Long after a pony's mortal form has passed away, their soul persists in the Ethereal Realm. Those who are judged to have lived a worthy life may ascend unto Heaven, and evildoers will pass into Hell for all eternity. Nopony knows what sort of actions end up with your soul powering Twilight Sparkle's coffee maker but, given that an eternal soul is an eternal source of energy, Twilight isn't complaining.

Written in response to a blog which calculated the inflation-adjusted value of a human soul based on the song, 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'.

It was no national secret.

Celestia always told her guards that nopony was to touch her mane. Ever. If terrorists broke into the castle and held her at swordpoint, they were to let her die before anypony touched her mane. If an adoring foal ever grasped for her flowing locks in the street then they were to be tackled as if they had held a knife to her throat. If she tripped at the top of the Unreasonably Long Staircase in the highest tower of the castle, broke her wings and began to slide over the edge of the stairs then they were to look on impassively as she fell rather than grasp her by her mane to save her.

Nopony was to touch Celestia's mane; it shouldn't have been a difficult command to obey. Somewhere in the depths of the Canterlot archives lay a twisted and malicious law on the subject and now, for the first time ever, she had to exercise it.

For fate had dealt her a hand worse then death, worse than damnation, worse even than Discord.

Fate chuckled, or perhaps cackled, and threw her a mane full of Pinkie Pie.

Having a pair of benevolent god-monarchs as the ruling powers in Equestria has worked for thousands of years, but there are some ponies, particularly those sitting one step from the top of the ladder, who feel that having the top of the ladder permanently occupied by all-powerful and, more annoyingly, immortal rulers is violating some unwritten rule somewhere.

And there are always those on the bottom who figure that a little social reshuffle might be in order.

Cover art by the wonderful "sophicabra" on deviantart; I can recommend a gander: http://sophiecabra.deviantart.com/

Pinkie Pie frequently does ridiculous, dangerous, and frankly foalish things. Nopony's quite sure how she gets away with them, but she always seems to emerge with nothing more than a faint craving for cake.

Ponyville's resident sarsaparilla brewer, Sassaflash, knows Pinkie alternately as "a valued customer", and "that crazy pink mare that lives in a bucking gingerbread house", and certainly has no wish to be dragged into her antics, "valued customer" or not. That said, when a pony can hide any given object about their person, who wouldn't be just a tiny bit (fatally) curious?

It should also be noted that there doesn't seem to be any way out of... "There"... from the inside. Somepony should look into installing a door or something.

Cover Art by deviantart's wonderful "SilverVector", I recommend them for all your vectorfull needs!

Poor Sassaflash, she needs more art love; just look at how sad she looks...

Octavia Melody is the most difficult part of Symphony's day. Everypony hangs on her every word, worships the ground she walks on, and generally makes a big fuss over little things even when, in Symphony's expert opinion, she got that 3rd G flat wrong in the second movement.

Thankfully, Symphony has a sister; a very observant sister who's intent on coaxing Symphony's woes from her in the least embarrassing way possible.

No matter how embarrassing the least embarrassing way is.

A story designed, or at least intended, to cause warm feelings without the requirement to set fire to your house. You're welcome.
Many thanks to CyanAeolin for the cover art for the piece, have a gander at his deviantart page for both similar, and different, images.

Everypony in the club? Yes?
Good. On with the synthesizers.
Octavia, "Call me 8-B3AT", Melody runs the sound-desk; every night hundreds of expectant ponies lend her their ears and every night she delivers, her masterful hooves spinning complex electronic beats on the mixing boards of La Maison Nuit: Canterlot's most popular, and most exclusive, nightclub.
But tonight there's an extra pony in the club, a friend of the owner, apparently, but acting far from ecstatic. One morose mare taking in nothing more than scotch and soda is not something Octavia is ready to tolerate.

Between sets it's time to lift the shades, drop the hood and party down.
Nopony's going to be unhappy on her watch, and she took lessons from the Party Pony herself.
Oh yes.

CyanAeolin (on deviantart) is responsible for the wonderful cover art which was the inspiration to write this thing in the first place. And I must agree with him: Octavia is best pony.

Edit: Wow, front-page feature. Thanks for the support you guys!