An English knight married a kindly woman, touched in the head, who thought she was an alicorn. She was right.

Then one day Cecilia disappeared.

He knew that Cecilia vanished into the side of the statue, the same place she lamented the 'mirror closing' two and a half years ago. He threw a rock at it... and it vanished. It was true. He had to find her.

He didn't care about Cecilia's madness, about this 'Equestria' or her obsession with ponies. He loved her. He loved her enough to walk into Hell itself. He would bring her back, no matter what.

TV Tropes page

Non-canon chapters 8-12

Edited by: John Hood, OkemosBrony, Legion222 & Katherine Kerensky (Chapters 1-12)
Guest Editor: refferree

Celestia wants Twilight and her friends to loosen up a little bit around her. Luna just wants to try the hard cider. During a surprise visit to Sweet Apple Acres at the tail end of cider season, Princess Luna has just a bit too much to drink, and when she makes a rather inappropriate joke, Twilight comes to the very uncomfortable realization that she has never seen Celestia excuse herself to use the restroom.

[img]http://s33.postimg.org/7bfqvgx33/Butler.png[/img]

"My lady once wrote in her very personal and very secret diary that I have problems appreciating personal space. I beg to differ on that sentiment." - A Butler commenting on Professional Discretion -

I'm a Butler. My friends, the imaginary ones at least, call me Butler. My job, looking after my lady, can be...challenging at times, but rewarding. Lately the job's become a little more difficult, especially after my lady's sister returned from the moon and the parliament decided to try and pass an entire bill just to be able to legally get rid of me. But managing the chaos is part of the job description, even if it means I must secretly become my lady's knight captain of her personal bodyguards in order to keep my job. Though even I could never have anticipated having to train knights cunningly disguised as maids to stay one step ahead of the nobles. Ah, the things I do for my princess.

Featured 9 - 12 August 2014. Many many thanks to everyone who kindly made this possible! You guys have doubled the fun!

Now featuring the editing talents of our resident editor Dumbgamer99. Be sure to thank him by checking out his page and giving him a follow!

Butler tag kindly made by undead003. Many thanks! (You'll find it actually works if you click on it.)

Cover Art: This picture totally contains ninjas. You just can't see them, cause they're that good.

Twilight Sparkle presents a collection of interviews, letters, essays, poetry and prose compiled over several years of her relationship with the human Bellerophon and his "herd", covering subjects as broad as Equestrian social taboos, comparisons of earth and Equestrian mythology, romance and the occasional recipe. Compiled by Twilight Sparkle, with foreword by Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia.

(This is a bit of an experiment based on the worldbuilding concepts presented in AnonAuthor's Xenophilia [[NSFW] - caveat lector!], which intrigued me enough to want to take a closer look. It's likely you'll be very confused by this unless you read at least some of Xenophilia. Updates will appear as and when an idea pops into my head for a thing to add. And fair warning, some of this might come across very dry and dusty. Thank you academia! And thank you AnonAuthor for letting me have a go, and both AnonAuthor and AnonponyDASHIE for all the collab work they're doing. I'll make up for the dust by tossing in the odd piece of art now and then.)

Idol Hooves holds a special place in Equestria. He's probably the only exiled changeling to serve in the Royal Guard, or at least, that's what he expects, as exiles don't really broadcast that fact. However, it's well known that Princess Celestia loves all of her little ponies, and her guards perhaps more so, and that makes it one of the best ways for a changeling to discreetly feed.

But how does a changeling even get there, let alone get exiled in the first place? For that matter, why would it ever go to Canterlot? Set a number of years before the series proper, before Luna’s redemption, Idol details how he was exiled, the ponies he’s met, and the series of misadventures that led him to joining the Royal Guard, and should continue a good ways into the series, as something of an alternate perspective.

Soon, he’ll have to deal with a boisterous new princess to serve and a royal wedding in the works bringing a third to power. Will his old instincts bring this new life crashing down around him? What precipitates Chrysalis’s ill-fated assault on Canterlot? Is it really so wrong for a changeling to enjoy good craftsmanship to an obsessive degree?

New cover art provided by the fantastic Carnifex

And a TVTropes page here.

And an Ask Blog of questionable canonity!
Out of Idol Curiosity

Fanart by Norad2! Major thanks! Short For a Royal Guard

Art by Egophiliac of Idol and his Daring Duckie Please don't tell him what that brush is meant for.

Rating updated to (T), it's a bit darker than (E)
Comedy Tag added as well
And changed the character tags a bit.

A failed experiment.

Not exactly new for Twilight. But when the outcome brings forth its own science, the likes of which her nation hadn't even yet dared to hope for, the ponies of Equestria slowly realize that they're in for the adventure of a lifetime.

The problem is, they might just not be ready for the revolutions that technological advancement always brings.

And they're about to get hundreds of years of human science and advancements all at once.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As a forewarning, updates will likely be erratic. I have every intention of finishing this story, it's just that my life has been rather crazy lately as I'm sure many of you can imagine.

Also, if you are going to leave a thumbs down, please leave a comment detailing why. Thumbs downs don't tell me much, and I can't make the story better until people tell me what's wrong with it.
Thank you for your time.

WARNING: There may be spoilers in the comments. Read at your own peril.

Covert Art brought to you by the amazing powers of photoshop with an artist's permission.

Twilight is all ready to start at the College for Gifted Unicorns. Everything is exactly how she dreamed it until... she meets her room mate.

It's been uncounted millenia since the last of Twilight's first friends passed away. Even their names have passed into legend and myth, forgotten by the slow march of time. Now on a far away planet, she finds her musing upon all of her friends over the long years interrupted by her latest faithful student, Calming Waltz.

Now if she can only get that silly pony off to her wedding, and maybe teach her something about why her romance and wedding to come is so special and wonderous... Or at least something for Twilight to get a laugh out of, anyway.

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...

The year is 2557 AD. Four years, seven months and ten days have passed since the activation of Installation 04B and the annihilation of the Flood. While humanity and the Covenant have struck a truce for the time being, and started to rebuild their civilizations, Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan John-117 has been in cryo-sleep, adrift, while his ancillary AI, Cortana, has been trapped in her own thoughts. She had been looking for a reason -- any reason -- to wake the SPARTAN up. Now she had one.

They were crashing.

{Description Edited 4/25/2014: Clarified Installation 04B}
{Edit 05/02/2014: Trimmed character list pending future change}