Happy St David's Day to anyone out there with Welsh connections! Not sure if there's an analogue of Wales anywhere in Equestria. Not even sure what you'd call it -- though a nickname for the country is "The Land of Song", which would fit FiM pretty well! Anyway, enough off-topic waffling for me for a bit. Here we go with March's FF150! For newcomers, or anyone who'd like a reminder of how this works...

Here are the full rules.

Remember, there is no prize, as such, for this contest -- but if you win, you will be able to choose the prompt for the next contest. You'll also get a mention on the group's front page. Normally I'd try to put a jokey extra reference here, but I've exceeded my joke quota for the moment and Pinkie is glowering at me somewhat. So on we go to the details of this month's contest:

Prompt: "Face Your Fears" (selected by last month's winner, TCC56)
Rating: E or T
Word limit: 150
Closing date: Saturday 21st March 2020, 11:59 pm UK time (world clock)

Please reply to this post with your entry. This makes it easier for me to keep track. Please do not leave feedback until after the closing date.

Entries are now open! Have fun!

7163097
One of the things my curse (Autism) has brought me is that I can't relate to the majority's perspective. A story might be emotionally powerful to many, but I just see it as an irritating hurdle to sit through or a plot device to make a character look cool. Many stories on Fimfiction (or even any story for that matter) don't leave me with anything but a jumble pile of words.

So what does this have to do with this month's story?

Absolutely nothing.

"I don't like it." huffed Shining Armor, "Why is that terrorist part of the guard?"

Second Wind watched his captain pacing back and forth to fume out this bit of news. "I know you're still upset that she turned your wife to stone, but ease up on Tempest."

"After what she did? Just what kind of pony would sell out her country just to get a horn back?"

"Her horn must mean a lot to her."

"That's no excuse. We shouldn't have ponies that would hand over Equestria representing the guard."

"Would you give up your daughter?"

Shining Armor shivered his entire body stiff.

"If you had to choose between giving up Equestria or Flurry Heart, which would it be?"

Caught within an impossible choice, Armor felt the cold impact of the question ripple through his body.

"Tempest probably reacted similar as you are now. Will you answer the same?"

7163097

Know what? Let's try something completely different.

the other night

I had a dream

I saw your face

it scared me

and it hurt me

because I left you

you’re not here anymore, just

a nightmare, I guess

a ghost

Do you know that I love you?

Vinyl

Octavia

I see your face

I hear your voice

and it hurts me

and it scares me

Because one day you might leave me

your face is beautiful

your dreams are luminous

in ways I can’t describe

and when I look into your eyes

I feel that I’m not enough

I know that you deserve better 

my love, I fear that I will lose you

Tavi, I think I’m going to lose you

But

I know that it’s worth it

your love makes this worth it

I love the way you smile 

And I love the way the stars shine in your eyes.

I’m scared, but I love you.

7163097
I know I can't win, but I just can't stop myself from writing!

"Another Pie." Applejack chuckled. ""Didn't think you an' Cheese would be that quick but you've always been one for surprises, sugarcube."

Pinkie laughed quietly - she was exhausted. "I think I'll stick to baking buns from now on."

Craning her neck over the others, Twilight peered down at the tiny bundle of yellow and pink the party pony was holding. "Did you decide on a name yet?"

Slowly, Pinkie nodded. "Quesadilla Basalt Pie."

Twilight's eye twitched. "Q--Quesadilla?"

Pinkie locked gazes with the Princess in a way that wordlessly made clear she knew exactly what she was doing. "Yes. Quesadilla." She shifted a little and held out the swaddled bundle. "You should hold him, Twilight."

The alicorn hesitated.

"Hold Quesadilla," Pinkie said more firmly.

Twilight swallowed roughly, then took the foal in her magic. The little one floated to her sweaty hooves and she put on her best nervous smile. "So... Cheesy."

7163097
This prompt has been difficult -- so many ideas just couldn't fit under the word ceiling.

"Princ--ipal Celestia?"

"Yes, Sunset." She gestured. "Come in. What is it?"

"I, um, need to tell you something."

"Anything."

"I don't belong here."

"Oh?"

"I'm from a place called Equestria, which seems to have a pony double of everyone. Including you."

"I see."

"I, um, ran away a year ago after I had a huge fight with princess-you."

"Is that so?"

"I've also been really mean to the students here, cruel even, over really petty things."

