//------------------------------// // Princess Amore // Story: Flurry Heart and the Imprisoned King // by ddstory25 //------------------------------// A stack of pancakes sat in front of Flurry, the usual morning routine for her. She shoveled the pancakes down her throat as quickly as she could. She wanted to get to the library as quickly as possible. After finishing her plate, she got up and bolted for the door only to be stopped by somepony pulling her back by the tail. Her eyes meet with her captors, her father.  “Whoa there! Where are you heading off to in such a hurry, Flurry? Also.”  He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “I thought you were getting a mane cut? What happened?” Flurry panicked internally for a moment. Ahhh! My lie! I forgot about that! She whispered back, “I didn’t see any style that looked good. So, I didn’t get anything for mom... Don’t tell her.” Flurry pulled away and smiled at her dad. He looked at her a bit confused but smiled and nodded his head at her. Her nerves faded as she answered his first question, excitement laced her tone. “I’m going to the library! I have some research to do.” Her excitement turned into sass. Shining’s smile widened as he looked at her, “It must be important if you're shoveling breakfast down that quickly. What's the topic?” “The complete history of Canterlot Castle.” Shining Armor just looked at his daughter confused as to why she would change her studies to Canterlot so suddenly. She was recently obsessed with learning everything about the Crystal Empire, well almost everything. He thought for a moment but soon came to the conclusion that she had reached a dead end and couldn't continue with her research. He smiled again, laughing to himself.  “Well, you can always ask your Auntie Twilight for help with that. She knows the castle and its history very well.” She smiled as she ran out the door, yelling back to her dad.   “Thanks, dad! I’ll ask her when I hit a snag!” She reached the castle library in no time. The castle library had about 20 rows of bookcases stacked upwards to the ceiling and the bookcases covered every wall with random cases in the middle of the room. The castle library had over thirty thousand books from all over, past and present with a big table in the middle of the room. A few smaller tables were scattered around. She quickly started grabbing all the scrolls and books she could with the Crystal Castle’s design. She started looking through every blueprint, every historical record, and every drawing of the castle.  ~hours later~ “Finally! I think I found something!”  She shouted in triumph as she held the oldest blueprint of the castle in her hoofs above her head.  “What did you find?” A familiar voice said from behind, she jumped, almost dropping the scroll. She didn’t know that somepony was behind her. She turned to see her favorite wizard behind her, his glasses slightly falling down his face. “Uncle Sunburst, you scared me!” “Oh, sorry Flurry. But what did you find?” Flurry looked at the scroll and then back to Sunburst guilt suddenly racking her mind. She knew she could trust Sunburst with anything but what she was doing was crazy and reckless. The situation was unsavory but she knew if she was caught and had to be lectured it would be better to hear it from Sunburst than her parents.  “*Sigh* I found another secret tunnel on this scroll. It leads to the dungeons.” She looked up to meet his disapproving eye since a princess shouldn’t be going into the dungeons alone, instead, she saw his usually enthusiastic face. He grabbed the scroll up in his yellow magic and looked it over, his happiness fading as confusion took over.  “This is the first design of the castle, Flurry. I don't think this passage was even built.” Flurry's ears folded against her skull. Worry laced her tone. “Well, I looked over every other blueprint and every other one seems to have a corridor that leads to nowhere in the same area. I think… I think it was built and only the princess could use it.” He adjusted his glasses as he grabbed some of the newer blueprints, gazing at them and comparing the oldest ones to newer ones. He knitted his brows together in confusion “Why are you looking for secret passages anyway?” “Ooh, I uh... decided to map them all out.” She smiled nervously hoping another lie would save her from telling the truth.  “Hmm, but why would you want to map out the one that leads to the dungeon? Nothing's down there anyway. Just some old suits of armor and dusty cells.” He looked perplexed by her actions as he put all the scrolls down. He hesitated to ask but a voice in the back of his mind nagged at him to ask.  “Do your parents know about this?” Her ears flattened against her skull again as she averted her gaze. She quickly forced a smile, answering him nervously.   “What they don't know, won't hurt them.” He raised an eyebrow, a grin on his lips.  “They don't know, do they?” She looked around nervously holding her breath, he repeated louder.  “They don’t know, do they!?” “Huh, fine you got me! They don't know it’s a surprise. Just don't tell them, okay?”  “I won't tell them… As long as you tell me where all the secret passages are. And I get to write a book about the castle's secret passages.” She again couldn't believe her lie worked but she nodded in agreement to his terms as the clock in the library rang out.  “Oh right! I came here to get you, it's time for dinner, Flurry.”  He said as they both got up to leave.  “Yeah, I’m hungry, I didn't even realize the time. You know time sure flies when you're studying something so interesting.” She said as she got up from her stool.  “It sure does." They walked together to the dining hall chatting away about what kind of passages could be hidden around them. A few hours after dinner and everypony was asleep except the night guards and Flurry who was on her way to the dungeons. She only had her saddlebag with the two journals and a makeshift map in front of her. She was looking for the hidden passage feverishly, taking mental notes on where the guards patrolled. It took her forty minutes to get to the royal garden, the passage was supposedly located somewhere inside. She entered the garden and looked around; the crystal roses blended perfectly with the canterlot lilys. The light blues complimented the deep purple of the lilies while rows of chrysanthemums lined the path leading into the inner garden; she could spend all day in the garden. Its beauty surpassed the Canterlot garden by a million years but she had to focus somewhere inside the garden was a secret tunnel. Looking over the little map she drew to help her find the tunnel again was difficult since the map didn’t have all the vegetation on it. She walked past the bed of moon flowers which had just opened up revealing their white petals, she stopped to gaze at them. She pulled herself away from them as she continued walking. Passing the trumpet vine flowers, a row of rose bushes, and a patch of tulips. She finally made her way over to the daisy patch. “Okay, I think the tunnel is in the daisy patch.” She assured herself as she started to dig in the flower bed. After twenty minutes of looking with dirt caught in her hoofs and covering her mane. She approached the field of forget-me-nots and gazed at the map again, looking at the ground and back to the map several times, hoping it would give her the answer.  “Ugh, where is it! It has to be here!” Frustration was overtaking her as she looked at the map then the ground again, her eyes bugging out of her head. Till an idea struck her and she smacked herself in the face “It would be a crystal cavern so why don’t I use a spell that locates crystals. I could have found the thing faster if I just did that!” Her horn lit up and the ground became translucent as a large cluster of gems appeared around a door buried deep in the ground. “Aha! There it is!” She looked down at her map and grabbed the quill out of her saddlebag making a big x mark on the spot. She put the quill away as she quickly dug into the spot she saw surrounded by crystals. She dug a few feet into the ground until the door was before her, she grinned like a filly. She pulled on the door handle, at first she had trouble opening the door but after struggling for a few minutes she got it to open. She did have the strength of an earth pony after all. She illuminated her horn and performed a spell that turned the dirt she dug up into a hatch door that could be pulled open. Before entering she made sure to line the ground hatch door she made up perfectly with the hole she dug up. Making sure it hid the hole and new crystalline door that was buried in the ground. Once that was done, she entered and closed the newly made trapdoor behind her. She was now surrounded by darkness and a damp earthy smell. She wrinkled her nose at the smell as she illuminated her horn. She walked down the tunnel, slowly observing its interior with curiosity. Crystals jetted out of the walls and floor of the tunnel in clusters, some had grown from the floor into the ceiling of the tunnel. She figured they had grown like this since she was below the crystal castle, they were probably giving the castle some sort of support. Several twists and turns later, she came upon a dead end. “What? No, this can’t be it. I said I would come back today. I have to get through this. This can’t be the end of my research!” Panic laced her voice as she frantically started to feel the wall hoping for a switch or a lever, however, she couldn’t see any and she couldn’t feel anything either. She stopped and backed up in defeat and as she did, she felt something fall beneath her right hoof as the wall started to shake and fall revealing the dungeon on the other side.  “Huh, a floor button, how clever.” She entered into the familiar corridor and walked slowly down it until she was again in front of Sombra’s cell. He seemed to be gazing at the wall lost in thought, or was he sleeping, she couldn’t tell. She quietly approached the bars.  