Are you a brave, fearless, and daring pegasi in search of your next great adventure? Do you think you have what it takes to join the best flight team in all of Equestria? Then the Wonderbolts just might be the group for you.

Hello!

The Quills and Sofas Speedwriting team is proud to present to you, the 2024 Wonderbolts Sitewide Contest! 

As the title suggests, this contest is about the Wonderbolts: a group that has its highs and its lows, its heroes and its villains, and its untapped crew of unnamed pegasi. For this contest, we are looking for stories about the Wonderbolts. That means that for your entry to qualify, you must be able to convincingly argue to us that your story is about this group in some manner! More details are discussed below, so let’s get right to it!

1. Each entry submitted must be about the Wonderbolts: as previously stated, you should be able to present an argument to the judges if asked that your story in some way is about this group. There are obviously several ways to do this, the easiest way being to write a story featuring one of the Wonderbolts (canon or not!), but there are other ways as well! For example, a story about a unicorn whose dream is to be a Wonderbolt would qualify. 

   1. OC’s and “blank slate” background ponies (which I define as a pony with little to no canonical traits) are allowed. Bear in mind we should be able to judge any of these characters as they occur in the story: we will not be reading any other material to get a better understanding of an OC.
   2. HiE and EQG stories are allowed for this contest. Variations of the Wonderbolts (ie the EQG Wondercolts) will qualify so long as the group equivalent can be easily identifiable. 
   3. Anon stories will not be accepted for this contest. 
   4. Alternate universe stories are allowed as long as Rule One is observed!
   5. For this contest we will draw a distinction between mature rated stories and pornographic stories. Mature rated stories are allowed provided they are tagged appropriately (for example stories about gore or serious substance abuse). Pornographic entries of any type on the other hand will not be accepted. This includes stories determined by the judges to be fetish fics or kink fics regardless of rating. 
2. Each author will be able to submit up to two entries with a hard word cap of 25,000 each, or one story 50,000 words long. Each author can only place once. Authors may be able to receive more than one bonus prize, or receive a bonus prize and placement, depending on the judges’ decision. Bonus prizes will be discussed below.

3. Entries for this contest must be submitted no earlier than the beginning of March 23rd 2024, and no later than April 30th 2024. Any entry submitted after 11:59 PM Pacific Time of the 30th (one minute before May 1st) will be considered disqualified unless previously discussed and approved with the judges. Entries MUST be added to this folder before the deadline to qualify.

   1. Judges may submit to the contest but are ineligible to win any prize. 
   2. Judges may not be asked to preread, edit, or provide commissions to any entry to this contest. 
   3. Other participants are more than welcome and actively encouraged to leave thoughtful comments on other entries! Participants are also free to ask each other for editorial comments or feedback or commission each other for art at any stage of their writing. 
4. Stories should be standalone. Please consult a judge if you would like to include your story in something like an existing anthology. Stories that are a prequel or sequel to existing stories will be judged on their content and their content alone: we will not read associated stories for more context. 
5. This contest is being run in conjunction with the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Server on Discord (joinable here). Participation in any Quills and Sofas event is NOT mandatory for submission to this contest. Submission to this contest will NOT qualify you for a writer role on the Discord server (see server rules for more details). 

This contest will feature a unique set of prizes, including several bonus awards (some to be revealed later) and prize pool escalators!

The placing prizes are as follows:

Medal of Distinguished Aeronautics, First Class: First Place, reward of $100 (up from 75 as announced on the main page)
Medal of Distinguished Aeronautics, Second Class: Second Place, reward of $50
Medal of Distinguished Aeronautics, Third Class: Third Place, reward of $25

There will be various bonus prizes, some bearing cash prizes and others only bearing recognition, with some revealed with the results and others in advance. These are:

Secret Medal, $10
Secret Medal, $10 
Secret Medal, $10
Secret Medal, $10 
Flight Squad Leader: to be given to a participant who left thoughtful and engaging comments on the entries of their fellow contestants.
Earth Pony Corp of Aviation Engineers Service Medal: to be given to the most outstanding entry that does not primarily feature a pegasus.
Cadet’s Distinction of Honor: to be awarded to a story submitted by a new author (defined as an author whose account is no longer than two years old and has less than ten total stories). 
Secret Medal
Secret Medal
Secret Medal
Secret Medal

Additionally, prizes have the capability to escalate, either by additions to the prize pool or the creation of additional awards! Please see below for details. Additional prizes may be created before results are revealed.

This event was brought to you by the staff of the Quills and Sofas Speedwriting Server, a group dedicated to creating stories in a very short amount of time. In conjunction with this event, the server will be running Wonderbolt-themed speedwrites throughout the writing period. This is a great way to start a rough draft, find an idea, and even get early feedback from other writers! The contests are planned to occur as follows:

April 6th: Wonderbolts Speedwrite
April 10th: Spitfire Character Contest
April 17th: Pegasus Contest.

