Miss Equestria Pageant

[aspirations]

last updated April 6

What is the Miss Equestria Pageant?
Similar to the Miss America pageants held in the United States, the Miss Equestria pageant would be a beauty-pageant type showcase of Equestria's most outwardly and inwardly beautiful mares, beginning with regional pageants and culminating in a national pageant to decide the to whom the title of Miss Equestria will go to!

How will it work?
Just like the Miss America pageants. Each town/city/region will host it's own regional pageant, featuring mares from that area only. These mares will compete in a pageant with others from their area, and the winner of these pageants will receive the title of "Miss [insert town name]" and go on to compete in the much-larger Canterlot pageant. The winner of the Canterlot pageant will be crowned "Miss Equestria"! For the purposes of our chat, however, we will only be holding the big Canterlot pageant.

When?
Whenever we can! Registration would be open for up to a month before the pageants themselves, and the pageants would be a day or two when the greatest number of entrants could participate. There will be no concrete date set for the pageants until more specifics have been discussed and agreed upon.

How do I sign up?
As aforementioned, there will eventually be registration for the pageant in your area and each regional coordinator will have their own specific way of having entrants register. Most likely through forms, a photograph of the entrant, and a brief interview. There are NO signups happening currently.

Who can enter?
Anypony can enter! Mares, stallions, and foals will be judged within their own group and on different criteria, but all ponies of all ages are allowed to compete in the pageant.

Rules/Policies
Obviously, rules and policies may need some discussion amongst those intending to participate and any who might like to have an input in such an event. As a result, this list is completely flexible, utterly indefinite, and very much open to discussion and revision as necessary.
- all entrants must be above 16 years old to compete, or if the entrant is under 16 they must have parental permission and supervision at the pageant
- entrants must fill out the registration forms completely

Judging Categories
Entrants would be judged in 2-4 categories, including (but not limited to) things such as:
Casual
Business Attire
All-Natural (no clothes)
Formal Dress
Athletic fitness
Personality
Free Show (show judges anything you want)
Some categories would be character-based, others would be based on physical and/or character attributes. A panel of judges with expertise in each area of judging would mark scores for each competitor based on their appearance, confidence, carriage, and speech.

Judges
This list is not final, as some of the ponies listed here do not currently have players.
Hoity Toity
Photo Finish
Sapphire Shores
Fleur de Lis
Octavia
Vinyl Scratch
Rarity
Fancy Pants
Princess Celestia
OCs with fashion expertise and experience

How do I Win?
The best score for each category will be awarded a ribbon/trophy, sash, and small cash prize. At the end of the pageant, all of an entrant's scores for all categories will be added together, and the highest overall scoring pony within each group is awarded the title (Little) Miss/Mister Equestria.
Foals, stallions, and mares all participate in the same categories of competition, but are judged by unique criteria and awarded prizes within only their group.
The highest scoring pony out of all three groups will be awarded "Best In Show".
All pageant participants receive a ribbon and small cash prize.


What do you think? Anything to add? Discuss and contribute and collaborate!

[barbarella]

Judges!
Who will they be?
I think having a panel of Canon characters judging as opposed to participating would be best, OCs should be the focus here.

[Avarick]

That's probably better! I think Rarity could very well be front and center at the judges table too. Also, do ponies even wear swimsuits? Sounds silly to me.

[aspirations]

Judges!
Who will they be?
I think having a panel of Canon characters judging as opposed to participating would be best, OCs should be the focus here.

I absolutely agree. As I said, the judges will be chosen from their areas of expertise. For example, a judge panel for one pageant could consist of Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, Rarity, and Sapphire Shores. Hoity Toity offers dress/carriage expertise, Photo Finish overall aesthetics, Rarity fashion and overall personality, and Sapphire Shores stage presence.

Also, do ponies even wear swimsuits? Sounds silly to me.

I don't know whether or not ponies wear swimsuits, to be honest. I suppose that the could if they wanted to, though. Either way, it was just a suggestion based off of the human Miss America pageant (which includes a swimwear and sportswear section).

[barbarella]

I'm thinking Rarity, Photo Finish, Hoity Toity, Sapphire Shores, Fancy Pants, Vinyl Scrath, and Octavia for judges, perhaps?
Only three of those characters currently have players, though.
"The Elements of Fabulosity", as they could be known.

As for the "multiple regional/area" pageants, we should really only RP the Canterlot Pageant (or whatever the "big" one would be).
Limit it to one character per player who enters, to keep things less crowded.
I'm not against having Canon characters compete, but they shouldn't actually win or anything.
Just let them play around for funsies, maybe each competing Canon gets disqualified in some hilarious manner?
Who knows!

[Skyblaze]

May you have better luck than I!

I tried to get something like this going when I was running PhotoFinish, and it didn't go anywhere. My suggestion: don't even think about using the PnP system for anything about it. That's what killed mine.

