This story is a sequel to The Philosophical Substitute: Discord

Warning: The following you're about to read contains philosophy in plain English. If you do not like this, you know where the exit button is.

Also, please remember that this is an anthology, in which each chapter is their own independent story.

After the events of "The Philosophical Substitute," Discord is now taking on as a full-on teacher in Twilight's School of Friendship. Even though his past students (the Young Six) have technically graduated his class, they still come to him time to time to ask him some of life's toughest questions. Eventually, even their teachers come to him for guidance.

What follows is an anthology series of what each character learns from the Ex-Lord of Chaos.

A special thanks to Azaclop for proofreading.

Lesson Plan (in no particular order):

Sandbar - On Fate and Free Will (Dealing with cutie marks? Do ponies have a choice in what they can or can’t be?) ✅

Smolder - On Life and Death (possibly afterlife? Cost of longevity?) ✅

Silverstream - Should Power Belong to the Few or Many? ✅

Yona - What’s the point of Spirituality? ✅

Gallus - On Envy and Jealousy. ✅

Ocellus - On Identity and the Self. ✅

Twilight - On Balance of Governing. ✅

Applejack - Why do nice people lie? Why does dishonesty exist?✅

Rainbow - On Bad Faith (Sartre) ✅

Rarity - What Luxury Couldn’t Buy (Epicurus? Diogenes?) ✅

Fluttershy - Why Others are Mean? ✅

Pinkie Pie - On Cheerful Sadness. ✅

Starlight - If worse comes to worse. ✅

? - Know thy Self. A Philosophical Mediation.✅

She is the One who Mourns, She Who Raises the Sun and Moon, the Reclusive Princess.

Years have passed since the appearance of the Mare in the Moon, years during which Celestia has left the day-to-day running of the still-young kingdom of Equestria in the hooves of Platinum's grandson Prince Pyrite. Each day she raises and lowers the sun and moon, makes brief appearances at diplomatic meetings and special events, and then returns to her chambers, too lost in her melancholy to even count the years as they pass.

But what will she do when she discovers that her trusted prime minister has not been the faithful servant of the people she expected? Will she lose herself to her grief... or to the same madness that took her sister from her?

Written for Fan of Most Everything's Imposing Sovereigns II contest.

Part of the Remember Fort Libris print anthology, thanks to our Kickstarter supporters!

Princess Rarity had everything planned for her beloved bodyguard's birthday. It would start with a lovely trip to Trottingham, continue into an entire day in Equestria's oldest library, and culminate into a wonderfully romantic moment in the Ethereal Gardens. It would be Twilight's best birthday yet!

...If only things actually went according to plan.

Part of the Bodyguard!AU Series, based on Earthsong9405's AU where Twilight is the bodyguard to a "Princess/Queen Rarity". Prior knowledge of the AU is not necessary to read the story.

This story is a sequel to The Princess's Gift

Twilight takes her duties as Princess Rarity's bodyguard seriously. She will follow her into battle, into long and tiresome meetings, and into the occasional ball.

Unfortunately for her, it's difficult to protect a princess in a sea of costumed ponies when you have no idea which one of them is the princess.

Part of the Bodyguard!AU Series, based on Earthsong9405's AU where Twilight is the bodyguard to a "Princess/Queen Rarity". Prior knowledge of the AU is not necessary to read the story.

Rarity and Twilight have been dating happily for a few months. At every given opportunity, Rarity takes the chance to tell their love story. It doesn't matter if anypony actually wants to listen or how many times they may have heard it already, she's going to tell them anyway. She cannot be stopped, such is the power of love.

My contribution for the Raritwi bomb hosted by Monochromatic.

And check out the story posted before this, HERE

Mares of many talents often find themselves in sticky situations. In Rarity's case, she must hold true to the promise she gave to Princess Twilight Sparkle. It never occurred to her that she may be required to forcibly defend her position as the princess' companion, but it's of little consequence. A promise is a promise, is it not?

This story was written for Monochromatic's RariTwi Bomb! Master list of content HERE, and Cynewulf's contribution HERE

Cover art is by the talented and dedicated lilfunkman, to whom I owe many thanks.

Shoutouts as well to MrNumbers, Undome Tinwe, AppleTank and a few too many others for their advice and feedback!

'The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.'

Rarity and Twilight Sparkle chat over a game of chess. The stakes, as always, are a little obscure.

This story is part of the First and Only Raritwi Bomb. A week's worth of stories and art all centered around FimFic's beloved Purple Girlfriends. If you liked it, the last story posted is SigmasonicX's RariTwi: Love is War, and you can find a master list of all Raritwi Bomb content on Monochromatic's Blog, here.

Have a lovely day!

There was an additional challenge when it came to writing this: refrain from using adjectives or adverbs where possible, so if there are any outstanding ones, please let me know.

Cover image is cropped from Mundschenk85's 'Good Move'.

Rarity discovers a pattern in her relationship with Twilight, and wonders what she may have given up for love.

This story is part of the First and Only Raritwi Bomb. A week's worth of stories and art all centered around Rarity and Twilight. If you liked it, you can find a master list of all Raritwi Bomb content here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/873741/the-raritwi-bomb-masterpost.

(2019-10-21) Featured by Seattle's Angels!

(2019-11-16) Featured on Equestria Daily!

Now with a sequel by the incredible AFanaticRabbit!

Twilight and Rarity decide to put a foalhood rumor to the test.

Edited by Undome Tinwe

This story is part of the First and Only Raritwi Bomb: A week's worth of stories and art all centered around Rarity and Twilight. If you liked this story, the previous story posted was Tactics by Rose Quill, and you can find a master list of all Raritwi Bomb content Here.

Happy Halloween!

Initializing....
Source Code Identified......
Playback Audio Feed......Operation: World Jump 2463197......Subsection; Mission Parameters......

.........Um, hello, my name is Doctor Daniel Phillips, and I am the lead scientist overseeing the Gateway Project, one of the most cutting-edge technologies in existence today. With it, we can open wormholes to worlds far beyond the reach of conventional space travel, and even into other dimensions if we can work out the right frequency. As of late we have discovered over a dozen habitable worlds that have been slated for colonization, but as of yet no signs of intelligent life. Yet I hold out hope that one day we might find such a world, however remote, and put our best foot forward in opening relations with our new galactic neighbors. Yet not all of the planets we find are poppies and roses, so instead of sending in humans to explore them, we have these little babies.

Oh, right, you can't see me because this is an audio-only feed. My mistake. Well, I guess I'll just have to explain it to you. These cybernetic wolves, known in our group as the Mech Hounds, are outfitted with the most advanced computers in the world, along with some of the most cutting-edge robotics and weapons money can buy. Now right at the moment we only have a dozen of these little critters, but don't let that fool you. Each of these little babies carries enough firepower to level a small town, although it would take them a couple days to do so if they were working alone. They also have the programing to work out almost any situation in a matter of seconds, although they still have many of the logic problems that most computers face when confronted with something that does not fit within the established parameters of their programming. Yet, regardless of their possible shortcomings, they do the heavy lifting upon initial exploration where humans cannot, dealing with threats as they see fit in order to assess the habitability of a planet for human use. I could tell you more, but that would be breaking protocol.

So, without further ado, I'll turn you over to our logistics specialist, who will be happy to tell you all about how these little babies are going to change the world, or rather, worlds, that humanity has come to call home.................

End Audio Recording........

This is a story that delves into the boundary between life and machine, where AI is something that has only been dreamed of, even with the most advanced computers available. Then again, these machines have never encountered magic before, so who knows what might happen. I guess you'll just have to read the book to find out for yourself.