All right, despite the small entry for the past few months I think it's worth continuing with these. It'd be great if a couple more people were inspired to write this time, though! Anyway, here we go again.

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. You won't get a mention on the group's back page because it doesn't have one. Well, not that I've seen. If anyone finds one, please do let me know, won't you? On to the details:

Prompt: "Hidden Motives" (selected by last month's winner, Anon Y Mous)
Rating: E or T
Word limit: 150
Closing date: Thursday 21st February 2019, 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!

6746441
That's a tough one. It gives me ideas, but nothing I think I can do in 150.

6746441

"Twilight, are you okay?"

The mare only smiled at her assistant, giving him a gentle pat on the head before setting her chin back on the table with a sigh.

"Twilight?"

"I'm fine, Spike. Don't worry about me. I'm just... a little tired."

Reluctantly, the dragon turned away, trudging into another room. Watching as he disappeared through a doorway, Twilight turned her focus back to a framed picture of her mother-- Twilight Velvet.

"Thanks for everything, mom..." she whispered, her voice wavering as tears began to form in her eyes.

Turning away, Twilight pushed the picture frame back under the small tabletop shelf, wiping away her tears as she stood up. She paused, taking a deep breath. Two. Three.

Recomposing herself, she trotted off after Spike, the same gentle smile from earlier once again beaming from her face.

"Spike!" she called, "Do you want to read a comic with me?"

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"There's the mare with the skills to pay the bills."

"What is it, Zephyr?" spoke the irritated Rainbow Dash.

"Oh just this," he waves a card in his wing. "A letter I got from a secret admirer."

"Hm-hmm."

"I'm too proud to admit it, but your bravado always gets my heart racing and your charm can be so intoxicating at times. I wish I could spend my time with you for Hearts and Hooves Day." Zephyr gives her a sly grin, "Sound familiar?"

"No, but it sounds like she has poor taste." The mare gives a snicker, "I bet that letter isn't even real. I think this is an attempt of yours to try and make me feel jealous."

"Say what you want, but I am here to grant your wish. Just as you requested."

Dash groans at his decision and kept screaming in her head... "It worked! IT WORKED!!!"

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Will try my luck. Someone hold my cider for me till I get back, 'kay? And don't drink any!

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*Holds cider*
*Looks at cider*
................
*Takes a sip*
................

I CAN SEE THE COSMOS!!!

6746973

Uh oh. Er...

Oh no! Someone, um, spiked my drink. Yes, that's it. That's exactly what happened. Right!

Also, you owe me a new cider.

6746441

"Hidden Motives", in my mind, so readily conjured (pun intended, in context) ideas of Machiavellian plotting and sinister skulduggery that, obviously, I thought I'd take the opposite approach here. Hopefully, my choice of character makes that a little easier to swallow, since it had to fit plausibly in the happy land of Equestria (after all, who in their right mind would hide good intentions?). OK, here we go!

Midnight. Zecora awoke: outside, a shovel scraped against dirt. Carefully, she exited her hut.

A voice?

“…I’ll show them! Criticizing Trixie’s conjurations, insulting Trixie’s sleight-of-hoof, Trixie was performing for charity…”

Digging a pit, a shadow levitated a box, opened–

Zecora’s lantern lit up. “Returning to your older tricks?
It seems your lesson failed to stick.”

Trixie froze. Rising out: the alicorn amulet.

Blushing, Trixie disconnected the amulet’s gemstone. “Back off! This part contains the curse!”

Zecora tensed. “If you pursue this reckless course,
I’ll be obliged to use great force–”

Whereupon, Trixie dropped said gemstone back into the box. “Oh, fine! I was going to sell the ‘de-cursed’ amulet secretly, thus raising charity money I failed to make. Sure, rub it in!”

Sighing, Zecora smiled. “Your pride may slink in shadows, true,
But really: ask before you do.
Though meaning well, good works and pride
So rarely ought to coincide.”

Around 44 hours to go. Anyone else feel like having a go? I don't bite! (I don't want to have to explain it to my dentist...)

6746441
A wild entry appears! It’s super lowbrow!

Rumbling Thunder

An earsplitting alarm chased Rumble from the snuggly darkness of his blankets, which tangled in his legs and sent him facefirst to the floor. But the cloud-house floor didn’t stop him until he was chest-deep, leaving his muzzle uncomfortably close to the stove where Thunderlane was cooking haybacon.

“Dig the alarm, lil’ bro?” Thunderlane beamed. “The flying fish bite early!”

Rumble groaned, pulled his torso free, tromped down the cloud-stairs, and dropped onto a chair.

Thunderlane offered a full plate and a smirk. “Not how you wanted us to hang this weekend?”

After a few bites, Rumble shrugged. “Flying fish are tasty, I guess.”

“Nah, fishing’s the excuse. The real point’s taking time we’d never get normally. Just sitting, talking… no distractions.”

Rumble farted.

“Celestia ABOVE, bro!” Thunderlane chuckled and waved. “Do I gotta put up with THAT all morning?”

“Fair’s fair, right?! That’s for making me get up early!”

I’m... probably mostly sorry.

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Time's up, everyone! Once again, just the four entries, but thank you as ever to those who gave it a shot. I'll think on my choice over the weekend.

Feedback is open!

6770040
Oh well. I was tired yesterday, and was thinking there was more than one day left for some reason.

Given that the most that ever materialized in my mind for this was a kitten named Motives who was hiding in the sofa cushions, it probably wouldn't have happened anyways, tho'.

