Starlight Glimmer and Applejack both know they should probably break up.
Silver medalist in the 1000 words contest (group / info). Category: angst
Inspired by the Bleachers song "Stop Making This Hurt" (spotify link) and its music video (youtube link). That's also where I got he cover image!
Thanks to The Sleepless Beholder, Emotion Nexus, and RDT for their feedback and editing!
Hmm odd pairing. This is very good though.
Very interesting
I like how the randomness of the pairing actually worked in its favor. There's just a tiny bit of affection there, but not as much as you'd suspect from an actual couple. Feels really believable.
Ow. Ow this hurts.
Mush why do you do this to me.
Somehow, this story manages to be great, and yet, it hurts too much to ever read again.
This sentence is loaded, Mushroom, holy crap. It tells you everything you need to know and confirms what you already expect is going to happen. I love to see Starlight paired with the Mane Six and I think you did a fantastic job here. Now I want to write some Starlight, so I think I will. You can just feel the emotions coming from Applejack's little monologues and her inner thoughts. She loves Starlight, and the best thing she can do for her, is leaving her.
Great job.
they're horse divorced :(
11193749
Literally :(
Howdy, hi~!
Ugh, this was so bittersweet. You manage to sell the dynamic between the two characters so well, then write their break up perfectly. The imagery and metaphor on display here is honestly peak Mush, and the stale bread was just superb with how it was incoporated. Loved reading this little break up snippet, definitely a good one.
Thanks for the read~!
... Im also tempted to start a horse divorce bookshelf now
Oh, this is masterfully crafted heartache. It's impressive how many layers and angles you were able to stuff into just a thousand words. (And let's face it, Starjack is a pairing doomed to failure in most cases.) Excellent job. Best of luck in the judging.
oof, this has so much feeling in so few words
Wow, what an incredibly efficient, biting story. So much emotion and history and context explained in so few words, yet even the diversions and the scene dressings remain relevant.
No notes. Just plain excellent.
ooh, what a lovely way to set the mood. deprivation, hurt, exhaustion, all in describing a ketchup bottle, augh great stuff
and augh, the way the cynicism colors everything here, love it
oof, this is so very much a dynamic i'd expect to occur in a less-than-perfect Applejack relationship
and augh, that negativity again, and Applejack's worldview of being convinced that she can see the worm under every rock is just so on-point
oof, just love how this section just tells a whole romance story so compactly, and this sentence in particular, augh
i can see this so well and i love it
oof, Applejack's stubbornness in this way being something she has in common with her family i can def see. and yeah, that invisible threshold is real!
love this detail
and oof, a lovely side of heartbreak to the main course of heartbreak
i loved this fic! every peak and valley and precious fractal little detail of a relationship packed so efficiently that it's no less impactful for being a thousand words instead of ten thousand. i am thoroughly sold on both why this relationship happened, and every little tinge of why they were not the right ponies for each other in the end. so much so that i even feel the "should have been sad" exactly. augh, it feels like i slipped into Applejack's boots so completely! it is sad, and i will miss this little slice of StarJack, but i am also happy for them both that they took this painful step toward what i hope will be a better life for each of them.
amazing stuff!
Oof. The hurt, the pain.
Loved how the 1000w limit gives both Applejack's narration and the piece as a whole this terse feeling, too much being said in too little, in a way that feels both true to Applejack, and foundational to the collapse of her relationship. Beautiful, constrained agony.
Hello! Have a review. Not at all surprised this won a Silver Medal (congrats!) as it's really good. I loved the bit about ketchup bottles near the beginning, but it never stopped being great. You don't see this kind of break-up ficified very often, and you did it so well here. An easy like and an easy fave.
wtf how did you do this in a thousand words