Howdy!

It's once again May, and you know what that means: it's time to crackship!

What is the May Pairings Contest?

If you don’t know, the May Pairings contest is all about original, rare, or unique ships that aren’t afraid to explore unique dynamics between characters. This means that stories about Lyra and Bon Bon, Vinyl and Octavia, or Rarity and Twilight wouldn’t qualify. Rather, we want to see stories about Autumn Blaze and Lemon Hearts! Daring Do and Treehugger! Octavia and Applejack! You get the picture.

1. Your story should feature something that can be argued to be a rare, unique, or original pairing. The pairing does not need to be inherently romantic: student/teacher dynamics for example are fine! If the judges do not believe that your pairing qualifies it will be disqualified. If you aren’t sure, feel free to look around FimFic to get a feel of how popular/not popular a story is. If you still aren’t sure, don’t hesitate to ask!
2. No OC’s, anon stories, or self-inserts. Stories with unvoiced background ponies are fine.
3. Human AU’s, EQG, and Comics characters are allowed.
4. Crossovers are not allowed as we want to focus on MLP shippings. Any other genre is fair game.
5. Stories of all ratings are allowed: be aware that Mature-rated fics may not rate very highly and may even rate lower if not executed well!
6. Fetish fics of any kind will not be accepted. We reserve the right to disqualify any story that we feel violates this rule.
7. The contest period runs from MAY 1st TO MAY 31st! Stories must be newly published between these dates. If your fic gets stuck in a publication queue please contact the judges!
8. One submission is allowed per author. Stories must not be longer than 20k words. There is no minimum word count.
9. Collaborations are allowed, however these fics will count as one entry for both authors. It is up to the authors as to how they will split the money if they win.
10. Stories must be submitted to the contest folder found here by the deadline to qualify.

Remember to join the group for updates!

Q: Is [insert pairing here] rare enough?

A: We’ve fielded a lot of these already, and more are coming every day. The only way you will be disqualified is if you submit a ship that without question is against the spirit of the contest: AppleDash, RariTwi, OctaScratch, LyraBon, the likes. As long as you don’t do one of these ships (romantic or otherwise), then no matter the pairing, your story won’t be disqualified. However if it is still a fairly unoriginal pairing, it just might not score that high with our judges.

Here are some quick self-check items that could help you narrow down whether or not you have a rare pairing, or just one that you personally have never read about before:

Do these characters exchange lines? If they have ever talked to each other, it’s probably not as rare as you think.

Have these characters shared a scene? If they’ve appeared in the same frame, you can possibly guess they’ve interacted offscreen.

Do these characters have an obvious connection? Two members of the Wonderbolts know one another. The pairing isn’t rare or spontaneous, it’s more just luck if you haven’t seen them before.

If these rules are still too squishy for you, please use the site search metrics to see if there exist stories starring the pairing you want to write about. Fimfic’s search function, both on desktop and on mobile, allows you to search by character tag. Punch in both your characters and see what pops up. If you get more than one page of hits, you might be up a tree.

Still not sure? It’s probably a “if you have to ask, it ain’t it” situation. Go back to the drawing board and challenge yourself to think creatively. Maybe check out the tag directory and look for characters who have very few stories to begin with.

Q: Is it okay for me to ship the pony version of [insert eqg character here] with a pony? How about the human version of [insert pony character here] with a human?

A: Of course! But the pairing still has to be rare! Pony Sunset X pony Twilight doesn’t get points just because twiset is most traditionally shipped with their human counterparts. Likewise, human SoarinDash is no better than pony SoarinDash. You came up with a unique premise, not a unique pairing. You’re not going to receive a good score for this (especially since the judges don’t like being punked).

Q: Is genderbending allowed?

A: Yes! But the pairing still has to be rare! Dusk Shine x Rainbow Blitz is not fundamentally different from twidash on the basis of originality - as above, the judges don’t like being punked! You won’t be disqualified per se, but you’re sure as sure not going to win anything by thinking you can cheat the rules.

Q: Are gen 5 characters allowed?

A: Yep! You can pair purely within gen 5, or pair across the generations for some truly unique and spicy combos.

This year we have a prize pool totaling at $250:

First place receives $100.

Second place receives $60.

Third place receives $40.

5 Judge's Picks will receive $10 each.

DaOtterGuy

Howdy, hi! I’m the otter gay guy. I write mostly Flash Sentry being gay with different stallions, pairings that no one would normally write. I have been a judge before on several contests and am excited to be a judge for this one! I look forward to everyone’s pairings entries and wish you all the best creative energy to write!

RedParade

Red Parade is a big fan of obscure shipping having created one of his own involving Fiddlesticks and Lightning Dust, the two most important characters in all of MLP.

Zontan

Hello, everypony! I’m Zon, and I mostly write stories that revolve around interesting characters and why they do the things they do. I’ve written a few crackships in my day, but I’m mostly going to be looking for characters who have chemistry with each other, and how they show that. I’ve been a judge for the May Pairings Contest last year, and that had some great entries, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you all come up with for this one.

Shaslan

There's no pairing like a rare one, and I love seeing the ways in which different characters' personalities can be explored by pairing them with different personalities. In this contest I'll be looking for writers who write the characters true to themselves while still finding a way to make crazy ships work. Can't wait to see what you all throw at us!

