Everypony has secrets. Some secrets are embarrassing. Some secrets are just things you don't want to share publicly with others. Other secrets can rock your relationship to the core if revealed...

Written for the X Becomes a Changeling May Prompt.

Really? Of all the empty spaces in this bar, you choose the stool next to me? I'm not interested, dude. Trust me.

Say wha-? You think I have a story to tell? You're kidding me, right? Yeah, I got stories. Yes, I helped stop Nightmare Moon. Yes, I punched Discord in the face. I've faced a dragon and the queen of the changelings and lived to tell about it, and before you ask, the rainbow mane is natural, and so are the wi- oh, not like that?

Something about me, huh? Something that makes Rainbow Dash Rainbow Dash? Why? Besides the obvious overdose of awesomeness, of course.

Huh. That's a strange special talent. Can't say I've seen story-finder before... Well, as long as you're here, I guess I could talk for a bit. But you’re buying your own drinks, ok?

Third place winner of the May contest in the SFNW

"Awkward, but worth it."
This is the phrase Twilight Sparkle used when Rainbow Dash first attempted to work up the courage to confess her love for Applejack. Rainbow quickly realized that she was right--it was awkward, but worth it. What she didn't realize was just how applicable that statement would be throughout all her life. That first conversation. That first kiss. That first night spent together. That time Apple Bloom walked in on them. That first apology after their first argument. The arrival of that acceptance letter. And on so many more occasions.
Throughout it all, Rainbow kept smiling.
It was awkward, yes. At times so much so that she wished she could sink into the ground and disappear forever.
But in the end, every time--every time--it was always so very, very worth it.

Nothing can stop Daring Do, the greatest explorer in Equestria, from retrr... recla... getting the sacred statue back from the Monkey King, and especially not this blue quicksand!

Now with a Czech translation by krysohmyz.

Maybe having a cutie mark really isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Don't misunderstand. Exercising your special talent is great for you (and feels good, too); but they say nothing good in life is free, and they mean it.
[snippets of life; not all characters tagged]

Royal Guards may be good for keeping peace and quelling riots, and police may be good for taking care of smaller infractions, but when Mareami PD wants to know who it was and how the crime was committed, the Field Services and Technical Evidence Team is called in.
But ever since that one case, Detective Cane Sugar of the Mareami FSTET has been cold, distant, and sarcastic. One day, an order from the top comes in--he's being transferred to Riverton, to start a new team there. In Riverton, he meets happy ponies, angry ponies, crazy ponies, fast ponies, innocent ponies... and guilty ponies.

Ever the romantic idealist, Luna had always dreamed of a dark alicorn (gag...) to take her away so they could enjoy the night together.
When he suddenly appears, however, she soon learns truths--about herself, about him, about her sister, and about the alicorns themselves--that she would much rather have left hidden.

Maybe someday she'll learn her lesson, Twilight thought. But Trixie never did. And now, a few years into the future, she's coming back; but this time with an army at her disposal.
Luckily, if there's one thing Twilight knows, it's how to be prepared.

She has two weeks.

Berry Punch is not a bad pony. Her cutie mark, after all, is for mixing drinks, not consuming them. But sometimes, things change.
For example, having your husband die. Or being turned into a vampony.
Now Berry Punch has to deal with being in a new city much bigger than her hometown, trying to provide for herself and her daughter, trying to hold down a job and make a living, and trying to not get exposed as a vampony.
....Stay thirsty, my friends?

Try as she might, Twilight simply can't get Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense out of her mind. This problem gets compounded when a second mare with similar powers shows up—and the new girl is not too pleased with this.