Welcome to the 9th Bi-monthly Twilestia Contest: Hostile Takeover Edition! Unlike previous events in this series, it is not hosted by Knight of Cerebus, but instead by your tyrannical ever benevolent Princess Kinsley! As such, there are a few changes, so please read carefully! Otherwise, everyone and anyone is welcome and encouraged to participate by writing or judging!

The Premise: After a few minutes careful investigation and thorough research, the prompt will be Role Reinterpretation. Now, the key to this prompt is not that Twilight and Celestia need to have their roles completely reversed; just that they are not falling into their current student-teacher mentor-mentee dynamic.

Limitations: Any and all content in the fic is legal unless the group rules say otherwise. Please check over the rules thread if you have any worries about content. If it's within the rules, it's fine. As for word count, our lower limit is 2500 so that your story can actually be, y'know, a story, and our upper limit is 25,000. Yes, that's three zeroes. Any more and our judges would be fatigued reading the lot of them. Lastly, the story you write for this contest must be original. This means that you have to have never posted it before. Stories that have been written up but not posted are allowed. Reworks of stories written and posted two months ago are not. However, reworking and adapting prompts is acceptable, provided there has been significant change or expansion. If you’re unsure, message me!

Entering a story: In order to enter the contest, simply add your story in a comment in the thread of the contest. This is important. We once had an author that wanted to apply for the contest missed his chance because he forgot to do this step. If the judges don't know where to find this story, it can't be judged.

Judging: The judges for these contests are chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis, and there are three available judging slots. Please comment below if you're interested. Judges, please be prepared to deliver your verdicts soon after the contest closes. In addition, judges are barred from submitting a story unless they resign their judging post.
The Judges are:
-- Jonesly
--Feather Sigil
--Hyzaku

Winnings: As always, 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. First, second and third place will also be able to choose a Steam game valued at $30, $20, and $10 respectively based on current Steam prices in USD at the time of the final results. All entrants and judges can choose one of the unclaimed keys from Kinsley’s personal collection at the end of the contest*. In addition, offers of fanart will go to first place, then second, then third as they arrive.

Deadline: Entries will be due by December 19th (11:59:59 PM, PST) December 25th (11:59:59 PM, PST/UTC-8), giving you plenty of time to write them up before and during the holidays.

Best of luck to all entrants, and enjoy the show to everyone!

*Additional terms and conditions apply. Kinsley reserves the right to distribute prizes at her discretion. Judges must have their votes in by no later than one week after the end of the contest or forfeit their Steam key. Stories must meet certain quality requirements to qualify for keys as well; entries that are clearly garbage or trolling will be deleted. While “garbage” and “trolling” may not have solid definitions, “I know it when I see it” - Justice Potter Stewart. I honestly don’t expect to apply this rule, but basically, don’t bullshit and expect to get a free game. Write a good story for the sake of writing a good story and then get the digital equivalent of a cookie.
The full list of keys available will be published at a later date and is subject to change. Keys will be distributed on a random ordering after participants have selected the keys they wish to redeem; should a key be unavailable or unredeemable, another key may be selected.

I'll judge for it, if I don't write for it.

I thought we wanted to get an idea of people planning to write? Maybe people should put in tenative "I have an idea for this" so we have an idea if the backup prompt should be used?

I wish everyone else luck, because I'm afraid this prompt didn't spark anything for me. I'll think on it a while, and post if I get something.

Can my fic from last week be entered, since it's curiously relevant to the prompt? Or is the contest purely for fics written after the prompt's announcement?

4781585 Contest rules are pretty clear on that one, Pav. Needs to be a story you've never published.

4781585 There is always room for a sequel.

4781608
Oops, missed that in the rules. Duly noted!

4781585
4781643 I second that. Maybe about how our mild-mannered Twilight made a mirror clone to go back in time or something.

Does it have to be a one shot, or can it be a multi-chapter story?

4781675 Either.

4781676 Ooooh, you know? I have a Twilestia story I've been dying to make for years. Maybe this is my chance...

4781677 as long as it has not been published before, go for it.

4781422
I have received the blessings of Kinsley the great and royal fluffy. I'm in.

4781422
I had an idea for a previous prompt that strangely fits into this one as well. Mayhaps I shall actually... well, get something done for once. Only time will tell!

