Infuriated by a seemingly unwritable essay, Twilight Sparkle turns to bashing her head against a table to ease the feeling of literary inadequacy. Luckily, Spike is there to offer some more practical advice on finishing her essay--and why she should write it in the first place.

When Gaberdine is awarded a noble title by Princess Celestia, he soon finds out that his new lands contain several surprises. For starters, there is no land in his new barony. Secondly, his new castle turns out to be a broken-down riverboat. And third is… seaponies.

Baron Gaberdine has a lot to learn about his new barony. And himself.

Fortunately, he has a very young teacher.

Now with a sea-quill (sorry) Drifting Down the Lazy River

Cover photo by PhoenixSwift
Editing/Pre-Reading assistance by Tek, Shaleclaw, Peter, Seether00, Monsieur Connoisseur, GhostOfHeraclitus, The Masked Ferret, Blue Paladin42 and Admiral Biscuit

Note: Unlike The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian, this is a single POV love story, like Changelings, Love and Lollipops. Only with fewer cannons and fountains.
Now Featured on Equestria Daily
With a YouTube Reading of the first chapter by BigAsh
And with a dramatic reading by Neighrator Pony and company Full playlist here.
Thanks for a wonderful review by Paul Asaran
Available in paperback through Lulu.com at cost.

Dusky isn't looking for trouble. All she wants is a job, a place to call her own, and a quiet life.

But when Diamond Dogs kidnap four foals, it's up to Dusky—formerly Major Dusk Fireball, Household Battalion, Equestrian Royal Guard—to lead the citizen-soldier reservists of the Ponyville Home Guard into the Dogs' caves in a desperate rescue mission.

Feature box, 2019-08-10 to 16! Thanks, all!

Cover art by commission with Pillowrabbit (Deviant Art / Fimfic ). Thanks!

Follows my "A Story to Relate to," but can be read fully independently.

Side-story: Redheart's War

Additional character tags for searching: Sweetie Belle, Flitter, Cloudchaser, Sparkler, Dinky Hooves, DJ P0N-3, Octavia, Princess Luna, Starlight Glimmer, Davenport, Bon-Bon, Toola Roola, Coconut Cream, Rainbow Dash, Mayor Mare.

Three days into her latest stay on Earth, Twilight Sparkle is enjoying learning about Europe in the company of her mentor while staying in the nation of Equios, a European microstate bordering Switzerland that functions as Equestria's outpost on Earth.

But when a solemn Celestia wakes her early one morning and asks Twilight to accompany her to a new place a thousand miles away, she will learn that not all is Friendship and Harmony when it comes to humans. That there are some very dark and dangerous events in humanity's past whose nature may rock her to her core. Can Twilight solve the mystery her mentor presents of what happened decades earlier near a town named Pripyat? And can anything be the same afterwards if she does...?

Inspired by the HBO series Chernobyl.

Thanks to user Eezee, there is now full text to speech version of the story available with pictures up on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__0FF-VeXKg

Set during FiM season 2, the story takes place in the Phoenixverse of Turnabout Storm and The Lawyer and The Unicorn, but familiarity with those two stories is not required to read this one.

Author: Firesight
Prereaders: AJ_Aficionado, James CyberLink, Silentwoodfire, Denim_Blue

Picture Credit: James CyberLink

• Graded at 25/30 points by Nano Discussions of the My Little Reviews and Feedback Group.

This story is a sequel to Triptych

He can't sleep. It was hard enough just getting Twilight back to bed and now that she's resting, all he can do is toss, turn, and completely fail to find a better placement for the basket. So as long as he's up anyway and trying to avoid disturbing his sister, there are worse things to do than take a quiet stroll around his sleeping town. Seeing what the world is like when he's the only one moving through it.

But there is one who knows that quiet world better than anypony, who isn't willing to let him travel without company.

And when two who share a secret meet under Moon, time becomes just one more thing to move through.

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Cover art by Foxy Noxy, used under open permission.

Realistically, they have options. For example, they could flee to another country, except that the Princesses could track them down and besides, one of those borders just effectively closed. There's probably some caves around which nopony's ever fully explored. A life spent reeking of fur dye might be possible. Or they can just stay in the hallway outside the throne room, waiting to be called in so they can explain how their good intentions turned that last mission into the biggest fiasco in Bearer history.

...so where were those caves again?

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

Cover art taken from an image created by ExitMothership. Commission information can be found here.

Every week, Equestria's princesses take a break from ruling their kingdom and discuss life. Usually over coffee.

Here are their assorted conversations.

Cover art by Grennadder. The story is marked complete because it's not a writing priority of mine, more a palette cleanser I come back to between harder projects

The Cutie Map sends Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie to the mysterious twin-towns of Utopia and Paradise, where some ponies are always truthful and others always lie. Can Twilight solve the puzzles she will face and unravel the mystery? And what is Pinkie's role in this adventure?

[Edited to add cover art and a note at the end of the story.]

Modern Equestrian society had the awful habit of making victims out of all too many good ponies. That was what happened when both law and underworld crime tried to simultaneously enforce their idea of "social good." Fluttershy was one pony stuck in the middle—a victim of an unscrupulous gang but whom authorities were unwilling to aid. Where could one turn when the virtues of honor and chivalry seemed dead?

Based on Earthsong9405's Mafia!AU.
Cover art by metalfoxxx.

Just because the two sisters have led Equestria through thousands of years of peace doesn't mean there aren't those who think they can do better.

With a powerful artifact on their side, a group of rebels has sealed Celestia in her palace and stripped her of the majority of her powers. As the last of her guards fall, she hears the pounding on the throne room doors and knows the end is coming soon...

**Featured on the front page on 8/12/15; both surprising and flattering seeing as how this is the first thing of substantial length I've posted here. Thanks all!

**Now with a dramatic reading!