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And at the End, You Shall Remain Alone
FiM Minific
7th
71%
143
Diamond Ponies Aren't Forever
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In Over Your Head
FiM Minific
32nd
50%
84
An Epic Rhyme Battle of Equestria
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Ignore It and It Will Go Away
FiM Minific
31st
33%
44
Dashed Dreams
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The Twilight Zone
FiM Minific
45th
25%
28
The Tirek Zone
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It's Your Funeral
FiM Minific
49th
25%
28
Caskets
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Cold Comfort
FiM Minific
34th
25%
27
My Little Poe
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* Princess Not Included
FiM Minific
51st
24%
26
Undying Love
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End of an Era
FiM Short Story
26th
14%
25
Writer's Sin
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Forbidden Knowledge
FiM Short Story
28th
13%
22
History Lesson
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Look, I Can Explain...
FiM Short Story
46th
4%
4
Finding Fluttershy
#3293 · 10
· · >>Mordred >>CoffeeMinion >>PinoyPony
Achievement unlocked: Finalist. (Reach the finals one time.)

I know words on the Internet don't always transfer emotion correctly, but I'm super excited to have gotten this far! Honestly didn't see this coming based on the reviews I got.
#7121 · 7
· on After Party · >>Monokeras
These last few days have been crazy. Like, I knew they were going to be crazy what with travelling 600 miles home from my university, but I hadn't counted on two riders in my car, getting lost, getting a flat tire somewhere in Tennessee, and having my phone (which functioned as my GPS) die on me while we were on the road. Apologies for starting and not finishing reviewing my slate. But, hey, it's over. I'm safe at home for another 10 hours or so, and I didn't make the finals (no surprise there based on my personal Writeoff history and the reviews this round). So, without further ado...


After "After Party": A Retrospective

>>FanOfMostEverything >>ChappedPenguinLips >>FrontSevens >>Monokeras >>CoffeeMinion >>Trick_Question >>Shadowed_Song >>Xepher

Pure personal philosophy and headcanon this was, and it really showed in its poor characterization. I'll begin by breaking down the headcanony parts.

Pinkamena Diane Pie is first seen (timeline-wise, at least) eking out a miserable existence on her rock farm. This chapter of her life ends, of course, when she sees the rainboom, smiles, and subsequently decides she "wanted everyone she knew smile, too." Hence, the divide between Pinkamena Diane Pie and Pinkie Pie in my mind. (Yes, I'm aware of the existence of Cupcakes, et al, and no, I was not intending "Pinkamena" to be interpreted that way. Perhaps another addition to the growing list of oversights.)

I'll admit, Pinkie Pie was my least favorite character in Season 1. She was weird. She was random. She was unpredictable. She was wild. I didn't understand her and frankly, I didn't try to. I am and always have been very logical. To me, Pinkie was just the "comic relief and side gag" character.

Upon rewatching the Smile Song, however, I caught something that had I had previously excused away as a "random Pinkie Pie song." Her life's calling, her mission statement, her reason for existing on the planet, is spelled out right in her song. "There's one thing that makes me happy, makes my whole life worthwhile/ And that's when I talk to my friends and get them to smile!" For once, I understood Pinkie Pie. (Well, as much as anyone can be expected to.) This pink pony can be anypony she wants to be, but she chooses to be Pinkie Pie because she knows it will make others happy, and that's the story I wanted to tell. Unfortunately, "After Party" did a rather poor job of doing that. I'm now considering a first-pony slice-of-life style rewrite where Pinkie goes about her day suppressing her depression while spreading cheer to others.


The philosophical undertones highlighted in this story (mainly by Rarity) can be reduced to four questions I ask myself probably too often to not have sufficient answers to them:

1. Who am I?
2. Who do I want to be?
3. Why aren't those two the same person?
4. What can I do to make them the same person?

I guess I kind of just projected those questions/feelings onto a "what if" scenario where Rainbow and AJ hit Pinkie a little too close to home. Perhaps I projected just a pinch too much of my own emotional fragility that I similarly mask with a positive demeanor, a "game face," if you will. Character choice from there on out (both the map and the meetup) was a significant contribution to the shortcoming of this story.



Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I promised myself and my readers that I'd get another chapter of History Lesson over on FimFic ready to publish soon, so I'll reluctantly have to opt out of reading and reviewing the finals. Good luck to the finalists, especially the ones ranked high on my slate!
#8011 · 7
·
Writeoff, but Every Time You Backspace, You Watch the Bee Movie


Well if I do that, I'll be writing for...

The Next Four Years.
#15172 · 7
· · >>MrExtra >>Fenton
A Writeoff? A pony Writeoff? A pony short story Writeoff? A pony short story Writeoff when I actually have little enough schoolwork to participate? Sounds too good to be true...

Ok, life, what's the catch? You never make things this easy for me.
#15182 · 7
·
>>Lamplighter
Welcome! (In a non-creepy, not-Starlight's-village sort of way)

In Writeoff! In Writeoff!
We can set you right.
You can't have a badfic
If you never write.
#16083 · 7
·
Hey look. It's that group I wrote for a few times and pretend to still write for. Let's hope my propensity for procrastinating doesn't screw me over again.
#24052 · 7
·
"Mother of me..."
--Princess Celestia
#2719 · 6
·
That moment when the prompt fits the fic you've been planning for the past two months.
#23289 · 6
·
The show my theatre school was running just ended, so I'm finally free on a Saturday! Is this the round I finally get back into the Writeoff?
#3469 · 5
· on An Epic Rhyme Battle of Equestria
Well, I won. I set a goal, and I achieved it. ERBoE landed me in the finals. Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I will be able to better respond to your reviews when I am at home instead of in the break room here at work.