Okay, back to the standard three-week submission period this month. And yes, I have actually got this thread up on the first of the month. There must be some eldritch influence. Well, more than there usually is around these parts. *glances at prompt* Pardner.

Here are the full rules.

Remember, there is no prize, as such, for this contest -- but if you win, you will be able to choose the prompt for the next contest. You'll also get a mention on the group's front page, which may be seen by upwards of six people. Well, okay, it may be seen by one person (which is to say, me) upwards of six times. Oh well, you didn't come here seeking infamy or fame anyway, I'm sure. Let's get on.

Prompt: "Dead or Alive" (selected by last month's winner, CoffeeMinion)
Rating: E or T
Word limit: 150
Closing date: Sunday 21st October 2018, 11:59 pm UK time (world clock)

Please reply to this post with your entry. This makes it easier for me to keep track. Please do not leave feedback until after the closing date.

Entries are now open! Have fun!

"Dead or Alive"? Darn it, CoffeeMinion! Now I can't stop thinking about westerns.

Will give this a go. Let me think of something that doesn't involve cowboys first.

6604294
I'm sure you might've noticed by now from me that I tend to break expectations every so often with these stories. I'm not an expert writer like a J. R. R. Tolkien or an Emily Dickinson, and I probably never will be. I just try to express something that's new, surprising, or was never even considered before. It usually might be an idea, but having a bachelor's degree in 'Media Arts and Animation,' I usually like to entertain people visually.

Take for example the following story, I try to present it within all the limits I have at my disposal. While keeping in mind the eyes of everyone's perspective view, I try to incorporate my vision for all to appreciate the complexity I put into it, but this form of creativity might not work for everyone on so-ho-ho many levels.

Day:        142
Weather: Cloudy
Condition: Grim

---

It feels like that this is all a dream, Well, a nightmare to be blunt.

With nothing much left and so little time to go on, I've been doing nothing but reflecting on my life with questions.

Couldn't there have been another way to comfort her?  Rabbits die just like the rest of us, so what compelled me to help?  Simpothy?  Friendship?  Title?  ....no, I don't deserve this title.  I don't deserve these wings. Not after the monster I've created.

Oryctolagus Myocardiumless, just what was I thinking?  Of course this would happen and I would... get... infected.

       I

               I'm losing focus,

If anypony stumbles upon this diary.

      PLEASE!!!  Don't come looking for me!

By the time you read this, I won't be the same pony as I am now.


Just coside 


                  consider me as ded 


                                     dead  and iel


                                                                   i'l

~~~~~$MMM~=+~~~~+=~~~~~~~~~?=~IMO~~~~~~~7~+8=~~~~=ONMO=~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~7+~~~
~~~~~OM+~+MMMMO7MMMMO+~~~~~?N=MMI~~77~~?MI7M?~~~~MM87DI~~:=77~~~=+77~+Z~=MIM$~~~
~~~~~~+MM=7M~~~~MM+~~~~~~~~~MMM7=MMMZMZZ8~+M~~~~~+8MMM~~NMMM7M+MMM8ZD?MO=M~M$~~~
~~~~~~=~NI+MMMMN8MMMMM8~~~=~NM7~IM7~=MD8+=~M+~~~~?M==7MMMM~~?MNMO~:7MDINMM?M7~~~
~~~~+OMMM$~NM=~~IM8~~~~~~~=~8M~~$MD~~M$=M8MN~~~~~~$MMMM+MM+~~M+MM=~+D?=+DO~M?~~~
~~~~~~~+~~=NMMMM=MMMMOI~~~=MO~~~?+MMM$~~?7~~~~~~~~~~~~O=~ZMMM+~~DMMM~?=~+D~MI~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~::~~~~:~~~~~~~~~N~~~~:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~=~~~~~~~~~~~::~~~

6604510
I foresaw this kind of concern when I came up with the prompt. While I'm not opposed to Westerns, I do feel there are other directions this can go in, too. Here's a quick list that I posted in the Birthday Magic thread:

• Westerns
• Fanservice
• Medical comedy
• The undead
• Bon Jovi -- which Ceffl took in a very promising Skeleanor direction by dubbing him "Bone Jovi"

6604544

Hm, I might take that undead one actually. Seems I've got a taste for horror these days...

