Contest! Imposing Sovereigns · 12:40pm Mar 4th, 2017
Note from the future: To see the results, click here.
My New Year's resolution this year was to engage more with the fan community. When I made the resolution, I just meant taking advantage of new disposable income to go to conventions. But you know what else that income can finance?
Contest prizes.
Daedalus Aegle asked about books people are reading in a recent blog. In my case, one is Princesses Behaving Badly, by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie. It's a nonfiction compilation of obscure but notable young female royalty throughout history. Among my favorite things about it are the chapters:
• Warriors: Princesses Who Fought Their Own Battles
• Usurpers: Princesses Who Grabbed Power in a Man's World
• Schemers: Princesses Who Plotted and Planned
• Survivors: Princesses Who Made Controversial and Questionable Choices
• Partiers: Princesses Who Loved to Live it Up
• Floozies: Princesses Notorious for Their Sexy Exploits
• Madwomen: Princesses Who Were Likely Mad, or Close to It.
Goodness knows we have plenty of princesses from which to choose in Friendship is Magic. Why not explore what stories we can tell using this framework? Plus, it gives me an excuse to slip extra dimensions into part of the process, and how could I resist that? (At least, that was the idea, but Google Sheets is choking on me. I'll just include the list at the bottom of the blog.) Here's how it's going to work:
• Pick a princess and a category in the comments below. (For example: Celestia and Usurper, or Flurry Heart and Schemer) That's your personal prompt. One combination per customer; first come, first served. You'll be added to the sign-up list when I see your comment on a device that can make the addition. Thus, even if you don't see someone's name in your preferred slot, be sure to check the comments to make sure that someone else hasn't already called dibs before staking your claim.
•• Oh, and don't worry about adhering perfectly to the listed subtitle, especially the "Man's World" bit in Usurpers. It's just the general theme to go along.
• Princesses only. No kings, queens, or princes. However, much like the book, I am allowing a flexible definition of "princess." Rule 63 can apply, younger versions of higher ranked monarchs can take the stage, and horns and wings can be given out like you're an especially memetic M. A. Larson. Even non-pony characters can get in on the fun. (After all, what is Little Strongheart if not the princess of her tribe?)
• Keep it Teen-rated at most; I'd like to be able to link to everything at the end. Yes, that's going to complicate Floozy entries. Remember, restrictions breed creativity, especially when you can't directly show any other breeding. 
• Try to keep your entry at ten thousand words or fewer. A longer entry won't be disqualified out of hand, but I have no idea how many entries I'll get and I have only so much time to read them. Going a few kilowords over is fine, but I'm not reading a dozen copies of War and Peace.
• When you post your story, make sure to both post a link to it in the comments and to mention the Imposing Sovereigns contest in the story description.
ADDENDUM: Furthermore, I suggest you add it to the appropriate subfolder in the Imposing Sovereigns group. Also, you might want to join it; it'll help you keep an eye on the competition. (That said, don't worry if you forget to add the story; I'll take care of it if you don't.)
• Submissions began the moment I posted the blog and will continue until 11:59 PM EST, Sunday, March 19th. Ideally, I'll announce the winners on the Saturday after that, March 25th. Your judges will be me, myself, and I, since this is a spur-of-the-moment idea that I'm acting on before I can convince myself that I shouldn't. All judgements will be entirely subjective and prone to any and all biases to which I am subject.
ADDENDUM: Thanks to some delightfully unexpected volunteering, we instead have a trio of judges for the event: ScarletWeather, Skeeter the Lurker, and myself.
• The top three entries will receive fabulous prizes! Third place gets a $10 Amazon gift code or equivalent reward to be determined once the contest is over. Second place also gets a $10 Amazon gift code or equivalent yadda yadda, plus a feeling of smug superiority over the bronze medalist. First place gets $20 worth of alphanumeric currency. I'll put all three in a place of honor on my user page for at least a month. Knowing me, they could stay there indefinitely. 
• This is my first writing contest. If I forgot something or didn't make something clear, feel free to ask questions.
