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.

--------

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.

Rainbow Dash can’t wait for her first date with Applejack; they always have an awesome time hanging out, and a relationship just means there are even more physical activities they can try together. So when the dumb zap apple harvest postpones their date, she decides it’s the zap apples that are going to have to change their plans. Equestria should know by now that wild, ancient magic is no match for Rainbow Dash, especially when she might get laid.

Everything is going according to plan, until she crashes. Or, rather, until she wakes up after crashing and fifteen years have gone by. Fifteen years during which she seems to have been a very busy pony.

Now Rainbow Dash has to adjust to a life she never thought she wanted, and figure out if she’ll ever get to live the life that brought her here.

Update: Proofreading and formatting by RBDash47

Written for the AppleDash Group Contest prompts "Family" and "An Important or Memorable Date."
Cover art by SketchyJackie

Rainbow Dash doesn't care for love. Applejack doesn't have time.
So when a simple game goes wrong, then Dash's favourite fictional heroine's latest tale takes a turn for the romantic, why does she suddenly find herself with a rose between her teeth?

A/N: I wanted to try something entirely safe for work again, and here we are. Not completely happy with how it turned out, so sorry about that. A (hilariously belated) birthday gift for the amazing RatOfDrawn, who draws cute ponies and has a bit of an AppleDash fetish.

It's obvious to everypony, themselves included, that Applejack and Rainbow Dash have romantic feelings for one another. The only reason they're not together is that they're both convinced that a relationship between them could never work out. Rarity, on the other hoof, is convinced that it could, and Rainbow Dash agrees to a 'three date trial' to prove her wrong...

Many thanks to Ruhje for the amazing cover art!

Original (OLD) version here.

Applejack has brushed her mane, put a ribbon on her hat, and there's a sway in her step. Most ponies just want to know who the special pony is.

Rainbow Dash doesn't buy it. Love is mushy, and AJ isn't mushy. Love means liking somepony more than her friends, and AJ would never like another pony more than Dash. Love means missing a game of horseshoes to go tell a pony that she's in love with them, and if there is one thing Dash is sure of, it's that AJ is not going to miss that game... no matter what Applejack thinks about it.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash knew this would be hard, but a long distance relationship was in their future from the start. A Wonderbolt and an apple farmer don't have a lot of time in the same place, so they do their best with letters and the occasional weekends. But when Applejack finds out that Rainbow Dash is on the cover of Flyers Illustrated: Wet Feathers Edition, it plays on a fear she never mentioned to Dash: Everypony knows that famous ponies are different from normal folks. . .

Right?

"Wet Mane Rainbow Dash," used in the cover image, is by Suikuzu.
Prereading by DbzOrDie, First_Down, Tchernobog, and Jackie

Applejack has always had a secret dream, one that some ponies would find strange for the tomboyish farmer. She's always wanted somepony to treat her to a special romantic night, while being treated like a real lady. Turns out all she had to do was have a certain rainbow-maned pegasus catch her in a dress. Such an awkward moment will lead them to a night neither will ever forget.

WINNER OF THE APPLEDASH CONTEST!

Also on Equestria Daily

Applejack and Rainbow Dash have been close friends for a long time and, for some reason Rainbow Dash has never been able to understand, it seems as if everyone she knows expects them to get together eventually. To Rainbow Dash's surprise, Applejack abruptly decides that their friends are right and asks her out on a date. To Applejack's surprise, Rainbow Dash immediately turns her down.

Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, Applejack is nothing if not stubborn, and she declares that she won't give up until Rainbow Dash has agreed to go on a date with her, no matter what it takes.

Winner of the second AppleDash group contest.

Sweetie Belle discovers an amateur novel lying abandoned on the ground. The mysterious story soon becomes all the rage with everypony.

And then Rarity hears a passage of it being read out loud...

How do you kill a pegasus's soul? Put her in charge of the town's weather, then only let her schedule sunny days and gentle evening showers. Not thunderstorms, not blizzards, certainly not hail or tornadoes.

Nothing fun, in other words. Celestia forbid the weather team make some real weather, the kind Rainbow Dash dreams about. The farmers would never stand for that.

Well, screw the farmers. Screw the fashionistas and screw the library princess too if she complains. Rainbow Dash has a dream and she's going to share it with the world, whether the world wants it or not.

A story dedicated to anyone who's ever been passionate about something.