Welcome to the fourth Equestria at war Write Off!
This time the theme is: "A normal being's point of view and life amidst global events."

There is a saying amongst the Kirins, "May you live in interesting times."

It's meant as a curse for good reason. When interesting times come, instability and devastation follows in its wake. When the Griffonian Emperor lies on his deathbed, being the only one to keep the Empire together. When the leaflets on the streets of Aquila call for revolution flutter in the wind. When River Swirl and Nova Whirl clash in the Sabor, each day being a new game of political chess.

And yet, the average creature, while affected by it have never been asked for their experience...until now.

Points are given out in the following category:

• Spelling and Grammar.
• Characters.
• Originality.
• Story and pacing.
• How well it fits the theme.

The rules are as follows:

• Minimum Word Count of 1,000 words.
• Maximum Word Count of 10,000 words.
• The story can be M-rated but must not contain pornography or other extreme content.
• The story should fit into the Equestria at War universe. (Don’t worry too much, we’re very lenient with this.)
• English only. We're sorry if you struggle with this, but it's the one language all the judges speak.
• All submissions must be submitted to moderation before the deadline, and be in the 2021 Contest folder up to seven days after deadline at the latest.
• The story must be marked and be considered "Complete" on FimFiction by the deadline.

(Be advised, stories which break these rules will not be considered by the judges.)

The deadline is 23:59:59 (PDT) on Monday, 5th April.

See here for a countdown.

The Prizes are:
1st Place – A free copy of one Hearts of Iron IV DLC of your choice. Plus, the 2nd Place rewards.

2nd Place – A portrait of a character or OC of your choice drawn by our Equestria at War artist RyanManDraws. This can be added to Equestria at War if it fits. Plus, the special role in our Discord server.

3rd Place – A special role in our Discord server and your oc as a blob drawing by our Equestria at War artist AquaMuro.

Your judges will be members of the Equestria at War team and community.

Good luck everyone! We look forward to seeing your entries.

Nice can it be any creatures from the Nations of Equestria at war like the Kingdom of Pingland?

7450054 Yes. Anywhere in the world of EaW is open for writing about.

7450055
Yay thx for that! I want to do something about penguins or to nova Griffs they’re seems to be lack of representation actually

I think I’m actually going to sit this one out, I’m already working on a EAW story and well I do want to get it out.

7450051
Btw does it has to be part of Griffonian and Equus events?

7450067 It can be about anything so long as it meets the rules and is a story about a normal being (i.e. not a country leader or general) at any point in the world of EaW.

Pro-tip gamers, if you think you should describe what caliber bullet is used in a kar98... don't. For the love of the judges, don't.

7450051
Also btw is romance allowed?

Hell yes! I was actually just thinking about the last contest and how it had been a while since the last one.

Excellent! Good luck to everyone!

7450275
Yay thx!

7450286
Thank you imma make some romance story!!

7450051
Am I crazy, or is the 5th of April a monday?

7450124 Yes. It very much is.

7450326 You are not crazy. The 5th is a Monday.

7450340
*Cough cough*

The deadline is 23:59:59 (PDT) on Sunday, 5th April.

7450051
Equestria at War?

Question can we use counties that don't existed in the start of the game? (like the solar Empire)

7450051
Are there any rules against working with a friend on a story?

7450623 No. But you will need to work out how to share the prize.

7450451 Yes.

7450505 Yes

7450342 Woops. Fixed.

7450669
Cool we already did that but wanted to be sure :)

7450340
Is it alright to get an editor to help me out on my grammar issues?

7451039 Yes. Editors are good.

7451363
Thank you!

Is there a bit of leeway around the max word count? So, if a story is a few hundred (less than five hundred) words over, but is about as tight as it can be, would that still be accepted as an entry?

7451500
Hello! I'm one of the judges for this year's contest.

Yes it's fine! Just make sure it is not overboard, I expect we can allow a few hundreds, if not a thousand words more, but any further than that and it'll affect the story rating or even be outright dismissed.

