Button is awaited. In Valhalla, no less. All he has to do to get there is one deed, one act of courage, planning and strength to prove himself worthy. It starts with the gathering of weapons and the spraying of the mouth, and ends with a bang.

But Button wouldn't just spray himself with chrome for a movie, would he? After all, maybe he wasn't the only one who was inspired by it.

With the statue rebuilt, Spike's problems in Canterlot were surely over. All those words of wisdom he had doled out at the delegates couldn't have possibly caused any harm, could they?

The flash mob on the streets of Canterlot sure seems to like him.

Unknown to most ponies, Equestria is covered in a warm blanket of radiation, and it’s Twilight that discovers it.

She reacts as only Twilight can.

When Applejack wakes up one day, she finds that the Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic has had an effect on Granny Smith. While she goes off looking for the Flim Flam Brothers to reverse the effect, others are taking a more positive approach to Granny's new condition and somepony even decides to get in on the Tonic action. But how could this have happened? It's not like there's fine print on the bottle or anything...

Written for Writer's Training Grounds #014: "Leap of Faith" on EQD.

A batpony in quarantine is beginning to transform. Already removed from his family, he now faces the fear of losing his younger brother as well, but with the help of fellow batponies, who have already gone through the transformation, he finds the courage to face his new life head on. On the way, he reminisces of how the current state of their lives came to be and wonders what the future holds. The answers he gets are as wonderful as they are frightening.

An Equestrian Specialist comes across a strange machine, unlike anything he'd ever seen. The short encounter leaves him amazed and anxious to learn more, but his quest sets in motion events he could never have foreseen. The dream of becoming a Royal Guard, once so close to fruition, slowly evaporates as he sees Equestria in an entirely new light.

Gordon Freemane is a pony who never got the memo about the Harmony that binds all of Equestria together. Or perhaps he's more in tune with the Elements of Disharmony, if there is such a thing. Whatever the case, he's as happy as can be when he's left on his own to do whatever he wants, which usually means avoiding the world around him and making plans for getting rich. It's a good thing he has a very bright mind. A very bright and active mind that helps as much as hinders him on his journeys to find the two things he loves: peace and bits.

In this firsthoof account, Dr. Freemane tells us about the places he's been, the things he did and the ponies that got in his way.

The perfect plan is hatched. All the necessary pieces are in place. With one assassination a brighter future for Equestria will be secured. That is at least what the aspiring hero telling the story is hoping for, but there are signs of a strange epidemic emerging that's baffling the doctors.

Princess Luna pays a visit to her prized trophies. They are the tangible result of her greatest accomplishments and serve as an inspiration for what she's doing, even if she had imagined a different future. When she's interrupted and faces a loss of more than just the trophies, her true nature begins to show.

For a short period of time in Equestria's history, machines gained a level of importance never seen before or after. The knowledge of their design and the tools that made them existed in symbiosis with the war that created the need for them in the first place. Secret research bases were built all over Equestria, each developing newer and better ways of halting the invasion and turning the tide of war.

In one of those bases, Captain Blackstone was overseeing the launch of a an experimental machine, but there is no such thing as a perfect first try. When things go wrong, everypony must sometimes remind themselves why they're doing the things they're doing. Even a Captain of the Royal Guards.