Flitterheart Chapter Expansion · 12:27am Sep 10th, 2022
Source: H20ZimMLPFan
A few quick notes before we get into Flitterheart's chapter expansion. First up, I want to thank H20ZimMLPFan for making fanart of all the characters in 16. Even though most of these characters had toys released over a decade ago, there's very little art of them and I've used most of it in previous blog posts/story notes.
Next up, Sweetie Swirl's chapter is nearing completion. I've been working on her chapter and the expansions of previous chapters simultaneously, and I've made significant strides with Sweetie's chapter since Feathermay's update. Sweetie Swirl is the sixteenth and final main character, and that means Act I is drawing to a close.
Speaking of Sweetie Swirl's upcoming chapter, I have a sound file I'd like to upload for the chapter (don't get too excited, it's just a MIDI for mood music when said character is riding a carousel). I don't use YouTube (YouTube is blocked on my computer), so that's not an option. I normally host things on DeviantArt but they don't do sound files. Does anyone have any suggestions?
As noted previously in the Diamond Rose & Feathermay blogs, I'm still working on expanding the earlier chapters (as well as the next chapter, Sweetie Swirl), but the good news is I've embiggened six of the earlier chapters of 16. You have the option of going back and rereading each of the chapters individually, but I'm posting the newly added scenes in separate blog posts for each of the characters. There's too much to do a single blog post. Way too much. Diamond Rose, Feathermay, and Flitterheart have all had more than 5,000 words added to their respective chapters.
This is completely optional reading. No major plot points are revealed in any of these scenes. No retcons!
Much like when I was posting the character interviews, I'll space these out so as not to overwhelm everyone at once. If you want to rush out and read them, you can go back and reread these chapters - the additional content is already there. For some of these chapters, it's been there for three months. So if you've recently read through the story, you might be left wondering what's new.
Source: H20ZimMLPFan
Chapter status:
Cherry Pie: Currently in progress
Daisy Dreams: No recent changes; will be expanded
Dewdrop Dazzle: No recent changes; will be expanded
Diamond Rose: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/990898/diamond-rose-chapter-expansion
Feathermay: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/993541/feathermay-chapter-expansion
Flitterheart: You're here
Honeybuzz: Updated in February; more to come
Lily Blossom: Expanded, blog post coming soon
Lulu Luck: No recent changes; will be expanded
Ploomette: No expansions planned
Plumsweet: Expanded, blog post coming soon
Rainbow Flash: Expanded, blog post coming soon
Snowcatcher: No expansions planned
Starbeam Twinkle: No expansions planned
Sunny Rays: No expansions planned
Sweetie Swirl: Still unposted
Story news aside, let’s move on to the new additions to Flitterheart's chapter! Remember, her family is known as the Care Mares. I wanted to show them all working together, so the first of the new scenes is a reimagining of the Care Bears episode Drab City. As such, I find it very appropriate that this update is being posted on the Care Bears’ national holiday. I heard this on the radio, and looked it up to confirm – this is legit. Today is Care Bears Share Your Care Day. At least for a few more hours. I did get to do a little sharing with a complete stranger today, so that made me feel good!
https://www.carebears.com/adults/shareyourcareday
Also, some of the background characters featured in this newly revised chapter expansion aren’t background ponies, nor are they technically OCs. Ty (Beanie Babies) has (had?) the MLP license and made the Mane 6. They’ve also made four additional ponies using the same body, none of whom are official MLP characters:
I found Cinnamon languishing in a drugstore about a year back (these Beanie Boos were released in 2018). I’d like to find the rest of the set!
West Milfoil: eight years, three months, and twenty-eight days ago
“Ta-da!” Brightheart whipped a covering off his latest gizmo.
I stared at it, as did Cozyheart, Swiftheart, and Proudheart. I scratched my head in confusion. “What is it?”
“It’s a caring meter. I’ve been researching Princess Twilight’s Cutie Map and this is a portable version that seeks out ponies who need to be reminded of the fire of friendship. The hope being that we can get there and restore these ponies’ faith in equinity before a dark entity like the Nightmare can fill the void in their hearts.”
Proudheart, Swiftheart, and I all looked at one another. Cozyheart piped up, “It finds ponies who are sad and then we go cheer them up.”
Brightheart nodded. “Exactly, Cozy.”
“So is this going to make us all into friendship princesses or something?” Cozy picked up the gadget and started examining it from all angles.
Brightheart chuckled. “No.” Cozy put it back down in disappointment. “But it will help us make new friends with the ponies when they need friendship the most.”
“So instead of letting evil spirits exploit the weak and helpless, we exploit them instead. Okay, got it.”
I looked at my sister in shock. “Cozy! We don’t exploit ponies.”
She shrugged. “Friendship seems an awful lot like a nice way of say ‘manipulating ponies into doing things for you for free’ to me.” She started laughing. “Golly, I’m just kidding. You should see all your faces right now.”
“That’s not really funny, Cozy.” I glared at her. “We help ponies.”
“Golly, isn’t making ponies laugh helping cheer them up?”
