Have you ever seen a pony that just seemed out of place? Perhaps some mannerism, some behaviour that just struck you as odd? Some piece of clothing that didn't seem quite right? perhaps a coat or mane whose colour just seemed flat-out weird. A strange build, a strange voice, or maybe they were perfectly normal, except that you swear you just saw the exact same pony not five seconds ago somewhere completely different?

Of course you have. Everypony has encountered an Outsider at some point. But never up close, it's always at a distance, and they're always gone before you have the chance to challenge them.

But sometimes the rules get broken. Sometimes fate gets distracted for a moment, and a lone unicorn mare gets to see something that she was never meant to see.

Twilight Sparkle's day is about to get very weird.

FAQ and Supplemental Materials (Potential Spoilers for new readers)

Featured! Twice!
...I really don't know what to say!

Special Thanks go to Horizon for initial proof-reading, editing, and signal-boosting, provided as a prize for spotting an Easter egg in his story Hard Reset II. Seriously, it's an awesome, brain-warping story and you should go read it right now.

Thanks also go to my editors for putting up with my atrocious grammar and spelling errors - Ganelon, Ephraim Blue, BronyWhooves, Commonancestry, Princess Autumn Forest, and Morning Sun

Cover art credit goes to EMedina13 and tamalesyatole. I am looking for more appropriate art, so If you think you can do better, let me know.

On a patrol through the White Tail woods, Twilight comes across a dying changeling. Torn between giving up the drone to the guards or leaving it in the inhospitable wilds, Twilight reluctantly takes the drone in. As it awakens she realises that the drone was a blank slate, with no connection, no 'programming' guiding its functions. So Twilight sets out to teach this changeling about the world, one hoof step at a time.

Rated Teen for slightly mature themes involving ethical dilemmas.

If Word Worthy stopped editing for me, I'd likely wind up as a grammar-less hack. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

When Spitfire finds herself grounded on the team injured list just before a show in Manehatten, she prepares for her life to crumble around her. The experience leads her to come across Rainbow Dash, temporarily managing the Manehatten weather teams. The two fliers will discover that sometimes it takes the darkest moments of our lives to find the brightest ones.

The Sequel: Feathers of Blue and Gold is out now!
Review in progress by Inky J
Video Review by Goomba Brony!
Video review by the wonderful ChaoticSeven!
Edited by the wonderful Taxus, Sorren, and Sojourner.
I do my own cover art.

Celestia: a filly of twelve. A cynical, hungry pauper, with a young sister to protect and feed.

But the food has run out. Winter has gripped the land for too long, and now the pair face starvation.

The cynic in Celestia knows she can't move the sun. But the child in her wonders... and so she tries.

(Inspired by the Donovan song of the same name.)

(Now with a dramatic reading here, by Crafty Arts, and here, by KeyframeProductions.)

(Now with a Spanish translation here.)

As it turns out, Rainbow isn't as good at skipping stones as she thought she was. Luckily for her, she'll end up getting help from a place that she didn't expect.

Maybe there will be more to this that she didn't expect either.

(An uncomplicated shipping story. Proof-read by Desol starting at Chapter 2.)

After bumping into a rude pony from flight school, Rainbow tells a rather large lie to save face.

Shouldn't have did that, Dashie.

A two part story.

Twilight Sparkle has been feeling strange, and these feelings seem to be centered on her friend, Rainbow Dash. After a few years of hanging out, reading together and so on it seems the simple feelings of friendship have evolved into something more. The easy part is recognizing that fact. The harder part is figuring out what to do now.

Thanks to the glorious A Dark Reminder for proofreading. Go check him out. He's a cool guy.

A short attempt at TwiDash.

Set between Season 4 and Season 5.

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.

During the Changeling invasion, Cadence used the power of hers and Shining Armor's love to expel the Changelings from Equestria. But what if it only expelled them from the Throne Room. What if they were still in the city.

What if... instead, it transported two American Apache gunships over the city?

Obviously, death and chaos ensue.

Dramatic Reading by Dr. Renegade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vye-9yUffc

(Oneshot)

Twilight isn't having a very good day. An experimental spell blew up in her face, an army of changelings is attacking Canterlot, and she just died. Yet somehow, it looks like it's going to keep going downhill from here.

Given the chance to correct what's gone wrong, Twilight swears she's going to fix all this even if it kills her. Which it will. Frequently.

Cover art by Pixel Prism
Spanish Translation
Series TV Tropes page