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.

Starlight and Trixie enjoy spending time with one another, and often they will just spend entire afternoons having pleasant conversations together. One such afternoon brings just such a talk, as the two mares decide to finally settle, once and for all, the ultimate question. Who was really Twilight's arch-enemy?

Twilight shows Sunset a meme. Things get complicated.

A Socratic debate between two bisexual girls about queer representation, identity, and anime schoolgirls.

(This fic features pictures as important plot points. If you have a setup that doesn't support pictures, read the second chapter, which is the same, but with image descriptions.)

Loosely inspired by a conversation with Posh.

Written for June's Pride and Positivity campaign.

Cadance isn't Sombra. But Sombra's leadership is all the crystal ponies remember, a ruler they had to love at all costs, with the final payment being their own lives. And as they gradually come to see their new Princess as leader instead of savior, too much of that residual fear is being transferred to her. They praise her, adore her, refuse to correct her no matter what she does -- because they live in terror of the consequences for doing anything else. They have yet to find their own voices, and may go on repeating hers until Celestia and Luna switch shifts. So how can she make them tell her when she's wrong, see that there's nothing to be afraid of, and take the next step in coming back to themselves once and for all?

Forbidding them to do anything other than criticize her should do the trick, right?

...right?

(Part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group -- but can be read as a stand-alone, and no knowledge of the other stories is required. New members and trope edits are welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

The problem with chasing dreams is that they rarely survive the catching.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash have each followed their dreams to the end. Rainbow doesn't know how to keep going.

A slice of life for a very particular kind of person.

Twilight Sparkle discovers that the alternate timelines created by Starlight Glimmer in her misguided attempt at revenge did not, in fact, disappear when the original timeline was restored. Instead, they persisted as separate, parallel universes.

Never one to leave a job unfinished, she decides to employ the magic of friendship to restore those universes to a more harmonious state.

She begins with Nightmare Moon.

This story is the first in a series. The other stories can be found below.

1. For Want of a Horseshoe <-- you are here
2. A Big Brother's Duty
3. Healing

Cover art provided by the excellent Sini.

Rarity can be very patient. Part of getting what you want the way you want is biding your time and bringing other ponies around to see what should be obvious. Rainbow Dash was never very good at seeing what should be obvious. But even Equestria's densest mare got the hint eventually.

Rarity is very patient. She keeps her calm as a lady should. Even if their date was to start two hours ago. Why she ever said yes to that scruffy boor of a pegasus is anypony's guess.

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.

Starlight did something bad. Really bad.

It was just a single moment, a single lapse of judgment. In the heat of that second, she tried to kiss her best friend.

That was three days ago, and she hasn't seen Trixie since. Before that attempted kiss, she'd looked forward to seeing Trixie at Twilight's Hearth's Warming party, but now that it's here, she dreads it. She's going to have to say a lot of the right things if she wants to keep the best friend she's ever had.

Provided, of course, that Trixie even shows up.

Written as a gift for libertydude, my contribution to Jinglemas 2018.

With thanks to FamousLastWords, ChappedPenguinLips, and B_25 for their help.

Presented with the opportunity to design and paint the ad campaign for an upcoming clothing line, Rarity realizes it's been a long time since she's drawn anything aside from clothing designs. She needs some practice to knock the rust off and a live model to draw from. Rainbow Dash is the perfect pony for the job.

Now if only Rarity didn't find Rainbow's posing so provocative ...

Editing by Formerly Committed and JetstreamGW.