As if dying of embarrassment in the middle of a Crystal Empire celebratory dinner wasn’t bad enough, now Shining Armor has to entertain the worst guest imaginable. No, not Lemon Hearts. The one with the inexplicable agricultural tool. No, not Crazy Lace Agate. The one with the ominous powers and the unstoppable determination to – No, not Cadence. Look, Death, all right? It’s Death. Death’s the worst guest imaginable.

And when the spectre at the feast wants you dead and can’t die in turn, not even love and friendship are strong enough to stand in the way of grim destiny.

Not that this will stop them. Love and friendship are funny like that.

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns IV, using the prompt "Princess Cadence and Shining Armor/Harmony".

Werewolves. Vampires. Earth people, a.k.a. humans. In a world where they've learned to cooperate, it's a bad idea to let your inner wolf off the leash. People tend to look up to you as a role model (when they're not looking at other role models who are way more awesome because they don't even need supernatural stuff).

Sour Sweet doesn't care about that. She just wants to snark at her girlfriend and pet monstrous abominations. But when the balance of power rests inside her own head, it's no longer resting on stable ground...

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns IV, using the prompt "Sour Sweet/Strength".

Ever since Dean Cadence became Principal Cadence, she's learned the hard way that running a school as prestigious as Crystal Prep Academy is a bureaucratic knife-edge. Among other things, she has to deal with spiky students, a terrifying janitor, and constant comparisons between her and Cinch – which are somehow always in Cinch's favour.

Hardest of all might be getting one of her students – Sour Sweet – to apologize for years and years of bullying. Not least because she must convince the girl it's for her own good too…

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt "Dean Cadence/Justice".

Sunset Shimmer owns this world. She can do whatever she likes, play whatever games are devised, run around in a high-tech simulation the like of which has never been seen, smelled, heard, touched, or tasted before. And why wouldn’t she, when the Spirit of Chaos himself is her own personal game master?

But sooner or later, all good games must come to an end…

Contestant for the Sunset Shipping Contest: Endings. Further details are available via this link.

Once everypony has gone to enjoy the rest of the night, the great mystery of Nightmare Night remains: what really happens to all that delicious candy when nopony else is around? Does Nightmare Moon gobble it up, or is there something even more sinister (and entertaining) at work?

Bloo knows. Bloo's mother knows too. And the problem is that once everypony else has had their fun, the other side of Nightmare Night has barely any leftovers of fun worth talking about.

Perhaps this year will be different. There's a special guest at this year's Nightmare Night: THE special guest. And in the gathering darkness, maybe Bloo will see the light more clearly than ever before...

Usually not one for tacky clothing or far-out ideas, Rarity nonetheless fulfils a generous if somewhat embarrassing dressmaking commission to please Derpy Hooves.

Unfortunately for her, a generous act can have... strange and unexpected consequences, especially when poor, simple, over-the-moon-grateful Derpy insists on repaying the kind deed.

Of course, Rarity will take it all in stride. And so will everyone else. It's only fashion, after all. No one ever gets silly or over-the-top about that, right?

Impossible Numbers' entry for The Obselescence Memorial Jinglemas Twinglemas Secret Santa Sendoff: Part 2 Edition!

My specific prompt from DragonGeek: tagged "Rarity", tagged "Derpy Hooves", rated "Everyone", no romance.

Sea Swirl loves Sassaflash.

Sassaflash loves Caramel. Caramel loves Sassaflash.

It'd be so much easier if Caramel was a jerk. It'd be so much easier if Sassaflash really loved Sea Swirl all along. It'd be so, so, so very much easier if Sea Swirl didn't have a mind as wide and vacant as a deserted seabed.

The trouble is: love is like life, and both are like the sea. As simple as they look on the surface, they're so mind-bogglingly strange and complicated underneath that it's easy to get lost without a guide.

Life, love, and the endless sea: Sea Swirl herself can only manage one of those three. But she's always trying her best. And sadly, her best might not be good enough, not when it comes to the one thing that matters most:

A happily ever after.

It was the dawn of a new age in a new world, but old tales are just as willing as anyone to colonize a frontier. Legacies and innovations collide on the shores of the Amaponian continent. Yet the kidnapping of an orange farmer's foal leads three unlikely creatures to join hooves and paws at the forging of the next tale.

Submission for World-Building Alliance April-May Writing Competition.

There is one moon, with two sides. There is one planet, its partner. There is nothing else.

A runaway and a wizard, Sunset knows about the duality of a cold and careless cosmos. The cruellest of all is the one that separates life and death. Now her life is intertwined with those of a humble farming family. And nowhere is that more evident than with the infuriating, stubborn, lively, and heroic Applejack.

Until one fateful time, when life gives way to the other side of the coin.

Sunset broke the rules once before. She's willing to break them again. Or she'll break her spirit trying. There is no third choice.

Contestant for the Sunset Shipping Contest: Changing Seasons. Further details are available via this link.

Ambergris is a pony of few pleasures, and being called out for meaningless social events is not one of them. When he bows to duty and attends, however, he barely reaches the home of his host before he is faced with something worse than tedious conversation. Something far worse.

The dreaded cockatrice, a creature capable of turning others to stone with a simple glance, has just entered the home of his host. Now a mere nuisance of an evening has become a monstrous nightmare, but as Ambergris struggles to save the occupants of the house, he must also struggle against the pressures mounting in his own mind.