I was just hoping to get this last job done, always getting sent to this dimension or that, always doing the interests of others. Unfortunately, everyone's luck eventually runs out, and it looks like mine has ran out as well. Now somehow I got stuck in this place, in a foreign body, and things just keeps getting worse for me. What did I do to deserve this?
Note: This is not a HiE story.
Editors: Discord Kantus (Chapters I-XLII), Hyari (Chapters XXXIV and onward), Fourpony
Art: AlicornParty

Twilight and Shining Armor have a little sister named Light Step. Everypony tells Light Step how lucky she is to be related to such great heroes.

Light Step wishes she could smother them both.

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.

Prince Blueblood. Last of his Noble line. Canterlot's most eligible bachelor. Aristocratic, affluent, and arrogant. But, surprisingly enough, a stallion who knows what is truly important in life: Family.

Placed fourth in the January 2016 Write-Off Event: Look, I Can Explain.

A young girl, having been robbed of her childhood and very life by illness finds herself given a second chance in a strange world and with an even stranger body. With a new life, family, and even a brother, she tries to cope with the bizarre world she's found herself in while also trying to embrace her role and become worthy of the gift she has been given.
Being a princess can be hard however, even if it's only an honorary title, especially when you're the twin sister of Prince Blueblood.

Warning, very slow burn.

In the magical land of Equestria, two alicorn sisters raise the Sun and the Moon every day to give the world a night and day cycle, basic for the survival of life. There are also two alicorns who rule over two very core aspects of life and harmony itself. Those are Love and Friendship. While not as ancient as the two sisters, all princesses are essential to the world's balance.
This balance is also sustained by the hard-working ponies, who make the seasons change and manage the weather to fit their needs, so everypony has enough food and water, and every animal is also attended to assure that any of them are caught in the changes of seasons.

But what about the planet itself? What about Mother Nature?
This is the question that Gaia asks when she arrives to this foreign world. After so much work her son persuaded her to take a long vacation in Equestria, saying that she needed one and assuring her that he would be in charge now, and she must take a break. But what can a several billion-year old alicorn possibly do to pass her time in this land?

(SimEarth/MLP Crossover)
(Timelife of Gaia's life 'till the start of the story)

Against your better judgement, you ended up having three little girls that you have to take care of all by yourself now.

As much trouble as they can be sometimes, you still wouldn't trade them for the world.

Almost a year after what seemed to be the concluding battle in Celestia's great crusade against necromancers, something Mortem believes to be borderline discrimination, he discovers one of Celestia's armies setting up camp just outside his stronghold.

Not wanting to jump to any conclusions or risk angering the very powerful Princess, he concludes a diplomatic solution would be the best way forward. And so, he writes a letter.

Proofread by the wonderful Soren Mercer
Featured on Equestria Daily here
Audiobook versions by Illya Leonov and TheArchitect are here and here respectively
SoundCloud verion of Illya Leonov's is here

Shattered Skies has lived quite some time. He had done well for himself over the past few thousand years; staying out of the public eye and remaining generally uninvolved from pony society while he tended his forests.

Who wouldn't want that, right?

His job came with excellent security and fringe benefits, but after he was betrayed by a princess he trusted, all he wants to do is to live a normal life even if the world tells him otherwise.

Oc disclaimer: The original characters that appear in the story that are not my own have been obtained from the original owners via written permission.

You’re a shy guy attending Crystal Prep who’s had a deep crush on Sour Sweet for years. One morning, you finally gather the courage to compliment on how pretty she is. There’s only one problem. She doesn’t agree.