I have another journey of a thousand miles to undertake and I can't commit to writing a story, but I will draw a pic for everyone who submits.

Pretty sure with 99.999 percent certainty I'll get my story in before the deadline.

Depending on how things go:

This afternoon, I might have one to submit, too.

Mike

… interesting collection…

In which the cycle of hugs goes on...? Maybe?

My gripe with it is twofold. One, Party Piece seems to go from 0 to 100 with not much justified explanation/build-up when you mention that the griffon victim is in the hospital and then apparently also paralyzed. It's a way to disrupt Piece's daily routine and change up creatures' opinions of Piece in a jiffy, but it's not a natural one. It feels forced, simply there for the sake of moving Piece forward.

And two, what is the point or moral of Piece's arc? I learn that she's got parental issues and, given that the original Pinkie is admittedly on the touchy and huggy side, Piece would be uniquely affected by the hug-censoring curse... but then what? Is it that she realizes that she's so touchy/huggy and needs to change? But then that doesn't work since everyone in her hometown was fine with it before the curse happens. Or perhaps it's a tragedy in which taking away one of her defining features(?) will upend her? But then, there's not much catharsis for the reader; it's simply Piece and a bunch of other ponies suffering because they can't fully and literally comprehend what a hug is anymore.

On the plus side, though, it is admittedly a way to tackle the prompt in a literal sense. A more casual SCP-esque tale, mayhaps? I realized that this story is pretty much an epigram of sorts, having no mention of the word hug (though embrace is cutting close), so there's certainly an A+ here for the effort and unique idea. And it's a bold effort to get OCs all the way for an MLP contest.

Anyway, it's still a mysterious and surreal way to start off the selection! Thank you for the story.

Ah… I was thinking of doing a pic, but I'm exhausted and wouldn't get it in in time… hmf.

As promised, all fics now have a pic from me. I hope you like them!

Yeah:

I've been there... :)

Thanks!
Mike

My problem:

With this story is that it doesn't seem to be about anything. A lot of stuff happens, but when I asked myself, "What's this story about?" I couldn't come up with an answer. I'm hoping to figure something out before I post it at Fimfiction. :)

Mike

LOL

>>GroaningGreyAgony
Like 'em a lot.

>>Baal Bunny

Night Fight

Thanks for the gold, both to the voters and the other artists who failed to enter something. : )

My first approach for this story was Derpy trying to stuff the mailbox, but the fight scene definitely scored more points for an interesting and fun scene to draw. I was considering reaction faces that could be made by one of Carrot's foes, then suddenly the horse from Guernica popped into my head and I couldn't stop laughing. After one draft sketch, this is what emerged.

>>Griseus

Healing Over

This one didn't drift far from my initial draft scribble, though I initially had her lying in bed. It seemed fitting for a wounded Pegasus to be in pseudo-flight while healing, so to speak.
I had to make Lead Balloon's mark mean something, so I picked a symbol from a famous album.

Letting Go

I spent the most time on this one, trying to get a reasonable layout with accurate symmetry, as I only had one piece of scratchboard at hand. I used a teacup, CD and mousepad to outline most of the circles, and a food dye bottle for those big eyes.

>>GroaningGreyAgony
Just like the look on her face and can imagine it's the look of someone who knew that they screwed up.