Well, here we go. Friendship is Magic is over. It's up to us to keep Equestria alive now. Here at Flashfic 150 HQ (ie my house) everyone involved (ie me) is keenly aware of that fact. Even with all the sometimes controversial canon that was added in that epilogue episode, there are still plenty of blanks left on the map. Blanks we can fill in! Anyway, as ever, a quick reminder for anyone new around these parts -- or who'd like a refresher:

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 show, because it's no longer around. Okay, there are about three hundred other reasons why you wouldn't have done anyway, but this just adds another one. Ready for the off? Well then...

Prompt: "A Change in the Wind" (selected by last month's winner, KwirkyJ)
Rating: E or T
Word limit: 150
Closing date: Thursday 21st November 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!

7039695
Here’s my entry to this!

Downdraft

Fluttershy hummed out a jaunty tune as she fed the animals at her cottage, smiling as the birds, mice and bear all said their thanks.

A sudden breeze and a screaming Twilight Sparkle shattered that peace.

Fluttershy trotted over to where she had crashed into the ground, wincing at the furrow in the dirt leading up to purple alicorn.

Twilight quickly got up, gagging and spitting out the dirt in her mouth.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy said in concern, “Are you still having trouble flying?”

“Eh-heh... Yeah, a little...” An embarrassed blush rose onto her cheeks, “I have no idea where that downdraft came from!”

“Wooo-hooo!”

They both looked up to see Rainbow Dash flying through the sky in a corkscrew that was causing a tornado to wildly spin around her.

“...Nevermind.” Twilight deadpanned.

Fluttershy put a hoof up to cover an amused grin while Twilight left to chew out Rainbow.

Hope you like it!

7039695
Once again, I'm stuck for an idea for a story. With a theme about 'change' and 'wind', I'm left with little option but to tell more about the planned Final Fantasy crossover story I want to make.

You see, the story surrounds the theme of 'accepting' with four ponies as the main characters. Each member will have their own struggle, but the team will help form a balance with one another as they proceed through their journey.

The team consists of... the Mystic Knight, Tempest Shadow. The Paladin, Shinning Armor. The Dragoon, Flash Sentry. And a rookie OC that doesn't really have a job class. Instead, I like to identify this guy to the team as being...

"That should do the trick. Now Wind, I want you to... Wind?"

The maple abyssinian lifts up from his workbench and spots the summer-lime pegasus staring out the window. The feline nibbles on the wheatgrass in his mouth as he picks up an iron nut and flicks it at the daydreaming stallion to knock him back to reality.

Wind snaps his sight back to the cat, "Sorry, Uncle Cider. Just.... thinking."

Cider felt a heavy weight as he looks at Wind's missing left wing. "Well... perhaps this can help you focus." Cider carries and fasten a metallic wing on the young pony.

Wind flaps the metal attachment, adjusting to the false limb.

"It's not much, and it can't help you get airborne, but ol' Cider constructed something special.". Cider presses a button on the wing and a journal forms into existence within the wing's grip, "It'll be useful, Second Wind."

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The wind swirled purple and blue, glittering outside the window.

“Sweetie, don’t open it!” My sister called out.

“I’m not!” Probably not, anyways. “Isn’t there some way to go out, covering our faces or something?”

“You know better, Sweetie. That’s wild magic. Twilight might’ve found a way…”

Rarity grew silent. Twilight had been outside when the first wind hit. So many ponies had.

“Will it ever stop?” Usually the Carousel was home, but during the wind, it seemed like a prison.

“I don’t know. They’ve been getting longer. We should be safe in here, though.”

“Everything is sealed, right? The cat door?”

A pained look passed Rarity’s face. Opal had gone out in the last wind. What returned… wasn’t Opal. “Boarded shut.”

“Good.”

Was there even still a world out there? Rarity joined me at the window and we kept watching the wind ever swirling and getting thicker...

--Sweetie Belle

7051212
I’m intrigued. Slightly horrified... But intrigued.

7039695
Quick! Post before time's up!

There is a shift… a change. I can feel it, but I don't know what it means. Something is about to fall.

