"Away" on Equestria Daily, plus updates · 10:00am Jun 2nd, 2020
So, not only did it somehow win the contest it was written for, but Away has now been featured on Equestria Daily!
(For the record, I've written eight (8) non-clop stories, and four of them have now been EQD-featured. That's a huge honour, and also kind of a lot to process, so I'll just say thank you to everypony for reading, and to the EQD people for the features.)
Anyway. Away. It's been a strange one, this; I wasn't sure how to tag it from the start (and it's hard to explain why without spoiling the whole story for anyone who's not read it), and I had major doubts over the very notion of a specifically uplifting story where lots of ponies die "on-screen", so I never expected it to take off in any way. Plus, it's been edited (some might even say rewritten) to some extent since the contest ended - firstly to tighten up a couple of things based on feedback, adding some material plugging a plot hole that I simply couldn't fit in to meet the contest word limit, and then to tidy up some technical issues based on advice from the EQD prereaders. So, in a way, the story you're reading now isn't exactly the story that won the contest, but I think it's better for the changes.
I won't be going back to do the same thing to Errors, which I feel is probably a chapter too short as a result of similar contest word limit problems (I had this whole thing planned with the final magic show and the arrival of the Duchess that there just wasn't room for); it's been there for more than a year now as it is, I'm at peace with it.
Away is still struggling for views, even after the EQD feature, and maybe that comes with the territory of it just not being particularly accessible, but I really enjoyed writing it. Oh, whilst I'm here talking about stories nopony read, I've given Diplodocus a new cover:
Yeah, both the stories I've written this year have really limped along view-wise compared to last year's crop (even something like Not Fade Away, which got no attention at the time and which I barely bothered to promote at all, is steadily inching towards 750); perhaps it's time I wrote something with a little more popular appeal. Um, after the esoteric Startrix cuddlefic named after an obscure 60s French-language pop song that's been on my to-finish list for nearly two months, that is.
Stay safe and be well, everypony.
TC
x
Ah, congratulations. :)
Sorry you're getting low views there, though.
Stay safe and be well to you, too. :)