MushroomPone

Hey there, I’m Mushroom! I’ve been active in the rarepair scene and the contest-judging scene for a while now. There’s nothing I love more than an odd pairing that just works—romantic or otherwise. I’m super excited to see what you all bring to the table this year! Happy writing!

Good luck everyone! Make sure to join the group here to submit and contact us with any questions!

I have been waiting for this to come around again.

time to write some weird stuff with the security in my knowledge that at least five people will read it

Hello:

A rule question. If I were to enter a serial story that may end up being longer than 20,000 words, may I do the following: Submit the story with the stipulation "please judge chapters 1-8, skip chapter 9, then judge chapter 10-12." Or, would this be prohibited?

Corollary- would I also be able to insert back in interstitial chapters after the contest closes (which will not be judged). Example- I write chapters 1-12 during the contest period. After the period but before judging ends, I write chapter 6B. Or, would this be frowned-upon?

Question - Since the pairings aren't limited to romantic, do unusual friendships count?

7831486
Where did you get these artworks from?

Well then, here's hoping this year I put more effort into a submission if I do one and that it isn't a last minute rush job. The previous contest this year of EG ships slipped my mind. Last year I did Celestia and Ember. My biggest struggle will be nailing down the personalities of one or both minor characters involved like those who only appeared in one episode. Perhaps I can get someone to help remind me to make some writing progress every so often instead of last minute rushing. Either way, good luck to everyone who enters.

Ohhhh... sweet, sweet temptation...

7831509

We've decided that whatever you submit to the contest will be judged as its whole, it's simply too much to keep track of it some stories have certain chapters that should be ignored. We'll ask that you make any edits or additions you want to add after the contest.

7831554
Per the rules:

1. Your story should feature something that can be argued to be a rare, unique, or original pairing. The pairing does not need to be inherently romantic: student/teacher dynamics for example are fine! If the judges do not believe that your pairing qualifies it will be disqualified. If you aren’t sure, feel free to look around FimFic to get a feel of how popular/not popular a story is. If you still aren’t sure, don’t hesitate to ask!

7831637
A few were pieces done by the judges and others were pieces I commissioned for other projects

Oh I'm so glad to see this going again, I had so much fun when I wrote my story... Don't think I could get anything done again but I'm excited to see what happens!

7831670
Ok, cool. It's just a majority of pairings here are romantic and the student/teacher dynamic is different to a friend one, you know?

7831670
Thank you for the clarification!

So, kind-of-obvious question incoming;

If two characters have been tagged often, but stories that focus on just the two of them are actually pretty rare, would they count?

7831759

Without more info I can't say

Maybe this is the year I finally finish my Nurse Redheart x Daring Do story...

Question, I have an idea for a pairing that would be sort of a sequel / follow up to a story I've already written - would this be allowed and still count for judging? The context of the previous story will be mentioned and discussed by characters involved.

If no, would I be better off including the original story as a chapter and then continuing it from there?

7831924

The judges will not read any stories marked as a prequel or a sequel, if you would like to submit something building off of these you will need to make sure we have enough context to understand the situation. For the second part I'd advise you to check FimFic's rules on publishing as I'm pretty sure it is against site rules to have the same story published in more than one place at once.

7831670
Can I perhaps have a link to them? Please

7831670
Question. What if the 2 characters have either interacted in a group or a crowd, but never really had one on one interaction before? I was hoping to to do Twilight with one of the Young 6, but when I searched stories with just Twilight and one of the Young 6, they pretty much always got grouped together, but no individual pairings. I'm thinking the one on one is unusual, but I didn't know if the group dynamics would make it not a good pairing.

7832803

We discussed it and we don't feel that student six and Twilight is rare enough.

Let's goooooooo

If this contest were wings, I'd be the chief preener

10. Stories must be submitted to the contest folder found here by the deadline to qualify.

I think this is the wrong group folder link

Mm, perhaps this can be the springboard for me to put out a non-crossover story for once...

I do have a question, though: could I do a story with all three CMCs interacting with another group of three, or is it strictly a one-to-one pairing?

7835167

that's fine, but your options are either to focus heavily on one pairing as the main one or make all three central to the story

7835284

Ah, all righty. Thank you for the clarification!

Would a story with the romantic pairing Moondancer x Princess Luna be rare enough for this contest?

7835318
Can I write a story with Moondancer and Princess Luna as a romantic pairing? Is it rare enough? I tired looking for fics with them shipped together and couldn't find any.

7831486
So why May exactly? Never understood that ever since I joined the site.

7831486
Is there an exact time for the closing of submissions? Iʼm asking because my fic is halfway done and itʼs already May 29.

7840939

That'd be a question for the original contest starter but seeing as they're not around anymore, idk man.

7841164

Contest closes at midnight pacific, so when May becomes June in pacific time!

7841352
Thank you.

7831486
Can I have a countdown to how many hours are left before the end of the contest?

7841679
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20230601T00&p0=137&font=cursive

7841692
Thank you so much.

7831486 Is this information true?

• The Original Pairings group's upcoming May Pairings Contest, to occur 2024 May 01-31.

7956684

I haven't announced it nor done any prep work but it is probably going to happen. Where'd you hear that?

7956695 It was prophesied in the Great Hall. Praise be them who believe, for Original Pairings group shall rise again from the dead. So it was written, so it shall be done. Amen.