After the Smarty Pants incident, Twilight revisited one subject of books that she never did master: Self-help books. This time, its working! And with new things open to her, Twilight decides to liven up her life a bit.

And what better way to hit the track galloping than by pranking Pinkie Pie?

Her changes will bring both amusement and concern from her loved ones, wondering if they should be worried something is wrong or just happy she's enjoying herself. Because, either way, they got to admit its funny that Pinkie Pie thinks Twilight is reading her mind.

Slightly OOC Twilight, but that's the entire premise.

Timing is Season Three, Post-Sombra but Pre-Alicorn

Discord never betrayed Equestria for Tirek, aiding in returning the magic to all the drained unicorns. As a result, Celestia deems him ready of a "small" gift: The Archduchy of the Everfree, technically making him the highest noble under the princesses.

Naturally, this shocks everypony, including Discord himself. Now of course his lands will some have some chaotic magic and strange laws in effect, but that doesn't mean he doesn't take the noble thing a little seriously. Why is anypony's guess, but it'll be entertaining to watch.

When Midnight Sparkle opens rifts in the world around her, Sugarcoat falls through one of them. She lands in a strange new world, finding herself in a new, equine body, having also managed to fall back through time. How will she get back to her own time and place?

That doesn't matter right now. Right now, it's funnier if she ends up getting caught up in major events in the lives of the ponies around her. So come and read as Sugarcoat leaves her own mark on pony history in the most blunt way possible.

Necromancy gets a bad rep.

Oh, sure, some ponies like the whole cliche of the evil zombie master, pulling his puppet strings to make corpses dance and kill for their amusement. And yeah, you kinda do have to work with dead bodies a lot, and most ponies find that a bit creepy. Oh, and you learn a lot of spells to kill things and gain power from it.

But, come on, that doesn't mean all necromancers are bad... right?

Feature on Equestria Daily

This story is a sequel to The Dresden Fillies: False Masks

It's been a while since the girls have seen their good friend Harry Dresden. Discord escaped, Luna attended her first Nightmare Night, the Royal Wedding was crashed by hordes of changelings, and Pinkie Pie threw a statistically improbable number of parties. They tried inviting Dresden, but between his new job and new apprentice, he always claimed to be too busy. The solution was obvious; if he couldn't come to his friends, they needed to go visit him. Besides, they say Earth is lovely this time of year. What could go wrong?

This story is a sequel to Earth & Sky

Set three years after the founding of Harmony Aeronautics and the Grand Pegathalon.

The best and brightest (or at least flashiest) minds in Equestria are at it again. An accidental combination of Harmony Aeronautics and Lulamoon Studios' latest magical technologies leads to Twilight finding a new way of looking at the world. What will be revealed by her new found perspective, and how will it shake things up in Los Pegasus?

This story is a sequel to Stardust

Times are changing for Equestria as Twilight’s return brings with it news of people and cultures from beyond the peaceful world everypony knows. Aid and volunteers are freely offered to help the besieged humans of Earth because every Equestrian knows that’s what good friends do. Unfortunately, making friends can also have the unintended consequence of making enemies.

When the monsters besieging the humans strike at Equestria with a level of brutality not seen in over a thousand years, the cry for help is sent to all the kingdoms of the world. Honored allies step forth to fulfill ancient treaties and oaths. Enemies, old and new, bury their grievances. An alliance never before seen in Equestria will be created to combat the monsters from the void.

And because of these events, a grim but welcome sibling to the XCOM project is born.

(XCOM/FiM Crossover)
(Sequel to Stardust, which I recommend reading before starting this. Fortitude Amicitia and Broken aren't required reading but are supplemental to the storyline)
(Gore tag for blood and violence)
(Alternate Universe tag because of the divergence from canon that Stardust has caused)
(Uses elements of Season 4)
(Coverart produced by the amazing Carnelian!)
(Many thanks to Arzoo, BradTheBrony, Vandenbz and Setokaiva for prereading!)
(As of 03/07/2016, the prereading team consists of Arzoo, BradTheBrony, Noble Cause and Metallusionsismagic!)
(Complete with it's own TVTropes page as part of the Stardust continuity. Could use some updating!)
(Character tags will be added as chapters are added!)
(Featured 5/12/2014! Thanks folks!)
(Possible spoilers in the comments! BEWARE!)

Twilight Sparkle has spent months researching chaos magic, developing a new spell to unlock magic nopony has ever experienced before. But when something goes wrong with casting, Twilight finds herself turned into a Draconequus and unable to control her new chaos magic. If she ever wants to be a pony again, there is only one who can help her learn to control her new magic.

Of course, learning from Discord was never going to be simple. And after a while, being a draconequus doesn't seem so bad anyway....

Based on the concept by Lopoddity

Editing by DB_Explorer
Proofreading by Mac349 (Ch. 1-11), Trippy998, Just A Fabulous Cat (Ch. 1-5), Doctor Candor and skysthelimit (Ch. 1-11).

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.

Months after Chrysalis's attack on Canterlot, Twilight and her friends are turned into changelings. And not just any changelings. Royal changelings. Royal changelings who've now inherited what's left of Chrysalis's swarm.

The cover was suggested by a friend and was made by 0ravensrequiem0