Posted on behalf of the Original Pairings group
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/214077/original-pairings/thread/494443/announcement-may-pairings-contest-2022

Hello everyone!

May is nearly upon us, and with its return comes a celebrated tradition. That’s right: once again, it is time for May Pairings.

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!

UPDATE: Because I've received a few questions about EQG and pony stories, I've decided to issue a clarification. These stories (say, Sunset Shimmer and pony Fluttershy) ARE ALLOWED with a caveat. Stories that carry out ships like this should do so in a manner where this would make sense in the story. This means that we want original pairings in this contest, if we feel that the story is just two EQG characters together under the disguise of ponies, your fic may not score as well.

As a quick note: this event is being hosted by a new team of organizers as the original host is no longer on FimFic! I may choose to run things differently compared to years prior.

The prize pool for this contest is $300 total broken down as follows:

$150 for first place.

$100 for second place.

$50 for third place.

UPDATE: Each judge will also pick an honorable mention to receive $40!

A very big thank you to the sponsors that made this possible!

Judges:

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 once before for Bike’s MxM shipping contest 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!

Red Parade

Heyo, I’m Red! You might remember me from Pillars Shipping or Bike’s Crackship Contest, or even HapHazred’s Write an Episode contest from a while ago. I like original ships so much that I invented one! Ever hear of FiddleDust? It’s great and you should ship it. I also have tons of other ships too: Cheerilee and Meadowbrook, Strawberry Sunrise and Cherry Berry, Spitfire and Daring Do… the list goes on!

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 Pillars Shipping Contest in the past, 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

Howdy, all! My name is Mushroom, and I've been in the original pairing scene for a while now - don't believe me? Just check out my profile! I placed as an honorable mention in the past two May Pairing contests and one original pairing speedwrite, and have written plenty of rarepairs outside of contests, too. It's definitely a passion of mine :) This will be my second site-wide contest as a judge - I previously judged for Bike's MxM shipping contest, as well. Super excited to see what everyone brings to the table! Let the writing begin!

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