4194732
4195411

I guessed that she was female as well. In fact, the idea that she was male never even occurred to me.

Same here. That is a female character. I don't know why, but she's a mare. I think it comes through because of the way in which she is self-conscious about her invisibility. It's brighter than the Sun.

At first I thought she was a crystal pony, because that is pony type you can see through. Especially with her coming from the train from another land. Seemed really obvious. Once I finally found out she was more than translucent, I assumed she was an earth pony because it still fit (no mention that it didn't), plus horns and wings don't work so good under hooded cloaks. Plus, crystal types don't come in winghorse or hornhorse, so I was thinking earth pony anyway at that point.

I'm actually not entirely certain she's not a crystal pony. That would be pretty funny. "Well, now we can see you, at least..."

Please publish this story someday. I loved it so much. It really didn't matter what Echo was because for me, she was the reader.

4195417
Zecora IS one of her mentors. This is very clear in Magic Duel, but also due to the fact that Twilight routinely goes to Zecora for help when she doesn't know the solution to a problem.

4195596

Because, you see, it was supposed to be another Celestia's history fic. And I didn't execute it correctly.

Mind. Blown.

Okay now I like the story better.

4195774
We were not permitted to guess you because you did not make the finals.

4195782
Well, that would explain things.

--<No, that only raises more questions!)

4195999
Despite harsh advice, I loved your story, it moved me to tears perhaps more than any other except Love at First Sight, and it should have scored much, much higher. I hope you publish it.

4196023

A Crystal Pegasus.

Crystal unicorns appear to only be crystallized background ponies, though. (And Twilight, Rarity, and Shining Armor, of course.)

Oh, thought the results weren't announced till Monday.

Well, I'm going to agree with the general sentiment of "Holy shit, Cold in Gardez is really good at this." But that's hardly a surprise. I would like to note that any discussion of submissions caps should take into consideration that if there is imposed, say, a four submission per author cap, that would have freed up three spaces in the finalist category, but it also would have meant three less very good fics being entered into the write off. Just something worth keeping in mind.

Anyway, One Untended and Apart:

1. This was written in the style of a series of Arizona Apache stories/fables I read a while back (though it isn't a rewrite of any of those). I thought they could make for a decent set of sort of traditional earth pony stories, but I was iffy about the idea. I was testing the waters with this.

2. The basic theme of all of those stories was that someone did something that either harmed the community or offended nature, and was then punished. After the punishment was dealt, everything would be put right again. I thought the punishment was a kind of cure for the harm they did to the community, which is the connection to the prompt.

3. All of those stories opened and ended with a "It happened at..." line. Apparently, in that case, they described actual places near where the tribe lived, so physical places were tied with practical lessons. In a set, those "It happened ats" sort of take you on a tour, guiding you from place to place, and each place you pass has a story and lesson to tell. I'm now realizing that in a vacuum, with just a single story, it doesn't work. It just sort of feels random and confusing on its own.

4. I chose Antonovka apples because I vaguely remember a grandparent telling me that if I ate a bunch in a single sitting, they would make me sick. I don't know whether there's any truth in that or what his reasoning was. He kept a small apple orchard, so I just assumed he'd know what he was talking about.

5. Thanks to everyone for their reviews and comments! I really appreciate them.

4196100
Wait. I thought that was a pegasus guard who merely appeared to be crystal during the Murdering of the Tyrant?

4196173

This guard remains crystallized even after it's worn off of the non-crystal ponies. He's naturally crystal-born.

4196205
Or maybe he puts on glittery makeup every morning cause it makes him look gorgeous. You don't know his life; you don't get to judge.

4196224

Very true. My apologies, Guard-that-may-or-may-not-be-crystal.

Be you. Be fabulous.

