“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” -Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Twilight Sparkle has come up with an inspired idea for Rainbow Dash’s birthday present, the best one she can imagine. She’s made a living, breathing copy of her favorite fictional character for her. The new pony has one goal in mind, and one purpose that crowds out all others: Be the best Daring Do she can be.

A collaborative work with the incomparable Eakin.

For most of Applejack's life, she didn't know what she was. True, she understood who she was well enough.
But ponies don't change shapes, nor do they get strength from love.
Applejack never thought too hard on it... until the events of a certain wedding brought about some harsh realizations.
Now, with Equestria still reeling from the surprise attack, will Applejack manage to come to terms with what she is? Will she even be able to keep her secret safe?
For if the royal guards don't get her first, the conspirators in the shadows just might...

Image provided by Heilos -

Discord has lived for quite a long time. Centuries as a ruler, a millennium as a rock, years as a reformed draconequus, it all gets very tiring. A nap is exactly what he needs. But when you live forever, time loses its meaning, years pass in the blink of an eye, mortals come and go like mayflies. And that's fine.
After all, any being that is truly important will live forever. Discord would never associate with anything less.

Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns is famous across Equestria as a center of academic excellence. Only the best and brightest unicorns are offered places, selected by their academic merit, magical ability and passion for study. To make the admissions process as fair and reliable as possible, all candidates are given three exams by different teams of examiners, who then meet in private to decide which students are most deserving of a place.

Winner of the December 2014 Writeoff competition: Behind Closed Doors.

Apple Bloom is tasked with a homework assignment about rocks.

But she thinks rocks are dumb.

Art gratefully provided to me by Kanzlerin Maud!

Now has a sequel!

Princess Twilight Sparkle discovers a centuries-old mystery hidden in the Royal Archives. Her investigation leads through layer after layer of deception and misdirection, setting her hooves on a path that seems to be leading to a mysterious secret. Along the way, she learns that some friendships can be very, very strange.

Book 1 of the Alicorn Adventure series.

AUDIOBOOK by VisualPony
Featured at the Royal Canterlot Library
TV Tropes Page (Courtesy of Sandtalon)
Goodreads Page (Courtesy of Facedeer)
Equestria Daily Page

WARNING: Major spoilers in the comments. Takes place several months after the end of season four. (Not a Da Vinci Code crossover, BTW!)

Do you see a dark tag? No, you don't. Not dark. Well, okay, there are a couple of dark-ish bits, but that's all. Not enough to warrant a tag. Speaking of tags, there really ought to be "Badass Twilight" and "Friendshipping" ones.

Sequels and side-stories (and more) can be found here Offprint and AO3, and a hardbound two-volume set of all that can be ordered from The Ministry of Image.

My editor for the first edition of this story was Gogito, and I can't thank him enough for all the hard work he did. My editor for the revised version was PresentPerfect, and he did a terrific job of getting the story into excellent shape.

A little trip to Canterlot is the kind of relaxation Thunderlane needs. One little incident introduces him to a guard that leads to a friendship and awkward feelings on the part of the small town pegasus. What do you do when you don't know what this feeling is? And why can't he stop staring at the guard's clothes?

Everypony has a story. Some tell of heroic feats and grand adventure. Others tell of villainy against the forces of Harmony. The story of an average guard, however, is one of obscurity. They live in the background, unnoticed but ever-present.

Silent Knight assumed his tale would be like that of his father's: join the Royal Guard and serve Equestria. He would be just another helmet and spear, part of the rank and file. And that was all he ever wanted.

However, when Captain Shining Armor asked for volunteers to form a House Guard for the recently returned Princess Luna, it was Silent's hooves that stepped forwards to set his new life in motion.

Rainbow Dash is many things. Awesome, radical, amazing, and at least twenty percent cooler than any other pony in Equestria.

She is also lost, lonely and uncertain. Not that anypony else would know.

During the day she is everything everypony expects her to be: she is fast, daring, and adventurous, but when the sun goes down, she is left alone with her thoughts. Tired of simply yearning for something more, she sets out on a night of soul searching and stumbles onto a friend in need, and maybe, underneath the vanilla twilight, she finds something more.

There are a number of compounds the human body is incapable of synthesizing; these are found only in red meat. To save a dying human, Twilight asks her friends - except for Fluttershy - for advice.