Well, registration is closed, so I'll give everyone their instructions.

You know I asked everyone for three ponies? Well, here's why. Each of you are going to write a story about these ponies.

Each contestant will be given a selection of three characters to work with. This is determined using a semi-clever algorithm I came up with in five minutes.

-Each contestant must write a story featuring at least two of the three ponies provided. The story can be of any type: adventure, slice of life, crossover (*shudder*), etc. All that is required is that it involves two of the characters.

-There is no maximum word limit. Why would I want to limit you guys? That said, finished stories will have an advantage over unfinished ones, so pace yourselves.

Each contestant can find their ponies below:

Stories will be judged on technical ability, originality, subjective appeal ('cause yeah, we can do that) and how well the characters are written (kinda the point of the contest, amirite?) THERE IS NO PROMPT OTHER THAN THE CHARACTERS GIVEN. The story is about them.

DEADLINE: 5th July, 14:00 GMT

Prizes!: Winning stories will be featured on the main page of this group, will get their own self promotion thread, written by yours truly on the Shameless Self Promotion Group (it ain't even shameless when I do it for you) and will get reviewed on my blog. That's a helluva lot of advertisement.

Judges: Myself, Verbose Mode, and BikerPon3 have volunteered to be judges. We are also awesome.

Any and all questions can be directed at me. If I've forgotten something, do let me know. Submit your story in this thread with a link, unless it's mature, in which case link to your story list or something.

That is all. (Until I realize I've forgotten something) Good luck, and happy writing. I expect stories from all of you. Desertion shall not be tolerated.

And now you can't ignore this thread! Evil mastermind at work. You should all take notes.
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4444617 OH SWEET CELESTIA NO...! This will be a real hell...

Also, GMT as time-zone !

4444622 Aw, c'mon, I know you like Applejack. You'll be fine.

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Well...yes. I love Applejack. I love her sooo much! :D But Thunderlane and Celestia...oh god...and unfortunatly i got horrible idea with both Thunderlane and Celestia stuck in my head

4444631 But Celestia is, liek, mai favourite Princess. You can't go wrong with good ole' Celly.

Unless you're one of the thousands of people who couldn't even approach her character. But you're a smart lass, you'll figure it out, I'm sure.

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Yeah. You're right. I can do this.

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yes...and if I get up a solid story form my idea It'll be something completely new for you to read

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4444693 Trouble, darling?

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That was how I felt in the beginning, now I feel thrilled at the prospect of a new, awkward, intresting, weird thing for these poor, poor judges! :D

4444617 Can we do one-shots?

4444785 Yeah, sure. I personally love one-shots.

4444702 Yes. No.

4444842 Aw, c'mon. There's so much you could do with the trio of fan-favourite pegasi. Unlimited creativity! Unleash your inner lego. O Tempora, O Mores and all that latin. The potato rises to the east.

I dunno, I'm just making shit up now. And if I can do it, so can you!

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4444869 I'm an unpredictable sunuvabitch.

Each contestant will be given a selection of three characters to work with. This is determined using a semi-clever algorithm I came up with in five minutes.

I'm curious enough to want to know a little more about the semi-clever, five minute algorithm...

-Each contestant must write a story featuring at least two of the three ponies provided.

Featuring two out of three or even all three, basically four options to choose. I think that's a decent flexibility.

Gamerexpert: Pinkie Pie, Trixie, Doctor Whooves

1st - Let's see if I can do something with this... I'm not entirely sure if I should feel lucky or unlucky here.

2nd - Should I choose him, do I have to use 'Doctor Whooves,' or could I just use Time Turner? (The main reason I ask is because I haven't gotten around to watching "Doctor Who" yet...)

3rd - "Gamerexpert?" Why do so many people slightly misspell my username?! I'm joking, it really doesn't bother me much at all.

I expect stories from all of you. Desertion shall not be tolerated.

Please allow me to change that "Let's see if I can do something with this..." into "Let's see what I can do with this..."

p.s. I just thought of a silly question regarding this line from the registration thread:

(although it must be a publishable story, so 1K words minimum)

Though the story definitely has to be ready for publishing, does it actually have to be published?

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Whoops, forgot to reply properly.

