And Then There Was None · 12:01am Aug 28th, 2014
111 stories (mostly) read. Probably around 500,000 of the full 675,755 words in the competition.
You know what really sucks? The last part was the worst. How is that fair?
And Then There Was None
Timber Heart
By Spectrum Shine
A timberwolf finds a little filly in the Everfree Forest and takes care of it.
It’s basically one of those stories that just short of being solid in each aspect. Just a few technical errors, a few odd word choices, a confusing detail or two, slightly off pacing. Not a single bit of it is bad, but it’s all missing some part of the polish that would make it passable.
Part of me wanted to give it a 4, but since it’s lacking on both form and function, I decided that:
3/10 Prompt: Moderate
…was fair.
The Lost Bride
By TheMessenger
Yeah. I don’t get it. I mean I get it, but I don’t get it. It’s just watching something uninteresting from a unique PoV. Well enough written I suppose, but I don’t get it.
2/10 Prompt: Moderate
Pooka Tries To Take Over Equestria
By warewolves
As the title implies, I assume…
Lots of telling and the narrative didn’t grab me in any way. I quit when the omniscient narrative jumped into Twilight’s PoV to be tell-y and broke the rules.
DNF
And now the non-FIMFiction entries:
A Second Chance
By Emerlees
A mule’s life sucks.
Aaaaand that’s kind of all there is to it. It’s not so much ‘about racism’ as describing (vaguely) one occurrence if racism without any real context. No qualms with the writing, though.
2/10 Prompt: Moderate
As Time Marches Onwards
Dragon adopts pony. Pony grows up and asks questions. Evil ponies turn up and try to kill everyone.
Ahh, the good old days.
So. GDoc. Well formatted (save a lot of unnecessary spacing). Readable. Things are looking up. Odd story, though. I think the best way I can put it is to say that it lacks storytelling nuance. It’s not that there isn’t meat to the story, it’s just that it’s presented as if there wasn’t. Lots of telling and not much in the way of proper pacing. There’s definitely a story here, though, and I confess I didn’t see that ending coming.
Maybe I’m just a sucker for the ‘adopted daughter adores adoptive father’ thing.
3/10 Prompt: Strong
The Changeling Way
By Jonny Manz
Some kind of changeling post-high-school drama.
It’s all trying way too hard. Lots of forward- and back-slashes to mark time skips, the plot pelting on by with very little attention to pacing, and the sentences constructions are loose enough for Optimus Prime to hide in the gaps. There’s an idea here, but there’s nothing to it’s execution.
1/10 Prompt: Prompt? There was a prompt?
Why Ponies? (went up on FIMFiction yesterday)
By bahatumay
Ponyphillia. That is all.
I’m really glad I found this, half because the torrent of DNFs was starting to make me wonder if I was just in too foul a mood to be doing this, but equally that finding a random GDoc story by an author I’ve never heard of that is actually good proved quite an uplifting experience.
Aside from a few style choices I found questionable – and let’s face it, with me being me this is par for the course – I really enjoyed this simple variation on a love story. And I really do mean simple. Changeling meets stallion, accidentally falls in love and commits treason against her entire hive. You know, basic stuff. But the framing device makes the difference here. The changeling is put on on ponyphillia and treason charges in the opening scene, so the rest plays out with a very rewarding mix of expectation and suspense. And it’s a pretty good shot at the prompt, too!
More than I was expecting this far down the list.
6/10 Prompt: Strong
These, however, were all DNFs.
Perspective
Twilight and the Knights of Tambelon
My Pain
The Rescue of a Friend
Harbingers: Shadows under Horseshoe Bay
For the Sake of Love
The Town Downstream
Spid3r Ey3s
The Planes of Dirax
Harmonious
A holiday in Ponyville
Griffon's Don't get Cutie Marks
Think what you like about my instant prejudice against FanFiction.net stories, but it was proven well-founded many times over.
And I'm DONE.
The ABSOLUTELY DEFINITELY FINAL TALLY excepting that one story that still melts my brain is:
9's
I AM DEMON – Immaculate
8's
Rise – Moderate
Queen of Queens – Moderate
7's
My Father Used to Say – Strong
Pride – Strong
Destination Unknown – Moderate
The Last Trumpet's Call – Weak
Little Apple – Weak
Changeling: The Movie – Weak
6's
I AM DEMON – Very Strong
Hello, My Name Is… – Strong
We Who With Songs Beguile – Strong
Why Ponies? – Strong
Life in the Inner Wing – Strong
Something Magical – Strong
Mortal Coil Foiled – Moderate
Bloomberg – Moderate
Veni, Vidi, Verti – Moderate
Let Them Eat Grass – Moderate
Moot Model – Weak
An Outsider's Perspective – Weak
5's
Not in Bluff Nor Bravado Nor Loneliness – Strong
Au Natualligator – Strong
A Tired Life – Weak
Sylphidine – Weak
…Nor the Battle to the Strong – Weak
Moonlight Palaver – Very Weak
(Greyed out stories didn't make the official cut)
So. Umm...
Oh, I know.
Zzzzzzzzzz
You are:
A braver man that I, sir--I mean, I'm wunna the judges, and even I, due to the way Couch Crusader set up the brackets and all, ended up only reading about 40 of the stories...
I'll also note that "Midnight Palaver" actually did make the final ballot and should therefore not be "greyed out" on your list.
Mike
EDIT: Oh, and "Something Magical" didn't make the final ballot.
Why Ponies? looks interesting, I'll give it a read.
2407318 1am is not the time to be posting things.
I've got about 25 stories left and then I'll be done with the whole thing too! :D
I don't know what it is about non-Fimfic stories, but with the exception of GDocs, they're almost always terrible. There were maybe a couple this round that weren't, but it wasn't more than one or two, and I don't think any were on FFN.
You're a good man, IqM.
Best of luck in the final accounting :)
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