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.

There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and humanity is determined to explore every one. We send probes, probes with the blueprints to reproduce human explorers upon arrival. Uninhabited worlds the galaxy over can be colonized and populated, until after many years they too can join the vast throng of interstellar civilization. But if a probe is very, very lucky, it will land on a populated world instead. Equestria is one such world.

Even so, it's far from perfect for colonization, not with an environment lethal to human life. But each probe is resourceful and armed with the greatest machine intelligence mankind has devised. If placing a human mind into a newly manufactured human body won't work, it will just have to get a little more creative.

This book has a Hardcover! If you want to pick it up, you can grab it here: https://starscribe.net/

This story was written at the behest of Canary In The Coal Mine, who is sponsoring it on my Patreon. As usual, cover by Zutcha. Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail.

Fantastic prereading help from: Chyre, Danger Noodle, Doctor Disco, and Doggyshakespeare (who also did the Esperanto translation). Thank you all for helping to make this story more readable and more consistent for everyone.

In this day and age, who has time to be a God? Prayers come in 24/7 and fancy dress is compulsory. Rainbow Dash certainly doesn't have time. She's got bills to pay and things to do. Besides, she isn't qualified for Godhood, surely.

The ponies who say her control of the weather is divine disagree, unfortunately. They've given her a funny spear and a robe that doesn't quite fit. They've got their own temple and they take church seriously.

And it turns out she's not the only pony recently undergone apotheosis...

Teen for immature jokes.

Fantastic, I finally get to visit my favorite cast of awesome talking ponies to have one small thing keeping me from enjoying it to its fullest. I CAN"T FREAKING INTERACT WITH ANYTHING. I guess being a ghost in Equestria isn't the worst thing that could have happened, at least I can shadow my favorite ponies and see what going on in their lives. Heh, I guess I've become the ultimate stalker, I do miss having someone to talk to that wasn't me, myself or I though.

*^*^*
Set before the events of season three.

Rated teen for now for safety, rating may change later on based on where the story goes. Characters will be added later if they get added to the story.

My name is Rachel. Or at least it was. A bad decision brought me to the brink of death. I was "rescued" from that fate by some self-appointed "Spirit of Chaos." Or maybe he really was the devil, I don't know. He promised me a second chance but didn't tell me it would be in the body of a cutesy pony in a world which makes no sense. Worse, I think I've been set up, and something bigger is going on ...

(Rated teen for language and non-gory violence)

Cover art by the talented NoviceCreedArt on tumblr. Link to original work.

Dear [ Rarity ],

It is my sad duty to inform you that your services as Defender of Equestria are no longer required. Your employment was terminated as of three hours before you received this notice. Do not bother to collect your belongings.

In consideration of your years of service to the former management, I have decided, out of the goodness of my heart, to grant you a most generous retirement package: an all-expense paid, permanent vacation for you and you alone to [ a flea-bitten circus on the planet Earth, at the height of the Disco Era ].

Have fun!

Sincerely yours,

D.

President and CEO of Equestria Discorporated

The [AU] tag is there because, as the above quote indicates, this story includes a pre-reformed Discord, circa late Season Two.

Maggie Wilson (26), on a smoke break from her dead end convenience store job in the California mountains, encounters the divine god-princess of a dead world. The princess asks for her help. Mag says yes.

So how do you resurrect a dead world?

Featured on EQD.
Edited by Arcanist Ascendant.

This story is a sequel to The Last Pony on Earth

Alexandria; a name its founders hope might again become synonyms with scholarship in a world that only four months earlier hosted human civilization. Now only the last remnants known as the Human Preservation Initiative have retained their species, the remainder of the population has been transformed completely into ponies. Adapted to survive in a world now saturated with magic, the ponies of Alexandria settle in for what they expect to be long and boring lives.

They are mistaken. Between the gradual approach of winter, being completely new to the magic of their bodies, and the HPI constantly breathing down their backs, life in Alexandria proves to be anything but boring.

Note To E-Reader users: This story contains illustrations in each chapter, which will be lost in the standard fimfiction chapter export. The generous Phoen1x took the time to produce an epub version with all the illustrations intact, which you can download here.

A huge thanks to Zutcha , the artist for this story. Also a huge thanks to my editors Two Bit and Sparktail.