Check out the Poll Brackets
Or all of the April Foals Entries
Below are the entries for Round 2! As with the last one, feel free to comment on these specific entries below!
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6) April Showers
Description: An argument and some less-than-good-natured pranking lead two feisty fillies to discover how much they care about one another.[Shipping] Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Author: Lord of the Wrongs
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7) Rainbow Dash's AWESOMELY RADICAL April Foal's Prank
Descripion: My entry to the April fools day contest. (DERP)[Normal] Rainbow Dash, Author: Rex Ivan
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8) Twilight's Last Gleaming
Description: It is April Foals Day, and Twilight Sparkle is determined to beat Pinkie Pie and win the prize for best prankster by any means possible. Can Ponyville possibly survive?[Normal] Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Author: M.Marsh
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9) Pony of a Different Color
Description: Fluttershy Seems more nervous than usual today[Normal] Fluttershy, Author: Augiedog
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10) April Foals
Description: As the April Fools' Day approaches, Pinkie Pie causes a minor scandal in Ponyville. But what has Rainbow Dash to do with it all?[Normal] Pinkie Pie, Author: Lurks No More
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38 comments:
Judging by the original post's comments, Twilight's Last Gleaming is the clear favorite. It's also my vote.
ReplyDeleteThe Rainbow Dash one started off strong, but sputtered out, as nifty as the idea of Pinky meeting Faust was.
ReplyDeleteMy second choice was Horse of a Different Color. I wish we could do two votes, because while I also went with Twilight's Last Gleaming, I think that Horse deserves more love than it's getting.
Aww, dammit. This is a really tough bracket to compete in, with some excellent stories all around!
ReplyDelete#6 is both funny and touching, with rivalry, jokes and tenderness; #7 awesomely meta, if a bit cruel to poor Pinkie; #8 has Twilight in her best socially tone-deaf mode with hilarious results; and #9 is just heartwarming, plus it gives a really nice insight into Fluttershy's personality.
And #10 is the one you should all be voting for, of course! ;)
This bracket had some very nice ones in it.
ReplyDeleteBuuuuuuuut Twilight's Last Gleaming had me chuckling throughout and I can't resist nerd Twilight going overboard.
Oh god, all of these are so damn good! 6, 7 and 8 are all freakin Celestia tier and the other two are good enough on their own to have won the previous category.
ReplyDeleteOk so the Rainbow Dash one...I don't get it. That's not funny. That's not even close to funny. That's just kinda screwed up.
ReplyDelete6, 8 and 10 are so good I can't decide!
ReplyDelete6 has the best writing but 8 and 10 use the April Foals theme more effectively.
Hmmm, this is difficult.
i have to echo bobcat's sentiments. i really liked horse of a different color a lot, but in the end, my vote went to twilight's last gleaming. everyone did a great job, but those were my two favorites in this bracket.
ReplyDeleteJust finished #7, I just had to comment, and I had to steal from Robert E. Howard to do it...
ReplyDelete[Could be spoilers]
"Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is an illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and I am content."
I'm surprised; I didn't like Last Gleaming that much. I thought Twi was being utterly callous and even stupid, to the point of being totally out of character. I can totally see Twi going overboard with a prank, but not being oblivious to her friends' pain afterward.
ReplyDeleteThe last two stories were well written; Different Color is cute, and April Foals is ...well, really kind of weird, but it works.
Rainbow Dash's Awesomely etc. started off well, but I don't think I really got it. I guess it's one of those anti-jokes, being funny by telling a joke that doesn't actually have a funny punchline, or something... it just left me going "What?" more than anything else.
But my vote goes to April Showers. It's /adorable/ shipping, and I like that it stands out by being about April Fools without entirely revolving around the holiday.
Aw, dammit, these are all too good!
ReplyDeleteIf I could've voted for all of them I would've!
I had to vote for Pony of a Different Color. It was just too cute.
ReplyDeleteI also vote for third party candidates, so I'm kind of used to never having my choice winning. Sorry if I jinxed you Augiedog.
