There is only one real rule regarding changeling royalty: there must always be a queen. Twilight Sparkle is about to learn this through personal experience.

Originally written for an X Becomes a Changeling prompt almost three years ago.
Set after season three.

Canterlot lies steeped in chaos, a virulent and deadly plague still boiling away after a decade of suffering. The city, and the ponies in it, still feel the effects, still feel the bite of the times. The lower city, cursed as it is, is mostly partitioned off, leaving each and every pony left stranded and without help. Ponies struggle day by day just to stay alive.

Even as the ponies suffer, politicians toil away, plotting and scheming, machinations rumbling just below the surface. The city is fevered, sick and bloated, ready to pop at any moment. A single pony may be enough to make it all erupt.

And make it erupt Twilight Sparkle shall.

One small step, one lucky break is all she needs to turn the city on its head and take her rightful place by the Queen's side. But even she may not be prepared for the shark tank that is Luna's court.

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 Twilight Sparkle Becomes a Changeling Queen, Book 1

Twilight Sparkle is a changeling queen. She has found herself back at the old hive, with old memories... and new opportunities. She brings a new, more pony perspective to changeling problems; and she's very excited to experiment at finding new solutions with the help of her willing and eager subjects.

But some things do not change. A queen must also defend her subjects from any who would do them harm...

Set after season three.

Twilight Sparkle gets the chance of researching and questioning the first live specimen of a changeling since the Canterlot invasion three years ago.
Twilight goes in with a scientific mind and wants to figure out everything about these evil bugs, as clearly they have shown themselves to be nothing but cruel in the past. However, in an attempt to find a cruel primitive being, she instead finds something she did not expect.
A teacher.

Story Tags and notes: There is going to be no explicit sex in this story, but gender, sex, and general reproduction will be a subject, as well as love, affection, morality, society and any other subjects that boggles my mind.
This story is something I made out of a combination of my own headcanon for changelings, and with my frustration, yet love, for philosophy, which I study at writing moment at university. This story will have slow updates, but I will work on it. This is as much a work for me, as it is for you.
I hope you´ll enjoy.

Changelings and ponies had always been natural enemies of each other, especially with the crystal ponies when they were around. Why wouldn't they be? Changelings were like parasites, feeding off the love that ponies gave off and driving them to illness.

However, Changelings had begun to decline. What started out with as seven hives have diminished down into three, all of which had gone into hiding so well that most ponies didn't know what changelings even were. Even Celestia had not seen one for quite a while, a long feat for an immortal pony.

Until she found a nymph. A new Changeling Queen.

Unable to find it within herself to abandon the changeling, Celestia ends up taking the nymph back to Canterlot under guise as Twilight Sparkle. The plan was simple; find the hive that Twilight belonged to and return her back to be raised with her race.

Of course, despite everything she learned through her long life, she had forgotten that things were never that simple.

For starters, she did not anticipate herself to grow fond of Twilight as time began to pass, or to beam in happiness when Twilight began to refer to her as mom.

Many Many Thanks to my Pre-Readers: Rewrite and Doctor Disco (Welcome to the Team Doctor!)

Princess Twilight Sparkle has a problem: she's possessed by a question. It came from a silly little book. Now, after a week of poor sleep, Twilight relents. She has to answer this question, even if it kills her.

Okay, so it won't kill her, but Twilight is going to have to violate one of the biggest pony taboos in existence to do so. That's okay. It's for science!

original author wille179

This story is a sequel to Stories in Stone, Luna's Royal Guard.

The Canterlot Royal Gardens: a complex prison housing some of the greatest threats Equestria has ever known, sealed in stone. But what happens when something goes wrong, and some of these threats are freed?
Twilight Sparkle and her friends are again called to defend Equestria from an attack that the Royal Sisters are unable, or too afraid, to deal with. But can six ponies raised in a time of peace be any match for creatures who knew nothing but war and conflict?
Perhaps the only hope Equestria may have lies in another set of the gardens residents: the Five Beasts of the Moon, Nightmare Moon's generals, the very ponies who helped her nearly destroy Equestria a thousand years ago.

[This is a direct sequel. Please read,
[ http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1918/stories-in-stone-lunas-royal-guard ]
before starting on this fic or you will be quite lost.]
Season 3 is not accounted for in this fic.
Tags: Action, Sad, Humor, Roller Coaster, Violence, Singing, Some Romance, 80's HBO late night sex scenes... also, nearly every pony is naked... like normal.

Designation ManeFrame, an experimental construct created by the Equalists, has only one purpose – to crush the remaining resistance that struggles against the mighty Empire. However, when the construct gains conscience in a bloody, unmerciful battle, it is thrust into one last, titanic struggle that would decide the fate of Equestria.

Information is scarce to come by, and every clue reveals three more questions. What happened to the Princesses of the Old? How did the Equalists seize power? And just why does the name Twilight Sparkle sound so familiar?

Featured 28/01/2017. Thank you so much, everyone!

Massive thanks go out to my editors and proofreaders: Garzeel_, Flicka Ravenhide and Destella Morningdew.

Character tags maybe updated in the future. The cover art is edited from the original artwork by zolombo, which you find here. If you don't like the story, please tell me why in the comments description. It would be greatly appreciated!

Twilight discovers the true purpose for the Canterlot Royal gardens, much to Princess Celestia's annoyance. Knowing her student will seek answers with or without her permission, the Princess gives Twilight a new subject to study, the story of five of the garden's occupants, their connection to Nightmare Moon, and the dark days of the War of Night.

Warning: Comments are encouraged, but spoilers are present in the comments.

Fic is currently undergoing a very slow revision. Revised chapters will have a (R) in the title.
I've also added chapter numbers for a bit more ease of navigation. Mostly on my part.
This is a project that I will slowly be working on Bringing my first major story up to snuff. I shall also be fixing plot holes and clearing up some issues that certain parts have that may contradict the lore later on.
This will only be worked on sporadically unfortunately as I need to be in certain mind sets to do this.

Original story was posted in 2011.

Tags: Action, Historical, Sad, Humor, Roller Coaster, Violence, Singing, Some Romance

Part 2 is here.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/71261/stories-in-stone-memories-of-twilight

WOOOT featured on Jan 5th 2015 at 2:47 am, 4 years after it's initial publishing!