I feel a twitch in my tail and a pound in my heart.

I felt I hit a wall in progress, tired of doing the same mundane tasks over and over.

But, there has been a change. I can feel it.

I step into the courtyard.

And there she is.

A Dragon Mare. Not literally a dragon mare… but she has a little dragon by her side. 

A shadow drifts overhead. I look up. Two pegasi pull a chariot towards Canterlot.

Suddenly, she is almost next to me. With a kind smile she greets, "Um… hello?"

I gasp, then zip away. Omycelestia! She actually talked to me! What am I going to say? I should throw her a party!

I was having a bad day, but not anymore.

For I found a friend. 

A Dragonmare.

Okay. Got that here. It's been sitting in my drafts for quite some time. I'm feeling kinda sentimental as of late, so I thought this would be appropriate.

Don't worry about the time allotted. I was just being funny... just being the procrastinator I am.

I will edit this if I find anything I want to change. For now, I think it's in a good spot.

7039695

Managed to forget about this last month. That was clever of me. Here's my entry for the round; naturally a prompt containing the word 'wind' resulted in me writing about a different element altogether. I can be so contrary at times!

On day one, the flood came. Moon Dancer hid behind a locked door, trying to concentrate on her books, but aware of the water seeping between the cracks.

On day three, Minuette climbed through the window—a siren, soaked and laughing, trying to draw Moon Dancer out.

On day five, her song became a chorus. Water filled the room, forcing Moon Dancer upstairs. She buried her head under her pillow and raged. Then she cried.

On day six, she watched them through the window.

By day nine, she realised she wanted to sing too. Taking Minuette's hoof she stepped outside. The four of them frolicked in the water, diving deep. A whale soared above them, and in its shadow Moon Dancer felt small and vulnerable. She tried swim home but the others held her. Water filled her lungs and pushed between her pores.

And suddenly Moon Dancer could breathe again.

Hope you enjoyed. I'll probably give this one a little more breathing space and post it as a longer fic at some point.

7039695
My earlier idea was very much in the same tone as a couple others, so I went back to thinking. I'm not eligible to win, but have something anyway.

The afternoon winds in the peaks around Our Town are very reliable. Almost exactly two hours before sunset, on a particular ridge, the wind simply stops.

It's my timer.

Every now and then, I take my octahedral box, or the tailed diamond – one of the sturdier designs – up there by myself and let soar. I hang my troubles on a line and float them up to the clouds, or the sun.

I find space from my worries and doubts and memories and I get to think. About my town, and my friends. About myself. About where I am, and where I want to be.

When the wind stops, I spool up the thread, set my burdens on my back, and return home to work.

It's important, and it's nice.

But sometimes it is a bit lonely.

Thank you for the entries so far! For anyone still planning to have a go, you have a little over 56 hours to go.

23 hours to go, everyone!

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And there we are -- time's up, everyone! We didn't get any last-minute entries, unfortunately, but as always thank you to everyone who did submit a story. Usual procedure now: I go away and decide my winner, and in the meantime...

...feedback is open!

Feedybacky.

7040046
Cute little scene, this, and something I could imagine taking place in a pre-credits sequence of an episode. It feels a little incidental in places, but I enjoyed reading it.

7040112
It's nice and pretty intriguing, but feels very much like a scene from something bigger. That kinda left me feeling less like I read a short piece of fiction and more like I just watched a teaser. Be curious to read on if that something bigger materialises though.

7051212
Another intriguing scene, and one that does a good job of being atmospheric within the confines of the word limit. Given that the wind has been there for a while, the 'Probably not, anyways' feels quite a deep and significant statement. But maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Again, it feels like a part of something greater, rather than a self-contained story in its own right, but I enjoyed reading it for sure.

7051850
This is probably my top choice, mainly because of the feels. And Pinkie Pie. But mainly the feels. It's a nice cute character perspective on an episode that, like many I suspect, I recently watched again. Plus, TwiPie fics were my entry point into FiMFic, and though this obviously isn't one, it did remind me of why I enjoyed that particular pairing so much.

