Competition » The EqG Anniversary Spring Fling Contest · 1:38am Mar 20th, 2023
Hey, hey, everybody! We've got something to say!
The changing of the seasons is upon us, and love is in the air! And it’s up to you to choose who’s getting together!
Yes, it’s time for a good old-fashioned shipping contest, just in time for us to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movie and the Equestria Girls series as a whole. For this contest, your assignment is to take a character introduced in the first EqG movie – including Sunset Shimmer, the Humane Five, Flash Sentry, and even background characters like Micro Chips or Cherry Crash – and write a romance about them.
There’s a few rules below, but, basically, that’s it. A romance starring a character from our first outing in the pastel human dimension. What better way to celebrate a decade of our favorite technicolor teens? Join us for... the Spring Fling!
Prizes!
How much we dole out in prizes will depend on how many entrants we get (submit stories here!). 4 stories unlocks a 2nd place prize, 8 stories unlocks 3rd place, and 15 stories unlocks the special judge prizes! So the more entries we get, the more (and bigger) the rewards!
- 1st Place: $100 at minimum; $150 if we get 8 entries or more
- 2nd Place: $50 when unlocked; $75 if we get 8 entries or more
- 3rd Place: $40
- Judge Prizes (x5): $15
Prize amounts will be sent by PayPal. If you are unable or unwilling to receive money by PayPal, please contact me (EileenSaysHi) so we can arrange an alternative (e.g. a go-between, a charitable donation, etc.).
Judging Criteria
So how do you win these exciting prizes? Here’s some of the key things we’ll be judging your stories on:
- How’s the writing? A contest-winning story should be well-written, readable, and have good spelling, grammar, and paragraph structure.
- How engaging is your story? Does it have an interesting narrative? Is the romance compelling? Does it move at a good pace? The stories may all be below 15k words, but, if you’re not careful, they could still feel like a long read.
- How believable is the pairing? While most pairings (including poly relationships) are allowed, a good story still needs to show why these characters would go well together, at least in the context it provides.
- How much focus is the romance given? Is it the core of the story, or just a small part of it? This is a shipping contest, after all, so a winning entry won’t reduce the romantic aspect to just a token element.
Judges
And just who will be looking at your stories? We’ve assembled a crack team of both long-time and rising voices in the Equestria Girls fic scene, listed in alphabetical order below:
- Avery Day, author of the Sunset/Sci-Twi stories Can You See What I See? and Crowds & Constellations
- Dewdrops on the Grass, author of Reassurance (Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash) and It Hurts to Cry (Flash/Sci-Twi)
- EileenSaysHi, author of The Great and Powerful Trixie Needs a Date (Sunset/Trixie) and Apple Pie, a la Mode (Applejack/Pinkie Pie)
- The Sleepless Beholder, author of The Cutest Deliverer (Sunset/Wallflower Blush) and Be Gay for Christmas, Do Crime for Love (Sunset/Trixie/Adagio)
- TCC56, author of the Rarity/Applejack stories Shattered Ornaments and Like Cats and Dogs
Rules
The core rule of the contest, as noted above, is that it must focus on a pairing that involves at least one of any* of the characters introduced in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (the 2013 movie). That character can be paired with any canon EqG character (with a few restrictions – keep reading), including ones introduced in later EqG media, as well as FiM's Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, as they've both made canonical appearances as humans in Equestria Girls.
That’s a lot of characters to choose from! Sunset Shimmer! The human versions of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack! Flash Sentry! Micro Chips! Sandalwood! Background characters like Cherry Crash, Cloudy Kicks, Scribble Dee, Curly Winds, Wiz Kid, and Brawly Beats! And the human versions of Trixie Lulamoon, Derpy Hooves, Photo Finish, Big Mac, Vinyl Scratch, and more!
*(The only ineligible character introduced in EqG1 is the pony version of Flash.)
Now remember, be careful. There’s a lot of eligible characters, but it doesn’t cover all EqG characters. For a few examples, Sci-Twi, the Dazzlings, Wallflower Blush, the Shadowbolts, Bulk Biceps, Octavia Melody, Lyra, Bon-Bon, and more weren’t introduced in the first movie. If you want to use these characters, you can – if you pair them with an eligible character like Sunset or the Humane Five. (For poly relationships, at least half of the characters involved must be from the eligible list.) The same applies for Friendship is Magic characters – even Princess Twilight, despite her role in the movie.
