Read It Now #71 - Quiet Boy and Moon Horse · 4:46am Jan 29th, 2016

Quiet Boy and Moon Horse
by Horizon

Alternate Universe, Romance, Human, Sad
6,002 words
There once was a story about the beautiful dark alicorn who moved the moon. In the tranquil countryside, a young boy listened to the story, looked at the stars, and imagined. He grew up and fell in love with the ruler of the night … and she loved him, too.
It was perfect, except for one nagging doubt in the back of the quiet boy's head: she was a character from a children's story.

Why I added it: It was one of the better stories from the last original fiction writeoff.

Review
Quiet Boy is in love with Moon Horse. On some level, he knows she isn't real, but on another level, he believes she is real, very strongly - so strongly, in fact, that she makes his life better. But she also makes his life worse, and is simultaneously a place of comfort and loneliness.

At its heart, this is fundamentally the story of a young boy seeking solace in a fantasy, trying not to be unhealthy about it, but failing at that anyway, and the joys and struggles it brings him.

This story had an excellent style to it, a sort of fairy tale like quality which held throughout the piece, and it worked very well with the fantasy that it was touching upon, that Quiet Boy was embracing. It is a sad story, both for Quiet Boy and for Moon Horse, and his understanding that things weren’t right, but they weren’t entirely wrong, either.

I really liked this, even if I don’t really think that the coping mechanism is particularly healthy (though I think the story seems to sort of agree with that), and it examines why people might engage in such fantasies, and both the harm and joy it brings to Quiet Boy.

This is only marginally a MLP fanfic; really, this is a work of original fiction which pokes at MLP in only the barest of ways. But that doesn't mean it isn't relevant to your interests. If you like stories with a fairy tale quality to them, you'll very likely enjoy this piece.

Recommendation: Recommended.

Speaking of the Writeoff, the Writeoff Association is running a My Little Pony short story competition this weekend. We have three days to write stories between 2,000 and 8,000 words based on a short prompt, starting in just a few hours tonight, when the prompt is posted. The stories are all posted anonymously (the names of the writers are hidden during the course of the contest, though there is a list of writers who entered for an author guessing game we play) and they are read and graded by the public (i.e. everyone with a writeoff account who is interested - mostly other competitors).

It is a great way not only to get things done due to the tight deadline eliminating procrastination, but to get feedback on your stories from very talented writers such as Cold in Gardez, horizon, bookplayer, GAPJaxie, Georg, Bad Horse, and numerous other excellent writers who compete. Not everyone gets feedback from everyone, but everyone gets feedback from at least a few people.

If you're interested, join the Writeoff Association and sign up on the writeoff website.