Canterlot Contest #1! Currently In Judging!

*Update* August-21st, 2011

OH MY GOODNESS, AN UPDATE!

I know everypony has been so patient waiting to hear our decision, thank you all so much for hanging in there! Each one of the staff involved in judging has read through every single one of the applications, and we are currently making our final tallies. Since it isn't possible (seemingly, we try!) for all eight of us to be online at anyone time, we have to wait until everyone's tally comes in to announce the final winners.

I am excited, however, to tell you that we have decided on our Best Overall winner; and we will know the other winners very shortly! Once those winners have all been chosen, I will hold a random drawing from all the submissions, and one pony will walk away the owner of a grab-bag just for having participated! SO EXCITING!

You may have noticed some staff submissions as well- I will be getting a poll up here soon that will last a few days to a week that any member can vote in; and we're going to let YOU, the community, decide which of the staff submissions will win the staff grab bag!

Stay tuned over the next day to find out who has won!

*Update* August-10th, 2011

Alright, I've re-worked permissions for the contest board, so everypony can now comment and discuss the submissions as you like while the staff and I look over all of the submissions. Note, nopony should have the ability to edit, delete, or create new topics; only post new comments. I know there are a lot of entries I'm going to comment on, there are so many well done submissions! I'm really impressed you guys :!:

Its been a very busy time for me lately as some of you may have heard, but we're all truckin' away here behind the scenes- I estimate it will take us about a week (7 days) to get through all of the submissions. This isnt a promise, but a goal; but to give everypony some kind of time frame- there ya go! In the meantime i've taken pictures ( i think i mentioned) of all the prizes, and I'll post those and the grab bags up here in a day or two (tonight if I get off work early). Wooo, so exciting!

Edit from Skye: Good luck on all of your foals! We'll be working hard trying to judge, but there's so many awesome ponies to choose from! You guys really didn't make this easy for us at all! Regardless of the outcome of the contest, I would really love to see some of these foals applied for Roleplay! :smile:

*Update* August-9th, 2011

The contest is now

*Update* August-1st, 2011

There isnt much time remaining to submit your ponies, don't miss out on this awesome chance to win a ton of MLP custom merch, and a few mystery prizes too! Get with the shippin' and make them foals!

*Update* July-27th, 2011

Added a new grab-bag to the competition! This is a random selection prize grab bag, anyone who has submitted will have a chance to win this grab bag! It will be awarded after the other prizes have been awarded, so nopony can win twice. To have a chance to win this grab bag, you must have submitted a complete submission, with picture and bio areas filled out. It will include many of the same items as the other two grab bags valued at $25, but it will not contain a vinyl sticker. It will contain 2 buttons, one keychain, and a cell phone charm, and possibly some other stuff (if i get to target today. Value will be around $17-22!

Good luck everypony!

*Update* August 19 2011

I've gone and updated the contest and answered a few questions that I'd been asked! I think its a lot cleaner/easier to read now.

You can find the submission location over here:http://www.canterlot.com/index.php?/topic/1866-create-your-dream-foal-contest-rules . Just make a new topic and submit your OC foal! Good luck everypony!

Create Your Dream Foal Contest

Okay, here's an organized breakdown of the rules for everypony:

What you do:

1. Choose ANY of your favorite two Cast Characters regardless of their sex (f/f, f/m, m/m are all acceptable combinations)

2. Design/Draw their foal if they were to magically have one (Please use original art to yourself! skill isnt all-important, be creative, original, and fun!)

3. Create a 'bio' (using the included handy modified RP app below) to tell us about your imagined foal. What do they look like? Whats their personality? What is/will their cutie mark and passion in life be?

4. Submit your entry here in the contest forum! Create a topic with the name of your OC Foal, and include the picture/bio of your foal within the post. You can be creative as you like, but I ask that you cover all of the basic included fields I have outlined for the contest (found below). There is a link to the contest submission forum at the top of this post.

Important Contest Rules:

This contest is pretty straight forward, but there are a few rules and guidelines I should cover to make it as fair and smooth as possible (Don't forget to check at the bottom of this post for a brief guide on what information to include in the bio!):

- This board and contest are primarily PG-13! Please be mindful of our [/break1]canterlot.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1502]rules. Please do not include any grimdark, adult, or illegal things in your submissions.

