Noticing a trend was one reason for the first AppleDash contest - the overuse of certain tropes like broken wings, fillyfooling being frowned upon, and so on in fics with our beloved pairing. And a trend is also the reason for this contest:

In most AppleDash fics, Dash seems to be the one to chase after AJ - to make the first step, or the confession, or the first to develop feelings for our farmer gal. Very rarely do we ever see the other way around - AJ as the "chaser" in the relationship.

That, my friends, will be the topic of the contest. Write a fic, of 5k words at least, with AJ being the one after Dash, for once. Preferably successfully - it isn't so much a question of yes/no as it is a "how".

AJ shows you how!

The rules are otherwise pretty similar to the old contest:

No clop, no humanized, no humans in equestria. Other tags are fair game.
The older tropes of broken wings and fillyfooling-is-bad-omg are usable this time, but I fully admit I tend to roll my eyes at their use, so I may be a bit biased. But if you think it works best, well, I certainly won't say no ;)

All valid entries will be listed in blog posts by myself at the time the winners are announced.
Entries can be made by PMing me, or posting the link in this thread with the text “contest entry” somewhere around it.
The deadline is August 15th, 2013.
If you have questions about the "originality" of your idea, and would like to check before writing, you can PM Tchernobog or krazythefox, the second organizer.

Also, the main socializing thread is home to lots of brainstorming, including some by the judges. Everyone is welcome to read and respond there.

Prizes:
Krazythefox has offered to vector a scene as a prize, and Jackie has offered to make art as a prize as well.
I will also pay for a commission to http://vulpinedesigns.deviantart.com/, to get a diorama of your choice. (I must still confirm this with the maker, though).

Example:

They are not exclusively appledash, naturally, as their gallery will show. However, in my (not so) humble opinion, an appledash diorama would be infinitely better than anything else

First place will choose which prize they want, second place will choose second, and third will get the last item.

1039212
where do you live to be awake at this time of night? where i am its 5:24 in the morning.

1039215
Ireland! It's mid morning

1039217
that makes more sense. i thought you were crazy like me and woke up at four in the morning.

"Applejack ran after Rainbow Dash, who was crying and running away after some guys broke her wings for being a big fillyfooler"

Do I win?

1039220

In all seriousness though, I'd love to see an entry of yours!

1039223
ulp!

I don't think I can. I'm on the final chapters of Derpy Desires, and I gotta weave all that together while also preparing for the Bronycon writing track, and then there's the pony minecraft series I'm doing now (see my blogposts). I don't know. If I get any ideas I'll bang somethin' out! No clop, huh? Spoilsport (though the minecraft thing obviously ain't clop either)

1039231
No clop generally gets the most attention in various places. Trying to get a wide audience ;)

I'm giving 2 months as a deadline, as you noticed -1st of august is still a fair ways away!

1039239

I have 17 boxes of belongings to pack into a small car. A new destination (with no internet) to move to. A low income that will have me scraping for ends meat. And nothing but the clothes on my back, a laptop, and my trusty guitar.

... Challenge... Accepted...

I'm in! Outline is ready to go!

Also, if you're looking for an extra judge, last contest Peregrine Caged wanted to help, but he missed out due to a PM mishap. He expressed interest in helping in the future. But that's up to you.

*pokes head up*
Did someone say contest?

1039302
I'll get on it! :D

August, huh? That's pretty far away. Although, it only seems that way now. I'm sure the day will sneak up and sucker punch me when I'm not looking. Maybe I'll give this a go...

1039217 Ooh! Ooh! ROI or Northern Ireland? I want to read your posts in the appropriate accent in my head because Irish accents are awesome!

1039319
I think we gave the first contest 6 weeks time? Then extended it by 2 weeks, so it's about the same amount of time. 2 months! :p
1039352
ROI. Galway to be specific, but I'm not irish myself, I just live/work there :P

1039356 Gah! Well, I'll just read it in the accent anyway!

1039359
My accent is an odd mixture of french and german, so it's hard to match!

I found this quite funny, because my first (and only) fanfic is of Applejack liking Rainbow Dash. Hm... irony.

