Competition » May Pairings Contest 2022! · 3:05am Apr 28th, 2022
Hello everyone!
May is nearly upon us, and with its return comes a celebrated tradition. That’s right: once again, it is time for May Pairings.
What is the May Pairings Contest?
If you don’t know, the May Pairings contest is all about original, rare, or unique ships that aren’t afraid to explore unique dynamics between characters. This means that stories about Lyra and Bon Bon, Vinyl and Octavia, or Rarity and Twilight wouldn’t qualify. Rather, we want to see stories about Autumn Blaze and Lemon Hearts! Daring Do and Treehugger! Octavia and Applejack! You get the picture.
Rules
- Your story should feature something that can be argued to be a rare, unique, or original pairing. The pairing does not need to be inherently romantic: student/teacher dynamics for example are fine! If the judges do not believe that your pairing qualifies it will be disqualified. If you aren’t sure, feel free to look around FimFic to get a feel of how popular/not popular a story is. If you still aren’t sure, don’t hesitate to ask!
- No OC’s, anon stories, or self-inserts. Stories with unvoiced background ponies are fine.
- Human AU’s, EQG, and Comics characters are allowed.
- Crossovers are not allowed as we want to focus on MLP shippings. Any other genre is fair game.
- Stories of all ratings are allowed: be aware that Mature-rated fics may not rate very highly and may even rate lower if not executed well!
- Fetish fics of any kind will not be accepted. We reserve the right to disqualify any story that we feel violates this rule.
- The contest period runs from MAY 1st TO MAY 31st! Stories must be newly published between these dates. If your fic gets stuck in a publication queue please contact the judges!
- One submission is allowed per author. Stories must not be longer than 20k words. There is no minimum word count.
- Collaborations are allowed, however these fics will count as one entry for both authors. It is up to the authors as to how they will split the money if they win.
- Stories must be submitted to the contest folder found here by the deadline to qualify.
Remember to join the group for updates!
As a quick note: this event is being hosted by a new team of organizers as the original host is no longer on FimFic! I may choose to run things differently compared to years prior.
Prizes
The prize pool for this contest is $300 total broken down as follows:
$150 for first place.
$100 for second place.
$50 for third place.
UPDATE: Each judge will also pick an honorable mention to receive $40!
A very big thank you to the sponsors that made this possible!
Judges:
DaOtterGuy
Howdy, hi! I’m the otter gay guy. I write mostly Flash Sentry being gay with different stallions, pairings that no one would normally write. I have been a judge once before for Bike’s MxM shipping contest and am excited to be a judge for this one! I look forward to everyone’s pairings entries and wish you all the best creative energy to write!
Red Parade
Heyo, I’m Red! You might remember me from Pillars Shipping or Bike’s Crackship Contest, or even HapHazred’s Write an Episode contest from a while ago. I like original ships so much that I invented one! Ever hear of FiddleDust? It’s great and you should ship it. I also have tons of other ships too: Cheerilee and Meadowbrook, Strawberry Sunrise and Cherry Berry, Spitfire and Daring Do… the list goes on!
Zontan
Hello, everypony! I’m Zon, and I mostly write stories that revolve around interesting characters and why they do the things they do. I’ve written a few crackships in my day, but I’m mostly going to be looking for characters who have chemistry with each other, and how they show that. I’ve been a judge for the Pillars Shipping Contest in the past, and that had some great entries, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you all come up with for this one.
Shaslan
There's no pairing like a rare one, and I love seeing the ways in which different characters' personalities can be explored by pairing them with different personalities. In this contest I'll be looking for writers who write the characters true to themselves while still finding a way to make crazy ships work. Can't wait to see what you all throw at us!
MushroomPone
Howdy, all! My name is Mushroom, and I've been in the original pairing scene for a while now - don't believe me? Just check out my profile! I placed as an honorable mention in the past two May Pairing contests and one original pairing speedwrite, and have written plenty of rarepairs outside of contests, too. It's definitely a passion of mine :) This will be my second site-wide contest as a judge - I previously judged for Bike's MxM shipping contest, as well. Super excited to see what everyone brings to the table! Let the writing begin!
Good luck everyone! Make sure to join the group here to submit and contact us with any questions!
As a quick update, judges will also be picking honorable mentions! Each honorable mention will receive $40!
Challenge accepted.
I have an idea of what to write:
Sunburst X Pinkie Pie. It could work!
Is (EQG) Sunset Shimmer x (FiM) Flash Sentry considered rare?
5653894
Yes, with a caveat. Stories that carry out ships like this should do so in a manner where this would make sense in the story. This means that we want original pairings in this contest, if we feel that the story is just two EQG characters together under the disguise of ponies, your fic may not score as well.
I've received a few questions about this already so I will add a clarification to the rules about this.
5653895
I always believed (EQG) Flash Sentry, the teenage high schooler, should never be the same character as (FiM) Flash Sentry, the royal guard.
I'm not much of a writer but the idea I had was Sunset Shimmer breaks up with (EQG) Flash Sentry moves back to Equestria and starts dating (FiM) Flash Sentry. With an emphasis on the difference in culture between human and pony.
5653916
So long as they are executed and presented distinctly enough!
I wish I didn't have to see these smoothbrain shipping contest in my feed.
Sludge x Trenderhoof x Zephyr Breeze gay polycule here I come!!!
Can each of the characters be from different universes?
5653932
Depends who they are. Roseluck and Daring Do for example, sure, but Applejack and Rainbow Dash no.
