Everyone has a secret self they don’t show to other people. Not to friends, not to lovers, not even to family. They hide who they are and what they want behind lies and painted smiles. Thus the world maintains its thin veneer of peace.

The problems crop up when someone scratches that veneer while trying to do a 720 front flip on her scooter.

Second place in Bicyclette’s Lofty and Holiday contest. Not actually a crossover with Spy x Family. Kindly preread by EileenSaysHi and Krack-Fic Kai

The plan was simple. Set out on a tour of the most remote parts of Equestria, ones that had never heard of the Great and Powerful Trixie, for good or for ill. Spread some wonder, leave some memories, and get home without regrets.

(“Home.” What a strange concept…)

But it's like they always say: No plan survives contact with the audience.

A last minute entry (and second place!) in the May Pairings Contest. Rated Teen for references to alcohol and oblique discussion of suicide; no attempts of the latter are in the actual text.

This story is a sequel to He Come to Town

Brave Heart, former agent of SMILE, has found new purpose as the captain of the Twilit Guard.

He is also the only member of the Twilit Guard.

The only thing worse than that problem will be the solution.

Set during late Season 5. Cover image by ImAFutureGuitarHero, used with permission. No familiarity is needed with the prequel beyond the fact that Pony Link is working as a guard for Princess Twilight.

In early March, Sixes_and_Sevens provided a list of prompts he'd gotten from a writing group at his college. Each day presented two prompts, with the idea being to pick one of them and write at least a hundred words each day.

But why settle for just one when you can bring both together?

Updated daily through April.

Queen Novo does not forgive or forget easily. When her niece seemed to prefer a school in the middle of a continent run by a would-be thief to Mount Aris, that didn't sit well with her.

The good news is that Twilight's managed to resolve that situation already.

The bad news is that there's another coming down the pike.

An entry in Bicyclette's Crackship Contest. Rated Teen for strong language and the love that dare not speak its name on a TV-Y series.

In her short time on the Wonderbolts roster, Rainbow Dash has become the star atraction of the locker room with her wild stories. It was amusing at first, but Spitfire's gotten sick of it. Clearly, the best way to stop these tall tales is to see just how mundane Dash's home life really is. Hearth's Warming will provide the perfect excuse.

And that's where the problem really started, Chief Rights...

Written for The Iguana Man for Jinglemas 2021. Miranda Rights borrowed with permission from Estee, who wants it on record that they had nothing to do with the title. Rated Teen for significant alcohol use.

Sugar Moonlight isn't just a pretty muzzle. She was the lead designer for the Canterlogic Impermeable Psychobarricade Skullcap™ (or "anti-mind-reading helmet" to everypony but the marketing team.)

You would think that Sunny Starscout would want nothing to do with her after restoring magic and reuniting the tribes, especially for some important mission out in the middle of nowhere. But even Sugar's never been able to figure out Sunny, and she's been trying for most of her life.

An entry in Shrink Laureate's G5 Bingo Contest and Bicyclette's Sci-Fi Contest. Tied for third place in the former and winner of the Ivory Cedar Committee Award for G5 Is Cool I Guess in the latter. Bingo prompt deliberately omitted from this description to avoid spoilers.

For the first time in living memory, a unicorn has set hoof in Maretime Bay. The ponies demand decisive action. Unfortunately, they're demanding it from Sprout. Even more unfortunately, he has some issues keeping his composure through the whole thing. And that's not getting into the real problems...

A strange and distant part of the Oversaturated World.

Shining and Cadence knew that raising a princess would present challenges above and beyond those of raising a born alicorn. As one might expect of Twilight Sparkle's brother and sister-in-law, they prepared as best they could for many of the problems they might encounter along the way.

Of course, that doesn't mean anypony told Flurry, who feels like this is a bit of an overreaction to her wanting a cookie that happened to belong to somepony else.

Flurry in the cover image courtesy of AleximusPrime, used with permission. Source link to the image can be found by mousing over it.

Most ponies see Princess Celestia as a pillar of wisdom and certainty, mistress of her own mind and confident in all actions.

Luna knows better and just wishes Tia would get to the point already.

Honorable Mention in the Everfree Northwest 2021 Iron Author contest, using the prompts “threshold,” “puzzle,” and “garden.”