"When I read their letters... I think about how temporary everything really is."

A lonely princess pores over her studies in a frigid castle, desiring nothing more than the warmth of an old friend. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, wears a heavy crown wrought of burdens too numerous to bear, but perhaps a special visitor can ease her pain, if only for a moment.

Spike has always considered Ponyville his home, and has always held Rarity a special place in his heart. That is, until a group of dragons showed up after years of looking for him. After meeting his real family and hearing why he was brought into the ponies' care, he starts to rethink his old thoughts.

Now he only has a week to make a decision: either stay with the ponies who loved and cared for him most of his life, or go with the dragons and finally be with his real family. The decision would have been all so clear...

...if there wasn't another factor in the equation.

Much love to those who oversaw the story:

Pre-Readers: Skeeter the Lurker & Mr101
Editors: The Abyss & Man_Demon

After a near-death experience concerning a manticore, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are faced with their own reactions, or lack thereof.
But what would their sisters have done in their place? And is it possible that they're not as perfect as the fillies always thought of them?

Disclaimer: This story does have a Happy Ending. I don't do stories without.

Edit: We made it into the Popular Stories Box. A big thank you to everyone who made that possible.

When a familiar presence enters the free Crystal Empire, the scattered remains of King Sombra begin to take shape once more...

While visiting Rarity, Sweetie Belle decides to commemorate their relationship with a drawing, but she doesn't want to make just any old drawing. She wants to make a masterpiece. The only problem is making it.

There are things which are not crimes -- things which others are determined to see as crimes in spite of all evidence, truth, and reality, as long as their false perception gets them what they want. After a visit to Barneigh's Exclusive Garments And Saddlebags, Rarity has found herself on the receiving end of that self-enforced delusion, facing anger, accusations, and abuse of power for the smallest reason of all --

-- one created by the smallest minds.

(Cover art taken from a vector scan by TheSharp0ne at DeviantArt, under open permission.)

Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.

Now with author Patreon, SubscribeStar, and Ko-Fi pages.

Rarity works at Hayburger. Not necessarily by choice, mind you. It's just temporary. Very, very temporary. But not the least bit temporary enough.

Pinkie Pie is searching for something. She stops at Ponyville on a whim, or maybe that's the tingly feeling in her tail talking. She decides to meet some ponies. What better place to begin her quest than at Hayburger?

For Sweetie Belle, having a babysitter is not that big a problem, especially when her babysitter is the element of magic herself. When Twilight devises a spell to help her with her apparent problems, however, both of them will have to learn a lesson that won't soon be forgotten.

Now has a sequel called Sizable Differences

Enjoy.

Applejack's got a secret she'd kept hidden for many years. Nopony would ever have guessed what she and Twilight were up to in the library late at night, once Spike had gone to sleep. That is, until a jealous Rainbow Dash decided it was her business to find out just what in the hay was going on.

Rarity has fallen hard for the lavender mare from Canterlot, but there is just one problem, that certain mare from Canterlot is completely oblivious to it all. Thus, Rarity does everything in her power to escape the dreaded friend zone, from skywriting to asking Twilight's parents for help. But will it be enough? Probably not. After all, Twilight is rather naive, but a mare's gotta try.

The pic that inspired this story, and the cover pic credit goes to ~SigneTheSlaske of Deviantart.com, check them out for more great artwork.