Competition » 5th Annual Cozy Glow Short Story Contest · 12:35am Jul 28th, 2024
Many mysteries remain when it comes to Cozy, but if anything about her has been well-established, it’s that she feels your pain. All of the hardships the past year has brought, not the least of which is a burdensome cost of living? Cozy gets it. She has endured the inconvenience of $5 eggs. She has lived the unfortunate reality of bloated gas prices. She has beheld, with her own two eyes, the failings of substandard childcare. Post-pandemic electronic chip shortages. Unscrupulous rental fees. Most of all, she comprehends the inner workings and demands of mortgages. 
All of which is why she has decreed a fifth contest to support her adoring subjects!* Please join us in participating in this yearly event, for which the prize pools have been increased to offset the ravages of inflation and high interest rates. We are happy to present to you the 5th Annual Cozy Glow Short Story Contest!
Guidelines
All stories must:
-Adhere to the site rules
-Be between 2.5k and 15k words in length
-Contain Cozy Glow as a central character and be classifiable under one of the prompts.
-Be written in English
-Be written between 29 Jul 2024 12:00 PM EDT and 7 Oct 2024 12:00 PM EDT. No exceptions. Post up to three entries in this folder. Stories may be sequels, but must be able to be read without knowledge of prior works.
-Entrants must be willing to reveal their country of residence (which must have an amazon website) if they win a monetary prize. If a monetary prize is not possible, an alternative prize will be offered.
-“Genre” refers to narrative type of story (e.g. adventure, mystery, etc.); “category” refers to tone (e.g. sad, comedy, dark, etc.).
Otherwise, there are no restrictions on content or maturity level. Stories will be assigned points based on the following:
-Narrative flow and cohesiveness – does it all work together as an organic whole?
-Quality of spelling and grammar – typos and copy/paste errors can ruin the most carefully engineered mood.
-Emotional impact – make the reader feel it.
-Relevance to the MLP universe – is there a connection to the characters, lore, and storyline portrayed in the show?
-Originality – take an old premise and add a new spin, or venture into the unknown.
-Style – speak to the reader in your own unique voice.
-X-factor – how sharp are the teeth?
Prizes
Monetary prize amounts will vary depending on the number of entrants. Winners are guaranteed the following:
1st place: an amazon gift code worth at least $60, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.
2nd place: an amazon gift code worth at least $50, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.
3rd place: an amazon gift code worth at least $40, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.
Runner-up: posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page and brief review.
At 20 entrants, the monetary prizes increase by $15; at 30 entrants, they increase by an additional $15, and so on at each tier of 10 up to 4 total tiers.
Prompts
Any genre, any category
-Cozy Glow vs. …
-Just a phase
-The School of Friendship takes a field trip to the rock farm
-Cozy plus Pinkamena =
-History is written by the winners
-Cozy’s got a secret
-There’s a lot you can do with rubber chickens and carnivorous pineapples
Adventure, any category
-As Princess Luna is delivering Cozy to Tartarus, they have an adventure
-Cozy Glow, the unintentional hero
-They finally found a way to defeat Cozy. Unfortunately it involved zombies
Slice of Life, Sad
-Life was great until mom started barking like a dog
-And that was when she realized it had all gone wrong
-The Princesses never saw it coming
-The Mane 6 reminisce about the time they spent with Cozy at the School of Friendship
Grimdark/horror
-They showed her how to harvest the skulls, after she’d finished playing
-Of all things, it was love that Cozy needed
-Cozy and the haunted house
-Cozy’s nightmare
Header artwork courtesy of AlwaysDressesInStyle
Judges
the dobermans
Anonymous Judge #1
*and to amplify her glory
Whoot whoot, another Cozy contest! Looking forward to another year of the most iconic diabolical filly.
Is the closing date the 7th of September or October, though? Both dates are listed.
Not participating in this contest. Not after last year.
I’m still waiting for the 1st Annual Tank Short Story Contest.
5794887
Sorry for the typo - it's October.
5794902
Ah, great, thank you! Gives me lots of time to cook up some new ideas. Maybe I'll even spring for more than one entry this time!
Ngl i can't wait for the Sad Stories and slice of life to read 🔥
By Prompts does that mean the story must use one of em?n (at least)
5794895
What happened last year?
oh hey! always had a cozy story idea! Are ocs allowed in this as secondary mc?
Wait a sec. Why is this in the Grimdark/horror category?
5794953
Good question! I think it's up to you to explain why.
5794943
That's correct - all stories must be classifiable under at least one of the prompts, but they can be combined.
5794964
Exactly right!
(Edit: The complaint here was actually resolved so the comment is invalid.)
5794948
Yes, OCs are allowed.
5794980
It takes time for judges to read that many stories and rank them! We're nearly ready to announce, but have patience
media1.tenor.com/m/beNa0_56soUAAAAC/metal-gear-solid.gif
..... What?
Didn't know this was a contest y'all held (guess I live under a rock or sum), luckily I've had a Cozy Glow story on the back burner for a while
5794953
Thats the challenge!
I wish any of the prompts screamed out to me. Maybe I'll think of something in the future.
Hmm...
Amazon gift card code sounds like my kind of prize.
Interest piqued. Maybe.
5795017
Okay, okay, it's nice to get a reply on that! Sorry for the impoliteness.
5794985
Great to hear. Hey, the folder won't let me submit it to the contest folder, so I left it in the main contest folder and someone pm me about it being in the wrong folder. Can someone move it to the correct folder?
5795188
Thanks for submitting an entry! It's been moved. The Contest #5 folder should now be open.
5795236
thx!
...well dang.
I've actually had a pretty good Cozy Glow story idea bouncing around in my head for a little bit now, and this contest would be a good excuse to finally write it...
...except I don't think it'd really fit any of the given prompts.
Ah, c'est la vie! Guess I'm back to working out on if and when I want to just write it on my own time, then.
5795017
No problem at all, and thanks for apologising! Appreciate it.
Are AU stories with OC as background/supporting characters accepted?
5795337
I asked if OCs were allowed, and they said yes. Just Cozy needs to be the mc.
I think AU is allowed as long as they can read it without knowledge of prior works if it's coming from a sequel/existing story.
5795337
5795455
Correct - AU and background/secondary OCs are allowed, as long as the story falls under one or more of the prompts.
5795455
5795527
Ten-four.
Content restrictions? How grimdark can grimdark be?
5804048
As long as the story obeys the site rules, as grimdark as you want it to be.
An extension is being considered. Please reply to this comment if you are unable to finish your story by the deadline.
5808474
I've got a story in progress, but won't be able to submit it by the deadline tomorrow (am currently traveling and preparing for the landfall of Hurricane Milton). I'd be able to get it in next weekend once I'm back home and the storm has passed.
Please note that the deadline has been extended to Sunday October 13th, 12:00 PM EDT (noon).
To those who were able to submit within the original deadline, please feel free to take the extra time to polish your stories if needed.
Brief update: all stories have been read by the judges. The finalist order is now being determined. Results to be released soon!
Thanks again to all who participated. After much painful deliberation, the placement process is complete. Please join me in congratulating this year's winners:
1st: A single, white rose by Mellow Mare
Tied for 2nd: Golden Age by AlwaysDressesInStyle, and Child of Equality by TheDriderPony
Runner up: Gollylalia by IGIBAB
Honorable mention: Conflicted Counsel by CherryPopsyPone and Come with me to the End of the World by IGIBAB.