[barbarella]

I did something similar in the Chat.
Very spur of the moment and off the cuff, which is actually where the PnP system shined, and was first used!
Went from Idea > Happening > Happened in a few hours, quite a few ponies showed up to my surprise.
Jester won, if I remember right.

For things that ponies can plan for, it isn't very necessary though.
Even detrimental I'd say.
But when it comes to that instant, fast-paced, spur of the moment stuff: it works!

Looking into polishing it up more, soon.

[barbarella]

I'm thinking Rarity, Photo Finish, Hoity Toity, Sapphire Shores, Fancy Pants, Vinyl Scrath, and Octavia for judges, perhaps?
Only three of those characters currently have players, though.
"The Elements of Fabulosity", as they could be known.

As for the "multiple regional/area" pageants, we should really only RP the Canterlot Pageant (or whatever the "big" one would be).
Limit it to one character per player who enters, to keep things less crowded.
I'm not against having Canon characters compete, but they shouldn't actually win or anything.
Just let them play around for funsies, maybe each competing Canon gets disqualified in some hilarious manner?
Who knows!

Still looking for feedback on this!
The sooner we get ideas pinned down, the sooner we can start signing ponies up!

[Shinula]

@Barbarella:
If most of those characters dont have players then perhaps it's better to substitute some. I could put Celestia on the board.
I also agree that we should keep it to one big contest rather than having "One for each town" which would be pointless and time consuming.

@aspirations
Now, on something I missed entirely, I am DEAD set against this whole thing if only mares can compete. That's just unfair and nowhere near as fun as it should be.
Additionally swimsuits are kind of silly, and either way unless ponies are required to enter for all categories which sounds like a lot of work, you may have people who only enter for a few thus having very low selections for each category.

[barbarella]

I don't have an issue with Stallions/Others competing, Mares would probably be considered the "standard" though.
Not really foreseeing more Stallions being signed up than Mares.
Thinking about whether the Pageant should be THE Pageant, for everypony/thing...or if we should have separate ones for Stallions/Colts/Fillies.
With different judges?
People will probably get lazy if we do more than one though, so I'm more for a single "all-encompassing" Pageant. If we did separate on Gender (something the show would maybe do, maybe) then I'd want them to happen at the same time. Same place. Same judges. Same headline. Etc.

As for categories, just have everypony in every single one, then tally by the end.
Usually how it's done IIRC.

[DblSpark]

@Barbarella:
If most of those characters dont have players then perhaps it's better to substitute some. I could put Celestia on the board.
I also agree that we should keep it to one big contest rather than having "One for each town" which would be pointless and time consuming.

@aspirations
Now, on something I missed entirely, I am DEAD set against this whole thing if only mares can compete. That's just unfair and nowhere near as fun as it should be.
Additionally swimsuits are kind of silly, and either way unless ponies are required to enter for all categories which sounds like a lot of work, you may have people who only enter for a few thus having very low selections for each category.

We could just call that a Mr Equestria Pageant then :o

[aspirations]

@Barbarella:
If most of those characters dont have players then perhaps it's better to substitute some. I could put Celestia on the board.
I also agree that we should keep it to one big contest rather than having "One for each town" which would be pointless and time consuming.

@aspirations
Now, on something I missed entirely, I am DEAD set against this whole thing if only mares can compete. That's just unfair and nowhere near as fun as it should be.
Additionally swimsuits are kind of silly, and either way unless ponies are required to enter for all categories which sounds like a lot of work, you may have people who only enter for a few thus having very low selections for each category.

Celestia can absolutely be on the board. That'd be a lot of fun!

Swimsuits are out, since they are indeed quite silly for ponies to be wearing (though we could have competitors dress in flippers and snorkel gear and judge on silliness).

As far as the inclusion of stallions and foals, I'd say that's more than alright. I think we might have to give them different judging criteria and have them be placed/judged within their own group, but I'm all for inclusion of anypony who cares to join. We could have the same categories (formal, normal, etc.) and the same judges, but the foals, stallions, and mares would all be judged on slightly differnt criteria (handsomeness vs beauty vs cuteness). We would also have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for each group of ponies, with maybe one or two overall winners?

Also, a pony is entered for the whole pageant, not just individual sections. You're given a ribbon for being the best looking formal wearer, but I imagine it being a go-big-or-go-home kind of thing. We'd have two to four different categories that pageant enterees would have to compete in, and then the pony with the highest overall score wins.

[Hagwhegsaze]

That's probably better! I think Rarity could very well be front and center at the judges table too. Also, do ponies even wear swimsuits? Sounds silly to me.

Rarity should be the main judge for sure! I don't think Rainbow Dash needs to be a judge though X3

[aspirations]

Bumping to bring this back to the forefront of attention.
Any and all ideas are accepted, no matter how silly they may seem! Please contribute.

[lola starshine]

I wish everypony good luck!