Another runner-up minific by me: Stop the Journey?

My second-place contestfic count is now up to three! This time, my silver medal comes courtesy of the Weekly Contests group's contest #13, which was for poetry and had the prompt "Numbers". I chose not to do the optional challenge of writing about an OC, incidentally. I'm quite pleased with second place, as the winner was a really rather impressive sonnet (which you can see at the link above) and the moment I saw it, I was fairly sure it was going to win. Anyway, here's my poem:

Stop the Journey?

Yes, I remember, long ago,

In mind's eye still I see
My friends and I adventuring:
A time when we were three.

Those days are gone, no more are we

A trio bound as one:
Though memories shall never fade,
Crusading days are done.

Sometimes I dream about it still:

That carefree, far-off youth
When all of us, in friendship, sought
To find eternal truth.

Time waits for nopony, of course,

And nothing can I do
But wait till we are three again,
Adventuring anew.

I can see a couple of places where I could have thought of slightly better wording, but I don't think it's too shabby on the whole. Also, it scans. The number of poems I read that rhyme but don't scan (and not for deliberate stylistic reasons, either) is absolutely enormous. Anyway, you can probably guess what Stop the Journey? is about, but I'll spoiler-tag it in case you'd rather work it out on your own:

The narrator is the last surviving member of the CMC. She misses her friends terribly even as she remembers old times, but looks forward at the last to the day when (she firmly believes) she will be reunited with the others in the Great Beyond.

Self-promotion is magic (yes, it's my fanfic, I'm afraid)

The 20 Percent Solution, as mixed by Pinkie Pie. Run for your lives!

Look, this is my blog, all right? If I can't be annoyingly biased once in a while here, then where can I do it? Therefore, you can all put up with me blathering for a little bit about the pony-related fanfic that I've written. I may not be famous or influential in this fandom. Or indeed any good at writing. But that's not the point. I need something to post about, and this is it. Yay. Normal ramblings will be resumed next time, I expect. So here we go. All of these are suitable for all ages, if not all levels of sanity...

The 20 Percent Solution
This comic story involving the Mane Six (but mostly Pinkie, Twilight and Rainbow) and Equestria's first energy drink is my most popular fanfic, which is to say that it has close to 400 views on FIMFiction. Hey wow, I've just realised that that's very nearly 1% of the views "Sunny Skies All Day Long" has got, and by my standards that's amazing. It's probably the story that will appeal to most people, or at least repel the fewest, and it doesn't need much background knowledge. It contains some truly awful jokes, too.

Clouded Minds
This is my most recent tale, and it's very different in tone. A quiet, reflective and somewhat sad vignette, it's a two-hander (two-hoofer?) starring Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, with the former confessing something to the latter about their days at Flight Camp. It's very short (well under 2,000 words) and the ending is rather abrupt, but that's how it's meant to be: you're supposed to be left wondering. I'm actually rather pleased with the way most of this turned out.

The Ballad of Wyverns' Rock
Of all the things I've written in the pony fandom, this piece has the most chequered history. It's something that (surprisingly) seems to be very rare: an epic poem; five thousand words in fourteeners. It's the only thing I've ever submitted to Equestria Daily... and it was rejected with a resounding thud. Not just on quality grounds (which would have been fair enough) but also because, apparently, their readers don't like poems. Well, I do, and I wish we saw more of them. So there.

So Many Different Ways to Prey
This verse, on the other hand, should be rejected by anyone who comes within a hundred miles of it. 1,500 words in iambic pentameter, this is a crossover between FiM and... wait for it... G3.5. Yes, that's right, Newborn Cuties. I suspect it's one of those pieces that people describe as "an interesting technical exercise, but not a lot more than that". It makes me laugh, though. And cry, though that's mostly from having to think about G3.5 at all...

It's About Rhyme

I went to Birmingham today
To buy the latest comic:
Despite the fact that going there
By train's uneconomic.
Still, there is something rather nice
In bricks and mortar shopping,
And seeing Pony on the shelves
Does get this fan a-hopping.

As usual, 'twas N&C,
The place where I was going:
I'd hoped to get the RI one
With Chrysalis a-glowing.
But Andy Price's variant
Was out, so my excursion
Resulted in just Cover A:
Amanda Conner's version.

Of course, there soon will be a post
In which I'll be reviewing
This issue, number four: I hope
It will be worth pursuing.
Don't worry, please, it won't be long:
That's really no baloney.
I know how hard it is to wait
For new My Little Pony!

(And no, I'm not going to do the entire review in rhyme. Probably...)