Sister-story to Paul's Peculiarly Puny Practice Pieces
A collection of short stories written as contest entries for the Writeoff Association. This collection will only feature the stories with word counts between 2,000 and 8,000 words. The contests with shorter word count limits have their own separate compendium: Paul's Peculiarly Puny Practice Pieces. Check below for a list of each story and a short description.
Note: Random tag added because I have no idea what prompts will arise in the future. Check each story's description to see its individual tags.
As One Falls: [sad]
Celestia and Luna have been waiting patiently for the world to wake up from the madness of Starlight Glimmer. At last the time has come to be freed of their long imprisonment and fix the damage caused by a society based on equality. Yet Luna senses a far greater threat on the horizon than a regime at the end of it's rope.
The Secret Weapon: [dark?] [comedy?] [weaponized cuteness]
The worst has come to pass. One of Earth's interdimensional explorers has been compromised and brought some of them through the portal. They claim to be friendly and peaceful, but León knows better. He won't let these ponies get to him, oh no! They are certainly not adorable, they absolutely cannot be allowed to roam free, and they truly are a clear and present threat to the world. If only he wasn't trapped in a file closet while the accursed things spread like a plague of cuteness. But he won't give in, oh no.
Banned for a Reason: [comedy] [fluff] [no thinking required] [foal princess]
Starswirl returns to his laboratory one evening to find it occupied by a little blue foal whose smile has a few too many teeth...
Glad to see:
This posted! It was definitely one of my favorites from this round.
Mike
I remember some thought this was a Horizon story. Very well done.
5909391
Damn, seriously?
That's kinda impressive.
~Skeeter the Lurker
5909379
I would have had it up earlier, but the artist took her precious time in getting back to me with use permission.
5909391
5909379
I was kinda sad when it didn't make it at least to the finals. Oh well, better luck next time. Looking forward to the next Writeoff!
Wow. Nice. (Well, that's an understatement, but you get the idea.). It was a little sad to see Twilight take the fall here, but what I think was most impressive was the example of thinking on alicorn time scales. A nation in shambles will be fixed soon enough; it's what happens in the centuries after that when Celestia really gets her dander up that you need to worry about.
I don't know how you would write a longer story to address an idea at that scale though. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything I've read that compares. Maybe the whole Chronicles of Narnia? Now I'm curious to see how one would do it.
5909434 I cannot understand how this did not make it into the finals- this short story is a remarkable take on the society of 'equality' that Starlight would strangle and jerk around; a clumsy puppeteer compared to the centuries of experience the Sisters hold. I do not blame you for jumping onto the bandwagon, as it holds new ideas that can, as per an example such as this, be of remarkable quality. This certainly made my night, Paul, and I'm glad to have read it as a relaxing and engaging way to finish this long day.
5911202
I'm already planning stories of a huge scale, which is precisely why I'm not going to continue this one (for now). As far as how to write this story to proper scale? I don't think it'd be all that hard, to be honest. Just time consuming.
5911308
Glad to have made your night, but when your competition includes some of the best writers on FIMFiction even the good things might not make it.
You'll continue this if you know what's good for you. >:V
5912487
Or what, you'll call your gang? Should I be looking over my shoulder for bronies with baseball bats and crowbars?
to be honest....... this was fantastic. I want more!
I like dark stories, but almost always these "apocalyptic equestria" and "immortal alicorn" types of fics fail to impress me. but THIS blew away my expectations. there's so much potential here.
5912537
derpicdn.net/img/2013/7/12/370990/large.png
5914481
Okay, that's legitimately worrying.
This was really, really neat. Seeing Celestia and Luna grit their teeth and wait out their imprisonment like the true long-aged badasses they are was very interesting, as was your envisionment of what Starlight Glimmer's "perfect society" would really amount to.
The potential adventure story/sister drama that this premise could spawn would be awesome. I'd love to see it continued!
5912095
I guess I was just wondering if there were techniques one might use, short of writing mass quantities.
For some reason, I'm reminded of the Isaac Asimov short story: "I'm feeling inspired! I'm going to write a history of the last 14 billion years." "Papyrus is rather expensive. Could you condense that down a little? To, maybe say, seven days?"
5914948
You're not alone, but alas, I have far too many stories (40+) in a bucket list to possibly guarantee this story's continuation.
5915054
Writing mass quantities is a technique in and of itself. I suppose 'proper plot flow' would be another major one.
This was pretty awesome :D Nice AU exploration, well conceived, and with a bit of worldbuilding for gryphons and deer as well. Good stuff!
5917101
A-ha! Finally I can add you to my list of "Venerable Authors Who Approve of My Work".
...
Then again, I should probably go through the trouble of actually making said list first.
I still say this is a stealth SCP crossover. :V
6150198
Perhaps it would help if I knew what the heck SCP was. Seriously man, I have no idea what you're referring to.
6150309
http://www.scp-wiki.net/
6150401
This is amusing and fun and I hope I don't waste too much of my time reading it. Why didn't I know about this before?
6150447
1) Yes
2) You will!
3) I dunno, it's not like I don't talk about it now and then. :B
This is great! :D Why didn't you publish it stand-alone?
6931641
It was my intention to have all my Writeoff-related short stories go into this collection. I like keeping things organized, donchaknow?
As much as it would (gravely) offend my sense of organization, I suppose I could always make an exception. You think it would be worth it?
6931742
Well not now, I just reviewed it. Everything would be ruined! D:
(No, but if you prefer having everything in one place, don't let me stop you.)
6931756
I suppose that's true. If I changed it now, the effect of your review would be lessened by the change. Oh well, opportunity lost.
So, wait, why is Celestia blue?
6931782
(I'm kidding, I'm just being lazy. :B That's the kind of thing I signal-boost when it happens, anyway.)
6932762
The magic dust that swept over the entire laboratory?
6932839
Hmm... well, now I'm tempted to do it. In an ideal world, I'd post it as a separate story and leave it here, but I probably wouldn't get away with that.
6932974 ...
I am more tired than I thought.
I like that you mentioned this here, because when I finished reading this story in your book, the character voicing was the thing that made me want to come over here and drop a comment. I think at the time there was like one line where I was a little iffy, but looking back I can't find it, so overall I think that part was handled really well.
But anyway. I've seen a lot of stories on the site that deal with some kind of transformation--Displaced is its whole genre and all that--and I've always wanted one, just one, to explore what it's like to be rewritten into a completely different person, because that sounds bloody horrifying. So reading this was a really cool experience. Good stuff!
9980042
Glad you enjoyed! I wanted this story as the first in the book because it felt amusingly symbolic, a sort of "watch out, readers, they start to grow on you" warning.
I re-read it after your comment. I'm still pleased with how it turned out, particularly the character voicing. Glad it's not just my ego talking.