What happens when you realize that your feelings for one of your friends aren't quite the same as your feelings for the rest of them? Do you just prefer some friends for others, or is it a sign of something deeper? What do you do with those feelings? Hide them? Admit them? And how will the rest of your friends react when they find out?

Twilight is going to have to do her best to find the answers, because they're anything but obvious.

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Yes, this is a story about romance, but I'm trying to use it to explore the relationships between the characters and see how they'd really react if romantic feelings ever did crop up, and how such a development would impact the cast as a whole.

Now with a TvTropes page!

There's also a dramatic reading in progress on youtube, here.

And also an updated verison of the cover, courtesy of Novel Idea.

Pinkie Pie preemptively apologizes to Twilight: she's going to ruin their friendship.

Twilight agrees.

Pinkie suits her better as a girlfriend anyway.

A flip of a coin. A twist of fate.

Twilight Sparkle, younger sister of Princess Celestia's personal student, Shining Armor, grew up listening to her brother's bygone dreams of joining the elite of the elite: The Royal Guard.

Now, fresh out of the Academy, this young mare is ready to prove herself equal to the deeds of the great soldiers she read about as a filly. Too bad the princess she ends up protecting isn't Celestia.

We all wear a mask called composure, beneath which hides a heart that twists with guilt and hidden feelings. Regal as she is, Princess Celestia is no exception. What might be revealed should circumstances cause this mask to slip - or break?

Set several years after the potential conclusion to the series.

Zebras. None of Twilight's friends had even known they existed before seeing Zecora. But zebras exist, and are sorely absent in Equestrian society. Seeing a gap to bridge, Twilight decides to head to Zebrabwe, the zebra homeland, as an ambassador and open diplomatic relations. New friends are new friends, no matter where they are.

But things aren't all as they seem; Equestria isn't the only country interested in Zebrabwe, and definitely not the closest. Zebrabwe has neighbors of its own, and there's a reason zebras in Equestria are harder to find than needles in haystacks.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Zebrabwe" was originally "Gondwana" before I decided that the country needed a horse-pun name. Early comments mention Gondwana rather than Zebrabwe.

Something has happened and Twilight finds herself in a strange and dark new world. The Bipeds here have strange magic, advanced technology, and a lot of problems. She needs a few friends, and they just might need her. WORM crossover. Deadpan29 has created some great supplementary material that is canon to the story.

‘A horse walks into a bar...’

One evening a despondent Applejack walked into Ponyville’s tavern. The next morning she was gone without a trace.

In the days following her disappearance the inn’s landlord recounts events in Ponyville as the town searches for its lost friend, struggling to understand why she left, and where she went.

SF (canon species only; no humans) Ponies were magically and genetically engineered to be the perfect servitor race. They are powerful, adaptable, intelligent and completely under the control of their creators. A laboratory accident frees one such pony from her mental chains, but how can one mare save herself and the rest of her kind if she doesn't even know she's a slave?
This is not the Equestria you know and these are not your little ponies... not yet, anyway.

Tags: Adventure, Diamond Dogs, Gryphons, NO HUMANS (did I mention that already?)
Other tags: historical, mind control, Clarke's 3rd Law, excessive use of high energy physics, before they were famous.
Detailed review by PaulAsaran.
Cover art by endrome , used with permission.
Russian translation (partial -- 'unofficially' completed in the comments)
A Soot-Covered World, book 1.

Spike figures out that Cheerilee is making up reasons to visit Twilight at the library, and Rarity further figures out that it's because she must have a crush on Twilight.

When Ponyville's dedicated fashionista combines forces with Ponyville's only dragon to bring two adorably awkward book loving mares together, nothing can go wrong! Except perhaps, everything!

Oh yeah, and some pony ordered 20 trampolines and a bunch of other stuff that keeps getting delivered to one wrong address after another because of the world's worst delivery pony, Blue Bonnet.. More on that later.

Re-tagged to reflect that it's a Twi/Cheerilee, Mane 6, CMC and Blue Bonnet (Background pony) story.

Also, it's fair to say this is also a AppleDash and Fluttershy / Background pony shipping story. Also ScootaBelle? .
ARTWORK BY WACKEDOUTPET

Chapters 3-10 have been edited by the amazing TheLastBrunnenG

Chapter 9-10, attention must also be paid to pre-readers Guy Incognito, Cola Bubble Gum, and SpaceCommie

Chapters 9-10 also edited by SpaceCommie

Featured May 2013! ADDED TO TWILIGHT'S LIBRARY NOVEMBER 2013! FAN-ART ADDED MARCH 2014!

After nearly being mugged Twilight turns her considerable talent with magic towards self defense. When a fight with Luna goes farther that either of them wants it to, Twilight will need to find redemption in her new position as Luna's bodyguard and stop a conspiracy that wants to bring back a force more dangerous than either of them.