@Escher
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about Twilight. That rendition of her personality grates on me too much to want to vote on it, and I found the ending a little predictable even if it was cute.
I happily go with April Showers and hope more people give it a chance. If anypony is skipping it just because it's shipping they are doing the story and themselves a disservice!
@Escher: Don't worry, it took me a second to get it too. Think about Rainbow Dash's idea of the greatest prank ever. Making someone think they were in on it, think they knew how it was going to go, and then pull a 180 so that it's nothing like they expected? And...how did the fic go?
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten around to reading the other entries yet but I loved April Showers. It was cute, well written, and romantic. I was hooked from the beginning and had the biggest smile on my face. I would've preferred it had it stopped at the second to last paragraph. Something about that last sentence felt kind of weird.
ReplyDeleteDecided to spend this afternoon reading the entries for this round and I really didn't regret doing so.
ReplyDeleteApril Showers is well written, characters being true to their personalities, and generaly very nice :) //Though I must agree with Mario the very last paragraph felt weird. Not that it was bad on its own, it's just after reading the entire story those last sentences seemed quiet alien to the whole.//
Twilight's Last Gleaming was nice and well written, maybe Twi's character went a bit off, but still a good writing.
Pony of a Different Color was simply ADOREABLE!!! All the characters acted so well and true to their nature and besides I'm always biased towards Fluttershy :P
April Foals - Though I find this one well written aswell I think it was a bit too predictable. Still nice job.
What I left last was the Rainbowdash story. I'm confused really. English isn't my motherlanguage so I read it over again and felt a sudden loss of self-confidence if I'm missing something, maybe ignoring some lines or lacking understanding in general, but I couldn't help myself but getting one question echoing in my mind: What?
Started well, the Pinkie-Lauren part was really heart-smothering and cruel, but still I liked the idea as it had an interesting concept, but the ending was...dunno. Weird. Still not sure.
Overall I think this bracket is strong, will be difficult to choose :S
Rainbow Dash made my head hurt.
ReplyDelete"HA HA, what's Rainbow Dash's prank going to b--"
[spoiler?]
BWOOOOOOOOOOOONG
"Hi! I'm Television's Lauren Faust! You're not real! Neither am I!"
BWOOOOOOOOOOOONG
pinkiepiecoma.jpg
[/spoiler?]
@l0x0r
ReplyDelete'Sokay. Like folk're saying, a buncha good stories here. Mine just looks like it's everyone's 2nd favorite and not too many people's #1! :)
Now that I'm thinking it over, the Rainbow Dash story might be an....explanation to Pinkie's 4th wall related behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI honestly would love if the author would shed some light on the story :S
As I wrote above, the first part is starting off well, then comes the Pinkie - Lauren part, and then the ending.
Each of the 3 main sections are good on their own, but here they seem like parts of 3 different stories losely stiched together, or simply the story is not finished.
I honestly don't know and I really feel confused about it (reason while Im commenting on it for the second time by now).
What am I missing?! Somepony help me out please :P
1 was a really nice story, but it just wasn't April Foalsy enough.
ReplyDelete2 was just too weird and kinda mean to Pinkie.
3 was my favorite at first, and 4 was cute and all, but 5 won when i read it.
SPOILERS!!SPOILERS!!SPOILERS!!SPOILERS!!!
ReplyDeleteAuthor of #7 here:
Many seem to be confused with my entry. I apologize for that. I now have to admit that having to explain the joke means that it mostly didn't work. The key to the whole story is Rainbow Dash's last paragraph where she tells what the "best prank" is. What she describes is basically the outline of the story, and insinuates that the reader is the "pony" who is being pranked. What was this “stupendous” prank? I wanted to write some good (hopefully) meta fiction to make up for anything bad that the reader had experienced with meta stories, and possibly introduce readers who were put off at looking into stuff like this to begin with (they may grow to like it). Now, how to get somepony to read this sort of thing after they have already deemed it unreadable? Disguise it, of course! THAT is the prank. The whole story is the prank that Rainbow Dash helped me to play on all the readers. And, yeah, Pinkie was in on it too, but she was just going along with it for “extra fun”. It takes more than THAT to phase her in the slightest. She has tea and cakes with Faust every other Tuesday. I hope this helps explain things, and I hope you had fun with it. Thank you all for taking the time to read my work. :)
- Rex Ivan
@ Rex Ivan
ReplyDeleteI still don't get it D:
It was written well though!