4195959

With so many people competing, it's definitely a lot tougher than it used to be. I'm of two minds about the "Finalist" thing: somehow it's more discouraging to score 36th out of 101 and miss the cut than it is to score 36th out of 101 and be able to tell yourself you were in the top half. On the other hand, "making the finals" suddenly means something: for a week you are sitting directly alongside Cold in Gardez, Pascoite, Cold in Gardez, Cold in Gardez, Cold in Gardez, etc., and even if you end up scoring #35 "Finalist" has a great ring to it.

I chuckled at the last bit.

I do kind of agree; making the finalists feels good, and it also means that it is much more likely that people will read all of those stories. We had 31 people vote on the finalists, which is the most we've ever had vote on anything - even All In only had 29 votes. Reading 35 minifics or 17 short stories is very achievable compared to double (or triple) those numbers. It also means that, generally speaking, everything you read in the finalist round is more likely to be enjoyable than normal. And it means that, heck, you beat out a lot of good folks to end up in there.

Multiple stories from top entrants is definitely a heck of a headwind, but that strikes me as a social problem rather than a technical one. I agree completely with >> Titanium Dragon here, both in his points about the reading it provides, and in the problem's limits — for all that our concerns are legitimate, we are literally just arguing about Cold in Gardez being so good he can write us in circles. I wrote three stories and only one was in serious contention; Titanium Dragon wrote four, had two finalists, and didn't crack the top ten (would have placed 9th if it was one-fic-per-author); Pascoite went three-for-three in the finals but, again, only had one in serious top contention. If that's a problem, the first step is just nicely to ask Cold in Gardez to leave some room for the rest of us, though I half-suspect that when he speaks up after work he'll say he was doing this to test his limits and/or set a record, and doesn't plan on that sort of death-march again.

I don't think it is fair to single out Cold in Gardez like that anyway; as I noted previously in this thread, people have done this before historically. Pascoite double medalled and I would have put four stories in the top 10 of my first minific competition (out of 50 entires) had I not entered, you know, four stories that pushed the last one of them down to a lowly 12th.

But I can't do that every time, as attested by my failure to even medal since then. No one can. Horizon has only failed to metal four times out of 11, and has won four times. Pascoite, Cold in Gardez, Chris, Pav Fiera, and Bob from Bottles medal half the time or more. So... yeah. I mean, sure, Cold in Gardez is really good, but even he hasn't finished in the top third every time. Indeed, I think you, BobFromBottles, Chris, Sharpspark, and bookplayer all have never failed to make the top third, so you've got him beat on that, at least.

I have a hard time begrudging him writing six stories, four of which finished above my highest scoring one this time around. If he can do that every round, well then, who am I to complain?

But apparently he can't beat you when you're batting for the fences, so next time he'll clearly have to write ten to win. :photocool:

I feel like I owe Filler an apology, because "Blight," which I specifically singled out for praise in 4191910 was #36, and didn't make the finals because of me.

It is impossible to know that for sure because of the nature of preliminary rounds; it is probable that the five stories that just missed (Blight, The Frog of Love, Carrot, The Best Medicine, and The Symposium) were all pretty close to the cut-off, and if you went back in time and eliminated a story, there's a good chance something else would have made it in instead. There's always going to be some random element on the stories that only just barely made it in/didn't make it in, because they're so close to the border that chance alignment of ballots meant that they were included or excluded.

I mean, one of my sets included White Lies, It's A Fine Line, Labor Pains, Back on that Horse, Field Work, The Smallest Acts of Love, The Poetry of Politics, In the Fields, and The Symposium. That's a pretty tough set, according to my scoring (I gave all of those stories at least a 4, and most of them 7s or higher - I didn't list the handful which weren't really in contention). It doesn't take many people getting sets like that for a story to end up out of contention if it is on the edge.

The reality is that the finals are going to leave a lot of people out in the cold, but the alternative is reading 100+ stories, or 50+ short stories, which is unmanagable for a lot of folks by the look of things. And I mean, even if we had limited it to, say, three entries per person, there's a pretty good chance that two of the three people who would have gotten in would have been people who were already in there anyway.

