[Twilight Files Contest] Results! · 4:04am Sep 12th, 2022
reposted from the forum post below the break
Thank you all for your patience for the results! The judges and I were very impressed by the creativity this contest inspired, and we had a great time indulging in them and debating their merits. Narrowing down to a podium is always difficult, as it always leaves out so many beloved and amazing entries, and this time was no exception. But whether or not they appear on this post, I hope you all check out them out here!
Out of the 17 entries in the contest, we will be highlighting 6 with a prize pool of $335, split between the following awards:
- First Place: $100
- Second Place: $75 (2x)
- Fourth Place: $45
- Committee Prize: $20 (2x)
Now, on to the results!
Committee Prize: Letter Never Sent by Rambling Writer
There are some stories that can be told in Equestria that just wouldn’t work in any other world. This simple series of letters takes a canon event - the disappearance of the Crystal Empire - and tells a touching story of love and loss.
A poignant love story told through letters separated by centuries. A heartwrencher that hits a solid and rewarding emotional arc as the characters come to terms with their separation. Though told through typical means, this story has a solid plot with pacing as well as a heartwarming story about moving on, but still holding true to your loved ones.
Committee Prize: Sapphic Figments by Botched Lobotomy
is there any better raw material than lines of Sappho’s poetry to depict the most beautiful of loves between a woman and a mare? said lines, coaxed from their now-alien ancient context, are remixed and repurposed to tell a romance with the weight of mythology in short, aching fragments. it resonated with me deeply, and to me it is the greatest work of art i have ever seen in all of fandom, and it definitely won't be for everyone. but if you have enough brainworms in common with me to be excited by the description, or love artistically ambitious works / love poetry about Rarity, i cannot recommend it enough.
Ah, poetry. It's the sort of thing that seems easy, and yet is confounding in its complexity. Botched Lobotomy took an unmeasurably massive risk in not only commiting to a fic written entirely in poetry, but also setting themselves the task of emulating one of history's most famous poets: Sappho herself. Honestly, I think the highest honor I can bestow upon Sapphic Figments is to simply say that it felt completely genuine. I'd need to spend some considerable time teasing apart which verses were written by which author (that is, the verses not explicitly about Rarity).
The re-contextualization of Sappho's work in this fic is nothing short of brilliant. The poetry found in this story is stirring and romantic, and conjures images of ethereal beauty alongside those of true, deep love. Transformative, heart wrenching, and powerful work.
Fourth Place: The Dangers of Personal Growth by Silent Whisper
The artificial intelligence looking after life support on a space station doesn’t have the same perspective as the pony she cares for, nor really understand her desires, but she’s still capable of looking after her in little ways beyond her programming.
The emails and logs here hint at a bigger world beyond its scope. It’s a long way from the Equestria we know, yet though little details here and there we know everything we need to.
A story told through company emails and from the perspective of a robot. Both offer unique insights into the relationship of Fiddlesticks and Lightning Dust as well offering a tense plot that makes you wonder if everything is going to turn out fine by the end. An enjoyable read showcasing an interesting dynamic while endearing the readers to a sprinkler system.
Lightning Dust and Fiddlesticks have fitting roles in this sci-fi setting, being a courier and an orbital greenhouse supervisor respectively. they are a delight here, with their personalities and chemistry just oozing out of their official space corporation work emails, and the story of the “incident” they faced would have been enjoyable enough on its own. but what really ties the story together is the perspective of the third character: the greenhouse’s AI that is given life both by Fiddlesticks’s tampering and its own personal diary. i never thought that i would have so many feelings about the fate of an automated sprinkler system, but here we are!
This clever sci-fi story took the form requirements one step further than most: in The Dangers of Personal Growth, the documents themselves are a character - and an absolutely fantastic one. This fic consists entirely of the observations of a farming AI (AMIS) who is trying desperately to recover from some troublesome magical fertilizer. AMIS is so loveable it almost hurts.
The story itself is wonderfully written, elegantly simply, and all ties up in a neat plant-based metaphor that I truly adored. It's a heartwarming little fic that is well worth a read (or two!).
Second Place: Merge Request by FanOfMostEverything
The version of Midnight Sparkle presented here is really just another aspect of human Twilight. She has all her host’s memories, many of her desires, and just a little bit less restraint - which makes it most entertaining to see them playing off against each other through somnambulistic notes. Particularly when they both understand each other better than themselves.
And for those of us who’ve used the funny runes that make computers do stuff, the formatting was spot on. I suggest reading it with a dark background and monospace font.
Definitely one of the most unique entries and also gives me programmers PTSD. Told solely through a github repository and formatted so accurately I was wondering why I had so many commits. Though off the wall in terms of medium, Merge tells a well paced, fun story about Sci-Twi and Midnight Sparkle, characterizing both wonderfully and telling a compelling story.
Merge Request sold me enough on its format alone, as it takes place nearly entirely within the changelog of a code repository which is formatted with an immersiveness that is downright impressive. but what i can’t get over is just how perfect the characters are for this format. just how else are Twilight Sparkle and the Midnight Sparkle that is still alive and well in her head supposed to communicate, after all? what follows is a delightful delve into their characters, as their contrasts and similarities shine in their banter, and they inadvertently help each other discover something they didn’t realize about themselves.
One of the greater challenges of this contest wasn't so much finding a format as it was commiting to the format. It's easy to get lost in the weeds of storytelling and slip into prose, or find yourself needing a document which fimfiction doesn't lend itself to reproducing. Merge Request not only overcomes these limitations, but genuinely thrives under them: perfectly recreated GitHub formatting, excellent commitment to form, and spot-on characterization to boot. Not only does it look like a GitHub changelog - I have no trouble believing it could really be one.
