Greetings my good ladies and gentlemen, on a fine Summer day. I hope to find you all well. Better than I am, certainly: asthma and chest infections do not good bedfellows make.

First, I would like to thank all the authors who entered our first contest. For the record, the prompt:

Stallion on Earth

With that said, all fics have been read, and BatwingCandlewaxxe and I have come to our decision. The winner of the contest is:

This was an excellent fic, which tantalises the reader with glimpses of a bigger, more complex world. The unusual Civil War era setting was a particularly nice touch; it's well outside the norm, and made for a compelling read. I would love to see more. BatwingCandlewaxxe has similar thoughts on the matter:

I had a hard time choosing a winner here, both "Embrace a Violent Wind" and "Marathon" had their strengths and faults, and both made me want to see their stories expanded and improved on.  The concepts of all three were interesting, with "Running" having the most unusual, but also the least well-executed. Had there been more entries, I would have been tempted to declare a tie between "Embrace a Violent Wind" and "Marathon", but that isn't going to work.

First place goes to "Embrace a Violent Wind".  Despite its flaws it was an interesting story, and demonstrated the strongest technical ability.

Runner up is "Marathon", which needs work on the technical qualities, and more character development, but was otherwise a good read.

My congratulations, then, to Rune Soldier Dan, who is invited to claim his prize and thanks, once again, to all entries.

I have more detailed (and blunt) critiques of all three stories available if any of the authors want to read them.

6483139
Thank you for your time and energy put into this contest. For my prize, I select a review of "A Queer Story from the Changeling War:" https://www.fimfiction.net/story/406494/a-queer-story-from-the-changeling-war

Congrats to the winner!

6483296
Sure, I'd love a blunt criticism.

6483296
Hm.... nah, no thanks. I'm the kind of guy who can read 10 nice things and 1 bad thing and walk away with the impression I'm a terrible person. >_>

6483332
Thank you.🙏

6483331

Understood. I will start the review as soon as I am well.

6483332

Sent my short critique.

6483334

I understand how that goes, I tend to be the same way a lot. In a nutshell, I mostly just wanted it to be longer, with more backstory. Hard to do with a time-limited contest entry, I know. I'd really love to see this expanded into a full short-story at least.

6483991

I understand how that goes, I tend to be the same way a lot. In a nutshell, I mostly just wanted it to be longer, with more backstory. Hard to do with a time-limited contest entry, I know. I'd really love to see this expanded into a full short-story at least.

My normal jam is to let ideas percolate for months or years before writing, so to conceive, plan, and execute within a limited window for a strange topic stretched many ill-used writing muscles for me. I know I can do better which made it a little frustrating, but such is the point of a time-limited contest. Obviously it went well enough. >_>

Although I will swallow my fears and ask to see the critique after all. Might help me do better in the future.

6483991

Sent my short critique.

Thanks!

I am aware of the problem with runons; I got in that habit for one story, because that was the way the main character narrated, and now I'm still struggling to get back out of it.

6484674

I am very much the same. I let ideas ferment in my brain about the same amount of time. I have one that I've been making notes on for about three years at this point, and still haven't actually sat down to write anything coherent.

I sent the critique, but like I said, the principle criticism was pretty much just a long-winded way of saying "it was too short"; a common hazard of writing to a very brief deadline.

6484686

Oh lord. I'm still stuck in the mindset of my last (as yet unpublished) story -- which is a weird, rambling, non-linear, stream-of-consciousness, philosophical thing -- and cannot seem to write anything else. I'm trying to get back into doing reviews, to kick my brain back into a more normal writing mode.

6484735

Oh lord. I'm still stuck in the mindset of my last (as yet unpublished) story -- which is a weird, rambling, non-linear, stream-of-consciousness, philosophical thing -- and cannot seem to writeanythingelse.

That's totally the worst place to be. I've mostly kicked it, but apparently when I write pony on earth, that's the narration style I now default to.

6484735

I sent the critique, but like I said, the principle criticism was pretty much just a long-winded way of saying "it was too short"; a common hazard of writing to a very brief deadline.

Got it, thanks. Yes it was too short, but the best I could do. Rare prompts seem to be about doing just that with how weird they are.