Zecora is coming to market today
So Applejack tells Apple Bloom, stay away!
When the filly tries anyway, she's quite quickly caught
And AJ sends her right back home at a trot.

Though I have the actual plot line derailed,
We'll push right on through with an alternate tale
Of how Applejack learns about stripes, fur, and skin--
And how little they're worth next to what lies within.

So sit yourself down please, and read to the end
About how an earth pony got her zebra friend.
It's not all in rhyme, though; don't give in to gloom
But after this dear God I am not putting two zebra characters in a room together because GOOD LORD SO MUCH RHYMING; WHAT WAS I THINKING AAAAAHHHH! Er, I mean...
But new personal rule: JUST ONE ZEBRA PER ROOM.

A/N: Special thanks to Rated-R PonyStar for providing me with much-needed editing / pre-reading / input.

So yes as you may have guessed this is a rewrite of the season 1 episode Bridle Gossip in which I take the starting point and go wandering off towards the same general destination by an entirely different route.

Art for this is from Alfa995, the guy who runs the Ask Nightmare Moon HQ Tumblr.

I initially got the idea from this picture by the artist Elosande

It was a construct built to last the ages, a great machine hoofcrafted by Celestia and her most skilled arcanists. Within its nigh-indestructible confines, the countless inhabitants of the Moon Engine system could live out their thousand-and-one-year duty, aiding Celestia in a task left unmanaged during Nightmare Moon's banishment.

And for a thousand years and eight months, all was as it should be.

...and then Trixie showed up.

Nopony anticipated quite how much damage a single pony could do. But then, nopony'd ever thought to consider somepony quite as... viral as Trixie.

The pegasus who would one day become Commander Hurricane started out as a grunt. A patrol officer for the captured town of Pteryx, Hurricane recalls one incident during her time there that changed her view of the Pegasus Empire -- and of her close friend, Pansy.

When Octavia and Vinyl Scratch decide to combine their respective musical styles into a new genre that will celebrate not only their talent, but also their unique bond, they feel confident that they're the pioneers of the new age. So when the two find their music challenged by another pair of musicians, they set out to make sure that theirs is the best. However, the rival two aren't bad artists themselves, not to mention they’re certainly not… of the same persuasion as Vinyl and Tavi. In the snow-wrapped streets of Manehattan, can they risk exposing their new found -and still taboo- relationship, or will they be doomed to second place?

Incredible cover art by JackiePhantom13! DA: http://jackiephantom13.deviantart.com/

EQD!!
Link: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/04/story-mixing-relationships.html

Daisy Dreams, master of lucid dreaming and a rare earth pony in the field of subconscious investigation, enters the dreams of troubled ponies to help them overcome their troubles and get to sleep at night.

Twilight Sparkle is a gifted student and scholar. When she attempts to harness her creative side by writing a science-themed sensual romance novel, however, things rapidly get out of hoof. Can her friends stage an intervention before she humiliates herself (and them) at a prestigious literature recital?

No. No, they cannot.

Twilight composes a letter to the Princess about a terrible Hearth's Warming gift.

Featured on Equestria Daily, 23 June 2012.

Ah, the tropics. Sand, sun, and all the fruity cocktails your liver can handle. Just spend the day lying on the beach, soaking up the sun and listening to the waves gently lap against the shore...

Too bad you don't get any of that in the frozen north. A hideous mix-up has sent the mane six to the far northern land of Caneighda. But this land of ice and snow is quick to reveal a deeper, hidden warmth. You just have to look at it the right way.

Disclaimer: I am Canadian, so I'm exempt from any flak you might decide to throw at me because of the stereotypes I use.

Twilight Sparkle's house is funded by Celestia, Rarity works at Carousel Boutique, Applejack works at Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie Pie works at Sugarcube Corner, Rainbow Dash works as weather patrol. So how does Fluttershy earn her money? Not to mention she has several pets that require feeding. Delve into Fluttershy's deepest secrets and discover her darkest life as we make ends meet.

Awesome cover was made by Musterious44 on Deviant Art: http://mysterious44.deviantart.com/

Lyra loves Bon-Bon very, very much.

Enough, in fact, to overlook the cream-coloured, beautiful-voiced, wondrous-smelling mare's raging, overwhelming, caricatural homophobia.

This would be the state of the union; Pinkie Pie, however, being as she is, thinks all this 'unrequited love' nonsense is nonsense for silly fillies and dusty old books, and as such decides to intervene.

Background PinkieDash.

omaigawd I got put on eqd

now with a reading