>>GroaningGreyAgony
So, now I get an idea with almost no time to execute it properly...

>>Baal Bunny
Good for you! It's my prompt and I've got nothing so far. :/

I'm in as well!

I will have something in.

I was hoping for a visual prompt... and here I got the one that I submitted. Let's see what happens...

>>Heavy_Mole, >>Rubidium

Heartbroken

Thanks for the lovely comments! I always appreciate feedback.

If you look at the draft for this piece in the Discord server, you can see the central principle on which it was constructed; Celestia attacking Luna with their resulting poses forming the curves of a heart shape. There is a concept in animation called the line of action which is used to construct visually dynamic poses where anatomical accuracy is not a concern; here, Celestia's intended movement is like a blow that causes Luna/NM to curl up upon impact. These shapes were drawn to conform to and accentuate the outer heart shape, which was roughed out with a ruler; the rest was freehand.

I hope that these notes help to guide your finger somewhat. : )

>>Rubidium

Rebel Rebel Rebel

Thanks for the praise, this was certainly one pic in which using black paper added to the presentation.

This one changed a fair bit from the draft sketch as in the meantime I was inspired to make it a reference to a certain album cover. I do this sort of thing a lot but it is rarely recognized; I suppose I am often too subtle, or just too old.

The title refers to Rebel Rebel, one of the songs on the album.

Bark Below

Thanks to all for the gold on this one. This was the first and easiest story in which I found a strong visual symbol, and it was also straightforward to execute. Most of the pieces I did were colored pencil on black paper, and I was tempted to leave the sky black on this one. Doing the blue fill in was the longest part of the drawing.

Dog and Pony Show

This one didn't change very much from the initial conception, I just tried to select a faster breed of dog for canine RD (she's roughly modeled off of a greyhound).

>>Heavy_Mole

Illumination

This one turned out to be a poser. On the first day of the drawing round, I already had visual notes(*) for all the stories, but I was no better at unraveling its meaning than anyone else. The draft sketch I had for this one did not feel compelling and I was considering leaving this story undrawn.

In the darkest hours of the final night, when the other pics had all been executed, scanned and uploaded, I considered Cranky wearing a candle flame instead of a toupee. That felt worthy of being put to paper, so here we are.

(* If anyone is curious to see the visual notes, I'll put them on the Discord server.)

>>Zaid Val'Roa, >>Forcalor, >>Chris, >>Baal Bunny, >>Rubidium, >>Heavy_Mole

Where the Mild Things Are

Thanks for the silver! Grats and welcome to Rubidium, grats and welcome back to Chris, and thanks and condolences to Zaid, Baal and Mole.

I felt my way through this fic (It was initially going to be a dialogue with Luna concerning her take on lycanthropy) and only picked out the punchline when it was mostly done; I am fortunate that it worked out so well. I appreciate the suggestions and intend to act upon them in one way or another should I bulk up this odd tale for presentation on Fimfic.

Thank you very much for the lovely and thoughtful comments, I am glad to see so many faces here.

I will have something in for the art round.

I am in as well!

>>Chris
Your commitment is noted and appreciated.
As one of the remaining artists, I should note that comments on posted art are always welcome, even if they are not informed critiques.

>>Pascoite, >>Corinna, >>MosesDuchek

Building the Wall

Thank you for the gold and the kind comments, and 'grats to MosesDuchek for a strong start!

I got the rhythm of this in my mind before I had any words to fit into it, and what flowed most naturally into the mold was a miniature discourse on brickmaking. I wrote mostly to the sound of it and though it did not come to any earth-shaking conclusion, I hope it was pleasant to read along the way.

I shall likely amend "boiling" to "bubbling" in future revisions, among some other tweaks.

This one reminded me much of a line-palindromic poem by J. A. Lindon, which I only found online at the top of this page: "As I Was Passing Near the Jail." I enjoyed the incantatory force and spookiness of your piece, though as with Pascoite I did not feel I could fully derive its intent.

I have something in.

>>Pascoite
Out, Out Brief Candle

Thanks for the kind words! I admit this one is a bit obscure. The heart of it was a visualization, a sort of internal music video, that I developed long ago while listening to Life in a Northern Town. The sense of isolation from the song combined with the hopeful dynamic flow led me to imagining a project by which the Earth-Luna system might become an enormous spacecraft sailing off through the universe. For the story I added a few bare details to roughly pin the project to the background and set it all in motion towards some ambiguous goal; my little mental movie never had the planet reaching any destination but instead breaching the boundaries of the cosmos and sailing off to some glorious infinity, independent and proud. Not sure what to do with it from here, but thank you very much for reading!

I'm in.

Household member got covid and we had to cancel all our plans for the weekend. Good time to stay inside and write, I suppose.

>>MrExtra
Yeah, it's weird though. All of my guessing options were greyed out. I admit the color was appropriate but perhaps it's time for a bug report...

I am in.

I am in.

>>Baal Bunny
You're welcome, and are quite welcome to use it! If you would, please link the source to my DA and I will return the favor once your story is up.

Don't worry, they never disqualifies no-one around here.

I don't think I will have a story in for this round, but I will try to illustrate any entries.