5653936
Fair
Why does ur shit keep appearing in my feed I am not following u at all
5653946 It's a site community announcement. These types of blogs you can block from your settings, the one about the Phishing however is site-wide and you can't opt out. It has nothing to do with following me or not. You're not getting my personal blogs.
This feature has been a known part of the site for well over the seven years or so you've been here.
5653976
Okay why bother making a post if someone is retarded enough to click on a link taking them to “fimfiction” and make them sign in again they deserve to lose said account
5653979 If you don't understand why that was necessary, I don't know if an explanation here, in a blog where it's not relevant will help, but I'll try my best:
Because someone was hiding links with seemingly legitimate links to stories "here". An account lost that way, was a tool to have more phishing posts and comments around the site, increasing the chance of others falling for it, until eventually they might hit someone you know and trust enough to "check out" what they mean. You might not fall for it.. but you might. Creating awareness is about preventing these issues from reaching that point. You don't get a vaccine to cure you when you're already sick, you get a vaccine to prevent you getting there in the first place, even if there's a chance you might never get infected.
Is Tempest and Neighsay considered 🤦🤦♂️🤦♀️
And I'm tho only one who writes those
Looking forward to seeing great works.
Hype train rolling! I can't wait to dig in and see what everyone comes up with this year
Not sure if I'll ever do anything with it, but... would a trio relationship qualify for this contest? And by trio, I mean "Married stallion/mare couple learn another mare had a foal from a one-night stand with the stallion some years ago, long before he married or was even exclusive with his future wife, and both respond (after the stallion confirms his wife is okay with it) by gradually developing a friendship and ultimately romance with said mare, ultimately accepting her into their marriage as a third full member".
If not, I'll just set this idea aside for possible future development.
Yay, Shaslan's a judge!
5654088
Aw, I'm glad you're excited! Hope you enter and I can read something from you!
5654077
Ultimately this should be about a pairing between two ponies. So I'd say polycules are fine, but the focus should be on a specific pairing to make sure we're judging everyone on the same terms. Should you also want to do a polycule, keep in mind we still want unique pairings. So if you did say Cadence and Shining Armor with say Starlight at the third it might not perform as well if the story is focused mostly on Cadence and Shining.
5653982
I'd say so!
5654119
Omg-! Squee, you replied! Sorry, I'm just SO happy right now! You made my year!!!
I may try to enter this, this did shown up in my feed after all and I really should get more lesbian pairings out there. Question. Is only Gen 4 being considered? Would Gen 5 be allowed? There hasn't exactly been many characters in it so far and I'm pretty sure any pairings among the Mane 5 (like Sunny and Izzy) would not be rare.
I'm thinking about entering, I'll see if I can finish a story in time for it. I do have a queston regarding something though.
In point one, it's briefly mentioned that the pairing(s) doesn't necessarily have to be romantic, example given being "student/teacher". Does this mean I can write about any type of relationship, only provided that the pairing is rare enough to qualify? For example, Nurse Redheart and some other pony/creature in a doctor/patient dynamic or a wacky hijink between two or more characters not often seen together. Asking so I can be sure any entry I might write could qualify if I do find something to write about
5654160
That would be fine. The main purpose is to create a pairing between two characters that wouldn't normally be seen together. The nature of that relationship is more open to different possibilities. The two examples you gave would be fine.
That being said, do keep in mind it is a pairing so the story should be tightly focused on two specific characters.
5654147
Gen 5 is perfectly fine to use, however, you are correct in that the mane 5 would not be considered rare pairs at this point in time.
Me finding the contest interesting: 😄
Me finding that there's prize money: 🤧
Is there a chapter limit?
5654120
All right. Going to just set the idea aside for now then.
This will get interesting… . Sweet!
5654276
No, only a word count limit!
5654471
Kk thank you
5654189
…gesundheit?
POV: You don't have a bank account
5654501
Well prizes can be donated to a charity of your choice or redistributed should you win. We can work something out if it comes to that!
Can you talk a bit about the judging process please?
Will every entry be read by every judge? Will every story receive a review from at least one judge? What criteria are the stories being judged on and what weight is given to each of those aspects?
I'm really glad to see this contest is back, it was always my favourite.
5654621
Primarily fics will be evaluated on how well the pairing worked together, how creative the pairing is, characterizations of any important characters, the plot and idea of the story, and overall writing quality. The judges will evaluate entries based on these criteria and decide on a winner we feel performs well in each category.
I will personally make my feedback for each story available upon request but I can't promise any of the other judges will do the same as I respect their time and commitment to the contest and don't want to hold them to anything beyond that.
5654501
Same ;-;
Dammit, something popped in my mind as soon as I saw the restrictions, which is probably going to haunt me if I don't try it out, as usual.
Best of luck to everyone entering.
Count me in, baby! I'm dying to participate!
I have an idea for this, but it will require a crossover between G4 and G5, will this be allowed? It will relate to time travel that links the 2 together and will be Pinkie X Izzy Moonbow and it will be a clopfic, if this is all allowed then I am inclined to participate in this.
5654955
G4 and G5 crossovers are allowed!
Per the rules post:
Idk how people get chosen as judges
Do they volunteer or were they randomly chosen 🤔
Can I do G4+ G5 ships?
5655013
That is allowed!
5655029
Thanks
5653981
You have the patience of a saint.
Looking forward to checking out the entries.
If some of you guys are interested but don't have any pair idea here are some from me.
Discord x Starswirl
The crackiest ship if you asked me, I got it from DeviantArt's name JackieBloom. Come on, chaos annoyance with old grumpy uptight booked? I want to make one but don't have time because of work...
So whoever wants to do it then good luck then and make sure to have a break time too!