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteYou disguised it so well it barely registered in my mind as meta-fiction and more as an excuse/plot device to give Pinkie Pie an existential crisis. And then I was disappointed you barely did anything with Nihilist Pinkie.
@ Rex Ivan
ReplyDeleteI give up. Even with your explanation I still don't seem to get it. I admit the writing was great I just still can't put together the pieces, even though I feel there's something there I should see or understand. Maybe it's so blatantly simple I'm slipping over it (would make sense, in all my life I was prone to overcomplicate things if I didnt understand them the first time).
Maybe one day it will struck me as lightning on a bright clear day and I will laugh how simple it is and why I couldn't see it sooner.
But for now, I just humbly bow and admit my defeat.
P.S.: really appreciating you hopped in to explain and sorry for being such a blockhead :P
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteOverall I feel the entire "ponies meet creator" concept has a good potential in it. I could easily imagine nice long stories with different scenarios about the ponies, how they meet the creators, how they are affected by the realisation and how they try to live their "lives" after it, showing it from the perspective of each of the ponies.
Just need somepony to write a good fanfic around it.
i think i'm actually changing my vote to april showers. after reading it again i started to appreciate it even more.
ReplyDeleteWere this a general fic vote I would chose April Showers however I'm going to vote based on the fact that this is an April Foals competition so it has to go to Twilight's Last Gleaming since it did a really good job with the April Fools theme.
ReplyDelete@Rex Ivan
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm apparently not in the majority, I thought the twist ending was too obvious. That was the only apparent resolution I could think of once I realized the pinkiepiephany wasn't going to be resolved.
Two things I can point out that I didn't like about the story. First, the distraction plot should be something readers can shrug off. For me, Lauren Faust acting toward her own creation like the Architect toward Neo is hard to accept, and then Pinkie doesn't seem to recover from her experience afterward. Second, the twist ending needs to be revealed after the exposition. It's boring for the characters to explain the story I'm reading when I know that's what they're doing. It was a clever concept though.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteIt feels kinda odd how Pinkie just discovered the fourth wall now... I mean, she'd tapped it dozens of times before, right? She even explicitly broke it during the Wild West/Huff the Magic Dragon/Fluttershy is a Tree episode...
@The Epic Spammastor of Ponifics
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I totally agree. That is why I said she was in on it the whole time, and was play acting. I tried to make that evident at the very end when she 'snapped out' of her pinkiecoma, and said she had fun with it.
BTW I really like the word pinkiepiephany. It needs to go in the pinkictionary.
-Rex Ivan
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI... Oh wow... I got April Fool'd
Nicely done, but I have that aching feeling at the back of my head that tells me that it should have been Rainbow Dash in the closet (heh. Closet Gay. I made a funny) because she was the real prankster. That, or there should have been a tad bit more focus on Pinkie.
So... Should this go under Random or should someone make a Meta tag? I'd like to hear more Meta-Pony ^_^
Ack. Pony feathers! I realized I responded to the wrong round thread. I really wish there was a delete button on these buggers.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, April Showers was fairly well written... but the content didn't exactly warrant my vote. =P Maybe it's because I don't ship ponies?
Twilight's Last Gleaming has my vote. The Spike bits did it for me. Spike made the story amazing. =P
Fluttershy was actually kinda creepy in "Twilight's Last Gleaming"...
ReplyDeleteBut I liked that story the most, anyway. That one has my vote!
Lesssee here.
