Life is full of surprises. That is a known fact. However, you always expect some kind of minor surprise, like your train arriving a little too late, or your ice-cream having vanilla taste rather than strawberry. But sometimes, life will give you surprises you could never predict. For Fluttershy, it was three little foals. But not her own foals, or even orphans. Three little foals that used to be her and her friends' most fearsome and dreaded foes.

Sombra, Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon.

Will Fluttershy's nerves survive this onslaught of misadventures? Will she keep the three villains hidden? Will she even become friends with them? Why do I sound like a narrator to a bad criminal drama? Don't think or try to answer those questions, just go ahead and read!

Edited by: MessoriaAQ, Cerulean Voice, Gidget_TheGear, Twilight Fashion

Cover art by amazing Missangest!

Cover art got featured on Drawfriend in EqD!
The story itself got proudly rejected by EqD!

There is a pony who never sleeps. She works, never ceasing, and is more generous with her help than the sun with its light.

In all of Equestria, there is only one pony who has rejected me so.

Her name is Rarity, and I love her.

Special thanks to fourths and Fahrenheit for editing.

Huge thanks to Aragon for prereading and advice.

Written for the WriteOff competition (prompt: The Darkest Hour)

Applejack's tour of duty didn't work out like she expected; maybe if she'd been able to keep her dang mouth shut... oh, well. She hadn't decided if she really wanted to make a career out of the military, but her superiors made it pretty doggone clear they didn't care for the idea, so that was that. But everytime Harmony closes a door, it opens a window. And maybe she's been sent exactly where she's always needed to be.

However cat-infested it was at the moment.

“I ain’t just a farmer anymore and you ain’t just a fashion designer anymore. Now we’ve got new titles.” She placed a hoof on her chest. “Element of Honesty...” -- she moved her hoof to Rarity -- “and Element of Generosity. Saviors of Equestria and whatnot.”

When Applejack was a filly, she'd been told a hundred times by her parents that she was special. This... this isn't what she expected.

Everypony knows which princess watches over their dreams. She is the one who they pray to every night, wishing for their rest to bring comfort rather than suffering.

One night, other duties exhaust her ahead of time, and the princess falls asleep on the job. Nopony is there to watch over her.

What does she see?

Dramatic reading by Wandering Pony here: (link)

No, I'm not confused, evil, or chaotic. I'm just me.

This story is a sequel to Discord Teaches Philosophy

Warning: The following is currently unedited and contains a significant amount of Philosophy.

After deciding on taking up the role of a Substitute and finding out that the main Philosophy teacher is boring his students, Discord decides to step in to take up the responsibility of teaching. And he will do it by teaching it in plain Equestrian, in a way that these young students would understand. As well as in his own unique way.

Lesson Plan (in no particular order):

Socrates: His Method and How We Ought to Live ✅

Plato: Allegory of the Cave ✅

Marcus Aurelius: How Stoicism Deals with Hardships ✅

Confucius: Who is Ruling Whom? ✅

Kintsugi: The Art of Imperfection ✅

Machiavelli: In Defense of the Prince ✅

Montaigne: Usefulness of Humility ✅

Rousseau: Of Savages and Civilization ✅

Kierkegaard: Subjectivity and Truth ✅

Nietzsche: Of Suffering and Happiness ✅

In this one-shot idea, Fluttershy asks her friend Discord if he would be interested in taking up the job as a teacher at the new School of Friendship. Discord agrees to teach them something if he were given a chance to test-drive it by having a few students to see if he would take up the job. What follows is a lesson on the meditations of Reniegh Haycartes.

A special thank you to DuskHeart13, The Hat Man and SashimiPony for taking the time of proofreading this.

Note: this and its sequels were written before "Matter of Principles."

In the middle of Ponyville, there lived a filly called Brown Sugar. For the most part, Brown Sugar's life was good.
There were her friends, a group of foals who could hardly be more different, her daddy, who she loved more than any other pony in the world, a gigantic collection of toys, her love of mariachis and Wonderbolt stunts and a huge mansion all to herself! Brown Sugar could have been truly happy, but every filly had a wish and she was no exception.
There were wishes that were easy to fulfill, wishes that required some effort to be met and even wishes that made it necessary to bring a sacrifice if they should become true.
Normally, the wish for a loving and caring mother did not need to be fulfilled, it was something a filly had by default. Brown Sugar's life, however, was not normal and, one day, she realized that going the extra mile might be needed to make her wish become true.
Could a sacrifice bring her the mother she was wishing for so much?

Feature Box! 2018/17/05 (11 Hours and 56 Minutes), 2018/18/05 (49 Minutes)

The cover art was created by the fantastic, extraordinarily talented and overall just plain awesome Novel-Idea! Shower him in praise and bits for the stunning work he did!

A regular customer can be very much like a friend, and so Rarity is always willing to go the extra gallop in order to keep one of her true favorites happy. Exotic fabrics, special gems -- if she can meet the request, she will.

Now, when it comes to the newest item she's been asked to create... what exactly is it, and how is it supposed to work?

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