The plot and characters are nothing less than fantastic. The incomparable FoME presents a wonderful, funny, touching story that carefully expands upon some of eqg's most interesting lore. The best part? I didn't miss traditional prose in the least. This story was simply meant to be told this way, and it is a joy to read.
Second Place: The River is Trying to Kill You by The Red Parade
The purest epistolary in the contest. This story uses calendars, newspapers, official documents and private notes to tell the tale of a character’s descent into depression after a tragic failure - and crucially, of their difficult climb back out. It never makes their recovery seem easy, but it does present hope.
Told exclusively through images (though there is a written transcription at the end), this was a unique take on the format of the contest. Highly enjoyable with a very relatable struggle detailing a perfectly pace moment of character growth for the main protagonist. The media that tells the story lends well to the indirect unfolding of the plot. Satisfying from start to finish.
The River Is Trying To Kill You really went above and beyond the spirit of the contest. not content to express its documents in mere formatted text, it recreates every single one of them as images that might as well be scanned from the in-universe sheets of papers themselves! and that makes the power of its indirect storytelling all the more impressive as it tells the tale of a tragic incident that Night Glider blames herself for, and its aftermath. her spiral downward is just as harrowing as her slow recovery afterward is uplifting.
I'll start with the obvious: Red Parade's The River is Trying to Kill You demonstrates astounding effort from its very first image. Rather than work within fimfiction's limited formatting options, Red chose to work outside the system and presents his story through a series of carefully-crafted documents exactly as they would appear in the show. Newspapers, calendars, receipts, brochures, paperwork, posters… while many epistolary stories fall back on a simple series of correspondences, The River is a much more intimate collection of documents, as if our protagonist had emptied her desk drawers in front of us and we'd pieced together her story from whatever scraps we could find.
But beyond all of that, The River is a compelling story about trauma and recovery. I don't think I've ever come so close to crying over a business card, and I doubt I ever will again. The creativity and style are brilliant, the plot gripping, and the execution perfect. This fic is going to stay with me for a very long time.
First Place: Monument by Equimorto
Cosmic horror is hard to get right. It’s a genre where you’re deliberately trying to unsettle the audience and leave them unsatisfied - without just frustrating them. This story weaves a thin line between telling you just enough and not too much. There are answers to the mysteries it presents, but they aren’t simple ones.
This was a truly stellar piece about eldritch horror. Great pacing and a fundamentally intriguing premise told through mixed media. The nonlinearity of the story lends well to the madness of the fic and tonally connects with the tragedy of what transpires. It's a fascinating tale, and well worth the read.
Monument was easily one of the most ambitious fics in the contest. between its cosmic horror genre and its multiple storylines told in achronological order, there were so many ways for it to not quite live all the way up to its ambitions, but instead, it exceeds them. beyond the way that the horror earned its place through rich description and harrowing effects grounded in the characters, it was a marvel to watch as the conclusion brought together every last scrap of the story's elements in a succession of varied ends that perfectly summed up and paid off everything that came before it. the beautiful picture of contrasts painted by those endings still haunts me, thinking about it now, and i insist that you all experience it for yourself.
Epistolary stories include a lot of information. It's easy to skim past some of it, the same way you might skim past a dialogue tag in traditional prose - after settling yourself in the world, you no longer need to check dates, times, addresses, recipients… but, honestly, the very best epistolary stories make use of every last detail. Nothing is wasted. Everything is done with purpose - including the order in which documents are presented.
It isn't something I ever truly considered until I read Monument. Author Equimorto presents a chilling, engrossing, perfectly-paced mystery in documents purposefully presented out of order. Every last detail - dates, times, locations, authors, origins, and so on - is important. As a result, Monument places you in the position of a detective trying to piece together the story's central mystery: what happened to Twilight Sparkle? This story's alternate universe setting and poignant final moments still haven't left me nearly a month after my initial reading. Monument is masterfully written, thoughtfully constructed, and deeply disturbing. I cannot recommend it enough.
And there we are! Prize winners will be contacted by PM over the next few days to disburse winnings. If you need to know of other currently-running contests, please check out the following:
- The Twilestia is Bestia group's Thirteenth Bimonthly Twilestia Contest, ending 2022 Sep 15.
- Reactception and Mockingbirb's "Bad Romance": Sunset and any MLP/EqG villain have a seriously flawed or terrible relationship. Contest, ending 2022 Sep 21.
- The Cozy Glow group's Cozy Glow Short Story Contest #3, ending 2022 Sep 25.
- My LyraBon Contest, ending 2022 Oct 02.
FanOfMostEverything's Ancestral Tribute Contest, ending 2022 Oct 16.
The sound of hoofsteps wakes you up with a start. You snap to, then hurriedly wipe the surface of that irreplacable desk with a hoof to hide the fact that you had been drooling on it.
"Oh, that old thing has seen far worse, you don't have to worry!" The old mare cackles as she approaches.
With a sheepish look, you turn around, then awkwardly get out of the chair and onto your hooves. The old mare smiles at you in silence. Then instead of saying anything, she turns around to head back to the door. A bit thrown, it takes you a second to unstick your hooves from the floor and follow her.
"So, uh, did the Princess like what I found?"
"Yes, she did," she says simply. "Which is why you'll be doing this again next time."
The matter-of-factness throws you even more, for a bit.
"Next time?"
"Yes, next time." She turns her head back to look you in the eyes. "If you want to do this for the Princess again."
You turn your own head back, to contemplate the chamber you had just spent weeks of your life in. Just then, a flash of violet magic, just like the hundreds you had seen in your time in this room, deposits yet another sheaf of papers on the stacks you've barely scratched the surface of. As if those stacks were not already more than could be read in a dozen pony lifetimes. Who knew what other brilliant gems were waiting to be unearthed in them?
"Yes," you say to yourself. "I just might have to."
