Yep, you're reading that right!
It's time!
Time fer what, Sugarcube?
Time for the AppleDashLight contest to begin!
That's now?!
Well shucks, that's great!
I know, I'm so excited
So, Tchernobog, what's it about?

Well, I'm glad you asked, Twilight, because I'll tell ya!

That's the point of me asking, yes.

Quiet, you.

Ahem.

The theme of the contest is: No theme at all! You can write any romance story about the three!

The three can either be in an existing romantic relationship, or you can develop it from scratch. The fic must also end with them in a relationship as well.

Restrictions are:

No Clop
No Anthro
No Crossovers
No Humans in Equestria, or Ponies on Earth.
Humanized is allowed, however.

Word minimum is 5000 words - but with these genres, it's fine if you go over that (it's in fact welcome!)

The submission date will be in two months - March 1st. That should hopefully give you time to get excellent stories going.

So let's see the best trio in action!

Judges are: Myself, Jondor, and KrazyTheFox.

First Place will win: A 11x14 or 12x12 commission by http://the-paper-pony.deviantart.com/ , plus a game of their choice from the following list: Battlefield 4 (PC, Origin platform), Need For Speed: Rivals(PC, Origin platform), Civilization 4(PC, Steam platform), Bioshock 1(PC, Steam platform).

Second Place will win: A vector commission by KrazyTheFox, plus one of the remaining games!

Third place will win: One of the remaining games!

Good luck, everyone!

And if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask either myself, Krazythefox, or Jondor!

You silly people not liking anthro but liking human. Silly. Silly people. I could write good anthro...

Civ four!? Eww... Five is better.

Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know if I'll enter.

Still, I knew you wanted to do this!

Hope you get some people...

Like I said in your blog, Tcherno...

More awesome contests.... Tchernobog, I hate you. In an awesome way, of course Because this is gonna give us a lot of good stories and the rules, I must say, are interesting, very interesting. I mean, mystery? Adventure? Horror? Oh, yeah.

But, for now, I will stay away of this contest. My last attempt showed that I need a good idea and a clear mind before writing a good story that works correctly. You should know that

Who knows in the future? There is a lot of time. Maybe some lightning hit me and give me twhat I need. Anyway, I'll watch very closely this contest

2462627
I hope that you enter in this contest, KiltedKey. I'm sure that you could something amazing

2462627
I got civ 4 for free when I purchased civ 5's brave new world, and then it immediately went on summer sale right after - so people got it cheap. Those who paid full price got civ 4 :)

And enter! It'll be fun and interesting. You know you want toooo :D

I have a question! Several!

A. Can comedy be added to this blender of genres? Because then it turns into Firefly. I like Firefly. Adventure stories are neglected in genre...

B. I assume mystery/horror can include murder mystery? Political sabotage? Voodoo? Ancient evil spirit that actually does something evil?

C. Can it be darker ish? Not all y rated giggle ness? Like them encountering a dude/event that isn't a smile and a half? Not just muhaha evil?

2462627
For the record, my vote went against humanized as well.

2462699

The answers to that are Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Those questions, those ideas, are exactly the type of things we want to see. Intricate, detailed stuff, perhaps even darker if you can do it while presenting the AppleDashLight ship at the same time... that would be most welcome :)

2462779 I don't get why people are more forgiving with them being human than they are with them being anthro. It's weirder with human pegasi having wings than an anthro. Although Twilight casting magic with her hands/forehooves like a badass Mage is always acceptable. Furry separation? Don't get it. World semi falls apart when they are fully human.

2462784 Mmm. I could see a story being done of someone trying to steal magic/kill Twilight's parents in order to lure her/enrage her/make her too emotionally pushed to interfere with their plans. Some force/group/jealous unicorn wanting to take stabs - figuratively and literally - at the Elements of Harmony. Nothing like trying to burn down Applejack's trees will piss her off more. Emotional tensions can bring friends together. Even if tempers flare...

2462896
See, you got an idea already!

2462556

No list of judges?

~Skeeter The Lurker

2462919
It's at the end, but I guess i should highlight it!

2462911 Think about it. Twilight might not think clearly if her parents were emotionally/physically/magically injured. Or Shining Armor. If she was told they were stabbed/had their magic drained/kidnapped for ransom or death/had their house burnt down I can't see her going all logical and stoic about it. She'd flip between extreme determined coolness and perhaps even righteous fury if she felt something/someone was delaying/denying her. Can't see her keeping her complete cool with that kind of personal pressure on her head.

An Applejack? Boy if her farm/family was injured/damaged you'd be lucky if you got an Irish brawl beat down at best. Breaking two legs would be mild.

