Competition » The Shining Armor is a Terrible Dad 2024 Competition · 6:39pm February 23rd
Do you love Shining Armor? Do you hate Shining Armor? If your answer is yes to either/both of these, then this is the place for you! Shining Armor is a Terrible Dad is a sequel to Cadance is a Terrible Mom. The original contest was a success, and I've been itching to host another like it ever since. The premise is the same, only the roles are reversed: Write a story about Shining Armor being an awful parent.
You may be asking, Why host a contest like this? Who in their right mind would enter? Is your hate-boner for Shining Armor so massive that you have to make his suffering into a contest? Why does ANYBODY think this is a good idea?
To which my response is: Shut up, I'm bored.
Introduction out of the way, let's move on to the rules.
RULES
1. No Mature stories, same as last contest. We're looking for wholesome stories about bad parenting.
2. No Fetish tags. That should be obvious. This contest doesn't exist because we want to read a bunch of incest fics, it exists because Shining is a himbo dad we want to see fail.
3. No child abuse. Even if you have the talent to make any topic funny, try to avoid veering into edgy territory. I know it seems impossible, but take it as a test of creativity. A test to see how bad of a father Shining can be.
4. Maximum word count is 5,000. Minimum is 1,000. PM one of the judges if your story surpasses this word cap but you still want to enter the contest. If the word count succession is within reason, we'll work with you. However, points will be docked based on every thousand words.
5. Stories must be published after February 22, 2024. Submissions will close on March 22, 2024 at 11:59 CTZ.
6. You are allowed to write serious stories. This rule exists because there was a story in the last contest people were rooting for that didn't place because it didn't fit the format. We will be more lax on that rule this time around, HOWEVER, this is primarily a shitposting contest, so serious stories will be reviewed with a serious mindset. In layman: It better be good.
To add to that, I don't mean to deter people from writing a serious story because this is a shitposting contest. While we will have a stricter approach to them, take it as an opportunity to floor us.
7. Up to 3 stories are allowed per person, however, you can only win with one.
8. Don't write a trollfic with the end goal of offending a lot of people.
9. Judges are allowed to write stories, but they are not subject to placing.
10. Stories must include link to contest saying that it's involved in the contest.
With rules out of the way, let's introduce the judges!
Judges
Flutterpriest
Based Cadance Enjoyer.RunicTreetops
You probably haven't heard of him.Soaring
Only writes HiE. Can't be trusted.
Some asshole idk
Special Back-up Judge
NorrisThePony
Does something, idk, I'm just the host.
Simply not writing a story about horrible parenting not enough for you? How about a bribery!
Prizes
1st Place: $50
2nd Place: $25
3rd Place: $10
Honorable Mentions (up to 3 each)
Now, we've had all sorts of comments in the past asking how a story about Shining Armor/Cadance being a terrible parent could possibly work without the involvement of child abuse. My normal response to this would be, "Wtf dude, are you okay?" but my follow-up would be, "Oh, that's right, some people have a healthy relationship with their family."
While I feel like there are obvious ways to write a premise such as this, we went ahead and came up with a few prompts for you to write around! Note that it isn't a requirement to follow any of these, but please write goth Flurry.
Prompts
1. Flurry is goth
2. Shining lets Flurry play with a set of keys, and one key goes to the Royal Armory
3. Shining picks Flurry up from school
4. Baby’s first drink
5. Shining tries to understand Flurry’s slang
6. Shining attends a PTA meeting
7. Shining has bad “Captain of the Royal Guard” habits
8. Flurry learns the fundamentals of gun safety
Finally, the grading of each story will be based on the following rubric.
Rubric
Grammar: /3
Characterization: /5
Creativity: /5
Flow: /5
Impact: /7
Goth Flurry: /1Overall: /25
BONUS: Goth Flurry: /1
And that's about all you need to know! Now get to writing!
Please note that Fimfiction staff is not involved in the rules, ruling, or procedures of this competition. Any and all questions posted here will be the responsibility of the contest's organizers. Do not DM Wanderer D or other fimfic staff with questions related to this contest.
ngl low-key hyped
I see the FATHER of humor displayed proudly.
You know?
Im gonna enjoy this
lol those images!!
Please note: any stories featuring Cadance, Shining Armor, or Flurry Heart will be immediately disqualified
5769657
So the only winning move is not to play?
5769641
YES! My mind went there too!
5769641
OMFG, I used to love that show!
Not the Momma!!
I'm no author, but I think I'm gonna enjoy reading the stories. Goth Flurry Heart sounds awesome.
Idea: Drunk goth baby Flurry hits her dad with a frying pan while crying "Not the Momma!"
5769662
Nah, it would just basically being a canterlot news article saying something of the failing of the crystal empire rulers. You could extrapolate shining armor's failures and bad parenting that led to this.
This is gonna be interesting
Figures that you'd cheap out on this contest with some no-name judge
. Probably couldn't rustle up enough loose change from the couch to afford the beer and pizza that someone with a bit of fandom fame would have charged.
I think we might be being pressured to promote Goth Flurry but I could be wrong. This sounds like a tempting little prompt. If I get up the energy I might try my hand at it.
5769718
Tbh, it's just Muggonny's favorite thing to see: Goth Flurry Heart. Just fyi, last year's winners were not goth pone. So it's still totally doable to write whatever you'd like as long as it fits the prompt.
I am very excited to both read the entries, and write one or two myself! Though, even without outright intentional child abuse, I can't guarantee that Flurry will end up safe in the end~😈
Flurry has become Rogal Pone, Primarch of the Crystal(?) Hoofs chapter
Am very exciteddd!
Unless Flurry is a baby when this happens, I don't think this would make Shining a Terrible dad. Learning gun safety is important.
5770112
It's not the prompt that makes him a terrible dad. It's the execution.
5770125
Okay yeah I can see that.
thanks for sharing..!! Valero Card
FATHER >:[]
I've entered two stories into the contest and I might do a third but I'm terrified by the fact that I've read stories by 3 out of 5 of the judges and their works are just a pillar of Fanfiction itself.
March 22? I better hurry.
I'm not sure if I missed this, but how does one go about actually submitting?
5772561
It's mentioned in the group rules. Join the group and submit the story via the Submissions box.
5769657
But Norris all my story ideas are about Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart!
5773292
5773317
And now your Uncle will be shot by a mugger you let go.... except the shooter will be some other dude that just wanted the car so he could give his daughter some medicine that he can't afford because Medicare is such bullshit.
Just to note: the contest has had its deadline extended. The new deadline is March 29th @ 11:59 PM CTZ. If you would like more information about this, please consult with this thread: link to our group's notice of the extension.
Any timeline on when the results will be tallied?
I finished a story featuring none of those characters because of that joke comment ("hide and seek" in the title), as the first story of a 5-part series featuring Shining Armor as terrible dads, but I hit the submission limit, only published it today, and it only mentioned a bit of Shining Armor being terrible rather than enough. This blog post's comments doesn't seem like the place to link stories, though.