[MAJOR UPDATE - PLEASE READ] Poniverse Mascot Summerpalooza Contest!

[Batbrony 16,055]

 

Sorry, couldn't help myself, what with 'Murica Day right around the corner.  It's in my DNA ya'll!!! 

 

Anyways, now that I have your attention, bronies and pegasisters of Poniverse, lend me your ears!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z59AnkxekfI

 

OK, ew.    Man, ya'll take things so literally sometimes.

 

Anyways, good afternoon one and all, on this gorgeous summer day!  I hope your summers are all going well so far.  Seeing as it's summer, a time for merriment and revelry galore, Poniverse itself has a rather exciting event for you all.  It's... another fanfiction contest hosted by the Poniverse Fimfiction group!!! 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uQ76qrlK78

 

Shut up.  :okiedokielokie:

 

OK, I know, I know, "Batbrony, we always have fanfiction contests around here!"  Well I'm happy to announce that this is not just any ordinary fanfiction contest.  Nope, no sir, this contest is actually going to leave an impression on all of Poniverse as we know it.  How, you may ask?  Well it's quite simple really.  For this contest, we would like you, any and all of our lovely members of Poniverse, to write stories about mascots!

 

 

No, not those mascots!  I'm talking about the Poniverse mascots of course!  For those of you who don't know, Poniverse and each of its websites (MLP Forums, Pony.fm, Equestria.tv, PoniArcade, and Pony Roleplay) actually all have mascots of their own.  The sad thing is, though, these mascots have no stories of their own.  No backstory, nothing really fleshing them out as characters.  So, rather than just come up with some stories for them ourselves, we'd like you, our beloved members, to make some stories of your own.  Below you'll find all the rules you need to know:

 

(1) Entries submitted to this contest must feature one or more of the Poniverse Mascots (Pixel Wavelength, Buffy, Viola, Viridian Meadows, Nova Blast, and Wordplay) in a starring role.  Stories may fall into any genre and cover any subject the author desires, but we'd especially love to see backgrounds for the mascots fleshed out.  Maybe an author has a story about how the mascot got their cutie mark and came to love what they love, or even how somepony like Pixel Wavelength became an alicorn in the first place!  Maybe someone has a story up their sleeve about all the mascots meeting each other and forming a band of thick-as-thieves friends.  Maybe you just have a silly slice-of-life story to tell about one or more of them, or a rollicking adventure, or a romance.  Whatever the fic, we will accept and judge it, so long as it features these characters.  Now, the characters aren't going to be total blank slates; that'd be kind of unfair asking you to work with characters with nothing to go off of but a few pics of them and nothing else.  Thankfully, our staff has put together personality profiles for each character, which you will find in the spoiler tag below.  These profiles do not provide background information about specific events or anything in these mascots lives, just some information about their personality traits and characteristics.  You don't even have to follow them if you don't want to, though preference will be given in judging to fics that more closely follow these profiles.  If you have any questions about something you'd like to do with a character, feel free to PM me about it.

 

Disclaimer: As these mascots are intellectual property of Poniverse.net, judges reserve the right to ask for minor content changes from submissions from finalists.

 

 

 

Pixel Wavelength: Pixel Wavelength, Poniverse's overall, benevolent alicorn OC mascot, is a complete and total sweetheart: generous to the core, friendly as heck, super motherly as well. She's that friend you can call at 3 am in the morning crying and she'll come to your house with food and a hug. She's pretty naive, though. She's also not very adventurous, preferring to stay home and work on creating better technology. She's a bit of a 'mad' scientist, you could say, in the same vein as Twilight.  She's very scientific, certainly. She wants to make the Equestrian version of a computer that can work with all species of pony!  In fact, within our own crazy Poniverse canon where computers apparently exist in Equestria, she also happens to be the Princess of the Internet, something I'm sure ya'll could do some very fun stuff with in your writing.

 

 

 

Buffy: MLP Forums' mascot, Buffy is an absolute bundle of fun. She was based off of Shift, who designed her. So she will sometimes speak in CAPS LIKE THIS. Kind, adoring, would do anything for a friend. She's not really a voice of wisdom by any means, but she still gives her opinion anyway. She's a blabbermouth, and loves to chat (since, you know, forums and all!).  She's a huge fan of watching shows and getting into heavy (but friendly) debates about them with the ponies around town. On a sadder note, she tends to feel lonely quite often, which is a big reason why she makes her voice so loud. She wants to be heard, to feel important and noticed.

