Greetings, Fimfiction! You can call me Nitro Indigo, and you may recognise me from the roleswap contests I ran in 2020 and 2021. This year, I’ve decided to do something a little different: a species change contest. But first, you might be wondering:

What is a species change?
A species change is an alternate universe where characters have been different species for their whole lives (that is, not transformed). They can range from just one character being different, to the entire cast. This also includes ponies being changed to different tribes.

Your entries will be judged not only on their overall quality, but also on how well they utilise the species change premise. The characters may look different and have different names, but their personalities should still be recognizable. On the other end of the spectrum, if things play out too similarly to canon, there’s not much point in writing an AU.

Examples of species change fanfics include:

• Heart of the Forest: Applejack is a deer, Fluttershy is a draconequus, and they’ve both lived long, secluded lives in the Everfree Forest until Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash (who are griffons) come to visit.
• Rainbow Unicorns: Rainbow Burst (Dash) is a unicorn, and Celestia’s student. (This can overlap with other common AU genres, such a roleswaps.)
• Sparkles and Scales is an example of what doesn’t count for this contest. Twilight Sparkle accidentally turns herself into a dragon and Spike into a pony during her entrance exam; however, Twilight was still born a pony as in canon. 

The theme is choices.
The contest will run throughout the month of November 2022. Entries posted before the 1st or after the 30th in GMT (UTC 0) won’t be counted, unless it’s your first story on the site and is stuck in the approval queue when the deadline passes. If that’s the case, please PM me or another judge to let us know.

Rules and guidelines:

• No M-rated entries or crossovers.
• Please add your entries to the Choices: A Species Change Contest group.
• There’s no word limit, but please make sure you can finish your entry by the deadline. Unfinished stories will be disqualified.
• Your entry can be based on G4 or G5, and you can use any species that has appeared in their official media. That includes Equestria Girls and the IDW comics. (Also, since we haven’t seen much of G5’s world, you’re allowed to use species that have only appeared in G4 so far in G5-based entries.)
• You can have original characters in your entries, but the protagonists must be species-changed canon characters.

Judges
Nitro Indigo
Thesmokinguy
Casketbase77
Punished Bean (who also made the logo)
Scriblits Talo

Prizes:

1. £50
2. £30
3. £20

The prize money will be sent through PayPal.

Super interesting! I’m in a contest-writing mood, but my pea brain can’t think of a story that speaks to moi—at least not with the theme. Though, I’m curious if turning one or all of the M6 into zebras or donkeys count? I imagine so if tribe swapping counts. What about mules? A bit of a horse smoothie there.

7754068 All allowed. Zebras and donkeys are separate species from horses/ponies in both real life and in the Equestriaverse's canon.

7754213
I wouldn’t exactly say separate species since they belong to the same family and can successfully breed, but that’s tomato tomato. Thanks for answering my question though

Hey, how many stories are allowed from one author?

More than one, I hope. Otherwise I'll feel discouraged by concern about using up my one slot

[Open] Choices: A Species Change Contest [November 2022]

Didn't this contest close at the end of last month? You're supposed to change the forum post's title from '[Open]' to '[Closed]' at that point.

Well, now I feel sad because I didn't know that this was a contest and now I'm sad.

7775085

Well, now I feel sad because I didn't know that this was a contest and now I'm sad.

Join this group

Hall of Contests [SFW]

Secret Moon

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to learn about the next contest.

7783445 I did but I didn't see it in time. Oh well.