Shamelessly copied from my blog post about the contest, but the following is reposted here for your convenience.

The Unsung Heroes Writing Contest delves into the characters that either lack popularity, spark controversy among the fandom, or are deserving of some more appreciation. Naturally, how one defines such a character varies, and some may disagree with the notion that the following characters are what some might consider unpopular, flawed, or controversial. Anyway, here are the characters that you'll get to choose from:

Trixie
Diamond Tiara
Silver Spoon
Prince Blueblood
Spitfire
Prince Rutherford
Starlight Glimmer
Flash Sentry
King Sombra
Fleetfoot
Nightmare Moon
Thorax
Babs Seed
Gilda

That's fourteen characters in total! Of course, that begs the question of what you'll be writing about once you've selected your character, and if someone else has already chosen that character, you're more than welcome to do the same. Given that the contest's title is "Unsung Heroes," the prompt will be straightforward.

By the end of the story, your selected character must have done something heroic or worthy of praise.

That seems simple, right? Most stories qualify for this sort of thing, but we're not working with ponies such as Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash. Instead, you'll be writing about characters such as Spitfire, Diamond Tiara, and Gilda. I've even thrown in some villains such as Nightmare Moon and King Sombra if you're brave enough to apply them to the prompt. Furthermore, there's so many ways you can interpret the requirement, that there should be a number of unique stories among the entries. With that out of the way, let's cover the prize that's up for grabs.

The stories that finish in the top three will all get promoted by yours truly, and first place will get something a little more special. The overall winner of the contest will get a $20 or less game from Steam of their choosing, so if you're looking to snag a game that has been on your wishlist for some time, this contest might be for you. Furthermore, the winning story will receive a live reading from the wonderful Night Spark. Without further ado, let's go over the contest rules so that we're all on the same page.

Rules:
1. Stories should have fewer than 10,000 words and be completed by the time of submission. If your entry has more than 10,000 words, I'd recommend clearing it up with me first, but an entry slightly above that word limit can be accepted into the contest.
2. All entries must be new and published between June 30th and July 31st. The deadline is subject to change, and the review process will occur the week after submissions close. How long this takes depends on the number of entries, but I don't think it should be too long.
3. The character you choose for your story (among those listed above) must be the main protagonist and achieve something heroic or admirable by the end of the story. What this means is up for interpretation, and it doesn't necessarily have to be an adventure or dramatic. Any genre and rating is acceptable.
4. Contest submissions will go into the Unsung Heroes Contest's FiMFiction group.
5. Be sure to mention that your entry is for the Unsung Heroes Contest in the description.

That pretty much covers things. Hopefully, we'll have some interesting stories created for this contest. I'll be going over each one, judging them based on how closely they follow the prompt, creativity, technical aspects, and so on. Of course, my opinion is subjective, which means your favorite story may not be the winner. Regardless, I hope we get some fantastic stories, and best of luck in the contest!

Since people have been asking me about the word limit, I'll allow entries slightly above 10,000 words to be accepted. If you're unsure about how many words over that amount is acceptable, feel free to clear it up with me. I'll be willing to accept something like a story with 10,500 words, for example, but nothing too outrageous

6006332 As with all the contests on this site, I'm promoting this one on my user page in an attempt to get you more contenders.

Just a quick update regarding the prizes. Night Spark has generously offered to do a live reading of the winning story, and I bet quite a few authors will be excited about the prospect. I've updated the original post to reflect this change, and as always, I wish everyone the best of luck in the contest.