- Anypony can participate in this contest, and I encourage everypony to! You will have to register on the board in order to submit your OC foal design/bio in the contest section; but that is pretty gosh-darn easy to do, and only takes a minute of your time. I have waived the 5 post minimum for the contest board alone- so if you've just freshly registered you can go ahead and post your OC foal submission, but I encourage you to also take a look around the rest of the site while your here. Until you reach 5+ posts, you won't be able to post anywhere but the [/break1]canterlot.com/viewforum.php?f=6]introductions and within the contest forum.

- Please only submit original art and written material created by yourself. Its not friendly or magical to steal someone else's ideas and submit them as your own. This also applies to commissions, please draw/write up your foal yourself, don't hire another to do it. If you use someone else's material, drawn or written, it will disqualify your submission(s) from the contest. Please come up with your own original concepts- I imagine some ponies will have like ideas (especially when it comes to fanbase created ponies), but do your best to make something original to you. If it looks like you've copy/pasted ideas from elsewhere, or failed to take a concept and make it 'yours', this will likely disqualify the app from consideration. As long as your original and honest, you will do just fine

- You may submit as many submissions as you like, but you may only win one prize package. No need to make extra accounts just to submit more submissions. Please be honest.

Questions that have been asked:

EDIT: What counts as a cast member, the mane 6 or any pony who has speaking lines in the show? Ex: Photo finish, Sapphire Shores?

Anypony that shows up in the show for however long, regardless of whether or not they are speaking, I consider a cast character pony. That means you can use ponies like Octavia and Bluenote, who neither have speaking parts and only a few seconds of screen time combined. I bet their foal would be super cute, be a musical prodigy, but also fluttershy-level quiet because her parents never speak! Oh the options! I'm so excited for you guys!

Can multiple peeps collaborate on one project and divide the spoils?

This contest is intended to be per individual- Based on your own work, basically; but I would be foolish to think I could stop people from collaborating, or that I even should. I'd prefer people to submit creations completely original to them, but however you arrange your submission is truly up to you; and some ponies may need a little bit of help with their spelling, or having their work edited/refined with help. Just be honest, and work hard! If you want to divide your spoils with another pony, then that is up to you.

Also, (if this wasn't your whole purpose in this to begin with), I bet Equestria Daily would put a link to this in their nightly round up if you sent one. This is bound to attract a lot of new members. So excited!

I welcome everypony to spread the word, I never imagined I'd have so much fun organizing a contest and giving stuff away; but its been a surprising pleasure. I hope this gets a lot of submissions, I'm really excited to see what the community comes up with If somepony wants to send this to ED or other news sites, or tweet/re-tweet it from our Canterlot Guard twitter page; feel free! I don't know when the next time I'll have bits like this to throw around, so lets make it a memorable contest!

contestcontestcontest PONY MERCHANDISE {SMILIES_PATH}/icon_arrow.gif

iwannaenter but will I be disqualified for entering cause I'm staff? D:

To avoid any problems or concerns with biased judging and staff winning etc, I have decided to hold a small staff contest, and the staff that enter can all throw in something to contribute to the grand prize. Perhaps we can let the community judge our submissions by poll, or figure some other way out to do it. This way staff can still participate, and have a chance at winning some of the pony swag (and whatever else they throw in). I hope this is a good solution that makes everypony happy!

Contest Duration and Deadline:

This contest starts today, Monday 18th, and ends three weeks from now, August 8th! We will then decide the winners, and I will send out the prizes! I may somehow feature the winning foals somehow on the board; it all really depends on how much time I have!

Judging

Judging is always tricky, but my staff and I will do our absolute best to choose the three best applications based on both the visual design of the foal and the written bio. Here is how we will be choosing the three winners:

-Prize for Best Written Bio

-Prize for Best Designed Foal

-Grand Prize for Best Overall

We will of course be paying attention to artistic ability and written style, but those will not be the only factors in choosing the winners. We will also be looking for originality, creativity, and effort. Feel free to go beyond the scope of what I've placed down in the bio- its your opportunity to create your dream foal! There are a lot of creative things you will all come up with, and I look forward to seeing what comes up!

Prizes

I would like to give a huge thank you to the artists that contributed to this contest. There were many discounts and savings given to me so that I could pass on more to you all. They made this a pleasant opportunity to give something out to the community, and give everypony something to get involved in.

Please do these artists a favor for their genorisity by visiting their shops and browsing their wares, there are many awesome things to take a look at! If you don't win one of the packages, you can always pick up one of the prizes from their shops!

Here is a look at most of the fantastic prizes I have set aside for the contest; I will take pictures of the ones I don't have and post those as they come in!

