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FanOfMostEverything


Forget not that I am a derp.

More Blog Posts1409

  • 6 days
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    After they compressed The Storm of Zephyr Heights from five issues to three, I thought that was it for IDW pony comics. I am very happy to be wrong, especially when this newest issue promises to expand on one of the least explored parts of G4’s history. Let’s look into the ascension of love.

    Read More

    11 comments · 183 views
  • 1 week
    Hour of Recitation

    I was recently invited to a live reading podcast, and it's now up and running. It was a lot of fun, and now you can all appreciate it. Or put it on in the background while you clean your kitchen. :derpytongue2: Either way, here it is. (And despite the title of both the blog and the podcast, it's only forty minutes.)

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  • 1 week
    Friendship is Card Games: Verbal Exchange & Alternate Realities

    This contest definitely could have gone better, and it’s a reminder that prompts, like story drafts, are best looked at by someone else before they see print. It’s easy to forget how much of the story never made it out of your head.

    It’s enough to make you wonder what things might be like in alternate realities…

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    8 comments · 217 views
  • 2 weeks
    Friendship is Card Games: Tell Your Tale, Season 2, Pt. 8

    The WIPs keep coming and they don’t stop coming. There’s lots to show, so let’s hit the ground running.

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    2 comments · 131 views
  • 3 weeks
    Friendship is Card Games: Two Best Sisters Play, Pt. 4

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    5 comments · 170 views
Dec
22nd
2024

Audacious Swaps: Verbal Exchange Results · 3:33pm Dec 22nd, 2024

Alright, folks, let's put this one to bed. After a goodly amount of deliberation, the other judges and I are happy to announce our winners. Let's see who put the best words in these mouths.

On the basis of not wanting to single out three stories as the least laudable of the bunch, we're foregoing honorable mentions for this one, so it's straight to the medalists:

Third Place

TFlash of My Dreams (The Cicada's Song)
Every year, the most popular girl at Canterlot High falls in love with Flash Sentry. Even if she's never met him. Even if she only knows him from a recurring dream...a dream that soon becomes a nightmare.
Mockingbirb · 6.2k words  ·  35  5 · 336 views

FoME: I’ve seen Luster Dawn dismissed as a lazy Twilight 2. (Well, depending on how you count your Twilikes, she’s somewhere between Twilight 6 and Twilight 16.) Seeing the human echo her other-world mentor’s popularity without meaning to, complete with suspiciously familiar friends, makes for a delightful opening, highlighted even further by getting the exact same boyfriend. What follows is a fascinating descent into obsession most notable for where it ends (which, of course, I won’t describe in detail here.) Excellent use of the CHS faculty, and kudos for taking the prompt in a very unexpected direction.

EileenSaysHi: I found this story quite striking in both premise and execution. Flash Sentry’s status as “generic love interest guy” has been a fandom joke since the before the first movie even premiered, but this story takes that for a fun metatextual spin – it’s only two appropriate that the boy who could win the heart of Twilight Sparkle owe his existence to a rather Faust-ian bargain. (obligatory rimshot) The way the story builds is very satisfying, with Luster as an excellent choice for a focus character, and its blend of madcap and dark humor works solidly to its advantage. A very enjoyable read.

Evelili: As the resident Flash Sentry he’s-just-a-little-guy enjoyer, I quite enjoyed myself with this one. Luster Dawn makes for a unique perspective character on her own; combining her with a premise that toes the line between fantastical and macabre turns that uniqueness into something that feels fresh and decidedly interesting. While this story is more of an internal journey than an outward one, I think the structure works well to support Mockingbirb’s all-too-literal take on the concept of a “dream guy”.

Thought Prism: This was my personal pick for first place, so safe to say I was very impressed by Flash of My Dreams. It has basically everything I could want in a short story: interesting characters, a compelling, unique premise, and tight execution. The story follows Human-World Luster Dawn, who is pulled out of her isolation by a rebranded copy of pony Twilight’s Friendship Journal only to begin being visited by her literal dream boyfriend once she settles in at CHS. However, Flash is not merely a figment of her subconscious…

In a short 6k wordcount, we get an introspective dive into Luster and Flash alike, both where they started and how they’ve changed due to their relationship and their unusual circumstances. And none of those words feel wasted. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s a lot of drama here, and some wild surprises to stir the imagination. I’d ask for more of these two if the story didn’t already seem so complete on its own.

Also notable is that I didn’t even realize that it was written in present tense until my second skim-through, and I think that decision greatly enhanced the story’s pull. My only real critique is that a bit more description of Luster and Flash’s body language would have been welcome. But that’s a tiny issue, and all of you should definitely check this one out.

