thank you all so much! i came into this contest without any headcanon of my own about the backstory of these two, or what their lives were like outside of the few scenes we sawr them in, and each of your stories in their own way filled in a little bit of that picture for me. it was such a great experience spending time with these characters that made far too little impact on the fandom for how late they appeared on the show, and it is quite possible that this burst of fics will be the most we ever see written about them in a short span of time from now until eternity. and if so, what a way to go!

i wish i could give all of you prizes, but i had to limit myself to two:

• First Place: $50
• Runner-up: $25

it was an agonizing choice, as it meant leaving three good fics unrecognized. but since this is my own contest, i will choose to recognize each of them anyway, with an Honorable Mention, in random order. it was the least i could do.

augh, i loved the tightness of this fic! it did so much in its 1.4 kilowords, from establishing Lofty and Holiday’s personalities and backstories, to showing how their relationship progressed, then ending with Scootaloo entering their lives, satisfyingly closing the link to their canon appearance.

the exposition felt so smooth that i didn’t even notice until the end how there was not a single line of dialogue in the story, which really worked to its benefit. reducing the four scenes to these brushstrokes of information made it feel as if i were looking directly into Lofty and Holiday’s own memories of how their story went, and that was a beautiful feeling.

—Bicyclette

ETwo Mares Met

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Slice of Life

Two mares met, and kept meeting.

• Lofty
• Holiday
• Snap Shutter

TheLegendaryBillCipher · 1.4k words  ·  31  6 · 403 views

this fic feels like a blast from the early days of the fandom, taking a single line from the show and extrapolating it into Auntie Lofty having a past as a Marejor Leagues baseball player. and what a great idea! if that scene and this fic had happened in the early days of the fandom, that is something i can easily see becoming as part of the fandom’s conception of Auntie Lofty as an obsessive love of humans is for Lyra Heartstrings.

on top of this, i really loved the throwback to Scootaloo’s troubles with the bully Diamond Tiara, which was rendered in a way that felt very true to what would be so vitally important to a child of her age, and made Auntie Lofty’s motivations fun. and it’s all wrapped up nicely with a lesson at the end about how sometimes we are fated to go through relationships that don’t last before we are ready for the one that does.

—Bicyclette

EThe Greatest Slugger of Them All

• MLP: FiM
• Slice of Life

Auntie Lofty had a past she didn't want to talk about. Scootaloo had a classroom that was dying to know.

• Scootaloo
• Diamond Tiara
• Cheerilee
• Lofty
• Holiday

libertydude · 6k words  ·  47  1 · 615 views

there's a great theme of misunderstanding running through the short piece, and it is misunderstanding of so many things: Scootaloo's unusual family structure, pegasus culture, and that her inability to fly renders her wings completely useless. by showing up the audience surrogate of the hapless Mayor Mare, the story shows us the audience in turn, and causes us to reflect on the assumptions we may have been making about certain orange birds. the worldbuilding of how pegasus flight works is delightful, and the structure of the fic and the vindication of Scootaloo at the end gives the feel, in an odd way, of a fairy tale. it's not a feeling that i experience very often reading fics, and for that i loved it!

—Bicyclette

EI'd Throw Her Off a Cliff, No Problem

• MLP: FiM
• Slice of Life

Pegasi have their own ways of saying, "You're awesome and I love you."

• Scootaloo
• Mayor Mare
• Other
• Lofty
• Holiday

Mockingbirb · 1.5k words  ·  140  10 · 1.6k views

being Scootaloo’s guardians means being used to apologizing for the trouble she gets up to, but in the Equestria Girls world it also means finding out that magic exists! and if that was all this story was, it would have been a perfectly charming little slice of life of interactions between Lofty and Holiday and the technicolor humans in their lives that would have been delightful and satisfying on its own.

but what really elevates this story are the twists, hinting at much more going on in this world, while at the same time feeling so obvious in retrospect! they are just so good, and you really have to experience them for yourself. i could read a thousand stories set in the universe this story promises, but am grateful for at least the one i got.

—Bicyclette

TScoot x Family

• Equestria Girls
• Drama

Few trips to Luna's office bode well. Even fewer that involve a student's guardians.

• Alt. Universe
• Scootaloo
• Other
• Vice-Principal Luna
• Lofty
• Holiday

FanOfMostEverything · 4.6k words  ·  114  5 · 1.8k views

augh, what can i even say? when i started this contest, i expected to get one or two good shipfics out of it. i didn’t expect one of the best shipfics i have ever read, that has seared itself into my mind, and that i would be all too lucky if it influenced how i write stories in the future.

that the sister of the adventurous Snap Shutter would have, in her youth, been in a passionate and toxic relationship with her fellow Pony Australian Rolling Thunder makes so much sense that i cannot think of anything else as canon. and seeing it from the perspective of the grounded and introspective Lofty lets the literal atmosphere and weather soak into the prose as her pining for Holiday follows its emotional arc. just how every little detail of their interactions illuminates a little bit more of these two characters in all their complexity and history; it’s a beautiful experience i cannot recommend enough.

—Bicyclette

EShe Waits for Thunder

• MLP: FiM
• Romance
• Sad

At night, she waits for thunder.

• Lofty
• Holiday

The Red Parade · 2.4k words  ·  36  5 · 284 views

i highly encourage you all to give these a read if you haven't already! and if you are looking for more contests to write for, do check out the following:

• Omegathyst's Hot Pony Summer Contest, ending 2022 Aug 31.
• my LyraBon Contest, ending 2022 Sep 18.
• 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.

see ya next time!

7730699
oshit das me

Shucks that's a lot of praise! I'm happy to see you enjoyed it and thrilled it won! Thank you dearly and I'll be sure to check out the other entries as well (esp that baseball one)!

7730699
So glad you enjoyed Scoot x Family! I can't promise anything else in that setting—I do have an unfortunate habit of having big ideas and doing very little with them—but I'll see if inspiration cooperates.