“Are any of us laughing right now?”
“Proudheart’s right, little cuz. Jokes are s’posed to be funny.”
“You guys just don’t have a sense of humor.”
I changed the subject. “So how does this thingamazooie work, Brightheart?”
Half an hour later, I regretted breaking the awkward silence. My eyes had glazed over, Swiftheart had fallen asleep, and Proudheart had long since stopped paying attention and was nodding randomly whenever there was a slight pause in the conversation. Cozyheart was the only one who seemed to understand any of what he was saying. For some reason, that was more disconcerting than it should’ve been.
“I think a test is in order.” Cozy snatched the device from Bright’s hooves and started fiddling with it.
Swiftheart’s ears swiveled from Brightheart to Cozyheart. The little sneak’s been faking being asleep.
“It works. Come on, follow me.”
Cozy started galloping, but she didn’t make it far before Swiftheart swooped down and grabbed the caring meter from her. “Yoink! Finally, some action! Everypony follow me!” She took off, flying at a rate of speed none of the rest of us could ever hope to match. Brightheart, Cozyheart, Flitterheart, and Proudheart all get into a race with a pony named Swiftheart. Who do you think’s going to win?
She was toying with us, flying far enough ahead to be out of reach, but never flying so far ahead as to shake us off her trail. We’d been flying with her our whole lives – if she wanted to lose us she already would’ve done so.
Instead, we flew over suburban sprawl. West Milfoil wasn’t far from Manehattan, and there were a number of other local communities in the shadow of the metropolis. The city was only a few hours away by train, so the surrounding towns had turned into suburbs, oftentimes with just a sign noting where one town began and the next one ended. We flew out of West Milfoil, through Pumpkin Lakes, Pumpkin Plains, and into Pasternson.
As we flew past Pasternson the colors started fading from the ground below us. Buildings, streets, the ground, and even the ponies were all various shades of gray.
Swiftheart slowed to a hover, allowing the rest of us to catch up. “Either this is the worst case of air pollution I’ve ever seen… or we’ve found our caring problem.”
Brightheart retrieved his invention from Swiftheart and examined it. He blinked as he looked at the numbers. “The caring meter is off the charts.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Depends on how you look at it, Flit. It’s bad for this town because there’s a definite lack of caring going on. But it’s good for us, because we found the disturbance. Which is really good, because that means it works.”
“Where are we?” Proud Heart asked. “We’re not that far away from home, but I don’t recognize this place at all.”
Cozy pointed to a sign proclaiming the town as Drab City, the dullest place in Equestria. Probably a safe claim, I can’t imagine there are too many other towns wanting that title.
We landed outside of town, where the houses were still colorful. A filly Cozyheart’s age bounded out of one of the homes.
“You still have all your colors!” The mottled grayish-brown earth pony examined us from all angles and blushed. “I’m sorry, it’s just most ponies have gone gray.” She sighed. “It didn’t used to be this way.”
“Like you?” asked Cozy.
Our new friend giggled. “Nope! This is my natural coat color! My colors are dull by nature, so maybe that’s why I’m still intact? I don’t know what’s going on, but when ponies turn all gray they lose all their feelings too. It’s like they’re nothing but zombies. The dullness isn’t so bad here, on the outskirts. My parents work in town and they turned all gray a long time ago.” Her face fell. “So did all my friends. I’m Cinnamon, who are you?”
“I’m Flitterheart, and this is my sister, Cozyheart.” She didn’t correct me with ‘Cozy Glow’ and I was thankful for that. “And these are our cousins, Brightheart, Proudheart, and Swiftheart.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” Proudheart curtseyed.
“Oh, you’re fancy!” Cinnamon giggled and curtseyed as well.
After a quick tour of her house and neighborhood, all of which were still colorful, we headed toward town. The further into town we went, the grayer things got. In addition to the dulled palate, the condition of the neighborhoods declined with each block we traversed. First it was just garbage littering the streets, and soon it was wagons sitting on blocks and buildings with broken windows.
Ponies gave us strange looks and gave us wide berths as we passed by. Brightheart continued leading the way, his caring meter beeping as we went.
“Oh, and that’s my school!” Cinnamon pointed out a drab three-story building. A few fillies and colts could be seen milling around the playground behind the fence, with a coach with a whistle hanging from her neck directing them in gym class.
“Why aren’t you in class?”
“Oh, I stopped going to school ages ago. As you can see, school’s in town, where it’s all gray. The teachers and all my classmates turned gray a long time ago, and none of them care if I show up or not. My parents don’t care either, so I stopped going so I wouldn’t turn all gray too. Those are my friends, over there. The pony with the grayscale mane is Starr, and the twins are Ruby and Topaz.”
“Don’t you miss them?”
She nodded, sadly. “I said my goodbyes to them years ago. They’re not the same ponies they once were. My friends are long gone, and their bodies are nothing more than shells going through the motions.”
“That’s so sad.” I wanted to cry, but held it in. I had to be strong for Cinnamon’s sake and Cozy’s sake.