-Grand Prize for Best Overall:

Rainbow Dash Tote Bag, 1st Choice of Vinyl sticker (Dash, Pinkie, or Fluttershy), 1 keychain, 2 buttons, and 1 cellphone strap, mystery prize (ooooh!). ($50 Value!)

-Prize for Best Written Bio:

Vinyl sticker, 1 keychain, 2 buttons, 1 cellphone strap, mystery prize (omgomgomgomg) ($25 Value!)

-Prize for Best Design:

Vinyl sticker, 1 keychain, 2 buttons, 1 cellphone strap, mystery prize (oh, the fabulosity!) ($25 Value!)

Pictures of (most) the merchandise for grabs:

[/break1]cafepress.com/PonyOnly]Rainbow Dash Tote Bag by [/break1]cafepress.com/PonyOnly]PonyOnly:

http://i1130[break1]...k1][/break1]jpg

Vinyl stickers of [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77962302/my-little-pony-rainbow-dash-vinyl?ref=pr_shop]Rainbow Dash, [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77962357/my-little-pony-pinkie-pie-modern-laptop?ref=pr_shop]Pinkie Pie, and [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77962275/my-little-pony-fluttershy-modern-laptop?ref=pr_shop]Fluttershy by [/break1]etsy.com/people/GoatGrinStudio]GoatGrinStudio:

http://i1130[break1]...pg?t=1310979434

Cellphone Charms by [/break1]etsy.com/people/ZambiCandy]ZambiCandy of [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77735885/pink-pony-cell-phone-strap?ref=pr_shop]Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77736464/purple-sparkle-unicorn-cell-phone-strap?ref=pr_shop]Twilight Sparkle, [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77752231/blue-pegasus-necklace?ref=pr_shop]Luna, and [/break1]etsy.com/listing/77736609/baby-dragon-cell-phone-strap?ref=pr_shop]Spike (only have images of four currently):

http://i1130[break1]...pg?t=1310982076

[/break1]etsy.com/listing/76041835/my-little-pony-fim-pinback-button-set8?ref=pr_shop]Buttons and [/break1]etsy.com/listing/76828910/my-little-pony-fim-pinback-buttons?ref=pr_shop]Keychains by [/break1]etsy.com/people/Xexus]Xexus:

http://i1130[break1]...pg?t=1310978465 http://i1130[break1]...pg?t=1310978509 http://i1130[break1]...ng?t=1310978422

Foal Bio Information

Use this modified OC app to organize your submission and tell us more about your foal:

    [b]Name:[/b] Put the filly or colt's name here!
    [b]Sex:[/b] Filly, Colt
    [b]Age:[/b] Your OC can range from newborn foal to a colt or filly about the ages of the CMC. They may or may not yet have their cutie marks yet, your choice.
    [b]Species:[/b] Earth, Pegasus, Unicorn, Alicorn, dragon, griffon, hippocamp, etc
    [b]Pelt Color:[/b] self explanatory!
    [b]Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style:[/b] self explanatory!
    [b]Eye Color:[/b] self explanatory!
    [b]Cutie Mark:[/b] Your OC foal may not have their cutie mark yet, but you should include what it would be, and talk about their special talent, or what it will be upon maturity.
    [b]Motivation:[/b] What does the foal enjoy/love, want to do/will discover in their life?
    [b]Likes:[/b] Optional, but good idea to include
    [b]Dislikes:[/b] Optional, but good idea to include
    [b]Character Summary:[/b] In-depth information about your foal. Tell us everything we need to know in order to understand what type of pony your OC foal is, what their personality, dreams, ambitions, hobbies, and attitude is. Be creative!

Oooooh! I love this idea! We could have so much fun with this! But I'm conflicted. I want to enter, but I'm not really interested in MLP merch. I wouldn't go outside with a tote bag and IarblHaFDafs£%Dhg56^dsg7&^*547yhyfdMYnfn......

Sorry about that, I saw the cellphone charms and had to wipe the drool from my keyboard.

So the question is now who to ship. Uh, Celestia is my favourite pony this week, so I could do Twilight/Celestia. Nah, too obvious. Maybe something outlandish like... Zecora/Celestia, or Photo Finish/Celestia, or Scootaloo/Celestia or...

Derpy/Celestia?

What? No, that's ridiculous.

Hmm, do they have to be ponies? Cos then I could totally do Spike/Cheif Thunderhooves No, that's too horrible even for me. But Gilda/someone maybe?

(Note that this is all me being silly. I've already chosen my pairing ^^)