Sol City has the biggest, most impressive Nightmare Night Parade in all of Equestria. Floats, holograms, free stuff... the works! It's everything anycreature could ever hope a parade to be... and this year it's even more special: Not one, but two legendary singers—Hard Rock Legend Yumi and Neo Pop Super-Star, Legend and main attraction, Sweetie Belle—are going to open and close the parade respectively, ending in a city-wide concert that will also be streamed across the world.

Enter Neon Clove, a unicorn runner/musician that loves Sweetie Belle's music and might (just might) have hacked her chances to win the Golden Ticket and take part in the parade, and counts herself the luckiest mare alive.

None of them could anticipate that this Nightmare Night would change the world forever.

This is my entry to the 2023 Cyberpunk Nightmare Night Story Contest!

The entire story has been finished and will be posted daily for the next five days. My thanks to Pascoite & GaPJaxie for edits and feedback!

Cover art by Ruby, used with permission.

This story is a sequel to And I Hope You Die

The world has been at war for six years, and the conflict has almost reached its bitter end. One last push into enemy territory will win the war for the Alliance between Equestria and the Crystal Empire — but only if Flurry Heart and the forces she commands are willing to bear the cost, and Twilight Sparkle will allow them to bear it.

Artificer's Guildmaster Spike wasn't there when they made their decision, and it's too late to change what happened afterwards. All he can do now is piece together what led up to the fateful last days of the Second War, and do what little he can to protect the creatures who survived it.

A dual sequel to my short story "And I Hope You Die" and GaPJaxie's novel Around the World in 81 Days (And Other Problems Caused by Leap Years), written to be understandable for people who have read neither. My entry for the Imposing Sovereigns IV contest, using the prompt "Flurry Heart/Strength."