"Like when you blew up at the dignitary banquet and fled to your tower?"

"What?"

"Or berated your personal guard to a sobbing wreck when he inconvenienced you?"

"H-how do you know about that?"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE A SCARED, LITTLE FILLY, DREAMING SHE CAN BE FORGIVEN SO SHE WON'T HAVE TO FORGIVE HERSELF."

---

She snapped awake, shaking in sweat.

06:12

Hot, burning shame was immediately smothered with rage.

"Early motorbike cruise, then."

Just to remind you: a little under 47 hours remain!

7163097

Results Day

---

The smoke smothered the sting of winter, but Sugarcoat regretted inhaling anyway. Another stupid decision, to round off a month of stupid decisions.

She handed back the cigarette, and Lemon Zest took it with a carefree swagger. For a moment Sugarcoat hated her for it.

"Yeah, totally didn't peg you as a smoker, dude." Met with silence, she shoved her. "Ah come on, they're just exams, Sugarcoat. Who cares?"

"Spoken like a true queen of flunk."

Lemon Zest's eyes wavered, but she sniggered anyway. For a moment Sugarcoat loved her for it.

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking. Again."

"It's gonna be a-ok," said Lemon Zest. "Or, uh, not. But you ain't gonna know until you tell your folks. Ain't this worse?"

Sugarcoat nodded. "You're a good friend."

"Uh-huh, the best. Now let's do this."

Sugarcoat inhaled, pressing a hand to her stomach. She wondered when she would feel something press back.

7163097

I'll be lucky if I still make this..... Here we go.

.

Coronet chuckled. "You look so scared..... amusing. Even though it's so small that you can't even see it, your pupils constrict, your breath goes faster..... and is that a puddle between your hindlegs? Hahaha." She shook the little glass tube in front of the face of the other filly, the filly she had cornered in the tiny room a minute ago.
"Do you know its name? I call it 'Corona'. I made it just for you, Cozy. Well, for you, and maybe a few more enemies that decide to get into my way down the line..... if any other pony is foolish enough, that is."
The young, villainous mastermind pulled a mask over her face, then opened the tube. "You were a good rival, Cozy. But Equestria is only mine."
Coronet poured the transparent liquid over Cozy Glow's face. Five seconds later, Cozy's nose started bleeding. Coronet shut the door.

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Okay, everyone: time's up! Thank you as always to everyone who entered -- six this time, including an entry by Fluttercheer that made it with three minutes to go. Good going there! As always, I'll now take two or three days to turn over the entries in my mind and choose a winner. But right now...

...feedback is open!

7164206

I like the idea and how Second Wind forces Shining to look at it from a different standpoint. I'm kind of on the fence as to whether or not he makes a fair comparison though. I don't really want to delve into this because that would require discussing philosophy and morality, but I think it's a nice little entry. Some of the sentences read a bit weird to me but that might just be because I'm picky about these things. Oh, and you have an extra 'e' in your title.

7164391

That was a horrible entry. I hated it.

7166497

Children scare me sometimes too. And I interned for an after school for awhile too. Maybe those two facts are related.

7174154

I think most of us end up with this fear at one point in our lives. Caught between the desire to be forgiven and the fear of being rejected. I think this response fits the prompt well.

7179086

Not bad, but the last part confused me. I'm not sure if you're trying to say 'she doesn't feel a heartbeat because she thinks she's a heartless person,' 'she wonders when she'll get pregnant,' or something else entirely.

7180358

This one confused me. I'm assuming that you're referring to the Corona virus, but other than that I don't really understand what's happening. I'm assuming that Coronet and Cozy are enemies in some sense, but why Cozy's so scared of Coronet is beyond me. I can't really figure out how this relates to the prompt either, but I think it's something to do with them being lifelong enemies and Cozy being scared of Coronet?

also you spelled glass wrong, just for your information

7180854

This one confused me.

How so? The prompt is "Face Your Fears" and Cozy is facing a fear when being cornered like that by Coronet. And what it is exactly that Cozy fears so much, that is explained by Coronet's first piece of dialogue. It's written pretty self-explanatory, really.

7180860

Fair. I figured it out but it took me a couple of reads.

