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 collection of short, random stories. Most of these were comic ideas that, for various reasons, I've decided not to make into comics, but the idea was too good to just abandon.

A Real Princess: The ending to A Canterlot Wedding, re-imagined with Cadance acting more like a real-life princess rather than a perfect magical pony princess.

Sniper: Celestia raises the sun at the Summer Sun Festival, unaware of the pony standing on a distant rooftop...

Flutterdrunk: Twilight discovers the consequences of getting Fluttershy drunk.

A Night With the Moon: Nightmare Moon turns out to be more prepared for the Mane Six's attempt to retrieve the Elements than Twilight had though. Twilight is not prepared for what happens next.

Fish Food: Sunset Shimmer enacts her terrible revenge upon the Sirens.

Edit 11/28/15: Aaaaand I'm now out of character slots to add. I threw the 'other' tag on there, but just assume it's every character ever.

Lovely new cover art courtesy of Dilarus.

Octavia Melody is in a bit of a spot. Life on the Manehattan Space Station isn't easy for most ponies to begin with, but when your BitCard balance is zeroed out and you're living meal to meal? It starts to feel like things couldn't get much worse.

The problem is that that sort of thinking only invites more trouble.

When Octavia suddenly finds herself stuck in the middle of a plot that could destroy the whole of the Grand Equestrian Empire, the source of her next meal is going to be the least of her concerns. Now she must find the Elements of Harmony, unravel the secrets of the Empire, save the universe, and, just maybe, find a way to make some friends.

Quick thanks to my group at the Artist/Writer Collab panel at BABSCon. Without us bouncing ideas around, this story wouldn't be happening!

Also want to thank my stable of pre-readers/editors. So yeah, thanks to The P-Man, Alun Aleriksson, Jack of Most Trades, and Sir Alex. Y'all are wonderful.

Featured on Equestria Daily 12/10/2014! Couldn't have done it without all of my lovely pre-readers, and, of course, my lovely readers.

Derpy Hooves is a happily-occupied mailmare. And as everypony knows, she's extremely fond of muffins. But for those rare instances in which she lacks a muffin to her name, she doesn't take it very well. So, one fine day, Derpy is both lacking in muffins... AND in money. Having no other option, the mailmare decides to get an emergency job at the local library.

Unfortunately, Twilight Sparkle doesn't have much need for yet another assistant; much less one that needs pay. So, to keep Derpy happy for a change, she decides to give her the only other job she could think of... let her keep an eye on a rusty old Time Machine that she just happened to have stashed away in the basement.

...What could possibly go wrong?

Written in my infinite boredom, another fic dedicated to everyone's favorite muffin-lover, and slightly more sensible than the last one I wrote. A two-part fanfic, so, expect Part 2 to come along soon. I might even do more with this idea later on, so who knows?

Featured on Equestria Daily - Jan 27 2013
During an expedition to The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, two ponies stumble upon the origin of the alicorns, the state of Equestrian governance before the Princesses' ascension and the truth behind their father's disappearance.

Blackmailed by Discord, Wallflower and Mayflower are forced to embark on a quest to free the Sun from Princess Celestia's control.

In response, Celestia sends Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash to stop Discord's plans at all costs.

If having Equestria's most powerful unicorn and fastest flyer in hot pursuit weren't enough, the siblings must contend with a rookie agent of the Changeling hive out to prove her worth, an untrustworthy spirit of Chaos bent on his own amusement, and their own strained relationship - all in a game of chess to liberate the sun.

Cover art credit to Man-Eating-Llama
Editor's credit to : notMurphy, ping111, and Letedwend

Spike figures out that Cheerilee is making up reasons to visit Twilight at the library, and Rarity further figures out that it's because she must have a crush on Twilight.

When Ponyville's dedicated fashionista combines forces with Ponyville's only dragon to bring two adorably awkward book loving mares together, nothing can go wrong! Except perhaps, everything!

Oh yeah, and some pony ordered 20 trampolines and a bunch of other stuff that keeps getting delivered to one wrong address after another because of the world's worst delivery pony, Blue Bonnet.. More on that later.

Re-tagged to reflect that it's a Twi/Cheerilee, Mane 6, CMC and Blue Bonnet (Background pony) story.

Also, it's fair to say this is also a AppleDash and Fluttershy / Background pony shipping story. Also ScootaBelle? .
ARTWORK BY WACKEDOUTPET

Chapters 3-10 have been edited by the amazing TheLastBrunnenG

Chapter 9-10, attention must also be paid to pre-readers Guy Incognito, Cola Bubble Gum, and SpaceCommie

Chapters 9-10 also edited by SpaceCommie

Featured May 2013! ADDED TO TWILIGHT'S LIBRARY NOVEMBER 2013! FAN-ART ADDED MARCH 2014!

A new pony in Ponyville has everyone confused as to where he came from, he's a weird one all right, he frustrates the HAY out of Twilight Sparkle. He even makes Pinkie Pie seem sane half the time. But that's fine with him, optimism keeps his spirits up, even if his past isn't the best there's ever been. In fact his past is probably among the worst, but it doesn't keep him down.

Hoh shit: http://puu.sh/9XoeS/0b6064ac12.png

Twilight prepares to leave for princess duties, but something goes amiss and Spike is the first to discover it.

-Part of my 4 in the morning series.

Walking with the paws of an ancient predator, a young man finds himself in a strange world. A world where horses are the dominant species, and he’s a very rare and dangerous animal. How will a speechless man turned wolf deal with society? How will he approach ponies? Would he even want to bother speaking to them?

(Love interest is not revealed in any of the current chapters. So don't freak out when you don't see it. I'm also focusing on a very realistic sense of love. This will be a later part of the story when romance becomes truly relevant. Point out ALL errors to me when you see them, even the ones that have been pointed out already, and I'll see what I can do.)

(Special thanks to my EPIC Proof-reader and Editor ultra1437)

A Metro 2033 crossover.
Seventeen years ago, Princess Twilight Sparkle took her last stand at the Crystal Empire against the Griffon invaders when the impossible happened: the Crystal Heart was destroyed.

The result was a cataclysmic burst of magic which made the surface uninhabitable, driving what remained of the pony race underground into the new Equestrian Metro system.

After years of new factions and bloodshed, Ponyville station has come under threat from a strange new species of mutated ponies: the Dark Ones.

Following her return, Apple Bloom has tasked Scootaloo's adopted daughter with telling the council of Canterlot of the dangers coming from the Everfree forest, before Ponyville and the rest of Ponykind falls prey to this new threat.

But the journey from Canterlot to Ponyville is not a short or safe one. Years of inhabitance in the Metro has changed ponies, so her journey will be anything but easy.

No longer is Equestria the utopia it once was.