Ponies (short story)

2010 short story by Kij Johnson

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

## Plot summary[edit]

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

## Reception[edit]

"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]

Strange Horizons called the story a "grotesque".[4]Lois Tilton considered the story to be "Highly Unsubtle."[5] 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."[6]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Nebula Award Winners, at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved April 3, 2014
2. ^ 2011 Hugo Finalists, by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, at Tor.com; published April 24, 2011; retrieved April 3, 2014
3. ^ 2011 World Fantasy Award Winners & Nominees Archived 2013-01-12 at the Wayback Machine, at WorldFantasy.org; retrieved April 3, 2014
4. ^ At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson, reviewed by Dan Hartland, at Strange Horizons; published October 3 2012; retrieved April 30, 2019
5. ^ Lois Tilton Reviews Short Fiction, by Lois Tilton, at Locus Online; published 30 November 2010; retrieved June 9, 2015
6. ^ Short Story Club: “Ponies,” by Kij Johnson, by Chad Orzel, at ScienceBlogs; published May 28, 2011; retrieved June 9, 2015

## External links[edit]

* Text of the story on Tor.com

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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)
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* "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)
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* "The Cost of Doing Business" by Leslie What (2000)

2001–2020|

* "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 / "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)
* "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong (2016)
* "Seasons of Glass and Iron" by Amal El-Mohtar (2017)
* "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™" by Rebecca Roanhorse (2018)
* "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by P. Djèlí Clark (2019)
* "Give the Family My Love" by A. T. Greenblatt (2020)

2021–present|

* "Open House on Haunted Hill" by John Wiswell (2021)
* "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather" by Sarah Pinsker (2022)
* "Rabbit Test" by Samantha Mills (2023)

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