• Writer's Training Grounds: "The Hooffields and the McColts" AND "What About Discord" Prompts / "Scare-Master" Submissions


    Important: I was unable to set up a Writer's Training Grounds post last week, so we missed the episode "What About Discord".  Prompts for both that episode and the latest one will be included in this post.

    Season 5 is drawing to a close.  Just a few more weeks of fanfics events.  I know some of you are working on the pony novel writing month event as well, but if you can find the time, we'd still like to see a few more short fics for this event!

    Grab all the prompts and submissions below.

    "What About Discord" Prompts:

    Explain - in proper, full detail this time - what happened with Discord during the weekend Twilight missed out on.

    Discord is disappointed that his jokes have run their course, and goes to increasingly ridiculous lengths to create some new ones.


    "The Hooffields and the McColts" Prompts

    Ma Hooffield and Big Daddy McColt try to teach each other about farming/building.  Whether they succeed or fail catastrophically is up to you.

    Recreate a Romeo and Juliet style forbidden romance between one of the Hooffields and one of the McColts.  Make sure you make it as fitting to the Equestrian universe as you can, rather than simply creating an abridged Romeo and Juliet with ponies instead of people.

    The Writer's Training Grounds is a weekly writing exercise in which authors of all skill levels are The Writer's Training Grounds is a weekly writing exercise in which authors of all skill levels are invited to craft a story based on the prompts provided above. Responses to these prompts are posted directly on Equestria Daily in a weekly compilation post that bypasses the pre-reading process. Authors are then highly encouraged to read comment on, and promote each others' stories -- if you've ever prepared a copy-paste comment for an episode followup, consider doing the same for a fellow WTG participant!

    If you have any questions, concerns, or prompt ideas for next week's WTG, feel free to send them to pegasusrescuebrigade@equestriadaily.com with the subject line "WTG Prompt Idea" or something similar.

    Rules:
    • Keep the content appropriate as defined by our submission guidelines.
    • Keep it between 1,000 - 7,000 words. >Greentexts and doorstoppers should apply elsewhere!
    • Keep it to two genres maximum. For the roundup, fics will be grouped by their primary genre.

    When you finish working on your fic, use this form to submit it to the Training Grounds. However, we will require much of the same information as if you were submitting a regular fic as follows, and this document explains what these requirements are.

    1. Story title
    2. Author name
    3. Story description 
    4. Word count
    5. Genre tags 
    6. Character tags 
    7. Story URL (must be hosted on FimFiction, GDocs, dA, etc.)
    8. Email address

    The deadline for submission is >>>Saturday, November 21st, at 11:59pm EST<<<

    As always, please continue to leave us feedback with what works well for these events, what's not working well, your general satisfaction with these, etc. etc. and so on. Now get writing, and get submissions below.

    Normal/Slice of Life

    [Normal] - 1306 words

    Author: DouglasTrotter

    With Nightmare Night coming to a close, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo settle in for a sleep over at the Sweet Apple Acres farm with their fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three decide that one thing is missing however. A little extra "something" to bring an end to their night of treats and frights.

    Headless Horse

    Characters: Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Granny Smith, , 

    [Normal] - 2100 words

    Author: ScifiPony

    Scaring ponies proved more transformative than I thought. And it made me a bit batty.

    Fluttershy Monster in Me

    Characters: Fluttershy, Luna, 

    Dark/Grimdark

    Horror, Thriller - 6077 words

    Author: Zeck

    Fluttershy's Nightmare Night scare from last year is on all the girls' minds again. So when the yellow Pegasus invites them all to stop by her cottage for another frightful Nightmare Night, they all jump at the chance. And boy, does Fluttershy deliver. First, she lets out a terrified scream as she runs out of her cottage, then a creature of darkness sucks her back in, and now she's talking in a voice not entirely her own. But it's just a fun fright for Nightmare Night. Right? 'Horror' tagged because it's Nightmare Night, after all, and 'Teen' because it might be a bit scary (?)

    Fluttershy's Nightmare Cottage

    Characters: The Mane Six, ,