This story did not explode! What a relief and/or letdown.

Part of OPERATION CRACKFIC STORM 2024 ( group | stories ).

Thanks to Silk Rose for coming up with the idea, writing chapters 22 and 9, and developing the code; thanks also to Meadowsys for general code help.

Thanks to IrradiatedPirateBooty ( tumblr ) for the awesome character art.

And thanks to everyone in the comments who stuck around for the final countdown!

Everypony knows the Hearth’s Warming Eve tale of tribal unity and the shared rule which followed. Everypony also knows that alicorns - singular or dual - have sat on Equestria’s throne for well over a thousand years.

Very few have really looked in to what actually happened between those points.

Even Twilight Sparkle, until a chance encounter leads her to an alarming discovery: Neither she, nor any other alicorn, has actually held any legal right to Equestria’s throne. They are technically usurpers, autocrats - even tyrants.

Still struggling with her own personal rule, having the fundamental basis for her authority swept from beneath her leaves Twilight with one simple, yet impossible question: 

Now what?

Many thanks to Commawriter and Kirtai for pre-reading!

Cover image was edited by Vinylshadow. They deserve all credit for it!

When Shining Armor was in high school, he was given an assignment to take care of a bag of flour decorated like an infant filly. By the end of the week, "Floury Armor" was a prize-winning batch of muffins and the yearbook committee had unanimously voted him "Most Likely to Appear in a Future Villain's Tragic Backstory." This really should have been a red flag, but for some reason the Queen Bee of the school still married him anyway.

When Shining Armor found out that his wife was pregnant, he was quick to introduce the Crystal Empire to the idea of a gender reveal party. Luckily, that quarter of the city had been due for extensive renovation anyway and his explosion-proof wife appreciated the sentiment.

Now, when his daughter is turning into a pony he no longer recognizes (and he can't even blame the changelings this time), it's up to him and his self-proclaimed stellar parenting skills to save her from herself.

My entry for the Shining Armor is a terrible dad competition.

Proofreading and pre-reading very helpfully contributed by Light Striker, GreyTheGriffon, RB, Pneu, and Scream Queen

Some of the Bearers of Harmony were born in Ponyville. Some moved there. Twilight Sparkle was the last to arrive, uniting five unlikely mares into a team of heroes who would define an age.

Emphasis on "uniting." The relationships between the other Bearers before that Summer Sun Celebration ranged from "childhood friends" to "might be able to pick each other out of a police lineup." And yet, fate had its ways of preparing for what was to come. Some more subtle than others.

Written for Shakespearicles as a part of Jinglemas 2023.

Twilight's castle has gone through many wild and life altering changes over the years. What once was a simple library was now the seat of a princess and her council. Not only that, over the years it's played host to so many new and interesting people; each one memorable in their own way.

Which makes it all the stranger that there's this pony tending to the books lately that nobody seems to know... But she seems so familiar!

Top featured 12/5/23-12/11/23! I couldn't be prouder! Thanks to everyone.

Reading by Skijarama/Tone Shift HERE.

Six years ago Equestria's first manned mission to the lunar surface, Excelsior 7, ended in abject tragedy. Six years later a pair of young astronauts have been sent to provide closure.

Inspired by the Safire memo.

Silverstream learns an interesting fact about Smoulder's name. Naturally, she has to share!

Smoulder isn't too thrilled.

Preread by ChudoJogurt!

As featured by Equestria Daily! And again on Student Six Day!

Trixie has read literally dozens of true crime stories. She has no idea why it takes the police so long to solve the crimes when they're so obvious -- especially in hindsight. When a murder happens right in front of her, its her chance to prove her expertise to the doubters and claim her rightful title as the Intelligent and Insightful Trixie, Equestria's Greatest Magical Detective!

Assuming it actually is a murder, anyway.

An entry in the 2023 Whodunnit Contest

Pinkamena just wants to stay in her own lane. If Pinkie has a problem that needs yelled at, kicked at, or jeeringly tolerated until it goes away, she can handle it. But what’s a sourfaced split personality to do when her agreeable half vanishes overnight like a fart in the wind?

Pinkamena is not a sleuth. Nor a convincing actress. But she’ll need to be both to guise as Pinkie and solve the mystery of where her better half went.

What a pain in the flank.

(Teen rating for Pinkamena’s crassness and comically short temper.)

Its National Novel Writing Month! I'm breaking my regular short story conventions for a multi-chapter tale of fumbling comedy, uneasy mystery, and (most frightful of all) first-person narration.