We also have two rules regarding pairing ages. First, while adult characters like Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, the human Cheerilee, and the human Cakes are eligible, they cannot be shipped with student characters, even in “aged-up” situations. Meanwhile, eligible students whose pony counterparts are foals – like the CMCs, Diamond Tiara, and Snips and Snails – can be shipped with each other, but not with older students. (Apple Bloom/Diamond Tiara = allowed; Apple Bloom/Rainbow Dash = not allowed.)
Those are the important things to keep in mind when coming up with your story. Here are a few more general rules:
- All stories must be complete, published, and added to the contest folder between 12:00am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on March 19th and 12:01am PDT on May 1st. Stories must also state that they are an entry for this contest in their long description. If you are publishing your first story and are concerned it will not make it through moderation by the deadline, contact EileenSaysHi and be prepared to give a link for the judges to access your story.
- No edits may be made to the story between the deadline and announcement of results, though edits prior to the deadline are allowed.
- All stories must be rated E or T.
- All stories must be 15,000 words or less. Judges have the right to stop reading after 8,000 words (or after 2 chapters, whichever comes first) if they are not engaging with or are seriously uncomfortable with the material. Contestants can submit up to 2 stories, with a combined total of no more than 15,000 words; only one entry per contestant can receive a top 3 prize.
- The Romance tag is required for all stories. You can certainly include other genres, as long as it still works as a romance.
- The Equestria Girls tag is required for all stories. While stories can feature characters crossing over into Equestria, they cannot solely be about pony characters in the pony world.
- The following tags are not allowed, no exceptions: Fetish, Gore, Non-consensual, Anthro, Porn, Anon, Self-Insert, Crossover. (And no, “forgetting” to include one of these tags for a story that needs them is not a loophole.)
- Be careful with the following tags: Alternate Universe (if you’re using a character with a canon pony counterpart, it needs to be obvious that we’re still dealing specifically with the EqG version; simply being human isn’t necessarily enough) and OC (your fic can have OCs, but you cannot use an OC as a romantic partner for your eligible EqG1 character).
- No incestuous pairings, no foalcon, and follow the character-age restrictions stated in the above paragraphs.
- Judges may not pre-read stories (except to ensure they qualify for the contest) and cannot offer public feedback until the contest period has closed.
That's it!
Please make sure to join our group so that you can follow along with any updates, submit your fics, and see the results!
And if you have any further questions, feel free to ask on the main forum thread! (Judges reserve the right to make any changes to the rules deemed necessary.)
Now go forth, craft your EqG romances, and let us see what this spring harvest delivers unto us!
Once again, all fics must be submitted to the contest folder here by 12:01am Pacific Time on May 1st.
This is going to be very interesting. I wonder if poor Flash Sentry will be part of the romance in many submissions. Not from me, although that doesn't rule him out being in my [hopefully] story. Here's hoping I can actually apply myself and not rush out something April 30th. Now I'm not entering this expecting to win, there are a lot of really talented writers who will likely be entering. I just want to be a part of this.
5718932 I, Posh, will write a story where Flash Sentry enters a speed dating service, and gets matched with Tim Spruance.
EDIT: the fuck I will
5718932
You can do it!
lmao as someone who's spent the entire ten years shipping EqG characters, I feel kinda obligated to enter, if not just to show up 5718937
Eh, I might join, despite never seeing Equestrian girls. I'd do my best tho
I get the strong impression that a teenage pregnancy story doesn't have a good chance at winning, even if I don't tag it fetish.
It's pretty funny to permit homosexual relationships, but not this.
5718946 I’m going to run you over with a Segway hauling a second, smaller Segway.
I Seth Standmore would like to know if I am allowed to write a story where I ship my OC with a character from the first Equestrian Grills movie if that character is also sipped with a third character who was also from the first Equestrian girls in a polyester relationship because then that way I could make my character who is original be in a sexual with Sunset Shimmer but maybe also a third character like Flesh Century and also can I have my original character Homura Johnson be in the story
5718950
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/395396915107463169/1087233068768694322/f46.png
5718953
You can only use the Equestria Grills characters that use propane as fuel.
While polyester relationships are accepted, we encourage Polypropylene instead.
Your character can't be in a sexual with Sunset Shimmer since Sunset shimmer is bisexual.
Flesh Century is too old to be acceptable in the contest.
OC's are not allowed.
