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.

This is a collection of classic zen koans retold with Friendship is Magic characters.

Koans are small questions, poems, or stories used in Zen Buddhism to bring about enlightenment in the reader.

Rebooted April 2018. I'll remove this message once we're caught up again.

On secret assignment from Princess Celestia herself, Twilight investigates a powerful magical artifact for clues to the mystery of Luna's transformation in the evil Nightmare Moon. Incautious use of the artifact sends Twilight hurtling back in time. Can Twilight discover what caused Luna's transformation? And will she ever make it home again?

Kickass cover art used with permission from Bitz.
http://allthebitz.tumblr.com/

Compelled by the unholy power of Aunts, young gentlecolt Birdy is sent to Canterlot to bolster Prince Blueblood's reputation and steal a piece of valuable military history.

With the help of his new (and impossibly intelligent) servant, he just might manage to survive the splendors of the capitol city.

Princess Celestia is a living legend, but much of her life is shrouded in mystery. Records have long since been lost to the decay of time, and the tale of her triumph over Discord has become a fable. The Princess's memory of the event has long since faded... or has it?

Her faithful student lending an eager ear, Celestia recounts the true story of a war-torn Equestria, the struggle against Discord, and the early years of her own life.

Before she was the Princess of the Sun, she was merely a stranger.

(Featured on Equestria Daily!)

The longest walk she'll ever take.

It was a night like any other in Ponyville. It was, until a shooting star turned into a burning streak that roared overhead before crashing off into the distance. At first it looked like a meteor. But then it had turned, quite sharply, and flattened its trajectory, sailing uncomfortably close to the treetops.

Twilight Sparkle had dismissed the idea of visitors from beyond the stars as pure fantasy, the type of pulp novel that Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy. Now it was a frightening possibility, and now nothing could ever be the same.

Unbeknownst to her, the accidental visitors to Equestria are just as frightened. Laws of physics that had long been understood and mastered have broken down, leaving them trapped and sitting on a possible ticking time bomb on this strange fantasia of an alien world. As utopias collide, both are faced with an event outside all comprehension, events which civilizations rarely encounter more than once, and generally the same way as a sentence encounters a full stop.

A crossover with The Culture series by the late Iain M. Banks.

Twilight sparkles wakes up to some bad news.
Apparently she went crazy with magic and decided to try to take over the world, including Equestria.
Oddly enough, this has been working out rather well.
Unfortunately for her she seems to of forgotten most of it.
Goodluck Twilight!
[New chapters being edited. Old chapters being edited as time allows.]

THIS IS NOT MY STORY!

Well, not only mine, anyway. Each author is listed with the chapter. A lot of people like writing short fiction based on Friendship is Optimal. So, anyone who wants their work added here can PM me and I will make you your own chapter. The first one sets up an in-universe frame story, because the Optimalverse is all meta like that.

Credits:

Iceman for writing the original Friendship is Optimal
Eakin for spearheading the project of anthologizing these.
MegaSweet for the original artwork.
Lacon-te for the photomosaic work.

When I'm writing, I often get ideas. Many of these ideas are bad, or won't fit with the stories I'm writing. Some of them are sticky though. They won't go away and make room for the new ideas that I need, until I write them down as fast as I can.

From now on I keep them here, a tiny little window into the strange, strange place that is my mind. Updated when it has to be.