Lyra stands alone under the tree where she met the love of her life.
With only a hoodie to shield her from the cold night she reminisces about the short time she spent with her love.

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.

Being the highest scorer in his class, Serus Starz expected to gain his rightful spot in the Royal Guard. To his contradiction, he was sent to a different squad that consisted of a Lunar Guard and a griffon. Now, being the job of all three very diverse characters, they must learn the meaning of teamwork and cooperation to prove their name as Squad Z.

Warning: This story does contain a lot of drinking, hardly any action packed adventures, and a whole lot of facehoofing action.

Another Warning: The description and tags may change as the story moves on, but for those that aren't interested in reading a romance story, this will contain no romance what-so-ever.

Story written by Soto Konoha and Strong Charger

Cover art by Equestria-Prevails

Redheart agrees to do a favor for a hospital patient. It sounds like easy money, but when more is asked of her the nurse realizes she's stumbled into something much more complicated and dangerous than she could ever imagine. Unable to get away and unsure who to trust, her only hope for escape might lie in the contents of the mysterious Dominator File.

Strange things happen in Ponyville. Foals start to disappear; their parents and siblings, struck by grief, will resort to every mean to find the cause. Some of them blame timberwolves; some blame the zebra living in the forest. Some of them even blame their fellow ponies. None of them, however, suspects a little filly suffering from insomnia...

Click here for sequels reading order, TVTropes page and other info.
Part of the New Fimfiction Starter Kit

Beware of spoilers in the comments!
Inspired by Bootsy Slickmane's Insomnia.
Preread by Bootsy Slickmane
Translated to Russian by repitter:
🇺🇦Ponyfiction.org link🇺🇦
🇺🇦Gdocs link🇺🇦
Chinese translation by MLM
Russian reading by Demicorn Masterrace

Octavia Melody is an expert at hiding her fear, but in the world of dreams, her subconscious takes hold and she is forced to confront the growing number of nightmares hidden within her. As she faces her anxieties one-by-one, she encounters terrified dream ponies, stalking black-robed figures and an ever-elusive Vinyl Scratch narrowly evading the cellist. Octavia must realize the truth about her terror or her fear may ruin more than her sleep...

This is the darkest of the current four surreal dream tales I've written, but the payoff is totally different from the related stories. I recommend Octavia's story for fans of Silent Hill. The other three are located below:

Rarity's Dream: And then the door opened...
Twilight's Dream: Unicore
Lyra's Dream: The Underville

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You might like this story if you also like:
Dreams in written form
Symbolism hidden within stories
Octavia fighting herself
Reading about Nightmares
Various Monstrous Creatures
One Character Opening Up to Another

One night in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash is having trouble going to sleep. A single candle lights her room, and the shadow of a strange being dances on the wall.

But how can a shadow be cast by empty air?

A short little one shot I wrote, hope you enjoy.

Cover Art by SlashopentheSky, thank you very much for that!

After a tragic accident, a human ends up in Lord Tirek's body, as part of an attempt to reform the villain after his recent escapades. While the hero of our tale is trying to make sense of his new surroundings, the rest of Equestria thinks that the most terrible threat that their world has ever seen is back...
And the powers that be are definitely not happy about it.
New Cover Art By Shadow Bolt

Twilight walks into Quills and Sofas to find out, to her surprise, that Chrysalis works there.

Art made by Kamikakushi!

Now with a silky smooth Youtube reading by Wayart Narration!

Octavia's day had started out as routine as any other. Wake, play at some garden party, eat and then come home. How then, did she end up here in the Everfree, fleeing from a monster intent on killing her?

Edited by Level Dasher.

Now with Audio Adaptation by Thornquill