>>sharpspark

I wondered if that was the case but I wasn't sure how an author who hadn't seen the movie would know about the pearl.

Or was that a lucky guess? If so, it's hilarious.

I admit I'm a little disappointed this didn't at least make the finals, but I was never that happy with it; I was pretty sure the prompt would result in a lot of dark pieces and wanted to make something lighthearted and happy, though it seems a lot of other writers had the "help someone with a cold" idea. The end result was a fluff piece that doesn't really have much impact, though.

>>Pascoite

That was pretty much the intent, yeah, that they could help Fluttershy but also make sure the other ponies she cared about were taken care of as well. After all, she didn't just nurse them; she took care of what they were worried about so they could rest untroubled.

Twilight was meant to be sick as well, and Fluttershy helped her too; hence why she nods when the others are talking about their stories. If I ever redo the story I'd change it to a nod and mention that Fluttershy helped Spike with the library while she was sick or something. The reason Fluttershy didn't tell the others everypony was sick was because she didn't want to worry them that she was having to do it all, though unless they all got sick at once some of them probably knew (though they didn't know each of them was asking Fluttershy to do things for them, or they probably wouldn't have asked).

>>horizon

The implication at the end was supposed to be that they were going to do more than take care of Fluttershy, that they were going to take care of her and also reassure her that they were taking care of any ponies she might be worried about as well. This wasn't necessarily meant to be all of Ponyville; we do see in show episodes that Fluttershy has friends beyond just the mane 6, but it didn't feel right to get more specific.

Basically, it was my take on Fluttershy's kindness as compared to Rarity's generosity; Rarity is generous in that she wants to share what she has with others, Fluttershy is kind like a mother and doesn't like it when others are unhappy or worried.

I'm also surprised this didn't final; I had it placed third on my slate, mainly for the reason that it was just a lot of fun to read.

It took me a second read, but I like this.

Some of the dialog can be confusing; sometimes it's answering a question from before instead of reacting to the last line, or responding to what was unsaid instead of what was said. However, on rereading I realized that made it feel organic; less like a written conversation than a spoken one. Which is kind of interesting, even if I was left confused on the first read.

Absolutely beautiful. I can understand why not everyone likes poetry, but this gets all the kudos from me.

>>moonwhisper
"’Til I must face the Nightmare’s might,
Your heartless rite, your heart less right,
But tearful, stricken down in flight,
I fall like heavy stone."

There's mention of a lonely throne, didn't the Sisters' castle have two? So I assumed it was Canterlot and this was set after the show, with Luna suffering from some unexplained relapse. Though an alternate ending to the pilot might make more sense.

Someone who hasn't seen the movie is going to read this and then be very, very confused later.

>>Dubs_Rewatcher
That was my reading too, that the ponies didn't realize (and were horrified when they found out) what they were doing. I think the last line was the "cold comfort" part of the fic.

Makes for a sad but powerful story, IMHO.

Reveal stories have to walk the edge of a knife; too obvious and the impact will be lost, too subtle and readers will be lost. I figured out what was going on (or at least arrived at the same conclusion as kettle) right at the end, but I can understand why others were confused.

Personally I found this story clever and couldn't wait to check the comments after reading it, but between that and the subject matter I wouldn't be surprised if this one ends up with most controversial.

At first I wondered if Zecora was summoning the Smooze.

I can't help but wonder if this is a response to the prose vs poetry debate. It's about equal measures of both :D. Either way, I found it a lot of fun.

One small technical mistake I spotted, "Pills" is misspelled in the final paragraph. I also feel that the last paragraph might flow better if the "and" came after the final comma, but I'm no English major so take my grammar advice with caution.

Some immortality angst fics are more immortality angsty than others, apparently :p

Not sure what I can really say to this. I feel it tells the story the author wanted to tell, and does that well. Readers' reactions will likely depend on how they feel about that story.

I did notice one small mistake; "blue seas boiled had away" should probably be "Blue seas had boiled away."

Dawwwwwww. That was a cute story. Well written, too. The first paragraph seemed uncharacteristic for Rainbow Dash, more like something Twilight would think, but it makes sense as a reference to Tanks for the Memories.

I understand from Discord that people are reluctant to review this one because they haven't seen the movie, so I thought I'd do my best!

