Remember when I said the other day that the UK might reach 38 °C? Well, I was nearly right. The top temperature was 40.3 °C, which is 104.5 °F for those of you in Unmetricland. An all-time UK record, and by a degree and a half (Celsius) at that. With almost nobody having home AC, remember. In my neck of the woods it was a mere 35 °C (95 °F) but after two days of heat I was seriously happy to wake to a typically English summer's morning of cloud and coolness! Anyway...
Read it Later story count: 89 (+5)
Bicyclette's extremely popular "A Thousand Words Contest", which challenged writers to submit fics of exactly 1,000 words (by Fimfiction's count), produced more than a hundred entries. Of those, 29 received some kind of recognition in the results post. With one rather obvious exception, I shall aim to review all of those stories in the weeks that follow. Today, the eight review-eligible fics of the nine Honourable Mentions. As always, the ratings simply reflect my personal enjoyment.
Something Stays by Str8aura
Iridium by Odd_Shot
Over It by delusionalism
I Live With a Monster by daOtterGuy
The Same Mistake You're Making by EileenSaysHi
Should Something Be Missing? by RDT
Free Moon by Shrink Laureate
Starry Darling by Climaclysm
★: 0 | ★★: 2 | ★★★: 5 | ★★★★: 1 | ★★★★★: 0
Note: I use a skewed rating system. A fic I enjoy an average amount scores two stars.
Something Stays by Str8aura
OCs
G4; Comedy/Random/Sci-Fi; 1k words; May 2022; Teen (Sex)
Nobody understands the internet. Not you, not I, not the horses living on another planet billions of years in the future, not your dog.
A pretty strange story to start off with, in which ponies try to understand humans (now clearly past and gone) through a few half-corrupted text files from the internet. Points for calling one of the pony scientists Fermi, and it is amusing how Pastebin of all things turns out to represent Homo sapiens to intelligent horses in the future. However, [Sci-Fi] doesn't often grab me and I don't tend to find ">u c a coot catgirl" internet references funny, and so it was here even in context. I think this is a fic that will make some people cry with laughter, but it didn't quite hit the funny bone for me, so a high two it is. ★★
Iridium by Odd_Shot
OC
G4; Sad/Tragedy; 1k words; May 2022; Everyone
Unicorn. I have sworn an oath, and it extends to even a pony such as you.
An unusual and rather haunting fic now, which contest judge Petrichord described as "semi-epistolatory" in that it verges on letter form at times, but is in fact a sort of one-sided conversation from an earth pony who has been tasked with healing a unicorn, to that unicorn. The time period is somewhat indeterminate, but there's a strong sense that this was before the pony tribes became one. Some odd choice of language at times ("lackluster forbearance"?) and the unicorn's story ends a little predictably, but the restrained narration makes it strikingly atmospheric. ★★★
Over It by delusionalism
Rarity and Sweetie Belle
G4; Drama/Random; 1k words; May 2022; Teen (Violence)
Sweetie Belle is over it.
Only this author's second story, but it has quite some impact. It's not a cheerful tale by any means, being a close-up look at a Sweetie who has descended into utter self-loathing. The author plays a little bit with structure, including some words running into each other (permitted in the contest's "Experimental" category) and self-consciously disgusted poetry. It's a far cry from the Sweetie we see in the show, but it has stuck in my mind. Glad I read it, glad I don't have to do so again. ★★★
I Live With a Monster by daOtterGuy
Shining Armor
G4; Dark/Horror; 1k words; May 2022; Teen (Violence)
Shining Armour Lives with a Monster
This is a troubling reinterpretation of Shining's colthood, providing a new and dark explanation for his cutie mark. We see everything from Shining Armor's perspective, and it's impressive how the author portrays the incomplete understanding of a child about how his family isn't always as loving as it should be. A sticking point is that it doesn't feel fully Equestrian. After all, cutie marks are highly visible... FOME puts this into words better than me (linked comment is spoilery). Nevertheless a story that manages to be disturbing without feeling exploitative, hence the three-star rating. ★★★
The Same Mistake You're Making by EileenSaysHi
Sunset Shimmer, Demon Sunset and Sci-Twi
G4 EqG; Drama/Horror/Sad/Second Person; 1k words; May 2022; Teen (Violence)
You are Sunset Shimmer. And as you watch Twilight open her amulet at the Friendship Games, a wave of dark memory crashes over you as you race to stop her.
