Ponies (short story)

Ponies is a 2010 fantasy story by Kij Johnson. It was first published on Tor.com.

Synopsis

Barbara, like all little girls, has a magic talking pony with wings and a horn. She is invited to a ritual "cutting-out party", where she must destroy two of the three things that make her pony special.

Reception

Ponies won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Short Story,^[1] (tied with "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison), and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story^[2] and the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.^[3]

Lois Tilton considered the story to be "Highly Unsubtle."^[4] Chad Orzel described the story as "just dreadful", based on a central idea that was "preposterously contrived" and "a gigantic and unsubtle literalized metaphor", and with "essentially no plot."^[5]

References

↑ Nebula Award Winners, at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved April 3, 2014
↑ 2011 Hugo Finalists, by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, at Tor.com; published April 24, 2011; retrieved April 3, 2014
↑ 2011 World Fantasy Award Winners & Nominees, at WorldFantasy.org; retrieved April 3, 2014
↑ Lois Tilton Reviews Short Fiction, by Lois Tilton, at Locus Online; published 30 November 2010; retrieved June 9, 2015
↑ Short Story Club: “Ponies,” by Kij Johnson, by Chad Orzel, at ScienceBlogs; published May 28, 2011; retrieved June 9, 2015

External links

Text of the story on Tor.com

Nebula Award for Best Short Story

1966 - 1980	""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison (1966) "The Secret Place" by Richard McKenna (1967) "Aye, and Gomorrah" by Samuel R. Delany (1968) "The Planners" by Kate Wilhelm (1969) "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg (1970) "Good News from the Vatican" by Robert Silverberg (1972) "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ (1973) "Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death" by James Tiptree, Jr. (1974) "The Day Before the Revolution" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1975) "Catch That Zeppelin!" by Fritz Leiber (1976) "A Crowd of Shadows" by Charles L. Grant (1977) "Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison (1978) "Stone" by Edward Bryant (1979) "giANTS" by Edward Bryant (1980)

1981–2000	"Grotto of the Dancing Deer" by Clifford D. Simak (1981) "The Bone Flute" by Lisa Tuttle (refused, 1982) "A Letter from the Clearys" by Connie Willis (1983) "The Peacemaker" by Gardner Dozois (1984) "Morning Child" by Gardner Dozois (1985) "Out of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress (1986) "Tangents" by Greg Bear (1987) "Forever Yours, Anna" by Kate Wilhelm (1988) "Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge" by James K. Morrow (1989) "Ripples in the Dirac Sea" by Geoffrey A. Landis (1990) "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson (1991) "Ma Qui" by Alan Brennert (1992) "Even the Queen" by Connie Willis (1993) "Graves" by Joe Haldeman (1994) "A Defense of the Social Contracts" by Martha Soukup (1995) "Death and the Librarian" by Esther Friesner (1996) "A Birthday" by Esther Friesner (1997) "Sister Emily's Lightship" by Jane Yolen (1998) "Thirteen Ways to Water" by Bruce Holland Rogers (1999) "The Cost of Doing Business" by Leslie What (2000)

2001–present	"macs" by Terry Bisson (2001) "The Cure for Everything" by Severna Park (2002) "Creature" by Carol Emshwiller (2003) "What I Didn't See" by Karen Joy Fowler (2004) "Coming to Terms" by Eileen Gunn (2005) "I Live With You" by Carol Emshwiller (2006) "Echo" by Elizabeth Hand (2007) "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler (2008) "Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (2009) "Spar" by Kij Johnson (2010) "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison and "Ponies" by Kij Johnson (2011) "The Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu (2012) "Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard (2013) "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love" by Rachel Swirsky (2014) "Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon (2015)

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