Since the earliest days, ponies have foolishly believed that the natural order of their world would never change. That there would always be magic for them to use. That the princesses would rule Equestria for all eternity. That nothing could change their happy and ordered lives.

They were wrong. An event, known as The Shift, caused the world's magic to weaken, and the days of Equestria's glory came to an end.

Now, many years after the cataclysm, the world is still broken. But there is hope. Some vestiges of magic still linger in the world...

30/12/2011: First chapters have been rewritten/heavily modified.

Big Macintosh has fallen hard for the pretty blond mare. When she is forced into a fight for her life, he sticks by her faithfully, but keeping the promises he's made will be an even tougher battle.

Updated for Equestria Daily! Yay, made 6-star!

Please vote and leave lots of comments! I love reading what you have to say!

Written for a sadfic contest (I won!); the plot is in honor of my mother-in-law, who wasn't so lucky, and I suspect wouldn't actually appreciate inspiring a story about ponies.

Sly Clop is a laid back slacker who runs one of Ponyville's only porn shops on Soresaddle Street. He is a regular customer of Hard Cider's "gentlecolt's club", the Knife and Apple, where he regularly shoots the breeze with Rainbow Dash, who's seen better days.

One day, his only employee quits, and he's forced to hire a new one, starting a new awkward relationship with Lyra, who needs cash. What follows is a lighthearted fic with dark undertones that I hope you'll enjoy.

And if I haven't convinced you enough by this point, no, this not a clopfic.

New cover image by mickf18 on deviantART (DeusExKane here).

Braeburn Apple has always been raised in a conservative household, as a member of the Apple family.
Throughout his life, he's been taught what's 'wrong' and what's 'right', who he was allowed to love, and who he wasn't. Above all, he was told what to be, and how to be it.
When he meets a certain blue Pegasus stallion buying pies at Sweet Apple Acres while he just so happens to be staying there, he discovers feelings he never knew he had.
Unfortunately, they happen to be the same ones he was always taught to suppress.
Can Soarin convince him that it's not wrong to be in love, and that, sometimes, in order to be happy, you need to break out of your comfort zone?
A story about discovering who you are, and being that person, no matter what others tell you to be.

WARNING: M/M, SoarinxBraeburn Coltcuddling! Touches up on some serious social issues in the real world, but with ponies, and at least 20% cooler.
If you don't like it, please do not read it.

Featured on EqD!

Cross-posted to FanFiction.NET.

Rated T for alcohol references, crude humour, and slight language.

Cover image is by Mn27 on DeviantART.

Edited by many people, included Carcer, LunaUsesCaps, and Diexna, but none have contributed more than the amazing Smayds, who has been my main editor for almost every chapter.

The way others perceive us can affect how we perceive ourselves, and the results are rarely pretty. When a couple of Canterlot ponies from her past come to Ponyville, Twilight has a difficult time revisiting a traumatic event from her foalhood.

*Now on Equestria Daily! Thanks are in order to the pre-reader(s) who put their time aside for this story. Final scene changed from "alternate ending" to "epilogue", and extended, because sometimes we only think of scenes after things see publish.

Reading by Obabscribbler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bitGUNZKNmU