Venerable Ro: Flash Sentry has haunted the Pony fandom ever since his inception. As a character, as a concept, as a plot-shaped idea just waiting for the right writer so it can finally hit it big and fulfill all those promises of idyllic teenage romance. Surely, one day, it’s got to work, Flash will get the girl and it’ll be the big Hallmark Moment he’s wished for. Certainly for Luster Dawn he’s the stuff of dreams, if only she could find him in the waking world…

A nifty story with quite the novel premise, watching the reality of the situation slowly emerge from the fog was appropriately unsettling. The reader will be left wondering just how much of Luster’s situation is genuine and how much was paved by well-intentioned magic.

Second Place

ESweeping Up the Shards
Five days ago, according to the letter Sandbar just got from Princess Twilight, Silverstream threw herself into some magic mirror. Gallus went after her, and neither has come back. More worrying? The letter asks Sandbar to report to the palace.
AugieDog · 14k words  ·  55  2 · 638 views

FoME: It’s a fascinating question: Dragons become dogs. Diamond Dogs become humans. Was Star Swirl just weirdly, inscrutably speciesist, or does the mirror follow a surreal logic that only it can comprehend? I was hoping someone would explore the depths of potential with non-ponies going through the portal, and Augie delivered in spades. The actual plot is just as good as the setup, a gripping, character-driven infiltration mission with Sandbar acting as the perfect perspective character with just enough of a personality to give the reader’s lens an interesting tint. (No shade intended, but this is what the quintessential everycolt was made for.) A great exploration of both the setting and the people within it.

Eileen: With Sweeping Up the Shards, AugieDog crafts an engrossing trans-dimensional adventure that succeeds on the strength of its creativity and exuberance. The grown-up student six make a wonderful set of protagonists, but what makes it even better is the fun of seeing what forms they take on the other side of the mirror – Sandbar and Smolder are the expected human and dog, but the others, well, you’ll just have to read for yourself what they turn into. The story does run up against the length limit in a way that causes some pacing issues, but overall it’s a very charming story well worth the read.

Lili: At 14k words, this story was the entry closest to the 15k word limit by far. And yet, my first thought after I’d finished reading was a very clear, I wish there was more. And I mean that in a good way. AugieDog captures the voices of the Young Six exceptionally well—I loved Sandbar’s uncertain leadership, Smolder’s reluctant adherence to canine social etiquette, Yona’s unwavering yak-iness, Gallus’s adorable loyalty to Silverstream, and Ocellus’s... well, I don’t want to spoil my favourite part. If you enjoy a bit of fast-paced fun with some feel-good moments, definitely check this one out.

Thought: I’m gonna be honest in that I have the outlier opinion on Sweeping Up the Shards compared to my fellow judges. I didn’t really like it very much compared to the rest of the entrants. But, I can see why they did. There’s lots of good banter here between the formerly Student Six, and AugieDog nailed Yona’s character, giving her some fitting growth from her younger days. There are plenty of fun and compelling moments too, from Smolder begrudgingly acting like a dog to Ocellus getting used to existing as a gestalt of bees.

My problems with Sweeping Up the Shards are the plot and the pacing. Everyone spends too much time repeating information which has been already said, or discussing how to tackle minor problems at length. Additionally, the root cause of the conflict, once explained, was good, but Silverstream’s behavior - especially as a grown adult - came off as wildly foolish to me, even by MLP’s standards. 

That being said, if you enjoy casual banter between the Student Six - plus a bit of Twilight - and want to read a story where they bounce off each other a bunch while going on a low-stakes adventure, this is a fine read. Cute Creatures Being Mildly Inconvenienced is the vibe here.

Ro: At 14 thousand words this story very nearly hits the “feels like an episode” sweet spot of length. While “hey let’s have characters from Equestria go through the portal to ‘Pedestria’” may sound like a simple concept, it is often a murkier task confused and obfuscated by the need to have all involved shift species and navigate an unfamiliar setting. Fortunately this story was able to take a challenge and turn it into a strength, by centering the main focus of the narrative around that very problem AugieDog is able to bring new life and polish to an old story concept. If I had to raise a complaint, it would be that after so masterfully expressing Yona’s character (“Yak is Yak!”) we simply don’t get to see enough of her.

