Heavy is the head that bears the crown. Light is the heart that shares its burdens.

Historian’s Note: The Tarnished Crown occurs three weeks before the events in the Season 4 Finale, Twilight’s Kingdom.

Cast: Rarity & Twilight Sparkle
Introducing: Amber Spark

Cover Art: Little-Tweenframes (SciSetDaily)
Rarity Header & Section Breaks Design: Novel Idea
Rarity Cutie Mark: Black-Gryph0n (Yes, that BlackGryp0n)

Beta Reader & Editor Credits
Ebon Quill - Audio Director & Quest Designer on The Manehattan Project
Little Tinker - Master of Systems at Poniverse & Scripting Engineer on The Manehattan Project
Beltorn - Commenter-at-Large on FimFiction
Cursori: Reader of Many a Pony Word
Monochromatic - Patron Saint of RariTwi

Word Count: 11,000 Words
Version: 2.6

During an otherwise ordinary bus ride on the way back from the Friendship Games, Indigo Zap and her friends reflect upon what they have seen and experienced.

Until one of them has an unsettling realization about the very moral fibre of their characters.

Rated Teen for mature language.
Special Thanks to SolidFire for his editing work.
Cover image by the talented Uotapo
Story inspired by the works of Mitchell and Webb

It's not easy to go back to your life after a thousand years of insanity and exile. It's not easy for Luna to even leave her room. All the same, there's a special somepony that Luna desperately wants to get closer to, and that's worth facing the outside for. All she has to do is get up the nerve to talk to her.

This story is a sequel to Thunder and Lightning

Applejack has been your best friend for a long time, since you both were little kids. But as of late, you've been looking at her differently. When you get close to her, your heart beats faster. Her southern accent makes your heart dance. You've caught... feelings. Out of fear of destroying the greatest friendship you have, you begin to distance yourself a little bit. The last thing you want is to make things awkward.

One day, Applejack approaches you and invites you to come with her family to the Apple Family Reunion. An extended period of time close to Applejack... your best friend... your crush. How are you going to keep your feelings contained when you're around her for so long? Or... maybe you shouldn't keep them to yourself. Maybe it's finally time to admit how you truly feel.

3rd installment of the The Cute, the Fluffy, and Romantic

WARNING: May contain lots of fluff

**Featured on July 28, 2016 & September 9, 2016

A pony only gets one cute-ceañera. Twilight Velvet knows this, and she knows exactly how her friendless daughter wants to spend hers: nose-deep in a book, just like every other day. Twilight Velvet has other plans, all revolving around finding somepony to come to her daughter’s party, somepony to be her friend.

Featured on Equestria Daily
The original version of this story took 6th place in The Writeoff Association's December 2016 contest, “Has That Always Been There?“

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

Vinyl Scratch had been mute all her life. She's long since accepted that. It doesn't get in her way as much as one might think.

But, when it comes to telling Octavia how she feels, there could be no greater obstacle.

Sunset Shimmer has never needed anyone or anything - she had her magic, she had her ambition, and she had intellect. Others just stood in her way or held her down. So what do you do when your plans for world domination fall through?

Now she's about to discover that the only thing harder than hitting rock bottom is climbing your way out of that crater. Good thing she has some new friends to help her along, but its tough to seek forgiveness from others when you can't forgive yourself...

Special thanks to KiltedKey (Chapters 1/2) and SolidFire for their editing work.

Throughout her marriage, Twilight Velvet has ignored every romantic feeling she felt towards other ponies. She was a good wife, and good wives knew better than to dwell on thoughts like that. But as they grew older and experienced other ways of thinking, Twilight Velvet and Night Light realized her feelings don’t cheapen their marriage and the love they share.

With her husband’s encouragement, Velvet finally pursues the pony that’s been on her mind for twelve years.

Many thanks to ArchAngelsWings, mouch30, Mind Jack, and Eddie Grammar for proofreading
This story was inspired by the adorable artwork by How Do Ponies Work?, which was used as the cover art with permission. Give her stuff a look, since we all know that's what caught your attention on the story

The sun has gone out over Equestria, sending Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends off to Canterlot to deal with whatever new villain has caused the disaster.

...thankfully, it turns out to be a far smaller problem than anticipated.

?

Editing Credit: Bad Horse (Inspiration), Docontra

With a reading by Big Ash
Credit for the cover photo Celestia Stained Glass Window goes to LampKnapp at Deviantart.

Spanish translation of the first chapter done by Spaniard Kiwi