A few things came together all at once at about this time. I was going through my old stories that I had started writing when I was a teenager, and found the first appearance of what would later become the Black Tide. I also saw my first summary of The Conversion Bureau on EQD, though I didn't read it at that time. The thought of "ponification" seemed compelling to me, and I realized that I wanted to write a story where a human had a valid reason to become a pony. 