Huh, I didn't expect to see a competition like this~ There are a lot of people in the comments of this one post, so I am definitely looking forward to seeing the yield of stories~
So much talent, all in one place. Honestly, it is exciting! I just have one question though. Since I primarily write stories about Sunset Shimmer x Adagio Dazzle, would that be a viable ship considering the age restriction rules stated in the post? It is said that pairings like Principal Celestia x Sunset Shimmer are not allowed as well as pairings like Apple Bloom x Rainbow Dash. Adagio Dazzle is an unspecified age, usually referring to her being REALLY old. Sunset Shimmer is thereby a lot younger than Adagio. Would this be allowed under the age restriction rules? If not, I will still eagerly watch this competition to see what everyone else can come up with~ 
Good luck to everyone! 
5718958
Adagio and the other Dazzlings are acceptable (as long as they’re paired with an EqG1 character), they enrolled as students at CHS and we aren’t going to assign a specific interpretation on how long they’ve been in EqGworld.
Well if something occurs to me and I have time I'll toss the story to you folks. But can't promise I'll have time to write it even if it does.
5718950
And what is the issue with same sex pairings? I'm legit curious to how you answer that if you do at all. How is it comparable to incest or age group gaps? Anyway, I'm expecting a lot of entries will be F/F, I know my own will be since the only ships I write are F/F. Even the stories listed by the judges were mostly F/F. I mean, there's not a lot of options for M/F given how few male characters there are like Flash Sentry, with the rest being pretty much background characters and I doubt Spike is allowed to be paired with anyone else within this contest's rules, probably except both versions of each other.
5718962 best not to engage
5718960
I don't expect to win, but this should be fun!
Thank you for the information! I will definitely throw in a story if that is the case~
5718962
Honestly, I was just thinking the same thing. Most pairs in the fandom as a whole are LGBTQIA+. Even if there are some heterosexual pairings, I am willing to bet 90% of this competition is going to consist of LGBTQIA+ pairings~
5718962
It's weird, and thus pretty funny, to permit things like a polygamous, lesbian romance story about children, going so far as to have rules about the allowed distribution of the polygamous characters, but not allow something like a new graduate fucking his hot principal. That's despite the fact that this "age gap" scenario is a natural kind of relationship.
5718965
Well, a romance story between children such as Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara is completely allowed since they're the same age and that happens. But when it comes to Sunset x Principal Celestia, it is not legal. I think that's the major core of the rule, coming down to legality as based on the laws of the United States I assume. And the definition of a natural relationship really depends on your interpretation, but a principal x student or ex student pairing isn't seen as natural by the majority of people. I hope this helps!
5718963
You're right. Don't need to derail the comments into an argument over homosexuality even if likely a majority of submissions will be that anyway.
5718965
So a double standard with children pairing being okay if heretosexual, but not homosexual? Anyway I'm just leaving this off here, really not supposed to be the platform for this here.
So... is Big Mac a student? Is he and Cheerilee allowed?
Does he go to a different school? Maybe they're both young adults and Cheerilee is only volunteering in the library as part of her college teaching/librarian course?
5718971
For this contest, EqG Cheerilee/Big Mac will not be accepted. Mac is consistently portrayed as a CHS student while Cheerilee consistently appears as a librarian or teacher.
Hey you know that entire group of writers who really really really like writing Twilestia or Tuna?
Screw'em.
I get the reasoning, that's fair, but the execution of it leaves something to be desired.
But I'm no writer and I'm not entering so, eh, I guess.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Love to do it! This looks interesting!
5718974
Except both of those pairings are overwhelmingly FIM based rather than EQG.
The list of "Thou shalt nots" has actually given me some good (cursed) ideas...
5718965
Yeah, I saw that "natural relationship" at my old highschool. The people involved were fired.
5718953
Posh, please. This alt thing was never funny.
5718986
I'm pretty sure he means that it's a classic porn scenario, like a pizza boy fixing the printer while his stepsister gets stuck under the bed. Unless he means irl, then I'm all Mr. T. about it. Also, it's not a porn contest, so pregnant teen could be a drama setup, idk.
5718986
They fired the student?!
I had an idea for this, but I want to clarify if a pairing would violate the age pairing rule.
Human Sunset/pony Cadance.
I can see both ways, as it's likely Cadance was learning magic as a new alicorn around the same time Sunset was Celestia's protoge. On the other hand, human Cadance is a young adult while Sunset is a student.
I'd appreciate the judges' ruling and will abide by the result. (I'll likely write the story anyway, but this will decide if I submit it to the contest or not.)
Man, this just sucks. Like I had a really good idea for this contest, right? It was gonna be an Apple Bloom/Filthy Rich fanfic. Right? And in it, Apple Bloom would be struggling with incontinence, like, really bad incontinence. But it wouldn’t be a fetish story. Like we’re talking grotesque, disturbing, a lifetime wrapped in adult undergarments incontinence (but it WOULDN’T BE A FETISH STORY), and Filthy Rich was going to offer his emotional support, and gradually the two of them would fall in love. And Apple Bloom would be struggling with her incontinence the entire story, in graphic detail too. But it wouldn’t be a fetish story. Okay? It wouldn’t.
