So we only had two entries, but both were good enough, in my estimation, to make up for the lack of quantity. Part of that may be due to the small time-frame this one had; next contest will have a more reasonable deadline.

Now, the judging system might need some tweaking, but this is basically how it'll work; each person who judges reads both stories, and rates them on a scale of one (bad) to five (good) in each of the following criteria:

Spelling/Grammar - Fairly self-explanatory
Characterization - How did the characters seem?
Story Concept - How original is it, how good is it?
Story Execution - How well does the author handle it, and present the events?
Other - Add of subtract an extra point for some other item you want to note. (only one point can be done in this one!)

Again, this might need tweaking for future contests, so think of it as a test run.
Anyway, the authors are not permitted to rate their own story, but they should probably rate the other stories. Please don't give a bad rating just because they're your competitors.

Once everyone who's going to rate has rated, the scores will be tallied up, and the winner is the one with the most points. And, umm... well, congrats if you do! And if you didn't win, you can take this for experience to apply to future writing, so congrats to you, too.

Entries:
Shady and the Curious Corpse by Pigeonsmall
Terror In Paradise by Tornado Firehooves

Happy Hooves, everypony!

Hello?

2196481 *cricket chirps*

I've only read Terror in Paradise.

Can't you be the judge?

2198821 I don't trust my own objectivity.

Meh well I know I didn't win. I couldn't finish my story in time! But for the sake of being a completionist it's going to get done.

2199851 Cool, I'm looking forward to that.

2198821 Well, I guess I'll at least throw in my own ratings of the stories, as an example or something.

Terror In Paradise
Spelling/Grammar: 4/5 (I caught some mistakes here and there, and there were some sentences that just sounded awkward, but all told, it wasn't too bad, and I could still understand the story.)
Characterization: 4/5 (Fizzy's ditziness seemed excessively exaggerated, but otherwise it seemed alright.)
Story Concept: 5/5 (Maybe I just haven't watched enough Zombie movies, but this particular twist on the idea was rather interesting.)
Story Execution: 4/5 (It actually seemed pretty good, but the story functions poorly as a standalone - while I could pick things up well enough, I got the feeling that there was some context I was missing. Why were Magic Star and Truly dead and apparently traitors?)
Other: +1 (For the hilarious ending, even if it relied on the aforementioned exaggeration of Fizzy's personality.)
Total Score: 18/21

I'll do Pigeonsmall's once it is finished.

2204068 How they are dead and traitors have something to do with Firehoove's first fic, Twilight Then, Twilight Now.

2204351 Ah, okay. Again, that means the story relies on external context; not necessarily a bad thing, but could be problematic to readers who lack that context. *shrug*

But as far as this contest goes. I guess firehooves wins by default. Only two entrees, right?

2205504 Only two entries, but you haven't necessarily lost; I'm going on the assumption that as long as at least part of it was turned in before the due date, it's still eligible. *shrug*

Wow, I can't believe that there were so few entries Oh well, good luck, Pigeonsmall!

Whatever happened to this thing?

3496617
It died a slow and painful death