Twilight, ever the tutor, has devised a challenge for her friends to test their skills at linguistics, wit, and most importantly, brevity. In order to win, they will have to write short stories for five categories - Drama, Slice of Life, Horror, Comedy, and Experimental. The catch? Their stories all must count less than 200 words!
Nopony felt more up to the challenge more than Pinkie Pie.
And it's your lucky day - Twilight has chosen YOU, dear reader, to be one of the judges! Below are Pinkie's five entries into the five categories! Let her know how she did. She's very excited!
An entry into the 2nd A Thousand Words contest, under the "Experimental" category. I guess.
I wanted to write for all five categories, but as the deadline loomed, life kept happening, and so this is what I decided to come up with. Please enjoy!
Cover art by NovelAI. Yes, all of them.
Oh this is actually very clever hehe
Hey buddy, you were about to miss the deadline so I went ahead and added it to the group for ya.
Why stay small? Why not use all seven of Twilight’s friends? (the rest of the Mane Six plus Starlight Glimmer and Spike)
The experimental one is great!
sorry to say pinkie, but this is not it
actually made me laugh out loud, very good pinkie
This is so good lol
This is a work of genius. XD
11653965
Thanks! I knew I had to do it.
This...this is glorious.
A wonderful Matryoshka Doll of a story. I had a grand time reading. Perhaps the best part for me was the Comedy story in five or so words. Good luck in the judging!
I...usually have more to say when I comment, but that's all I have.
Excellent job, Pinkie! I bet you'll win, just you see!
Fantastic work! I bet Pinkie won. I can feel it. I can smell it.
This is definitely one of the stories ever made, sorry pinkie.
I understand your pain.
But also, this was incredibly clever. I expected the "5 word contest" joke, but you pushed it even further when it hit 1.4 words. Good idea to use pictures to help sell the joke. Furthermore, getting everything to be exactly 200 was nuts. I had to fudge around with my stories to make the total 1000, but I couldn't get each one to be exactly 200.
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!
This was very nicely done. Two well-connected moments featuring one of my favorite relationships in the show.
All of these have been making pretty good use of the sparse word count so far, which is a sign you're starting to find your mark as an author. I would honestly recommend expanding any one of what I've read so far into larger entries because they're all good ideas with potential. Plus, your inclusion of little summaries, tagging, cover art, etc. of them as if they'd been individual stories shows you're really starting to get the hang of this stuff.
Hm. The image at the end didn't show up. Also, this one is good at building up an ominous atmosphere, but it doesn't really accomplish anything. There is no real pounce or tangible payoff. If you're in need of some good examples of horror, I have a shelf of stories that I recommend to people, and here it is searched with the filter off and the horror tag. I'd really suggest reading more to strengthen your grasp on this genre. My personal picks would be:
- MLP: FiM
- Dark
- Horror
Dead Twilight in Ponyville lies dreaming.[Adult story embed hidden]
[Adult story embed hidden]
- MLP: FiM
- Dark
- Drama
- Horror
There is a part of Ponyville’s past its citizens forgot, a part that was left to rot... until Rarity encounters a dark power in Old Town Hall.- MLP: FiM
- Romance
- Horror
Here's how Fluttershy puts her life in danger: "I love you." Here's how he sentences her to death: "I love you, too."- MLP: FiM
- Dark
- Horror
- Tragedy
"Put your boots on," Adams said. "There's a biblical monster in my house."I'd also suggest searching the dark tag too, since not all horror stories on this site are tagged horror. Both horror and dark stories are very versatile and have a lot of directions you can take them in. It's important to know how to use them properly.
This was a cute idea but it missed the potential for more hijinks that a longer word count would have allowed. I'd definitely suggest making this your choice to expand into a standalone piece because of how much learning potential is in it, and because you can blend a lot of old-school SFW Simpsons humor with MLP really nicely. I don't have much in the way of comedic crossovers on my recommended shelf, but the crossovers I do have on there are worth a look for how they handle the source material.
The last two images at the end don't show up. This was definitely an ambitious idea, and you shouldn't stray from those when they're a good test for your skills. It's just that these ones in particular don't stand alone very well as stories. The experimental category is one of my favorites in these contests, but these were just a few words of standard prose and there isn't a reason to justify how short they are. They don't have any punch or justification for their format. For example, a poem can be justified in why it's a certain word count and not one line longer. The story Statistics and its sequel both have good reasons why they're written the way they are. Can you say the same about this piece and whether it has the same sensation of wholeness? One really good prose example to counter Statistics is this story here.
Btw, just an afterthought, but the 'anthology' tag would have suited this story best.
Hello! I reviewed this fic earlier this month, and so here's your courtesy note. Also a like, as I thought it was good fun and with some nice touches.