7053846
Eh, this one was okay, I guess. Maybe a poor choice as an entry for something with a 150 word limit, but the message mostly gets across.

7055435
Another nice character scene, this. I presume it takes place before the events of the show, but I personally feel it's also vague enough for chronology to not be all that important. I enjoyed it very much.

I had fun reading these! Thanks to you all for sharing you work.

7060489

It's nice and pretty intriguing, but feels very much like a scene from something bigger. That kinda left me feeling less like I read a short piece of fiction and more like I just watched a teaser. Be curious to read on if that something bigger materialises though.

*Amereep glances at the prelude he made before the actual story.*

I'm left with little option but to tell more about the planned Final Fantasy crossover story I want to make.

I guess I did a decent job at it then, but you do make a good point. My main concern was experimenting to the style I want to go for when the actually story drops (the style is to avoid any inner thoughts of the characters and only focus on emotions and actions). While I'm not planning to have this scene in the story, I thought the reveal of Second Wind's name and acquiring his prosthetic wing would be appropriate for the theme 'A Change in the Wind'.

If not to invest readers on a planned story, then to make a poor joke to the prompt using Wind's name.

7060489

Cute little scene, this, and something I could imagine taking place in a pre-credits sequence of an episode. It feels a little incidental in places, but I enjoyed reading it.

Define ‘Incidental.’

7060535
In this instance (and I must stress this is simply my two pennies' worth; please do take with a pinch of salt) I just felt that there were a couple of parts that felt a bit superfluous to the narrative when considering the 150 word limit. Freeing some words up might have allowed the enjoyable second half to breathe a bit more. But it's small critique, really, and like I said in my first comment, as a scene I really enjoyed it.

7060778
I see what you mean. The first paragraph does look like it needs a bit of work. Thank you for the compliment of my work, though!

7060489

Another intriguing scene, and one that does a good job of being atmospheric within the confines of the word limit. Given that the wind has been there for a while, the 'Probably not, anyways' feels quite a deep and significant statement. But maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Again, it feels like a part of something greater, rather than a self-contained story in its own right, but I enjoyed reading it for sure.

Thanks, and I wouldn't say you're reading too much into it.

I was pleased at how much managed to get into 150 words with this one, honestly. This was one of these times when I had the idea flash into my head and wasn't involved in anything else, so I paced around a bit and started writing while it was still fresh in my mind.

I was thinking back a little bit about influences on this, and kind of going, "okay, MZB's Darkover series, Steven King's 'Mist', Jack Chalker had a series with reality altering winds..." and, you know, it seems like a common theme, actually.

Trying to make it part of something greater sounds interesting, but part of me also thinks it might be weakened by trying to expand on it. Sometimes the parts you don't know are what make things interesting...

Glad you enjoyed it!

--Sweetie Belle

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Hello everyone -- it's results time!

I enjoyed reading the submissions as usual, and it was nice to see a wide range of interpretations of the prompt. Thank you to all of you! But after a pretty tough decision process considering the smallish entry this month, I'm plumping for SweetAl Belle's entry. It's a scene that intrigues me immensely, and I'd be fascinated to see it expanded into a full-length story.

As it's another small entry list, I'll do the "feedback for everyone!" thing again... though please don't expect me to do this every month! I doubt I'll be able to in December, for example, due to non-fandom busyness. Here we go:

Frazzle2Dazzle -- A funny little scene from Twilight's early days as an alicorn. I could see Rainbow causing something like this. As paperhearts mentioned, it could maybe do with a little tightening up early on, which would free up a little more space later.

Amereep -- This one gave me some difficulty. I want to know more about the characters, which is always a good thing. I think "Second Wind" is a fine name for a character like that, too. My concerns are twofold: one, that it's not really within the spirit of FF150 to have a substantial explanatory paragraph setting up the story; and two, that said para suggests the fic is at least fringing on crossover territory (Rule 7 disallows non-MLP crossovers).

