Anglequestria Magazine (we recently shortened the name from Anglers of Equestria) is home to all of your monthly fishing needs. From the latest developments in rod manufacturing, to our famous catalogs of the aquatic species across the different bodies of water of Equestria, we try to cover all the essentials for everyone from the causal fisherstallion to the most experienced sailor.
Now we've added a new section compiling some of what we deem to be the best fishing tales our subscribers have sent in to us.
While most letters came from pegasi, there was a smaller, but not irrelevant, number of earth ponies and unicorns who wrote in. However, one of the stories stood out from the rest. There just might be one thestral who enjoys castin' out the old rod and reel more than anypony else.
-Your editor, Written Script.
(If you are reading this, honey, I feel for you, but what that stallion did to you is also downright hilarious.)
Written for the 2024 Non-Pony Writing Contest! (the ! is part of the contest title, by the way)
Proofread by Buck Swisher, something that I was very appreciative of.
Advice on what year to use for present-day Equestria came from Lynser.
Where's Nightmare Moon when you need her, right?
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Yeah, I noticed that right after I wrote that part.
Nice job 🙌🏽 🙌🏽
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Thanks, and thanks again for proofreading this.
Yay the new story is out. Will read shortly and leave a proper comment. Have a thumbs up and favorite in the meantime.
A very nice story with some cute humor.
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Glad you enjoyed it!
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Well, thanks for the pre-emptiveness
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I’m welcome!
But I’m sure this is awesome. I’ll read it in bed in a bit.
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I look forward to your thoughts.
But please I would like to keep the random comments between us down for this specific story, as it's part of a contest.
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Of course. Also I’m falling asleep right away in bed after my girlfriend’s birthday evening tonight earlier than expected but I swear I will read this tomorrow and tell you my thoughts in detail. I have it up as a bookmarked tab on my phone lol.
I enjoyed this day-in-the-life type adventure and its illustration of a fun, interesting character.
I feel like having Moonlit be a bit of a standout, even among standouts, provided a useful way to inform us about the character, his species, and the setting in a way that was interesting and didn't interrupt the narrative. Quality exposition.
I enjoyed Moonlit himself; I feel like you did a good job of crafting and conveying a distinct, self-consistent character. The fact that he didn't care about dumping oil on Carrot's door and floor because "she could clean it up in the morning" was hilarious.
Carrot herself was also entertaining; having all her possesions be carrot-themed was fun, and having a different character take note of that detail as odd was a cool piece of character interaction. The record collection was also an entertaining piece of meta.
I really feel like worldbuilding, conveying a setting and its inhabitants as believable was one of the things you did best in this story. Moonlit making a tribalist joke, Carrot having giant bags for some reason, Quiet Breeze talking about the benefits of a common misconception (my theory is that one of her parents explained the tourism advantage to her); all of these details being presented but not over-explained really gave the story more character.
I think this is definitely a pretty good step up from "Muffins" in terms of writing skill and dedication; I congratulate you on choosing to put in the time and effort to complete this idea you had, and look fowards to seeing more of your efforts.
Here are some typographical errors I caught, just in case you care to edit them.
This one was a bit more odd:
I think the intended meaning might have been clearer if you had done something like this:
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Well thanks.
Sorry, I just mean that was a wonderfully thorough analysis of my story, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Giant bags? I'll have to check that, because I don't remember that part.
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edits edited, and thanks, especially for that last one
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You are most welcome; I'm glad you enjoyed it. As I understand it, coherent feedback is valued on this site, so I tried to be a beneficial reader.
Proof of Giant Bags™:
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You are welcome for those also. However, that last one looks like this now:
I checked the other parts you edited and they looked fine.
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Oh the plastic bags. I thought you meant her luggage for the overnight stay.
And those weren't hers, those would have been in the cupboards of every cabin.
Fixed the error I made whilst fixing a previous error, and thanks again.
This was adorable! I don't think I'd mind seeing more slice-of-life tales about Moonlit Reel and his friends. I always love a good character-driven piece.
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Well, thank you!
There's probably a story I could come up with sometime with him in it.
Very cute and adorable with a likable batpony-thestral OC Moonlit Reel, the name a play on words of night fishing, and the unexpected seapony whilst fishing was cute too. I can’t say I ever expected you to write a story about fishing on the ocean near what seemed like cozy cabins with some cute humor there too at night which was a nice touch. Not surprised you included Carrot Top obviously and the pranking was fun though less surprising too knowing how silly you can be in general. All in all a solid and relaxing Slice of Life story for sure my friend.
I definitely would love to see you writing more pieces similar to this. I love stories and anything, as you know, that involve open bodies of water in some way.
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Ah, that makes sense. But my original point still stands; introducing an easily explained, but narratively unexplained, side detail can prompt the reader to ask "why is it like that" and think for a while. In this case, I failed the "easily explained" part and went straight for conspiracy.
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And I'm very glad you enjoyed it.
It's entirely possible you could have subconsciously influenced me with the location of the story. Probably not, but it's possible.
Again, SoL isn’t my thing really but, like last time, I had fun with this one :)
One detail I really like is the mistakes that the protagonist makes, like tripping on some stones etc. It make to story more immersive and believable.
Did this tale need Carrot Top in it? No. Was it improved because she was? Not particularly. Do I expect any less from you? Absolutely not. Joking aside I liked the use of all characters in this one. The spontaneous scenario with the sea pony did help sell the ‘just a random day’ feel I think you were going for.
I mean, assuming I was with some trusted guys and we were strapped, night fishing sounds legendary. The cool breeze, the smell of the water, and that late night care-free feeling you sometimes get when your tired could make for a real fun time!
I don’t like sand, it’s course, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Love how even though this is an article the author still feels the need to add sound effects. Eccentric is definitely the word I’d use to describe this guy, he’s fun :D
Hol’up… I though all the ponies were more-or-less vegans?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of ‘assuage’ before, did you mean assured or am I just dumb? (im prolly jus dum) also did you mean to say started instead of stared or no?
Anywho, take my like good sir
T’was a good job you did, even increasing the length of thine literature 300% more than thy last tale, indubitably impressive.
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Thanks, I appreciated all of your thoughts, and I did mispell "stared".
Well, canon-wise could be up for debate, but there's a decent number of fics on here where ponies exhibit an at least somewhat omnivorous diet.
In this instance, assuage basically means the same thing (yes it is a word).
Will I ever write a story without Carrot Top?
Yes, but I wish I didn't have to.
12009296
Intriguing…
I love how you said you wish you didn’t have to not write a story about Carrot Top.
Like, has Garry the gunman found you and making you not for some reason?
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No...you're twisting my words.
Carrot Top is life.
12009504
Dang my bad, I mean to put ‘not’
I went back and fixed it… welp :ǐ
12009516
Oh, I just interpreted that as humor; didn't think you made an error at all.
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W A L L E T
It was humor