For those somehow still on tenterhooks from my intro waffle last month: yes, I did go to UK PonyCon -- my tenth in-person Pony convention -- and I loved it. That old convention magic was still there. Also, I believe UKPC was the very first in-person con of the G5 era, which achievement we naturally celebrated with a mass singalong of That Sprout Song and a charity auction of a jar of mayonnaise. (Yes, really.)

Here are the full rules.

You'll note that Rule 6 still explicitly disallows any G5 content. I'm still keeping that rule for now; we'll see about the future in the future.

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. Given the title of this month's contest, and indeed given the person who set it, I'm not even going to risk saying which reality that front page might be in, let alone minor details such as which dimension. But on we go!

Prompt: "An Inconvenient Paradox" (selected by last month's winner, Dodj)
Rating: E or T
Word limit: 150
Closing date: Sunday 21st November 2021, 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!

7594292
There where a few contest a while back that I participated in that involved the use of a monster mare of my own design. I made a detective story about a mushroom mare, and she was again used in the proceeding contest in the form of a sequel. People liked it, and when talk about a third contest was being made, I was already preparing for it. However, the contest died and many of the concepts are left unused, such as the cover art that I specifically made for the story...

So I thought, why not use some of the ideas I had for it this month. After all, I can't think of a better prompt that best describes this opposing character.

"What does that one say, Truffles?" Tricklebrook points a hoof at the bulletin article.

"Hmm... it's a request to prevent an upcoming... robbery?  'A declaration made by the notorious thief, Nilafia, was made earlier today upon Lord Beaumont, stating that tonight, she'll be acquiring the jewel rose he possesses.'  It goes on saying rewards for Nilafia's capture and how to get to Beaumont's castle from there."

"Reward... Hey!  Why don't we go get Nilafia first before she can steal that flower? You're good at finding creatures, right?"

"Detective work will do little good with that monster mare.  She's crafty with her tactics, an expert at being discreet when she wants to be, and is completely uncatchable."

"Sounds to me like you're scared," Brook mocks.

"I'm stating facts.  Nilafia is a Teumessian, a creature that's incapable of being caught.  What can there be done to her thieving ways with that advantage?"

7594292 Only three pony towns remain

“This is very perplexing,” the lead scientist said to his assistant.

“Tell me about it...” she sighed, scratching her head. “The laws of physics in this subspace must be way different than in this universe. First, we pulled out the sort of particle that could break matter. Then one that could defy gravity. The third one could affect matter at a distance. This last particle is a pure paradox. It has the feature of all three.”

“Given this new information, we need to test a lot more particles to get to the bottom of this… ‘magic’, even if we have to hijack all the particles from the subspace along with their underlying principles that connect them. Good thing we caught this Twilight particle. If it wasn’t for that, we’d probably stick with the first working hypothesis and would have cut off the subspace interference by now.”

Edit: 30 - Giving Up on Magic Was the Only Way

7594292
I might’ve put forward a B tier story last month, but this time I present to you the positively stupendous and amazing S-tier story,

Twilight rubbed her horn as her future self nervously tapped her hooves together behind her. Looking at her gave Twilight a migraine from the spray paint saying ‘I love Doctor Whooves’ on her side.

“Let me get this straight,” Twilight said with a glare, “You’re from the future.”

“Eheh… Right.” She nervously smiled.

“You came back in time, running through town and yelling about Discord being awesome.” Twilight’s stare didn’t waver.

“Well, I was calling him stupendously amazing… But yeah.”

Twilight groaned as she slapped a hoof to her head.

“And you did all that because…?”

She hesitated, looking like she was in Celestia’s office, before replying.

“I… Might’ve seen the future version of me do the same thing.”

Twilight blanched at that. “If you saw your future self do that, then you couldn’t let that not happen, because then…” She trailed off.

“Then there would be a paradox.”

7594292

"Ponyville to Canterlot, Starlight, is a one-day trip. Canterlot to Ponyville, one-day trip."

"A bit less, but okay, I'm with you so far, Twilight..."

"Right. Ponyville to Manehattan, Starlight, one-day trip."

"Sure."

"Ponyville to Griffonstone, one-day trip."

"Huh, okay."

"Ponyville to the Crystal Kingdom, one-day trip."

"Wow, that is interesting."

"Griffonstone to the Crystal Kingdom, one-day trip! It makes no sense! Everything on this map is one day away from everything else! It's impossible!"

"I see. Meaning you're also only one day away from the realization that the love of your life is one of your closest friends?"