4445219 Given that there are often loads of problems near the end of the deadline with people waiting for stories to get published and the like, don't worry too much about it. I would like the story to be visible on fimfiction as soon as possible, but if there are problems PM me and we can easily work something out. The end result should be a story that's published on the site, though, so everyone can see.

Time Turner or Doc' Whooves works either way. One of the difficulties with background ponies is interpreting them in interesting yet familiar ways, so I'll leave you a goodly amount of leeway on that one, so long as the end result is beer-bustingly awesome.

(Also, I was lazy and didn't bother checking how the names were spelled. Gamerexpert suits you better anyway)

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Applejack, Derpy, Pinkie Pie

Oh God, in what mess did I put myself into?

4445723 Oh well, let's make a crossover then.

4445725 Crossover?

I hope you've all got a firm idea in mind. We're one week in already.

Personally, I think that writing about a few characters would be an absolute breeze, but I do of course concede that I am incredibly brilliant and charming and handsome and smart and witty and not at all lonely in the slightest...

Hope everyone is having a good time!

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Just to let you know, I did not receive a notification from this. I only saw this because I figured I'd check the forums here after seeing this post in my feed...

4473622 B-but why? How? Why have my spammy methods failed me?!

Must experiment. Must gather information.

Thanks for the heads up.

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Dude, the replies only work inside the same thread. Also, the deadline is still five, right?

4474348 For now, but if loads of people missed this thread, I don't want them to be in trouble cause of my thread mistake. For the time being, assume it's the 5th.

I did it last contest and for some reason I thought it worked okay. I guess nobody told me otherwise, so I assumed the best.

Damn my optimism!

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Meh, human progress works on finding new ways of screw something and then fixing it.

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Pinkie, Derpy, and Blueblood? And I need to use at least two? Hm... I might be able to work with this.

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I've got my entry right here:

The Best Kind Is Apple

It's incomplete but I have at least one chapter in there.

4480065 Eesh, sorry for being so late to get to this. I've been travelling.

Scotland is lovely this time of year, btw. It was only very damp. And the morning booze was delicious.

I'll make a brand new bookshelf just for these. It'll be so awesome!

4474940 Can't wait to see what you come up with! Sounds like a fun trio.

4494419 Link it in this thread. I'll be adding it to my own personal bookshelf.

It has a picture of Scootaloo on it!

Here's hoping everyone's entries are coming along nicely! Only one week 'til the deadline.

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4505862 Fuuuuck...I really hope I can make it. Had to change my original idea...

4505937 Must I do another Kamina speech?

I will if I have to.

This is one solid reason why I love this group so much.

4505954 I'll do my best, just for you

4506020 Yay!

4506094 I think this is the kind where I jsut have to let the perfection go. It's comdy, be loose and vague snd all

4506122 Oooh, comedy. Those are tricky.

Good luck! I look forward to reading it!

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Yeah, I feel I go too serious about it often

Thanks

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Oh boy. This is the part where I close my eyes and try to pretend that all of this is a dream.

4506240 No, this is the part where you open your eyes and write an awesome story that wins first place!

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Eh... fifty-fifty chances of me completing my entry. Depends how college projects and my job go. I am currently about 200 words into an entry.

4506259 Well, that's a fifth of a teeny tiny story. So, about 200 words/day and we're at 1600 words: a nice little short story with an engaging twist!

Mathematics!

Also, good luck with the college project. Is it engineering, perchance? 'Cause engineering is very relevant to my interests.

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Nein. 'Tis macroeconomics and computer class work. The assignments aren't too bad, it's just that there's a lot of them. Half-length summer classes are brutal sometimes, especially when considering that you have half the time to do the big projects they seem to include in every class.

I'll find a way, I'm sure. It's just a matter of having the energy and inspiration to finish the entry in time. Oh, and edited. That's kinda important, at least for the judges' sake.

4506304 Economics!

I actually live with a guy studying that. I can see why it would be fascinating, given the right mindset. I do enjoy knowing how the world works, and money is a part of that. We had a few fun discussions about it and I even had to get (very broadly) introduced to economics when I went through Management Studies.

All went in one ear and out the other I'm afraid, but I remember being interested at the time.

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