I'm still not 100% sure how I want to deal with the art one. It would be unfair to throw all 15 into a poll at let them duke it out. Anyway let the voting begin!
Check out the Poll Brackets For Winners!
Or all of the April Foals Entries
Below are the Entries for Round 5! Comments below!
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22) First April 1st
Description: It's April Fool's day in Ponyville, and seeing as how this is the first time Twilight's been around friends who're actually interested in a good prank, it's quite the learning experience.[Normal] Everypony, Author: ImBigBob
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23) Kick Roll'd
Description: Spring is here, and for Cloud Kicker, that means PRANKS![Normal] Cloud Kicker, Rainbow Dash, Author: Desert Rose
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24) Big Dragon
Description: Pinkie Pie agrees to perform an epic April Fool's prank[Normal] Spike, Zecora, Author: Lucres
on behalf of a mysterious stranger. It's unintended effects
eventually put the whole town in danger. Meanwhile, Spike just wants
to fly...
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25) April Foals Day With Sprinkles
Description: A twist on an old classic.[Random] Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Author: AlterForm
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26) I Shall Crush Them Beneath an Iron Hoof
Description: A Crossover with Teen Titans: An April Fools fic in which the Teen Titans travel to Equestria after encountering the Crimson Mane Revolutionary Guard, a group of Equesterian Nationlaists who oppose Celestia in the name (they claim) of Democracy. Note: The Teen Titans of this story come from a shared fanfiction universe where there are more of them. There's a lot of stories in this universe but prior knowledge isn't required to understand this story.[Crossover] Other, Author: Chaltab
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27 kommentaari:
oh my god, rainbow dash layout. <3
VastaKustutaI, for one, welcome our prismatic overlord.
VastaKustutaCongratulation on reaching 2 million views Sethisto!
VastaKustutaRainbow Dash!
22) First April 1st, gets my vote.
VastaKustutaIt was a close one between that and Kick Roll'd.
Big Dragon wasn't my tea.
April Foals Day With Sprinkles leaves a single question to be asked. Who did she have to kill to get the leather strap? Cows are sentient and ponies don't eat meat so it has to be synthetic leather, because if it isn't... yeah synthetic leather. No way could Pinkie actually be evil right?
The crossover is original, but it doesn't scream "vote me". In explanation it's like Aprils first was tacked on to get it into the competition, there will be votes for it no doubt but not many.
Actually I didn't actually even my fic for the competition, I just wrote an off the wall crossover to throw my friends for a loop.
VastaKustutaBig Dragon for the win. I mean, I'm literally rooting for it to win the whole time. I had been waiting for someone to write a fic like this.
VastaKustutaMy vote was split on this one. Chaltab is my friend and I helped him out with it. Big Dragon was awesome and I'd like to see that episode. AlterForm is awesome, gave me an awesome avatar and used some fanon I did (Rainbow Dash's middle name). I didn't enjoy it as much as Big Dragon, but it was good too.
VastaKustutaSo, I won't say who I voted for. All three were good, I picked one, and if my vote will change the victory of one versus the others, I will shift my vote strategically.
I'm voting "King Roll'd", just for the title.
VastaKustutaI liked Big Dragon too, seeing as who had taken over this place on the first...and speaking of which, Pinkie wants her jimmies, Trixie!
VastaKustutai went with 1st april foals. for me it was close between that and big dragon, but something about 1st april foals just pulled it in front for me.
VastaKustutaI've uploaded Big Dragon to deviantart(and the rest of my stories while I was at it) in case anyone hates google docs. Here's the link:
VastaKustutahttp://lucre5.deviantart.com/#/d3d5fi1
Interesting side-note, I'm in my Fruit, Veg, and Starch class in culinary school, and we're doing apple-based dishes today. Applejack would approve.
VastaKustutaBig Dragon is definitely a contender for the BIG WIN. So it gets my bracket vote without question.
VastaKustutaGah, you have the name of my story wrong in the poll! It's "First April 1st", not "1st April Foals"
VastaKustutaI know it's my fault for picking an intentionally confusing title, but still!
I went with Big Dragon as well. Despite the unfortunate fate of the Great and Powerful Trixie.
VastaKustutaI don't see why throwing all the art together in one poll would be unfair. The votes get skewed no matter what you do; if you split them into several brackets as with the fiction, you risk several good pieces being thrown into the same bracket. Not to mention adding more and more days to the polling time.
VastaKustutaI guess there's just a limit to what you can achieve with a single vote poll, though I doubt if multiple choice would fare much better (since really you'd want to rank the top 3 or so by preference).
I am thinking between 24) and 25).
VastaKustutaI liked the Big Dragon entry for its story, plus it was written well in my opinion.
"April Foals Day With Sprinkles" - You can't imagine my face filled with the mixed feelings of horror and confusion while I started reading the familiar lines.
That one tricked me. Score there. :)
Now I just gotta decide which one to vote on.
B..but what about Kick Roll'd? :(
VastaKustutaLet's give some reviews.