 

Viola: Pony.fm's mascot is an uptight musician, who specializes in violins. She is quite the social luminary, and comes from a family full of musically talented ponies. She has a personality and exhibits mannerisms in the same vein as Rarity, including the manner in which she speaks. She is a bit snobbish when it comes to ponies trying to befriend her, but outside of her tough (seemingly mean at times) exterior is quite the caring pony. She is loyal to her friends to the very core. She's definitely the straight man of the mascots - rolling her eyes at puns and boorish or uncouth behavior. Still, she's always willing to help out her friends and give them advice. She's quite good at it!



Viridian Meadows: Equestria.tv's mascot loves to gather her friends up for late night movies. She loves to crack puns and jokes (much to Viola's dismay at times), and is very much the jokester of the group. She can be quite the sassy pony too; quick with comebacks and always the one to break the silence. She's very confident and sure of herself. Sometimes, she run her mouth and fail to be careful in what she says, and that can be a bit of an issue. She's a budding filmmaker.



Nova Blast: PoniArcade's mascot, Nova Blast was named after his parent's favorite arcade machine. Nova Blast was raised by video games -  he practically lives and breathes them. Especially as a video game creator. Despite this, he was never a 'nerd.'  Like Viridian, he's cool and confident. Suave. The one who has a group of mares and stallions swooning over him.  Nova tries to think of himself as this too cool to touch dude, but he's very much a dork at heart. He loves his friends to the core, even if he doesn't always show it. He's not one for hugs or 'I love yous,' but he does care a lot. He just has some trouble expressing himself.


 

MAJOR UPDATE #1: Any writers who were interested in Pony Roleplay's mascots, I have an update for you all.  Pony Roleplay has some new information about their mascots, which you will find below the original profile which covered mostly just Wordplay.  Art may be forthcoming in the future, but for now if you have any questions about their appearance or what pony species they are, or any other questions about them you think might be important, send a message to Fhaolan (who runs PRP) and he should be able to help you out.

 

Wordplay: Leave it to the roleplayers/world-builders to have most a story for him.  Pony Roleplay's mascot Wordplay is actually the only mascot with siblings, an older brother named Road Map and a younger sister named Fair Dice. Wordplay is a bit shy, but is a strong writer and D&D player. He is the quietest among his friends, but don't think lightly of him; he has a very sharp tongue, and can get irritated easily. He's a perfectionist, and has a bit of trouble when it comes to sharing.  He also happens to be a colt-cuddler (for those of you not in the know, that means he prefers stallions over mares), and we do ask that this trait of his not be changed, though it is not, I repeat, NOT necessary to bring it up in any fic about him, and the same can be said as far as any of the mascots love-lives or sexual preferences are concerned.

 

Wordplay is the stallion depicted in the various artworks, and is the storyteller and RPer of the family. Fair Dice is his fractionally younger twin sister, and is far more interested in the mechanical aspects of RPs, with resolution systems, min/maxing, and so on. The little-seen Road Map is the much older brother who spends his time in the basement running massive, overenthusastic wargame scenarios such as the War of the Sun and Moon, or the Fall of the Crystal Empire. And painting all those miniatures. Can't use unpainted miniatures, you know! That would ruin the experience.   

 

 

(2) Entries should be no longer than 25,000 words. We'd prefer that all entries be one-shot fics, but if the author requires multiple chapters for their fic, that's fine, so long as the fic does not exceed 25,000 words and is complete upon entry.

 

(3) Entries cannot exceed a Teen rating. We will not accept any Mature rated fics, whether they be Gore fics, Slash fics, Clop fics, etc. That's not to say that you can't enter scary or even sensual (to a certain extent) fics, but our group has a strict policy of not accepting Mature rated fics. If any Mature rated fics are entered, we will not read or review them.

 

(4) Fics can be submitted to the contest in the folder titled "Mascot Summerpalooza Contest Entries".

 

(5) Contestants can enter no more than 1 submission of their own work (and please, do not enter any other author's work into the contest, even if you're doing it for them; if they'd like to enter the contest, they can do so themselves).

 

(6) Entries will be accepted until Sunday, August 9, the last day of BronyCon 2015; after that date, we will accept no new submissions.

 

We hope to announce the contest winners in the middle or towards the end of August, although that time-slot may change depending on whatever real life demands may arise in the next month.  Unlike our usual 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place format, winning entries will be selected based on the best fic for each of the respective mascots.  Don't let that stop you from using multiple mascots in a fic, cause if a fic's well-written enough, there's certainly no reason it couldn't qualify as the best fic about 2 or more of the mascots.  Just do whatever you feel is most manageable.  Once the winning entries have been selected, special prizes will be awarded to those writers of the best entries for each respective character, which will be announced as the contest gets underway.  In addition, as usual, all winning entries will be featured on MLP Forums, our Fimfiction group, and in the next Poniverse newsletter, along with reviews published for each one.  Finally, and perhaps most exciting of all, the winning entries for each mascot will be accepted as official Poniverse canon for these characters.

