I couldn't figure out:

How to make this prompt work with the rule that states, "Participants may not start creating their work(s) until the prompt has been selected". The pictures are very nice, though: I may come back here for inspiration when I'm looking to put a story together to submit to the magazines... :)

Mike

>>GroaningGreyAgony

Why, I remember:

Back in the good old days, years and years and years ago, there was a round where three or four stories ended up being disqualified. A couple folks used to regularly identify their stories themselves in order to get them disqualified because they didn't want to go through the ranking and judging process...

But https://www.fimfiction.net/story/550743/chiaroscuro is the link to the story. I've set up the link back to your DA site, too.

Mike Again

Thanks for the artwork:

GGA. If you don't mind, I'll use it when I post this to Fimfiction later today.

It also occurred to me yesterday that this story technically should be disqualified because it breaks rule 3c: "Participants may not submit works explicitly connected to another work of theirs," and this is essentially a prequel to an AugieDog story of mine called "Shadow Heart." But I s'ppose it's too late for that now... :)

Mike

Depending on how long:

It takes me to bail the rainwater out of my car--it's got a leak somewhere--I might have a story...

Mike

I'm not gonna get it done:

Before the deadline, but I started a pretty weird little thing inspired by this photo involving the troll from "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" grouchily expecting another wunna them damn goats crossing his bridge and finding a kitten instead. It may yet turn into a story, but not for this contest, alas...

Mike

Christmas Eve Eve:

I found myself with a couple unbespoken hours and thought I'd see what was going on on the Writeoff site, something I hadn't done in a while. I saw that there was a minific contest happening right then and there, and then I saw that no one had submitted a prompt. This struck me right in the spot where nostalgia meets melancholy, so I settled in to write. This is what came out.

It really needs a middle section showing Sludge interacting with the Spirits, but that oughtta get the whole thing above 1,000 words for posting on FimFiction, maybe even later today.

And a Happy Annual Incrementation to us all!

Mike

>>Pascoite

Thanks, Pasco:

And thanks, everyone who voted. The form's called a rondeau redouble', and it's become one of my favorites the past couple years. The prompt got me thinking about the expansion of the universe and from there to Dr. Martin Luther King's line about how “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” There are some things we maybe don't want to go back to, and with the universe expanding, here's hoping we can all keep expanding as well. :)

Mike

Here's something fun:

I started a story called "The Ring of Destiny" for this round based on this photo, but I didn't finish it in time. I kept working on it during the first part of this year, sent it out to a couple magazines over the spring and summer, and just got word that Space & Time magazine would like to buy it for their issue #146, Spring/Summer 2024. So it won't be out for a while, but it'll be out someday! :)

Mike

If I'd had the time:

This is definitely the one I would've put together a story about. :)

Mike

>>Pascoite
>>Heavy_Mole

Thanks again, folks:

I added a third act, redid the little robot characters as versions of Spike, Rarity, and Twilight, and posted it to Fimfiction. In case anyone's interested... :)

Mike

>>Pascoite

Thanks, Pasco:

Your comment has made me realize that the story is currently lacking a third act. When the three go to see Olive, she should yell at them some more and demand that they leave. Fishbone should then actually leave the apartment--and get picked up almost immediately by Simon who's waiting outside. That would let me expound a bit on the Simon/Olive relationship and let Fishbone put everything on the line to show Olive that he just wants to help her.

It'll also likely push the story past 5,000 words which'll put it over the limit for Zooscape, the magazine I wanted to try selling the story to, but oh well...

And yes, that's a Pee Wee's Playhouse reference. I don't remember there being a Carl in the cast, though--Laurence Fishburne played Cowboy Curtis, of course, and there were some cat and dog puppets who had a little beatnik band, it seems to me. But I only made the stuffed animal in the photo into a dog so I could have a cat/dog relationship. That's something that Simon needs to talk about in the third act when he rants in a calmly unhinged manner about "proper" male and female roles in the world.

But I've got today off from work, so I know what I'll be doing. Act Three awaits!

Mike

OK!

For the first time in way too long, I've got a rough draft in! And still half a day to make revisions!

Mike

>>Pascoite
>>GroaningGreyAgony

Thanks, folks!

The prompt struck me immediately as the perfect first line to a parody Emily Dickinson poem--our first person narrator would throw the rose away, but the rose would refuse to go. But I couldn't decide on what sort of tone to use: make it a humorous "The Cat Came Back" sort of thing or go for more of a horror thing, the rose's stem digging its thorny stem into the narrator's arm and like that.

So I went a completely different way and came up with this. Some rewriting, and there might be something here...

Mike

>>GroaningGreyAgony
>>Griseus

I seem to be, too.

Mike

>>Pascoite

Thanks, Pasco:

And everyone who voted, too. Yeah, I think another stanza ot two shoehorned into the middle will help set the scene better, then it's off to Silver Blade magazine to see if they're interested in renting it from me. :)

Mike

>>Light_Striker
>>Pascoite
>>GroaningGreyAgony

Thanks, folks:

And congrats to the other medalists. This is a form I might've made up, or maybe Kipling does something like it--I don't recall. It's a variation on what's called either "common meter" or "fourteeners" with a couple extra lines stuck in to make those couplets in the middle.and at the end. I was going to call this "No Means No" originally, but all the bloody imagery made me change the title. :)

Mike

Me, too!

It's a veritable plethora!

Mike

My problem:

With this story is that it doesn't seem to be about anything. A lot of stuff happens, but when I asked myself, "What's this story about?" I couldn't come up with an answer. I'm hoping to figure something out before I post it at Fimfiction. :)

Mike

Yeah:

I've been there... :)

Thanks!
Mike

Depending on how things go:

This afternoon, I might have one to submit, too.

Mike

Alas:

It's looking less and less likely that I'll have enough words finished by the deadline.

Mike

>>Bad Horse

I might have something by Tuesday:

But then again, I might not...

Mike

>>GroaningGreyAgony

But:

There was only foive pictures from you, not aught...

Moike

The major problem:

I had with the story is that I can't see any connection between the characters here and the character I know as Sunset Shimmer. You have the perfect opportunity, too, since Equestria Girls has forever left unanswered the question of what happened to the human version of Sunset Shimmer. Maybe she's just gotten her apartment as described at the beginning of the story, then, unable to sleep that night, she walks over to check out the Canterlot High campus only to witness her doppelganger falling out of the Wondercolt statue. She takes this shaky, uncertain version of herself home, and the rest of the story progresses as we see it here, the still-villainous Sunset literally taking over the human Sunset's life.

Mike

>>KwirkyJ

Looks like:

There'll be at least two of us, then. :)

Mike