Noctis is a bat pony and the youngest of the Royal Lunar Guard trainees, and tonight is her final test to become a full-fledged guard. She must survive by her wits alone in a place full of dangers, the deadly Everfree Forest. Will she succeed and make her dream of being a royal guard come true, or will she die?

(I eventually plan to expand upon this story and make it part of my AviaVerse Origins series).

This is another AviaVerse story, and it takes place around the time of the Kingdom of Avia chapters "Trouble's Waking " and "Alliances", but this is a standalone story, so no need to read Avia to understand what's going on.

Rated 'teen' and tagged 'dark' for general violence. Also: Discord appears in one chapter- not sure if he has enough effect on things to be tagged though.

AMAZING coverart by Mongoosegoose and used with permission!

The main character in here (Noctis) cameos in Kingdom of Avia, is an important player in The Eighth Sea, and also appears in Dr. Bobtail.

In the magical land of Equestria, ponies speak of great heroes and greater adventures, of foes overcome, and of hardships bravely faced. This is not one of those stories.

Sometimes, a mare is just a mare. Yet, just sometimes, even an unremarkable footnote of history might be worth listening to. Princess Luna loves her little ponies, be they old or young -- and on the night before the new year's dawn, she takes the time to visit a jaded old mare.

Because even a pony in the twilight of her days deserves help, whether she will admit it or not.

Cover art by WaterFerret.
Originally written for a contest back in 2013.

Alternate title: Bobtail is a Jerk

Bobtail is a psychiatrist. He hates it- and his patients aren't helping. He really should never have taken this job, but he's stuck. Should have gone for something saner and safer-like testing magical explosives.
But at least he has good insurance. Now all he needs is a lot of therapy...

This is my first attempt at writing a story with some darkly-comedic undertones, but I'm not sure if there's enough comedy for the comedy tag. I did try to make Dr. Bobtail the "anti Dr. Wolf (bronyanalyst)"- this is where the dark comedy comes from.
Dark tag and teen rating are for general violence and destruction.

A tie-in to Kingdom of Avia and Eighth Sea, in that the characters in this story are main characters in the two listed above. But there's no need to read Avia or Eighth Sea first, in this case. This story can stand alone.

Dr. Bobtail takes place between the Avia chapters "Trouble's Waking" and "Invasion". By the time of "The Other", there's so much trouble brewing, it's too dangerous for Bobtail to keep his office. And by the time of the chapter "Invasion", Bobtail's gotten the heck out of town.

Note: slowly working on chapters for: Goldfeather, Falcona, Redtail, Nisse, Azurel, Goldmoon, Night Wind, Awinita, Anaba- after those chapters, Bobtail finally quits his job, leaving the princesses scrambling for a replacement.

AMAZING coverart by Mongoosegoose and used with permission!

Note: Discord is in a few chapters- not sure if he's a big enough player to be tagged though. The main focus is on Bobtail and his patients.
Note: This story was partially inspired from watching a large number of "A Moment With Doctor Wolf" videos on YouTube and partially from an RP some friends and I had a while back involving a psychiatrist. I got to wondering how a psychiatrist would respond to my characters, considering their personalities. Originally, I was going to have Bobtail be pretty competent and polite, but when I realized how much more fun it would be to write an incompetent jerk psychiatrist, that was what I did.

Other AviaVerse stories:

Main Stories:
Kingdom of Avia- the start of it all
The Eighth Sea- Sequel to Avia
(I have 2 more sequels in the works as well, but they aren't yet published)
Backstories/Histories:
I have quite a number of these in progress, though none are published yet (except a sort-of backstory called Survive the Everfree).
Other AviaVerse Sidestories:
Thieves' Gala
Also currently working on Avia Girls- Avia meets EQG. It's much less violent than most AviaVerse stories, and will hopefully be published soon.

Want to know more about the AviaVerse? Here's the AviaVerse group. It has much more worldbuilding/side info that aren't in the stories so they don't take away from the action. At the moment, it's invite-only to join, but if you want to see more AviaVerse info, look in the forums.

Storm is a thief and bounty hunter. The Gala is full of rich ponies with fancy jewels.
Discord is the Chaos Demon and a carnivore. He's looking for easy prey.
There is no way this will end well.

This is part of the AviaVerse universe and takes place early in Kingdom of Avia, between the chapters "Trouble's Waking" and "Alliances". I highly recommend you read Kingdom of Avia first, or at least the first few chapters, to understand more about the characters and situations in here.

AMAZING coverart by Mongoosegoose and used with permission.

A note on the cover: Storm (the unicorn) painted her fur on her front half to look like a suit so she could get into the Gala- she's actually a pinto.

Other AviaVerse stories:

Main Stories:
Kingdom of Avia- the start of it all
The Eighth Sea- Sequel to Avia
(I have 2 more sequels in the works as well, but they aren't yet published)
Backstories/Histories:
I have quite a number of these in progress, though none are published yet.
Other AviaVerse Sidestories:
Dr. Bobtail

Want to know more about the AviaVerse? Here's the AviaVerse group. It has much more worldbuilding/side info that aren't in the stories so they don't take away from the action. At the moment, it's invite-only to join, but if you want to see more AviaVerse info, look in the forums.