This story is a sequel to The Diamond in the Rough

Concert after concert. Failure after failure. Night after night of tears and nightmares.

Sonata Dusk's solo career is dead on arrival. Her performances are relegated to the auditorium of CHS, the only place people know her. This desperation has been met with contempt, and her concerts end up being completely empty of onlookers.

Except for you.

The prettiest, and perhaps the purest, of the Dazzlings has captivated you, and you want her fresh start to be a success. So, after the two of you start talking after her shows, you know exactly what to do to help her.

Because you love seeing her smile.

8th installment of the The Cute, the Fluffy, and Romantic

WARNING: May contain lots of fluff

Idea and synopsis by LightningSword

**Featured from November 8-9, 2016

Tragedy shatters Sunset's world. Laced with guilt over what happened, she cuts herself off from her friends. A month almost passes by before she forces herself to leave her apartment in a halfhearted attempt at regaining some normalcy from the broken shards of her life. However, recovery isn't an easy process, and with each day that passes, her pain only intensifies. But as long as she puts on a smile and tells people what they want to hear, it doesn't matter whether or not she gets better. So long as no one else suffers because of her, that's all that's important, right?

The sequel: Dandelion Wishes

Paul Werner was a soldier back on Earth; a high-ranking officer, to be precise. He still maintains that occupation in Equestria, as a consequence of both the best and the worst events which brought him there in the first place. In the end, he knows for certain that he would never trade his current life now for the one he had. He felt it was tainted by the... circumstances surrounding it all.

He thought he was over it, and that he'd never have to face any elements of his past ever again. Paul was one-hundred percent right... in a sense. As he gradually found out, Equestria and the world it rests on has quite the lot of parallels to the Earth he left.

Especially one in particular, a mare who goes by the respective title and name of Generalfeldmarschall Aryanne S. Land

Awesome base Aryanne art done by Antamoanimisan-m, sourced to derpibooru. (Their tumblr is NSFW)

On the way back from Fluttershy's house, Starlight takes notice of a young filly under a tree and soon discovers that she is without any known parents. Starlight wants to take care of the poor orphan, but is uncertain if she has the qualities that it takes to be a 'mother'.

One day a man wakes up in a pony's bed. For the next several days the two of them try to discover why such a thing happened.

They don't do a very good job of figuring anything out but they do cuddle a lot.

Spike's dragon code is an integral part of him, and he knows it will help him become a better dragon. So when he finds a book about the noble dragon code, he intended to follow it word by word.

He was not expecting the noble dragon code to tell him to cuddle with all of his friends.

Featured on 6/2/2016

Twilight Sparkle, also known as Medusa, is a hardened criminal mastermind, and the leader of what was formerly the most feared band of criminals in all of Equestria. That was years ago. Now, her crew is in shambles, and she looks to two-bit thug Rainbow Dash to bring it back to its former glory.

With Twilight's genius and experience, combined with some fresh blood, the Mythos Crew may become more formidable than ever.

Vanilla oat swirl ice cream is a girl's best friend when she's alone on Hearts and Hooves Day, and at half-off, it would be a shame not to buy any. But when Rarity runs into Applejack at the store, Applejack offers to keep her company.

Rarity is thrilled that she has someone to commiserate with about being single.

Applejack is happy to have a date for Hearts and Hooves Day.

This may be a problem even vanilla oat swirl can't solve.

Twilight asks Celestia for romantic advice.

You know, for a friend.

There is now a Spanish translation of this story, courtesy of Spaniard Kiwi

A month or so after the Battle of the Bands, Principal Celestia calls Sunset Shimmer and friends to her office, for a long-overdue discussion.

Edited and smoothed over with help from the ever-patient Little Jackie Papercut.