I felt like your Granny Smith story was quite good (and indeed, folks generally agreed; it was in the top half of the finalists), so I'd hate to see it go. And the sad reality is, a lot of the stories for these would just never be written at all unless we had the writeoff to force our quills.

I don't want to encourage Cold in Gardez to produce LESS stuff.

4196205
4196224
4196232
To be fair, looking at him more closely, he doesn't have the faceted eyes of the crystal ponies.

I think he might be a fake, guys.

4196132
I liked this story and thought it was pretty great on the whole. I'm kind of surprised it didn't do better, honestly.

3. All of those stories opened and ended with a "It happened at..." line. Apparently, in that case, they described actual places near where the tribe lived, so physical places were tied with practical lessons. In a set, those "It happened ats" sort of take you on a tour, guiding you from place to place, and each place you pass has a story and lesson to tell. I'm now realizing that in a vacuum, with just a single story, it doesn't work. It just sort of feels random and confusing on its own.

Aha. That explains that, at least.

4196232
That's weird. There are other sources suggesting crystal ponies are all nonwinghoofers.

Maybe it's cosplay. (Maybe it's Maybelline.)

4196271
HA. I knew it.

He's probably the crystal version of Princess Erroria.

4196271
Now I need a fic about this guy. There has to be an enchantingly fabulous backstory tucked somewhere in there.

4196271
4196310
4196370

Upon further exploration, it seems that crystallized background ponies keep rounded shines in their eyes, which would likely be the case for this unusual guard. However, here's a crystal-filly with rounded eye shines.

Her name is Hope. Isn't she cute?

I agree with Bachiavellian, though. I want a story about a guard who dresses himself with glittering makeup each morning before donning his armor.

4196434
You'd think anypony could see through such a transparent rouge. Er, ruse.

4196434
As far as I can tell, he hasn't been given a fannon name yet. I propose "Gilded Glamor" or "Stainless Glitter."

4196488

It's a struggle.

Here he is, a foreigner in a land lost for centuries, surrounded by some of the most beautiful ponies he's ever seen. Can we blame him for trying to fit in?

4196491

I'm kinda into "Gilded Glamour". What kind of cutie mark would he have?

4196502
I imagine one of this:

Surrounded by a lot of these:

(I'm having WAY too much fun, here.)

4196370
I'm sitting here realizing I'm on a forum and we're all really, really excited to hear a story about a pony that pretends to be made out of crystal and uses makeup to do it, and in the back of my mind, something speaks: "Is this weird?"

"...nah."

4196517

Imagine the moment when he acquired his cutie mark.
"Yes. This is my destiny. To defend the weak and oppressed, and to look fabulous doing it!

4196522

Remember when this thread was about a writeoff competition?

4196533

Remember when this thread was about a writeoff competition?

Eenope. Roger is going to ban us all when he gets back.

(But on a Writeoff-related note, I've been getting some editing done on Ten Degrees. If I'm lucky, I'll put it up sometime tomorrow.)

4196533
This conversation IS about writing. This is not the formation-of-the-moon tangent.

4195988
Wait, Gardez is five people? That... actually explains a lot. I... hrrrrmmm.

4196232
Hay check your privilege, cishet scum. He's crystal because that's how he presents.

oh dear Luna I hope he reprimands me and makes me use the bunself pronouns pleeeeeeeeeze

4196770

Alright, everybunny just calm down!
Now, I am more than willing to refer to Gilded Glamour as a crystal pony if that is how he wants to be addressed.
The thing is, though, he hasn't come out one way or another yet.
And that's fine, too!
If he's still trying to figure things out for himself, if he's experimenting and exploring his identity, then who am I to force the issue?
He's gorgeous either way!

(It is at this point that Angel stops his squeaking and furious arm-waving, and hops off his soapbox.)

4196770
Are you sure he's not just appropriating crystal pony culture? They were oppressed a thousand years, you know. Crystalface is serious business.

I say we burn him at the stake, it's the only way to be sure.

4196828

4196832

Trial by fire?
It's never failed me before.

4196839

Sweetie Belle! I expected better of you!