“It is, but there’s nothing that can be done about it except to stay far away from town. We really should get out of here now. Your sister’s already starting to change.” She pointed at Cozy’s hooves.
“Oh golly, she’s right.” Cozyheart was gray up to her hocks.
“We fly.” Brightheart didn’t even look up from his device as he took to the air.
“What about me?” Cinnamon asked in alarm.
Swiftheart, Proudheart, and I all scooped up the earth pony in our grasp and followed Brightheart, with Cozy bringing up the rear. Once we were airborne it was easy to see that our hooves had all turned gray, though Cozy had gotten the worst of it.
Being airborne helped mitigate some of the effect, but as we continued closer to the source, the grayness got worse. We didn’t just turn gray, we started snapping at each other. We started caring less and less. We knew we were on an important mission, but it just seemed less and less important as we went on.
There was no more sightseeing, and even Cinnamon didn’t feel much like pointing out the sights in her hometown in our desperate race against time. Then, suddenly, Cinnamon got heavier. I was struggling to keep her aft end in the air, while Swiftheart and Proudheart carried her forelegs. A glance to my side told me everything I suspected – Cozyheart was flying off in another direction, and Cinnamon’s other hind leg was dangling. “Cozy! Come back. Please!”
“What difference does it make.” The grayness had overtaken my sister’s barrel and tail, leaving nothing colorful below her neck.
I looked down and the dullness had only claimed my legs. “C’mon Cozy, I can’t support Cinnamon all by myself.”
“Who cares?”
“I care! I care very much!” Cinnamon was quite vocal in her displeasure. “I’m terrified of heights! Please, please, please come back.”
“Fine. But be quick. You’re heavy.”
“And you’re just a sweet ray of sunshine.”
“Stop fighting.” Brightheart turned around to look at us. “You’re making it worse. The caring meter can’t decide if we should keep going forward to the source of the trouble or turn around and help the two of you. The longer this takes the less likely our chance of success… I don’t want to be all gray, do you?”
Cozy shrugged. “I don’t care.” She grabbed Cinnamon’s other leg regardless.
“Let’s hurry,” I urged the others on. I wasn’t sure how long we could keep Cozyheart’s mind on the task.
“That’s my line, cuz!”
“There! It has to be coming from that construction site.”
We’d made our way to the outskirts of town, where the skeleton-like frame of a building had been erected in a field. The area was fenced off, but that wasn’t a problem for pegasi like us. We landed inside the site, next to a trailer proclaiming the work was being done by Cherrywood & Fettuccini Construction. Work had apparently stopped at some point, because everything was in disarray, and there’d even been some vandalism. The walls of the trailer were graffitied, and the fence was torn down in spots. In a society where a third of the population could fly, some unicorns could teleport, and most earth ponies could buck it into splinters, fences were merely suggestions. Something that was put up as a warning for legal and insurance purposes. Something to indicate that the owners at least made an effort to keep ponies off their property.
Cinnamon was grateful to no longer be airborne, and she made a show of kissing the ground below us. “I’m never leaving you again.”
“Then how are you getting home?”
“I’ll hoof it. Turning gray is better than falling to my doom.”
“At least you still care about staying alive,” Brightheart noted. “True apathy would be indifference to even that. We just need to figure out what’s causing the problem. Now where’d Swiftheart go?”
“I’m way ahead of you!” Swiftheart was on the other side of the yard. “I could be wrong, but this giant glowing gem might be the problem.”
The rest of us galloped to where she was hovering, and sure enough there was a massive stone emitting a sickly green glow. The caring meter was going crazy and Brightheart confirmed that was the source of Drab City’s dullness.
“What are we going to do?” Proudheart asked.
“Why don’t we just dump the gem in the bottomless pit?” Cozyheart pointed to a scar in the earth conveniently on the other side of the rock.
“There’s no such thing as a bottomless pit. We live on a planet; a sphere spinning in space. Theoretically, if this hole went all the way through the planet that would be the ‘bottom’ and you’d drop out the other side and into space. But that’s impossible. Gravity would stop you at the planet’s core. That would also require the planet to be hollow. Do you know what you’d get if you had a hole that reached down to Equus’ mantle? A volcano.”
“Blah, blah, blah, Brightheart. Are we gonna do somethin’ about this rock, or are we going to all go gray listening to you yack? Literally.” Swiftheart lifted a leg to demonstrate her limbs had completely turned gray.
The six of us pushed against the gem to no avail – it was too heavy for us. Our close proximity to the stone caused the effect to speed up. Cozyheart was the first to succumb, wandering off as soon as she completely turned gray. Cinnamon wasn’t far behind.
“Retreat!” Brightheart’s order came too late for me. I could find no motivation to move from my spot leaning against the giant rock. Brightheart, being the least athletic of us, also fell victim to the dullness before he could put enough distance between himself and the gem.
That left Swiftheart and Proudheart as the only two ponies who could do something about the situation. I watched them fly off, and I couldn’t find it in me to care if they succeeded or not. I couldn’t even muster the desire to go locate my little sister.