1039361 Mais non, ma chere, wir haben Möglichkeiten, Ihnen zu sprechen!

1039212

Does the fic have to end with Dash and Aj successfully getting into a relationship?

1039410
Preferably. I guess I should add that to the rules! This *is* a shipping contest, after all.

1039410
1039412
You can't have a story where the Applejack and Rainbow Dash don't end up together or break up and call it "Appledash".

1039465
Indeed!

1039465 Leaves me wondering.
If a story would be entirely focused on romance but then end with someone dying/them breaking up, wouldn't that still be romance? Romance, but with a sad ending.

1039587
I guess - like bronyneumo's "beneath her hooves". In this case though, this is mainly a "getting together" category. I can't really see how AJ as the chaser would work for an existing relationship. So as a getting together thing, actually getting together would be the, well, end goal :P

August eh?! Its like an early birthday present. :) id have a go at writing a story, especially seeing as its appledash. But i dont have a pc :/ but we shall see ._.

1039630
2 months should hopefully give you time to find a solution :)

1039587
If one of them dies, but they still love each other in the end, it is still romance (although not something I'd personally read, seeing as I prefer show-like continuity). As soon as there is a definitive break up, it becomes drama, not romance. But let's be honest here; Loyalty and Honesty breaking up is about as credible as FelixDawn's writing skills.

Every story I've read in which Applejack and Rainbow Dash break up, the authors were absolutely unable to come up with a good reason. The most common are either "being a Wonderbolt prevents Rainbow Dash from forming a solid relationship with a settled farmer", or "they argue all the time, it will eventually lead to a break up".

Both arguments are extremely weak: Rainbow Dash is the fastest flier in Equestria, and she can only take comfort in somepony being able to give her the honest truth so that she may become a better pony (in the same manner that Applejack needs a loyal pony she can trust other than her own self).

If it were just me, I'd list those as tropes not to use in a story. They feel about just as bad as "Rainbow Dash breaks her wings in the Everfree Forest," and are not any easier to make into an original, let alone good, story.

1039711
I couldnt of said it better myself

A new contest, huh? Applejack being the chaser this time huh? Well it looks like I'll be pushing a certain one shot of mine a little earlier then expected. I'm in.

I'm thinking of actually having a commission by http://vulpinedesigns.deviantart.com/ as a prize for the contest. They're IMO ridiculously cheap, and I'd gladly pay for one, especially if the winner chooses Appledash.
examples:

Yes, the 2nd is from "Stuck".
I'm waiting on a response from them, but this sounds like something great as a prize. Imagine, a scene of a fic of your choice as a little diorama

1039587
I have a fanfic like that: Upon Wings of Sacrifice. AJ dies and RD goes on a journey to bring her back to life. Kind of like the tale of Gilgamesh.

1039866 "Stuck?" Really? I mean, that's awesome work and all, but still...

1039711 I don't think you need to rule out bad break-up tropes in a "getting together" story, so I wouldn't worry. (Unless you want a cliched FlutterDash breakup trope in the beginning, and then AJ sees an opportunity... But that would be awful. Just awful)

1039906
Notice it's a SFW scene from it. Plus, it was Ratofdrawn who bought it and gave it to his fiance, Callisto... who wrote Stuck :P

1039906
"Awful" doesn't begin to describe half the fan fictions I've read on this website. Twidash? Oh, you mean Twilight Sparkle learning a love spell to brainwash Rainbow Dash into loving her? That's the kind of tropes some other shippings have, so I'm happy Appledash tropes don't go that low. Still, I've seen the whole "breakup gives opportunity" situation happen a few times, about as often as "Rainbow Dash cheats on Applejack with the rest of the main six", which in my native tongue, translates to "click on the 'x' button and never look back".

1039915 well okay then.

Also, normally Applejack is the main drink, and cider is the chaser.

1039927 Sturgeon's Law states that 90% of everything is crap. (For fan fiction, more like 97%) The colliary is: therefore 10% (or at least 3%) is good. That 3% is why we're here, ain't it?

