Guide

If you are an Author or Nominator of a Celestia Slate XII Entry, you may rate comments on your Entry.

If you have an eligible Comment, claimed or new, on a Celestia Slate XII Entry, you may rate Comments on that Entry.

Rating involves reading the new Comments (listed in non-italics below) for an Entry and choosing those that are, in your opinion, "the best". The winners of each Entry will receive a greater weight when voting for Celestia Slate XIII, and will have their comments highlighted in this thread for posterity.

The deadline for Comment Rating is 2022 Jan 24 7PM EST. You may PM me your ratings or use the Google Form.

Comments

Entry 1: Fawning Flowers Day

• Bicyclette
• daOtterGuy

Entry 2: Last Dance of Tchaicoltsky

• Bicyclette
• daOtterGuy
• SparklingTwilight
• ReedHoarse

Results

Entry 1: Fawning Flowers Day

Winner: daOtterGuy

Link

Howdy, hi!

This is one of my absolute favourite MxM romance stories. It hits all the right notes in terms of fluffiness and seriousness, a really good telling of a typical high school romance but with Shining Armour and R63 Cadance (Honestly doesn't help that Shining is one of my favourite characters). I love all the small details and mannerisms in this story that really sell their relationship to each other as friends and later romantic partners.

This is just such a sweet story from beginning to end that really tells a heartwarming romance. Shining is a sweetheart, Bolero is an empathetic and delightful pony, and the final moment between them revealing their mutual pining was the sweetest and silliest misunderstanding. this is just such a comfort fic and I love rereading it when I'm having a down day.

Absolutely great story, love every reread of it I do. Thanks for the story!

Entry 2: Last Dance of Tchaicoltsky

Winner: ReedHoarse

Link

This was really, really sweet.

It's hard to put into words the feeling the opening evokes. What do you do when you've only got a nine days to live? Tchicoltsky may be dying, but until he's actually dead he's alive, and while he's alive there's stuff that needs doing. It's not long enough for him to really accomplish anything, not long enough for him to travel home, yet long enough that there's still things he he's obliged to take care of. He has to say his goodbyes to the members of the orchestra even though this is a chore, because "Just because you’re dying, does not give you the excuse to be a selfish jerk.”

There's also this feeling of disconnect there, between feeling that in his last days he should be doing something with his last days, and the feeling of pointlessness at doing anything, and you capture that feeling really well.

And then there's Gregory:

“I’m still in shock that I’m dying! Isn’t that an excuse?”
“Nope!” Gregory chirped.

I really like Gregory. He just wants to make the last day of Tchaicoltsky's life a nice one, and gives him something to do in his dying hours, a nice normal date.

Yet, at the same time, seeing the sheer amount of effort that was put in, not only from the theater but to orchestrate this date when he wouldn’t be alive tomorrow… Part of him felt terrible for Gregory. To put in so much love and devotion to him when he wouldn’t be around for another few hours or so.

Despite the reveal at the end, or maybe even because of it, this is such a nice contrast to the beginning. Instead of moping around until he dies because it feels pointless to do anything, Gregory's gesture presents an alternate view that while he's alive Tchaicoltsky should live. It doesn't matter that he's dying in a few hours, he still deserves nice things.

So much of the story is the two characters recounting their lives. You do an excellent job of making us care about the characters before they start telling their story, and you do a great job of telling them, making it both an intersting conversation and an interesting story. There so much melancholy in knowing how the story ends as it's being told, not only the biographies, but the story of Tchaicoltsky and Gregory, who don't have the time for their relationship to develop. Hopefully with that ending they do.

Regarding grammar, you change tenses a fair few times, and there's the occasional sentence which doesn't quite parse and idioms used oddly, but nothing that really takes away from the story.