Swiftheart reappeared hours later, or maybe it was only minutes, I couldn’t say. I just didn’t care. I couldn’t even care that she’d somehow figured out how to start and drive one of the construction company’s bulldozers. She’d gone completely gray too, but she was still on course. The bulldozer slammed into the rock, pushing it into the pit. Swiftheart, dull with gray, didn’t even care enough to stop the bulldozer as it joined the massive gem, plummeting into the depths. If not for Proudheart swooping down and grabbing her, she would’ve gone down the hole with the dozer.
With the stone gone, color started returning to the world. As soon as Brightheart’s purple coat was restored he was on his hooves, waiting by the pit, listening for a crash that never came. “That’s impossible! It has to have a bottom!” He tried to fly down the hole but Swiftheart grabbed his tail in her mouth. “What if there’s an aquifer down there? What if we just dumped that into the town’s water supply?”
“If you go down there, you’re not coming back, bro. I’m five times the flyer you are and I wouldn’t make it back.”
“But there has to be a logical explanation! Holes have to have bottoms. And why was there such a deep pit right next to the gem? Gah! It doesn’t make sense! It’s too convenient!”
“Maybe it was a meteorite, and the deep pit was a crater?” Cozy’s explanation was rational, but Brightheart shot that one down too, arguing that the rock’s composition wasn’t consistent with known meteorites, and also that a crater should be crater-shaped and not just a big hole.
Cinnamon found an excuse to run off and find her friends at school, while Cozyheart, Proudheart, Swiftheart, and I all had to listen to Brightheart explain how craters form, and the physics involved. In great detail. Then he ranted about how just getting rid of the strange rock shouldn’t have immediately restored color to everything. He was right – nothing about the ordeal made any sense whatsoever.
We caught up to Cinnamon at the playground, where she was playing with Starr, who’s grayscale locks had turned into a rainbow, as well as Topaz and Ruby, both of whom shined in the afternoon sunlight, the former a crystalline blue and the latter red. I hadn’t even been able to tell they were crystal ponies when we stopped at the school earlier.
They were playing and we didn’t want to intrude, so we headed for home instead.
West Milfoil: eight years, one month, and eight days ago
Cozy Glow. I was having a hard time adapting to my sister’s new name. Mom had made it official at the town hall earlier in the day. She’d changed – she wasn’t the happy-go-lucky filly I remembered. She spent a lot of her time staring into space. It was almost as if she wasn’t even there most of the time, like a toy that spent most of its time on a shelf.
But if you spoke to her, she’d spring to life with a syrupy sweet smile. I’d made the mistake of initiating contact and I was already regretting it. I never thought there’d come a day I would consider talking to my sister a mistake, or that I’d regret it, but my relationship with my sister seemed to be on a one-way elevator ride: all the way down.
I sighed as I helped her dye herself pink, hiding her beautiful purple coat.
“Golly! Don’t you think I’m just the cutest thing ever, sis?” Cozy was staring at her reflection, her blue curls bouncing as she turned her head.
“You’ve always been the cutest filly, Cozy.”
“But I’m even more adorable now! Pastel pink is 2.46% cuter than pastel purple. Who’s a pretty pony? I am!” She booped the nose of her own reflection. “But for maximum adorableness I need these…” She started drawing freckles on her cheeks.
“But… you have freckles naturally on your purple coat!”
“Purple’s just not cute enough, sis.”
“What about your cutie mark. How cute is that?”
She shrugged. “Your mark’s way cuter, but I have to leave ponies some clues.”
“Clues to what?”
Cozy giggled. “That I’m more than meets the eye. That I’m not just an adorable face. Though I’m definitely adorable.”
“I liked you better the way you were, Cozy.” I didn’t add in that I meant that in more ways than just her new appearance.
“Living in the past, like always, Flit. That’s why I’m going places and you’re not.”
Rude. Cozyheart was never like this. If this is new and improved Cozy, I’ll gladly keep living in the past and remembering the Cozy I loved.
Salt Lick City: four years, six months, and one day ago
Proudheart, Brightheart, and I were lounging around the family room of our combined family house. We didn’t spend nearly as much time together as we’d used to. Our family was fracturing – Cozyheart hadn’t been the glue keeping us together, but her absence was felt. My parents blamed themselves and threw themselves into their work. They’d worked the weather back home, and we’d ended up in Salt Lick City because the city needed an entire weather team. With my aunts and uncles pressed into service, the Hearts became their new weather team. It was likely my destiny to join them in a few years. What ambition I’d once had to be a teacher was long gone.
There was significantly less enthusiasm in our household than there’d once been. Even putting us all under one roof hadn’t rekindled the fire of love and the spirit of caring in our hearts. If anything, the situation deteriorated further, because we were constantly around one another, and had fewer things to occupy our time other than get on each other’s nerves.
Brightheart turned a page in his book and Proudheart snapped at him. “Can’t you turn those pages quieter? Every minute, flip, flip, flip. It keeps breaking my immersion.”
