Warning: Philosophically dark.

A lot has happened since Celestia and Luna disappeared nine hundred years ago. There are no wars, no diseases, no pain, no death. Princess Twilight, Discord, and Spike do everything to ensure that the utopia continues.

But even the most ideal paradises have ponies that wish it wasn't so.

Story inspired by Mister Saugrenu’s artwork 1000 Years in the Future.

Reading by Scribbler Productions

Edited by Soge.
French translation by Anima Draconis.

With a name like Schadenfreude and a special talent for either finding or setting off all those little nuances or annoying ticks that just drive ponies mad, you'd think he'd spend most of his time in prison. On the contrary.

He's Prince Blueblood's butler.

Actually, he does get thrown in the dungeon a lot.

Here's just one of those instances.

(New cover art by the fantastic TodayIWriteFanfics!)

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.

Monster attacks. Crime. Illegal hallucinogens made from electric fruit.

They say things didn't use to be like this. They say things were different, before Luna came back 60 years ago, but Detective Hard "Hardy" Boiled of the Detrot Police Department has never known any world other than that demarcated by the seedy streets of his beloved decaying metropolis; a world in which the coroners sing and dance, surveillance bugs have personality disorders, and the Chief of Police is a scarier entity than most of the eldritch things the city attracts.

The grey unicorn who turned up dead outside the posh High Step Hotel seemed like just another case, but her missing horn is the pointy tip of a very large and nasty iceberg. It's up to Hardy and his friends - a rejected monster hunter, a psychic cab driver, and an underground antiques heir - to find out what’s going on in an investigation that promises to stick more than a cupcake into the very eye of Detrot.

Especially if Hardy has anything to say about it.

By Popular Demand, there is now a Patreon

Additional editing by coandco Sig_Awesome, Hinds, Clint, and Raccoon!
Featured on EQD - 5 Stars!
Cover art by MisterMech (http://mistermech.deviantart.com/)
Now with TVTropes page here!

Updates: Weekly, hopefully.
Don't think about this too much, it hurts the squishy sponge.
WOO, FEATURED! 18.1.2020

EDIT: Added a character cheat sheet in the bottom of this section due to requests.

The only thing that's known about changelings in general is that they came from the Badlands and that they eat love. Oh right, and that their queen is evil, cool, and certainly does not star in some of the wilder pony dreams.
Not much, is it?
The thing is, it's not as if they know too much themselves. For example, how many of them there really were? How many of them survived the invasion? How silly was it to attempt to disrupt princess Celestia's cake supply?
No one can fully answer such burning questions. Only one thing is for certain - they're now everywhere, and they all have their own stories to tell, some long, some short, some violent, some silly, some happy. Changelings all over the place.
Not every creature minds, though.

--156,387--
156 - infiltrator, F, hive loyalist.
387 - warrior, M, knows strangely too much.
918 - infiltrator. F.
47989 - drone, hit head on rock, a bit confused
559, 791, 2899 - warriors, M
10013, 13887, 19441, 31214 - drones

--1988,9999--
1988 - infiltrator, M, in charge of the lumber camp lings, totally femboy looking.
9999 - currently the highest ranking drone in the hive, involuntary drone Jesus.
36658, 57999 - drone bark meister, drone bark padawan. Definitely not opiate dealers.
13415 - drone, second-in-command after 9999.
17070 - cooking drone, deaf.
20100 - moving pictures drone
54331, 74989, 33125, 65661 - drones
3x Silent

--1313--
1313 - infiltrator, M, breaks easily, is put together easily.
Zamira - F, Blueblood's zebra bodyguard

--65536--
65536 - drone, requires no details here.
Sharp Biscuit - Batpony, M, Nightguard Commander.
Beacon - Unicorn, M, paladin Grandmaster
Pink Sunset - Batpony, M
Gloom - Batpony, F
Night Hunter - Batpony, M
Steel Glimmer - Batpony, F