ReplyDelete1) Actually one of the better Appledash ship fics I've read (and I'd say I'm a pretty big fan of both Appledash and Pinkiedash. I would give this one my vote if it was a general fic contest but it doesn't have as much to do with April Fools so... Good job anyway.
2)That was probably the most meta thing I've ever read. I would have really liked it if the whole point of Dash never actually doing a prank had been explained better but it was certainly interesting.
3)Twilight being socially awkward. Dash and Pinkie coming out of nowhere to pull an awesome prank. I love it. I do agree with the anon who said that Fluttershy was creepy but it was a nice reference.
4)That was a really heartwarming Fluttershy story :3
5)This would be the main contender for this round along with Twilight's Last Gleaming. If you had built up to the punchline just a little bit more you probably would have had it for me.
Oh well, Twilight's Last Gleaming gets my vote.
April Showers made shipping seem heartwarming and adorable. I loved it on so many levels. It has my vote :D
ReplyDeleteI imagine there to be a horribly cruel alternate ending version of "April Showers", where Applejack really WAS just making an April Foal's prank when they had the conversation on the cloud. Except that would totally not be like her.
ReplyDeleteIt's one hour before the deadline, so that means more last-minute cranky reviews! I must say, the bar has been raised by this batch.
ReplyDelete*April Showers* - Very nice characterization. When some people write Applejack I just don't hear it, but this totally works for me. I'm lookin forward to... *sees scrollbar* FIVE THOUSAND WORDS!? Well, that's just ridiculous.
*Rainbow Dash's Awesomeface* - Hah, taste the rainbow typography. Dash's self-directed-prep-speech seems very authentic. Feels like that first page could be tightened up a bit, the "don't crack up" and "best prank ever" beats get repeated a few times. I'm looking forward to... *sees scrollbar* FIVE THOUSAND WORDS AGAIN!? What the hay is going on here?
*Twilight's Last Gleaming* - More spot-on character stuff. I especially like the little Rarity bits here. This really reads like an episode. My only hope is that is isn't... *sees scrollbar* OH GOD DAMN IT NOT AGAIN. Seriously, is this a conspiracy? I can't read 25 thousand words in an hour. One thing I will say is that, if I have time, I will come back and read the rest of this one because so far it's the most compelling. I'm genuine curious as to what Pikie and Dash's pranks will be.
*Pony of a Different Color* - Finally a story I'll have time to finish. Ah, so much good Rarity stuff. I think the line about purebreds got me the most; I read it in exactly her voice. Fluttershy seems a little TOO shy in the first part, if that's possible. The first and second halves of the story seem a little too loosely connected too me. Cute ending.
*April Foals* - "Gasp!" Hmm, the characters don't feel as strongly written in this story as they do in the others (which probably says more about the high calibre of the competition than it says about this story). For example, I don't really hear Pinkie when I read "absolutely fabulous", that's definitely more Rarity territory in my mind. Does "with a flick of her horn" sound dirty to anyone else, or have I just read too many of Roy G. Biv's fics? Some cool world building going on here with the history of April Foals. I love the little touches like "mouthwriting" and "weather pranks". Wow, that sure was a groaner of a punchline, although I'm sure you know that. I kind of wish there had been a longer gap between Pinkie's announcement and the big reveal... feels like there's plenty of funny stuff to be had there. I don't understand why Fluttershy needed to be in on the joke for the story to work, that aspect sort of distracted me.
*Twilight's Last Gleaming: Take Two* - OK, I gots 10 minutes left. Does "she gave a flick of her awesome rainbow mane" sound dirty to anyone else, or have I... wait, I already did this joke. I'm just completely grinning reading this, it REALLY feels like an unaired episode, which is apparently exactly what I want from a story. I didn't finish it, but I will. Voted.
I just realized that none of the stories so far have had Poison Joke in them. Too obvious?
@Pangolynn Fluttershy's in on the joke, because she'd worry herself sick about Pinkie otherwise. This way, she merely disapproves them, which is preferable to everyone. :)
ReplyDelete