A few days ago, Tilgoreth suggested that we in the FlutterDash group run another competition. I realized it had been a year since our last contest, so I figured it was high time to do another one!

The prompt for this contest, as suggested by the season, is the classic Equestrian rhyme:

Nightmare Night, what a fright, give me something sweet to bite!

You may use any portion of the rhyme, or all of it, as a prompt for your story. Feel free to be creative!

Submitted entries are to feature the Fluttershy x Rainbow Dash pairing in either a romantic or a platonic relationship. This can be in any form you wish: Anthro, Humanized, Equestria girls, Alternate Universe, etc. are all fine so long as it features the paring.

1) Submitted entries are to be greater than 1,750 words in length, but can be as long as you want.

2) Submitted entries are to have no greater than a T rating.

2a) That means no explicit descriptions of anything more “heated” than passionate kissing.

3) No content that would require the entry to be tagged “gore” will be permitted.

4) Multi-Chapter stories must be marked complete before the contest deadline.

5) Each contestant may only have one entry.

6) Entries must be written for the contest. No stories posted prior to September 20th, 2017 can be entered.

7) None of the contest judges may have been involved in the writing, editing or pre-reading of your entry. Asking for help from others though is both allowed and encouraged.

A subfolder for Contest 4 has been created within the main folder "Writing Contests" called "Writing Contest 4: Nightmare Night" and has been made public for anyone to submit stories into. Please be sure to submit your story to the folder, and, preferably, make a note of its submission in the thread as well.

The deadline to submit a story for the contest is Tuesday, October 31st at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time. The contest folder will be locked off after that point and you won't be able to submit your story, so be sure to submit your entry before then!

The judging period will happen after the specified deadline and the winner shall be announced by Monday, November 13th.

Our judges for this contest are:

* Keys for PC video games! First place will get to pick two games off of this list, second place will get to pick one game. If there are ten or more entries in the contest, first place will receive three games, second place will get two games, and third place will get one game. Most of these keys are for Steam, but a few are for uPlay or Origin.

* Titanium Dragon will post reviews of all of the stories on his blog; if you don’t want your contest entry to be publicly reviewed, you may instead ask for a private review to be sent to you. He will also make a public note of the winners of the contest on his blog.

* Front page posting as the contest winner for an unspecified amount of time.

1) Don't procrastinate! You have 42 days to write your entries, which makes it seem easy to wait until the last minute to write something… at which point, it seems like you’ve almost run out of time. Try to get an early start, so that you don’t have to rush at the end.

2) Proofread your work! Try to be as thorough as possible with your story to have as few grammar or spelling mistakes as possible. No one's perfect, but try really hard and even get outside assistance if necessary to make sure your story is as grammatically correct as possible.

3) Ask for help! Even though the judges can't help you with your story during the contest, that doesn't mean you're all alone. Ask for help from as many people as possible, there exists groups on this site that can help you for this kind of thing, and of course, there are likely many FlutterDash fans who would be eager to help you produce a good story!

4) Be Creative! While ‘tis the season of Halloween, your story does not necessarily have to be about Nightmare Night (though don’t be afraid to write about Nightmare Night if the idea takes you!). Try to think outside the box and create something truly creative that will hook people.

5) Have Fun! Don't feel like you have to do this or that you just want to do this for the prize. If you're writing for the contest and you're not enjoying yourself, then what’s the point? Have fun and try to enjoy writing something that other people will read and enjoy themselves.

If you have any questions regarding the contest please feel free to ask them here in the thread or PM one of the judges.

I eagerly await the results!

Oh look, something else that I should do. Alright. I'm game. Let's just hope I don't procrastinate this time.

6121648 Looking forward to this!

*faceplant*

Time to get another contest entered. This should be interesting.

*flips switch from AppleDash to FlutterSash*

Alright, time to give this contest thing another shot.

It's been a long time since our last contest and for that one we achieved almost 20 submissions. I'm not going to push for that many this round, but if we can at least half of that'd that I will consider this a successful contest.

Good luck to everyone and I can't wait for everyone's submissions!

Also it feels really good to be the one who gets to sit back and worry about judging then doing all the posting, reminding, and coordinating... feels nice.

