It's that time again. Time to pit two lucky ponies together in an epic showing of romance! What glorious pairing will we have today? Some starcrossed lovers, a pair who were meant for one another, total opposites?

How 'bout princess and pauper?

ILurvTrixie won the November and December contests back to back, so he got to choose a pairing for this month! And my, what a pairing he chose. We'll see if Celestia and Derpy can see one another beyond their conflicting baked-goods obsession.

Contest entries are due Monday the 31st!

2982323 I'll be skipping out this one due to having a lot of other things I want to write and the fact that I have no ideas. But I'm very curious to see what entries people come up with

As a fair warning, I already admitted to Paul that I have no idea how to pull this one off. Perhaps my muse will produce an idea over time, but for now, I may have chosen a rather difficult pairing.

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Seriously!? I came up with two in the first five minutes:

1.) Celestia eats an endangered species of flower by accident a conservatory and because of a law SHE wrote that states ponies in government are not exempt from breaking the law, she has to partake in community service. As a mail mare.

2.) Celestia Wakes up one morning to find that everyone thinks she's dead. And nopony can see or hear her, except a certain gray pegasus. Together they have to figure out what's going on.

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I had a few quick ideas, myself. If I weren't so focused on that long-term contest, I'd join this. Moving more into the realm of seriousness (which is my forte):

1) Derpy faces eviction and possibly losing Dinky, but when Celestia steps in as a random act of kindness...

2) Celestia obviously only gets some mail from the masses, most of it being filtered into nonexistence due to a lack of importance for somepony of her status. But one day she decides to visit the filtering office and read some of the 'common ponies' mail addressed to her...

3) Dinky Doo decides to write a letter to the princess. Unable to resist the d'aaaawww, Derpy decides to deliver the letter to Celestia personally...no matter what it takes.

4) Celestia, being a baked goods aficionado, decides to surprise-visit the annual Ponyville baking contest. And who has the best muffins in town?

2983287 Bravo Bean!

Speaking of The Bean, though. I hear these vicious rumors that you had an entry to ambush us with for CheerileeXRoseluck? How's that shaping up?

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It's going quite well, all things considered. I'm holding off until the last possible moment in case I see something that could be improved or that needs to die.

2983602 Long term contest? And bravo. Looks like the ideas are flowing pretty well so far.

2983631 Well, here's hoping you get it refined in time. Good luck.

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Yes, long-term contest. This one. I'm going for the 50k+ deadline.

Dinky decides to play matchmaker for Derpy, but can't think of anypony in Equestria who could possibly measure up to her lofty standards... until one of her friends jokingly suggests one of the Princesses.

After ruling out Princesses Candance (already married), Luna (too scary), and Twilight (too... books?) she can't think of any possible reason why her mother shouldn't be with Celestia... other than the question of how to get them together in the first place...

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Ooh, I like that one! Lots of potential D'AAAAAAWWWW

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I really hate you right now, Lurv. You chose a Celestia prompt on the SAME MONTH that South Park: The Stick of Truth comes out.

And now I have to choose between my two great loves!

3004718 Yes! It was all part of my.. brilliant... err...

Honestly I know between squat and all about Southpark, so that was a total accident.

Paul just mentioned that if a Princess came up again and it involved the night, there might be a horse-head in my bed come morning.

The.. the bad, mob, style horse head. I... you get what I mean.

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Not surprising, considering that Luna stories won three of the first five contests...

Now the only Princess who hasn't had her own month is Twilight, who also has the honor of being the only character explicitly banned for a month.

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Maybe, but at least Twilight got a little bit of sweet Trixie lovin' in a cameo last month!

I'm kinda eager to see Twilight get a month, though. Rainbow and Pinkie, too; they haven't had any attention.

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Hey! Aren't you forgetting a certain somepony?
I'll give you a hint:

What, love-butt? She's married, I think she gets plenty of loving without us trying to give it to her!

Although I wouldn't object to seeing her get a month. Pulling anything off without an AU tag, though...

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You're right. it was Shining Armor who got the story, not Cadance. How could I forget after the way I treated her?

No submissions for this contest is making me overall sad.

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Well it looks like you've summoned one up.

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Nifty. I knew yesterday morning that I wasn't going to make the deadline... again. I've gone through two rewrites already and Derpy hasn't even made her appearance in the current version yet.

Is it against the rules to submit a story entirely from Dinky Doo's point of view, with neither of the shipped characters having a major role in the story? They're pretty much a romantic MacGuffin.

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So, Asaran. Should we consider delaying the.deadline? We can't really hold voting or announcements until the notifys are back on, what do you think?

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I don't see why not. I had expected things to be back up by now, but now that I work in a software office I kinda get that delays are to be expected.

The question is, how long? Another week? All month?

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I was thinking maybe around the.tenth. If by then, they're still down, we can go on hiatus for a bit.

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Works for me.

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We've talked it over and decided to hold off on choosing s winner until the tenth if you still want to shoot for it. With notifs turned off, we can't do much right now.

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I'm trying to finish it, and the more I write, the more I'm hating it. There's some cute bits between Dinky and her accomplices, a "pump up Spike's ego" section, and Pipsqueak being Pipsqueak, but I can't figure out how to end it without Dinky being grounded for life or banished to the moon.

Or maybe grounded for life on the moon after she's banished.

It's probably for the best to let Lurv and silver hands duke it out...

For what it's worth, the password is swordfish. I might submit it to the Powers That Be eventually for approval, but not for this contest.