“If that means you can’t write lousy poetry, I’m doing the world a favor.”
“Hey now,” I interrupted. “Where’s the old Care Mares spirit?”
“We haven’t been the Care Mares since…” Proudheart trailed off. “We haven’t been the Care Mares in over a year. It’s painful, but you need to hear the truth, Flit. We left the Care Mares name back in West Milfoil and it’s not coming back.”
“As much as I dislike that nickname, I disagree.” Brightheart put down the book he was reading. “We’re still the Care Mares Family. We’ve all been coping in our own ways. Swiftheart’s thrown herself into her training. Flitterheart’s burying herself in nostalgia because living in the past is easier. And speaking of needing to hear the truth, Proudheart… You went from ‘mourning’ to just plain goth. That makeup looks ridiculous, and your poetry isn’t edgy, it’s just awful. You’re better than this, sis. We’re all better than this.”
“You seem to be doing fine, ‘Mr. Know-It-All.” Proudheart’s tail lashed. Beyond an annoyed flick, this was more akin to an angry cat.
“I’m coping in my own way.” Brightheart patted the book he was reading.
“Like that’s different than normal? You’ve always had your snout buried in a book since we were just foals.”
“It isn’t reading that’s out of the ordinary, it’s what I’m reading that’s changed.” He flipped the book around to show us the cover: Evil Entities & Proven Possessions. “I think Cozyheart may have been taken over by an evil spirit. Like when the Nightmare infected Princess Luna and caused her to turn into Nightmare Moon.”
I gasped. It made sense.
“I’ve been compiling data in the hopes of getting some answers.” Brightheart sighed. “There’s also… Let’s wait until Swiftheart gets home from her workout session. I only want to have this discussion once.”
Brightheart buried his snout back in the book he was reading, while the normally talkative Proudheart sat there, deep in thought. I would’ve sighed, but I didn’t want to break the awkward silence.
Hours later Swiftheart entered, drenched in sweat. “‘Sup?”
Proud Heart wrinkled her snout in disgust. “You. Shower. Now.” She pushed her sister up the stairs. The normally energetic Swiftheart was too exhausted to offer more than a token protest.
Brightheart opened one of his books. “While we’re waiting for them, maybe you can answer some questions. I have some basic ideas, but you were closer to her than any of us.”
“Okay.”
“Have you ever seen purple goo?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. But Hydia was one of the most powerful sorceresses of antiquity – she even fought Starswirl the Bearded to a standstill before the combined forces of Celestia and Luna drove her through a portal to another dimension. Purple Smooze was one of her methods, though not the only one. Still, she hasn’t been heard from in thousands of years, so it probably isn’t her.”
“Ancient evils pop up every few years, so you never know.” I shrugged. “Of course, that’s assuming it’s an ancient evil and not some new evil on the block looking to make a name for itself.”
He nodded. “True. If a portal from that dimension opened to this one, it’s possible she’s returned, but it’s even more likely that this is an entirely new entity, something that nopony’s ever seen before. There’s also the possibility she’s been possessed by the very same Nightmare that took over Princess Luna. Her personality completely changed from when she was little to the time of… her departure.” There was no nice way of phrasing what had happened to my sister, but Bright’s word choice was the kindest I’d yet heard. “Did Cozy’s coat ever dull or turn gray entirely?”
I shrugged. “She started dying her coat pink, so who knows.”
“Before or after her change to Cozy Glow?”
I spat in disgust. “Don’t call her that.”
“I’m not. I’m calling what possessed her that.”
“After.”
Brightheart scribbled some notes down. “Probably not Discord then. Discorded ponies eventually turn grayscale. Like that debacle with the meteorite in Drab City.”
“They call it Rainbow City these days. I miss those days when we used to go on ‘caring missions’ and cheer up ponies. Did you ever finish that caring meter you were working on?”
Brightheart shook his head. “If it couldn’t detect…” he trailed off. “It was unable to detect a nearby evil spirit so it must have been defective.”
“It was so promising in the tests.”
“Lots of things are promising in early testing that never make it to production. Moving down the list, did her cutie mark ever disappear? Perhaps replaced with an equal sign?”
“No, but…” I grabbed a quill and paper and sketched a heart wearing a ski cap. “This was supposed to be her real cutie mark. She wasn’t supposed to have a rook. Chess was never her special talent.”
Bright raised an eyebrow and jotted down some more notes. “How would you know what her cutie mark was supposed to be? Cutie mark magic is some of the most powerful magic known. You can’t force a mark to appear, and only one pony has ever managed to unlock the secret of removing a pony’s cutie mark.”
“Starlight Glimmer,” I replied immediately. Brightheart wasn’t the only pony who knew how to research things.
My cousin nodded. “You’ve done your homework.”
“Of course. I want to find whoever did this, and I’m going to make them pay for what they did to my sister.”
“I want you to think long and hard about this, Flitterheart.” He didn’t use my nickname. The conversation had already been serious, but somehow it turned more serious. Deadly serious. “We don’t know for sure that she’s dead inside the statue. Princess Luna was sealed inside the moon for a thousand years, and Discord was petrified for even longer.”