 

We hope you all enjoy this contest as much as the last one, and hope to see some wonderful entries that help us to celebrate summer and continue to expand Poniverse!  So get to it writers, and show us what you've got up your sleeves!  I'm sure many of you have some very interesting stories in mind for each of these characters, and can't wait to see your ideas in action.  If you have any questions about the contest, do not hesitate to post them here or to PM me, and feel free to share this contest prompt with any friends of yours here on MLP Forums, Fimfiction, or any other pony site you can think of!  Have a pleasant day, everypony, and happy writing one and all!   

 

MAJOR UPDATE #1: Any writers who were interested in Pony Roleplay's mascots, I have an update for you all.  Pony Roleplay has some new information about their mascots, which you will find below (as well as above underneath the spoiler tag below Wordplay's original personality profile).  Art may be forthcoming in the future, but for now if you have any questions about their appearance or what pony species they are, or any other questions about them you think might be important, send a message to Fhaolan (who runs PRP) and he should be able to help you out.

 

Wordplay is the stallion depicted in the various artworks, and is the storyteller and RPer of the family. Fair Dice is his fractionally younger twin sister, and is far more interested in the mechanical aspects of RPs, with resolution systems, min/maxing, and so on. The little-seen Road Map is the much older brother who spends his time in the basement running massive, overenthusastic wargame scenarios such as the War of the Sun and Moon, or the Fall of the Crystal Empire. And painting all those miniatures. Can't use unpainted miniatures, you know! That would ruin the experience. 

 

MAJOR UPDATE #2: Mascot Copyright Disclaimer, PLEASE READ!!!

 

Authors of winning entries will be required to sign a formal agreement that transfers intellectual property rights for the use and publicly available free publication of the fic in its entirety to Poniverse.net in order for their entries to be fully accepted as Poniverse canon and claim their prizes.  Poniverse's intellectual property rights will not include the ability to publish the stories for sale or monetize the stories beyond publishing them in a publicly available format on any of Poniverse's websites.

 

MAJOR UPDATE #3: Mascot Contest Prizes!!!

 

As of today, Poniverse is officially offering a total of $300 USD cash prizes for the Poniverse Mascot Summerpalooza Contest!    $50 USD will be offered for the winning fic for each mascot character, coming out to a total of six $50 prizes altogether, and will be offered as cash or used at the winner's request to purchase non-cash prizes.

[Buffy 2,179]

This ... is .... HAPPENING!

 

YAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAY and a million times YAY. 

 

 

Sorry guys. I lost myself there, plus do you have ANY IDEA how hard it is to type with hooves? Whoever designed these small buttons should be given a Twilight Sparkle level lecture!

 

Good Luck to all you author type ponies ... erm ... people. Also bonus points if you ship me with Viola. <3

 

 

 

Sorry, I sometimes have no filter, 

[mars 4,862]

Yay!! I'm so glad that the mascots are finally gonna get some love. Ashley, Jamie, and I (and the PR team of course!) worked super hard on these mascots and I'm so happy they're gonna have some time in the spotlight.

Good luck to all who enter~

 

Good Luck to all you author type ponies ... erm ... people. Also bonus points if you ship me with Viola. <3

*HEAVILY OKAY WITH THIS* 

Jeric wanted Buffy/Viridian though so there's gonna be some ship drama soon I see

[Alphys Hedge 671]

MURICA! (love that picture at the top XD)

[Lightwing 12,978]

0/10 batbrony doesn't allow everything on this </3

 

Anyways, good luck writting our backstories! <3

Also bonus points if you ship me with Viola. <3

 

Buffy-Senpai.

[Batbrony 16,055]

0/10 batbrony doesn't allow everything on this </3

 

I think I know someone you might get along quite well with. 

 

[J.R. 3,183]

@@Batbrony,

When the fic is actually up, do we submit it by linking it in the comment section of this: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/204078/folder/43607/1/mascot-summerpalooza-contest-entries ?

[Batbrony 16,055]

@@Batbrony,

When the fic is actually up, do we submit it by linking it in the comment section of this: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/204078/folder/43607/1/mascot-summerpalooza-contest-entries ?

 

Press the green button on the right hand side of that page that says "Add Story" to add it to the folder once it's officially been uploaded to Fimfiction.  Let me know if you have any other trouble.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

This looks interesting. I just hope there are lots of entries this time.

[Creative Prop 52]

Please tell me that there are more people that know the Men In Tights referents.

