So, audience voting was a bust. I'm still trying to think of a good way to get people interested in participating in the group and allowing people to communally share in the contests, but I'm thinking on it. With that said, this will be a nice, safe, vanilla three-judges contest. Without further ado, da rules:

The Premise: This month's contest will be about Luna the shipper. Here at Twilestia we have a cliché about Luna shipping Twilestia as a side hobby, or supporting Celestia in her endeavors to date Twilight in some way. From The Terrifying Prospect of Swans in Love to The Lavender Letter to even our origins with Composure and Eternal, we have a history of Luna easing our two star-crossed pones together. Your goal is to do something with it. Subvert it, deconstruct it, play it straight but change the tone. Make it different somehow and create a new story based on it.

Limitations: As other contests have mentioned, we here at Twilestia is bestia don't really worry over how much you want to ship futa Twilight the contract killer with smexy stripper drug addict Celestia, so feel free to write with any tags. But for the sake of being easy on our poor judges, we do require the story be no more than 25000 words and for the sake of you having a snowball's chance in hell of winning the contest that it be no shorter than 1000 words. Both of these restrictions can have exceptions or limitations, that said. Talk it out with the judges and see what they think if you have a concern.

Entering a story: Add a comment to the following thread down below. We look forward to it.

Judging: To everyone's relief, this contest will be judged by a panel, the members of which will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. We will have three judging slots, which will remain open until taken by an applicant. There is no screening, nor is there a chance at removal for a second applicant.

The Judges are:
-Foals Errand
-Honey Mead
-SeiRyu

Winnings: Runner-ups for third and second place will receive an advert in the form of a group comment post on them. Second place will also receive a group post about its placing, with an optional interview from a willing group member. First place will receive a position in our lovely contest box, but because it's also getting a little crowded up there will more importantly be featured on the front of the group page beneath the description. In addition, offers of fanart will go to first place, then second, then third as they arrive.

Deadline: This one will last until September 16th, giving people enough time to juggle this with any university or high school obligations they might have while also acknowledging they have close to three weeks of potential free time to enter.

Good luck, everybrony!

I'm not up to writing a new story but i'd be happy to judge!

3526186 Accepted!

3526278
Awesome Twilestia forever ^^

3526135
I've never been a judge before, but I think I'd like to try.
I assume there will be an active discussion (between the judges that is), yes?

I think I'd be a lousy judge. But I am going to enter a story into this. I mean shoot, I have a month, I should be able to cobble together 1000 words worth of puns by then.

we do require the story be no more than 25000 words

I think my days of writing for contests are over (My stories have been getting longer, not shorter)

3526432 Sold to the man with the jar of bee booze!

3527240
Woo-hoo, fermented bee vomit for everyone!

3527291 Hey! That's tasty vomit, dangit! Besides, when you think about where milk and cheese comes from, suddenly honey seems downright tame. You are drinking mutated cow sweat, and eating mutated cow sweat infused with mold.

3527314

You are drinking mutated cow sweat, and eating mutated cow sweat infused with mold

And occasionally maggots diarrhea.

I'm sure I can write something over a thousand words long in a month.

3527355 Yes indeedy.

Hmm. I do have a story idea that I could add or change a bit of to make Luna have some more significance in it. I don't think I will have time to make it of the quality I want with college junk going on at the moment, though. (That may be a bit of an excuse, but I'd rather not try to rush a story, especially this particular idea.)

I'd like to try out judging, if possible, though.

I will tentatively put my hat in the ring for this one. I'm kinda busy with some IRL stuff at the moment and I have some other projects to work on...but that said I think I might just have a cute idea building for this. Luna the shipper is my second fave shipper after Shippershy, so I think I can crank something fun out.

3531509 And we have our final judge!

3532366 Excellent, excellent... now to stalk their favorites pages so I can discern a pattern of writing designed to specifically appeal to them and net me the victory. First the Twilestia contest, THEN THE WORLD MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

3532437
You know what I want...

3532437 3532469

3532437 Oh jeez. My favorites is a total mess. I favorite a lot of stuff for email notifications, too, lol.

To save you some time, I can tell you that stories that enrapture me in some way, whether it be by concept, writing style, or just something interesting. Basically, just do whatever, lol (and follow the prompt).

3532366 Cool. This should be fun.

3532652 Hmmm... that sounds difficult, do you take bribes?

3532652
3532656
So, an enrapturing story chalk full of puns... good luck my friend.

3532704 The fun thing is, as this will be my first full length story of any type published.... I'm pretty sure I'll disappoint both of y'all

3532656 I am in need of a good servant.
3532733 So long as you don't do horrible, you'll do fine. :)

3532437
Lots of cuddling. Er *hides the multitude of clop* heh heh...

3532926 3532733 I second the multitude of cuddles!

3532926
3532938 Cuddles are likely... not so much on the clop... I can't even write sloppy make out scenes

3533033
Yay for cuddles!

Well, shoot. I didn't realize a story I'm already writing fits so well here. It's obviously not going to hurt to enter, since I know I'm hitting all the right notes with the rules.

3534120 Would you mind providing a link so that it's easier for our judges to find it?

3534600
No problem. My formal entry, then, is Celestia Wants to Date Twilight Sparkle.

I have one quick question: does Luna have to succeed, or does she just need to try?

3542276 I, personally, do not care if Luna succeeds. If it is something interesting or out of the norm, I'd probably love it.

Only thing to note because this is a shipping contest: if Luna tries to get Twilight and Celestia together, but then fails, and the story overall becomes more of a Slice of Life kind of story versus a Romance story, then I'm not sure if it can qualify.
Me personally, I'd be fine with it so long as it included the basic prerequisite of "Luna the Shipper" and had some good Twilestia interaction.

3542342

Well, it's a good thing that I was already writing a Twilestia fic...somewhat. But yeah, Luna attempts, but...spoilers. Anyway, I need to figure out how to condense the planned 40k minimum into 25k maximum while also managing to actually finish it.

3542526 Twilestia stories do not need to end in success in order to qualify, no. So long as you meet the basic premise, you are totally free to write what you wish. Good luck!

3542526 I'd say the most important thing is just to finish it and not worry about word count.

I won't have a problem reading any entry that is under 50000 words, but I have no idea what the other judges would be able to do. Obviously, if you can condense it, that would be beneficial for the contest, but don't let that hurt what you want the story to be.

3542526

Let me be completely honest here. I am (probably) going to be the harshest judge (3542959 has some experience with my critiques). (Granting that I have to vote for someone) I'm going to know within the first five hundred words whether or not your story even has a chance to get my vote. Write well, get editors, and be honest with your characters, and we'll get along just fine.

3543300
All hope is lost

3543778
'Lost' implies it existed in the first place.

3543300 Does that mean we get a critique with our judgment? It's like fries!

3548525
... maybe I guess I could do that depending on how many entrants there are, and if everyone really wants me to tear them down...

I'm too scared to write anything now ...

3550155
Don't be... someone has to win... right? I can't just veto everyone... can I?

3550166

I dunno, can you?

3550174 3550166 Nope! He totally can't!

Also, palai, you don't have to accept his criticism if you don't want it. Feel free to write what you will.

3550252
"Darn," he said as though his entire reason for existing had been crushed beneath the weight of an uncaring world.

3550014 I was mostly kidding, feel free to just give mine an up or down vote