They wanted a monster....So they will get one.

(This was written in response to a challenge to write a one thousand word HIE)
(It is one thousand words. Fimfiction is getting the count wrong.)

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

Pandinus Imperator (You can call him Pan, he won't mind) is knocked back in time during the Canterlot Invasion, and accidentally kills King Sombra on arrival. Instead of being executed, the changeling is surprised to find himself being hailed as a hero, and is promptly put on the throne as the new monarch, the Crystal Emperor. However, Pan now faces a great many problems, among them Celestia and Luna, who seem certain that the changeling is secretly up to no good, as well as several political factions secretly plotting to undermine his reign. There's also the tiny problem of the constant snowstorm that threatens to cut the city off from the outside world permanently.
The Crystal Ponies need a hero now more than ever before. Why did they get a changeling instead?

We Has A TvTropes.

While not truly a part of Bucking Nonsense's Changeling-Verse, the same rules regarding changeling abilities and society apply.

Cover image provided by gabapple, used with permission.

This story is a sequel to The Prince

Returning to the land of his birth as the human TD Powell, Antares must try to find a way home. But if he returns to Equestria, will it be the same one he knows? Will he be able to cope with the ever-changing world around him?

Edited wonderfully by Strike89 and roker12

Buy a print copy of the original story here!

Twilight's power, along with that of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, has been claimed by Tirek. Drunk on power, the demon-centaur is unleashing destruction upon Equestria, his reign of terror just beginning.

But there is hope. A crystalline chest, a gift from the Tree of Harmony, able to be opened by six keys. Keys which Twilight has now claimed the last of. All they can do is hope, hope that whatever is contained inside the chest is enough to stop Tirek.

And then something goes wrong ...

Note: This story is in no way connected with my other fanfics. It's very much a one-off in good fun.

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.