This isn't where I belong. I left all this behind years ago, moved on with my life. But a mare from my past brought me back, and now she won't let me go. So I'm stuck here, trying to make the best of it with ponies that don't understand me, don't even like me. But when something moves in the darkness, and when things go wrong in the cold, dead night, they'll turn to me to try to set things right.

Why? Because once a police pony, always a police pony.
~~
This is a spin-off story to 'Why am I Pinkie Pie?!', and will contain spoilers for that story, but it's not necessary to read that story to understand this one.
Cover art by the talented Conicer
Need more Cinnamon Swirl? Merlos the Mad wrote a fanfic of this story!

There is now a side-story: A Hard Day's Nightmare Night

Equestria is a nation on the edge of disaster after the devastation caused by the Lunar Rebellion. Beset on all sides by nefarious enemies, vicious foreign invaders, insane Lunar cultists, malicious fey, and diabolical conspirators all threaten Equestria’s borders and stability. Midnight Sparkle, daughter of Archmagus Sunbeam Sparkle and herself a newly minted Magus of Equestria, soon finds herself embroiled in the chaos surrounding her homeland. But what hope does a single unicorn have against so many overwhelming threats?

A chronological sequel to The Lunar Rebellion.

Twilight and her five friends are transported during a botched spell, across dimensions to... Ponyville, Equestria? But not the same one that they knew. Sitting on a bench is Harpsy and Babar. The Doctoress avoids apples from an aspiring Applebuck. And in a library across town, six stallions join their forces as they try to decipher the appearance of filly look-alikes of themselves around Ponyville!

The Medallion of Light and the Medallion of Shadow are some of the most powerful yet obscure artifacts of antiquity. Created by a now-vanished cult of assassins, the two devices together give their bearer the incredible power to walk the worlds with but a single step.

Nefarious forces are closing in on both artifacts, and very little stands in their way. Heinrich Himmler's agents covet the medallions for the greater glory of the Third Reich. Ahuizotl's simply want their master to get what's coming to him: the world, and everything in it.

With the fate of all good people and ponies in doubt, one thing's for certain: saving two worlds would be one hell of an adventure. And if adventure has a name, it must be Daring Do… or is that Indiana Jones?

Will our heroes win the day? Find out in... Daring Do and the Medallion of Shadow! Or, Indiana Jones and the Medallion of Light!

NOTE: there will be some violence in this story, but nothing more than you would expect to see in an Indiana Jones movie-- so I didn't check the "gore" content box.

Artwork by Tzelly-el.

Special thanks to SapphireStarlightPony & Rated Ponystar for helping with the brainstorming on this one.

Thanks to this stupid thing I've had the Indiana Jones theme song stuck in my head for like the past four days and I am about to claw my eyes out AAAAAAAHHHHH @_@

Throughout all of history, one concept has kept both the written and spoken word from becoming an unintelligible mess. That concept is that most holy of grounds known by some as "grammar." It sets down rules for language to follow, and keeps it free of distortion.

Yet something is wrong. The rules are failing. And only one pony so much as suspects that something is wrong. Something that goes deeper than a simple appearance of errors. Something that could be an attack on the very root of language itself.

This is the first book of The Humanity Within Trilogy. Its sequel is What I've Done.

I wasn't always like this, a monster, running through the woods on an alien planet. I was once a man. I had dreams, a girlfriend, and a great job.
Then They came. In the middle of the night, They scooped me from my home, and... changed me.

Now I'm a beast, a demon the like of which the world I've become stranded on has never seen before, scraping by on the fringes of society, hiding from the natives, and doing my best to avoid notice.

After all, who could ever be friends with a monster?

Cover Image done by the very talented PaintSplotch! You can find his FimFic account here.
And here is his DeviantArt Account!
Now 100% approved by Twilight's Library!
Mad props to my prereaders:
ThatPonyWithASword.
Admiral Applejack.
JXWheeler

This story is a sequel to Rainbooms and Royalty

Alternate Universe (Dashverse): A continuation of "Rainbooms and Royalty" Ponyville goes to sleep one night only to find in the morning that every foal in town is gone! The ancient evil King Sombra has returned and stolen foals from all over Equestria. But why? What is his true purpose in stealing them? It's up to Rainbow Dash and her friends to rescue the foals and stop this evil once and for all. But it's a long journey and complications arise with the ponies that join them. How can they save Equestria and preserve harmony when there is disharmony among their own ranks?

This story is a sequel to The Changeling of the Guard

To live in Everfree Forest requires one to make a lot of sacrifices. Zecora can attest to that; for years the ponies were too frightened of her and her studies to even make contact.

Then again, that's for the best; the forest has never been kind to intruders. One never does know what fate can be levied for not treating it with the respect it demands. Still, she wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

The same can't be said for her newest ward.

More future-sidequel than sequel to Changeling of the Guard, as Idol isn't starring, but something I'm going to work on in tandem with it.

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.

When Twilight Sparkle hits a wall in her research on Princess Celestia, a new face in Ponyville gives her the spark she needs to overcome it. But after his arrival, ominous events are set into motion. Soon, Twilight must choose her side in a conflict that will decide Equestria's fate.

As seen on Equestria Daily.

Google Docs Version.

Edited by Horse Voice.