Sign-Up List
(And remember, you can pick characters not directly on the list. That's what the "Others" are for!)
Warriors
• Celestia: Foals Errand, A Crown of Blood and Iron
• Principal Celestia: KingMoriarty, The Principal's Project
• Luna: SPark, A Song in the Dark
• Cadence: Captain Unstoppable
• Twilight: River Road, A Canterlot 'Mending
• Flurry Heart: Lise Eclaire, Flurry's Star
• Fluttershy: Briarpelt, The Princess Fair of Everfree
• Lotus Blossom: Impossible Numbers, Healing Properties
• Platinum: Carabas, Noblesse
• Pumpkin Cake: Daedalus Aegle, Pumpkin's Big Adventure
• Sunset Shimmer: Novel-Idea, And a Sky Full of Stars
• Others:
Usurpers:
• Celestia: Bachiavellian, The Timestone
• Luna: iisaw, Waxing Gibbous
• Cadence: Pineta, Crystal Glass Ceilings
• Twilight: Kris Overstreet, An Orderly Transfer of Power
• Flurry Heart:
• Big Macintosh: MrNumbers, An Apple a Day Keeps Autocracy Away
• Chrysalis: Trick Question, Motherly
• Sunset Shimmer: DreamAlex
• Others:
Schemers
• Celestia: ClockworkMage
• Luna: GhostOfHeraclitus, "The Other Princess"
• Cadence: horizon
• Twilight: princeps, "Heaven Can Wait"
• Flurry Heart: Georg, Flurry Heart's First Kiss
• Ember: Masterweaver
• Sunset Shimmer: EbonQuill, Little Truths
• Others:
Survivors
• Celestia: SirNotAppearingInThisFic, "Debt (Or: Trial by Fire)"
• Luna: Corejo
• Cadence: Chuckfinley
• Twilight: PegasusMesa
• Flurry Heart: ReluctantBrohoof, The World Fades to White
• Amore: Alexander Crestfallen
• Chrysalis: Dafaddah, The Honing of Perfection
• Dinky Hooves: Dubs Rewatcher
• Platinum: Silver Moon
• Starlight Glimmer: Czar_Yoshi, Stay Determined
• Sunset Shimmer: Quill Scratch
• Trixie: princeps, "Nowhere Fast"
• Others:
Partiers
• Celestia: Norad2, Princess Celestia's Best Night Ever
• Luna: Wanderer D
• Cadence: Protopony350
• Twilight: AugieDog, The Road Goes on Forever
• Flurry Heart: Aquaman, Snowblind
• Lemon Zest: princeps, "Party of One"
• Platinum: bookplayer, Respect and Respectability
• Vinyl Scratch: CoffeeMinion
• Others:
Floozies
• Celestia: Captain_Hairball, Why There Are So Many White Unicorns in Equestria
• Luna: Morning Sun, We Must F*** to Survive!
• Cadence: Skywriter, Princess Cadance's Official Princess Harem of Imported Humans from Another World
• Twilight: Thought Prism, By the Book
• Flurry Heart: Fuzzyfurvert
• Others:
Madwomen
• Celestia: Aragon, Evil is Easy, Governing is Harder
• Luna: GroaningGreyAgony
• Cadence: Cynewulf, Sleep
• Twilight: DarkSpark
• Flurry Heart: Razor Blade the Unicron, The Perfect Rule of Empress Flurry Heart
• Ember: Bugsydor, Ember, Hoardsmelter
• Aradara, Alicorn Princess of Vehicles: horizon, "I have had the weirdest freaking day"
• Rainbow Dash: SilverShadow2722, When Canterlot Burns
• Sunset Shimmer: River Road, The Last Sunset
• Sweetie Belle: Aquaman
• Others:
Warrior Flurry
This sounds good
I am keeping my eye on this :3
(I'd participate, but I have too much to do D:)
I will definitely try to think of something doable here. For now, I have plugged this contest on my blog because I want to see more of this
4443348
Duly noted. Good luck!
4443349
Sad, but understandable. Here's hoping it produces some quality review fodder for you.
