Before I begin, though: for the first time in quite some while, there will be a short delay to Ponyfic Roundup this week. I've just been snowed under with stuff, some of it fun stuff to be sure, but stuff nevertheless. As such I don't think I can read all this week's fics by Wednesday without rushing, something which would be unfair to the authors. That being so, Ponyfic Roundup will appear on Friday this week.
All right, meta stuff out of the way. The "A Thousand Words Contest II" has been a tremendous success, with no fewer than 168 entries. Even allowing for the shortness of the fics, that is a quite staggering number for a ponyfic contest held four years after Friendship is Magic left the stage. (2022's inaugural edition saw 106 entries, itself a remarkable number.)
The winners and honourable mentionees are detailed in the official results post. I've only had time to skim down the list, but I'm already excited by some of the things I've seen. And to answer the obvious question: yes, I most certainly do intend to review all the stories name-checked!¹ You'll have to wait a bit, though, as New Blood Contest stories will be reviewed first.
¹ And a few more that didn't make the winners' circle, probably in standard Roundups.
I would have been quite staggered had Out of Light Cometh Darkness got anywhere, and indeed it didn't. It's actually had a pleasing reception from readers, but there is more than one clear weakness in the fic. I really wanted to do a horror story but I struggled somewhat with making it work. I don't regret the attempt, though, and it's a genre I may have another go at sometime.
If as we all hope the Thousand Words Contest returns for a third edition next year, I will definitely want to enter. It does depend a little on how it's set up, since there are certain types of ponyfic that interest me more than others. But it was satisfying to be part of so big an event in 2023, and I'd love to think they could get an even larger entry count next time around!
Many thanks are due to Bicyclette for running the contest and to the judges who ended up with a substantially larger workload than they probably anticipated! Also, of course, to everyone who took the time to write something to enter. It's benefited me, too: Out of Light... was my third published fic this year – the first time I've managed more than two in a year since my four in 2016.
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