7180866

I am happy I could expand your horizon then. Ponyfics are so much more fun to read if they have an elegant use of "Show", rather than "Tell". Also:

.

also you spelled glass wrong, just for your information

Not spelled wrong, just a typo. I've written this entry in the last 20 minutes and submitted it only two minutes before the deadline. I must have missed hitting the second "s" and then didn't catch it during proofreading cause I was in such a hurry.
I guess that Loganberry didn't read and judge my entry yet, anyway, so I assume it should still be okay if I fix that real quick.

7180854

Oh, and you have an extra 'e' in your title.

It was intentional.
'The Horn' just sounded too flat for me, so I spruced it up and had it spelled out like some people prefer to say it. You know, when somebody might say something along the lines of... "He wasn't the man, he was thee man".

7180873
I use 'spelled wrong' and 'typo' interchangeably.

7180876

I was actually thinking that, but I don't know if it's possible to make that clear without making it seem like a typo. I applaud you for trying something different though!

KwirkyJ <mumblemumble>s!

7164206 Thee Horn

The story works overall, but with two significant concerns. First, regarding the writing, the descriptions of Shining's reactions read to me as melodramatic at best, coming across as sophomoric exposition. Second, for the story itself, the comparison is not at all similar – Second Wind is posing Shining with a "sacrifice the many or the few" quandary, whereas Tempest cashiered the nation in hopes of getting her horn back. (And, for the title, tacking an extra 'e' onto 'the' is emphatically not how to sell the effect of the.)

7164391 face//your fears

You have managed to roll three poems into one, and I must give all due credit for that accomplishment. It's rich, evocative, raw... It's just not clear what these characters would have to be worried about if they simply buckled down and talked to one another. I'm also not sure what to make of the title, but it's an artsy piece, so no bigs.

7166497 Dangerously Cheesy

I'm not sold on this one. It seems to be all set up for the pun at the end (cheesy quesadilla). I can't grok why Twilight is saying this unless she is aware of the pun being made. Clever, and that name made me start as much as it did Twilight, however...

7174154 I Want (You) to Confess!

Ugh, not another dream sequence.

7179086 Results Day

Welp, that'll get me to re-read the thing once or twice. Lots of subtle hints going on in here, some of which I may be missing or don't quite work, but what a bold effort. My interested may have been helped by my being a sucker for characters talking around the issue done well. I'm not sure how "queen of flunk" can be applied outside of the (presumed) school test scores; I hope that I'm correct in interpreting "Ain't this worse?" as the anticipation of her parents' reaction being more dreadful than knowing how they actually react once told. Also, props for reminding us that there are, in fact, other characters in the EQG universe.

7180358

I'll be up front and tell you that, having not watched S8 or S9, I have no idea who these characters are. My gut feeling is that Cozy's reaction is pure submission because of paralyzing fear or implausibly enforced to up-sell Coronet's threats. Understanding of the situation is impeded by the text not being clear on what those threats are or what they imply.

Regarding the typo of glas(s) – it is possible for typos to generate valid words (though/thought/through, sat/set/seat/sear/seer/sea/beat/bet/bat/beer/be/bar/bear), yet in most cases the valid word would be not what the writer intended and thus come across failed diction rather than misspelling. You were in a hurry, you made a small error, we get it and forgive you... but it (glass) is "spelled wrong" because of the typo.

7181316
Hey, thanks!

It's just not clear what these characters would have to be worried about if they simply buckled down and talked to one another.

You actually hit the nail on the head. This is exactly the underlying point I was trying to make with this piece: that both characters fear the same thing, but their fears could be resolved if they talked to one another. But since they don't, they stay in fear.

The title was supposed to build on the three poems idea. So poem one would be called "(your) face," poem two called "your fears" and together it would be 'face//your fears,' but I ended up deviating from the themes a little bit so I understand that this part didn't quite work out. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

7181316

My gut feeling is that Cozy's reaction is pure submission because of paralyzing fear

That one. Who Cozy Glow is would be a massive spoiler for Season 8 and Season 9. But let me say as much that she is a very intriguing and deep filly, with interesting tendencies and a motive for certain actions of hers that is subtly woven into the plot of Season 8 and Season 9 in a brilliant way, for those who like to look deeply and to really engage themselves with what they're watching.
That's as cryptic as I have to be to avoid spoilering you, but I hope I managed to convey it in an intriguing manner. Either way, you should watch Season 8 and Season 9 soon, two seasons that are as brilliant as ever and that build up to an epic and monumental finale of the show.
Coronet is a background filly, one of those who don't get any attention, but would deserve it to be thought about and explored. I have put a link into her name at the beginning of the submission so you can see who she is.
Knowing either of them, however, is not required to understand the basic situation in my submission.

