Of course, there are those who say that Izzy gets a little too close. But when she's in a new place every day, the disorientation is almost constant and she just needs to center on something sort of familiar... then at least there's other ponies. Frequently at a proximity of roughly seven tail strands.

Maretime Bay isn't fully comfortable with that. Which may be why the bulk of it just took out a restraining order. Trying to get Izzy to back off, just a little, until she learns to respect personal space.

Or maybe they're just trying to make an example out of her.

Cover art from a vector capture by Lavender-Bases.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.)

Sometimes the best stories come from the most unlikeliest of encounters.

In 'Rich in Flowers, Unlucky in Love', one of the flower girls struggles with her growing feelings for a customer, suffering as she watches him stumble into romantic disaster after disaster.

In 'Perspective', Pony Joe shares with one of his customers a tried-and-tested method for resolving a Code Sparkle(otherwise known as a pre-test meltdown).

In 'Late to Class', Lemon Hearts is quite excited to be filling in for an injured professor... until an unexpected student appears in her roster.

And in 'Historical Inaccuracy' Sunny and Zipp go on a scavenger hunt through history to answer a pressing question: is it even possible for one of Sunny's ancient heroes to have had an extramarital affair?

These four stories were written as part of the Quills and Sofas 'May Pairings' contest, where prompts were given matching ponies that didn't have much of a chance to interact onscreen. It was quite fun and challenging. Pre-reading help provided by the Quills and Sofas participants, as well as horsetorian and Celestilune.

(Tags are for brief mentions of alcohol consumption and discussion of an extramarital affair)

Stories about monsters disguised as treasure chests were thought to be no more than legends.

But when Sunburst finds the last one in existence, the Changelings come to the Crystal Empire with a demand: kill it and send the species to extinction.

This story is based on a suggestion by LordMentat!

This tale is a sequel to If You Would Friend a Tiger. However, it also leans on the lore of its timeline more than most of my stories. I therefore recommend that readers at least be familiar with Cadence of the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle Was Shot, and When All Your Wishes are Granted. The story also refers to A Canterlot Wedding from the television series.

Years ago, she was defeated at a royal wedding by the ponies of Equestria.

Before that, she was both destroyed and brought into being by a young pegasus named Cadence.

And centuries before her birth, the Two Sisters and their precious Elements...

Feh.

Princesses. Bearers of Elements. Nobility, all. And all of them so secure in their pathetic, sadistic victories over her.

Over. And over. And over again.

But this time, things will be different.

This time, behold her greatest plan. Her final ambition. Her most magnificent failure. Victory is irrelevant; her enemies’ deaths are all she requires, broken and in agony.

With her madness fully unleashed, Queen Chrysalis begins The Last Changeling War.

Cover art by Zig-Word on DeviantArt.

And, of course, the seminal story that starts it all begins here.

Part of the Sunset Rising Continuity.

This story is a sequel to Pandoramonium: A Detective Rarity Mystery

The crime? Murder.

The crime scene? A locked room.

The culprit?

No biggie. Rarity's got this one in the bag.

If this is your first Detective Rarity Mystery, don't worry! You can read this one without spoiling the others. Or, if you'd like to start from the beginning, you can do so here!

Preread by the lovely Lunaria!

Exquisite Corpse. Like the game of telephone, but with art.

Eight authors enter. One mess of a story leaves. Zero is put back on the "days since class was interrupted by some nonsense" sign, and Cheerilee breathes a sigh of relief now that it's over. So she thinks...

Let's just hope it's as fun to read as it was to write!

This collaborative story features the talents of: PseudoBob (that's me!), EileenSaysHi, The Sleepless Beholder, FanOfMostEverything, Rego, Silver Needle, Dashie04, Bicyclette, and PseudoBob (me again!)

Rainbow Dash and Applejack have finally admitted to themselves and each other what they always sort of knew, and are now a happy couple. The only step left is telling the rest of the Apple clan after a nice Hearth's Warming Dinner. However, newlyweds Big Macintosh and Sugar Belle have a big announcement of their own to make.

Which they do.

Kind of...

Pre-reading done by Pascoite, Georg, and Edward256.

Written for Dreadnought for Jinglemas 2021. Prompt:

I'd love to see Applejack at the very least, and Scootaloo if the author could make it work.

Now with a reading by Admiral Stoic Rum!