Young Celestia and Luna get a brand new board game in which they create their own universe. Will Celestia have fun? Will Luna be allowed to play her custom content? And, most importantly, will they get their (parents') money worth out of the base set, or will they succumb to buying endless expansions, mini-packs and randomized boosters to get the full experience?

Inspired by the recent uproar in the gaming community regarding loot boxes and shady business practices. May contain microtransactions.

Flurry Heart has requested a very unusual bedtime story. Shining Armor senses something is up, but he also knows that children occasionally come across feelings they don't have words for yet. Books can supply those words.

On a less cerebral note, hopefully there’s some entertainment to be had watching Shining Armor flounder through a novel that common sense dictates he shouldn't be reading to a foal before bed. That 'Thriller' tag is present in the banner for a reason.

Now with a written review!

This is an entry in the Snippet Series, an anthology of old oneshots I (and my good buddy Str8aura) wrote based around interesting pics I found. New ones will be posted every Thursday for the foreseeable future.

When Fluttershy went to bed, she was a normal mare. When she woke up, she could see numbers floating over everypony's heads. They were timers, each one counting down to some unknown event. Most ponies had timers that wouldn't end for years, some for many decades. But everypony had different numbers.

So why does Rainbow Dash's timer end in three hours?

Editing provided by TheMaskedFerret and SolidFire.
Cover art by HopefulSparks!
Spanish translation by SPANIARD KIWI!

Flim has a golden ticket. Princess Twilight and her new wife Applejack desperately require his signature on some very important paperwork. Obviously this is the sort of thing that should be worth quite a lot of bits up front, with the potential for favors at some point in the future. Flim and Flam hold all the cards, and there's no way this could go wrong.

Oh yeah, and there's a foal involved too. Not that that really matters.

Written for the Writeoff Association's prompt "A Matter of Perspective."

Once upon a time there was a very lazy dragon who did not want to find a town to pillage.

So he decided to make one of his own.

Editors: Mitch H, Dlafrferg
Jake the Army Guy has done an amazing reading of this on YouTube
Excellent cover picture credit: Harwick on Fimfiction or Harwicks-art on Deviantart.com
Also, the Audio Project has done a reading of this and other stories on YouTube