I feel personally slighted and attacked by this contest’s stipulations, and I am going to make it everybody’s problem.
Also Apple Bloom would be (conveniently) 18. But it wouldn’t be a fetish story.
the fuck, is someone gonna complain that they can’t write about anonfilly next?
5718974
I love Bill Parcells too, but I’m not sure he has a place in Equestria Girls fan fiction.
5718991 I think you mistakenly replied to The REAL Seth Standmore instead of me, but just so we’re clear, I don’t care what you think about anything.
5719001
So by “human Sunset”, I’m assuming you mean the version of Sunset who is from the human dimension? If so, I would say it doesn’t work for this contest regardless because neither character originates from the first Equestria Girls movie.
5719034 I think OP meant Equestria Girls Sunset x Pony Cadance.
5719034
I meant the Sunset who was the antagonist in the first movie. I'm sorry if I made that confusing. So it would be Sunset Shimmer as seen in the movies and Cadance from Equestria.
Oh, I just realize this wasn't said, can you enter only once or multiple times? (Likely not relevant to me, but good information to have.)
5719041
2 entries maximum, with both stories combining for no more than 15,000 words. Was listed in the bullet points.
5719044
Ahh, it was couched in the word limit part.
Okay, so, regarding Friendship is Magic characters as romantic partners. (Remember: The best place to check the rules and ask clarifying questions is here.)
All of the judges and I have conferred, and we have decided to make a formal rule change while it's still extremely early in the contest. Because this is very specifically an Equestria Girls anniversary celebration, we do want to keep the focus as much on EqG as possible here. As such, while all EqG characters are available as romantic partners (within the given restrictions), we've limited the number of Friendship is Magic characters who can be used as romantic partners to two -- the two characters we have canonically seen go through the portal in animation and emerge as humans, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer. (And before anyone asks about pony Pinkie Pie, the blooper reel videos are non-canonical.) Other FiM characters can still appear in stories, but cannot be romantic partners for your eligible EqG1 character(s).
(And remember, these two characters will still need to be paired with one or more eligible characters from the first EqG movie to be used in a romance here.)
We have no expectation of any other rule changes like this, but this clearly needed to be addressed. The rule has been updated on the main contest page and now on this page as well. Thank you for your understanding, and happy writing!
(Downvoting the comment does not nullify the rule.)
5719039
My sincere apologies, but after conferring with the judges, we have decided (and this was not in any way a personal decision about your idea specifically) to limit the FiM characters eligible for romantic pairings to Princess Twilight and Starlight, as this is meant to be an EqG celebration and those are the only FiM characters that appeared as humans in canonical EqG animated media.
5719057
Perfectly understandable. Thanks for the clarification.
Deliciously ironic how, with all the jacked-up, disturbed content, that Kassaz dude acting like there's a line that can be crossed as too far 🤪
Humans, I swear
Happy seeing everypony rallying up UwU
Not starting anything, I just couldn’t resist (:
EDIT: Thankies! I love the color red, keep 'em coming! 😁
Are original characters eligible, so long as they are paired with an appropriate character? Or are OC's relegated to being strictly side or minor characters?
5719202
OCs as side characters are fine, but they can't be part of the core romantic relationship.
5719057
I mean, there was that one scene in the forgettable cruise ship special ...... and the random background character staring terrified through the portal Midnight Sparkle tore through space ... hm I guess a bunch of FiM characters have ended up in EqG media
5719262
Which is why we limited it to the two FiM characters who have crossed through the portal and emerged as humans specifically.
(And as mentioned, the blooper video with pony Pinkie Pie is non-canonical and doesn't count.)
5719263
Yeah for sure, I just never took the time to reflect on how many FiM characters have randomly shown up in EqGverse, wowie you've made me think
Hmm. Tempting, I could come out of retirement... but no! I gave up that life a long time ago.
Are characters from later EQG movies (EG: Sci-Twi) eligible to be used as side characters / supporting cast, even if they aren't one of the romantic leads?
5719959
Basically all G4 characters (both FiM and EqG) are eligible to appear as side characters, as are OCs (and G5 if you can figure out how that would work). The only restrictions with side characters are no Anon, Self-insert, or Crossover characters.
5719959
*Looks down, looks up, pokes with stick.* Hey, it is Oroboro.
Come back to us, EG!