After returning from the wedding in Canterlot, Fluttershy finds an unexpected house guest waiting for her.

After crashing next to a cottage in Ponyville, Chrysalis is determined to return to her hive. If only that element bearer wasn't a master of forces beyond her control.

Or had a lamp.

Entry for the May Pairings 2022 Contest.

(Somehow) Featured second on 2/6/2022!

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.

Chrysalis is sick of Twilight always getting in the way of her plans. So sick of it, in fact, that she's willing to do anything in her power to stop Twilight from stopping her. She'll even go so far as to fall in love with her greatest foe.

Today I did not wake up in a place I recognize. Not that I can remember how I got here. Where even is here? A castle of crystals in a magical world of pastel-colored talking horses. It's like a dream, only I'm also a wearied, mutant bug monster.

What in the world is a changeling? Oh, and what is that about a war we're apparently responsible for? This looks like it's shaping up to be a hell of a new day, at least, if I don't get squashed like a bug before it can even start.

Featured: 2/5/19

Edited and pre-read by: Emtu and Indigo_Celeste

Thanks to all the pre-readers that helped reorganize the first few chapters:
TheOneWithoutAName, TheClassyLeviathan and Mind Jack

Cover art by: KlaraPL

After losing her hive, Queen Chrysalis is forced to start another one. Luckily she has the help of a few loyal subjects who never accepted their fellow changelings new way of life. They must stay hidden from enemies, collect enough food to survive and rebuild their strength. Now the first brood has hatched and there is something very different about one of the larva.

This story is a sequel to The Third Wheel

Double Time is a changeling. Years ago, she fought the Crystal Empire in the war in the north. Now she's Cadence's prisoner.

Together, they'll learn something new about life, and rulership, and what it means to love.

Queen Chrysalis planned for months to finally take Canterlot for herself. Months of reconnaissance, bribery, and maneuvering to finally lower the defenses of the Equestrian capital at just the right moment. But while her stated goal was always to have enough love to feed the desperate Swarm, the reality of the invasion was something else.

The queen spawned thousands of drones, filling the sky with untrained warriors in order to marshal the greatest forces when the day of battle arrived. But then that day came, and they won. Now what? Most of those drones didn't even matter enough to earn a name, and so they will probably die unremembered. But at least one is determined to make something of herself in her queen's new world. She's determined to understand these strange creatures called ponies, and to survive the invasion no matter what.

Begins during a reimagined Canterlot Wedding. Updates every Wednesday.

Sponsored by TyrannisUmbra on my Patreon. Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail. Cover by Zutcha.

This story is a sequel to Things Change

When in the past Twilight had pondered the possibility of reforming Queen Chrysalis, she'd always thought about it in a hopeful way, imagining all the good things that would come from bringing her to the good side of things. The reformation process had certainly not gone the way she'd expected it to, but now Chrysalis was finally one of them, someone she could call a friend, willing to come with her and learn from her.

A creature strong enough to overpower Celestia, with no memory of her time as an evil shape-shifting love-stealing queen, with no knowledge of how to properly interact with others, and with a very poor understanding of how to treat personal space when meeting someone new. Maybe inviting her to stay in the castle in Ponyville had not been the best of decisions.

After having fought and won many battles against the changeling Queen, Princess Celestia always hoped that one day her offer of peace would be accepted and that Chrysalis would walk in her castle as a friend and not as an enemy.

She did not think it would happen like this. She thought the changeling would come in through the door rather than the window, for starters.

This story is a sequel to Princess Celestia The Changeling Queen: Stories Behind the Mask

At the Royal Wedding, Chrysalis and the Changelings were revealed to all of Equestria.

But another mask was torn away that day. A mask born for a thousand years. A mask created on one promise. A mask, that has become synonymous, fused, to its bearer.

A mask that when ripped off, causes Twilight, her friends and Luna to question everything they ever knew about the one pony, one very important pony.

At the Royal Wedding, the meaning of the phrase 'Princess Celestia' changes forever.

NOTE: Chrysalis is NOT Celestia!!! That'd be impossible to pull off.

Credits to: Plainoasis for the design of the cover art
Note 2: Original cover art here: https://angelea-phoenix.deviantart.com/art/Contest-entry-Changeling-Celestia-337023552

Pre-read/edited by Zervziel,
Blankscape,
FinalFan,
Courage Fire
Aurora Borealis

Side Stories to this can be found: here.

An audio-reading on youtube up to Chapter 21 is up by StraightToThePoint Studios. I'm aware there are others but this is the nearest complete one: [embed]https://youtu.be/X3eMW673CSY[/embed]

There are also 2 print versions of Princess Celestia:The Changeling Queen. Nonexistent Publications run and Ministry of Image's run.

Contribute to the TV Tropes Page (thanks to Babs_Seed72 for getting it up)