In the wake of Rarity’s ‘improvement’ spree, the Princesses have a discussion about their duties and what it means to be a princess… also they complain a lot… In fact they mostly just complain.

Necromancy gets a bad rep.

Oh, sure, some ponies like the whole cliche of the evil zombie master, pulling his puppet strings to make corpses dance and kill for their amusement. And yeah, you kinda do have to work with dead bodies a lot, and most ponies find that a bit creepy. Oh, and you learn a lot of spells to kill things and gain power from it.

But, come on, that doesn't mean all necromancers are bad... right?

Feature on Equestria Daily

Big Macintosh becomes host to the will of an ancient eldritch necromancer.

Nothing changes.

Written for EQD's Writer's Training Grounds #017.

(Audio version by AppleCore.)

Twilight has been having her study sessions with the Cutie Mark Crusaders for some time, and has been remarkably pleased with their progress. And kind of worried, as they keep getting better and better. She might be a princess now, but TEACHING THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS? She'd rather not become their formal mentor. Yet.

A letter is sent out, and Princess Celestia gets a call for help. And, an opportunity is born. After all, why not? After a thousand years, perhaps it is time to do something else, just for a bit. She does have a rather wonderful younger sister who hasn't been ruling a land for a thousand years, and who has been studying how to rule for the past four rather intensely. So, teaching three fillies undercover? Sounds like fun.

And Luna. She's wanted to be as respected as her sister so much that she once went mad over it. But now, she's simply being handed the power that she once coveted for so long and no longer wants. What kind of a world does she live in now that her highest desire has been so casually granted?

With all of this, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Arcs:

Escape: When Celestia hears the call, she jumps at the chance to teach again, especially three fillies who might surpass her grandest student. But first she's got to escape her own identity...
Examination: So you want to find out what a filly does? Time to test her silly, so long as you don't taunt the Happy-Fun Filly.
Excitement: So, you've found the Happy-Fun Filly. Great, but the other two need help as well, and Scootaloo has this ~Great!~ idea for how to use her new-found magic...
Encouragement: Cometh the Bubbles, and a whole load of new headaches as they find out just what being a Happy-Fun Filly really means...
Exaltation: Where's Luna been this whole time? She can't be very happy about being left in the lurch holding Equestria. She could really use somepony to talk to.
Exercise: 'Sunbeam' is looking to teach the Happy-Fun Filly more, but first she needs to start taking care of the wagon-tire she keeps around her middle so that certain Unfun-Time Fillies don't interrupt her. And there's this big draft stallion looking for help...

As with every living creature, once every year, Princess Celestia has a day that commemorates the anniversary of her birth. Given that she is blessed with many wonderful friends and family members, she receives many gifts on her birthday. Some she likes more than others, while some are rather odd.

On this one thousand seven hundred and nineteenth birthday of hers, she receives a large stuffed squid plushie.

She is perplexed.

Sometimes I just hated going to school with all of those stupid foals. None of them were as pretty or awesome as I was back then. They all thought that I was really mean to them, but what did they know?

At least, that's what I thought at the time. One day I had to have a talk with Ms. Cheerilee about it, and I didn't like what she had to say...

Find this story and more in a print copy! Just click these words here!

Now with a dramatic reading!

After an inventor, Fast Wheels, completes his masterpiece he is invited to showcase it to Princess Celestia herself! So, he arrives at Canterlot to give Celestia driving lessons and the day unfolds in a way that he could never have imagined...

My name is Kadie, and when I was eight years old, my people, the griffins, went to war with the ponies of Equestria. My mother never wanted me to think about that, so she never talked about it. The Emperor told my father that he had to go off and fight the ponies, though, so I know that she thought about it a lot.

A few months after I turned ten, a messenger came into our town and told us that our emperor didn't want to fight anymore, so the ponies won, and we lost. Mother said that since we lived so close to our capital, we needed to go see the pony army meet our emperor.

I did not like that.

Edited wonderfully by Prak

Lemon Dreams is a happy pony with a perfect life in Ponyville. There's only one problem - she thinks she's a lemon.

Is she really a pony-shaped citrus fruit, or is she just crazy? Does it even matter? When Lemon Dreams finds herself at odds with the ponies of Ponyville and pursued by a strangely familiar ghost, she realises she must discover the answers to those questions before it's too late.

History teaches us that Star Swirl The Bearded was one of the greatest unicorn mages ever to have lived. But history is notoriously fickle. Was Star Swirl really the stallion everyone thinks he was? What was the secret of his beard? What the heck was the amniomorphic spell? Discover the truth about Star Swirl, and the greatest con in Equestrian history...