Anon likes his life to be simple. He wakes up, goes to work and sometimes gets himself a good book to read while he is home. It's a routine that he likes to follow, it makes him feel like he has a bit of normality with his life in Equestria. The fact that having Celestia come crashing into his home as part of his routine should prove that his life is anything but normal.

(Thanks to PeerImagination for editing!)

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.

Twilight is called on to be a political Emissary to the far northern kingdoms. Due to the attacks from Tirek and the others, the land borders have been altered. Several miles of land that was once considered to be a part of Equestria is now within the borders of their northern neighbors. It is ruled solely by a pony that is as unwavering as steel. Twilight is tasked with being an emissary to this kingdom and try to negotiate to have him withdraw his claim to the territory. Meeting him is going to change everything she knows about how an Overlord rules his ponies. She finds out just how politics works for him and how he treats his subjects. She reminds herself to keep an open mind and treat him as she would any other. She is not prepared for what she finds. A stallion that rules alone. One that is more complex than she realized. One that if offended could spell disaster for Equestria itself. Hunter Flame is about to make her realize that nothing is as simple as she thinks it is.

Story is loosely based off the Overlord Video Games By Triumph Studios

Cover art by https://www.fimfiction.net/user/228967/Little+Tigress

Featured on Front Page 3/9/2019! OMG! Thank you!
Featured on Front Page 3/18/2019
Featured: 6/4/2019
Featured: 5/16/2021
Featured: 9/4/2022

Initializing....
Source Code Identified......
Playback Audio Feed......Operation: World Jump 2463197......Subsection; Mission Parameters......

.........Um, hello, my name is Doctor Daniel Phillips, and I am the lead scientist overseeing the Gateway Project, one of the most cutting-edge technologies in existence today. With it, we can open wormholes to worlds far beyond the reach of conventional space travel, and even into other dimensions if we can work out the right frequency. As of late we have discovered over a dozen habitable worlds that have been slated for colonization, but as of yet no signs of intelligent life. Yet I hold out hope that one day we might find such a world, however remote, and put our best foot forward in opening relations with our new galactic neighbors. Yet not all of the planets we find are poppies and roses, so instead of sending in humans to explore them, we have these little babies.

Oh, right, you can't see me because this is an audio-only feed. My mistake. Well, I guess I'll just have to explain it to you. These cybernetic wolves, known in our group as the Mech Hounds, are outfitted with the most advanced computers in the world, along with some of the most cutting-edge robotics and weapons money can buy. Now right at the moment we only have a dozen of these little critters, but don't let that fool you. Each of these little babies carries enough firepower to level a small town, although it would take them a couple days to do so if they were working alone. They also have the programing to work out almost any situation in a matter of seconds, although they still have many of the logic problems that most computers face when confronted with something that does not fit within the established parameters of their programming. Yet, regardless of their possible shortcomings, they do the heavy lifting upon initial exploration where humans cannot, dealing with threats as they see fit in order to assess the habitability of a planet for human use. I could tell you more, but that would be breaking protocol.

So, without further ado, I'll turn you over to our logistics specialist, who will be happy to tell you all about how these little babies are going to change the world, or rather, worlds, that humanity has come to call home.................

End Audio Recording........

This is a story that delves into the boundary between life and machine, where AI is something that has only been dreamed of, even with the most advanced computers available. Then again, these machines have never encountered magic before, so who knows what might happen. I guess you'll just have to read the book to find out for yourself.

Here I am, thrown in as a changling Queen far before the Canterlot invasion, watch as I- A: make my whole race terrified of me B: overthrow a changeling god! C: die, a lot. D: all of the above.

What do you think?

.....wait a minute.

(Open for new cover art)

Pinocchio wasn't the only wooden puppet to become a real person.

There are other puppets out there, animal-like beings controlled by quasi-intelligent trees. Ponies call them timberwolves and know them as nothing but beasts. But what happens if one of those beasts were to gain the intelligence and ambition of one of the most successful hunters in the universe, a human?

This story loosely shares continuity from Split Second: An Eternity Divided. Reading that is not required at all.

Has a Tv Tropes page.
Featured on EQD: 10/2/2015

This story is a sequel to An Exercise In Management

- Huh, featured on 27.11. by chapter THREE. I smell black magics!

The little drone who made his way into becoming the loved and respected boss of his tiny hive has been through a lot, good or bad. He found friends, purified the hive mind of furious and toxic echoes of the ancient changeling rulers, and even earned respect of Chrysalis herself (well, the echo of her imprinted inside the hive mind).

He was so close to building peace in the big city of Las Pegasus as a scary and somewhat sexy tourist attraction (love and lust go hoof in hoof, of course), but in the end Celestia's paladins found him and his friends, deeming them a threat to Equestria which had to be purged with no mercy. Unable to help protect his hive due to undergoing physical metamorphosis into a proper king, he was left in the care of Eight, and carried off who knows where along with his cocoon while the paladins rampaged through their hideout.

Now his hibernation is over, and it is time for the boss to either find anyone who might have survived, or enact his revenge on the paladin leading the hunt for him - Star Trail.

(Suggestions or any comments are always welcome.)

!!Woo, featured on 16.10.2018!! Thanks everyone.

It was supposed to be simple. After drone 200234 learned about the incoming invasion into ponyland's capital city of ponytown, or whatever the thing was called, his only dream consisted of finding a pony to suck (that's what we do, right?). Changeling drones normally don't own anything, nor are they allowed to take love on their own from captured prisoners, that is for infiltrators or warriors (smug buggers). Anyway, a drone's job is to do what it's told. So, this little guy ended up in a much unwanted position of leadership.

How? Well, it started like this...

(Suggestions or any comments are always welcome.)
AU - added AU tag for the origin of changelings story.

This story is a sequel to Schadenfreude 2: Schadenfreude Harder

Schadenfreude is a simple pony. He enjoys the little things. Taking up as much room on an elevator as he likes. Sleeping through movies. And being a general annoyance to everyone around him.Of course, this leads to everyone around him disliking him on principle. Which only makes him smile wider.

After one too many "incidents" at his normal job, his employer takes it upon himself to "volunteer" him to work at the castle. As a butler.

For Prince Blueblood.

You can imagine the kind of shenanigans he gets up to now.

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See that [Incomplete] tag below? Yeah. It's happening.

You asked for it. Sequel to Schadenfreude 2: Schadenfreude Harder, and the train wreck that started it all, Schadenfreude.

(New cover art by the fantastic TodayIWriteFanfics!)