...You used "in case" twice in one sentence.

4196854
oh dear Luna I just noticed the poster

4196861

It needs to check its privilege.
Humyn*

4176206

I'm terribly sorry, I've had a whole lot going on this past week and I haven't checked the thread here at all.

Anyway, I am a part of the new meat as well. Please let me through the golden gates of Writopolis, I promise not to spit on the sidewalk. Much

Also, here is a LONG overdue, but nevertheless incredibly sincere, THANK YOU! to everyone who tossed in their two cents on Empathy:
4154908 4151114 4150624 4150522 4163414 4152257 4159485 4162221

You people are the best!
And I also want to thank 4150278 , because you totally made my night way back when. I hope you flesh out the ideas in Astral Rift, it was a really interesting idea!

Finally, 4172240

After a few light years, I have at last found the time to reply to this! I'd actually never heard of The Cure before you brought it up in your first review. But I can see the similarities, and I am looking forward to giving more of their songs a listen! I wish I'd had a more concrete idea of what Empathy's band was based on when I wrote it, so I could explain where it did come from. But it was really nothing more than "band that Vinyl listens to with music that she can empathize with." The gist of the story spawned from a presentation on Empathy vs. Sympathy that a friend did in my speech class shortly before the prompt was released, and having a band called The Best Medicine was basically just me adding in the prompt on another level. It continues to mystify me as to why I chose to write crappy song lyrics, rather than just leave them to the imagination. Oh well.

And I'd also like to address your previous review of my story, Lord horizon: let me tell you, you gave me a whole lot to ponder over the past week or so. First of all, I love that Robert Smith song and am eternally grateful for being introduced to it. Wonderful music, that. Second, the fact that the roommate was unnamed/undescribed in Empathy was mostly because of me continually rewriting bits and pieces to keep it under the limit. Her Octavian origins mostly got cut out, as did the majority of descriptors for Vinyl. I didn't realize this until I reread it several days later, and, while I completely agree with what you said in 4162221, I definitely can't claim any credit for thinking about this story that deeply during the writing. Your review really drove home how many more things I could have done to make this a better tale, and they're all changes I plan to make as soon as my free time stops running away so dang fast. So thank you for all of that, and amazing job on 4DC!

Let me start by congratulating horizon on yet another well-deserved win. His was the only fic I gave a 10 score to, and I considered it better than any of my entries. Congratulations as well to Pascoite, who took second in a very tough field, and to everyone who participated in this round. The quality of stories this time around was higher than anything I've seen since I started participating in the Writeoff back in October.

As horizon hinted, I don't plan on making a habit of submitting multiple entries in future Writeoffs. Writing six stories in a single afternoon was one of the toughest things I've done as a part of this fandom, and while I'm pleased that some of the stories were well received, it's also obvious that my getting six stories into the finals meant that four other authors didn't get any (TD would have gotten another story into the finals, but he already had one there anyway). We can argue all day about whether or not that's fair, but it isn't something I intend to do again.

Anyway, the why:

Love and Other Bandages was the first idea I came up with over lunch. Those of you who are familiar with my stories know that I'm enamored with the concept of significant moral choices -- that is, the climax of the story and the ultimate determination of whether the protagonist wins or loses should be based on a moral choice, between doing what is right vs. what is easy, comfortable or safe. So, the first question I asked myself was, how can I have a character make a moral choice about medicine?

Fluttershy values the life and wellbeing of her charges. We see that again and again in the episodes, and it's a significant part of the fanon for her character. What, I wondered, would she be willing to do in order to help heal someone? What sort of medicine requires the most commitment and sacrifice from the doctor? The answer (love) drove the rest of the story, and it played out naturally in my head.

(As for the shipping I included between Fluttershy and Dash at the end, that was unintentional. They're just good friends.)

But as I was finishing lunch and driving home, I couldn't help thinking -- what about the other Mane Six? Fluttershy's virtue is kindness, so it's reasonable that she would triumph over a difficult moral situation by being as kind as possible -- to the extent of loving, in this case.

