The Gourd Fest is a three-day-spanning changeling ritual a drone holds for a special individual in times of tremendous happiness and great prosperity. With how everything has changed in such a wonderful direction for them after Queen Chrysalis' defeat, they've decided to promote the tradition to a full-on festival the entire kingdom can be a part of. Upon one midsummer day, Thorax, king of the changelings, gleefully invites Starlight Glimmer and a few of her friends to attend the first, fast-approaching Fest with him and the hive. Tagging along with them with only the biggest of smiles on her face is Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight, ever the avid and agog learner, is positively eager to study and write about the customs of changelings during this joyous celebration up close. Thorax, ever the obliging character, is more than happy to show them to her first-hoof. And as fate would have it, a simple and amiable lesson taught in changeling culture won't be all either of them come out with by the time the Gourd Fest comes to its conclusion...

Twilight Sparkle may have shown Starlight Glimmer the error of her ways, but Starlight is still new to the concept of true friendship.

Fortunately, Twilight has true friends in high places. Rarity, for example, is always glad to lend a hoof when it comes to bringing out one's personal elegance.

Preread by Mooncalf.

For Rainbow Dash, seeing is believing. When her friend Twilight Sparkle told her that "electricity is harmful to humans with enough likelihood that you should definitely not zap Anon with lightning bolts", she didn't listen. After all from the two of them, it was Dash who saw more creatures zapped with lightning. Most of those occurrences were her doing as well. And so she decided to knock down two apples with one stone - teach her book loving friend a lesson about who the real weather expert is, and cure the local oddity that was Anonymous the Human from his irrational fear. Oh, and of course have a blast doing it.

Things don't exactly go according to her plan however, and she ends up creating a bigger mess than she could comprehend - not only for herself and her target, but also a certain somepony who will have to abandon her ancient traditions and improvise on the spot.

Formerly marked mature for uncouth language and the death theme. I now have an actual 'death' tag though, so I dropped it down.

Merithorical proofreading and non-constructive feedback: Anoridan and Void Whisperer
Nitpicking and comma insertion: abronie

Starlight Glimmer likes to overthink things. Love is probably not one of the things she should overthink. Or approach as a task. Thorax will be in her sights for the next few days, leaving her with the question if she can confront both of their feelings within that time, or handle his foal-like curiosity of the equestrian world.

Edited/Proofread by Rocinate

This story is a sequel to The Face I'll Wear

Dear Small Pony Book,

Hello. My name is Thorax. I am a changeling formerly of the Badlands Hive, ruled by the terrible Queen Chrysalis. Nowadays, I am fortunate to call the Crystal Empire home, and their Royal Family my friends.

Since I'm rather new to living in pony society—without orders to infiltrate, of course—my new friends have been doing their very best to help me get acclimated to this strange, alien way of life. To this end, Princess Cadence has instructed me to tell you of my experiences so that we might use this as time to reflect together. However, I do find it strange. How am I to discuss my day to day interactions with a book? Especially one without a name? You can't not have a name, that would just be rude. So, I will just have to figure one out for you.

I'm not sure why Cadence is laughing at that, or why Shining Armor is groaning. This is a very serious issue.

These ponies are strange. But I don't think I'd have them any other way.

A little thing for me to fiddle with when I'm bored. Updates will likely be sporadic. Tagged as a prequel/sequel to The Face I'll Wear because it will explore some of the same themes and will show events before and after the story.

Preread by Timaeus.

Dan Farley was a navigator, a civilian pilot for a corporate colonization firm. He was technically an officer in the command crew, but as the most junior of his peers, Held no real authority. He loved his job however, Exploring distant planets, and seeing the vastness of space. Now, However, He's the only living member of the command crew. Which Makes him acting captain, and the leader of the survivors of the CMF Proud Mary. He will be the the one to initiate first contact with the strange, Numerous, alien races of the planet....and with no way home, Can he forge a place for his people among them?

There comes a point when you can no longer run from the things you've done. Ryan Williams believes that he has reached this point, but sometimes, just as we are about to close one door, another opens before us, changing our lives in ways we could never have imagined.

Update: Redemption now has a live reading! Done by Teraunce, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/W4vLoB3Lbk0
Go give it (and his channel) some love :D

Equestria is still picking up the pieces after the defeat of Tirek, and everypony is helping out with the paperwork, even Rainbow Dash. Things change when Princess Celestia arrives, bringing with her a letter with some very stunning accusations of the exploits of a resident in the town of Oasis. Now, the main six are tasked with finding out if the letter was truth or fiction. Did this Mister Baker really do what they claim? Only one way to find out.

However, Mister Baker is not who, or what they expected.

Rated Teen for occasional language. Additional tags added for more dark themes.

Proof read and edited by the amazing SunnyPack , Snakeskin Ducktape, and Tyrannosaurus Tux.

Rainbow Dash has been rising the ranks of Canterlot High's athletics since her first day of school. Now, after years of training and hard work, she has become the captain for the soccer team again this year, and the school cannot wait to cheer her on for the big city wide tournament. With the best support group in the world, Rainbow Dash feels on top of the whole world! To make things even better, Dash now has a good friend on the team!
There's just one friend who isn't as happy.
Fluttershy can't help but feel as if the success of her friend is driving them farther and farther apart from each other. Even after spending all of middle school and high school gathering up her courage to tell Dash how she really feels, she may never get the chance now! Will she finally speak her mind and tell Rainbow Dash what her heart desires?

Now proofread by the awesome Shutup868 for the best reading experience!

Pinocchio wasn't the only wooden puppet to become a real person.

There are other puppets out there, animal-like beings controlled by quasi-intelligent trees. Ponies call them timberwolves and know them as nothing but beasts. But what happens if one of those beasts were to gain the intelligence and ambition of one of the most successful hunters in the universe, a human?

This story loosely shares continuity from Split Second: An Eternity Divided. Reading that is not required at all.

Has a Tv Tropes page.
Featured on EQD: 10/2/2015