That's enough Pinkie! I may love her but she's cray cray. So before we throw a party lets look over our contestants. We've got 4 lined up here at the starting line. I must say they were all very brave to come out of the closet and be judged. Give them all a hand. In no particular order:

Next Contestant by bahatumay
Temporary by Anex
The End of a Quest by wYvern
First Impressions by MalWinters

Since this is our first contest, We won't be doing any comparisons to previous contests, BUT we will hand out an interesting tidbit. The average score of all contestants this month was 3.859. That's not bad at all, and certainly leaves a lot of room for improvement. How will everyone do in the next contest huh?

Let's move on to the Categorical Winners...

Good

PRESENTATION
3rd: First Impressions and Next Contestant
2nd: Temporary
1st: The End of a Quest

MECHANICS
3rd: Next Contestant
2nd: Temporary and The End of a Quest
1st: First Impressions

DEPTH
3rd: Next Contestant
2nd: First Impressions
1st: The End of a Quest

PLOT
3rd: Next Contestant
2nd: The End of a Quest
1st: First Impressions

DESCRIPTION OF SETTING
3rd: Next Contestant
2nd: The End of a Quest
1st: First Impressions

Looks like everyone managed to place in at least one category. That's a great thing to hear! Guess what comes next?

Coming in third place with a solid score of 3.268 was bahatumay and his story Next Contestant. Yeah! Woo!

Lets see some of what the Judges had to say!

Klondike: (on Depth)
No real complaints in this category. Fluttershy (although I disbelieve she would work as a waitress in a bar) was a believable pushover, and Rainbow Dash was a believable over-protective bitch. (Getting hit on is how waitresses make their foldin' money.)

Iggy: (on Depth)
I have to say, it was a pretty sweet, pretty grammatically complex, second person love story.

Beau: (on Mechanics)
Writing in second person caused me to miss a beat or two, since I found it weird that Rainbow was having a giant onesided conversation with a silent and unnamed other. That said, I didn't find any glaring spelling or punctuation errors. Grammar was awkward to read, but it might just be me.

The Second Place spot goes to MalWinters and his story First Impressions, which received a score of 4.332. All the Judges had a fun time reading it.

Judges?

Klondike: (on Description of Setting)
Indeed, the setting itself, a ramshackle tavern on the edge of the waterfront seemed like a little bit of cliche, but for this fic, it worked. The setting itself was vividly described both through implication and imagination, and might I say that the fight scene was delightfully Salvatore-esque. By the way, kelp "cider" is actually real, but it is brown, not green.

Iggy: (on Plot)
I loved it. Enough said.

Beau: (on Presentation)
The lack of cover art for the story caused the front page to look bland, and the story description was too subtle and generic to make up for it. Never the less, I was happily surprised by how neatly the story was laid out. Paragraphs were spaced for easy reading, and you put page breaks around the parts where the CMC went out of character.

Finally, for FIRST PLACE, weighing in at a stupendous 4.636, is wYvern!

This story was a true joy to read, right Judges?

Klondike: (on Depth)
This was a powerful read, and to be honest I truly enjoyed it. In just 5k words, you managed to tell the entire life journey of a once sea-bound stallion, along with his hopes and dreams of finding a place to call home. This story really spoke to me, as most of my family line has been sailors and Navy officers.

Iggy: (on Presentation)
Welp, I have absolutely nothing to say. These two clowns pretty much took the words right out of my mouth. I will say this though, it was a pretty melancholy story. And those, are my favorite.

Beau: (on Mechanics)
I didn't find any spelling or punctuation errors even after looking. Your grammar is likewise excellent. But your word choices are what grab me in regards to mechanics. The vocabulary of the story is on a higher level than most, and it really accents the fact that Old Thunder is an introspective character.

Congratulations to wYvern on coming in first place! And I would like to thank each of the contestants for entering our first actual contest.

Thanks for holding the contest and your kind words. This really boosts my writing-motivation. I expected not to win and was already working on an idea for this months contest, but I guess I'll use the motivation to continue my other stories. I'm looking forward to July's contest, though.

1091391

We'll be looking forward to getting your July submission. I took a glance at your story yesterday, and it is definitely deserving of winning a contest. Great job!