CONTEST #3

Welcome to the third official contest of the Cutie Mark(ed) Crusaders group, held in honor of us achieving two milestones recently: 1,000+ stories and 300 members!

In case you're one of those people that wants a way to be engaged in our group aside from contests or you're a writer that just wants to practice their writing, see yourselves to our Prompt Tag Collab. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

PROMPT

For this contest, the prompt is simply... murder mystery! Write a story in which the Cutie Mark Crusaders get involved in a murder mystery. They can be investigators, accomplices, victims, etc etc! However, if you choose to write the story where they are the victims (although I don't see why you would, since they're such cute fillies), only up to two Crusaders can be the victim(s), because we need at least one left to investigate the murder itself.

CONTEST RULES

+ The deadline for the contest is August 1st, 2016. Contest results should come out on August 2nd, 2016, or if I or a fellow judge happen to be busy on that date, they should be revealed in one of the following days. You're being given more time than the other contests (an extra week, as a matter of fact) because I understand a murder mystery is rather hard to write, so take the time to smooth out any kinks in your story or finish it up.

+ In order to qualify and be included in the reading queue, you must also include a link to this thread in your story's description. Entries submitted without a link, regardless of how good they may be, will be automatically disqualified.

+ If there aren't at least three (3) participants in the contest, nobody will receive any of the prizes.

+ Contributors and/or admins may participate, but they will not have any advantages over other participants in order to ensure fairness. If you are an admin, and you don't want to join in, you may judge instead.

+ Your submission must be published to the site in order to be judged.

+ It doesn't matter how the murder mystery is committed or how the Cutie Mark Crusaders factor into any of it; just write an acceptable murder mystery and leave it to the judge(s) to do the guessing.

+ It doesn't matter if the Crusaders have their cutie marks or not in the story.

+ Your entry must focus primarily on the Cutie Mark Crusaders or else you will be disqualified.

+ Gore, of course, is allowed, and all ratings (Everyone - Mature) are allowed as well. The only tag not accepted is Sex.

+ All contest entries must be placed in the Contest: ??? folder so they can be judged by my fellow admins and I (or me only, if the other admins are all participating). Optionally, you can post the link here so we'll be notified of it faster.

+ Failure to submit your entry before the deadline will disqualify you.

PRIZES

The person in 1st place will receive these prizes:

+ Contributor status

+ A special mention on the group page alongside their winning story

+ An honest review of any one of your stories by me, Frost Vortex

The person in 2nd place will receive these prizes:

+ A special mention on the group page alongside their winning story

+ An honest review of any one of your stories by me, Frost Vortex

The person in 3rd place will receive this prize:

+ A special mention on the group page alongside their winning story

If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask me via PM. Also, please note that the admins reserve the right to modify anything in this thread at any given time, whether it be the contest deadline, prizes, or whatever. Good luck!

5363116 One of my favorite genres is mystery, and I love murder mysteries [as long as they aren't to gory]!!!!!

Yes, I'll definitely take part in this.

5363143

I look forward to your entry!

5363143

Same here, I look forward to what you bring to the table and thank you for participating!

Since I won't have time to participate, I will be one of your judges, so give your best, I'm a fair, but hard, critique!

5363255 5363116 Murder mystery genre, eh?

Why the video? Well,

now can you?

-Ru

P.S.
Sorry for not answering sooner. I was asleep most of yesterday and worked the rest I haven't gone to bed yet and I'm rambling...

...

...

I'ma shut up now will send story laters HAHAHA bye-bye!

5365208

Light Yagami? Are you going to ponify "Death Note" with Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle?

5366032 Nah. I just found his laugh to be the most appropriate representation of my initial reaction to the contest's theme. Though now that I think about it, I might borrow a few story elements...

-Ru

P.S.
Holey jeans! YOU'RE the Quest Writer for Legends of Equestria?! Call me "Bean" 'cause I am seriously jelly. Can't wait to dive in when it comes out and I have decent internet.

5365208

Now that I think about it, murder mystery might have been too dangerous a prompt. I fear what my eyes will read when the entries are sent in.

5367402

-Ru

5367749

halp. im gonna die.

5367756 Is it OK if the story is marked as "incomplete"?

5367756 Don't worry so much. After all, you're not in the story. Unless you have an OC you'd like to sacrifice contribute.

-Ru

5367188

Aww, pity. As far as I've seen, this wasn't ponified yet and it could need it.

Holey jeans! YOU'RE the Quest Writer for Legends of Equestria?! Call me "Bean" 'cause I am seriously jelly. Can't wait to dive in when it comes out and I have decent internet.

One of them, yeah. We're a team there. There's an OSW from July 29th - 31st.
And in December we're going closed Beta!