"I'm already married to science, you know that! ...Did you just make a 'one-day shipping' joke at my expense?"

"And in record time."

7594292

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RD won, meaning she knew who was best pet for her.. her self of-course, what could be so hard about having a pet RD she thought.

later, fluttershy was blushing at the sight of RD wearing a collar, taking herself for a walk "what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked, RD replied takin my pet rd for a walk" "ah but i don't want to""i will give you a treat" RD waged her tail and ran off as Fluttershy witnessed her friend have a augment with herself?

RD was a great pet RD thought, she's easy to water, she's easy to feed and she loves long walks and she loves a good cuddle, then a knock, the blue Pegasus looked out the window and barked at the door then opened it, "where's your own pet RD" flutershy said but before RD could reply Fluttershy took the pet RD and took her home

7594292
I initially thought I wouldn't be able to come up with anything for this prompt. Then I remembered my birthday was later this month, one idea led to another, and, well, here I am! I'm a bit worried the prompt might be reflected more so by the title than the flashfic itself, but it should meet this month's qualifications regardless.

I hope you'll enjoy it!
:)

"I… can't accept this, Twilight."

Twilight winced. She'd anticipated Spike's reaction, but its frankness stung regardless. "Spike, there's no—"

"You and I both remember what happened last time." Longingly, the wyrmling brushed the wrapping paper. "I want to open this, but… If I do, I'll keep wanting. And wanting. And wanting. And then…"

Memories bombarded both their minds: a feral Spike, grown to gargantuan heights by his draconic greed, rampaging through the streets of Ponyville…

"There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting, Spike," Twilight offered. "You just have to know when enough's enough."

"…What if I can't? What if I get so wrapped up in wanting that I forget who I really am again?"

"Then you'll have six friends more than happy to remind you."

On that note, Spike feel silent, contemplating the package before him.

After some time passed, he took his sharp claws and tore the birthday present open.

7594292
Curious Construction

Twilight just sat by the lakeside, the only movement was an occasional eye twitch.
She had helped repair the dock at the lake, and got overzealous with replacing bad parts...ending up replacing each piece of wood with new lumber during the repairs.  Other campers saw the old wood as still good and decided to sand and paint it.  Once Twilight finished with her repairs, a camper pointed to the pile of lumber and said that it was still usable.  Twilight smiled and built the camp a second dock so that they could launch twice as many boats at once.  A camper asked if the new lumber dock or old lumber dock was the original.

“Uh…” Twilight said.

“Well, Twi, it looks like we have a pair o’ docks,” said Applejack as she admired their work for the day.

7596472
This story makes me think of the line from O Brother, Where art Thou?

Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity? Two weeks from everywhere!

7594292

“…and therefore,” said Minuette in the exam room, “the Grandfather Paradox is why mutable time travel is theoretically possible. I mean impossible! Shoot. Sorry! One sec!”

Her horn flared. The time spell blinked.

BEEP

“…and therefore the Grandmother Paradox is why mutable time travel –”

“Grandfather,” corrected Professor Longitude.

“I’m sorry?”

“You said Grandmother Paradox.”

“Oh! OOOOOOHH! Heheheh! My bad! Heheh, ye olde Grandmama Paradox, dearie? Heheh. OK, I’ll try again.”

BEEP

“…I’m sorry, I forgot what I was gonna say, heheheh!”

BEEP

“…and blerefore the Blan-blah-blah Blaradox is bly bootable bime brabbel… sobby, I bit my bongue.”

BEEP

“…andthereforetheGrandfatherParadoxiswhymutabletimetravelistheoreticallyimpossible!”

“I didn’t get a word of that.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA–”

BEEP

“…and therefore the Grandfather Paradox is why mutable time travel is theoretically impossible! Whew! So did I pass?”

“No. You resorted to too many time spells.”

“Aaaaaaawwwwwwww!”

“…wanna resit?”

“PLEASE!”

“Ah alright, just for you.” The professor’s horn flared.

BEEP

Three and a bit days to go, everyone!

And a last(ish) day, non-competing entry from yours truly. I tried to keep it a little more light-hearted this time; no "potential apocalypse" scenarios.

Doc had reached the end of his tether, he'd been looking for his favourite fob watch for a week now and it was nowhere to be found, despite remembering exactly where he saw it last.

"That's it, I'm getting the machine!" he said sharply to no one in particular.

He placed the three nodes of "the machine" in a triangle around the spot on his bedside table where he always placed the watch before retiring and set the timer for one week prior. Sparkling energy began to gather between them until, with a sharp, reverberating "CRACK", time fractured.