And as much of a trope as it is Rainbos getting screwed over by an ex is just great writing period.

I don't know. I could see a 'saying you are sorry just doesn't cover it' story. Where the villiain is some force that does need to be sealed away and his lackies do need jail time for legitimate crimes. Something where friendship prevails but you can't fully forgive a semi brain washed pony that tried to seriously maim your friends. Darker horror/mystery is exactly that. Scooby Doo on massive steroids.

I just have to think of a way why the other Elements don't get involved...

2463046
They can be involved - but the focus should definitely be the three. And the relationship as well (either from scratch or existing).

I look forward to your entry, this looks interesting already! :D

2463087 I never said I was going to enter! Silly pony, I have real life now. And my own stories. And Rome total war two.

2463103
Aw, cmon~
Do you want to make those three sad?

I could do adventure, and I'd have a good shot at mystery, but horror? Not really my thing.

2463103 2463165
C'mon, Kilted, you can do it!

Lord Tchernobog, I have questions for myself. Well, only one, for the moment

You said that the theme of the contest is Adventure, Mystery, and Horror, correct? It's necessary that the three tags were involved or it's enough with one of that tags?

2466265
Just one if that's your plan!

2466286
I don't have any plan really for now... Like I said before, I need a very good idea before trying this. AppleDashLight needs quality. But your answer help me, no doubt

2466246
It doesn't have to be all three! You can just pick one of the options, or two, or three!

2466306
Oh, okay, then that's fine. I'll try and get something together for this. Thanks!

2466265
2466306

If I joined I would have to do all three combined. I'm OCD like that.

2467172
The more you talk about it, the more I want to see this idea of yours. DO IT, FILLY.

2467205
2467172
You hear the Overlord, Kilted

Unfortunately, the theme of the contest has not garnered as much interest as we'd like - that is perhaps due to it being a little restrictive for a yet small ship group (though I do like the idea, so it might get used again for AppleDash... )

In the interest of that: There is now NO THEME for the AppleDashLight contest. You may now write any story you want regarding the three, as long as it ends with them in a relationship. The other restriction such as no crossovers and no HIE and whatnot still apply.

You may of course still write a fic with that theme, if you want, but it's no longer a requirement.

End date is still March 1st.

Now get to writin'!

I haven't written any AppleDashLight yet... I believe it is time to fix that! I haven't come up with a story idea yet, but count me (tentatively) in!

2489396
Huzzah!

Is 200,000 words too much?

2498443
Quite the opposite—highly encouraged. But don't let word count sacrifice quality, either. Word counts are not taken into consideration when judging (but pacing is).

2498469 oh I absolutely agree, it was really just to make sure I got a safety net

2462556 I like the game choice. Are they console/pc specific?

2517746

They are all Steam games, I believe.

2517746
2517842
PC specific, and *origin* specific, actually. I'll note that in the original post, woops.
edit: battlefield and need for speed are origin, the others are steam.

Ok, so apparently I have been guilt-tripped into starting work on an AppleDashLight story. And or my TwiDash contest entry might cause me headaches and I needed something to distract me.

So I might as well throw my proverbial hat in the ring. Well played, Tcherno

2572948

I eagerly await to see what you cook up!

2573196 Question: What's the policy regarding publishing our entries here on FimFic? Are we supposed to wait until after the contest is over? After the winner/runners-up are announced? Or can we publish them as soon as they're done?

For that matter, since this is my first contest and all... what's the protocol for submitting entries for judgement?

2732128

Publish them as you want! You can start with the first chapter and update them as you go - you don't even need to finish the fic by the time the contest ends, though judges in my experience tend to look on finished works more favorably unless the unfinished one blows them away.

You can post it on gdocs, or fimfic, all at once, one chapter at a time, now, or on the day of the contest end. It's entirely up to you :)

One more month until the end of the contest, people!

Tha praishure! Eep!

2749967

16 more days, people!

2841799
How do we submit stories for the contest? I have a story going up in a few hours that's almost at 5,000 words and I realized I could enter it.

2866502 just post a link to it here!

2866585
Awesome I'll be sure to do that when I get it up

2866585
So glad I ended up writing this, even though it might be a bit badSuch a wonderful pairing
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/158133/air
Edit: Can I add this to the group?

In order to get more, and better AppleDashLight, we're extending the deadline by two weeks!

You all have until the 15th of March to finish the fic, or polish it to a shine! You can submit it unfinished too, but it really has to stand out in that case to have a chance ;)

Good luck to the writers :D

Here be my entry:

Haunted House On The Prairie

2943862