4443355
Thanks! Looking forward to seeing what you can come up with.
I am so tempted to just say Madwoman Flurry Heart and point you at Rebellious Alicorn Teenager Shenanigans, buuuuuuut I feel that would kind of be cheating.
Put me down for Schemer Ember. Sounds like a good mwahaha.
Oh neat, a writing contest!
Survivor/Flurry Heart
March 12? Man, I don't think I could pull that off.
*grinning*
Dibs on Madwoman Twilight.
Ooh, this should be good fun.
Put me down for Warrior Princess Platinum.
I'd like to sign up for Survivor Princess Platinum. I might not be able to get something out in time, but I'll do my best!
I do have a question, though. What happens if someone finishes their story by the deadline but can't get it published here in time? Will the story still be accepted?
4443395
Sadly, I do have to hold by the "no preexisting stories" rule, even if that would be a strong contender. In any case, you're in. Here's looking forward to dragon politics.
4443396
That should definitely prove interesting. Looking forward to it.
4443410
Just make it Princess Silver Glow. You'll have twenty thousand words by the deadline.
4443419
Always a fun topic. Have fun with the Princess of Neuroses.
4443420
I'm honored to have you involved. Definitely looking forward to seeing what you make of your choice.
4443443
If it's down to the wire, leave a comment with a link here when you hit Submit. Still, you have enough approved stories that you should be able to use the express lane.
Alright, Princess Silver Glow, warrior, and I've got the first 985,000 words written...that goes a bit over your max word count, doesn't it.
4443452 I can't beat that, but I've got a story in the works that could be Luna:Floozie where our favorite Princess of the Night is only really comfortable attempting to steal a male away from another alicorn, so she sets up Twilight with this unsuspecting coffee clerk and engages in a little wafu rustling.
Problem is it's going to be around 50k words and won't be done for several months.
Was tempted to suggest "Princess Spike the Usurper", if only to fix/expand upon a certain episode. I have something else in mind for my actual entry, though.
Put me down for "Princess Ember, the Madwoman". Madness often is, after all, a matter of perspective.
Well, crap.
I was going to try and finish writing the second chapter of How Rarity fell in love with a Flying Purple Hippo today, but then this happened. It only took a moment before a most glorious idea sprung forth from within my mind.
Put me down for Floozie Twilight.
Aw, you can't do doubles? That's lame as fuck.
4443489
Ah well; something to look forward to. Especially since I recognize the seed idea from the Writeoff.
4443492
You're in for dragon madness. This should be fun.
4443553
Much as I hate to delay the romance of Rarity and Prince Phelddagriff, I'm definitely interested to see what you do with that particular combination.
4443554
You can certainly have multiple starring princesses. Just pick which one you want to use when making your reservation.
4443612
I guess Celestia as a survivor fits. It's an idea I've been sitting on since one of the old F*** This Prompt contests.
Hm. Fascinating... Put me down for Celestia the Schemer, because someone has to do the obviously unimaginative.
I'll try and keep the word limit in mind, but I make no promises.
P.S. In deference to the Time Action Glory Challenge, Princess Platinum may feature as a co-protagonist. But it will be Celestia who is the focus.
Clearly I'm in the right corner of Fimfiction. A wee bit late, though. I have a RoboFoME card that fits Celestia the Survivor... which has already been taken.
I guess I'll just go back work on my batpony story.
4443641 4443652
You know, it's funny. I was just thinking to myself, "Wow, no one's picked Celestia, Luna, or Cadence." I guess now it's just Moon-Moon and Lovebutt left in the cold.
4443693
Aww. No other ideas?
4443703
Too obvious, I suppose. Perhaps most people reach for the airbender philosophy of "look for another angle" instead of the earthbender philosophy of "charge in bluntly". I myself initially considered either Platinum or Other before I thought, "No, Celestia is the Princess; give the morning lady her due."
Hm. I could conceivably do it (if I can pry loose the realtime) with Flurry Heart:Floozie or Flurry Heart:Schemer using some of the work I've put in making cute kids.
