"In The Precocious Princeling's Guide to Diplomatic Relations, there are three rules for how a royal ought to conduct himself abroad.

1. A diplomat of Equestria must obey all local laws of the nation they are assigned to.
2. A diplomat of Equestria should advocate for the interests of Equestria to the best of their abilities.
3. Under no circumstance should a diplomat of Equestria get involved in the following: Political parties, popular uprisings, peasant revolutions, class solidarity movements, coups d'etat, or other attempts at regime change, violent or otherwise.

By the time I had finished my tenure in Saddle Arabia, I had broken all three."
-Prince Blueblood, First of His Name

A monster haunts the forest, taking the dead and dying as tribute.

Twilight Sparkle, her kingdom’s finest warrior and scholar, might just be able to save it.

Based on the winning prompt from a tournament on my supporter Discord server: “Bodyguard!AU Twilight meets Vampire!Rarity”

Art by aBleatingEdge

Twilight learns an important lesson about what truly makes a house a home.

A submission for the Thousand Word Contest III, in the Comedy category

This story is a prequel of Good Trooper Gilda

The world is strewn with the ruins of lost kingdoms. A wise monarch knows how to preserve her realm for posterity, but it's hard to have a posterity when you're childless, and too old to be laying eggs. Old hens shouldn't have these sorts of problems, but they are hers, as is Trottingham until her time runs out.

But Gharne has a plan. If only she can trap the ponies' eternal princess inside of her web.

A duchy might live forever, if its duchess did the same.

Gilda only wanted the humble things in life. Cheap rent, copious bits, the respect of her peers, the occasional juicy field-mouse.

Being captured by the Equestrians and dragooned into the Territorials wasn't quite what she'd dreamed of, but at least the rent was free.

And the rats were nice and plump.

I like to think of the Company as an island of order and sanity in a sea of chaos, selfishness and irrationality. My fellow soldiers tell me I'm a damn foal, and an idealist, and I white-wash the mercenaries of the Black Company in ways that doesn't serve either the Company or them. But I've been given the role of Annalist, in the absence of anyone better-suited and properly lettered, so until they take the Annals away from me, I'm going to write them as I see fit. The Company has been my home since it forcefully recruited me from my unending apprenticeship, and I've seen more interesting medicine in the years since then than a hundred apothecaries, a dozen chirurgeons, or three other doctors with, pfft, "degrees". Most of it screaming for its mama and bleeding out on my surgery table.

They call me Sawbones, and this is the story of the last of the Black Companies.

The newly-returned Princess Luna can't quite understand why her sister allows her ponies to burn giant wicker and straw images of her royal self. Why would she tolerate this sort of blatant lese majeste?

Maybe it's about reminding the world that the princesses are ponies, too. Or maybe it's just a bit of seasonal silliness. Or maybe it's Celestia's way of reminding herself who they really are, under everything else.

On an unfortunate business trip, Rarity is subjected to a very obnoxious mare with a very beautifully green bracelet. She then finds a strange, uncooperative trunk.

Things do get better from there.

Lickety-Split has sold out Ponyville to an evil frost fiend for the secret of delicious ice-cream and is about to bring about a frosty apocalypse. This can only mean one thing: It's Saturday, and there's only 22 1/2 minutes to save the world!

Only... Lyra's been having a dream. The same dream, again and again all of her life. There's something coming. Something terrible coming from out of the darkness, and it is going to destroy everything. Princess Luna seems very unwilling to do anything about it. Lyra's on her own.

It's Ponyville. Nothing bad ever happens in Ponyville.

But there is an old story. Perhaps the oldest story ever told. Even in Arcadia, there am I.

Entry for the More Most Dangerous Game thing.

You'd think that being trapped in stone would mean that, if nothing else, I could get some peace and quiet. Unfortunately, it seems that Celestia has other ideas.

She has appointed these ponies... these 'Keepers', as she calls them, to keep me entertained during my incarceration.

Honestly? I'd prefer the boredom.

Cover art by matrosha123
Spanish Translation by SPANIARD KIWI found here