Additional contests may be created depending on staff availability.

Further: for every entry submitted to one of these Quills and Sofas contests, the total allocated prize pool will increase by $3, USD. To count as a submitted entry capable of increasing the prize pool, the author must complete commenting and voting guidelines stipulated within Quills and Sofas speed writing group.

Participating in Quills and Sofas speedwriting contests related to this competition will not affect judging. The judges for the sitewide contest are not permitted to participate in the Quills and Sofas contests in any fashion. They may not write entries, provide feedback on entries, or vote on the outcome of the speedwrites (although they may host or run said contests).

Again, when your story is completed, please add it to the folder found here.

The Red Parade, Deputy Parachute Specialist

The Red Parade is a big fan of background ponies and obscure characters. He used to be the sole Parachute Specialist until word broke out that one of his favorite characters is an archnemesis of the Wonderbolts. He also did a loop-di-loop once! 

Zontan, Flight Leader (Retired)

Zontan used to be a decorated Wonderbolt, but retired to civilian life to be the leader of Quills and Sofas. Now he’s being pulled out of retirement for this cross-promotional event, and he’s ready to yell at clouds. He’s looking for quality prose and well-structured plotlines, and will not be swayed by ponies merely being cute.

Mushroom, Drum Major for Wonderbolts Pep Band

The Wonderbolts Stunt Team is well-known for their heart-pounding choreography, but it's the music provided by the Pep Band that lends story and character to their raw skill. As Drum Major, Mushroom is responsible for selecting and directing the soundtrack of each Wonderbolts aerial show, aided by their elite team of musical experts. Mushroom is a connoisseur of character drama in all of its forms: horror, romance, slice-of-life, and many others.

Flashgen, Shadowbolt's Loaner

While the Wonderbolts perform death-defying stunts, there are those that go further still to ride the very razor's edge of danger. On temporary loan from the Shadowbolts, Flashgen is a fan of the horrific and traumatizing, but also the complex emotions that come from such experiences.

We will post responses to frequently asked questions here. 

7949693
This contest is so relevant to my interests, it's not even funny. I am definitely going to submit to this one, which means you just sidelined all my fics.

So, thanks for that, I guess lmao.

Thanks for hosting this contest!

[hype intensifies]

7949693
So question: do the Shadowbolts (see: Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, etc.) count?

7950294
The Shadowbolts will be considered as their own entity, so if the story can not prove that it is about the Wonderbolts then it would not qualify. Maybe next year we'll do a Shadowbolts contest :P

7950333
Alright. Thanks for the clarification.

7949693
So when joining the contest, do I have to own both a Reddit and Discord account, or just Discord? Cause I'm a bit confused about the other form that says the contest people are using Reddit, yet in this form its only Discord.
Thank you for understanding

7951003
You only need discord! Our Reddit is retired and any mention to it can be ignored!

7949693

I saw someone mention Reddit and Discord. Do you need either of them to just join the wonderbolts writing competion if you just want to submit your story here on Q in the folder? Also, what form?

7951037

To qualify for the site contest no, you don't need either. Discord is only relevant for Quills and Sofas speedwriting, the reddit is obsolete. And I'm frankly not sure what form Blackblade was referring to.

7951041
Maybe they were referring to the forum? https://www.fimfiction.net/group/214527/quills-and-sofas-speedwriting/thread/416782/speedwriting-general-info-thread still mentions Reddit, and no followup comments mention Discord.

I assume the confusion might be because this is a regular site-wide story-writing contest hosted by a group that normally runs speed-writing contests (I think), so speedwriting restrictions don't apply - e.g. for this contest, there's no limit on the time authors can spend writing (after the start of the contest), no need to be on Discord when you write, and no restrictions getting editing (the latter is explicitly allowed in this contest's rules)

• Other participants are more than welcome and actively encouraged to leave thoughtful comments on other entries! Participants are also free to ask each other for editorial comments or feedback or commission each other for art at any stage of their writing.

7949693

For example, a story about a unicorn whose dream is to be a Wonderbolt would qualify.

Do stories about a pony training to be a Wonderbolt and taking steps to join the Wonderbolts count, even before applying, if the existence/importance of the Wonderbolts is prominent in the story's setting (e.g. characters hearing news/current events/history/etc)?

EDIT: I'd guess so?

Also, is it fine to withdraw stories if you end up writing more than two stories?

7954926

First part, yeah that's fine.

Second, I'm assuming you're talking about having three stories and wanting to change one of the first two for the third? In which case yes, just make sure to remove the submission you are intending to replace and that the word count total is still within the limit.

Less than one week less to submit, and the field is still wide open!

Home stretch now, there are 24 HOURS REMAINING in the contest! Please submit all entries before midnight tonight Pacific Time!