4781807 From comments from Kinsley, I gather that role-reversal is NOT the point and entrants should try to avoid straight role-reversal.

4781807 That's correct. Twilight is still Twilight in all her adorkable glory, but maybe she's Celestia's personal bodyguard.

4781853 Not the point, yes, but role reversal is not off limits either.

I am tentatively putting my hat into the ring. Gonna work on some ideas over the weekend and see where it takes me.

It's been a while since I gunned for a contest, and way too long since I sailed the good ship into the ground. Should be fun.

4781857
What if, say, it's 'role reversal' in that Celestia is the one having the epic freakout while Twilight perhaps has some sage advice?

4782123 I'd hope to see a little more, but that would fit the prompt in a broad sense.

4782190
Well to be honest the prompt is rather vague, but perhaps that is just me failing to comprehend. Either way, I'll see if I can actually motivate myself to write something.

Seems we still need a third judge. I'll take that spot.

It seems like we have our judges. We'll just have to see if we still have our prompt. It seems like we'll be sticking with it, though.

4786873 Out of curiosity, how many entries would be enough? Going to guess more than two.

Role reinterpretation eh, I think I might through my hat into the ring this time.

I have a couple ideas for this.

4796128
4797930
Awesome! Always nice to have more people join!

4798173

So, the story I'm starting is driven -by- a loving bond between Twilight and Celestia (mainly by Twilight's feelings towards Celestia), but for most of the story they don't directly interact. Should I assume this is alright? It will be a multi chapter story.

4806263
Citing the precedent of Correspondence by Friendly Uncle, yes. I'm sure there are other (possibly better) examples, but yes.

I have begun the destruction of roles MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Looks like we're going to stick with the Role Reinterpretation prompt. So if anyone was on the fence waiting for that confirmation, we're committed!

4823107

That's good. I'm 1381 words in and I'd be upset if it was changed.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Lets say for just an argumentative case that someone decided to write something that's coming up multi chapter and is worried about having it all completed by said ending date but believes he can have it done vry shortly after, is this sitll acceptable or does said author need to kick himself into gear

4828027 I can only speak as a judge, but if it's going to be multi-chapter, at least a chapter or two needs to be posted by the ending date. It seems to me that if you have 2 out of 4 chapters posted, I can judge those compared to other entries. If there are no chapters posted, I can't judge that. As JKinsley is the contest organizer though, she gets final say as to whether you can submit partial stories for credit.

4831114 I am hoping to have most of it done but I don't exactly how much so I guess I'll hafta wait on Jkinsley's input

4831323
4831114
My two cents? Nothing prevents you from submitting an incomplete story to the contest as far as rules go. I'd encourage you to finish if only because it might affect how the story's judged. Personally, I'd lean on the side of making sure anything published gets edited and submitting a properly edited and formatted incomplete story beats a complete story that lacks either or both of those.

4833609 sweetness. Now to either get a hold of my old very busy editor or hunt down a good new one.

4828027 Speaking as someone who is working on a multi chapter submission I think that it would be extremely lame if an incomplete story won.

4840008 you think I have a chance of winning, thank you for the bite of confidence.

4840504 Sort of an assumption when you say something is eligible to submit.

4841259 I'd be happy to place for a change

As of today, there are four weeks left in the contest!

4883244 Just to clarify, so I know I have the right idea, what exactly do you mean by role reinterpretation? Are you referring to alternate universe like works, or situations where the roles might be reversed in canon?

4894997
Either works. From the contest post:

not that Twilight and Celestia need to have their roles completely reversed; just that they are not falling into their current student-teacher mentor-mentee dynamic.

So reversed roles do qualify, but so do alternate roles.

4895040 Excellent. Thanks.

I might have to withdraw from the contest. I haven't had the will to write for a few weeks and I ain't sure I gonna make it. This is a tentative withdrawal, not a conclusive

4903394
Hey, even if you start from scratch, 250 words each day until the deadline will get you to the word count threshold.

4910692 I'm trying but my motivation is low

Ok, just asking...

Does it have to be romantic Twilestia or do other forms count?

4914822
Referring to the group's rules: it has be about a loving bond. So it doesn't need to be, in the Platonic definition of the word, erotic or romantic love. You're welcome to write any way they would share a loving relationship!