I do have an excellent idea for a fic. but my english grammar has a lot to work to be decent. Comments are 1 thing a whole fanfiction is another. For me to enter i would be write it in spanish, and then ask for someone to translate it.
Can I do that?
If that is a yes, Can someone of you help me?
I'm new in this fandom, so please explain it to me: does the rules for writing yaoi applies here? I mean about, what is a lemon, lime and shoujo in terms of pony?
I can guess clap is a lemon, and shoujo is romance (the kind that cause diabetes). anything else that I need to know about terminology?
I know, I'm a bit fastidious!

Sounds like a cool idea. I'd like to enter, so I'll be giving it some thought. Two months should be plenty of time to come up with something!

1039866 Also, one of those would be a pretty cool prize!

1039984
The Yaoi Mistress wrote:

For me to enter i would be write it in spanish, and then ask for someone to translate it.

Can I do that?

You can always ask an English-speaking friend to help you with your fan fiction, and submit the English result.

The Yaoi Mistress wrote:

I'm new in this fandom, so please explain it to me: does the rules for writing yaoi applies here?

Yaoi, also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male androphilic sexual relationships [...].

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Because both Applejack and Rainbow Dash are females, "yaoi" does not apply in this contest.

The Yaoi Mistress wrote:

I mean about, what is a lemon, lime and shoujo in terms of pony?

Explicit sex is usually substituted for the term "clop". As far as I am concerned, there is no term concerning stories targeting a younger audience, because most people in the fandom are, in fact, older than the originally intended audience.

1040050
They're 25 british pounds. That to me is almost criminally cheap for how good they look - so I'd be happy to have it as a prize

1040054Sorry about that. tecnically this would be the first yuri I will ever write.
lemon refers to content that has sexual innuendos, lime is explicate sex. for put in simple.

I really don't understand me anymore

But thanks for answer my questions!

My brain, it be percolating on this.

Plus I could totally combine entering this with the VitSoL challenge. Mwahaha.

We'll see what I'm up to in a month.

1040128
Yeah, this is pretty much pure yuri in this case.
Lemon aka innuendo would be allowed. We tend to describe that as being "saucy" ;)
However, lime (aka clop) is something I'm not allowing here.

Hope that answers your questions!

1040169Yes, definitively yes! thank you!!!!

1040186
Having read some fics of other fandoms in the past, I'm familiar with those terms. Just haven't seen em in a while!

1040169
I am so glad this wont have clop, ive read a few but was not too fond of it, they only made me laugh at the detail some people put into that kind of material, but hey im not going to go and judge, everyone has their own tastes right? After all being open minded is why were all here amirite!

1040352
It's not so much about preference. I've read a bunch of clop, nothing wrong with it. However, not having clop tends to have more meaningful fics, I find (with very rare exceptions). Plus, it allows for a much wider audience - I've sent a link to EQD asking to advertise the contest - might see it in the nightly roundup, as the last appledash contest was. Having clop would mean no chance of getting on there.

1040378 yes i agree! I just prefer the more romantic side in preference to mindless ******* (im a mushy b**tard) but i am looking forward to a bunch of fics on appledash as it is the only ship i really enjoy to read, and was the first fimfic i read (a dash of apple) and is still my favourite of all. I may draw a few more appledashes because the redraw of your avatar was great fun despite how long it took! :)

1039984
I've translated Spanish -> English before. I think I'd be able to help.

1039711 Breakup argument you say? Rainbow Dash is to selfish/headstrong to admit that Aj is right, Rainbow Dash lies to Aj to cover her drinking for example. Rd and Aj have two whole different goals in life.
Rd get's easily bored of doing the same job, if she was to work on sweet apple acres she would most likely be bored to death, while Aj is proud of her FAMILY farm. Applejack is always honest true, how about she keeps getting Rd depressed because of her honesty? making Rd stop beliving in herself.

Some arguments that just went in my mind^^ I should write a fic about Aj making Rd depressed