--Sweetie Belle

6770348

How dare you deny us that literary masterpiece, you monster!

6770348

a kitten named Motives who was hiding in the sofa cushions

You know, I don't think anything in the rules explicitly states that only people who actually enter can win...

Ah, why not? Someone ought to hold the reviewing baton for a while. And if we need a jerk, then people: I will be that jerk.

Let's get started.

Tally-ho!

6746697

In all honesty, this doesn't seem particularly remarkable in concept. A loved one dies and we get a brief segment of someone mourning them, but it's a set-up I'm used to, so I'd prefer something with more quirks or a different angle. I get bits of that with Twilight wanting to read comics with Spike; quite apart from it tying nicely into Twilight's reading and her relationship with Spike, it could easily be the launching point for an idiosyncratic way to deal with grief, perhaps by using the joys of life and so on? It's nearly there, I might just be reading too much into this detail, but it's stuff like that which could take a "seen-it-before" scenario and make it lively and interesting to a reader. As-is, it feels very underplayed at present.

6746840

This is a fine enough piece, with some solid back-and-forth between an unimpressed Rainbow and a typically obnoxious Zephyr. It's a pretty good lead-in, and the twist of the ulterior motive is structurally fine: the twist being (I presume) that she did send him the letter, but not because she actually liked him. She had an ulterior motive.

I presume...

At least, I think so. See, my biggest problem with this one is that it's hard to parse in its current form, hence why I said "I presume" just now. My best guess is that Rainbow sent him the letter so she could manipulate his delusional love and make him do something for her. The problem is I have no firm idea. "It worked", she said, but what worked? Another possible reading from the evidence is that Rainbow actually did want him around, but the idea that she really likes him just screeches under the friction. It also took me multiple reads to figure out the "I'm too proud to admit it" speech was actually from the card and not just something Zephyr said. I think the lack of indication - and the overall sparsity of clues - just confuses the message, so in future I'd address that issue first.

6754980

Oh good lord, this is awful. Next!

6769155

Potty humour does not amuse me. I see little else wrong with the characterization of these two, mind, but potty humour does not amuse me.

Otherwise, I think this one suffers a bit from the same issue as the first entry; it doesn't capitalize enough on these two characters' distinctiveness. Fishing for flying fish (I'm setting aside my general skepticism regarding any kind of carnivory in ponydom) just for the sake of hanging out is at least more of an insight into Thunderlane's relaxed attitude, but the build-up is towards a completely unrelated punchline, so it feels like even this quite modest slice of life was upstaged for a bit of cheap humour.

I guess I just can't like this one. I'm fine with small snapshots of normal life. Unfortunately, the only major stand-out here is exactly the sort of humour I have no interest in, to put it politely.

6772411
Yeah, that "I'm too proud to admit it" line was from the card. I had this whole dialogue about various ideas about him that I wanted the card to say, but I quickly reached 150 words just trying to make the card as romantic as possible while leaving subtle clues as to why Dash would write it. So I tried to cut it down to get to some main points with the hope of the twist ending will be one that no one saw coming..... Dash liking Zephyr.

Dash always came off to me as somepony who would be a Tsundere when it comes to romance. She might not be that type that would stutter and call him an idiot, but she seems to be uncertain on how to approach it. I don't recall her ever saying that she doesn't liked Zephyr, and that face she made when his parents called her out seemed to say, "They know!!!"

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Okay then. Results time! Thank you again to all of you. This month's winner, though, is Impossible Numbers. I always appreciate Zecora dialogue that actually sounds like something she'd say.

Yes, there will be another FF150 next month, at least, so you know the form. Please think of a prompt for March and post it right here.

Feedback and so on can carry on, should anyone wish. As I've mentioned, you don't have to have entered to post it.

(I know I haven't changed the group profile text to reflect this month's, but it's way after midnight here and I'm bound to make a stupid mistake. I'll do it in the next day or two.)

6773732

Right, I guess it's time for another month's prompt, and since I've used all the Elements on previous prompts, I believe it's time to change tactics. How's this?

6773784
Sounds good -- and intriguing! I'll make the appropriate edits in the near future.

6773804

Looking forward to next month. Two more events to go, and then I get to publish my third flashfic anthology! If only I hadn't lost those other flashfics to deleted threads...

Also, I hope the numbers pick up. It was more fun when lots of people were throwing their hats into the ring.

6773837
Really? Well then, I'll say here and now that there will be two more events. After April's, I'll have a think, especially if the numbers remain very small. If they do pick up, I'm happy to carry on. If not -- well, it may simply be that this format has run its course and it's time for someone/something else to have a chance. But yes, FF150 March and April will definitely take place.

6773837
............we'll call this victory of yours even for the cider.

6774311
Why do you play with my heart?

But now that I got both of your attention. If you wanna get more people involved, why don't you just make a post in the...

The Shameless Self-Promotion Bureau

SweetAI Belle

49,346Stories5,463Members2013May

I think that's how I heard about this group before coming here.

Congrats to our winner 6773837! Hopefully I didn’t give too much offense with my divergence into potty humor, though I’m currently experiencing some sibling dynamics at home that made it feel reasonably true to life. Deep and meaningful interpersonal connection spoiled by spiteful uses of bodily functions? As the saying goes: “War... war never changes.”

6774311
I hope we keep keeping on with this! It’s fun. We should probably advertise more, though; props to 6774588 for that suggestion.