Apple Bloom thought scissors meant her cousin was a mane stylist...

Written (retroactively) for the Writer's Training Grounds '15 #11.

Mr. Smarty Pants is Twilight Sparkle's childhood doll who protects her from the monsters that hide in the darkness of her bedroom.
What she doesn't realize is that protection... comes with a price.

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NOTE: Please open the links you see into new tabs! They are background music for you to listen to while you read the story.

Spike takes care of Twilight the best he can. She's sick, but he knows she'll get better and everything will get back to normal. But first, he needs to feed her.

Thanks to my editors Cerulean Voice and Soundslikeponies for all their wonderful help!

After a long time--she would be more precise but Twilight has lost track of time--she emerges from the dark of the library. Her candles are burnt down to nubs. There is no food left in her pantry and furthermore, no coffee. So she goes to seek both.

And finds the town changed. Or is it Twilight who has changed?

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 5 PREMIERE, 'THE CUTIE MAP'.

Starlight Glimmer has escaped, but she is far from gone. As one dream dies, she pursues another. Is she simply running in place? Perhaps. But, so is all of Equestria.

(Cover art by DashieSparkle)

The newly coronated Princess Twilight suffers an abrupt tragedy. Having lost two loved ones, she begins to question her own mortality, and that of her friends.

AJ, Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy. . . they are just the beginning. Twilight will live for thousands of years, so every pony she cares about—every pony she will ever care about, will die.

She could barely handle the pain of one funeral, let alone the thought of hundreds of them. Twilight finds a clever way to ensure all of her friends never die. They can’t all be ageless alicorns, but they can all move into Twilight’s Dollhouse. Then they can be best friends forever.

Sequel: Twilight's Dollhouse 2
Fanmade Song: Twilight's Dollhouse

Source: Dreampaw
Editor: Gage of Grandiloquence, Breath of Plagues
Pre-read & Idea pony: TypeWriterError,
v1.1 Revised chapters 1-10 on May 1st 2013
--Pending a few more revisions, including ch. 14
Now on TV Tropes.

We trusted Him. We thought he had changed, but in the end he betrayed us all...

One year after her coronation, Princess Twilight Sparkle is dead, killed by her own subjects out of fear and jealously. After the funeral, Princess Celestia isolated herself from the world, mourning the loss of her brightest student and daughter figure.

But she cannot weep forever. She must take control of her duties once more. Haunted by the memories of the assassination, and its aftermath, Celestia slowly makes her way to Twilight's resting place to find some closure.

Now With its own TV Tropes Page!

Sequel is up

After Diamond Tiara accidently causes the death of Apple Bloom, Princess Celestia decides to make her repair the gaping hole that she tore in the Apple Family.

The Shaper is a smith of unparalleled skill, her creations the most sought after in the fallen world. When a pony named Lyra comes to her with a unique commission she has to put all her skill to the test to craft a weapon of great power. For Lyra's goal is not an easy one, and it is not just any weapon that can kill a Dragon.

A story inspired by this and this image, as well as this challenge by CDRW (whose fic A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits is quite good).