Not_A_Hat’s “Broken Roads”

01 Friday May 2015

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After reality breaks, today’s story picks up the pieces.

broken-roadsBroken Roads
[Adventure] • 9,853 words

Dinky Doo and Silver Spoon travel through a shattered world. When all the world is ash around you, can you stand to build again?

FROM THE CURATORS: “Oh, my.  That’s how you open a story,” Horizon said of Broken Roads’ eye-catchingly apocalyptic opening, and from that punchy first line to the story’s final word we found plenty to appreciate.  “It’s a wildly creative apocalypse described in painstaking chaotic detail,” Present Perfect said. “It’s a story about friendship and adventure. It has a really great conflict and some very shocking surprises in store. It’s definitely not the story you’ll think it is at first.”

While this was another entry in Equestria Daily’s recent The More Most Dangerous Game contest — which challenged authors to reinterpret fandom classics — one of the things that made this stand out to us was the sheer amount of originality that it brought to the Fallout: Equestria postapocalyptic theme.  “I was disappointed that that didn’t make the top ten, ’cause I love the worldbuilding here,” JohnPerry said.  All of us agreed that — in Chris’ words — “the worldbuilding on this story is exquisite,” and Horizon went further: “This is an apocalypse where the setting is every bit as much a character as its inhabitants.”

In the end, what made the story exemplary was not only the skill of that construction but in telling a solid story within its vivid setting.  “This is high-octane adventure, with menace lurking around every turn, and novel and coherent thought from both the author and the characters about what’s required for survival,” Horizon said.  JohnPerry summed it up: “There’s something really compelling about this one, and it ends on a fantastic note.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Not_A_Hat discusses little princes, observant carpenters, and bright apocalypses in night lands.

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PatchworkPoltergeist’s “A Diamond and a Tether”

24 Friday Apr 2015

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Today’s story is a rich look at a pair of poor little rich girls.

diamond-tetherA Diamond and a Tether
[Drama] [Slice of Life] [Human] • 13,294 words

Heiress Lucy Burdock knows life has a way of surprising you.

For example, she wasn’t expecting a little pink pony for her birthday. She certainly didn’t expect it to start talking, either. It was cute at first, but it kinda feels more like taking care of a little kid than a pony. Lucy’s never really been great with kids … but she can make it work!

Can’t she?

FROM THE CURATORS: When The More Most Dangerous Game Contest challenged entrants to reinterpret fandom classics, this story stood out, placing second in a crowded field of 92 entries.  We were equally impressed, especially with the originality it brought to My Little Dashie’s core premise.  As JohnPerry explained: “A human is gifted with a pony in a box and tasked with raising it … then completely screws it up. And not in a way that seems sadistic or cruel, like many an MLD parody, but in a way that seems unsettling but still believable.”

We agreed that that premise wrung emotions out of unexpected places.  “It’s hard to make rich brats sympathetic, but it had me aching for the feelings of a self-absorbed trust fund kid — and without ever getting preachy, or dropping a ‘being rich doesn’t mean you’re happy!’ cudgel on the reader,” Chris said.  One aspect of that was the well-constructed characters, as Present Perfect noted.  “You’ve got a noteworthy human protagonist in spoiled, vain Lucy,” he said. “You’ve got the beleaguered housekeeper. And Diamond Tiara doesn’t exist just for Lucy’s narrative benefit. This is her story, and it presents a wholly engrossing backstory for her.”

While any reinterpretation of our fandom’s most-read story has large shoes to fill, we unanimously agreed that A Diamond and a Tether held up both inside and outside of Dashie’s context. “I think it’s a testament to the creativity of this fandom that this was written out of a prompt based on My Little Dashie, because it’s the polar opposite of that story in terms of tone or outcome,” JohnPerry said.  Present Perfect agreed: “It can stand alone without MLD, yet it does so many things that story did, only better.”

Read on for our author interview, in which PatchworkPoltergeist discusses floriography problems, ornithology comparisons, and unexpected gerbils.
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Newtaloo’s “A Fragile Heart”

17 Friday Apr 2015

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Often, the littlest detail can tell a story — and today’s feature teases out a compelling and emotional tale from one such frozen moment.

fragile-heartA Fragile Heart
[Sad] [Slice of Life] • 2,511 words

A short story about waiting, hay fries, and the dangers of space and silence in matters of the heart.

