This is why you don't make the Judicial Branch a volunteer organization.

THERE'S BEEN AN ACCIDENT, in the desert…
Based on Robert Calvert's 1972 poem Ten Seconds of Forever.

Even though the story ends literally in the same place as it began, in getting to know the characters, my emotional involvement grew to an extent that surprised me
—AugieDog

[A] very well written fic, full of nice turns of phrase and some fantastic imagery
—Soge

This is a really neat piece, worth reading even if you just like words. Highly Recommended
—PresentPerfect

Proofreading: CanoLathra ● Editor: BlueBook

Added to Royal Canterlot Library 15^th Jul 2017
Review by PresentPerfect 1^st May 2017
Added to Twilight's Library 23^rd Jun 2013
Listen to a dramatic reading by obabscribbler

Living as an outcast is hard. Living in fear of becoming an outcast is harder. For Sweetie Belle, discovery would mean ostracization from society, family and friends. This story follows the life of Sweetie Belle and the ponies in it, in an alternate universe where Equestria upholds strict moral values.

Warning: contains the crushing of dreams.

There are quite a few plot spoilers in the comments below. I advise against reading them until you've finished the story. I don't delete comments except for blatant attempts to ruin the ending, spam or shitposting, so read at your own peril...

It just seems like everyday gets a little bit more difficult to consider living for Button Mash. He was once considered one of the most likeliest kids to succeed in the world, until his mental health rapidly declined and he could no longer stay motivated for the simplest of things. No matter what his loved ones did, it never worked.

Button Mash learnt a lot during these times, and the weight of them affected him no less than before. So, just like every rainy day when successful ponies like Sweetie Belle with her singing, Applebloom with her taking up the mantle of owning an expansion on the other end of Ponyville, or Scootaloo who became an all-star athlete representing the Ponyville Guardians for their national hoofball league, would be out working and being happy; Button just revels in the Beautiful Rain.

There's a sequel to this story, now.

After the changelings took over Equestria and enslaved the ponies, the dragons decided they wanted a piece of the prize. The changelings and dragons came to an agreement. They would give the ponies they didn't need to the dragons, and the dragons in turn would help keep their prisoners from escaping.

Every year the changelings go through their prisoners and find the ones with no families, the ones who don't generate as much love as the others, and give them to the dragons. Sweetie Belle has managed to remain hidden... until now.

Now she waits in a cell to be the next sacrifice to the dragon who guards the town. A dragon who looks very, very, hungry...

Picture is a screen capture from a youtube video of an episode clip.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUviZX2PxKc

A horrible Cataclysm has turned all of Equestria into a Wasteland of barren ash and twilight desolation. The Sun and the Moon have been destroyed. Everypony has died--including Princesses Luna and Celestia. But one pony miraculously survives; she is a lone wanderer, the last of her kind, surrounded by menacing creatures that hate her. She navigates the Wastes in an airship and scavenges off the blighted landscape to keep herself alive.

Then one day she meets an old companion who grants her a gift, the chance to go back in time to the warm and sunny days of Ponyville, where her dead friends live in happiness. How far will the last pony venture into this joyous age of Equestria, even if she fully knows that there is no way to change the horrible fate of everypony she loves?

2013 Edition: Smaller Chapters, Better Grammar, and a Few New Scenes

(A shout-out to Vimbert, pre-reader and gentlecolt)

When I left for the Wonderbolts Academy, I thought my dreams were in finally in reach. Until that rainbow-maned dream wrecker smashed them to pieces.

Now the Wonderbolts have blacklisted me from my weather job, and some kinda wannabe fake superhero has moved into my hometown of Fillydelphia.

But I've got a plan: By catching and exposing that vigilante for the fake she is, I'll show the Wonderbolts they were wrong to throw me out.

It wasn't exactly my idea, but it's just what I need to get my dreams back.

I'm coming for you, Mare Do Well.

Five years of cheap thrills in the big city have left Sweetie Belle in bad debt with dangerous ponies. Forced to pay up, she returns to Ponyville to seek money from an estranged sister she loathes with a passion.

Featured on Equestria Daily October 6, 2015
Non-spoiler review by Paul Asaran

This story is a sequel to Bad Habit

The age of technology has hit Equestria. Ponies everywhere are connecting in ways they never felt imaginable. In this world of constant digital connection, Apple Bloom is learning that things change as you get older. A new Equestria is being made, and that means a new Ponyville is coming with it, but young Apple Bloom isn't certain if she's ready to let go of the old Ponyville first.

A story about growing up and coming of age. The third installment in the Cutie Mark Crusader's saga, and almost a year in the making, "Advance" is the sequel to "Bad Habit" and "Like Me".

Special thanks to The LunarQueen for the cover photo (DA in image source)

Being a soldier is something most equate to honor and the highest respecting position in the world. Some soldiers offer the ultimate sacrifice for their country, others come home in one piece. Big Mac isn't in the glory business, he just wants to serve his time and come home. He finds there is no such deal with the army.

Picture by GordonFreeGuy. This man is a drawing genius. http://gordonfreeguy.deviantart.com/art/Comrade-Macintosh-316577336