SweetAl Belle -- My choice as the winner, so of course I enjoyed it a lot. There are several nice examples of saying a lot with a little, such as the Twilight line and "They've been getting longer", while that "Probably not, anyways" seems nicely in-character for Sweetie. Perhaps the latter part of the fic could be tightened up slightly, eg the line about Opal seems a tad flabby, but overall it intrigues me.

PinoyPony -- It's always fun to see a well-known event from different perspectives. It's not always successful (hello, "PPOV"), but sometimes it is (hello, "Amending Fences") and here I think it worked quite well. I'm always happy to see Pinkie given some emotional depth. I'm not sure why you have "dragon mare" in some places and "dragonmare" in others, though. Also, "greets" is not really a like-for-like replacement for "says".

paperhearts -- I think your own thoughts probably mirror mine here. This is a really intriguing idea, and the character work was very good, but it's also an idea that perhaps doesn't quite have enough room to breathe (pun semi-intended) in such a small space. I think it could form the basis of an excellent full-length fic, though.

KwirkyJ -- Ineligible for the contest of course, so I read this one purely for pleasure. And it gave me that. Starlight's liking for kite-flying must have come from somewhere, after all. I like the ending, which puts what's gone before in perspective. My one slight uncertainty is whether readers unfamiliar with kites would realise what "octahedral box" meant until quite a bit further on. If you don't, it's rather confusing.

Anyway, thanks again to all our wonderful participants, and congratulations to SweetAl Belle: as ever, please pick a prompt for December and post it here at some point in the near future.

7061649

I think it could form the basis of an excellent full-length fic, though.

It was mostly a tongue-in-cheek comment, because that was exactly what I did with it, shortly after posting the entry here.

Congrats, SweetAI Belle. A worthy winner!

7061649
Yay, I won! Thanks!

SweetAl Belle -- My choice as the winner, so of course I enjoyed it a lot. There are several nice examples of saying a lot with a little, such as the Twilight line and "They've been getting longer", while that "Probably not, anyways" seems nicely in-character for Sweetie. Perhaps the latter part of the fic could be tightened up slightly, eg the line about Opal seems a tad flabby, but overall it intrigues me.

I was pretty pleased with how much I was able to squeeze in. Being first person and dialog heavy seems to help, and you can do a lot with implication.

This is pretty much a post-apocalyptic scenario, of maybe not even post, since it's happening right then. Being isolated in one spot with no way to get out and having to wait can do funny things to you. (My going weeks without leaving my apartment is strange enough, and I can leave at any time.)

The lines about Opal could be tightened up, looking at them. I'd want to leave the bit about what returned, though. It'd be interesting to write more about it, though I'm not sure I really want to write exactly what caused the winds, or write how things end, because it's probably more interesting to imagine them.

I talked a little bit more about the story in 7061376, too.

I'll have to think a little about a prompt. Part of me wants something fluffy, but part also wants it to be a good prompt with lots of ways to go from it. I'll reply here again when I've got a decision.

7061659
Thank you!

--Sweetie Belle

7061649

that said para suggests the fic is at least fringing on crossover territory

Well at most, the only real connection it would have at being a crossover are common tropes.....and maybe one time cameos from moogles, chocobos, and stuff........and summons. Okay, so I may be beating around the bush. In fact, Cider is intended to be the Cid of the MLP world.

that it's not really within the spirit of FF150 to have a substantial explanatory paragraph setting up the story

Well...eh...I...er...ah... w-who reads the stuff the author says before the story anyways. Right, 7061659?

I want to know more about the characters

I'll take that as a win in my book, now if only I could find the drive to finish my current story before starting this one.

7061774

7061649
As much as I'd like some fluff, how does "Things Unwritten" sound for a prompt?

--Sweetie Belle

7061932
That sounds, well, intriguing! And I'm sure people can turn that into fluff if they like. So yes, accepted!

And of course feedback and generally on-topic chat is still fine here if anyone's got more to say.