As we all know, no filly was as determined; as steadfast; as laser-focused on achieving her goals as Cozy Glow. Undeterred by Tartarus, brutal physical and magical assaults, avalanches, and universal contempt, she battled on to fall only to the combined might of all of Equestria.

We can do no better than to emulate her fortitude. Through two years of global pandemic we uplifted her, and in these times of economic uncertainty we will uplift her again. The Cozy Glow group is delighted to present the third annual short story contest!

Guidelines

All stories must:

-Adhere to the site rules

-Be between 2.5k and 15k words in length.

-Contain Cozy Glow as a central character and be classifiable under one of the prompts.

-Be written in English.

-All chapters must be written and published between 23 Jul 2022 12:00 PM EDT and 25 Sep 2022 12:00 PM EDT. No exceptions. Post up to three entries in this folder. Stories may be sequels, but must be able to be read without knowledge of prior works.

-Entrants must be willing to reveal their country of residence (which must have an amazon website) if they win a monetary prize. If a monetary prize is not possible, an alternative prize will be offered.

-“Genre” refers to narrative type of story (e.g. adventure, mystery, etc.); “category” refers to tone (e.g. sad, comedy, dark, etc.).

Otherwise, there are no restrictions on content or maturity level. Stories will be assigned points based on the following:

-Narrative flow and cohesiveness – does it all work together as an organic whole?

-Quality of spelling and grammar – typos and copy/paste errors can ruin the most carefully engineered mood.

-Emotional impact – make the reader feel it.

-Relevance to the MLP universe – is there a connection to the characters, lore, and storyline portrayed in the show?

-Originality – take an old premise and add a new spin, or venture into the unknown.

-Style – speak to the reader in your own unique voice.

-X-factor – how sharp are the teeth?

Prizes

Monetary prize amounts will vary depending on the number of entrants. Winners are guaranteed the following:

1^st place: An amazon gift code worth at least $40, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.

2^nd place: an amazon gift code worth at least $30, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.

3^rd place: an amazon gift code worth at least $20, posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page, and brief review.

Runner-up: posting with link to story on the Cozy Glow group front page and brief review.

At 20 entrants, the monetary prizes increase by $15; at 30 entrants, they increase by an additional $15, and so on at each tier of 10 for up to 5 tiers.

Prompts

Any genre, any category

-Cozy writes a short story!

-Cozy Glow vs. …

-Twilight Sparkle gathers Cozy’s belongings for disposal. One object surprises her.

-Cozy makes an unusual friend.

-Cozy’s got a secret!

-Pipp Petals? What a loser. I can be way more popular than her!

-Luna’s villain support group gets a new member.

Adventure, any category

-As Princess Luna is delivering Cozy to Tartarus, they have an adventure.

-Cozy succeeded in absorbing not only Discord’s magic, but that of Celestia and Luna as well. There’s just one problem …

-There was only one way to fix things: destroy the unification crystal (G5 only).

-The talent contest is coming. How do I win?

Slice of Life, Sad

-That weird foal was being so extra ‘specially nice to her. Rejecting the pathetic loser was going to be just the best!

-Cozy was a straight-A student at the School of Friendship, on her way to becoming an Element of Harmony. Then there came a lesson that set her on a different path.

-Life was great until mom started barking like a dog.

-How can I make them be quiet when they’re already dead?

Grimdark/horror

-They showed her how to harvest the skulls, after she’d finished playing.

-Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow develop a strong friendship that turns into something more.

-Cozy teams up with a villain from a classic MLP grimdark (Director Dash, Pinkamena, etc.).

-All she ever wanted was a mother.

Judges

the dobermans

Anonymous Judge #1

I'm very happy to announce that Dezmo has offered to increase the prize amounts by the following!!

First: $100
Second: $50
Third: $25

Be advised that this is entirely of their own volition, and winners will need to interact with them directly. Thanks again Dezmo for your generosity!

7717725
Two questions: can you use more than one prompt for a story, and can you enter multiple stories?

Looks like it's that time again...

7717725
Hello. Would like to ask you to repost the contest again in the Hall of Contests group. Thank you very much.

7717782

Yes and yes (up to 3 entries per author).

7717725

-Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow develop a strong friendship that turns into something more.

Wait, why is that prompt in the Horror/Grimdark category?

7718608

Oh, you know, just to spice up the pot.

Can the story be written from somepony else's POV but still contain Cozy as a main character?

The contest begins today! The last two years were bangers, so let's see if the third time is the charm!

7719440

Yes - no problem there.

7718608
Haha, I was wondering the same for the "all she ever wanted to be was a mother" category.

7718034

Done!

cozy glow

7720023

7720029
that's cozy glow

I am very tempted to write something as I already have an idea for the prompt "Cozy’s got a secret!" but I sadly don't have a lot of energy these days for writing.
The idea though would have been Gen 5, with Pipp excitedly telling her new friends about her family line, and how she's a direct descendant of the first pegasus queen, Cozy Glow, who united the pegasi under one kingdom and guided them into the future.
Sunny recognizes the name from her father's research notes and has to decide on whether or not to reveal the truth that Cozy Glow was a villain.
Basically the filly escaped the stone prison sometime after the collapse of Equestria and loss of magic, and used her friendship making skills to maneuver into a position of leadership. She solidified her power by turning the ponies against each other so her subjects would be afraid and thus more easily controlled.
So the secret is, Queen Cozy Glow was Evil, and only Sunny knows.
Anyone who likes the idea is free to use it.

7722069

Thanks for your interest! Yes, the stories must be complete with all chapters published and submitted by the deadline (the reason being that the quality of the final chapters might be very different from the first).

can we do crossovers in this contest?...

7722495

Yes, as long as they can be classified under one of the prompts.

I'm cutting it rather close to the deadline, but I think I'll barely have my entry ready in time.

It appears that some entrants didn't understand the deadline, so a question to the entrants who did submit before noon: do you object to extending to 11:59:59 (midnight) 9/25/2022 EDT? A single objection will uphold the current deadline.

Will the full scoring be posted, even for non-winners? I'm going to be curious how my stories fared no matter the outcome.

7744687

I can send those in PMs if requested.

7744929
👍