Takes place in the background of “Twilight Time”.

FROM THE CURATORS: To describe this as “a short and simple tale about a guy waiting in a restaurant,” as Horizon did in his nomination, is true but utterly misleading: it hit us so squarely in the feels that it went from nominee to feature in a record-shattering 39 minutes.

A Fragile Heart was exemplary in that it was “bitter, but not saccharine,” JohnPerry said.  “It’s the sort of sad story I really love: one that sells its emotions without resorting to hammering you over the head with them.”  Present Perfect agreed.  “Little things like the pause burning in the back of his throat really sell the emotion,” he said.  “There’s something to be said for being able to wring sadness out of a typo on the menu.”

Those emotions were in service of a beautifully nuanced portrayal of the protagonist’s troubled romance.  “Its look at the main character’s relationship in all its complexity — the good and the bad, the raw and the precious — balances the story between tragedy and closure,” Horizon said, while Present Perfect was more direct: “All the things he doesn’t say are heartwrenching.  I felt so bad for this guy.”

Another highlight of the story’s strong prose was a Pinkie Pie appearance that was “sweet but not cloying,” in Horizon’s words.  Present Perfect added that her appearance was “patently ridiculous in a perfectly Pinkie way. … In another story, it would pull you out of the sad feelings, but in this one, it just serves to show that, yeah, life goes on.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Newtaloo discusses ear math, sad fries, and bag gulls.
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Fable Scroll’s “The Sisters’ Coronet”

10 Friday Apr 2015

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Two crowns for two sisters, in two different senses of the word: today’s story is a double accomplishment.

sisters-coronetThe Sisters’ Coronet
[Sad] • 1,923 words

A collection of poems about Luna’s growing discontent, her fall, and her eventual return and redemption.

FROM THE CURATORS: Structured poetry requires a very different approach to reading than prose — being willing to slow down and savor the imagery, the rhythm, and the sound of the language, not just the tale being told — but there was no question in our minds that this was a piece which rewards that effort.  “I’m recommending this on ‘it’s damned good poetry’ grounds,” Present Perfect said.  “Oh my, yes,” JohnPerry responded, and Chris chimed in: “I am completely in awe.”

What primarily provoked that reaction was the mind-blowing technical achievement of the structure of the piece.  “It’s a double heroic crown of sonnets,” Horizon said, and explained: “First you write a sonnet (a 14-line poem with tight metrical and rhyme requirements).  Then you write 13 more sonnets expanding on the same theme.  Then you take the first line of each one, string them together, and furiously edit your poems until that’s also a proper sonnet, and you’ve got a heroic crown.  THEN, to double it, you take the last line of each one, string those together, and fiddle with your poems until THAT’S a proper sonnet too.  If you think that sounds like a ridiculous amount of work for 2,000 ponywords, you’re beginning to understand.”

As you might expect from an author capable of such a feat, the construction of the piece was impeccable.  “The rhymes were all perfect. There was maybe one foot that felt out of place,” Present Perfect said.  However, as Chris noted, the construction wasn’t the only element to appreciate.  “If it was ‘just’ a double heroic crown, it would still be worth celebrating simply for the quality of its craftsmanship,” he said, “but it manages on top of that to tell a meaningful story, and to find a place for itself within the history of its setting, and to utilize that place to say something about its principal characters.”

Ultimately, Horizon said, this was worth celebrating despite its daunting first impression. “Highbrow poetry can be a tough sell,” he said, “but the bottom line is, I’ve never seen anything else like this, in this fandom or any other.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Fable Scroll discusses simple ponies, untapped potential, and offering comfort via time-travel.
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TheBandBrony’s “Save The Records”

03 Friday Apr 2015

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Today’s story is a musical meditation on lost history.

save-the-recordsSave The Records
[Slice of Life] [Alternate Universe] • 2,771 words

The world ends, right? Of course it did. But who in the great struggle to survive the end of ponykind remembered to save the music?

A story build around a series of chord changes from the jazz standard “Blue and Sentimental” — in essence, an improvisation.