The Topiary Garden came to me next. There are so many stories about how Twilight Sparkle is doomed to an eternity of misery and suffering because she will outlive all her friends. Her element is Magic, but her virtue is Friendship -- how would friendship help her overcome the deaths of her friends?

Balm is so stereotypically one of my stories I'm amazed no one guessed it. Rainbow Dash's virtue is Loyalty, which includes duty. Faced with a terrible loss of her own, she turns to duty for solace, even if, as Twilight surely saw, there was no true healing there. One of the costs of duty is suffering, and so Rainbow Dash gets to suffer. Sorry, girl.

Yes, that's said tongue-in-cheek. Balm is a bit of a critique of the Stoic philosophy, of which I am an adherent, which says that happiness can only be found by doing what is virtuous. That is, one can suffer any sort of pain or loss imaginable, but as long as you're doing what is right, you should still be happy; you just have to adjust your idea of happiness to correspond with your idea of virtue. That's a tall order for most people, and one I'm still struggling with. It's a theme that pops up in a lot of my stories and underlies a lot of thought in military circles.

First, Last and Always is about Applejack and how she must have responded to the loss of her parents. I couldn't figure out a way to work Honesty into her story, but to me at least Honesty has always been a bit of a red herring for her. What makes Applejack exceptional is her devotion to her family, so that's the direction I went with.

As a side note, I had no intention of any sort of meta-reference when I used the word 'nugget.' I wasn't a part of that whole thing and in retrospect I would have used 'kernel' or somesuch instead.

If You Can't Cry... was a pretty obvious take on how Pinkie would respond to suffering -- with laughter. This was a pretty common trope, and quite a few other authors ran with it as well (including Foxy E's Hometown Support, which edged it out by several spots).

I'm not very good at writing Pinkie Pie. Her humor is physical and random, which I have trouble emulating. Also this was the last story I wrote and I was pretty tired by that point.

It's a Fine Line gave me the most trouble. I put Rarity and Twilight in the spa because, let's face it, all of my stories with those two somehow end up in the spa. But I never really managed to create a moral question for Rarity that directly addressed the prompt, and in the end just sort of shoe-horned it in after a fairly pedantic lecture from Rarity about how great she is and how Twilight should stop asking stupid questions (as several reviewers correctly called me out for).

So, yeah. One story for each of the Mane Six. It was a good experiment, and I'm happy with the results, but once is enough for me.

For RodgerDodger:

Proposal: Cap the number of points that a participant can receive in any given Writeoff event at 2x the points received by the first place story. I received 1055 points for my six stories -- horizon received 259 for his winning story.

4196224

I have an idea for a scene now where our Crystal Pegasus is getting ready after a shower, and his wife walks in to find him a normal pegasus applying copious amounts of glitter to his coat, followed shortly by anguished cries of "I can explain!" as she storms out.

4197469
4196522
4196517

I had a thought. What kind of conversations could this Crystal Pegasus of ours have with Rarity?
She understands the appeal of a crystalline coat and could certainly sympathize with his pursuits of glamour.
Could she perhaps pass along Applejack's words of wisdom, or maybe teach him about his inner beauty, regardless of his coat?
I find myself torn. Is this a comedy with an amusing premise or social commentary through the lens of ponies, or maybe even both?
Either way, I feel like this deserves to be written.

It's that time again. The results are out, and we've all had a chance to look through, marvel at who wrote what and how many -- looking at you, Cold in Gardez -- and to feel some measure of satisfaction with how we've gone.

So, well done to the winners. Horizon especially, for 4th District Court, Canterlot 11:35am, which was original in format and substance, and made me laugh. That was great. (Although my only 9 went to Love and Other Bandages, which had the best title of the competition. Sorry, but sweetness > comedy for me, in most cases.)

Anyhow, down to the explanations:

Hometown Support
Honestly, I'm surprised this one did so well. The prompt usage is pretty -- see: VERY -- basic. Little more than "Laughter is the best medicine".