6122457
I wouldn't mind getting 20 again. But then, I'm crazy.

6121648
Hmm... Maybe I could do something. Already got an idea.

6121648
Think I might enter as well. Got a good idea, should be fun if I can write it properly.

oh boy

6131052
Even if there isn't. I'll still be immensely satisfied. Plus, I'm not a judge this time. So there's no deadline.😅

6132086
yes, yes there should

6121648

Intriguing. Just looking at the prompt, I've got an idea already. Now I simply need to hammer a few details into place and cross my fingers. And write something too, of course.

6135721
Huzzah!

6155807
There's usually a rush towards the end.

6155807

Assuming I finish mine before the deadline, at its current rate it's guaranteed to be a last-minute entry. Probably a similar situation for other people too.

Oh my gosh... There's only 15 days left and so far there's only 1 entry? Do people need more time, or what's going on?

6159892
I procrastinate and I'm like 85 percent through writing it.

6159892
Well, I just heard about this contest yesterday, so I guess I procasti-not-knowing-about-it-nated. But it's okay, because I've got a plan! I want to get another 2,000 words written today, which should put me at about 50% done.

Given that I'll have written almost 3,500 words in just two days, that means you can expect the ~7,000 word story to be posted by... October 31st at 11:58PM Pacific Time...

Maybe.

6165946
Wait, what? How did you go from having 3,500 words in 2 days to have 7,000 words in 12 days?

Either way, if you make it, yay! We need more stories for this contest! I don't wanna see this one bomb like 4 seasons did.

Bad news on my part: my current project for this contest is going to have to bow out. The story flat-out insists on turning into a novel, and there's no way I can possibly have it completed on time. In which case, I'm going to try something else and hope I can finish the replacement project before the deadline.

6165989
I was attempting to make a joke that, while I'm making fast progress, I'll probably still fail to complete the project in a timely fashion.

6165997
Have you considered taking a chapter from the novel and entering it as a stand-alone for the contest? Or is there no chapter appropriate to the theme that you feel wouldn't spoil the story?

6166012

The latter, yes. Also, the project is an Alternate Universe fic. It would be nigh impossible to separate a chapter without some heavy rewrites, not least of all because the histories and character dynamics differ from the show's in ways that influence the plot. It would be easier to start from scratch.

If I'm lucky, I might come back to it as its own project another time. If I'm lucky.

I have joined the contest. My entry is called "You Call That A Costume?". Hopefully, I can finish it before the deadline.

6175872

Oh, it snowballed into multiple projects for various reasons, and I've created three false starting points.

The good news is that I think I know what I did wrong on one of them, so I'm currently going back to that one and picking up where I left off.

Cautiously optimistic, shall we say?

6121648
Fimfic won't let me submit my story, so I'll just post it here on the forums.

BEGIN

Fluttershy sat in her cottage, staring off into space. Drool leaked from the corner of her muzzle. It was that time of year again, and her ability to cope was sorely tested. Today was a less successful one.

Thoughts returning to her mind startled her, and she let out a small squeak, drawing the attention of Angel Bunny. He raised one eyebrow at her, shrugged, then resumed munching on a carrot.

Rarity had been by earlier today. She and Rainbow Dash had come up with the cutesy idea to dress up as each other this year, and Rarity wanted to pick Fluttershy's brain for ideas about how to perfect her costume. She wanted to dress up not as the mare they both knew today, but as a snapshot of an earlier Rainbow Dash from their childhood and who better to come to for advice than her childhood friend, Fluttershy?

She had managed to endure the encounter. Rather than provide any real answers, she had just let Rarity do her own thing, chattering away, while Fluttershy nodded and gave non-commital half answers that satisfied her friend. Rarity was the creative one, and Fluttershy wouldn't want to impose her opinions upon her. Even when directly asked for. Begged for even.

The invitation came. It always did. Fluttershy declined. She always did. Her friends knew this time of year was bad. They still offered, as friends. She clung to her facade of being scared. They accepted it.

Today was just like last year and the year before it. It wasn't any worse.

Being around the two. Her friend Rarity, and the mare she wanted for herself...

Fluttershy firmly stuffed that train of thought deep.

It was just a bad time. Watch the clouds a little longer, and it will fade like every year. Don't think about it. Don't think about anything.

GOTO BEGIN

There you go. Despite the fact that the story has an infinite wordcount, Fimfic still won't accept it as a normal story upload.

6182229
1,000 words minimum. This appears to be only a little above 300. If your story doesn't have at least 1,000 words, it won't be accepted.

The winners of the contest have been announced! They can be found here.