Good luck and most importantly, have fun writing!

7452220
Thanks for clarifying. That took a load off my shoulders, since the final word count of what I've written is about 500 words over.

It was a fun break from my current projects. Now it's just the editing process.

is 10,000 words is the maximum?

7452471 Yes. No more then 10,000 words please. Minimum is 1,000 words.

I was wondering (i had another idea for a story come up) can we only post one story or can we post multiple?

7454787
Ok thx!

7450051

I guess I should've tagged you with the question, my bad. >_>

I posted a story last month that seems to fit the contest. May I use it, or would the story have to be published after the contest's start?

7461700 Hi! Sorry for the late reply but yes, that is okay. So long as it is not older than 2 months before we announced the contest.

7462951
Awesome, thank you!

Hello,

i joined the contest aswell, but i have a problem. I can't send my story anywhere in any group or folder. i was looking everywhere and checked
the FAQ-Sektion and other parts. It says how to do it, but it doesnt work for me! Does it has to do with something to do with that the story is
submitted but not approved? I just joined everything yesterday and its all really new to me! I hope you can help me

Edit: it says to click the add to a group button, but i have that one nowhere or any like that. PLS can you help me?

Edit2: i was looking at my story again and it is in an approval queue....whatever that is...

7464848 All new writers need to have their stories approved by the FimFiction moderators. So long as it follows the posting rules of FimFiction (which is a requirement for this contest) then you should be fine. When the story is released from the queue then you should be able to add it from the 2021 contest folder page.

7450051
excuse me but My current Word Count is 10,348 words... is it still allowed to be in?

7468575 My advice is to try and cut it down as much as you can. Reread and edit it again. You should be able to spot some words, phrases, or even sentences that can be shortened or even cut. 10,000 words is a lot of words, and the ones you can cut or shorten will add up.

A little over the wordcount will be allowed if necessary, but we really suggest that you try to reduce it to as close as 10,000 words as you can.

7468596
alright thank you i'll try my best to cut down my words

I finish!!! Now I'm just doing the finishing touches and I'm good to go!

So...just for fun...I thought about trying too come up with something. But!

My question is, I have never played Equastria At War. Is there a wiki? And do I have too stick...heavily too this specific dlc? Or can I be really creative?

Like I'll tell a war story but...I just want too know...how much freedom I have?

Will I have too research about what m46 was used by these guys? Versus these guys? Because I really know nothing about weapons...

I can make stuff though. :)

Thank you.

Greetings,

Sorry to bother but I'm new to the site, and I don't understand everything yet. ^^'

My problem is that I too wrote a little story to participate, and I recorded it on the 3rd, however, still now, it puts me "Waiting for approval", moreover, afterwards, I don't even know how submit my story to the fourth Equestria at war Write Off...

So, do I risk being disqualified ? Can someone help me ?

7472679
"Waiting for approval" on auto-moderation should take no more than an hour. Afterward, you merely need to press "add new story" in the "2021 contest" sub-folder to submit your story.

7472753
Thank you very much for the information ! However, I do not understand, it will be 3 days that I wait, you think that I must do what so that it is finally accepted ?

7472775
My advice would be to contact one of the admins/judges to help you out on giving you some wiggle room. They can give a few exceptions to the rules to help you if FimFiction is being wierd.

7472679 If you're still stuck in the queue after the deadline you will not be disqualified so long as you submitted before the deadline and are approved without resubmitting.

7470374 I'm so sorry it took so long to reply and its probably too late now but we encourage creativity and freedom. The Wiki can be found here: Link!

A small self contained story in Equestria probably is the best place to start if you're coming from the show side with little knowledge of the EaW lore. And the less specifics you use the less you can trip up. We won't be too harsh on small lore mistakes.

7473053
Actually I decided too say too pop with it. I wrote a little something for the contest anyway. It was fun and hard.

Its under The Shattering of Belgrind

7450051
got mine in just in time!