Cadance always wants to be with Shining Armor. She has no plans to leave him. Ever.

Thank you to my wondrous editor RK for being so patient.

Few things hold memories the same way as a family recipe. Each time it is made, it allows us to reminisce about the previous times the recipe was prepared and enjoyed with friends, family, and even strangers.

On one particular morning, Applejack is preparing every family recipe she knows for a very important reason.

Princess Luna not wanting to attend the Grand Galloping Gala has Princess Celestia worried about her sister more than it should.

The cover art belongs to Lulubell and all credit goes to them. Takes place before 'The Best Night Ever'. Buy this story! Contribute to the TVTropes page!

With Princess Cadence and Prince-Captain Shining Armor out on a date together, Thorax is charged with caring for their darling filly. Which means tonight is the perfect time for important things like pouncing lessons, complete with live guards to surprise!

Preread by Timaeus
Artwork by Inuhoshi-to-Darkpen
YouTube Reading by Lotus Moon.

In the best case scenario, diplomacy is a long, complicated, and often frustrating undertaking. This is not the best case scenario.

Picture is from silfoe

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.

With Celestia out on vacation for a week, Cadance sees a fine opportunity to spend some time with her Auntie Luna, who's now in control of Equestria for that time. She's always known Luna to be a bit... different, but she never thought she'd find herself suspecting her Auntie Luna of trying to take over Equestria again. Is she simply over-thinking things, or is something truly the matter with Auntie?

Set mid Season 2.

Featured on: 1/30/17!
Also, this is now my 5th story to have 100 likes!
Also pt2, this story was featured in SA Review #104! Check it out here!

SPOILERS IN COMMENTS
Preread/Edited by MLPMatthew419 and Mocha Star

Both Princess Celestia and Luna have come to the conclusion that Twilight Sparkle is ready for the next step in her alicorn training.

And all she has to do is turn around.

And take a deep breath.

This story is a sequel to The Mare In Gold

When a Royal Guard of the Crystal Empire finds an abandoned changeling foal, she takes in the infant and raises it as her own daughter. It’s love at first sight, and the bond that forms between them gets the guard in a lot more trouble than she bargained for.

Up Next: Black Gold

Over a thousand years ago Starswirl the Bearded wrote his last spell, an incantation that by his own admission was "broken and unfinished". Centuries later Twilight Sparkle derived from it the spell that allowed her to ascend and become an alicorn. But while she was able to reverse the effects of the spell on her friends, they weren't the only ones affected.

Co-written with River Road and Edited by The Weakest Link