However, I wanted to try write the prompt straight, and still make a good story; so I asked myself, "How would Pinkie Pie deal with grief?"

The knee-jerk reaction is LAUGHTER!!! The laughing pony would giggle-snort her way back to happiness. But is this true? In my personal experience, I've found that outgoing people often draw on a wide network of support when they are struggling with grief. They talk about their problems, share them, and so ease their burden.

But what if it was something that Pinkie Pie, the ultimate outgoing person, couldn't -- or wouldn't -- share? What would happen then? She would retreat inwards. The wound would fester. She would get caught up in her own grief, and would need someone else to push through her shell and show her that it was okay.

And who would have fulfilled this role before she came to Ponyville?

Why, her dear sister Maud.

And how would Monotone McGee give her sister the dose of laughter and relief she so desperately needs?

Why, with rock puns, of course. Lots of dirty, filthy, hard-hitting puns.

. . . And that was how Equestria was made.

As for people's responses:

The general criticism was of the technical side of things. Stilted description. A bit of dialogue tag abuse. Unintentional metaphors which were as subtle as a battered old train hailing from a decrepit mining town smashing you in the face. Not to mention the slightly rushed second half.

Yeah. All fair criticisms.

Most of these problems are because I had 1300 words when I finished writing and had to trim it down to 750. This meant taking this freshly-born story and shaving its hair, trimming its toe nails, putting it on an oxygen-only diet, and then, when all else failed, hacking off a limb or two.

Was the original technically any better? Maybe. It would have been fluffier, but there was also more detail in the corridor scene, and the start was fleshier. There were also more puns. So. Many. Puns.

I’ll probably give this story an extra 200 words or so of breathing space and a coat of polish to smoothen it off.

Aspirations
Funny story: I guessed that this one would get tenth, and the other one would get twenty-sixth. Go figure.

Anyhow, Aspirations was less planned than Hometown Support, which is to say that it wasn’t planned at all. I had an hour until I had to go out to a dinner, and I wanted to write a story with Rarity and Sweetie Belle in it.

That was literally my angle. I started with what I hoped was a clear image and let things flow from there.

As I wrote, I asked myself, “What happens when Sweetie Belle gets discouraged in her search for a talent?” and “What if she sucks at magic and aspires to be a magician?”

Coupled together, this lead to FrustratedBelle, a creature feared by Rarity’s all over the globe.

For her part, I feel like Rarity is the sort who would like to head off a potential tantrum before it happens, if only to avoid the resulting headache. So she tries to get to the root of the problem, and does what many of us unintentionally do and present our own life as a kind of parable to illustrate a mistaken way of thinking and how to deal with it.

With space, this worked pretty well, but it was space I didn’t have. 500 words of space, to be precise. Once again, I had to go at this fic like an angry anti-environmental explorer machete-ing his way through a jungle. The ‘parable’ got brutally slashed; a lot of the banter got cut, which is a shame, because I thought it was good banter; and I roll up the narration accompanying the dialogue and put it in the shed.

And this lead to the major problem with this piece: the message doesn’t ring true. It’s not cohesive. The pieces of something meaningful are there, but they need to be refined and joined together. Rarity’s message, I think, is this:

“If you get obsessed with some dream or future, your vision narrows, and you miss the shiny opportunities which appear in the periphery. Any of these might be your true calling, or might bring you happiness. The best medicine for what you’re feeling is to step back and try out some of those shiny alternatives. They might help you find yourself, as they did me.”

In my edits, I’m going to try excavate this message, refine it a bit, and trim away the things that detract from it. I’m also going to extend the dialogue between Rarity and Sweetie Belle once they start talking properly. As it stands, there isn’t enough back-and-forth, enough struggle to communicate, enough conflict – which several readers picked up on.

With all the changes I can see this clocking in anywhere from 1250-1750 words. Probably long enough to be its own piece.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone who read and enjoyed these two stories! I had a good time with this writeoff, and while I was pretty lax with reviews, I’d be happy to share some thoughts on and/or help edit your story if you are interested. Just send me a PM!

