“Once upon a different time, in the Land of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle had a dream. And in that dream, she met some humans
[PRIORITY INTERRUPT PRIORITY INTERRUPT]
THE UNSV HARMONY HAS CRASH-LANDED AT THE NEW CIRCE COLONY SITE. ALL CREW AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE DECEASED DUE TO BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINANT RECEIVED UPON FIRST CONTACT WITH LIKELY HOSTILE SENTIENT NONHUMAN LIFE. TWILIGHT SPARKLE (PRESCHOOLER CARETAKER DROID/QUADRUPED/CHARACTER) IS ONLY OPERATIONAL SYNTHETIC INTELLIGENT DROID REMAINING.
DIRECTIVES:
1. ESCAPE USNV HARMONY.
2. EVADE HOSTILE SENTIENTS.
3. ASCEND MOUNTAIN IDENTIFIED DURING CRASH LANDING.
4. TRANSMIT DATA TO APPROACHING [CLASSIFIED].
FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.
An entry for the 2024 SciFi Contest III. Cover Art by CadetRedShirt.
Brilliant work from start to finish, with well-paced waves of revelation and incredibly efficient world building. I love the overarcing theme of the power of fiction and storytelling, and the ongoing inner conflict in Twilight’s overstuffed head was fascinating to see unfold. Thank you for a great read, and best of luck in the judging.
This was a delight. An excellent use of colored and non-standard text, too!
Oh, this is really good!
Jam-packed to the gills with character, worldbuilding and sci-fi concepts. Well done!
It's been a while since a story hit me in the feels as hard as this one, especially the fourth chapter. And it's well-written, quality SF too!
Good luck with the contest!
Hey there, fellow contestant! Here's my review of your story:
This might be one of the weirdest of the entries for me personally, and it feels like it tosses the reader into the deep end of this universe without a lot of hand-holding. However, once I got the hang of it, I grew to appreciate it. I really like stories about artificial beings and seeing this journey of Twilight to save both the humans and the su'ha'ya and the journey it took to get to a brighter future was quite heartwarming.
I do think the pacing is a bit slow in a few places, particular her initial encounter with (male?) Ocellus. Those "chirps" were starting to wear on me.
I also thought Twilight's death scene was a little forced, which somewhat undermined the emotions of it all.
Still, minor gripes aside, this is a pretty solid entry that takes some interesting twists on some well-worn tropes and makes for a compelling story. Nice work!