Nopony knows what happened, but everyone can feel it in the squishy bits the religious call 'the soul' and everybody else calls 'yer guts'. There's something wrong in the world, something broken, something off. Everything seems to be getting worse, year after year, broken dream after broken dream.

No-one's ever heard of a girl called Sunset Shimmer, and almost nobody who doesn't pay attention to the crime blogs remembers a common criminal and stoolpigeon named Twilight Sparkle. All anyone knows, is that the world keeps getting worse, and the drug gangs operate without any real push-back from the authorities.

And the children are all mad, wild on crystal molly and worse. And doors close shut, week after week, as the madness spreads, and everything gets a little worse, day in, day out.

The Dashville 'verse is an AU of Equestria Girls, where Sunset Shimmer never showed up, and Princess Twilight never chased a unicorn villain through Star Swirl's portal. It's simply a human 'verse, with human problems. Except that magic leaks, slowly, terribly, dreadfully. And everything keeps getting worse, like rot at a water-logged tree's roots. And there's no ponies to make it right. Only people, stubborn, determined, wrong-footed people.

For good or worse.