Rarity generally tries to embrace innovation: after all, a mare who's always trying to stay ahead of the trend (or just outright create it) must be ready to accept the new. And the stress generated by a designer's life creates a certain need to... relax. Something where, quite frankly, spa sessions and private time in the designated screaming room aren't always enough to do it. So what's wrong with following up on a magazine article and personally learning how buffalo meditative techniques have been newly adapted for unicorns?

Absolutely nothing. Unless, of course, she recalls that some of her friends happen to enjoy pranking.

She doesn't always remember that last part in time.

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

It was a week before Nightmare Night, when Rarity decided to take a trip to Canterlot.

And while there, she meets a sweet, classy mare with a prismatic mane, and a habit of saying "Darling". But there's something about her that she finds just too familiar.

And as she'll learn, maybe there's more to this familiarity than meets the eye.

Update (4/8/2023): Now with a Dramatic Reading by Obab Scribbler

Author's Note (11/14):

Sweet Celestia.

Less than 24 hours live and this story has set three milestones for me. This is the first time I've had a story of mine be top of the Featured list, the first time I've had a story of mine get over 100 Likes, and the first time that a story of mine has reached over 1,000 views.

Thank you all so much. I am amazed.

Twilight always gets the same things at Sugarcube Corner, but there's something new and tremendously popular on the menu today! Everypony just loves it! The Green Tea Matcha Crueller may be a limited time only pastry... or maybe it will stay for a very, very long time.

Reading by Scribbler
Reading by Swift. Check it out!

It had been a perfectly ordinary day for Twilight. She'd gone about her business, then she'd come back to her library, she'd said Spike goodnight and she'd curled up in her bed, ready to sleep the night away. She didn't think there would be any reason for her to wake up. She would have never been able to guess the reason.

The cover image is taken from picture number 233462 on Derpibooru, which I cannot link directly as per Fimfiction's rules, since it contains gore.

A strange book written in a script not linked to any known language is given to Moon Dancer by a mysterious stallion with dark spectacles and a charming smile. Wary of what lay within yet curious nonetheless, Moon Dancer enlists the aid of her old friend Twilight Sparkle in deciphering the script and unlocking the truth behind the book's origins.

What follows is a detailed account of the endeavor and its tragic and terrifying conclusion, penned by the broken mare who survived to tell the tale.

There is no such thing as a gut feeling, not really. If you suddenly start to feel afraid for no apparent reason, it's very unlikely to be anything serious. But it doesn't make it feel any better does it?

Twilight is up burning the midnight oil again, when suddenly every sense she has tells her that something is terribly wrong. There can't be anything really wrong though, not in reality.
Can there?

A short experiment in atmospheric horror.
Featured in the Royal Canterlot Library on 26/04/19
Now featuring readings by ColonialPone here, and by MrSnarky here.

All my life, they ignored or insulted me. To them I was a dupe, a pawn, an object of mockery. They thought I could always be exploited.

Now judgment comes. I will destroy them all.

* * *

Audiobook by Scribbler Productions.
Edited by GaryOak and Reia Hope.
Written for Scribbler's Bronycon 2018 Writing Contest.

This is an alternate timeline set in the same universe as The Ties that Bind -- a "what if?" scenario, or "sister story" if you will. Reading The Ties that Bind is not required, but it is recommended.

On a cold winter night, tragedy befalls Twilight's family and she barely manages to escape with her life. Now she's lost and alone in a place she doesn't recognize.

She's left to wander aimlessly with nothing but the dark memory of that night to keep her company, but that's about to change.

Something awoke in the lavender filly that night -- a new kind of magic she's never had a chance to study before, and she soon finds she's not the only filly with dark memories and something new to learn.

Thankfully they both come across a strange town with a pony that just might be able to cultivate their new talents.

A note written in an unknown language. An escaped Nightmare bearing gifts. A young colt afraid of the dark. A pegasus in search of a predator.

It's that season. A collection of short stories celebrating that weird, creepy, beautiful holiday we call Halloween Nightmare Night.

Includes Marginalia, winner of the spookest October Writeoff in Writeoff history.

When Fluttershy went to bed, she was a normal mare. When she woke up, she could see numbers floating over everypony's heads. They were timers, each one counting down to some unknown event. Most ponies had timers that wouldn't end for years, some for many decades. But everypony had different numbers.

So why does Rainbow Dash's timer end in three hours?

Editing provided by TheMaskedFerret and SolidFire.
Cover art by HopefulSparks!
Spanish translation by SPANIARD KIWI!