It's almost Hearts Warming Eve and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are in Twilight's Golden Oak Library, listening to a story about a mythical creature called the Christmas Reindeer.
But he's just a legend, an old pony tail. No one has ever heard of a reindeer since.
But what if he was to come back, tonight?
And what if he was the bringer of terrible news?

"This story has the nice smell of early seasons, with Twilight, the CMCs and the library. [...] I'd say each part could have been 1000 words lesser in length, so it's just "good" for me." - Acylius (or at least, what I can remember from his comment lol, back when the story was in 4 parts)

Originally written for a french contest in 2020, where we could chose between "Winter arrives in Equestria", "A Hearts Warming Eve tale" or "A secret santa between ponies".
Ended on first place among 5 participant, though I consider this a bit of cheating since around 2-3k words had already been written since 2014. Yes, I was that slow to finish the story, 6 fricking years in the making. But I'm highly proud of it.
Artwork used

I should note that the "Christmas Reindeer" name is really just a poor adaptation of the original name. "Renne-Noël" is quite the litteral translation, but in French, "Père Noël" is also the name we give to Santa Claus. So it's both a play on the holliday itself, and the figure. Couldn't find a good compromise, so went with the most logical. "Claus Reindeer" just didn't have the same ring to it.

Oh, here you are! Please, please, have a seat, I brought chairs for this purpose. Sit next to the little purple one, there, he didn't want to take part. Come on, now! Don't be scared!
Great. Now relax and observe. They will start any minute now. Oh, you won't recognize them at first, they'll be slightly different than usual. But you'll see, soon enough, they'll be your favorite once again.
In the meantime, shut up and listen. It begins.

Long fic started back in 2015. Chapters are huge (for my standards at least) and my motivation was low back then. Hope I can keep on going there. This is my comfort story. The story I write for when nothing else seems to be working. Chapters over 10k words will be split in enough parts to be under that threshold.
It is a very slow story, at least for modern standards.
While the overall story will stay the same, small retcons are a possibility (the thing has been going on for 10 years and is projected to be probably at least 500k words long, so yeah, sorry if not everything is 100% planned and foreshadowed). Scenes could be added here and there in already published chapters. BUT, most of it is going to stay the same. I'll put an endnote at each new chapter summarizing possible changes.
Cover link

Also, writing playlist :
"Nebula Skater" - by 4everfreebrony
"Beyond her Garden (Aviators remix)" - by Aviators
"Nightmare Night (Aviators remix)" - by Aviators
"Beyond her Garden" - by Glaze
"Still Shy (Aviators remix)" - by Aviators
"Fallen - Instrumental (Aviators remix)" - by Aviators
"Synthesia" - by Aviators
"Shadows" - by Aviators
"Constellations" - by Aviators
"From All Sides" - by Aviators
"Little Sister" - by Aviators & Tarby
"Constellations (8 minutes mix)" - by Aviators
"Sweet Dreams" - by RisenFromTheDust (available in a Neighsayer's album)
"Leto (Aviators remix)" - by Aviators.

The ones in bold are pretty much the themes of the fics. Yes that'sa lot of Aviator's songs and remixes.

You've always talked about it. Well, today, I give it to you, just a bit late...

Fully written with this playlist in the background, I can only recommand putting it while you read. Or even if you don't read.

Oh hey, TaviScratch, how original. Best ship, I don't care.
Where that story comes from:
10 years later, I've learned about the passing of MelodicPony and the little story that followed.
To be short, in the description of his MLP:FiM Princess Twilight Orchestral Suite he made a little joke in the description reading "Performed and recorded with Prague Symphony Orchestra. (okay, not really, but wouldn't that be the coolest thing ever?)"
As he passed away the next year, some musicians from the fandom decided to make that little joke come true. It took time, money, but last year, they made it. The Prague Symphony Orchestra played it.
And I can't really describe how it made me feel to go through this little journey of finding an amazing artist (go listen to the only six musics he left us) and seeing he was already gone, yet that he lived on, in some way.
So this story is an attempt at that, I guess. Share that feeling. You could call that an homage, probably.
Also, currently reading Vinyl & Octavia University Days for the first time. Always been a favorite ship of mine, so guess I'm letting myself be influenced by that. And Melodic's avatar is Octavia. Quite fitting.
Cover

The years pass on.
Evil prospers here and there, until it's defeated by the current good guys.
The heroes come and go, they wither away, only to be replaced by others. But villains, they are immortals, right?
Well, not one of them. And once the inevitable happens, the others have to cope. And discover what "mourning" means.

Surprisingly NOT made for the Cozy Contest. I actually had this one done already before, I was just looking for someone for the cover. And it's @Apocheck13 on twitter (nsfw account so no links).

... I swear I can do other things than Cozy stories! Like CozyHearts stories...

Oh hey, first time I got the little flame thingy. Yay! Was there from 11/10/2024 to 13/10/2024 and featured until 15/10/2024. That's huge for me, thank you very much!

One thing fillies don't lack is energy. No matter how much she is defeated, Cozy will run away and come back, often during the same day, and try to conquer the world again.
If she can do it during a livestream, that will be glorious.

Yet another one for the Cozy contest, this time with the prompt "There’s a lot you can do with rubber chickens and carnivorous pineapples".

List of all the Cozy stories made with the prompts

Turns out being frozen into stone doesn't prevent you from being sick.
But this disease is out of the ordinary, and weirdly suspicious for Twilight.

Another one for the Cozy contest, this time with the prompt "Cozy’s got a secret".
Don't think I'll manage to make all prompts before the contest ends, but I'm on track to having between 6 and 9 ready which is still a lot I feel. Cozy Glow? More like Cozy Flow, am I right?
... Wait, that's an idea. Gangsta Cozy named Cozy Flow...

Actually won fourth place, yay!

Featured from 14/09/2024 to 16/09/2024. Three times in a row, yay!

Oh hey it got a reading as well!

List of all the Cozy stories made with the prompts

As Cozy Glow utterly and easily won against the mane six and the young six, a strange visitor comes, from another reality.
But it is too late. The world is doomed. And there's no magic to save it anymore.

Written using the Fifth annual cozy glow short story contest (that's a mouthful) prompt : "And that was when she realized it had all gone wrong".
As I've planned on doing one story for every prompt, I'm not sure this one will be participating in the contest. I'll see when I've written everything, I guess.
Art is here, made by L1nkoln.
Also, huge inspiration from this song.

Featured from 10/09/2024 to 12/09/2024. I'm on a roll baby! Thank you all so much!

List of all the Cozy stories made with the prompts

Every robot is a walking encyclopedia, everypony knows that.
And with an encyclopedia, you can play a game.
No matter what the encyclopedia thinks.

Yes, another Sweetie Bot story. I like her.
Featured (somehow) from 21/08/2024 to 23/08/2024

Even metal rusts away. Even machines decay.
Though, a metal body can outlast one made out of flesh.
But withering is inevitable.
This is a story about a forever young filly, long after everything. When the end has come for all but herself.

Was watching Black Lagoon and this music inspired me. The twins are by far the best characters of the show, IMO.
And I wanted to write about Sweetie Bot once more. Since I had done the 1000 words challenge already, I decided to try my hand at it once again, even though this story can't compete, as I've already done drama. And I wonder if this story fits any tags, really.

How did the first meeting between Fizzlepop Berrytwist and the Storm King go?
Probably not like this.

TW: "Berries" being twisted. Non-descriptive.

Got the idea while discussing with a friend. Had to rush it a bit.
Of course made for the Thousand Word Contest, comedy category.
Last entry for me. I'm glad I managed to find small fun ideas to write.