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.

Warning: The following story is currently unedited and contains some M/M shipping. If you don't like one or both of these, you know where the exit button is. This is an experimental piece that I'm working with.

Prince Blueblood's newest guards want to humiliate the Prince at the gala by slipping a love poison in his drink. After he consumed it, the Prince spontaneously falls in love with the first pony he sees. Unfortunately, it's Spike the Dragon.

Pinkie's parents are missing, presumed dead.

Applejack is there to pick up the pieces.

Please heed the content warnings! This is a story very explicitly about grief, loss, and depression. Suicide is also an important recurring theme, and cannot be avoided!

Amazing coverart by my sibling, cereal (fimfic | twitter)

Preread by Otter and Sleps

For Bike's Applepie contest (folder | info)!! I love this ship and it's so so so rare, so I'm super happy to be contributing!

Dream demons.

If they kill you in your nightmares, you die in real life. Thankfully, they only have one chance to get you before they can never enter your dreams again.

These days, they’re mostly a joke. Ponies figured out all the rules surrounding them ages ago. Young fillies even throw ‘nightmare night’ parties to mass inoculate themselves in relative safety.

And yet…

Every once in a long while…

More stories set in this AU can be found here.

A little over a year ago Pinkie Pie died.

This wasn't really a problem as she came back as a ghost and has been happily haunting Ponyville ever since.

Twilight's been keeping a lid on all the more dangerous ghosts that have followed her but when a mysterious stranger warns of a great disaster on Nightmare Night Twilight has to find a way to save both the town and Pinkie Pie.

***
Takes place in roughly season 2

Written for the 2022 SPOOK contest.

There are certain issues involved with having Philomena as a pet. Giving the entire palace staff permission to take a swat at the bird if it tries anything? Has solved none of them. The phoenix is still trolling everypony, happily setting off pony tempers (and the occasional fire alarm) without a care in the world. The swats just aren't working.

Maybe a few murders will do the trick.

...or, given that it's Philomena, Celestia might have to go just a little further.

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

Rated C for Crackfic.

Apple Bloom knows that one thing, above all, is inevitable.
And it isn't death.
Not quite.

This was written for the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Group's "What's Happening To Me" panic, where it won second place. We're on Discord here if you'd like to join us!

Spike led Thorax into the throne room of the Crystal Castle confident he could convince the others that the changeling could be trusted. That he meant no harm, and instead wanted to be an ally and live peacefully with them. That he could make them see Thorax for what he really was. That they could befriend the changeling and accept him as one of their own.

They didn't.

And consequences followed.

SPOILERS IN COMMENTS!
First featured on 11/12/2016. -- Now with a TV Tropes page. -- Review by Arcanum Phantasy -- Review by PaulAsaran

Everypony knows that alicorns are immortal, but immortality doesn't mean you never die.

Content Warnings: implied/light gore, mentions of physical trauma, dismemberment, technically self harm???

This was written for the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Group's Black Sunday Contest. We're on Discord here if you'd like to join us!

There are things which Applejack just knows in her heart, and chief among them is that Strawberry Sunrise is one of the worst ponies ever to fly slightly above the surface of the planet. She can see no reason whatsoever for the pegasus to have that greenhouse, the produce stand which has never been touched by Sun, and who can even figure out where her money comes from? There's no point to that mare's existence. None whatsoever.

That's Applejack's honest opinion. The truth is somewhat different.

Some customers only come out under Moon.

Welcome back to Crackfic Week.

(Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages. Cover art originally created by rosesAREgreen.)