During Lesson Zero, Spike warned Celestia of Twilight's impending breakdown. What if Spike did this during the course of many episodes, with Celestia valuing his input?

Sometimes, however, it backfires on the both of them, as in the case of A Canterlot Wedding. Afterwards, Celestia has a heartfelt chat with Spike.

First two chapters are letters being traded back and forth with one actual scene. Family Celestia and Spike, Momlestia. Cover art by JAEneth, used with permission.

Day 2 of my Self-Imposed 28 Fics in 28 Days Challenge

It's just another day in the Shimmer household as the family gathers for dinner. Nothing special, mind. Just a some daisy sandwiches and a light salad. But, an empty setting rests at the table, always haunting those gathered with memories...

Guest Prequel to the Homecoming Continuity.

Celestia tries to stop Sunset from leaving.

Written for the A Thousand Words Contest II Contest in the Drama Category.

Preread by The Sleepless Beholder and TCC56.

Vinyl Scratch is alone. Her parents are gone and she's estranged herself from the rest of her family years ago. Now she's fallen on hard times; she spends her days drinking, her nights partying and the intervening time in trouble with the guards.

After one too many run-ins with the authorities she is assigned a personal guard to help her get her life back on track. The only question is: can she truly be helped, or is she far too gone at this point?

Proof-reading provided by Shrink Laureate.

Cover art by Mytho.

After pictures from her phone get posted online, that human five confront Sunset with the information. After discovering that she and the others had very different ideas about how to confront her, Rainbow Dash finds herself defending Sunset from the rest of her friends.

Rainbow siding with Sunset didn't change all that much. Sunset was still successfully framed, Sunset still lost most of her friends, Sunset will still go back to being the most hated student at CHS, but she won't have to face any of it alone, and that will make all the difference in the world.

Meta stuff follows.

Let's talk about combinatorics.

There is one way for none of the five to remain on Sunset's side, there are five ways for one of them them to side with Sunset, there are ten ways for two of them to do so, there are ten ways for three of them to do so, there are five ways for four of them to do so, and there is one way for all of them to do so. Out of these thirty two possible configurations, almost every Anon-a-Miss story sticks to the first one.

I did a tally once upon a time and what I found was that 96.9% of possibilities were almost never explored, and 87.5% were never explored at all (no "almost" necessary.) These figures get rather more abysmal if you're looking at who did or didn't side with Sunset from the start. The rare stories that have one or more of the five side with Sunset tend to have the initial confrontation go down pretty much canonically, and then have someone have a change of heart later on.

So, in the interest of stuff, here's a thing where Sunset has someone on her side from the very start. Most of the first chapter was released two months early on my Patreon page, for subscribers only, as you might imagine.

This story is the sequel to It's Good to Meet Bad, by the talented Atom Smash.

Several months ago, Tender Taps blew into Manehatten and auditioned for his first performance. Opening night he was terrified, until he met a tough-talking hairdresser who helped give him the confidence to step out onto the stage.

She also gave him the confidence to ask her out.

Time has passed, and now he's ready to audition for another, very different kind of show.

Written for Quills & Sofa's EU2 contest, where participants wrote sequels for another author's story. While reading the original wouldn't be necessary to enjoy this one, I highly recommend it.

Prereading provided by all the participants in the contest, including over twenty other very talented authors.

Why does Starlight have a crush on Trixie? What made her think this way? And should she ask her out or not?

Starlight has a lot of questions for herself and they're very confusing. Surely she should be able to find the answers to them if she just gets a second to clear her head. After all, she's the most powerful unicorn spellcaster alive! There's nothing she cannot do if she approaches it with a rational, reasonable mindset.

Probably.

Written for the StarTrixMaud contest. Editing help provided by Lofty Withers and WritingSpirit.

"The Night is not as forgiving as the Day."
When Twilight agrees to become Princess Luna's personal student, she discovers the hard way what Luna's Night and her Lunar Court are really all about.

This story is thematically a darker flip-side to "My Little Student", but is written so that it can read on its own. Also, while for the most part this is arguably compatible with show canon, I've turned on the AU tag anyway, just to allow myself a little elbow-room for world-building.

As Cozy Glow is petrified, her every sense goes dark. Upon waking up, she finds herself in a pitch black abyss with nothing to keep her company. Except, of course, for another Cozy Glow that seems very cross with her for some reason.

First featured on 14th of October 2024!

April, YOH 1505 (almost 5 years after Luna's Return): Twilight Sparkle and her Companions defeated Starlight Glimmer at Our Town, and return to Ponyville. But though they are victorious, they bear battle-scars on their souls -- and they know that the mad mage is still out there, doubtless lusting for revenge. Sometimes, mere victory is not enough.

Takes place between S501-02 The Cutie Map and S5E03 "Castle, Sweet Castle."