6604517
Okay this is really creepy and I like it but I'm having trouble reading the last bit.

Is it "see you soon"?

6605717
Thanks for the confirmation! I'm colorblind enough to make stuff like this very hard to discern, but not so colorblind that I can't appreciate fabulously brightly colored ponies.

6605710
Yes it is. That part was a pain, since I was fighting the width of the text for a sentence vs the thickness of the letters (considering whether it could be read on a phone or if it could be read at all).

6605717

Setting the bar early,

I usually prepare a story the moment I hear the theme for it from a month's winner.

6604294 Just wrote this out, so I may be back to edit. This subject matter isn't normally my bag, and 150 words was a little too small for this, but here it is. More importantly, if you feel this is too much for the rating, let me know. I'm sure I can come up with something else.

“‘Course they need ta eat!” Emmer’d said. “But ya never find the earth ponies, ya know... after.”

“After what?” Raspberry had asked. “Why?”

Raspberry had misunderstood, and now he felt guilty for thinking he’d be safe because he was a unicorn. But that wasn’t it at all.

He tried to scream at the timberwolf again, but he only croaked painfully, and wiped his eyes.

His friend finally stopped twitching, and the spirit wolf gripped his throat even harder in its wooden jaws.

That’s when the glow appeared, green like the timberwolf’s eyes. It spread over the earth pony colt, and the beast finally let go when Emmer started twitching again.

The colt stood up, all wobbly. It grabbed a pine branch in its mouth and somehow stuck it to its barrel.

“Emmer?”

Emmer looked up at Raspberry with terrible glowing green eyes and growled, and this time Raspberry did scream.

6606904

More importantly, if you feel this is too much for the rating, let me know.

I think it's fine as a Teen-rated piece, so no worries there.

6604294

Happened to have these two on my mind while I was chewing over the undead concept and the "Dead or Alive" prompt, and then a miracle happened, and now I've got this story. Enjoy!

Fluttershy was dead. Again. Rainbow Dash too, though only by invitation.

While Fluttershy strode forwards, Rainbow followed warily, regretting her prior curiosity. Besides, she’d expected… well, something heavenly. Like Cloudsdale.

It’s just forest. She gulped.

Oh, it’s not all like this, said Fluttershy. I’ve seen other parts. Anyway, it’s really more the spirit of all forests.

Forests have spirits!?

Fluttershy said nothing. The ethereal trees spoke for themselves.

How did you get us here anyway!? Rainbow’s voice cracked.

Practice. Then Fluttershy hunkered down near a burrow. Mr and Mrs Squeakers?

Wait. Didn’t those two mice die yester–? Oh…

All animals are under my care. ALL animals.

What!? I thought you were just being sappy! What bothers a dead mouse!?

Fluttershy fiddled with Mr Squeakers’ ghostly leg. Phantom pain. Poor, poor things…

Eventually, Rainbow relaxed. Dead forests and spirit mice were beyond her, but Fluttershy being Fluttershy? Well, THAT she understood.

Yee Haw! Can't resist a western prompt.
So here is something very predictable.....

The clock tower bell strikes for the twelfth time. High noon and Apple Jack planted herself fore square in front of the town hall.

“Draw!”

“Now Miss, this is not necessary.” The finely dressed unicorn trembled before her. “I meant no offence.”

“Canterlot trash! Offence is taken!” AJ’s eyes narrow to fine slits beneath the wide brim of her hat. “Now draw.”

The Unicorn stands firm, but the aura of fear still lingers. “Ma’am I am a state official and this is nether the time or the place.”

“I says it is!” Apple Jacks voice drops to a low snarl. “You come into mah town boastin’ of your speed and accuracy, court mah friends and snub me. I... Said... Draw!”

The unicorn sighs, head drooping and horn glowing with magic. Artists materials are extracted from saddle bags and he starts to sketch.

“Now that’s more like it.” AJ grins.

6604294
*Writes something. Spends 20 minutes refining it. Realizes it doesn’t fit the prompt in any way, shape, or form. Cranks this out in 10 minutes instead.

“Princess!” screamed the purple streak of chaos in the otherwise pristine marble hallway. “Do you wanna see my Nightmare Night costume?”