Second-person, EileenSaysHi? Brave choice! In this case, though, it largely works. This is a recontextualising of the "Unleash the Magic" scene from Friendship Games, so familiarity with that is vital. There's some high emotional impact in here, especially with Sunset's vividly described demonic transformation feeling almost physically painful to read at times. It's not really new as such, but it is a good look at a side of that scene we haven't experienced hitherto. ★★★
Should Something Be Missing? by RDT
Pinkie Pie
G4; Horror/Alternate Universe; 1k words; May 2022; Teen
Pinkie Pie doesn’t feel like herself. She’s not sure if she wants to feel like herself, either.
This is a story about body integrity dysphoria, albeit of a kind altered for the fic, so bear that in mind if such things might upset you. Set in S3, the tale sees Pinkie reflect on herself and her body; this ties into the Mirror Pool clone stuff in an interesting way, too, though I can't say more without big spoilers. It's intriguing, but I will freely confess that I didn't really know what to make of this (despite the longish end A/N) and that this is probably largely my fault. High two, but could easily be significantly higher for people who really feel it. ★★
Free Moon by Shrink Laureate
Luna and OC
G4; Sci-Fi/Alternate Universe; 1k words; Apr 2022; Everyone
Three ponies are about to land on the moon in search of hope and salvation
As I've already said, [Sci-Fi] isn't the genre tag that most appeals to me generally. I really like this fic, though. It's told entirely through one side of a dialogue between a space crew and ground control. These astronauts have reached the Moon and have found... Luna. I'm not generally much of a fan of "Tyrant Celestia", which is at least implied here, but this is a clever story design that makes me "live" the mission along with the explorers. Nicely done ending, too. I really was taken by this, so a four it gets. ★★★★
Starry Darling by Climaclysm
Starlight Glimmer, Firelight and OC
G4; Drama/Slice of Life; 1k words; May 2022; Everyone
Starlight just needed a push in the right direction, that's all.
We see Glimmy's dad Firelight in "The Parent Map", but not her mother. In this fic, that mum (Bright Glint) is a major character. The story deals with the aftermath of Starlight's excessive magic melting another foal's toy. Her parents have clearly different ideas of what this means. It's an interesting concept that perhaps gives a hunt as to why Starlight developed into the canon pony we saw. Quite the ending too. High three for this. ★★★
Next time, it will be on to the Bronze medallists. Since there are ten of those and since there are only five days until the next PR, I intend to spread my coverage over two weeks, with five fics covered in each edition.
It's still amazing, how many entries this contest got. Even if that was the result of a lot of people submitting two or more entries (think some even went for the full five, one for each category), and there were only actually somewhere between 60-70 authors. Not counting Jinglemas, which isn't really a contest anyway, it's still way more then any contest's had in years, probably since the show ended at least, and maybe even back to 2017. I wouldn't know!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of these eight entries, though I do note a heavy slant towards Drama, Sad, Tragedy, Horror, Alt. Universe and Sci-Fi. Basically genres other than Comedy and Slice of Life. Guess lighter, fluffier entries have their work cut out to stand out to the judges and linger in the mind, after the winning four in those categories are chosen. Personally, very few of these fics appeal to me all that much (some of them land in the maybe pile), perhaps just proof I usually like my fics not so constantly heavy all the time. Not dissimilar to yourself, given how often you say a variation on "low for me, but other will probably like it more".
Oh, splitting the Bronze Medallists over two weeks, are we? That's fair. It'll also mean this contest's fics will dominate here for a month's worth of Ponyfic Roundups. How about that.
I don't keep a close eye on these things, but there certainly aren't many contests in recent years that have attracted triple-figure entry counts. I suspect the low barrier to entry was a big deal: I almost certainly wouldn't have done so myself had the minimum word count been 8,000 or something.
DeleteYou're right, the judges do seem to have slanted their personal choices a bit. It's a shame in a way, as I'd really have liked to have seen more comedy in here – and the only [Comedy]-tagged fic was one which didn't really appeal to my personal taste even though it might well hit the spot for others.
Will definitely give Shrink Laureate's story a look!
ReplyDelete