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The Morning After · FiM Minific ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 400–750
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Wings
"Dear Princess Celestia; WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME," Twilight muttered, a quill dancing in the air as she wrote. Then it stopped as she glared at the letter.

"ARGH!" she shouted, and her horn flashed as the letter burst into flames, ashes drifting down to form another layer on an already large pile.

"Twilight, Rarity's here to see you!" Spike called from the library's front door.

"I don't want to talk to anyone!" she yelled back. "Make something up and tell her to come back later!"

"Umm... I kind of already let her in," Spike replied apologetically. Twilight poked her head up from the loft to see that, indeed, Rarity was standing there, concern and insult warring on her face.

Apparently concern won out. "Twilight dear, I can see you've been crying. I know this must be a tough time for you, but becoming an alicorn princess, it’s something you should be celebrating."

Twilight lit her horn and teleported down to her friend. "Rarity, I know you want to help. But there's nothing you can do. Just, ugh, please leave me alone."

"You know you can trust us, Twilight," Rarity said. She gently reached forward, draping a foreleg around her friend.

Twilight closed her eyes, but even that couldn't stop the tears from pouring out. Rarity noticed and tried to pull her into a hug.

That was just too much. Twilight screamed even as a lavender aura pushed Rarity away, and the new Alicorn disappeared in a flash of light.




“And that’s when she burst into tears! I’ve never seen her in such distress,” Rarity told

“I don’t get it. Why would anypony be upset about growing wings?” Rainbow Dash asked, folding her forelegs across her ribs.

“Why, perhaps she’s afraid immortality means losing all her friends,” Rarity responded. “Or being a princess! Life at court may be glamorous, but it can be so turbulent. The arranged marriages, the stern but gentle stallions, the forbidden loves with foreign agents-”

“I think that’s only in the books you read,” Applejack interrupted.

Rarity sniffed. “Well, regardless, it’s a very chaotic time for poor Twilight, and I think we should all be there to help.”

“And just how are we supposed to do that?”

“Oooh!” Pinkie offered. “We could find Trixie, and then when Twilight tries to say her wings are ugly, Trixie could say ‘no, your wings are beautiful!’”

Everypony looked at Pinkie for a moment. Then, by mutual consent, they all turned back to Rarity.

“Seriously, just how are we supposed to do that?” Applejack asked.

“I think we should make sure she always has someone to talk to, and doesn’t try to do anything rash,” Rarity suggested.

“Rash?” Rainbow asked. “What’s rash supposed to mean? It’s not like she can go to the hospital and ask them to cut her wings off.”

“Don’t be morbid. I merely mean that-” Rarity began, only to be interrupted as Fluttershy flew down out of the sky.

“Excuse me, umm, not to interrupt or anything, but is Twilight alright? Because, I, uhh, think I saw her running towards Zecora’s hut, and it kind of looked like she was crying.




“Are you sure this will work, Zecora?” Twilight asked “I’m not sure I can stand it much longer.”

“Willow bark, poppy, aloe; all have brewed, so here you go,” the Zebra responded, filling a large bottle from her cauldron. Before Twilight could take it, a rainbow blur crashed through Zecora’s window and grabbed the potion from her hooves.

“Gotcha!” Rainbow Dash cried triumphantly. She tried to fly back out the window, only to find her tail immobilized by a lavender aura.

Beside her the door flew open and Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack all spilled inside.

“Don’t do it, Twilight! You have so much to live for!” Pinkie cried.

“She’d not going to die, Pinkie.”

“Ohh.”

Twilight ignored the newcomers and immediately launched herself towards Rainbow, reaching for the potion.

“Applejack! Catch!” Rainbow cried, tossing the potion.

“Twilight, please, I know these changes are sudden, but don’t do this!” Rarity pleaded.

Twilight gritted her teeth and grabbed for the potion. “Give me-”

Then her wing brushed against a table. Twilight immediately let out a shriek and collapsed, her magic aura vanishing and dropping Rainbow Dash to the floor.

Rarity and Applejack exchanged confused looks.

“Anyone want to tell me exactly what’s going on here?” Applejack asked.

“I slept on my wing!” Twilight wailed. "It's been cramping all morning!"
« Prev   41   Next »
#1 · 1
· · >>Bremen
BA-DUM TSH.

I appreciate what you were going for, but this one wasn't really doing anything for me. A lot of the comedy fell flat, and some of the jokes just didn't even register with me.

“Oooh!” Pinkie offered. “We could find Trixie, and then when Twilight tries to say her wings are ugly, Trixie could say ‘no, your wings are beautiful!’”

Everypony looked at Pinkie for a moment. Then, by mutual consent, they all turned back to Rarity.


Like this. I don't get it. Maybe that's the point, or maybe it's a reference to something I don't recognize, but either way, I can't laugh at a joke I don't understand. Maybe the joke is that the others didn't get it either, and in that case, I guess that's... kind of funny?

But I'm sorry, I didn't feel this one at all.

