Shortly after her transformation, Sunny Starscout is keen to know more about the magic that led up to it. After going through her father's old research, she stumbles upon the legend of an ancient amulet and the alicorn who wielded it.
It is now up to Izzy Moonbow and Alphabittle to voyage across the sea, to the Griffish Isles where the amulet is said to be located. Its discovery could be the key to finding out more about the powerful magic behind Sunny's transformation.
Now Featured on Equestria Daily!
Winner of a Judge's Choice Award for the
Gen 5 Bingo Contest held by Shrink Laureate.
In collaboration with:
Cerulean Voice who refined and reworked this story's mold into the best it could be.
And Paracompact and Pascoite who helped with editing, proofreading and general writing advice.
Artwork by Pfeffaroo
I'm glad this story popped into the Feature Box for just a few hours, otherwise I might not have seen it. I certainly wouldn't have been the first to leave a comment!
Writing Bingo entries must be hard (Jinglemas entries, at least, only come with pairing two characters, and maybe an extra request), especially if the author commits to all five elements. And like yourself, I don't care much for the whole "Sunny as an Alicorn" element (though mounting evidence does suggest, at least, that it's more of a temporary power-up, especially in the wake of that Learn to Read comic). And not as much as I don't care for the connection to G4 – frankly, that puts a hard limit against what kinds of G5 stories I can both write and read (at least, read and be fully open to).
And then, this story tries to squeeze a dense adventure down into just under 9,000 words! There's a fair few marks against it going in.
Happily, while the story didn't fully surpass that (it very much still feels like a longer concept squeezed down into a one-shot), I found a lot to like about it. Mostly down to the prose style being broadly agreeable and the characterisation and chemistry between the two leads being a winner. I'm yet to truly find the relationship between Alphabittle and Izzy developed just right in a fic, but this came closer than any thus far.
All that's enough to get over a tightly-squeezed plot with lots of contrivances and unexplained things (Izzy and Alphabittle don't even react to other ponies way beyond their continent as tourists in the griffon locale – if I missed a detail, that still means something wasn't well explained). Compared to most longer bingo entries that consign themselves to using all five elements, this fared really well. Plus, whatever misgivings I have about the concept and squeezing it into this space (your lack of experience with adventure stories did show), the polish throughout, both from yourselves and your proofreaders/editors, also shows.
Sorry if my feedback isn't more specific, nothing else is coming to me right now. I am entirely sincere in your prose and characterisation being truly rock solid, and they hugely elevate what you have here.
Don't take that for granted!
Good job, Arcelia, and best of luck in the contest judging!
If nothing else, I am glad the contest (of which I am somewhat regretting not signing up for myself – I could have just not written anything if I couldn't work with my chosen prompt) got a solid twenty G5 stories out into the wild! 
Absolutely phenomenal story! Last night I tried to stay up as long as possible despite my sleepiness because I was so engaged! Instantly into my Favorites and Stories That Deserve More Attention bookshelves.
Ah! So Dazzle Glow is from a previous generation then? :O
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Yes. She's from Generation One. She is featured in one episode of My Little Pony Tales. Gen 1 is also where the Flashstone comes from. Neither Dazzle Glow or the Flashstone are my creation, I simply borrowed them from the original show.
I've never actually seen the original show since I didn't grow up with it but it was fun to read a little bit about it and to borrow a bit of the show's lore.
My prompt card also required me to use a G1, 2 or 3 character and since I also needed to incorporate alicorns in some way, Dazzle Glow was the perfect fit.
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Oh wow, I didn't know she had a name! :O Or else I just forgot it. Forgot about the Flashstone, too, I shoulda caught that one. <.<; Cool callbacks!
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Thank you