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!

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.

This story is a sequel to The Royal Ponyville Orchestra

Note: No knowledge of Royal Ponyville Orchestra is required to enjoy this story.

Hey, I'm Sweetie Belle, and this year at school is pretty much going to be the best ever. I mean, it has to be, since if it isn't, my friends will all leave me as soon as they get their cutie marks. Also, I have to deal with Diamond Tiara being in one of my classes, and she's pretty much as terrible as always. Plus, the teacher for that class is a big mean jerk. Oh! And apparently I'm not good at acting, making the list of things I am good at exactly zero. But besides the fact that my friends are probably going to leave me, my acting class hates me, and I'm not really good at anything, everything's great. It has to be. After all, this is the best year ever.

Now rated Teen for saucy kissing scenes.

Featured on EQD January 4, 2015

Special thanks to editors:
EquesTRON
Seether00
Alien Bronco
Muzzle_luvr and
jlm123hi

Fully approved by Twilight's Library
[img]http://i.imgur.com/6MrWqNZ.png[/img]

Okay, I don't know if anyone can hear this, or read this, or whatever, but I'm trying my best to use Pinkie Pie's legendary fourth-wall-breaking powers to try and get a message out.

If you can hear this, I need help. I'm in Equestria, and man, this is strange. But I'm also stuck in Pinkie Pie's body, for some reason.

Yes, it's just as weird as it sounds. And now, I need your help... because all the ponies in this town think I'm crazy!

Hope is the faith of the young. Losing everything she holds dear, Puppysmiles embarks on the adventure of her life to find her mother, her hopes of meeting her again driving her through the horrors of a world not of her making. Too bad the Wastelands doesn't care about hope.

General Grievous, Supreme Commander of the Separatist Droid Army, conqueror of star systems, and slayer of Jedi. And... stranded on Equestria?

This can't end well.

TV Tropes page.

Now featuring a dramatic reading by LimeyPony!