VastaKustuta1st April Fools wasn't bad, but it seemed more like a Humiliation Conga for Twilight more than anything else. The cathartic 'prank-back' wasn't really strong enough to counteract the sympathy for Twilight that had been building.
Kick Roll'd was a bit bland for me. It appeared to be one scene out of context from a larger storyline. It's just two pranks described, and perhaps an inside joke or two (Lyre cloudwalking). There's just no... dramatic tension. No real conflict. No plot. Also, it partly stars a OC pony, whose personality we know little about, making him a bit vanilla. Oh, we know stuff ABOUT him, but nothing what he's like.
Now Big Dragon is a story I can get behind. I really can't think much to critique off the top of my head. Only that we've never heard of Spike longing to fly, but even so, it makes sense for him to. Everyone stayed in character, the story flowed nicely, and it was a good read. A scene between Spike and Rarity during the climax would have been a nice addition, but that's the only thing I'd add.
April Foals Day With Sprinkles I assume to be a joke on the infamous fanfic I won't name. (Never read the thing, and I'm not going to). It's nice as sort of a meta-prank, but comes off more as an inside joke than anything else.
As for Iron Hoof, I'm not that fond of crossover fics, as they don't usually tend to merge together well. Additionally, you generally have to like and be familiar with BOTH series to really enjoy it.
Aside from that, the piece seems to be a giant action sequence. Which is fine, but the tension flatlined. The two sides engage, and then nothing of consequence happens for three or four paragraphs. Just fighting. An action sequence for its own sake usually works best an a visual medium, but not as well in a textual one. I would suggest having the fighting punctuated by plot points here and there. The first section of the story seems pointless. Yes, it's not a good idea to jump straight into the combat, but the opening just came across as filler.
Also, I did not see anything April Fools related on my first readthrough, which was kinda the entire point of the theme for this contest.
My pick? Big Dragon. No contest.
Whoops, I didn't see the chapter jumper on the last story. Let's read on and see how that changes things.
VastaKustutaWell, that certainly answers where the April Fools thing comes into play, well, where it is mentioned. As someone else mentioned, the theme isn't really integrated all that well. At least not yet. I have a feeling this was written with a couple other chapters in mind that aren't up yet. As a whole, this felt more like Teen Titans than MLP, which didn't suit me that well for this competition. And it's obviously incomplete, unless I missed another link past chapter 3.
That Big Dragon story....
VastaKustutaThe beginning the way the author described how 'she' was sitting....
It makes me feel wierd :S
Cloud is a filly, not a colt.
VastaKustutaAnd please be light on me, it's my first time on this.
Also, what the heck is a jimmie?
VastaKustuta@Bobcat
VastaKustutaI had to look it up too; jimmies are sprinkles.
@ Desert Rose
VastaKustutaSorry, my bad. I default to male gender when I'm not sure. Here, let me be constructive. If you're willing to learn, I'm more than happy to try and help you do so! :) Writing Rambling Mode engage!
You've written a good scene, but not a good story, perse. But as you say, you're new, so one can chalk this up to inexperience rather than incompetence. You just need some more practice.
The main thing I would suggest working on for next time (There will be a next time, I hope), is narrative. That is, what is the point to your story? What is the central conflict? All stories need conflict in some fashion or another, otherwise it gets boring. Keep in mind this doesn't always have to be unpleasant, as in a fight or argument. The central premise is that there is some challenge or obstacle that needs to be overcome. Look through the various submissions, and you can usually find one major conflict that spans the work, even if there are several sub-conflicts that come from the main one.
From there, you can start creating your story. Craft the beginning, middle, and end. The introduction to the problem, the efforts spent trying to overcome it, the climax where it's overcome, and the short resolution where the characters enjoy their victory.
Now let's look at your story, and how one might go about improving it. As I said previously, your story felt disjointed. Let's say your central conflict is Cloud pranking Lyre. Then everything you put into the story has to support this. A good third of your story has Cloud talking to Dash when Dash doesn't really contribute much to the prank at all. All Dash really served to do was to be someone Cloud could tell his backstory to. And Pinkie, who was already there, could have served the same purpose.
Secondly, the conflict is never that big to begin with. Cloud sets up his prank, Lyre falls for it, they have a laugh, go home. The conflict never gets big enough for the reader to really care about it that much. It's like... riding a roller coaster with a 5 ft drop. Woo. Now, if we have Cloud playing a succession of pranks on Lyre, THAT would be interesting to see. She would be more and more on her guard, and the tension of how Cloud would trick her each time when it gets harder and harder to do so would be what keeps you reading. The bigger the climax is, the more satisfying it is.
There are a few other issues, but they're relatively minor, and I've rambled on long enough. I hope I was helpful!
@PhantomFox
VastaKustutaThanks. I appreciate your help, and there will be more stories, I just gotta get to writing them. :)
I wished I'd managed to vote, because "Big Dragon" was *excellent*. I wish I'd written it, but if I had I'm not convinced it would have been half as good. Bittersweet and adorable.
VastaKustuta