“They’re ancient magical beings and Cozy was just a child. Maybe Chrysalis and Tirek could survive being stoned for eternity, but, really, is being petrified any different than death?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
“Are you saying we could bring her back?”
“Possibly. It depends entirely on what I’m about to ask you. There are… powerful magical entities. Evil spirits like the Nightmare. Some of them are even worse. These are spirits that look for ponies like you. Ponies who are hurt, sad, angry, bitter, lonely, jealous… any negative emotion is like a beacon in the dark. They make deals… the kind of deals that are sealed in blood. The kind of deals that require blood. There are magical beings, demons really, that could bring Cozy back from where they’ve sent her. If she really is dead, it wouldn’t matter – her body is preserved in stone. That makes things simpler. But you’d have to be sure. You don’t summon something like this and then change your mind – not without consequences. If you’re willing to turn your back on everything the Hearts have stood for since the founding of the family… it can be done.”
“I… That’s a lot to take in. Are you talking dark magic?”
Brightheart nodded. “How bad do you want Cozyheart back?”
“With all my heart.”
“Are you willing to do what it takes, Flit?”
“I don’t know. Ponies have tried to cheat death before. They never come back ‘right’. Cozy was already pretty ‘wrong’ when we lost her…” I sighed. “The best we can hope for is to have the ‘wrong’ Cozy returned to us and at worst…” I shuddered. “Let’s not think about what kind of eldritch abomination she might turn into. So no. I guess not. Isn’t there any other way?”
Brightheart breathed a sigh of relief. “I had to make sure you weren’t blinded by love… or corrupted by the same entity as Cozy.”
He whistled, and Proudheart and Swiftheart returned from cleaning up. The former had washed away her eye shadow and other makeup, while the latter actually looked pretty.
I hadn’t been expecting that, and neither had Brightheart if his reaction was anything to go by.
“What? You talk a lot. We had some extra time.”
“But you…and her…and not goth… Huh?”
“You’re right, dark and dreary just aren’t my colors, darling.”
“I think you broke his brain, sis.” Swiftheart hoofbumped Proudheart.
“I think we both did, Swiftheart.” Proudheart grinned. “You do look quite stunning in that dress. I knew you’d clean up well.”
“Of course I clean up well. Sheesh, why does everypony think I’m a tomcolt? Am I not allowed to be pretty too?”
Proudheart shrugged. “If it was up to me you’d look this good every day.”
“No need to go overboard. One makeover per year is enough.”
“That. That’s why everypony thinks you’re a tomcolt, sis.”
Swiftheart shrugged. “That’s legit. So what did we miss?”
“Flit’s on board.”
“Oh good, so she’s not corrupted by an evil spirit.”
“Swiftheart!”
“What? You were worried about that, weren’t you? You made a big deal about having to make sure.”
Brightheart facehoofed. “Yes. Anyways, we won’t be summoning any dark entities.”
I blushed. “That option was never on the table. I hope.”
“It wasn’t. Yes, I’ve been researching evil spirits, but my goal is to stop them, not empower them. Believe me, I want to bring back Cozyheart as much as you do, but not if she’s going to be an evil entity that needs to be stopped. Again. I don’t know if it’s possible, and that’s why I keep reading.”
“So what’s the plan, bro?” Swiftheart wasn’t known for her patience.
“There isn’t one.” Brightheart sighed. “There’s just no way of bringing her back. Not without compromising our beliefs and doing things we’d never forgive ourselves for. Not without hurting innocent ponies.”
“So what now?”
“We move on with our lives. I’ll never stop looking – if there’s a way, I’ll find it. But we can’t wait forever. There’s a very real chance that there’s nothing we can do for her, so we have to do what’s best for ourselves. I’ll keep studying. Swiftheart, you keep flying fast. It’s what you do. Flitterheart, you’ve got to figure out what you want to do with your life. Do you still want to be a teacher or not? Proudheart, I have no idea what your ambitions are. Seriously, if I was going to pick the most likely member of our family to try overthrowing the government, it would’ve been you.”
“Totes legit, sis.” Swiftheart wasn’t one for wasting words. Or for using complete words, for that matter.
“Fine, fine. I shall settle for merely taking over the eastern seaboard. Happy?”
Despite myself, I couldn’t help giggling at my cousins’ antics.
Cloudsdale: three months, and eleven days ago
My cousins had moved on with their lives. Brightheart had been accepted into every college he applied to, eventually choosing to go to Equestrian Institute of Technology, or EIT for short. Proudheart had accepted a full scholarship to Canterlot University. Swiftheart, meanwhile, had turned down scholarships at three different schools to focus on applying to the Wonderbolts.
Most of our family had turned out to see her tryouts. Some of the other candidates had dropped out during the training, and a few hadn’t passed the exam. Swiftheart had aced everything the Wonderbolts had thrown at her. All that was left was her final evaluation – showing off her tricks and giving them one last reason why she should be on their team.