His hoof tingled, needles of energy prodding it as he reached into the shimmering hole in spacetime, intruding through the now-torn fabric of the universe, and drew from it... his favourite fob watch.

Somewhere at the back of his mind the metaphorical freight train of realisation began to barrel towards him.

7594302 7594328 7594439 7596472 7596656 7596680 7597696 7602410 7603939

All right, everyone, your time is up! Thank you to everyone who entered. Please put down your pens, pencils, styluses, paper, parchment, cuneiform tablet and any other writing materials now. As ever, I'll read and think and then in a few days give the result.

Please now feel free to leave feedback!

7603939 I imagine that every time he took the watch, he had to go about a second earlier before it was taken. Given that he went back a week, this cycle must have repeated itself thousands of times. I wonder how it all ends. The watch didn't exist forever. At some point, he won't be able to get it anymore.

7602410
Now that’s a fun story! The interactions between Minuette and the Professor are well worth the read.

7604542
I was under the impression he only took the watch one time. That being, the time at the end of the story when he took the watch. The reason he lost it in the first place was because he took the watch. How he ended up taking (Or loosing?) the watch the very first time is of course the classic, paradoxical time travel mind twister.
Following this logic, he only time traveled once, and it was one week back.

Also, I decided to write an entry even though it's ineligible.
Feel free to leave feedback. I'm actually going to write up some myself this time.

TWILIGHT, PLEASE!" In a quieter voice, he whimpered, "Your majesty, please."

The royal court silenced at the outburst. Princess Twilight stared at the brown stallion in question. "Yes? Who are you?"

"It's me, The Barber."

Twilight pursed her lips. "You don't look like... the barber."

"No, The Barber. You must've heard of me. I shave every stallion who does not shave himself! And only those ones!"

"Really?"

"It's true," said a stallion from the crowd. "That's The Barber!"

"Neat?" Twilight wondered.

"The problem is, Princess," The Barber panicked, "If I do not shave myself, then I am a stallion who does not shave himself."

Twilight nodded. "But that would mean The Barber would need to shave you. And that would mean... You're not the barber."

"But, I AM The Barber!"

"Well." Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I'm afraid that's impossible."

And The Barber vanished in a poof of logic.

7604830
I remember reading that paradox, it’s a fun one.

7597696
It’s a Paradox… About a pair a’ Docks. Neat.

Quick update: I'll be posting the winner on Sunday 28th. One of those months where life gets in the way, hence the slight delay. Anyway, please do carry on feedbacking should you wish!

7594302 7594328 7594439 7596472 7596656 7596680 7597696 7602410 7603939

And finally, it's results tim! time! Thank you to everyone who entered. As always, please remember that I'm the one deciding this. All it tells you is how much I liked it. I'm not a professional judge or critic, I'm just one rather ordinary person. So...

Hon mensh: Impossible Numbers -- even if it's a basic idea I've seen a few times, it's done very nicely and economically here. Also, I like Minuette.

Winner: KwirkyJ -- it made me laugh, it ties into the show's wobbly logistics, it has unexpected shipping (sort of) that didn't make me groan... yeah, this was great.

Congratulations! KwirkyJ, you've been through this before, so same procedure as every year month: please come up with a prompt for December's FF150.

Again, big thanks to everyone who entered. By all means continue to talk in here!

7607457

it's results tim!

Hell yeah! Nice of Results Tim to stop by; he's a pretty cool guy, if you ask me.
:P

In other news… man, I really psyched myself into thinking this was finally gonna be my month. Oh well; there's always next time.

Congrats, 7596472 Kwirky! It was well-earned.

7607467
Not the same, I know, but I liked your story. Just that I liked a lot this month. It was one of those tough rounds.

7607473
Yeah, I get that. Funnily enough, I’d anticipated losing to 7602410 Numbers' submission, so when I scrolled down just enough to see that theirs only got the honorable mention, I honestly thought I had this thing in the bag.

That was a fun two-and-half seconds. Oh well.

7607457
There were quite a few compelling entries, weren't there? ...And you still went with mine?

For next month's prompt, how about,
It's a Gift!

7607478
Yeah, I've been in your position, so I'm familiar what it feels like. It's not the best feeling, I know. All I can say is that I'm sure you're good enough to win one of these, even with someone as unpredictably strange as me as the judge.

7607517
Sounds like a nice prompt for Hearth's Warming! Thanks!