FROM THE CURATORS: As the description notes — and as readers will immediately notice — this story borrows its unique structure from a musical piece, and within that imaginative framework lies a tale we all agreed was rewarding.  “This is a dense story, even for those with a musical grounding, but it’s still got so much wonderful stuff going on,” said Chris, our resident classically trained musician.  “I could love it just for the passage about the last note Beethoofen ever heard, but that sort of poignancy is all over the place.”  Horizon was similarly impressed: “It’s got enough depth to soak in, but still has a lot to offer on the surface, which is all I can ask for.”

On that surface is a postapocalyptic retrospective of a part of our culture it’s easy to take for granted.  “Save The Records talks about the importance of music, and how easy it is to overlook, and does so in a style that evokes Kerouac,” Present Perfect said.  That unique textual style also drew JohnPerry in.  “The lyrical quality of the writing here practically demands that you read it aloud,” he said, “and it gets even better upon repeated reading.  There’s so many intriguing details packed into these words that each subsequent reading offers something new to be discovered.”

Ultimately, while we found Save The Records’ rich prose its most exemplary feature, it distinguished itself in multiple ways.  “Lord help us, Horizon and Present both liked it, it must be word porn,” Horizon said. “But it’s not just about the lyricism here.  It’s interspersed with meditations on a lot of thought-provoking topics, in as original a framework as you’ll find.”  Chris summed it up: “Save The Records is a thought-provoking, relentlessly clever, attentiveness-rewarding story.”

Read on for our author interview, in which TheBandBrony discusses paradiddles, runner’s highs, and apocalypse commodities.

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Thornwing’s “The Old Gray Mare”

27 Friday Mar 2015

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The shadow of royalty is long, and today’s story shines a light on one of the ponies who never expected to find herself there.

old-gray-mareThe Old Gray Mare
[Slice of Life] • 5,134 words

Ever since Twilight came to town, Mayor Mare’s position as leader of Ponyville has been slipping. With her destiny overshadowed by the new princess on the block, it’s time for the old gray mare to move on.

FROM THE CURATORS: “The Old Gray Mare is one of the best Mayor Mare fics I’ve ever read,” Present Perfect said, and broad agreement on that sentiment sent this story sailing through our selection process.

While the central characterization was certainly strong — “this story fleshes out a minor character in a believable and compelling way,” Chris said, and Present Perfect praised how it “balanced her emotional state between wistful longing and bitterness” — what made the story so exemplary was its look at the world around her.  “The slow build of seeing just what she’s meant for the town was really wonderful, especially given that she’s usually a bit of an empty suit where the show is concerned,” Bradel said.  Chris added, “The story shows some real thought about how Ponyville has developed, and what having a crew like the Mane Six around does to a community.”

It also wasn’t afraid to have its protagonist extrapolate those effects out to their logical conclusions, and act accordingly.  “While it did get a bit overly sentimental at times, I gotta hand it to this story for sticking to its guns,” JohnPerry said.  “I appreciate it when a story like this gives a character a weighty decision, and then has them carry it through.”  We all agreed on the impact that created.  “The mayor’s choices … made for much stronger writing, and a legitimate pay-off at the end,” Bradel said, and Present Perfect summed it up: “I found the ending intensely emotional without being manipulative.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Thornwing discusses posterity, joke prompts, and the definition of a town.
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ponichaeism’s “The Mare In The High Castle”

20 Friday Mar 2015

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Broadcasting on all frequencies, today’s story comes to you from an Equestria that’s turned dark in more ways than one.

mare-in-high-castleThe Mare In The High Castle
[Alternate Universe] [Dark] [Drama] [Mystery] [Sci-Fi] [Thriller] • 161,695 words

“Hello, hello, hello, this is Thorny Bends coming at you live on Radio Free Canterlot, and from where I’m sitting, folks, the Land of the Eternal Moon is looking lovely. Well, except for that nasty smog cloud rolling toward us from the coast, but hey, that’s the price of progress. Still, if you’re heading outside you might want to think about an Easy Breezy-brand respirator, guaranteed to make the air taste like new. Buy yours from all major retailers today!

