Fluttershy and Discord keep pushing forward with their relationship even when they have no idea what they're doing.

Especially when they have no idea what they're doing...

An entry in Imposing Sovereigns III, using the prompt Fluttershy & Discord/Determination, this story earned an Honorable Mention!

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

-
YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Ever since he was a foal, Light Flow had always known he was destined to be a villain—but not just any villain; no, he wanted to be a Necromancer.

He had always been obsessed with reading fiction stories about the forbidden practice of Necromancy, and much to his delight, his cutie mark spelled his unavoidable destiny as a member of his oh-so revered profession!

But Necromancy is extremely taboo, and very illegal. Equestria hadn't even seen a genuine Necromancer since the times of the fabled Nightmare Moon.

Substituting joy for dread, Light Flow knew that he would have to hide his especially special talent at any cost. Whether in his daily, mundane life as a bookish nerd, or in the heat of extreme danger.

Good thing he doesn't have any friends, right?

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I have deleted the old AN in favor of a new one.

Hello all! If you don't know me, then good! I'm a stranger, and it'd be weird if you knew who I am!

This is my first story, and basically my first experience writing something long-term. To that end, the beginning of the story is a bit rough, but I grew as a writer somewhat significantly as time went on, so it doesn't stay quite as bad!

The story itself has somewhat wavered from goal to goal as I argued with myself about what I wanted from it, though I eventually managed to settle. In its current state, it's mostly managed to stick to a strange blend of comedic tragedy interspersed sporadically with magical jargon and slice of life.

An added warning due to justified complaining: this experience can be very subdued. Not for the easily bored or angered. Personally, I tend to use Background Pony as a benchmark for a person's capability to withstand words.

Prepare yourself for lots of rants and barely coherent plot-threads!

Also i'm an idiot who probably tagged wrong.

Also i'm a bad person who stole a Jargon Scott image for the cover. (And then a wonderful person named Adin Terim edited it <3)

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.

In an unremarkable city, in an unremarkable hospital, to two unremarkable ponies, a filly was born. A filly who was all too remarkable. A filly who radiated Destiny, and Adventure.

Her parents, however, liked their unremarkable life, in their unremarkable city, and wanted nothing more for their little filly than to have a nice, normal, unremarkable youth. So whenever Destiny or Adventure reared their heads, they made sure to nip it in the bud. Magical portals, foreign princes, time travellers and mysterious salesponies of magical musical instruments all got the same answer:

Nope.

Based on the Nope: The Anime joke (original posts) that went around on Tumblr some years ago. Expect silliness.

Covert art based on a picture by greyscale / Theponysketchguy, edited by me to change her hair and eye colour and make her look younger.

Spanish version:
Un poni llamado Nop on DeviantArt, translated by SPANIARD KIWI.

When I agreed to be sent to Equestria I didn't read the fine print. I'm the wrong age, the wrong sex, and lost in the wilderness.

New Cover art commissioned from Lunar Froxy.

Summary

It's the day of Matilda and Cranky's wedding, and Bon Bon is finally able to admit to Lyra her secret past as Agent Sweetie Drops. Then later that night, her other secret: that she has been in love with her for years. But Lyra has a secret of her own to tell. Something that disturbs her.

She heads north, to the Crystal Empire, to consult with the Princess of Love.

Spoiler Summary

A religious fundamentalist visits a demi-goddess of her religion to ask her to put her allosexual marefriend through conversion therapy to turn her demisexual. Said demi-goddess, who is somehow a very tired atheist academic sexual ethicist, helps her get over her allophobia instead.

Content

Sex: Nothing is depicted, but this is a story that takes the "Lyra has a human fetish" thing seriously, and treats it as something for her potential partner to come to terms with, particularly how it intersects with the parts of Lyra's sexuality that are stigmatized in this version of Equestria. Thus, sexuality and the Equestrian perception of its ethical bounds are discussed heavily in Part 2. This includes hinting at (but not naming or describing) some unpleasant things and the unleashing of the rage of a demi-goddess over it.

Author's Note

Thanks to Gay For Gadot for feedback on the first draft!

This is my attempt at not only taking the whole "Lyra has a human fetish" idea seriously, but also taking very seriously the canon depiction of sex (that is, it is never mentioned or even implied, because it is a show for children).

I've had this very canon-deviant headcanon for Princess Cadance for a long time, given her nation's isolation from the rest of Equestria and the whole "Princess of Love" thing being a little too on-the-nose for my liking, going by straight canon. I had a lot of fun writing her interactions with my version of Bon Bon, who is the Equestrian version of a religious fundamentalist.

Once upon a time, the School of Friendship was praised and accredited, after its lessons drove a little filly mad. Imprisoned in Tartarus with only an ancient monstrous centaur to keep her company, Cozy Glow was in the perfect place for Grogar to whisk away so that he could force her to do his bidding.

Twilight Sparkle's friends, bastions of Equestria's highest virtues, left Cozy Glow forgotten and alone, locked in that rusty cage deep underground. Nopony ever attempted to visit her, check up on her, care for her, reform her, or try to find out what was wrong with her.

This is not that story.

Harry Potter had the (mis?)fortune to fall through a portal to the Everfree near Ponyville. He was transformed into a unicorn, to his surprise. After being found, Twilight Sparkle took him in as an orphan, and to learn more about him as he learned more about Equestria. His adventures there are another story. This story is about what happens when he is pulled back to the human world by the Goblet of Fire when he is fourteen.

Finding himself back in the human world is bad enough, but also to discover he has an unbreakable magical contract to compete in a Tournament that is known for the deaths of the competitors is just icing on the cake. What else can go wrong?

(Not a continuation of “If Wishes Were Ponies . . .”)
Scheduled posts on Monday and Thursday (UTC-4)

Edited by gerandakis. Picture by Quinn Kepner, from an image in the MLP comics.
Made the Featured List with Chapter 1! Hurray! And Popular Stories list on 9/14! A second Hurray!
And every 100 up votes gets an early release of the next chapter.

Life has a weird way of messing with you. You might get screwed here or there, out a job, maybe a stab in the back, nothing you can't get back from. Then there are those times. The times you can't get back from within your wildest dreams. And the universe couldn't cut me a break and make the impossibility simple. Nope, didn't get to stay human, didn't get the luxury of being transmorgified into a pony, griffon, or other, I didn't even end up as an already established pony within the candyland of Equestria!

Nope, for me, I wake up not as Pinkie Pie, but instead inside the mind of Pinkie Pie. Back on the rock farm when she was a filly. My name ain't that important anymore, but Pinkie's taken to calling me Mena. And it's gonna be a long, windy, freaky road ahead, ain't it?

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[Tags will be updated if need be. Dark tag there for overall and reoccurring themes. And while it's not enough to warrant the tag there may be adventure elements from time to time. Critique is welcome and I hope you enjoy!]

Holy cow, featured on day/night one! Thank you muchly so everybody!

9/19/2023: Overall grammar overhaul for existing chapters.