So I read a lot of amateur fiction. Without editors or Standards and Practices to rein authors in, things can get really gory. Or horrific-attempt-at-sexy. Or both.
Ugh. I'd name titles, but... no.
One of the nicer things of the pony fandom is that, unlike most fandoms, the most trigger-pushing stuff gets segregated off into a mature category. I've critiqued a few stories on that side of things, made a few "is this really teen-appropriate?" calls, and I may have a credit or two on stories that I can't discuss per RAF rules. But unlike, say, Pokemon fanfics on FF.n, it doesn't get lumped in with everything else.
So, when I was reading The Hunger Games, I was in for a bit of a shock with one character's death. Eye horror, decaying or dissolving bodies, that sort of thing happens in My Little Pony stories, but generally not without a content warning. And if it does, people get unhappy. So I'd gotten to think that it wouldn't be published for young adults.
Heh. I've heard that it's particularly American to censor sexuality more heavily than violence. Probably true here. Tobias and Rachel might hold hands (GASP!), but we won't have any issues with dismemberment and extended torture scenes.
Now, here's a fun perspective: Dr. Seuss ran into some censorship early in his career. "The Seven Lady Godivas" was an... interesting case of a very Seuss-style picture book for adults with no-so-attractive nude cartoon ladies. The publisher was more excited about the thing than the doctor.
But they weren't so sure about the anti-tyranny "Yertle the Turtle." Because of the following line:
"And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing. He burped!"
See, "burp" is a bad word - or it was at least at the time.
Or, well, the work of Shel Silverstein.
Now, I haven't read much Animorphs lately, but from what I remember, it would be questionable under typical pony-fan standards.
And let's not forget that K.A.A. has written for Harlequin. I would love to get my hands on those books.