[J.R. 3,183]

I'm so entering. Nova I choose you!

[starshine wonder 79]

This looks awesome!!! So going for this

[BurningEmber 38]

I'm in! Buffy, I've got my eye on you one question though, are all the mascots blank flanks? I ask because I noticed none of them seem to have one!

[That One Pone 584]

I'm in! Buffy, I've got my eye on you one question though, are all the mascots blank flanks? I ask because I noticed none of them seem to have one!

They have no cutie marks as of yet. Perhaps write up how your favourite got theirs?

[VengefulStrudel 1,495]

That first pic XD Anywho, interesting, gonna be keeping an eye out for these fics~

Edited July 4, 2015 by VengefulStrudel

[Batbrony 16,055]

I'm in! Buffy, I've got my eye on you one question though, are all the mascots blank flanks? I ask because I noticed none of them seem to have one!

 

Ah, very good question.  The staff is currently figuring out how to address this situation.  What I'll say is that you need to keep your eye out throughout this contest for any important updates we make in this thread, but just as a reminder, we also have so far this disclaimer about them:

 

"Disclaimer: As these mascots are intellectual property of Poniverse.net, judges reserve the right to ask for minor content changes from submissions from finalists."

 

Hope that doesn't come off as too heavy handed, and normally we wouldn't have something like this for these contests, but as these are Poniverse's actual intellectual property, we felt it was prudent to make that clear.  Like I said, BE SURE to keep your eye out for updates in the OP and thread as the contest goes along, there will for sure be some changes made concerning the mascots themselves, especially in PRP and concerning their cutie mark status.

[BurningEmber 38]

Ah, very good question.  The staff is currently figuring out how to address this situation.  What I'll say is that you need to keep your eye out throughout this contest for any important updates we make in this thread, but just as a reminder, we also have so far this disclaimer about them:

 

"Disclaimer: As these mascots are intellectual property of Poniverse.net, judges reserve the right to ask for minor content changes from submissions from finalists."

 

Hope that doesn't come off as too heavy handed, and normally we wouldn't have something like this for these contests, but as these are Poniverse's actual intellectual property, we felt it was prudent to make that clear.  Like I said, BE SURE to keep your eye out for updates in the OP and thread as the contest goes along, there will for sure be some changes made concerning the mascots themselves, especially in PRP and concerning their cutie mark status.

Thanks Batbrony! I'll start with a rough plot line and adapt it as and when important info comes out, and I'll keep both eyes out for cutie mark info!

And no, it didn't come off heavy handed

[Batbrony 16,055]

Thanks Batbrony! I'll start with a rough plot line and adapt it as and when important info comes out, and I'll keep both eyes out for cutie mark info!

And no, it didn't come off heavy handed

 

Very good, that sounds like an excellent plan!

[Nova Blast 8]

 

 

Like Viridian, he's cool and confident. Suave. The one who has a group of mares and stallions swooning over him.  Nova tries to think of himself as this too cool to touch dude, but he's very much a dork at heart.

 

Huh. I didn't realise I came across like that.

 

...

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[Batbrony 16,055]

Huh. I didn't realise I came across like that.

 

...

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

 

I don't know, let's see what the readers think, shall we? 

[SFyr 1,982]

I'm in this time. 

Wanted to last time, but I got sidetracked. ...And with the fewer number of entries last time, well, it's all the more sad that I was one of the group that fully planned to enter something but didn't. 

Not again!

 

...Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do, haha.

[J.R. 3,183]

Huh. I didn't realise I came across like that.

 

...

 

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

It's good because you're gonna be in my fic Nova.

[Reaver 350]

I haff question

 

So, mostly out of curiosity: you guys said that these fics would be accepted as canon for the mascots. But what if a fic contradicts another fic?

[Batbrony 16,055]

I haff question

 

So, mostly out of curiosity: you guys said that these fics would be accepted as canon for the mascots. But what if a fic contradicts another fic?

 

Correction, the WINNING fics will be accepted as canon.  There's just going to be a single winning fic per character, no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for each one, that'd mean we'd have at the most 18 winning fics, and that's a bit much. 

[Reaver 350]

Correction, the WINNING fics will be accepted as canon.  There's just going to be a single winning fic per character, no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for each one, that'd mean we'd have at the most 18 winning fics, and that's a bit much. 

Well, yes. But if you have a winning fic per mascot, one fic could mention Buffy's good friend Viola who lives in Canterlot, while another talks about Nova attempting to introduce the uptight Viola when she visits Ponyville from Manehattan.

 

Or, are these fellows actually in Equestria? Is their canon just... internet-wise, I mean?