Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash really enjoy each other's company. So much so that some ponies are beginning to wonder about them. Twilight and Applejack are a couple after all, so its a bit unusual that Rainbow always seems to be invited along. But sometimes, a couple is more than two.

Thanks to Steel Resolve, Lycan_01 and Macdjord for editing and brainstorming!
Cover art by Graystripe64.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders have always thrown caution to the winds when Crusading. However, their latest endeavor has left one of their number in great pain with no obvious cause.
When Apple Bloom has her injury treated, she realizes that things in her life aren't what they seem. And when she learns the truth...
Some things are hard to deal with. But the love of a family can fix a lot of problems.

Edit: New cover art by Inkheart7 on DeviantArt.

Competition. It drives us all one way or another. Whether it’s to be the fastest flier, the best team, the greatest magician, to steal a land in jealous fury, or simply to beat that other pony to the stall for the last carrot; competition is in all of us.

Some claim that a competitive nature is healthy, and keeps a pony sharp and fit. Others claim it drives ponies apart and should be avoided as much as possible.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack don’t care about any of that. They just don’t want the other to win. Theirs is an unending game of friendly one-upmanship, a constant striving to prove their superiority to one another for no other reason than they can.

Neither of them thought it would ever bring about romance in their lives.

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Written for (and winner of) the 3rd AppleDash competition. Prompt by bookplayer.

Thanks to my friend, Radoh from the Escapist, for making some small, but very good, points.

Cover art by nekokevin.

When a bag full of drawings falls from the sky onto Applejack's head, she wouldn't have expected an old secret Rainbow Dash had been keeping to be revealed, for her to lose a fight with a fridge, and for the two of them to open up to each other in more ways than one.

But that's only if Applejack stops being furious at her friend for lying. Again.

Contains AppleDash, and fridge warfare. Rated Teen for the mildest of strong words.

Ribbon Red is a gift-shop owner who doesn't get out much, and has a comfortable life selling his wares to ponies for their friends and family.

Rainbow Dash comes in with a special request: she wants to get Applejack the best gift ever, and she wants Ribbon's help in finding it.

Ribbon knows a lot about giving presents: He knows how to appreciate the value of a simple gift, the significance of a beautiful ornament... but above all, he knows that the most precious gifts come from the heart.

Contains AppleDash

When Rainbow's house is destroyed by a drunken pegasus, her whole past begins to unravel before her, dredging up memories she would rather keep forgotten.

It's up to Applejack and her friends to make sure that she gets through the ordeal, but things turn from bad to worse when an unwelcome visitor arrives to stir up trouble.

Whether she wants it or not, Rainbow's life is about to change dramatically... and it doesn't look like it'll be for the better.

Teen for more adult-ish themes and mild violence.

Diplomacy has failed. Six years have passed Equestria's crowning of the princess of friendship, ushering in a supposed unprecedented age of peace and harmony. The concept of warfare is, to most ponies, nothing more than an unfathomable legend. They have let their guard down.

An unknown enemy has seized the opportunity to attack Equestria with terrifying new weapons of war, bent on taking the fertile land and restoring an ancient order. The valiant efforts of the Royal Guard have given Princess Twilight and her arcane scientists time to research and develop a response to their attackers, and the time has come for that response to be implemented. Utilizing weapons and tactics borrowed from another world, five squads under the command of Princess Luna will infiltrate the forests of the Equestrian Northwest to destroy a revolutionary magical matrix that Twilight refers to as the "radio" - a tool that allows enemy ponies to communicate across vast distances instantly.

Nightmare Two is comprised of three foalhood friends who, rather than be separated from each other in the draft, volunteer to become one of the five Nightmare squads. With their bodies forever altered to suit the needs of their mission, the three young mares join legions of ponies armed with powerful weapons to partake in a horrifying new breed of warfare - Equestria's first in over one thousand years.

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Heads up, folks. If you wouldn't mind leaving a comment alongside the thumbs-down, I'd appreciate it. This is my first foray into fan fiction and although it's a hobby I nonetheless wish to get better. :)

Got some FAQ's for you guys as well!

- Alternate universe in which the events of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" did not occur. (As much as I loved it! :D)

- Numerical age tends to vary with headcanon, but the CMC here were just getting started with their adult lives when the draft went into effect.

- The war is pony v. pony, utilizing firearms and the Equestrian equivalent of a tank. The underlying headcanon is that ponies used firearms similar to muskets and tracked armored vehicles akin to our tanks in times of old, and what the enemy currently employs is essentially the natural progression of these technologies.

- There are no real-world weapons or equipment i.e. "Panzer IV," or "M16 assault rifle." Particularly acute details such as the caliber of weapons are also absent.

- Technology is based on that of WWI with some WWII elements. Firearms are primarily bolt-action.

- The "radio" spell matrix functions as what we know to be a radio, but is not identical.

- All four of a Night Mare's legs are permanently replaced by the augments.

- Night Mares are female. Stallions proved unable to properly animate the limbs.

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Hold up, now - fanart? You guys rock. Like, for real. Thanks a lot!

1. A great YouTube video coming from The_Pegasus_Box. Thanks, bud!
Check it out!

2. Click here for the collection on DArt.

3. https://derpibooru.org/740375?scope=scpeac921b191f688d04521575f31608785cbc3bbaa1
[img]https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/10/10/740375__safe_anthro_apple+bloom_gun_artist-colon-pusspuss_night+mares.png[/img]

"You bought me a star!"

How do you break away from a relationship when your other half is willing to buy the stars for you? Rainbow Dash doesn't know. But she does know some things. Like the fact that she needs to be free, like the stars. And that Twilight is trying to collect the stars.

Rainbow also knows that Twilight won't be able to change her ways. And when she begins to fall for another free spirit, it is very hard not to simply cut the ropes holding her back from the freedom she desires.

Unashamedly inspired by 'Buy the Stars' by Marina and the Diamonds.

After receiving two tickets to Dodge Junction's Founder's Day Festival, Applejack invites Rainbow Dash to join her in what looks to be a great time full of fun, games, rides, food, and more. But hidden behind all this is an opportunity for Applejack to finally tell Dash how she feels about her. Can the farmpony manage to confess between all the excitement?

(My entry for the AppleDash contest, image belongs to OZE-JP and not me)

Idol Hooves holds a special place in Equestria. He's probably the only exiled changeling to serve in the Royal Guard, or at least, that's what he expects, as exiles don't really broadcast that fact. However, it's well known that Princess Celestia loves all of her little ponies, and her guards perhaps more so, and that makes it one of the best ways for a changeling to discreetly feed.

But how does a changeling even get there, let alone get exiled in the first place? For that matter, why would it ever go to Canterlot? Set a number of years before the series proper, before Luna’s redemption, Idol details how he was exiled, the ponies he’s met, and the series of misadventures that led him to joining the Royal Guard, and should continue a good ways into the series, as something of an alternate perspective.

Soon, he’ll have to deal with a boisterous new princess to serve and a royal wedding in the works bringing a third to power. Will his old instincts bring this new life crashing down around him? What precipitates Chrysalis’s ill-fated assault on Canterlot? Is it really so wrong for a changeling to enjoy good craftsmanship to an obsessive degree?

New cover art provided by the fantastic Carnifex

And a TVTropes page here.

And an Ask Blog of questionable canonity!
Out of Idol Curiosity

Fanart by Norad2! Major thanks! Short For a Royal Guard

Art by Egophiliac of Idol and his Daring Duckie Please don't tell him what that brush is meant for.

Rating updated to (T), it's a bit darker than (E)
Comedy Tag added as well
And changed the character tags a bit.