*patpat*
#2 · 1
· · >>Bremen
I was excited in the first bit. The morning after ascension is a great choice of setting for this theme, and for a moment, I really thought we'd see some heartfelt reflection on that. But as soon as the others started talking about her doing something "rash" I knew it was just setting up another "misunderstanding" gag. I'm sorry, but those are rarely funny at the best of times, and when they are, the setup has to be perfect. I'm afraid it falls rather flat in this case.
#3 · 1
· · >>Bremen
Sorry, but this just doesn’t work. The truth of the matter doesn’t match the initial setup, making the whole story feel cheap. Also, Pinkie’s line fell flatter than a steamrolled flounder. Tone down the beginning to where it will fit the end and you’ll be well on your way to what you had in mind.
#4 · 1
· · >>Bremen
Okay, review time.

This one reads really easily, but I honestly don't feel like there's very much to it. It's marketing itself as a comedy, but there's only one real joke, which is didn't really hit its mark for me. A big part of comedy is subverted expectations, but in this case, I came into the reveal without knowing what to expect at all, mostly because the way the whole "immortality blues" card was played made it pretty clear that this wasn't going to be the true reveal. In the end, So in the end, my gut reaction to the whole twist (and by extension, to the whole piece) was more of a "Oh, I guess that's what happened..." My suggestion would be to make it longer and give yourself time to pepper the build-up to the reveal with plenty of jokes that raise the tension. That way, you'll actually have a conflict to deflate with the reveal--as it is right now, it's kinda like an Olympic springboard diver jumping into a kiddy pool from a stepladder.
#5 · 2
· · >>Bremen
This is a comedy based on a misunderstanding. The problem with misunderstanding-based comedy is that it's prone to feeling stilted.

Why does Twilight blame Princess Celestia in the beginning? I get PC gave her wings, but Twilight goes as far as writing a letter asking explicitly why PC would do this to her--in fact, it's implied she writes many letters [ashes drifting down to form another layer on an already large pile.]. It fits very well if we assume it's about the wings. It also needs to fit well with the wing cramping, but it doesn't. It's a stretch, but I'll assume Twilight was simply irritated and was acting irrationally and needed somepony to blame. I'll give this story the benefit of the doubt on that point and move on.

Why doesn't she simply tell Rarity what the problem is? This is a core problem with misunderstanding-based comedy; if it can be solved with one clarifying sentence, and the character has a chance (or several chances) to say it, the conflict is weak. Take the first scene with Rarity: Rarity says [I know this must be a tough time for you, but becoming an alicorn princess, it’s something you should be celebrating."], and since it's not Twilight's problem, it'd be natural for Twilight to say "No, it's not that. My wing's just cramping.". However, she gives a vague answer that could be intterpreted either way, but the problem is it doesn't sound like a natural response. In hindsight, it makes the conflict feel artificial from that point on.

How has her wing been numb "all morning"? Numbness only lasts a few minutes, typically. You fall asleep on your arm, and once you release the pressure on it, maybe it takes 5 minutes to get back to normal. However, the minimum amount of time passing here is enough for Twilight to write many letters, for Rarity to gather all their friends and talk about it together, and for them to run to Zecora's house. That seems like plenty of time for the feeling to return to her wing. If the numbness lasted longer than that, I feel that'd be a more serious issue. If someone proves me to be wrong, that a limb being numb for an hour is okay (or more, depending on how long "all morning" was), then this point isn't an issue.

Edit: I misread "cramping" for "numb". That was my mistake. I'm sorry. x.x

The reason I point all those things out is that all of it detracts from the punchline. At the end, I didn't go "Oh. That's what it was! Haha" but instead I went "Oh. That's... That doesn't seem right." And since the punchline is the very last thing, whether or not it hits really affects the reader's final impression of the story.

I also agree that the Trixie joke didn't land for me. Why Pinkie thought of Trixie specifically confuses me; Pinkie's not that random. Besides, random humour alone doesn't appeal to me.

That said, it was a good try. I hope the amount of my criticism above doesn't discourage you. It's just that misunderstanding-based comedies are hard to write because it's easy to create plot holes and hard to fix them. Misunderstandings tend to work better as quips or quick jokes than as the basis for an entire comedy.
#6 · 1
· · >>Trick_Question >>Bremen
AJ and Pinkie made me laugh out loud. This was a skilled way of adding comedy to drama (take note, almost every story that tried to do this).

...

Eep. Well, I loved the story until the ending. For some reason, the twist fell flat for me. This is probably because you built up some great drama, and the twist erased all of that for a silly joke.

It also seems odd that Twi would be this bad at communicating with her friends. You almost made it believable with the initial interactions reframed, but not quite. I'd expect the first words out of Twi's mouth would be to explain the problem. And I'd expect the first thing she'd do is seek assistance from any of three different intelligent places (or talk to Dash or Shy) rather than complain to Celestia.

To sum up: you're a good writer, you're great with comedy, and you're very good with drama. The ending just didn't quite work for me.
#7 · 1
· · >>Bremen
>>Trick_Question
I need to say it twice, because it's worth saying twice.