I smiled the smile reserved for her alone. “Of course I would, Twilight.” It was a sheet with holes cut in it for her eyes and horn. I recognized this sheet, it was the one from her bed in the Western Tower. The one imported from Saddle Arabia. She looked adorable in it. “Are you... a ghost, Twilight?”

“What? No, ghost’s aren’t real, Princess,” she giggled. “I am a pony in a quantitive state trapped between two realms of existence.”

I laughed. Only Twilight. “So you aren't a pony back from the dead come to haunt me?”

“Of course not, Princess! I’m neither dead nor alive.”

A little under two days to go, folks!

6604294
I was surprised to discover that my first draft was close to 200 words. Cutting it down was painful!

Sphinx, by KwirkyJ

The sphinx grinned down at the three pony sisters, fangs glinting.

"Very well," Its tail lashed. "I shall depart. However—"

The relief on the ponies' faces froze.

"—you must each pay my price." Its gaze bored into the unicorn. "To survive eternity," to the pegasus, "or to die for it."

To the earth pony, the eldest sister, the sphinx said, "Alive or dead?"

"Terra, you can't—" The unicorn began, but Terra silenced her, lest the the wrong thing be said and doom their task.

At last, Terra resolved herself and met the sphinx's fixed stare. "Immortality is a violation against nature. Even had I the fortitude to endure it, I would abhor myself."

The sphinx blinked. Terra crumpled on the spot, as if struck by a stone hammer.

The sphynx grinned again at the unicorn. "Alive or dead?"

The pegasus, trembling with terror, whispered a plea to her sister, "Celestia…"

6605724
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Purple in a rainbow
Is a supernumerary hue

Wanted: Dead or Alive (flashfics). £0 reward! By High Midnight.

6630256

I was surprised to discover that my first draft was close to 200 words. Cutting it down was painful!

Welcome to my world.

Fiddlesticks! How apropos: I win one and then subsequently whiff on my own prompt.

6604517 6605771 6606904 6607215 6611300 6613745 6630256
Th-th-th-that's all, folks! We had seven entries this month, so thank you to everyone who gave it a shot. Usual setup now: you folks talk among yourselves for a couple of days while I read and digest, then I give a verdict everyone hates.

Anyway, feedback is now open!

6632488

Why not write one anyway? Since prompt-setters can't win contests under their own prompts, you can throw out the rest of the rulebook and go ahead.

I enjoyed everyone's stories. I wasn't going to leave comments other than that, but them's the rules. I know I won't win, but that hardly matters to me. So:

6604517 Entry 94: This is interesting, but honestly the visual aspect (especially at the very end) threw me off. Without reading the other comments, I'd never know what the whole red text thing was, or why it was there as is – I still don't know. Even knowing what it says, it feels like you're relating the thrust of this story to something outside the fandom.

6605771 Schrödinger’s Yak: This was hilarious, and one of my favorites. Well-written, well-characterized, with a very funny premise and ending. You do really well in this setting (again) concentrating on dialogue to tell the story in so few words, rather than how I approach them. I'll remember that for next time.

6606904 Me, me, me! A little piece of head-canon (not text) borrowed from a story that I've been writing for a while. Apologies for the horror aspect—it really, really is not my thing, but it's October, and sometimes you have to explore...

6607215 Aftercare: This was really sweet, also well-written and well-characterized. And it was another dialogue-driven story, which seems to be a very effective method in this. Nice work.

6611300 A Hoof Full of Bits: This was fun, and a nice subversion of expectations at the end. There's a bit of a problem with proper tense, in this, but otherwise nice story.

6613745 Very cute story, and yeah, that's definitely Twilight. Was she supposed to be saying "quantum state"? It's not clear if you intended her to use the phrase incorrectly, or you did by accident. Anyway, that was fun.

6630256 Well-written, and interesting premise. I think we can guess the outcome to this one, and mourn Terra for her choice. Good job bringing that down from 200 words! (btw, sphinx and sphynx are both used). Glad I wasn't the only one to add some dark to this, but at least your story was not quite as horror-driven.

6630256
Holy crap dude... that's really really good. Definitely my favorite of the bunch. Great job, mate.

Well, crap. Once again, I forgot all about this. I was going to cobble something together out of lyrics from songs by Dead or Alive.

In any case, it's been incredibly frustrating to constantly have to put something together last minute or not at all because I can't remember that the deadline is coming up. I'm going to have to bow out of being a regular participant, or it's going to drive me nuts.