.

Understanding of the situation is impeded by the text not being clear on what those threats are or what they imply.

It is intentionally kept subtle. "glass tube", "Corona" and "(face) mask" should give you an idea what Coronet is doing. As well as Coronet's first dialogue with the in-depth description of Cozy's fear and the blood coming from Cozy's nose at the end.

.

but it (glass) is "spelled wrong" because of the typo.

Not quite exactly. A missspelling is typically known as a word written the wrong way because the author does not know how to spell it correctly.
While a typo is caused by hurry and rush, a letter that was forgotten to type down or a few letters too much because the tempo caused the brain to mix things up, and is as such not indicative of the author's spelling knowledge.
An important distinction to make between spelling error and typo, especially for an author who wants to leave the right impression of themselves.

7181814
I was simply pointing out the fact that glass was spelled wrong. Now in saying that I am by no way implying that I doubt your ability as an author, and I am not saying that you're any less intelligent as an author or as a person because you don't know how to spell glass. I'm literally just pointing out that glass is spelled wrong, and I already know that this was probably an unconscious mistake because yes, I do recognize you submitted like minutes before the deadline.

I'm not really sure why you're being so defensive over this because I'm not attacking you in any way. People make typos all the time. I do too. The best way to learn is to have these mistakes pointed out. To me, whether it's worded as a typo or as a misspelling is completely irrelevant.

So... we cool?

7181931

I'm not really sure why you're being so defensive over this because I'm not attacking you in any way.

Defensive? I merely clarified what was the correct nature of the error, as I saw a mix-up of the terms missspelling and typo. I am not getting defensive, I just like to correct errors I see for the sake of being exact. As such, I explained that making a typo is not the same as missspelling a word.
.

The best way to learn is to have these mistakes pointed out.

Indeed and I don't mind being pointed out a mistake I made. I just like the correct kind of mistake being pointed out to me. Which you did, even though you used the wrong term for it, but then I had to correct KwirkyJ as well, seeing how he used it wrong, too.
Just a matter of applying the correct term, nothing more.
.

So... we cool?

When were we not?

7182007

Okay. Don't really want to push this matter because I think it's silly, but I've always used 'typo' and 'spelled wrong' interchangeably. I've never heard of connotations being attached to either word before. But if this is what you prefer then that's fine, you live your life.

But, uh, while we're at it... you made a typo on the word 'misspelling' both times you've used it.

7182018

But, uh, while we're at it... you made a typo on the word 'misspelling' both times you've used it.

Huh, indeed. Upon checking a dictionary, I get told it's written with only two "s". While it's "miss" and "spelling" if you write these two words separate, so you'd think it's three "s" in "mis(s)spelling". Weird. Writing it with three "s" makes a lot more sense. I guess the dictionaries of this world live their life, too.

7164206 7164391 7166497 7174154 7179086 7180358

All right, results time! As so often seems to be the case (not that I'm complaining) this was a tough month to judge -- and for the best of reasons. It took me quite some time to decide in the end, but I really like the way The Red Parade did their linked poems. As such, that entry is my winner!

Congratulations to The Red Parade and of course thank you to everyone else who entered. TRP, please let me know what you've chosen as the prompt for April and post that in this thread. You can do that either straight away if you already know or in a day or so if you'd like to think about it.

7182402
Oh, thanks!

Uh.... would 'So Long and Goodnight' work as a prompt?

7182457
I don't see why not! Accepted! Let's see what everyone comes up with. As always, the thread will go up on 1st April (unless I forget, in which case please yell at me).

Feel free to continue discussing stuff in this thread if you like.

7182034

While it's "miss" and "spelling" . . .

The prefix is 'mis-', not 'miss-'. (Mis)trial, (mis)direction, (mis)alignment, (mis)print, (mis)spelling, e.g.

7166497
Oh goodness I know this is old, but it touched my heart so much - I wish I could add it to favorites. Gah it was so sweet!!

7253376

I wish I could add it to favorites.

Good news! You (kind-of-sort-of) can!

ETCC's Flashfic Folio

• MLP: FiM
• Equestria Girls
• Anthology

A collection of entires from the Flashfic 150 contests by your friendly neighborhood TCC.

TCC56 · 3.3k words  ·  11  2 · 405 views

7253485
Ahh! Haha thanks so much!