Sunshine's Happy Foals Preschool in the Crystal Empire accepted all ponies, from the lowest of the lower classes to... Well, Mommie and Shiny. It had seemed so important to them for Flurry to get enrolled in the public school and make friends with all of the other Crystal Ponies that sometimes Flurry Heart thought Mommy and Shiny were paying her just the teensiest bit less attention than they should. Particularly when packing her lunch. After all, there were only two cookies in the little brown bag she had brought to preschool today, even after she had reminded Mommy several times that she was a growing alicorn who most probably required a minimum of three cookies in her lunch, or four if she were to have one to share.
The shiny mauve colt who sat in front of her during class always had three cookies, because he had mentioned it during the first time they met before school, and Aunt Twilight said it was important to make friends to share happy times with. The answer to her problem seemed so simple. Mommy could always get whatever she wanted out of Shiny, and had talked about their happy times together, so all Flurry really needed to do to get the mauve colt to share his extra cookie was to act the same way Mommy acted to get Shiny to do whatever she wanted.
This was going to be easy.
4443693
4443703
My story can probably go under Luna, Twilight, or Cadance as well, so if FoME doesn't mind all the swapping you can have the spot.
Princess Starlight Glimmer the Survivor. Let's see if I can get this done in time.
Edit, eight hours later: Idea spun up and 4k in. Let's do this.
4443766 4443693
I'm entirely okay with this. Not currently in a position to edit the sign-up list, but I'm okay with it.
4443742
Would you prefer Schemer or Floozy?
Interesting, very interesting. Here's two questions:
First, do stories about a pony becoming a princess count (obvious example: unicorn Twilight to alicorn Twilight)?
B, what if we have more than one idea and actually manage to write them (I am aware that just finishing one story in a deadline is a hypothetical situation for me)? Can one author claim more than one prompt combination?
And gamma, am I a bad person for entering a story idea I've been sitting on that I wanted to write anyway which happens to fit the prompt?
It just occurred to me: what is your judging and scoring system going to be? Most of the ones I've encountered subdivide according to grammar, concept, worldbuilding, fit with the prompt, characterization, etc., with different weightings attached to each one. Or will this be a more generalized and globally considered judgement?
4443818
1. As long as some portion is spent princessed, it works.
B. I ask that you claim them in sequence. That is, reserve one now, and if there's time after you complete it, you can reserve another. That said, you can't win more than one prize no matter how well you do.
Γ. I've done that more than once. If anything, I'm happy that this is giving you an excuse to realize those ideas.
4443819
Generalized. It'll be similar to how I handle Writeoffs; a holistic approach based on how it hits me.
Not signing up yet, but would like to suggest you don't limit Princess - Category; past numbers of these contests have shown a bunch of people will sign up without actually coming through, after all, and like, I'd hate to lock someone out of something only to scrap my own plans and thus effectively unwrite two stories instead of one.
Just let people say which Princess-Chapter they chose in author's notes below submissions or whatever. Then it's not a race
4443855
1: Excellent.
B: Excellent-er. That means I really have to work if I want to do more than one story. The bit about winning only one prize is just fair, I'm not in it for the money anyway.
g: Excellent-est. And not just because it gives me an excuse to cut the story down to 10k words or less.
It would be Warrior Twilight then... though Survivor Twilight might also fit. Put me down for Warrior Twilight, I guess.
...Oh wait. Warrior Twilight, that needs the
constipatedfierce Twi-face.4443810 "Would you prefer Schemer or Floozy?"
Hm. Schemer would probably be the easiest NOT to go wandering into R rated territory.
"Ow!" Neo looked up at the suddenly cringing little alicorn, who was trying to paw hair off her tongue. "You bit me! You bit me on the ear! Why would you do that?"
"Whenever Mommy bits Shiny that way, he does whatever she says." Flurry spat out one last hair and pointed to his lunch bag. "Share your third cookie." She paused, then added, "Honey."
Neo's face crinkled up in thought. "They're not honey cookies. They're pecan."
