Twilight Velvet's mind was stuck. She only wanted to write her magnum opus; how else could she explore the fantasy worlds of her past? It's just a shame her daughter is more interested in long words than she is in tall tales.

So once again the day is saved. Literally. In this case, by that new unicorn who came into Ponyville and fought Nightmare Moon, the nightmare that would never end (until it did).

They say this unicorn is strange. They say she's a princess and a witch, who lurks in dark libraries and tames mighty dragons.

Well, Dinky knows that's bunkum, but who cares? She's never turned down a quest, not with her Sisterhooves Sisters in tow.

What a team they are too: Odd Job, carrot-farming sister and cosmic punching bag; Apple Bloom, who's got the heart of an apple (and the imagination to match); Alula, the pegasus who couldn't be more pegasus if she tried (harder); and Piña Colada, who's what you get as a sort of add-on if you seek out Berry Punch's beverages.

Together, they will bravely and nobly discuss over drinks what to do about this new hero in their midst, and see if they can fit her into their usual playtime. After all, it wouldn't be much of a quest if it wasn't dangerous. Twilight will just have to take her chances.

Applejack and her family are joined in this year's special apple harvest by Twilight, who's hoping for a nice relaxing evening of apple-picking...

A short random piece with no ostensible moral, unless "Don't think apple picking is easy" counts.

When Twilight and Spike are summoned by Rainbow Dash to Zecora's hut, they're alarmed to discover that Fluttershy has a parasitic plant attached to her back. Unfortunately, getting rid of this monstrosity is only one of the problems they'll have to confront...

When Twilight is visited by a distraught Applejack, she is asked to decipher the significance of a package containing five apple cores. Surely, this is the mystery of a lifetime?

Yet another short random piece with no ostensible moral. There's a cookie to whomever gets the title's inspiration, though.

“Somethin’ tells me we ain’t in Ponyville no more, Winona.”

After being misled into drinking a mug of experimental tea in Twilight’s home, Applejack ends up jumping back and forth in pony history, and she doesn’t like it one bit. But the history books need editing: the stories aren’t following their original courses, and it’s getting worse with each century. Ponies are vanishing from their places in space-time. Now far away from home, Applejack just happens to fill a niche in a new discipline: time-travel rodeo.

With the guidance of Twilight Sparkle, who in turn is guided by Spike the dragon, who in turn is guided by a really snazzy Dewey Decimal System, Applejack must impersonate famous ponies from the past and re-enact the events that made Equestria history. It’s a tough job, but somepony has got to do it. Who better than ol’ reliable herself?

There’s just one catch: if she fails, Applejack will cease to exist.

With an assortment of astronomers, archaisms, after-eights, apothecaries, aardvarks, anti-ageing acid, atomic magic bombs, and – of course – lots and lots of apples.

Lemon Hearts says she works at the palace. Lemon Hearts says a lot of things, only in the wonderful world of Equestria, there's a limit to how explicit her curse words can get.

She's not a passionate musician like Lyra, or a star-struck scientist like Twinkleshine. Sure as sugar she ain't no Princess of Friendship. Feeling like the one rotten fruit in a rich and healthy bushel cramps her style. At least, it would if she had any.

Soon, Lemon Hearts decides to do what she should have done a long time ago, when she'd otherwise been busy with her highly amusing and rebellious wealth redistribution activism (a.k.a. shoplifting). She decides to find out where she went wrong. Or wronger, at least.

And if she can earn some money out of it.

And whether or not her friends can help. Or, more likely, need help.

Poor Twilight Sparkle: pride and joy of the University of Eohippus, she is in charge of a team of the most brilliant unicorn minds (plus Fluttershy) of her generation. So it's a shame they're also at least six kinds of deranged and ten kinds of embarrassing.

There's Twinkleshine, whose girly-girl demeanour masks an ambitious monster. There's Moondancer, who's about as social as an oyster, and Lemon Hearts, who's about as charming too. There's Lyra Heartstrings, whose research barely qualifies as sense, never mind as science. And then there's Sweetie Belle, who should totally be in school but who'd much rather hone her skills as the world's worst personal assistant secretary fangirl... thingy.

However, this is merely the start of Twilight's problems. In the midst of mad science and a city overstocked with adventure, she'll confront MIA mages, enigmatic infernos, freaky furniture, political plots, hush-hush histories, and worst of all... the fact that she is destined to solve everything.

Oh, and Trixie's in there somewhere.

It's totally gonna go wrong.

Apple Bloom, inspired by her comics, suggests that the Cutie Mark Crusaders should become spies, but Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle don't think much of the idea. This is Equestria, for Celestia's sake; a land where happiness is the default setting, and the word "enemy" is so rarely used it needs a good dusting.

But it seems that Apple Bloom's suggestion is timely; when weird events start occurring around Ponyville, it looks like they'll soon be up to their ears in mysteries. And who knows just how far they will have to go to unravel them...

The first alicorn to be born rather than made. A pony of incredible power. A pony with a very important destiny.

Under the guidance of the fretful Princess Twilight, the sardonic Spike, and the ever-loyal crystal ponies, she will rise from the ashes of a childhood nightmare to become the princess she was always meant to be.

The journey won't be easy, but she won't give up. She was meant to be the Crystal Princess. That is her purpose.

And she will stop at nothing to keep it that way.

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt "Flurry Heart/DETERMINATION".