UPDATE: Ask, and receive. Let's push the submission deadline to Thursday, January 23, 11:59 PM PST.
When one-third of your kingdom's population can tell gravity to go tuck itself in bed at any given moment, that's going to be a lot of secret awesome many ponies never get to experience. Beyond just bending the third dimension to their will, something as simple, yet unorthodox as giving pegasus ponies the ability to control the weather has seeded some of the show's finest settings and stories.
When one-third of your kingdom's population can tell gravity to go tuck itself in bed at any given moment, that's going to be a lot of secret awesome many ponies never get to experience. Beyond just bending the third dimension to their will, something as simple, yet unorthodox as giving pegasus ponies the ability to control the weather has seeded some of the show's finest settings and stories.
Who hasn't looked out of an airplane at 36,000 feet? Those clouds down there certainly look solid enough, don't they? My favorite ponies may not be pegasi, but I have to admit I wouldn't hesitate to take a walk on the winged side if I had the chance.
Hit the break for this week's prompt, and prepare for something a little different this time.
"What's it like to fly?"
Take a pegasus. Any pegasus. Somepony somewhere asked them this question, and for whatever reason it stuck in their head. Flying's not only a thing pegasi do -- it's something non-pegasi don't do. For this week's prompt, I encourage you not to worry about presenting a complete story in favor of focusing your attention on one scene.
Throw your viewpoint character in the air, anywhere, whether it's flapping out to the market or piercing the stratosphere, and take your reader along for the ride. What's it like to invert the horizon, and fly with the sun on your belly? How do you give yourself over to the roaring throat of free-fall? Describe the ozone in your nose as a lightning bolt grazes your coat in a storm.
Write so that you feel like you've given something up when you've finished.
If you're feeling puzzled or diminished, give Moonspire Run a read. Not only is it an excellent primer on the sensations of flight, but back when EqD ranked fics by stars, this story of TitanRising's was the only one on the blog to carry a full 5.0 star score. The criteria for earning the coveted 6-Star ranking was an average of 4.9+ stars over 60 ratings, meaning that Moonspire Run was pretty much the only 6-star fic on Equestria Daily without a single 1-star vote. Now you have something to chase after.
Because we're only working on a scene this week, we've reduced the word count a bit. Take note -- you should feel free to expand upon any WTG submission you've sent in in addition to this week's if you feel there's a story in it screaming for expansion.
- Keep the content appropriate as defined by our submission guidelines.
- Keep it between 1,000 - 5,000 words. >Greentexts and doorstoppers should apply elsewhere!
- Keep it to two genres maximum. For the roundup, fics will be grouped by their primary genre.
When you finish working on your fic, use this form to submit it to the Training Grounds. However, we will require much of the same information as if you were submitting a regular fic as follows, and this document explains what these requirements are.
- Story title
- Author name
- Story description (~1 paragraph maximum)
- Word count
- Genre tags (2 tags maximum)
- Character tags (3 tags maximum)
- Story URL (must be hosted on FimFiction, GDocs, dA, etc.)
- Email address
The deadline for submission is Thursday, January 23, 11:59 PM PST.
As always, please continue to leave us feedback with what works well for these events, what's not working well, your general satisfaction with these, etc. etc. and so on. Now get writing!
