In the aftermath of the hive's reformation and hard-earned acceptance across Equestria, many changelings find themselves freely traveling the continent. When one of them ends up in a modest little town on Equestria's outskirts, he charms a local stallion with tales of a place where all is lackadaisical and cuddly, and offers him a demonstration.

Featured 10/23/23 - 10/25/23

* Part of the Love Bug Continuity!
* Cover art by Scornfulpainter.
* Edited by Double R Forrest.
* Dedicated to LevelDasher, and partly inspired by his work, Come See the Cuddlebug.

Everypony has a story. Some tell of heroic feats and grand adventure. Others tell of villainy against the forces of Harmony. The story of an average guard, however, is one of obscurity. They live in the background, unnoticed but ever-present.

Silent Knight assumed his tale would be like that of his father's: join the Royal Guard and serve Equestria. He would be just another helmet and spear, part of the rank and file. And that was all he ever wanted.

However, when Captain Shining Armor asked for volunteers to form a House Guard for the recently returned Princess Luna, it was Silent's hooves that stepped forwards to set his new life in motion.

A head full of romance is what many Canterlot ponies would call a frivolous waste of time. Everypony was meant to play by the rules of high society: keep your nose in the air, laugh at important ponies' jokes, and attend all of the right parties. Upper Crust and Jet Set had been diligent in raising their daughter Crystal Wishes to be a pony everypony would know, but she wanted more out of life than that. She hoped she would someday meet a handsome prince and fall in love, just like in the stories she wrote.

Crystal knew life wasn't as easy as a foal's tale, but that didn't stop her from dreaming. All of the wishes, hopes, and dreams inside her heart escaped into her precious notebook as she wrote about princesses in power and dashing knights. So long as nopony found out her secret, she could continue to play the part of a dutiful daughter while waiting for her own love story to begin.

Damned if Anon knew why he was assigned a caretaker, considering he was a grown-ass man, but that's exactly what the Princesses had done after he arrived in Equestria. Aside from the deluded, motherly nut-job that looked after himself, his life was pretty normal. He worked a job, he had bills to pay, and he did his best to find a place for himself - regrettably and much to his continued misery, his mom™ always found a way to complicate matters.

Kinks Include: Wholesome, albeit questionable affection between a large, older mare and her adopted son

Artwork by AnonTheAnon (Twitter @RealAnonTheAnon)

If you want to help support me, I have a Tip-Jar/Patreon HERE

Rainbow Dash has important news to share with her friends; she's pregnant. Obviously, this comes as a surprise to everypony, especially Twilight, given that the two are currently dating.

In other news, Twilight finds out she might be a morosexual.

(Rated teen for discussions of sex. No actual sex happens.)

Pre-Read and edited by Rimmer.
Cover art by ModMCdl because he doesn't like it when I don't use cover art.

Following her heart, Princess Flurry Heart allows herself to be taken prisoner by Cozy Glow, Empress of Tartarus.

In a single night the world is changed forever after. Humanity has found out that it does not walk alone, that there are others out there. In the wake of this startling revelation, a young woman tries to find herself as her world is turned on its head.

This is an invasion, but the kind that no one was expecting.

Special thanks to Astrocity, Skeeter The Lurker, and The Cake Devil for all of their help editing this. If you guys have a minute go check out their stories. Also, I'd like to thank the many Anonymous animals on google drive. You never told me your secrets, but you were always there when everyone else was asleep.

Tempest Shadow was saved twice by Twilight Sparkle. First from The Storm King, then from punishment for what she had done under his command. It would stand to reason that she feels eternally grateful towards the princess of friendship and promises to do all she can to repay the kindness she has shown her.
But now Tempest, or is it Fizzle Pop, feels like she cannot fulfill that duty to Twilight, at least not while Twilight herself is around her.

I honestly put off watching the movie for so long because I didn't know how I would feel about it. It was better then I thought it would be, but I was most interested in the new character it added to the series. The prevalence of Tempest fics lately has led me to finally decide to do my own. I'm really interested in diving into a not as well defined character for once, so let me know what you think of my interpretation of her. Comments are always welcome, good or bad.

Rainbow Dash's morning was pretty much ruined.
She tripped getting out of bed and landed flat on her face, giving herself an aching muzzle.
She forgot to buy her favorite brand of hay flakes at the store yesterday and had to eat plain toast for breakfast.
She found out she had to pull double-duty today and tomorrow on the weather patrol.
Oh, and she found a nearly-dead foal, broken and bleeding at the edge of Ponyville.

The rest of her day became a whirlpool of stress and worry but the colt woke up, thank Celestia.
Something's not right, though. Nopony can find his parents, he's not in the registers, and there's an unsettling look in his eye...

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YouTube reading by Fire Hearth

Chinese Translation by forgivenlove

Russian Translation by Likantrop

TV Tropes page, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

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.