6634048
I know the feeling. I've been pretty erratic, too.

I remembered a few days before the deadline, but didn't have any ideas, and there were already several really good stories in the running...

I'm still participating, but I'm not gonna say I'm doing it every month any more, since I don't seem to actually be doing that.

--Sweetie Belle

6634301
Well folks, I guess that’s the last time Ceffyl will be wiling to bone me.

*rimshot*

6632829
I... think I purposefully changed quantum into quantitive to help the mood? Ya know what, I'm rolling with it.
6634301
Yeah, perhaps, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Idk, kinda forgot I even wrote this.

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Right, results post time now! Thank you to everyone who gave it a shot this month. I found it hard to choose as every single story had something I really liked about it -- which is the best way for things to be! In the end, I'm going to pick Impossible Numbers' story. Now, you may say I'm biased in favour of Fluttershy fics -- and you might have a point -- but still. I love the line "Rainbow Dash too, though only by invitation." Anyway, since you've won in the past, you know the form: please pick a prompt for November and post it here, and off we'll go again next week.

On another note: anyone is welcome to participate as much or as little as they wish. I've been at fault for not posting reminders, which I'll try to do, but whether you want to enter every month or once every two years, that's totally fine.

6632829

it feels like you're relating the thrust of this story to something outside the fandom.

More like, 'outside the website'. I wanted to get a creepy font called 'YouMurderer BB' in the story, but I had one of two options to achieve this (by png or the textart). I chose the later as it would give me a disadvantage of 5 words instead of 1 for a 3 word sentence and because it looked more inhuman (inpony?) for a character that I wanted viewers to consider to be dead or alive.

Thanks for the feed back.

6635945

I know all your weaknesses...

Although seriously, I expected either Ceffyl Dwr or Kwirkyj to win. (They wrote my personal favourites! ) Now, for prompts: let's go with something simpler than the one I invented last time. How about...?

Hopefully, that should do the trick.

EDIT: Also yay! I'm the first quintuple winner! Pascoite can never beat me again because he's not doing it anymore. But shh, shh. Don't wake him up...

6632829

My pleasure to have entertained you so, good fellow! I did one once which was nothing but dialogue; it's a valuable technique, both for depicting the characters and for pacing the story all at once. I recommend it.

6634301

In hindsight, you really could swap Rainbow Dash with any of the other ponies for the same effect. I put her in mainly because I assume they've been friends the longest out of all the Main Six plus Spike, which was meant to give that last line a bigger punch.

6636184
Seems suitably different from any previous prompt, so we'll go with it.

Now as you can see, Ceffyl Dwr, Impossible Numbers just stated a theme for November. So this is where I'm off to plot my vengeance story for next month.

.....but you, me, and Num knows I don't stand a chance, so I'll try a different tactic. HEY PASCOITE, you old fossil you, wake up and tell us a tale.

6636286
Rivals is such a strong word. I mean you're up there and I'm down here, shaking my fist.

But then again, isn't everyone around here kinda like a rival? Trying to be the dominant one to appease the overlord known as, Loganberry.

6636314
Well if you really want a rival. I can tell you that I have an idea for next month that I've been saving for a while now. I've been waiting for a theme like this one and I'm going to put it into action. You might have a hard time outdoing this story.

6636314

I don't include nearly enough Fluttershy in my work for Loganberry.

Or custard.

If you can get both in, I'll be impressed. This is not a challenge! Well, probably not. Who knows? :custardiconwhichisdisgracefullyabsent:

6636184
Funny thing is that my personal favorites were yours and the two you mentioned. And, admittedly, Ceffyl's was my favorite of those. But I'm biased towards stories about Yona. (And add Lily Longsocks in and we're really in business. The two of them should hang out.)

--Sweetie Belle

6636305

I, the Great Impossible Numbers, need not appease Lord Loganberry. I merely throw stuff at him until he appeases me.

6636314

Implying I'm not a rival. Of all the nerve...

You realize, of course, that this. Means. War.

6636974
Careful, Icarus.

Don't mind me, just sitting here and filing away everything in my memory. In case... in case I have need of it.

Also, 6636974, you can't win next month anyway. So nyaah.

6637210
I don't know. Can you?