First Place

EThis Young Mistress Will Succeed in her Second Life as Well!
Dethroned, defeated, and thoroughly disintegrated, a former Emperor makes a new start in a new world. Conquering's always easier the second time, right?
TheDriderPony · 3k words  ·  59  0 · 554 views

FoME: This is just pure fun. It was also the one story that showed up on every judge’s slate of finalists, and it’s not hard to see why. Sombra defies death yet again, this time crossing worlds, shedding memories, and becoming the daughter of his destroyers. What results is Flawless Acting™ that must be seen firsthand to be fully appreciated, along with enough assumptions that it’s amazing no one gets turned into a donkey. It’s always a joy to see the Black Forest Crystal Ham get humbled, and this is an especially delightful example. Congrats to Drider for the well-earned gold.

Eileen: In this story, Drider pulls off the impressive feat of verbal exchange-ing two characters at once, in a way that blends them so perfectly that I could imagine other writers adopting it as headcanon. Specifically, the twice-late King Sombra finds himself reborn as the human incarnation of Flurry Heart. The first-person narration absolutely makes this story, both from the POV of the aspiring-tyrant toddler and her father who sees nothing alarming about either his daughter’s forceful demands or the unusually-advanced vocabulary used in them. It blends Sombra and fandom-Flurry in a pitch-perfect, side-splitting way, and its first place prize is well-earned.

Lili: This story was a fun read that perfectly fit the spirit of the contest. I don’t know how TheDriderPony came up with the concept of King Sombra reincarnating as Flurry Heart in the human world, but however it happened it works so very well. There is something quite charming about this once-powerful king hiding his true identity from his “parents” while simultaneously behaving no differently than an actual toddler would at times. The first person narration oozes with personality, the scenario is bizarre yet compelling, and the story ends on a high note that leaves you wanting more. Congratulations on the win!

Thought: Leave it to consistently great author TheDriderPony to make everyone laugh with their take on the stylings of a trope-filled Japanese light novel about reincarnating in another world for a do-over. In this case, the individual being reincarnated is Sombra, complete with all his camp and pompousness intact. So, basically an inverse of all the recent villainess reincarnation stuff. Sombra’s malicious yet ignorant internal monologue made for a very funny juxtaposition when coming from inside the tiny pink body of human-world Flurry Heart.

As a giant mash of current genre cliches, there isn’t much originality here, but the jokes are so well-written and hilarious compared to most examples of that genre that it doesn’t matter. If this was adapted into an anime, it would likely be better than every isekai show airing right now. 

The real standout character in This Young Mistress isn’t actually Flurry/Sombra, though, but Shining. He just blithely accepts every unusually nefarious behavior of his daughter as perfectly normal, concerning his friends even more. It’s beautiful. Seriously, if you need a laugh in these trying times, look no further. What we have here is a gold placement well earned. (Still can’t beat Reborn as a Vending Machine in my heart, though.)

Ro: One of the secrets to getting away with absurdity, play it absolutely straight no matter how outlandish. Sombra is a villain reincarnated in the body of a human Flurry Heart, and his confidence in overcoming this and all other obstacles is absolutely rock-solid. Having read a fair amount of the Xianxia/Wuxia stories this archetype borrows from I can certainly say TheDriderPony has nailed the vibe. I would honestly love to see an expansion of this in the future, perhaps in the future Sombra/Flurry takes one look at human!Cozy and declares them to be archrivals.

That’s the sign of a good story you know, when you get to the end and can imagine it continuing.


And with that, we draw this one to close. Thanks again to all participants. Hopefully I'll have a more resonant prompt next year. :twilightsheepish:

Comments ( 6 )

HOORAY, THE RESULTS ARE FINALLY HERE!

I may not have placed, but I had so much fun with this prompt as my first contest entry. Thank you for creating it, and congratulations to the winners!! I was reading all the stories as they were added to the folder, they were all so wonderful. ❤️

Congratulations to all the winners, and This Young Mistress was indeed hilarious :moustache:

Oooh, I started reading Sweeping Up The Shards and liked it muchly. Need to catch back up on that!

Thanks, folks!

And congrats to the other medalists! When I started writing "Shards," I thought it'd maybe reach 5,000 words. But wanting to give each of the characters Something To Do kept expanding the word count, and you can't really do a "Young Six" story without all six of them...

Still, thanks again!

Mike

And what a wonderful contest it was! My heartfelt thanks to the judges for their kind words and for rating my work so highly. A little bit of validation is just the ticket for alleviating these seasonal blues.

Congrats to Augiedog and Mockingbirb for placing as well, and best of luck next time to the rest of the entrants! There were some very good entries in contention, and I'm sure the judges had a tough time narrowing the field.

Here's looking forward to the next one!

Thank you everyone! I commented here.

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