“As I’m sure you all know, it’s been almost a thousand years since the founding of our great civilization. And as the big day approaches, I sure hope the High Castle set their clocks right. I’d hate to find out it was really last Thursday. Ha! But seriously, folks. I’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking about our fair Canterlot, and I’ve realized it isn’t just somewhere we all live. It’s what we build together into something greater as we all reach for the moon. A symbol for a way of life and a state of mind. So, in honor of the thousand years, I’m taking an eye in the sky peek into the lives of the ponies on the streets, and a few in the penthouses too. I don’t often do real news on this show, but these are some genuine equine interest stories, folks. In their own small, unique way, these ponies are as vital to the city as the princess of the night herself. So settle down, get comfortable, and don’t touch that dial.

“You won’t want to miss this, I guarantee.”

FROM THE CURATORS: This story’s path to its feature started with a suggestion on our recommendation thread, and despite its 160,000-word length, it caught our attention right away with its vivid portrayal of an eternal-night Equestria.  “This story is far from being merely a pony re-write of Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle,” JohnPerry said.  “The level of thought that went into developing this nightmarish — yet eerily familiar — alternate world and its cruel philosophies is astounding, and it manages to combine an epic scope with surprisingly intimate portrayals of its characters.”  Chris agreed: “This is a wonderful use of the AU tag. It takes a single conceit — that something went differently a thousand years ago — and projects how that one change would reverberate to the present, butterfly-in-China-style.”

We all agreed that the characterization which followed from that shift was exemplary, and Horizon cited one of High Castle’s central examples. “Twilight Sparkle spends the vast majority of the story as a reprehensible alcoholic racist haunted by nightmares,” he said, “and yet the entire setting and theme of the story are crafted so as to make it clear that she is that way because their world is fundamentally broken, and the Twilight we see is just a reflection of that.”  JohnPerry agreed, adding, “it’s incredible how ponichaeism managed to make the characters recognizable in spite of all the horrors of the world they are subjected to.”

The story doesn’t flinch from presenting those horrors as necessary to explore the dark corners of its premise, which earned high praise from Chris. “Can we take a moment to talk about Granny Smith?” he said.  “Because she’s where the author most impressed me on the pacing front. … She’s slotted in right where she needs to be to have maximum impact with minimum premise-questioning by the readers, and (up until the end) that’s how I felt about most of the big revelations.”

But The Mare In The High Castle isn’t just a parade of bleakness.  “It has a lot to say about the earth counterparts of the things it ponifies, but it has a lot to say about the ponies at the same time, and this is fundamentally and unquestionably MLP at heart,” Horizon said.  “For instance, this is the finest Flash Sentry story this fandom will ever produce.  He’s just as broken as the rest of this world, but he owns it, and he stands up and shows us that there can be beauty regardless.  I want to feature it for that alone.”

Read on for our author interview, in which ponichaeism discusses Gnostic sects, uncarved blocks, and the curious collision of Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski and Philip K. Dick.
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GhostOfHeraclitus’ “Twilight Sparkle Makes A Cup Of Tea”

13 Friday Mar 2015

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Today’s story brews up some potent emotions.

Twilight Sparkle Makes A Cup Of Tea
[Sad] [Slice of Life] • 1,671 words

cup-of-teaEarly one morning, Twilight Sparkle gets up to make some tea.

Sometimes, a cup of tea is just a cup of tea. This is not one of those times.

FROM THE CURATORS: “Yeah, it’s another one of those fics,” Present Perfect said when he nominated the story. “A ‘Pony Does X’ that has no need for a more thought-provoking title, and a story where tea is just the be-all and end-all of everything.”  Appearances, of course, can be deceiving — and beneath the surface clichés lies a story that’s “quietly poignant, and dense in a way that’s a joy to unfold,” as Horizon put it.

A large part of what makes it exemplary is the measured way the story dribbles out. “It traipses along spilling its secrets without putting them together for the reader, and it left me feeling like I’d been tapped by the unknowable finger of God,” Present Perfect said, and Horizon added: “This is one of the finest pieces of indirect storytelling you’ll ever read.  Ghost has written a story that’s a pony-shaped hole.”  Chris, meanwhile, complimented the story’s balance between brevity and depth: “I believe that there’s no best length for stories, but that every specific story has a best length, and Ghost of Heraclitus found it here.”

Cup of Tea‘s other core strength is an authentic look at a pony out of her depth.  “This felt more like a scientific experiment than a hallowed tradition, but that’s because Twilight is approaching her daily ritual as a scientific experiment, one in which science can provide no answer,” JohnPerry said. “She’s grasping at something — the nostalgia of her youth and the memories of her mentor — and she wants to recapture it. And being Twilight, she attempts to do so the only way she knows how.”

