Do you remember being born? Torn away from everything that is familiar and cast out into the unknown?

I do.

It haunts my dreams.

This story is a sequel to Forbidden Melodies

To have, to hold, to cherish, and to love; in sickness and in health: these are precious words best reserved for the altar. Not so much for browsing in the produce aisle.

Octavia Melody has heard such sentiments shared on more than one occasion when shopping with her fruit-loving husband, Steeplechase. Be it the nocturne's heightened senses or just his general persnicketyness, grocery runs that used to take two hours at most have evolved into a living nightmare of picky produce perusals by the self-proclaimed foodie.

When a rare opportunity for the musical mare to go to the supermarket behind his back presents itself, Octavia plans to take full advantage by sneaking out for some hassle-free shopping. With the morning sun just below the horizon, "Operation: Early Bird Special" is a go.

Edited by mattstheman
Cover Art Angry Octavia by cubonator

The Crystal Empire has been at peace ever since Princess Cadance and Shining Armor took over its ruling. No more loving couple has ever reigned before, and the Crystal Heart has never generated such power in all of history. But there is a secret that Cadance has kept for many, many, years: a terrible secret with the potential to bring it all crashing down.
This Hearts-and-Hooves Day, Cadance and Shining Armor's love will be put through its toughest trial yet.

This story is a side-story to Essenza di Amore. Though set in the same universe, reading of the prequel is not required. Similarly, knowledge of certain events depicted in the book, Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, will be helpful but not essential.

The extended version of my entry in the Writeoff Association's January 2015 event, the prompt being All in. Now also the second place winner of Nonpariel Fiction's 2015 Hearts and Hooves Day competition.

*Written before the FIENDship is Magic comic series and the Radiant Hope arc of the main comic series*

Preread by Foals Errand, The Albinocorn, RK_Striker_JK_5, Sholan, and Csquared08.
Edited by Foxy E, Dash The Stampede, Csquared08, and NightWolf289.

Cover art courtesy of Akili-Amethyst.

Inspired by this incredible song.

Featured on:
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Equestria Daily!

Approved by Tag-a-long's Book Club!
Approved by Nonpareil Fiction!
Recommended by PresentPerfect!
Recommended by the Pleasant Commentator and Review Group!

How far will you go to save your family? Your friends? Your empire? Twenty years before the events of the Hearth's Warming Eve story, long before the pegasi had even met the other two races, Commander Hurricane was a simple farmer in the great Cirran Empire. When the neighboring griffon nation declares war on Cirra and everything it stands for, the young Hurricane finds himself thrown into the middle of a conflict with the fate of his very race put into question. Will he rise to be the pegasus Cirra needs him to be, or will the mighty empire fall to the claws of the griffons?

Officially part of "The Price of Loyalty" storyverse, in collaboration with LoyalLiar.

Now with a side story! Come check out my friend Ruirik's Wind and Stone and follow along with the journey of another legionnaire who struggled through the Red Cloud War at the same time as Hurricane. (*contains references to events in the sequel to OSLF, Snow and Shadows, so be wary*)

Cover art by Ruirik

The work of a businesspony is to provide goods or services to other ponies in exchange for the abstracted representation of the worth of said goods or services (i.e. bits), typically to obtain said abstracted worth in greater proportion than what said goods or services would normally be worth in an economic vacuum. Typically, this entails finding a good or service in high enough demand that ponies will pay disproportionate amounts of wealth to obtain it.

Take, for example, Dextromethamphetamine.

Because sometimes, a guy just gets sick of trying to sell apple cider, y'know?

Hy•per•por•ten•tia noun \hī-pər-pȯr-ˌten-t(ē-)ə\
1. congenital fate disorder where the affected receives a disproportionate number of visions, prophecies, or warnings of the future directed at them.
2. severe pain in the butt.

It's common knowledge among ponies that Destiny is a natural occurrence. Much like a pony’s body, it grows and develops over time. Each pony’s Destiny is as unique and distinctive as their voice. The phenomenon manifests in the physical realm through the appearance of a cutie mark.

Unfortunately, like all natural occurrences, sometimes there's something off. A misplaced gene here, an excess chemical there, and what was supposed to be true Destiny becomes... aggravating.

So it is with Acacia Tree, the first seer Manehattan has seen in five-hundred years.

The concept for this story was submitted to The Idea Exchange group by GreyNoise. This group is a place to share story ideas you want to see written, but for one reason or another will not write yourself. Check it out!

While hunting for a spider hiding in her chaise lounge, Rarity suddenly realizes she has the ability to forgive sins. Enlightened with this understanding, Rarity goes out into Ponyville to give ponies her grace, and perhaps even to draft her friends in her mission.

That was the plan, but Applejack is being awfully stubborn.

Pinkie has a bad Hairdra day and winds up peeking further beyond the Vale than she’d have liked.

But, more certain than death and praxis, she’ll make sure everypony else has fun again.

Written for the October 2016 Writeoff, where it won first place.

Note: This story is written in the style of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, a classic work of English literature that is notorious for being hard to read. While this story is not as cementically dense as FW, it is still full of wordplay, literary references, portmanteau words and puns and will be a challenge for many readers. If this isn’t your sort of thing, try one of my other stories. If you’re game, dig in! It can help to read the story aloud.

Image background by Chaz1029, foreground by Mahaugher, with edits to both by GGA.

Thanks to Morning Sun, FanOfMostEverything, Quill Scratch, Baal Bunny, and Not_A_Hat for criticism, suggestions and corrections.

Day in the married life of Rainbow Dash and Time Turner.
Of course, it's not just any day...

Ponies? Yeah, you hear a lot about them growing up in the minotaur homelands, and it isn't all positive. Actually, almost none of it is positive. They're different. They've got those weird pictures on their flanks and those little prayers they mumble to their princesses. Ponies are gentle, passive. They're not like us.

See, a minotaur is supposed to act a certain way. You bulk up. You get aggressive. You don't let anyone else push you around, and you don't associate with ponies. I've heard the same thing my whole life, ever since I was young.

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Honorable Mention in the Equestria Daily Outside Insight Contest!
Art by BGN