Chocolate Swirl's job was to read those words, and what came after them. He had to make sure every last friendship letter was stored and ready to be retrieved. He knows so very much about Princess Twilight Sparkle, but that doesn't prepare him in any way for meeting her.

Trigger Warning: Contains scenes that may induce 'daww', 'squee' and possibly diabetic coma. You have been warned.

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Pinkie Pie's birthday is coming up, and given how far along she is in her pregnancy, she's been put on double-ultra-secret activity probation. This means no baking, which means no birthday cake, and that's just something that her daughter, Cotton Candy, can't allow. It's time to bake her a cake! There's only one issue: she can't bake to save her life. Luckily, Papa Pokey's perfectly willing to help out.

Cotton Candy (and the cover art of her) is a creation of the amazingly talented kilala97, who also did the prereading for this story!

Twilight Sparkle is seven years old, and she already knows a lot about the world. What she doesn't understand is her mother: Why does she work so hard when she could be home with her family? Her teacher, Princess Celestia, explains it as best she can.

Sometimes the gift a pony needs the most is the one they don't know to ask for.

When Gaberdine is awarded a noble title by Princess Celestia, he soon finds out that his new lands contain several surprises. For starters, there is no land in his new barony. Secondly, his new castle turns out to be a broken-down riverboat. And third is… seaponies.

Baron Gaberdine has a lot to learn about his new barony. And himself.

Fortunately, he has a very young teacher.

Now with a sea-quill (sorry) Drifting Down the Lazy River

Cover photo by PhoenixSwift
Editing/Pre-Reading assistance by Tek, Shaleclaw, Peter, Seether00, Monsieur Connoisseur, GhostOfHeraclitus, The Masked Ferret, Blue Paladin42 and Admiral Biscuit

Note: Unlike The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian, this is a single POV love story, like Changelings, Love and Lollipops. Only with fewer cannons and fountains.
Now Featured on Equestria Daily
With a YouTube Reading of the first chapter by BigAsh
And with a dramatic reading by Neighrator Pony and company Full playlist here.
Thanks for a wonderful review by Paul Asaran
Available in paperback through Lulu.com at cost.

Everypony knows Twilight Sparkle as the sweet, studious unicorn whose magic powers are matched only by her incredible focus and organizational skills. When Twilight's friends make fun of the way her checklists and schedules control her life, Twilight just laughs.

One day, for reasons known only to her, Twilight goes on an unstoppable organizing rampage. Soon, Rarity decides that she's had enough, and tries to stop Twilight before she organizes Carousel Boutique into oblivion.

Twilight Sparkle is very, very organized. Twilight Sparkle has never told anypony why she's so organized. Until now.

Dragons are remarkably resilient creatures. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this is their ability to bathe in molten rock as casually as a pony might relax in a hot tub. The temperatures involved would burn a pony before they even got close enough to touch it but dragons are made of sterner stuff.

For a dragon living among ponies this means it can be difficult to feel warm.

Long before moving to Ponyville, Spike struggles with this problem when Canterlot slips into the grip of winter. Eventually he braves the cold of the world outside his basket in search of warmth.

But it's Twilight who will be faced with the collateral damage.

A random standalone story that popped into my head the other day. Set a few years before Twilight and Spike move to Ponyville and before Spike becomes Twilight's assistant.

There are many different kinds of immortality. Some achieve immortality through great deeds of heroism. Some do it by discovering a spell custom-made to kick Death in the teeth. There are a select few who are immortal simply because they consistently avoid dying.

But perhaps the rarest breed of immortal is the one who escapes death by dying so suddenly that they come back to life.

The phoenix is one such immortal, and Philomena is one such firebird. But for all the time that she spends in the company of alicorns, Philomena rarely thinks of herself as immortal or ageless. When one defines the passage of time by one's death, immortality can be a difficult label to wear.

But life has a way of reminding us of our labels. Sometimes it uses traumatic events. Sometimes it takes the form of a blessing nobody else can enjoy. And once in a very rare while, life makes us fall in love with somebody we can never stay with.

When little filly Sunset Shimmer dresses as a Royal Guard for Nightmare Night, Princess Celestia gets the great idea to make Sunset her little guard for the night. Ain't nothing getting past this little filly!

I was given the inspiration for this story from a line from this story by TheNewYorkBrony.

Equestria hasn’t seen a shooting star in over a thousand years. Derpy Hooves thinks it’s time to give her daughters a Hearth’s Warming gift they’ll never forget.

Written for the 2017 Obselescence Memorial Jinglemas Twinglemas Secret Santa Sendoff, as a present for the fantastic FanOfMostEverything. Thanks to Posh for editing help, and for being the most lovable hugmuffin around.
Cover art by myself and Amber Spark, with a little bit of help from the Scientific Notebook Company.