5368697

Aww, pity. As far as I've seen, this wasn't ponified yet and it could need it.

That'll have to be done by a better writer who actually knows the series. I know the general outline of it, as well as a number of spoilers, but I haven't seen all of the episodes myself. Psychological anime isn't usually my cup of tea.

There's an OSW from July 29th - 31st. And in December we're going closed Beta!

Now I really wish I had better internet. *Sigh* Oh well. Maybe I'll get some for Hearth's Warming this year.

-Ru

5367953

The story has to be finished before being submitted.

5368089

My OCs are too precious to be sacrificed as tribute.

5369458
The more the precious

The better the tribute

-Ru

5369519

No. Definitely not. Now go back to writing your murder mystery and do not consider using my OCs as tribute.

5363116 Murder mystery...

YOU FOOL! YOU UNLEASHED A STORM BEYOND YOUR RECKONINGS!

5369537 Okey-dokey-lokey.

Later, Frost. Take care!

-Ru

5369576

And not a second passes by without me regretting it.

5369312

There will be a way to apply for Closed Beta soon. If you make it onto the servers, you won't ever leave them again, so you have plenty of time to update your connection, as you will then have permanent access to the game.

5369615 I can already imagine the stores now...

5369456 OK, thanks. :3

And, if it makes you feel any better, there's no gory descriptions and such in mine (or, at least, a very small amount).

5370108

Well, that's fine. After all, gore is a part of murder mystery.

5369664

-Ru

5371748

Now youv'e stolen all the emoticons I could have used.

5372210 Possession is nine-tenths of the law, tro-lo-lol!

-Ru

5363116 Reading this I got a few ideas. I will be entering and should be able to get it done by the deadline.

5373984

Awesome! I look forward to reading your entry.

5363143
5373984
5372879

The clock is ticking!

5368697 Well, call me surprised...

5363116 And at least I can help with reviewing here!

5392054 I'm so far behind schedule. I may need to pull an all-nighter for the next two nights but I'm getting this done.

5392054 Accursed clock! *Throws clock through closed window* Ahhh. Much better! Now I can get to writing without that infernal ticking sound.

-Ru

5392070

So all the admins will be judging then. Nice!

5392209

I hope you at least have a basic outline in mind. Two days isn't really that much time.

5392363

Churn out those words!

...

Oh wait, that sounded weird.

5392451 Oh don't worry I'm much farther then that. It's just the little details that slow me down.

5392451

Churn out those words!

...

Oh wait, that sounded weird.

Only somewhat. I get what you're saying, though.

-Ru

5392054 I'm sorry, I got a fever [101.3 degree farenheght] and am not feeling that well. Dad wants me to stay off electronics till I get better, but, if I could, I'd definitly submit my story on Aug. 1. I hope you understand; I'll defintly enter the next compitition when it comes up.

I'm sorry...

5395709

Oh, no! I hope you get well, getting a fever isn't exactly that fun.

But no worries, we already added your story to the contest folder and will just judge it as it is (even if all it really accomplishes is filler, no offense). You'll get some points marked off and things, but you're a special case now.

Hope you feel better!

5363116 Sorry I missed the deadline for the contest. The idea I had ended up being too big for the time frame I had, but it's hard to write a short mystery.

5395783 I'm almost done! Just need to add a few more words and post to the site. Should have it in in a few more hours at absolute most.

-Ru

5395783 Okay it's published to the site, just waiting on it to be cleared. I'm in Texas, time is 9:08 P.M.

-Ru

5398430

You didn't try auto-queue?

5398248

If you just scrapped it, I was deciding on extending the deadline until tomorrow, because everyone needs time to submit their entries.

5398442 I have no idea what auto-queue is or how to use it. Time is 11:04 P.M., and still waiting for it to be cleared. Hope to get it to the folder before too long.

-Ru

5398442 Okay, that was weird. I submitted it, and it said I could pick the auto-queue? Something about it passing the submission process in like ten minutes or so?

...

AW BUCK MY HEAD! I FORGOT TO SUBMIT IT THE LAST TIME! BUCKING BITS AND BRIDLES! GAH!

-Ru

5398442 STORY IS IN FOLDER BEFORE MIDNIGHT WOOT BROHOOVES ALL AROUND YEEEAAHH!

-Ru

5398810

Yes, you can do auto-queue.

And I see you decided to go the extra mile with the narrative. Kind of reminds me of my own story Anomaly.

5399058 Yeah, I tried to go with a film noir kind of narrative, and failed miserably. Haven't read "Anomaly," but I'll check it out when I have the time.

P.S.
What's with the ?

5400275

Umm... no reason at all.

5400882

-Ru