Nice story. The entire suicide bit feels a bit jarringly dark to me, but overall it's not bad and pretty cute at the end. Bonus points for it not ending up as a slash-fic, no matter what those poor, poor deluded souls above might say.

Favorites: Oct 7, Oct 8, Oct 9, Oct 10

The early ones are the best. I felt the latter ones are rather so-so (and Oct 21 confuses me, who's this about?) (and I'll second Pascoite that I don't understand Oct 13)

My interpretation of the story was initially that the paper depicts (part of) the human Latin alphabet, and by naming objects in this new alphabet, Twilight transforms them from colorful cartoons into real objects - realistic shadows and all. Hence also why Twilight is now "so much more". She real now. I wonder if I'm close to the truth, because I love the idea.

I liked this story. Great writing, and good pacing.

To be frank, there seems to be barely any substance to this story. Apart from a rehash of the old, old "buttered cat" joke, it's just Twilight apologizing over and over and over and over. It feels like wordcount is wasted on the endless apologies, which are more dull than humorous to read; we get the idea after the first paragraph.

Shock collar! Tattooed-over cutie mark surrounded with "scarred flesh"! Someone turned into a red smear on the pavement! Suicidal thoughts!

Frankly, this was unappealing to read because it feels like over-the-top grimdark for the sake of grimdark. Reminds me a bit of the Judge Dredd universe, but without the dark humor that makes it appealing. Just a pile-up of edgy dark hopelessness.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I pretty much scribbled this on a sudden whim. I didn't expect the drawing to inspire any stories, cliche as it is, and indeed it did not. No regrets though!

And yeah, I gotta learn to draw scenery ;/

I think this looks quite fantastic and is definitely going near the top of my slate. If I were to nitpick it's that Twi's face looks a little odd (imagine her nostrils are her eyes. Cannot unsee.)

Luna looks... old. With that the wrinkle under the eye (I've read somewhere that every extra line on the face adds ten years or so to the character's age), and the oddly frazzled left side of her mane, I just can't get over the impression that she's an elderly lady. That, or she's just risen out of bed after a sleepless night.

Beyond that nitpick, though, I think this is a fairly cute drawing, although Celly's definitely drawn better than her sister.

My first thought was that Celestia became a giant and promptly impaled herself on the mountain. :P
If she's meant to be flying here, it's not clear, in part because her wings aren't open. Also her overall pose looks weird (the head angle, the front hooves, the weird perspective on the rear legs.)

I'm afraid there's not much good I can say about this picture, seeing as it's just a wonky-looking vector overlaid on a show screencap.

Sorry Scootaloo, I'm afraid you're stuck with the lame cutie mark the show's creators have given you.

This was obviously drawn in Paint or something, but I kinda like this for some reason. The rear leg anatomy is kinda wonky but the goofy smile is adorable. Of course, the quality makes sense if you assume this is Scoot's fantasy sequence.

Not a top contender but not terrible either.

I can't say I like this one much, even after looking at the site mentioned in the caption (allrgb.com). This picture is just a vector of Rainbow Dash on top of incoherent, ugly noise. The cool thing about the allrgb.com pictures is that they actually depict something (whether a clearly visible photo or a specific design), while this work is just a chaotic mess where it's impossible to make out anything.

0/10, get your edgy OC off this website!!1

Good for a chuckle, and even once you get past the joke, it's a quite good photo, what with the pretty background and the composition.

So, I'm understanding that this is supposed to represent Celly's favorite student dying, or growing distant, or growing up into a princess and no longer being the inquisitive filly Celly once loved. Was the growing shadow as you go down the page intentional? And what's with these smears to the left, are they supposed to represent something? And is Celly's unchanging smile representative of her trying to keep a brave face over the years?

Anyway, despite the relatively simple technique, I really like this one; it says a lot in such a simple manner. Did you make these stamps yourself?

>>horizon is right about this being drawn black-on-white first, and then inverted. This also means that the radiance down in the pit was originally supposed to be shadows, until I realized the image looked much better white-on-black.

If you look closely you might realize that the guy's hands were drawn on a computer with the brush tool; the way I originally drew them on paper, his fingers were splayed apart, suggesting that there was a transparent pane on the pit (and potentially confusing the viewer about whether that's a pit or a giant fat caterpillar.)

The image originally contained a few more details (there was a question mark next to the guy's head, as well as a thought-bubble where he was imagining a devil down in the pit), but I got rid of them because they looked kinda lame and detracted from the atmosphere.

This is nothing but a small, unclear photo of some broken glass. It's not very pleasant aesthetically to look at, nor does it look very intriguing or inspiring.

This is essentially just a random picture of two people. It has no concept to speak of, isn't even aesthetically pleasing, and there is no obvious connection to the prompt.

A Pink Retrospective

Thanks to everyone who've read my story!

I only came up with the general concept a few hours before the deadline, and I guess that the (then-)recent Maud Pie episode inspired me to set this story around the Pie family. It's all pretty awkwardly crammed in; to get my ideas across, I had to cut off the corners from every scene and patch the resulting holes with hasty exposition. Also, I had absolutely no idea for the ending, at least one that wouldn't have taken up several hundred words. Hence why in the last paragraph I basically throw in the towel and write the equivalent of "Oh crap, out of words, let's just assume it all ended well, toodles!"

