Today’s story warns about the hidden dangers of “shows, don’t tell”.

Dappled Shores
[Romance] [Comedy] [Drama] [Equestria Girls] [Slice of Life] • 4,640 words

Rarity and Sunset are having their third weekly Dappled Shores marathon.

And then Sunset ruins everything.

FROM THE CURATORS: Don’t let that story description fool you — this third-place winner in the recent Changing Seasons contest is a light-hearted (and ultimately heartwarming) romp about the perils of spoilers.  “The story is consistently both witty and hilarious,” Horizon said in his nomination.  “Bon mots like ‘it was time to call in the least terrible people she knew’ litter the text, and the dialogue is consistently whipcrack smart.  The shipping scenes, too — with their wealth of loving detail, like the matcha tea and Rarity’s nose for laundry detergent — are a delight to read.”  AugieDog agreed, much more succinctly: “I’d call this romantic comedy done right.”

But we quickly found that there was plenty to like in the story whether readers appreciated shipping or not.  “The comedy is the big sell here,” Chris said.  “Once the story started diving into Sunset’s and Rarity’s overreactions, the hushed horror of their friends, and Rainbow having only one make-up plan, I was sold.”  Soge was impressed by the prose: “God damn, the writing is really strong here, full of clever turns of phrase, great pacing, and a keen sense of comedic timing.”  And the relationship itself even won over some doubters.  “Maybe it’s just that the prescription on my shipping goggles needs an adjustment, but I’m always a little leery of stories that start off with any of Our Heroines in a romantic relationship,” AugieDog said.  “By the end of this one, though, I was absolutely convinced that there was something very real between this Sunset and this Rarity.”

The icing on the sweet cake of the prose was the solid construction throughout.  “Most impressively, in less than 5,000 words it manages to give solid moments to each of the entire Humane Seven,” Horizon said, while AugieDog praised the structure: “I really enjoyed the way we only see the unfortunate aftermath of each plan and the way Rarity sort of floats over the whole middle section of the story like a will-o-the-wisp, drawing Sunset on to ever-increasing extremes.”  That reinforced the core strength of the story, Chris said: “The running gags and the winking mockery of the sillier parts of the show (and movies), all while letting the characters take the central conflict seriously at every turn, kept things funny without turning it all cynical.”

Read on for our author interview, in which MaxKodan discusses object transpositions, old film, and midnight definitions.
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