Princess Flurry's dates are not up to Imperial standards.

With thanks to various Discords for brainstorming and Samey90 and RDT for pre-reading.

Technology has come to Ponyville, and with it all kinds of complications. The School of Friendship in particular has too many students using AI to cheat on their homework. Not to worry, though. A simple, no-exemptions ban on electronics will solve the problem for everyone.

Everyone except the robot employed in the tutoring lounge.

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

As part of the School of Friendship's upcoming Charity Bake Sale, the Student Six were asked to help with getting everything ready. Sandbar, Gallus, and Smolder were working on decorating the gymnasium, while the others helped make brownies in the Home Ec room. While cooking, Ocellus and Silverstream asked Yona to go into town and buy some extra ingredients.

Yona does indeed find the items they need, but not in town. In fact, the yak found plant-based alternatives for all the necessary ingredients hidden in Sandbar's hiking bag. If only she knew Equestrian Botany a little better...

This story is a sequel to They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Ayyyy, featured despite the sequel curse on 16.10.2023! Can we keep the last spot in the box? What's in the box? Why is the box?
EDIT: Added a character cheat sheet on the bottom.

Updates: Weekly-ish

Six years have passed since the Canterlot invasion. While the relationship between the Changeling Hive and Equestria is warmer than ever, the relationship between the deadly tunnels under the Badlands and the small, mostly defenseless changeling drones who live there isn't.
However, thanks to the knowledge granted in the recent years by a mysterious "smart box", and the guidance of drone veterans who survived under the "old rules", the post-Canterlot "new rules", and the terrifying "shippy time", fewer and fewer drones perish daily while mining materials for the hive's day to day operations.
Fewer, though, still means far from zero, and there are those among the drones who are doing all they can to finally transform the underground from fatal threat to something the drones deserve - not just a place to hide, but a true home. With copious amounts of goop, unstoppable curiosity, copyrighted board game, and a blessing from High Score, there's no way they'll fail, or at least not for long.
Drones know that everything is a trade and life is just a price. Unfortunately, sometimes there are near-invisible asterisks.

--High Ranks--
Chrysalis - no need to explain.
99 - a classless changeling. You figure out her rank on your own.
156 - current highest rank infiltrator. She and 387 might be an item.
387 - current highest rank warrior. There's nothing special about him.
2119, 3012 - unlucky top floor guards
--Drones--
10000/10k - drone leader
20100 - a drone supposedly out on a mission for the hive. Painter, the worst nightmare of casinos
57999 - the closest Ds have to a doctor, grows plants in a greenhouse
65536 - a drone living in Canterlot, a Nightguard. Sort of Luna's adopted kid.
99380 - hive mind manipulation specialist, that might be a curse.
99111 - mechanist, tinkerer. Engineer would be too... successful.
99856 - alchemist
99200 - explorer/survivalist
99012, 99066, 99971 - quicktrotters
99911, 99158, 99112 - drone crisis response team
99999 - a drone.
Smiley - a Silent who surived long enough to gain some mental capacity. Can't talk.
--Other--
Gloom, Night Hunter - Canterlot Nightguards

"And if you don't love me now,/You will never love me again./I can still hear you saying,/You would never break the chain./Chain keep us together." -Fleetwood Mac, 'The Chain'

Smolder and Gallus have always had a contentious relationship, which included arguing, insults, and property damage. It has gotten to the point that Headmare Starlight Glimmer to rectify this issue with a very unorthodox method: by cuffing the two students together for a week. Will Smolder and Gallus be able to survive the week in one piece? Or will the school be able to survive Gallus and Smolder?

Cover art made by Nytewell.

Thumbnail made by the Awesome-Amazing - Chilly Krow

He thought he had found a safe haven in Ponyville. A place with infinite love. A place where a Changeling could rest his head. Unfortunately, one too many rash decisions start to add up, leading a certain filly to start pestering the bug.

Current plan is whenever i feel like it (common Cxcd L)

Hitch doesn't really like change. It used to be that if tomorrow wound up pretty much the same as today, with forensic analysis needed to distinguish either from the day before... then that meant he'd done his job. The peace had been kept.

And now everything has changed. There are pegasi and unicorns in Maretime Bay, some of whom seem to believe that they've brought their own laws with them. The task of keeping those interactions from becoming explosive is being pressed between the hooves of one stallion. A decidedly harried, extremely overworked stallion who doesn't like change, happens to be raising a baby dragon on the side, and doesn't understand the other two cultures at all.

Hitch is tired. That's probably not going to change any time soon.

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Spike wins the Gauntlet of Fire but decides not to give the Bloodstone Scepter to Ember for he has other plans in mind. Twilight and her friends are not thrilled to lose Spike but the Dragons welcome him. Spike discovers what Dragons are missing will lead them to prosperity.

Takes place during season 6 episode 5.

This story got featured 4/20/23-4/21/23, 5/2/23, 5/3/23, 5/10/23, 5/14/23, 5/20/23, 6/6/23, 6/21/23, 6/24/23, 6/29/23, 7/14/23, 1/13/24, 3/1/24, 3/22/24 AWESOME!

Spike's plan to get the ponies to trust Thorax was going to work; at least, that's what he thought. It turns out that ponies aren't as easy to accept others as they make it out to be.

Will vary wildly from Show canon, especially in season 7 and beyond.

All Luna wanted was a nice day off. Being bothered by hotheaded young dragons was not part of the plan. And trying to deal with it only lead to the dragon becoming even more annoying.
Something is going on, and Luna does not have the patience to figure it out.

The foolish drake is going to get tired of getting flung off mountains at some point.
Right?

Written for the May Paring Contest