Alright, I can't afford the time this week to do reviews of the finalists, but I want to at least call out some good writing with a quick rundown of my top five-plus-one. I'm also going to turn this into a bit of a predictions post, based on the review feedback so far.

From the top:

Slingshot – This is not the most solidly written story this round — as basically everyone notes, it's got some rough blocks of exposition and early technobabble — but it's extremely ambitious (hard pony sci-fi!), and despite that headwind it feels like it sticks a tricky landing both emotionally and technically, with mind-blowing ideas. I suspect that as a sci-fi fan I'm overlooking its flaws, but I don't care, because I loved reading it too much.
Where I think it'll place: It's getting gobs of medal buzz, but I'll call it for silver; see below.
(edit: I feel like I should note that I did NOT put this at the top because I think my story was this round's best, but as camouflage because, as my past voting record shows, I'm the sort of reader who would normally disproportionately like it. -h)

Solitude for the Modern Businessmare — In any just universe, I wouldn't have to choose between sweet, lush Harshwhinny crackshipping and hard sci-fi for the top of my slate. Why couldn't you have submitted these in different rounds? :raritydespair: This digs deep into both of its characters at fresh and surprising angles with authentic details; Rarity's dilemma is marvelous, its solution feels natural, and I will even spot you the ridiculous headcanon of Harshwhinny as the master of unlocking because all the weirdness just coheres so well.
Where I think it'll place: Fourth, dragged down by the more-objective opinions of the mass of poopyheads readers who can't accept this little slice of beautiful insanity as an OTP; the review feedback has been generally positive but more subdued.

Bonitatem Doce Me — Previously reviewed. Neither I nor anyone else seems to have any critiques on this; publish immediately. It drifted down my slate only because I make a point of rewarding stories that succeed despite taking risks; it's hard to write something that is both outrageous and solid, and both of my top picks pressed that button hard for me.
Where I think it'll place: Gold medal. There's more medal buzz about Slingshot, but everyone agrees on the quality of the execution here, and I think it will score higher on Slingshot-topped slates than Sllingshot (with its occasional lukewarm reception) will score on Bonitatem-topped slates.

The Stratospheric Council — This feels repetitive in the pegasi's uncompromising power games, but is carried by strong characterization and details, and uplifted by a natural turn to the great princess scene and then a tonally and narratively perfect ending. Daring worldbuilding; could have made a play for my top spots with a tightened-up (or more varied) middle.
Where I think it'll place: Given the ambivalent-but-positive response, let's say around 6th place.

Fire in the Promised Land — It feels unfair of me to unfavorably compare this to The Instruments Of Our Surrender, but the two felt so similar that I wasn't able to read through this without mentally comparing them beat-for-beat. I'm really trying to be objective about ignoring that, because I don't think stories from outside this Writeoff round should affect my scoring. What should: This is strong writing with vividly realized history, and even though it feels more like a moment in time than a story arc, its images are stuck in my brain. My biggest hesitation is that I'm having a lot of trouble squaring it with the canon depiction of Platinum as one of the villains of Hearth's Warming, fomenting divisions after they migrated to Equestria which had to be patched by Clover et.al., and I'm not finding any signs of an AU; I keep having my expectations of Platinum blithely broken, which I think is the root of the reviewer complaints about her being too liberal.
Where I think it'll place: The feedback on this one (aside from the Platinum complaints) is oddly elusive in its vague positivity, so it's hard to gauge the audience, but I suspect that I am undervaluing it relative to the average reader. So I'll say it's going to pull a bronze.

The Concubine or How Luna Got Her Groove Back — Previously reviewed, but the more I thought about this story, the less the tonal shift bothered me; it ended up drifting upward toward my Top Contenders, barely edging out Opal, Gemstones etc.
Where I think it'll place: Feedback is all over the place, which means that voting is probably also all over the place, which suggests a mid-range score: 7th and Most Controversial.

I'm speechless.

OK!

Now that I've got a free weekend, I can finally write the story I came up with when the prompt dropped two weeks ago! Better Nate than lever, as they say. :)

Mike

Alright, I think I've calmed down sufficiently to formulate a coherent response to the, uh. Medal. Thing.

Like I said in my first post, I've been out of the game for a while. Not just the fandom, but the game of writing in general. I left, and when I came back, the great wheel of FIMfiction had continued spinning quite well without me, and my own literary muscles (such as they are) had atrophied terribly. I entered the writeoff with two goals in mind: To get my name back out there (because, astonishingly, vanishing for two years is not the best way to maintain your readership), and to help shake off my rust.

I wasn't expecting to make it past the preliminaries with my entry. I wasn't expecting to make it in the top ten of the final round, and I certainly was not expecting to just flat-out earn the gold, especially given the competition (both Solitude and Slingshot are more accomplished stories than Bonnie, I feel). But waking up this morning and seeing Bonnie in the top spot was just... the best thing to wake up to, short of finding out that a bacon tree sprouted in my yard overnight.

I'm glad and gratified that it struck a chord with so many. Thank you for your praise and for your feedback. I've learned a lot from reading the other entries, from reading the critiques people posted to them, and from the ones people posted to my own, and I'm really looking forward to participating in this group more in the future.

Hey, folks. I know it's been a while since we've done one of these, but the irreplaceable Quill Scratch and I recorded an episode of Radio Writeoff. Was about half my reasoning for doing it because Roger said he'd change our name color in the Discord chat? Yes, but that's not important. What is important is that we recorded it and you can listen to it right here.

Quill has a nice voice and a nice microphone, whereas I had to take a walk around my neighborhood with my phone since I can't record in my house. Gonna try and get that fixed for next episode, but for now, please be comforted by the crunches and pops of nature. Or something.

Hi guys; I don't know how many people are still checking this thread, but I revised and expanded Bonnie and submitted it to EqD. Here's a link if anyone wants to see the new version.

Thank you again for all of your help and your kind words. :)