Despite the story as a whole not quite working for me, Pinkie Pie's suggestion was hilarious. You write good Pinkie. That was one of the funniest things I've read in the entire competition, and it appeared in the middle of drama. Amazing work.
#8 · 1
· · >>Bremen
This doesn't quite work for me. Mostly because the entire setup is due to a rather ridiculous misunderstanding, and most of the characters carrying a very large idiot ball. Twilight especially. One or two sentences from her could have cleared the whole thing up. Plus, if she was having wing cramps, surely she'd speak to one of her two winged friends to ask for advice!

I can see where you're trying to go with this, but I'm afraid it sorta fell flat for me.

Perhaps if you'd had more words to use, you could have arranged things differently.. Perhaps having each character overhear Twilight complaining about her wings, or cursing them, and misconstruing it. Especially when they all get together to discuss it. If most of the conflict comes from things that were just overheard, it avoids the issue that a single question or one sentence explanation from Twilight would clear the whole thing up...
#9 ·
·
Tou had a good set up until Pinkie's line about trixie, then it all went downhill. Things just didn't mesh. It wasn't funny, and it wasn't dramatic. It was just, flat
#10 · 1
· · >>Trick_Question >>Posh >>Trick_Question
>>Posh >>Xepher >>FanOfMostEverything >>Bachiavellian >>FrontSevens >>Trick_Question >>Trick_Question >>TheCyanRecluse

Wings Post-Mortem (as far as it deserves one)

"Wings" Can be summarized in the following chat excerpt:

Someone on Discord: Write 500 words about wings!
Bremen: One of my ideas was Twilight waking up for the first time after MMC
But I couldn't think of where to take it
Though now I'm kinda tempted to have Twilight internally agonizing about becoming an Alicorn for 500 words, then have it turn out that rather than any deep philosophical reasons she hates it because she slept on her wing wrong and she's literally in agony.
"Twilight, dear, I can tell your upset. Surely being a princess wont be that bad! We'll all be here to help you!"
Twilight gritted her teeth. "I'll be fine Rarity. Please just leave me alone."
For like, 500 words. Then it's all just a prank on the reader

(and yes, I realize this was sort of a violation of the anonymity rules, but in my defense at the time I wasn't actually planning on writing it).

More seriously, at the time I had put several hours of effort into another story, but had hit a wall. After futily rearranging things for some time, the above occured, and then I realized, hey, that could actually work. So I opened a new tab and spent a half hour chuckling to myself as I wrote down whatever popped into my head. Then I had a breakthrough on my original story and went to finish it. After that, I wasn't quite ready for bed but had Wings sitting open and two thirds finished, so I decided, what the hell, I might as well finish it and turn it in. Then, of course, I couldn't think of a funny way to end it, but I was already done, and it was late, so I may not have been thinking straight (either when I wrote the ending or when I decided to submit it).
Anyways, Wings was always meant as what TVTropes calls a "Shaggy Dog Story"; basically, one with a lot of buildup and then a completely stupid or anti-climactic ending. Writing a story as a prank on the reader is probably a bad way to win a competition, though :p
Thanks to everyone who reviewed it. To be honest, I felt guilty every time a review came up since everyone was doing their best to give constructive advice and kind words when it was really just a half-assed joke. I quite possibly put less work into this story than the reviewers did, and that's something I wont do again; I owe everyone who reviews these stories that much.
Also, somehow it seems fitting that this story turned into my "morning after" regret :p

Finally, the joke that Pinkie made that fell flat for so many was a reference to "wingfic", a genre of fanfic where a character grows wings (usually for no reason, especially considering these characters are often normal humans) and thinks this makes them a freak, and the author designated romantic interest comforts them by telling them their wings are beautiful. Yes, this is actually a thing, and me making a joke about it is probably a sign that my judgement was already faulty from lack of sleep.
#11 ·
·
>>Bremen
Um... Pinkie's joke was the most hilarious thing in the entire competition. It was the best thing about the story.

Sometimes I really don't understand other readers here.
#12 · 1
· · >>Trick_Question
>>Bremen
Finally, the joke that Pinkie made that fell flat for so many was a reference to "wingfic", a genre of fanfic where a character grows wings (usually for no reason, especially considering these characters are often normal humans) and thinks this makes them a freak, and the author designated romantic interest comforts them by telling them their wings are beautiful. Yes, this is actually a thing, and me making a joke about it is probably a sign that my judgement was already faulty from lack of sleep.


I think, then, that you should clarify the joke by making that allusion more obvious.

The characters' responses to it were more funny than the line itself, imo.
Post by Posh , deleted
#14 · 1
· · >>FanOfMostEverything
>>Bremen
>>Posh
For the record, I have no idea what the buck a 'wingfic' is.

The joke is funny because Pinkie implies that Trixie is so argumentative and contrary to Twilight, that Twilight could receive a complement from Trixie by insulting herself to Trixie's face, to which Trixie would disagree... which is so crazy only Pinkie would think of that.

How is that not hilarious?! :V

LAUGH, DAMN YOU, EVERYPONY LAUGH
#15 · 1
· · >>Bremen
>>Trick_Question
Huh. Looked at from that angle, it is quite funny.
#16 ·
·
>>FanOfMostEverything
I'm going to plead "death of the author" on that one.