4443703
I have enough writing time for upcoming batpony story or Unhinged at the moment, so I'd rather not try to spin up other ideas.
4443766
4443810
If you really think it'd work with one of the other princesses, then sure, go ahead and guilt trip me into making sure the story happens. And thanks.
Been having thoughts of an Earth Pony Celestia story. Would it could if Princess Celestia was either telling the story or recalling it with breaks between her remembrance?
4443768
Looking forward to it.
4443892
I'm of two minds about this. I can definitely see where you're coming from—heck, there's one Estee contest for which I'm long overdue—but at the same time, by limiting access to any given princess-role combination, I can hopefully inspire some highly novel concepts. Plus, some roles have a decent amount of overlap. Survivors, Schemers, and Usurpers could be seen as the same people at different points in their plot arcs. Possibly throw Warriors in there for especially bloody coups.
4443901
The time for war has come. The time for laxity has passed. Warrior Twilight is ex-lax.
4443939
This is going to be amazing
4443946
No. It's fine. You don't have to do anything for me. I'll just sit here in the dark by myself. Don't bother to call or write or anything. The cats will look after me when I'm gone.
4444271
That will certainly suffice. You may not even need the flashbacks if pre-ascension Celestia is in a high enough position in her community. What role did you have in mind?
Should we link the stories we write here when we're done with them?
4444379
Please do.
Gimme one Mad Woman Celestia, please. I can do fun stuff with that, I think
4444445
Done and done. Definitely looking forward to seeing what you make of crazy Sunbutt.
4444304
Head Warrior of her tribe most likely with her younger sister just below her. So sign me up for Warrior Celestia.
4444477
Ooh, I do love a good Stone Age Celestia. Definitely looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
4444304 Flipside : I'm reluctant to sign up now and take what I want because I'm not sure I will finish and I don't want to lock someone else out.
I mean for illustrative purposes imagine if each Writeoff had us drafting prompts, which is what this is. I'd argue it'd have more chilling effect than really promote creativity; we have a prompt in 'Write Princess Stories working Princess of Choice + style in play' and locking it down more than that may stimulate one or two people to go outside of the box - but I mean the first choice was Warrior Flurry, so I think people will want to do that anyhow.
I just want to be able to come up with a fun idea and not worry about 'Shit, someone else already took that Princess & thing' and boom.
Clearly there's going to be some stiff competition here. A lotta very clever people signing up.
Okay, I think I have something. It's gonna be a sequel to Poneo and Fillyet, if that's okay with the rules (I guess that's my Contest Prompt Continuity), and it's going to be about Warrior Princess Pumpkin Cake.
I have some of the same concerns as 4444532 , in terms of not being sure of actually getting it done. But I doubt my choice will be stepping on anyone's toes, so put me down for Partier Princess Platinum.
4444532
Hmm. You do make a good point. I'll have to take it into account if I do this again. For now, hopefully I've left a wide enough field that conceptual overlap will be minimal.
4444579 4444597
You're both in. Definitely looking forward to seeing where you take those ideas.
4444603 I'll bow out, then, realized the one I think I'd want to do is gone. Maybe something else will crop up!
4444532 I had a similar concern too going in, both because the idea I had at first while reading the blog seemed like something that would be in high demand and then because every category it could fit in was taken.
But it's okay, because I was going to write that story anyway and I like the new idea I had to come up with better (and I definitely wasn't going to write it anyway... or if I did, it would be much later and a very different story). And even though my combination is somewhat out of the way, the pressure of having it be for a one-of-a-kind prompt (not to mention likely being read by some very cool people) means it needs to turn out way better... and probably will. And I'll also actually have to get it done quick since there's a somewhat steep time limit.
So yeah, drafting prompts can be a little restrictive and unduly competitive, but it turned out well for me, at least.
4443766
4444304
I am in this thing now, right?
4444725
You are. Right now 4443766 is occupying a quantum superposition of three slots until s/he helps me collapse the waveform.
Hint, hint.
4444742
Let's go Twilight, then.
Sorry about that.