“All right, newbies, you’ve survived Trials Week for the Wonderbolts Academy. There’s just one last thing you need to do. It’s really, really simple. You’ve got five minutes to do anything you want, and all you have to do in those three hundred short seconds is impress me.”
Easier said than done, but Swiftheart’s got this. She’s got more natural talent than anypony since Rainbow Dash.
“You’ll be judged on your speed, strength, agility, and technique.”
“You!” She pointed to a yellow-coated stallion with red, white, and green hair. “You’re up. Think you can impress me?”
“Yes ma’am!” He saluted and took to the skies. He started his routine by bucking a cloud, causing lightning to set one of the hoops on fire. He flew through the flaming hoop to cheers from the crowd. There was just one slight problem – he’d singed his tail, and it was still burning.
He realized it about halfway through his routine. A comedienne might even say it lit a fire under his rump. At the very least, it lit his rump on fire. He finished his routine with his still smoldering tail, leaving a trail of smoke behind him.
“Impressive. It’s not often I have a recruit set himself on fire for me.”
She pointed to a nervous mare who shot into the air before Spitfire could even blow her whistle. Her routine wasn’t as death-defying, mostly because she didn’t light herself on fire. She wasn’t as fast as the stallion, but she had agility and precision. I liked her – she flew more like me, flittering here and there, turning on a tenth-bit. While she made an impression on me, Spitfire looked underwhelmed. Oh well, that’s why my cousin’s out there and not me.
Third in line was a black stallion with silvery streaks in his white and red mane. Introduced as Ironhead, his routine consisted of smashing through any obstacle put in his way. He seemed better suited for a demolition derby than a Wonderbolts rally.
“That’s one way to use your head.” Spitfire looked to the next recruit in line and my heart skipped a beat. It was Swiftheart’s turn.
Come on, cuz, let’s see what you can do! Proudheart and Brightheart were cheering her on, too, as was a good chunk of our family. I looked around and realized Uncle Braveheart was missing. Just his luck – what a bad time to make a pit stop!
Swiftheart started her routine slowly. Obviously she’s building to something. She went through the slalom course. Come on, what are you doing? She was making it a point to do the same basic drill that every pegasus had to do in flight school. Everypony watching her could do that routine in their sleep. Some of them probably have.
She finished the course with a double inside-out loop, the same way all of us had all those years ago. There was nothing at all spectacular about her routine. Spitfire was yawning. She’d already burned up four of her five minutes. If you’re going to do something, cuz, do it now.
She returned to the starting line and flashed Spitfire a cocky grin, and then she was off in a blue blur. She zipped around the same course again, completing it in less than a minute. More than a few jaws dropped at her performance.
Well, she isn’t named ‘Swiftheart’ for nothing.
Uncle Braveheart sat down next to me thirty seconds after Swiftheart finished her routine. “Can you believe the refreshment stand isn’t open because this is only a try-out and not a rally?”
“Normally there are more ponies here for a rally, Uncle Braveheart.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Did I miss anything?”
“…Nothing you haven’t seen before.” Technically that was true. He’d seen Swiftheart fly many times, and at some point in his past, Uncle Braveheart had to have done the flight school training course too.
“You know what would be really cool? If somepony crashed through all the obstacles instead of flying around them. Oh, maybe with their tail on fire.”
I guess he missed those recruits. “You should uh, work on that, Uncle Braveheart. If there’s anypony out there who could do a routine like that, it’s you.” And he had. Albeit he’d never done both simultaneously. Or, for that matter, intentionally.
“Gosh, you really think so?”
“Absolutely. Or my Mom’s not Trueheart.” I pictured him crashing through things with his tail on fire. It wasn’t a hard mental image to conjure. Wait, what does Uncle Braveheart crash into more than anything else? …Water. My visual ended with Uncle Braveheart splashing down into a lake. ‘My tail done went out.’ “You know, on second thought, that sounds really dangerous, Uncle Braveheart. You could get hurt.”
“Yeah, probably. So, pretty much like any other day.”
I wanted to refute that, but it was too accurate. Instead, I patted his withers. “We love you, Uncle Braveheart. You don’t have to be a Wonderbolt to be the world’s best uncle!”
“Aww, shucks. I’m not the best uncle in all of Equestria.”
“Sure you are! How many uncles would dress up like a princess to go fright-or-biting with his nieces? How many uncles can shrug off adversity like it’s nothing? You taught me the meaning of the word tenacity. You’re awesome, Uncle Braveheart.”
“Ten-ass-it-ee? What’s that?”
“Determination. When you set your mind to something, you do it, no matter what gets in your way.”
“You’re right!” He stood up.
“Where are you going now?”
“I’m gonna get a hayburger, and I don’t care if the refreshment stand’s not open. Let me know when Swiftheart’s up. Charge!”
I facehoofed.
Swiftheart had joined us as we watched the last half a dozen recruits left: Swervin’, Awesome Thrill, Lake Speed, Highline Flair, Smokey Skies, and Slick Trickle. All of them stallions, and I couldn’t help but wonder if promising mare recruits had forgone applying to the Wonderbolts in favor of heading to Earth.