>>Xepher
Okay, let's put this out of the way... I've never heard of the Petriculture cycle, and any similarities are pure coincidence. As well as evidence that once you have Pinkie being a tulpa, coming up with the idea of Discord likewise being a tulpa is pretty much a no-brainer.

>>PaulAsaran
The Discord scene was something I kept because it provided me with a neat way to wrap up that nub of an ending; it gives Celestia a strong argument as to why should the Pies adopt Pinkie -- because otherwise bad-bad stuff will happen.

>>JudgeDeadd
Wow, where do you get off insulting other people's work like that? Where's your literary masterpiece, huh? Jerk.

>>CoffeeMinion
It's Maud. Obviously only best Pie could pull off something that spectacular. At least, that was my idea while I was writing. But now you got me thinking...

>>Fenton
Yeah, unfortunately. The fanfic's basically just an excuse to show off the idea, with Celestia being there solely to provide exposition; it almost feels like this is just a breathless concept pitch in story form. I can think of several ways to write the same concept in a more compelling way. Not sure if I'll ever be writing something longer based on this story (especially now that I know the basic concept's already been done.)

I don’t think the pegasi will appreciate you stealing their work and bringing the rain in early.

OK, this line alone bought me.

And the story is all sorts of cute. I love the way the overall message is put across, but I also like that the final few lines put a twist on it.

The only thing that slightly bugs me is how the story casually skips over several "hours" of time from one sentence to the next. Was Minuette really standing by and watching two fillies play for several hours?

Wow, sure is Maud Pie Round in here. That's the fifth story I'm reviewing featuring her.

I really, really love Limestone's role in here; somehow, despite having just a few short lines, it's easy to imagine her being annoyed, exasperated, indignant, and smug thorough the story.

The ending however doesn't really work for me at all. At first, like others, I thought the story took on a sudden dark humor bent and Limestone brought down the castle in her fury. Apparently, the ending instead means that Pinkie and the others have been trapped underneath the ruins Canterlot all this time. Except... my feeling is "so what?" It feels completely random and doesn't have any bearing on the story whatsoever; you could just as well have Pinkie reveal that she's a robot, or reveal that it's all happening in an alternate universe where the sun is green, and it would be similarly meaningless. It also comes out more or less out of nowhere; apart from a mention of "box of first aid supplies" and a "royal guard", there's no prior indication that the story takes place anywhere unusual.

It would be better if this would be the beginning of a longer story focusing on the survivors' adventures in the caverns, because then the final paragraph would actually affect something. Though, again, the first part would need to be rewritten so that the reveal doesn't come out of the blue like that.

Pinkie's characterization is easily the best thing about this story, especially this part:

Pinkie covered her mouth in horror. "I don’t want to make up voices for all of Equestria when I inevitably go insane!"

"Cheer up, Pinkie," she said from behind her hoof in a flat, tone. Her eyes jumped to Starlight. "You’ll get this all sorted out," she added, mimicking the unicorn’s voice.

Pinkie gasped. "It’s already started!"

I think my suspension of disbelief went beyond the snapping point, though, by the mention of Starlight and Maud sitting there unmoving for two hours straight. I'm also missing an explanation of why, exactly, have they done all this. It seems too much effort and pain for a mere prank. From Pinkie's profuse apology, I'm getting the vague feeling that it's mean to be some sort of payback or a lesson for Pinkie's shenanigans in S7E04, but I don't see how does the watch fit into all this.

Filly Twilight is best Twilight

But yeah, while this would be an excellent scene in the context of a longer story, it feels a bit empty on its own like that. Still, it is very well written, cute and captivating, and I look forward to reading the longer fanfic you will no doubt write.

I'll agree with >>Light_Striker that Twilight was a bad choice as a character. She presumably has some anatomy textbooks in her library, and would definitely hit the books first, rather than taking Applejack and Apple Bloom on a long trip all the way to Canterlot just to bother Celestia about elementary-school biology.

I don't think the POV works in this story. The narrator spends a lot of time expositing on the past and on her history, but never really describes her own inner life. I think the story would be much more powerful if the Merry Widow had more personality of her own, with actual feeling and emotions and thoughts. Or, the story could have been told from the POV of a retired sailor, shipbuilder etc. anyone who can infuse the story with their own personality.

On the whole, I'm afraid this didn't work for me. The choice of the ship as the narrator suggests that this should be a highly sentimental story, but the narration is too matter-of-fact to truly touch the reader, especially one who's never set foot on the deck of a ship in real life and thus has no personal experience of emotional attachment to a seagoing vessel.

While awaiting my fate in the darkness, I feel the touch of another. A longboat brushes up against my sides

That's a wasted opportunity right there; it would have been interesting to read about one ship "talking" with another.

I have the feeling that besides the shock value, there isn't much to this story at all. A male reader might at first find it interesting to read about that kind of private stuff, that often feels like a secret shared between all men... but once you get past that novelty, nothing interesting really happens in the fanfic beyond that. Guy describes his penis trouble, then he talks to another guy who describes his penis trouble in turn, end of story.

Like several others before me, this really didn't work for me. Maybe I'm different from other people or whatever, but I don't buy that Rainbow or even Sunset would have been that upset at the long-ago death of someone who's basically an identical twin. And since the entire story consists of 1) just this one idea 2) the characters telling each other how tragic that supposedly is, I couldn't find anything in here that appealed to me.