While Twilight might be blindly flailing for answers, the clues are all there for us. “There’s something to be said for the ending,” Present Perfect said.  “It peters out like the last few drops poured from a teapot, as if to say, ‘You’ve got all the pieces, you figure them out.'”

Read on for our author interview, in which GhostOfHeraclitus discusses Twilight as confessor, the cut of genoas, and reading irresponsibly.

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Aquaman’s “I Am Demon”

06 Friday Mar 2015

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I am a unique look at a historical hero and an alien intelligence.  I am a contest winner.  I am today’s featured story.

i-am-demonI Am Demon
[Dark] [Adventure] • 15,842 words

I am Cold, swirling snow that turns ponies against each other, searing ice that freezes them solid. I am Survivor, the one the Friendfyre spell didn’t catch, an exception that proves an impossible rule. I am Fear, Frustration, Anger, Hatred, every emotion my Creator has ever felt. I am her Future. I am her Past.

I am Demon, and Clover the Clever is my Master.

FROM THE CURATORS: Aquaman’s ponyfic credentials are impeccable — every time we turn around, he’s placing highly in yet another competition — but even so, I Am Demon stood out, both to Equestria Daily’s contest judges and to ourselves. “It just did what it set out to do so powerfully,” Horizon said. “Round about chapter 3, it sank in its narrative teeth and did not let go … and its worldbuilding makes it feel like a definitive windigo story.”  JohnPerry “really loved I Am Demon for its unique perspective,” and Present Perfect concurred: “The best part of this is the alien perspective, seeing Demon define words, slowly figuring out the world around him … it’s altogether a really excellent story.”

The first thing you’ll notice about the story is its use of colored text (read more about that in today’s interview), and we agreed on its effectiveness.  “The color gimmick really adds to the story,” JohnPerry said. “I don’t tend to think of writing as a visual medium, but this story makes me question that assumption.” And while I Am Demon isn’t unique in that presentation, that didn’t detract from our assessment. “[The Pony Fiction Vault-featured] “White Box” did it first,” Horizon said, “but this is the story that made it work, using the gimmick in a way that both fit intuitively within MLP canon and dug deeply into the emotional resonances of the other characters’ tales.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Aquaman discusses chlorine sweat, unwritten sequels, and why not to ask for advice.
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Loganberry’s “It Doesn’t Matter Now”

27 Friday Feb 2015

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As today’s story reminds us, there are some things in life that are constants — like death, taxes, and Pinkie Pie showing up at the end of the universe.

doesnt-matter-nowIt Doesn’t Matter Now
[Random] [Slice of Life] • 1,334 words

The Spirit Pony is responsible for the End of All That Ever Was. It has always been so. This particular End looks like being a straightforward one – until a certain pink pony intervenes to prevent it happening. Pinkie has a very, very good reason for stopping the Spirit, too…

FROM THE CURATORS: This fun little eschatological romp (and how often do you get to use those words together?) is what it says on the tin: Pinkie Pie at the End of All That Ever Was, stopping the universe from ending because she’s got some unfinished business.  “It’s a fresh subversion of a theme that has been done to death with the show’s immortal princesses,” Horizon said, but we found depth beyond that. “It’s more a look into the power of Pinkie, something that goes beyond crass fourth-wall breakage while still giving her a magic of her own,” Present Perfect said.

One of its core strengths was that clever examination of a pony who is among the most difficult to write.  “I was impressed by the way Pinkie’s character is used in this story,” Present Perfect said.  “It benefits from letting her act in that situation as she does in all situations: like Pinkie.”  Chris was impressed, too: “It definitely speaks to the kind of dramatic whimsy Pinkie’s capable of.  She’s more than just a goof, after all — she takes her goofiness seriously.”

Add to that the strong writing which carried this to a UK of Equestria contest win, and this short little tale sailed through to an easy feature. “It plays with contrast and tone in clever ways,” Horizon said. “It’s got a cute and simple premise which might not carry a longer story, but it packs up enough gravitas to give the ending a satisfying impact.”

Read on for our author interview, in which Loganberry discusses wanderlust, tea, and Egg-Kings.

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