“I just want to say you’re my favorite Wonderbolt recruit!”
I blinked. Angel Wings!?! No way, one of the actual Wonderbolts just called my cousin her favorite.
The two bumped rumps, and I immediately saw why Swiftheart had caught her attention. They both had very similar cutie marks: winged hearts.
“I think it goes without saying, but I love your cutie mark.”
“Are you kidding? I love your cutie mark!”
They hugged, and my family wasn’t about to be left out, turning it into a giant group hug.
“I look forward to working with you, rookie.” She paused and looked around at all of us. “How do I get out of this group hug?”
Source: H20ZimMLPFan
Edit to add the below: H20ZimMLPFan just surprised me with a re-imagining of Swiftheart! Keep in mind the Care Bear Cousin she's based on is powder blue, and has a winged heart emblem (similar to Angel Wings'), and that's her canon color scheme and cutie mark for the story. However, this is way too cool not to post. Swift Heart Rabbit was already way too badass for her franchise and now she's easily 20% cooler. 
With colors that keep a family resemblance to Flitterheart, and a cutie mark that combines the Heart family's traditional heart-themed cutie mark with a lightning bolt reminiscent of Rainbow Dash's, I really, really like her new look. She looks ready to kick flank and take names.
The only reason I'm not making this new look canon is because of the scene with Swiftheart and Angel Wings comparing their similar cutie marks.
And the bunny she's based on is in the lower left, conveniently sitting between Proud Heart Cat (her sister in this story) and Brave Heart Lion (her uncle in this story):
Source: https://www.deviantart.com/praisecastiel/art/The-Care-Bear-Family-312755504
And now H20ZimMLPFan has surprised me with a re-imagined Brightheart as well! Thank you very much for the fanart!
Source: H20ZimMLPFan
He's normally nerdier and purpler than this. This is a good look for him.
One more from H20ZimMLPFan:
Completing the trio of Flitterheart's cousins, Proudheart. I think this is a much better look than the original Proud Heart Cat's coloration, and check out that big hair.
Disconcerting events. Did anypony inform Canterlot of the sinister dark crystal and possible lingering effects?
5685479
Of course not. It was Pasterson (aka Paterson, NJ). I'm not sure anypony even noticed anything was different.
All joking aside, things like this tend to happen in Equestria. You never know when ancient artifacts, monster attacks, power-hungry unicorns (or changelings, pegasus fillies, etc.), etc. will pop up next. I don't think anypony bats an eye once the situation is resolved, as long as it eventually gets resolved. It's why if I had a chance to go live in Ponyville, I'd pick G3 Ponyville, not G4 Ponyville (or Dream Valley). The most hazardous thing there is Minty. But she's adorbs, so it's okay.
The episode Drab City can probably be found on YouTube. I kept the premise (everything turns gray because of a gem that they eventually dump in a conveniently located bottomless pit), then proceeded to have Brightheart lampshade the heck out of it.
As for where the gem and bottomless pit came from: Discord. They're leftovers from his first breakout (in season 2) that never got cleaned up.
5685468
Thank you!
5685495
Hard to believe VIPs have attendant battlemages, but Celestia or Twilight never instituted a magical SCP Foundation to evaluate and contain magical anomalies and artifacts.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/54117/whom-the-princesses-would-destroy
Or at least send a S.M.I.L.E. agent or two out there to seal the hole with magical boron-orichalcum concrete.
Regarding the Beanie Boos, you have some choices.
If you don’t care about tags, this one. If you do want them with tags, get them individually or this listing.
5685547
Somepony would have to care to report it, and nopony in the town cared at that point because the gem had stolen their feelings. Flitterheart couldn't even care about her sister, whom she's shown to love possibly more than any other pony in Equestria. Swiftheart, while saving the day, couldn't even muster the will to save herself. Proudheart had to stay away from the gem and then swoop in at the last second to save Swiftheart from going into the pit with the gem and bulldozer both. Swiftheart should've swooped in to save Proudheart on the bulldozer, but guess which one of the two could hot wire and drive a bulldozer, and which one couldn't. They made things work though.
Now that things are back to normal, things have been reported to the proper authorities and dealt with. Inter-dimensional 'bottomless' pits have been contained.
Well, that part certainly caught my attention. I'll have to check it out!
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Thank you!
You never read the Civil Service arc? Classics. They have a tvtropes page and everything.
Good luck with the sound file thing; I'm afraid I'm not sure what might be best to use.
(And interesting regarding your lack of YouTube usage -- but as I, for instance, actively avoid Facebook and still deliberately use a flip phone, that I do use YouTube certainly isn't making me think you have to as well. :))
And good luck in general, and thank you for the good work you do. :)
5686087
Thank you!
I also won't touch Facebook with a ten-foot pole, and well, I can't even take my phone with me when I leave the house. At least it isn't a rotary!
https://vocaroo.com/
5686242
Thank you!