It's not bad, but not great IMHO. It took me awhile to figure out what was going on since he died in the movie and I always pictured pony Tartarus as more a physical place than actual afterlife, but there's nothing wrong with your interpretation. Once I figured out what was going on things made more sense.

The Storm King is still pretty much a blank canvas after the movie, so I think writing a story around him was tough from the get go, and what characterization he had was... honestly kind of weird, and that reflects in this piece. It's a hard quirk to write a (semi)serious story around, but you took the challenge.

I've never been terribly interested in Haikus, but this story still works. Each haiku is unique and does a good job of creating a picture, some based on episodes, some original. I quite enjoyed it.

Aww, a really sweet story. I like it, though the title stuck me as kind of odd; it's traditionally a marriage vow, and almost made me think you were trying to imply a romantic relationship between them instead of a familial one like the story seems to be going for.

>>Dolfeus Doseux

For what it's worth, that second line sounds pretty much exactly like something Twilight might say in the show to me, so it's probably an eye of the beholder thing.

An interesting idea and nice, introspective writing. I assume the pony might be Burnt Oak (he would, after all, often be taking a cart to the forest), but the story doesn't really tell who it is other than a close friend of the family, and that works for me.

>>Dubs_Rewatcher
I think the video was just to tell the pony "Ok, your job is done, now get out before any of the unicorns have to see your dirty face"

I wanted to hurry up and get to this story to see what all the comments were about. To quote Fry, "I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament this."

Not that that should be taken in any way as a slight against this story. I just have a particularly visceral reaction to body horror.

For what it's worth, when I first read this story (unspoiled, didn't even know what the title meant) I assumed it was some sort of body horror or disease/parasite. The changeling idea didn't occur to me and still doesn't really feel like it fits, to be honest.

This story is very well written, but, uh, to me it kinda just feels dark for the sake of being dark. There's no message here, no reveal, just melancholy sadness.

To be fair, there's only so much you can do in a minific, but it kinda feels like if the story is such a complete reversal of the show there should be some purpose behind it. Maybe that's just me, though.

War takes a heavy toll, at home and abroad. I gather this is a story from the Sombra War alternate timeline, and it makes a lot of sense (as Sweet Apple Acres was heavily industrialized there, and the hardships of war would mean difficult times).

It's a perfectly valid usage, but might I suggest changing the word "enrol" to "enlist"? It took me a bit to realize what that meant, since I associate enroll with a different meaning.

Yeah, I knew this prompt would mean a lot of sad stories.

This is a touching fic, and says what it needs to and no more. We don't even find out who's dead, and it doesn't matter. It's an evocative mood piece.

One thing I noticed; "What can she say to Luna?" feels like it should be "What could she say to Luna?"

Count me as another that was left confused by this story. The girl was floating, but maybe wasn't a ghost? I think the idea for this story is good, but maybe the word limit hit it harder than most.

I am by no means a literary expert or critic, just some guy who has fun reading and occasionally writing about ponies, but one of the most memorable past entries I read was a lengthy poem and I'd be sad if people decided not to submit them.

Similitude

Not much to say about this one, other than that the reviewers mostly nailed it; my first draft of this story weighed in at 1,400 words, and that's without the scenes with Discord and/or Luna I'd considered. I wasn't sure I'd even be able to get it down to 750, and I ended up cutting out basically all the introspection and interaction. I probably would have been better off with a different, less ambitious concept, but by then it was too late to start over.

I did keep the original version, though, and there were enough encouraging words that I might end up polishing it and putting it up in the group (which would be my first story on Fimfiction; I was waiting on something especially successful in order to start off with a bang).

>>Trick_Question

I might slightly disagree with this one. I know Chrysalis doing what she did for her hive was common fanon after Canterlot Wedding, but I think To Where and Back Again showed that at her core all that Chrysalis cares about is Chrysalis.

Also, I think it's clear that since being reformed Starlight is nothing like Chrysalis. What I was going for in this story was more her worrying that she was like Chrysalis *before* being reformed, and I felt that isn't really true, because while Starlight was wrong in her goals, she didn't ignore those around her; she at least thought she was helping the ponies of her town, and reacted badly to the suggestion that her time travel was hurting other ponies.

>>Orbiting_kettle >>Foehn >>ChappedPenguinLips >>Not_A_Hat >>Xepher >>FanOfMostEverything >>Monokeras >>Posh >>Winston

>>FanOfMostEverything
I'm going to plead "death of the author" on that one.