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."

“I’m not making you do anything, Flurry," Cozy murmured. “I’m giving you a choice. Me or your empire. And we both know what the right call is.”

Winner of FanOfMostEverything's "Imposing Sovereigns III" contest, using the prompt "Flurry Heart/Perseverance" (and technically "Cozy Glow/Determination" as well).

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The simulation ends.

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thank you to The Sleepless Beholder and EileenSaysHi for prereading.

an entry for the Imposing Sovereigns IV contest under Midnight Sparkle/Unorthodoxy

It's an interesting situation - it's not every day that you get to see the outcome of the road not taken, what might have been. As the married Applejack and Rainbow Dash talk to the dating Applejack and Rarity, they get a bit competitive over who made the better choice.

The other Rainbow Dash and Rarity think it was obviously them.

[A RariDash story that ate what started as a commission for Spamotron]

Wallflower dreads having to let Sunset go.

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for the Sunset’s Sci-fi Shipping x Villain Contest

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As the years passed in Juniper Montage's mirror, Starlight found a way to give its inhabitants an escape. One she could never have for herself.

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Starlight Glimmer failed to wrest the Magic Mirror from Juniper's grasp. She failed to convince her of the error of her ways. Instead, Juniper Montage sucked her into the Void just like Sunset and her friends. There was nothing to stop her after that.

As the Void filled up with more and more people facing the fate of a featureless eternity, Starlight discovered a method of escape, of sorts. Juniper banishing the other magical artifact users meant they had access to the Memory Stone, which Starlight could use to craft an interior world of a shared dream among the Void's inhabitants. A temporary solution, to pass the time until the day they could all escape the Void altogether.

But what if that day never comes?

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an entry to The Spring Fling Contest.

thank you to Krack-Fic Kai and Moproblems Moharmoney for prereading, and Rego for shortdesc advice.

Following the accidental demise of an aging Lightning Dust, her lifelong photographer Photo Finish opens a new show in her memory. You wander the gallery walls examining each image carefully. As they flow together, slowly, a story begins to emerge. Is it the right one? Who gets to tell it? Who was Lightning Dust, really?

A meditation on memory, art, and time.

An entry for the May Pairings Contest 2023. Check out the other entries here!

Lucid Storm imagines a world beyond death, where no pony will ever need to truly say goodbye to the ones they love. When all the magic and medicine of Equestria failed one young Sweetie Belle, he proposed a radical new technique--total brain recording, taken minutes before her death.

Years have passed since that day, years spent scrounging the funding for a body and experimenting with many failed machine intelligence models before tinkerer ponies all around equestria finally came together in the perfect synthesis.

After all this time, Sweetie Belle will finally have her second chance.

Written for Lucid on my Patreon. Edited by Two Bit and Sparktail, who also sponsored it. Cover by Magfen.

After losing her hive, Queen Chrysalis is forced to start another one. Luckily she has the help of a few loyal subjects who never accepted their fellow changelings new way of life. They must stay hidden from enemies, collect enough food to survive and rebuild their strength. Now the first brood has hatched and there is something very different about one of the larva.

The legends told of their return.

For over a decade Equestria has been beset by the dragons. Every year more villages vanish in flames, and the lonely cities stand as our last redoubt. Winter has gripped the world, and our hope is fading.

But the legends tell of another, a light in the darkness. The Dragonborn, a mythic warrior reborn with the power of the Voice, the only one who can stand against the dragons.

But when she appeared, she was not what we were expecting...