4197469
4197555

Perhaps he suffers from a rare skin condition, originating from his distant crystal lineage, which causes him to shed excessive amounts of glittery dandruff. On the day we saw him, he'd been too busy to take a shower, and the build-up of dandruff made him appealing at a distance and repulsive in close proximity.

4197427

As horizon hinted, I don't plan on making a habit of submitting multiple entries in future Writeoffs. Writing six stories in a single afternoon was one of the toughest things I've done as a part of this fandom, and while I'm pleased that some of the stories were well received, it's also obvious that my getting six stories into the finals meant that four other authors didn't get any (TD would have gotten another story into the finals, but he already had one there anyway). We can argue all day about whether or not that's fair, but it isn't something I intend to do again.

For the record, Georg also was right on the edge as well and also had a story in the finals. Had you submitted three stories instead of six, there's a not-small chance it would have put exactly one more person in the finals.

Clearly the REAL outcry will happen next competition, when someone writes six short stories and all of them get into the finals. :V

4196832
No you don't understand this needs to be the story

4197582

Clearly the REAL outcry will happen next competition, when someone writes six short stories and all of them get into the finals. :V

Inb4 TD does just that. :V

4195596

Alas, I screwed up the sister-in-law thing by removing the reveal that she was Luna,

Huh, wouldn't this remove the story from canon and turn it into an AU (or push it deeper into AU territory)? AFAIK the very opening of the first episode confirms (or at least strongly hints) that Celestia and Luna are actual sisters, not sisters in law. And the Journal of the Two Sisters, though not something I can call consistent, confirms that.

While I see no issues in doing AU stories, keeping hidden that it's an AU (or that a specific detail that seems the same in your universe actually isn't) until you can point at the divergence and do an "Ah-ha, in my story it's different" reveal is kinda cheating.

4194998

So, for you and everyone else who commented on the "womb" part of "wombosis:" it's definitely meant to be pronounced "wawm-BOW-sis," and has nothing to do with gynecology. It's actually a reference to my D&D group, where the running joke is for the players to refer to every ailment from plague to hangovers as "explosive wombosis" and lament how it's incurable, and the only thing for it is to put the afflicted out of his/her misery. That's actually a reference to an internet meme, I discovered--though apparently in the transition from internet to gaming table, it changed its spelling. I think I'll change it "back" to wommblosis, just to remove that confusion.

Wow, that is an obscure meme. Might be related with what a couple decades ago I knew as "wombombosis," AKA eating a live bomb, a condition often suffered by the opponents of the likes of Link, Bugs Bunny, and Woody Woodpecker

(And yeah, I'm kinda slow these days )

4195914
There are at least two ways in which Luna could have suffered: during her thousand years exile, from being aware of what was happening (as apparently was the case with Discord when he was turned to stone), and after returning, from seeing nearly everything she held dear either lost or changed after those thousand years. I find it highly likely that at least one of those was the case, if not both.

BTW, do you have the reference for the WoG handy? I currently assume she slept and dreamed that whole time, as the magic of the elements worked to separate her consciousness from the nightmare while her dream magic kept her sane, but seeing some clarification would be nice.

4196644

This conversation IS about writing. This is not the formation-of-the-moon tangent.

Actually, in MLP, thanks to Luna, formation-of-the-moon isn't really a tangent

Important Question

Somepony here suggested that my prose was written poorly because I use two spaces between sentences. What do you gals feel about two spaces? Is that actually bad for some reason? Should I stop doing that thing? I have a hard time tolerating a single space, to be honest. It doesn't look or feel right to me.

Obviously I have to stop doing it for the Writeoffs, which is not annoying thanks to the ability to replace with . I'm super-duper surprised more ponies didn't guess my second entry because I did that in both of them.

So tell me this thing quicklyish if you can dooz. I want to publish my LICTB today probably.