Check Out My Brand-New Contest — With Cash Prizes! · 2:32pm Mar 19th, 2023
Reproduced from this forum post. Join the group here to submit and/or see updates and eventual results!
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 then 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 the two 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.
Huh. Good thing I've been procrastinating on my sci-fi story. Now it'll be eligible for two contests.
5718816
Is co-writing allowed for these entries?
5725677
Hi! Co-authoring is allowed; however, if you win a prize, only the author who published the story can receive the money, and it will be on you to divvy it up as you see fit.
5725695
Heyy, so I just submitted the story to moderation, but I'm afraid it's not going to make it through by the deadline time because this is my first publication. It's our fault for waiting till last minute lol... We have it in a google doc as well if you need a link, I was just wondering if it will still count as on time..?