SLAM! He didn’t make a noise but jumped up and turned towards the noise. He was enraged thinking it was a new guard here to gloat, however, that rage was replaced with surprise. Instead of a guard, it was that child again. “What!? You’re back!” The shock was evident in his tone. Flurry smiled at him, smugly. “Just like I promised, King Sombra! Now you’re going to tell me everything I want to know, remember, you promised.” She said jovially. He sat down as he glared at her.  “I didn’t expect you to actually come back. I figured your father would have punished you by now since I’m guessing you're not supposed to be here. Also, why do you look so… dirty you’re royalty, don’t you have any dignity?” He gazed daggers at her, annoyed. Her heart sank when he mentioned that she wasn't supposed to be in the dungeon. He was right she wasn’t supposed to be here, but she wanted to learn about him so badly. Her quest for knowledge burned stronger than her desire to obey her parents' rules. She shook her head and forced a smile upon her lips as she pretended not to hear that last part. She answered him happily. “Oh, I had to find a secret passage down to the dungeons since the front entrance wasn’t an option anymore. Besides, I have dignity. I did it all in the name of research.” Sombra rolled his eyes at her as she continued on.  “So King Sombra, tell me about Princess Amore. The first crystal princess.” She said this as she pulled her notebook out of her saddlebag along with a quill. She cast a spell on them so they would write everything for her. She was now ready to record whatever he said. Sombra looked at her puzzled.  “What makes you think I’ll uphold my promise?” She bit her lip and looked to the side. He was right, why should he uphold his promise to her. He didn't know her and as far as she could tell he didn’t like her. She looked back at him and gave a devilish smile, arrogance lacing her tone. “Cause you promised King Sombra and kings always uphold their promises. But if you don’t, I can always come back and keep asking over and over again until you break.”  He grinned at her, showing off his fangs. “Or I can yell for a guard to come to take you away.” Her ears flattened against her skull as her eyes almost fell out of her head. “You wouldn’t stoop so low, would you King Sombra?” He gave her a steely-eyed glare and sighed in irritation “I hate the guards more than you.” They stared at each other in silence for what felt like an eternity before he sighed in defeat. Seeing as there was no other way for him to get rid of the irritating princess, he lay down in his cell and spoke flatly.               “Clever girl. Are you sure you’re that prince’s child? You're too cunning to be his offspring.” She raised an eyebrow with a smug look on her face, he sighed again before starting. “She was beautiful beyond belief-her coat was a light pink-” “Pink like mine or like my mothers?” He huffed and gazed at her annoyed and yet somehow angered at the same time. She held her breath and mumbled,  “sorry.” “As I was saying she had a light pink coat, maybe like a peach, it’s hard to say. Her crystal coat was always so shiny, it must have been from all the love she had. Her eyes were stunning and they shone like the sun in a bright dazzling yellow or maybe amber. Her mane and tail were long with curls much like yours. Her mane and tail were also bright pink and ended with a dark blue color. Her bangs parted in the center of her face right between her horn and they curled at the ends. Atop her head was a blue crown with a yellow heart in the center and a braid was wrapped in front of her crown. She also had some sort of head crown around her head. It dipped right between her eyes with another yellow heart on it and little blue circles hanging off it, three on each side. Around her chest was a necklace thing, I don’t know what it was but it had yet another yellow heart in the center, and around her hoofs were blue bandings. They crossed and at each cross-section, there were little yellow hearts.” He thought to himself for a moment “She had a thing for yellow hearts. And her cutie mark, well you’ve already seen it.” As he said that Flurry gazed at him, her grin fell and a confused frown overtook her features. "What do you mean; I’ve seen her cutie mark already? Also great stuff. I can't wait to have some pony paint a portrait of her.” Sombra scowled as he rolled his eyes at her. “The Crystal Empire’s flag. That snowflake isn’t just some random snowflake. Don’t you know where it came from?” A lightbulb went off in Flurry’s head as she understood what he was saying instantly and she blurted out in excitement “Oh my gosh! The snowflake on the flag is Princess Amore’s cutie mark? How cute.” “Yeah, cute.” He said flatly. “She was a unicorn as tall as Celestia an-” “She wasn’t an alicorn like me or my mother or my aunties?” “No, she wasn’t.” He hissed at her.  “Now as I was saying before you interrupted again, her horn was quite long but not longer than Celestia’s. She also seemed to never age. She looked the same when I saw her again as an adult. And her voice, if I recall correctly, was angelic.” “What do you mean angelic?” “Hmm... I would say it's better than yours. Her voice was smooth and sweet, yours is like nails on a chalkboard.” “Hey!”  She looked at him annoyed, as he gave her a triumphant toothy grin. She huffed. “Give me a better description.” “I can’t. I hardly remember her voice. I just remember it was soothing to hear. It could ease your worries in an instant. The kind of voice that could soothe a crowd of anger ponies in an instant.” “Okay, well what was it like when she ruled? Many of the books just say she was benevolent. And that she did many deeds to keep the empire safe.” He rolled his eyes at her again.  “It was quiet, nothing happened. No foe or enemy. It was peaceful. I only know of a few and that was from books. They’re probably the same books you read about her.” Her ears flattened.  “So it was just like now? Peaceful?” “Yes.” In a matter-of-fact tone. Flurry pleaded, “But what about her heroic deeds? Her leadership, her magic, her, her family!?” “I don’t know anything about that. I only met her twice and neither encounter was that magical. Perhappens you’re related to her but again I don’t know.” Flurry sat on her haunches and rubbed her temples as she pulled her face down. She pulled out his journal and opened it to the page about Amore’s shattering, “Ugh, okay, okay so in your journal it says here that you turned her into stone and shattered her BUT you didn’t kill her. So how can somepony find her shards, I mean no pony has even tried looking for the shards to my knowledge.” He smiled warmly at her, Flurry felt unnerved. She figured he was a cruel monster, but she didn’t think he could smile like that. She only ever saw him smile smugly or wickedly. This smile seemed surreal. “Do you wish to find her, child?” His tone was laced with careful care. Flurry felt her stomach somersault as a slow fear climbed up her spine. Something seemed off about him, she replied cautiously.   “Maybe? I mean she is alive, so she should be revived. Isn't that why you left her alive?” He closed his eyes and started to laugh. At first, it was sweet like a warm sunny day, but it slowly turned into something wicked and twisted, like a thunderstorm. Flurry shuttered at the sound. “The only way to track her shards is to use my dark magic but no pony can use it for long. Alicorn or not you wouldn't last long using my spell plus most shards are in the Frozen North which is filled with danger so finding her is next to impossible. ‘Twas a fitting punishment for a liar like her.”  A hateful smile painted onto his face as his last sentence oozed with hatred and a hint of sadness. Flurry felt her heart sink, her face lost color as she thought about Princess Amore’s fate. It was a fate worse than death, she appeared to be lost forever. Until an idea crossed her mind. She perked up and smiled at him, his wicked smile faded into a frown. “Next to impossible but not completely impossible. You can find her, so why don't you?” His jaw fell slack, disbelief crossed his face as he heard her crazy idea. Only one word could leave his lips. “What?” “Yeah, I can ask my parents and you can find her and bring her back and redeem yourself. It’ll be great. Princess Amore won’t have to suffer anymore and neither will you. It’s a win-win!” “Are you nuts!? That will never happen!” “What, why not!?” She whined at the caged king. “Because one, I'm never leaving this dungeon as ordered by the princess of love herself. Two, even if I did find all the shattered shards and brought her back she would never forgive me.” He looked down at the ground, Flurry saw it for a brief moment, she saw regret cross his features. It faded as quickly as it appeared as he continued speaking.  “I would much rather rot here with my current crimes than actually do anything to atone for my crimes. Besides, I don't rather like you royals, so aiding you is out of the question.” “But, but, you could lessen those crimes and get out of here! You can be a better pony. I’m sure the princess would forgive you.” Worry laced her voice as she pleaded her case to Sombra. He ignored her pleas. “It’s impossible for me, so do it yourself...Listen I told you about Princess Amore now go away. You’re irritating me.” He hissed at the young princess, however, Flurry wouldn’t just go away she was determined to get more information. “But, but...The princess she can be saved I, we-"  “I said get lost!” He roared at her, she held her breath as fear crossed her face. She let her breath go. As a thought crossed her mind, asking aloud without much thought, “Why was she a liar?" Sombra didn’t say anything. The tension between them grew thicker. Sombra sighed,  "She's a liar because she knew what I was but did nothing to help. She never told me or tried to help me understand. It was a poor decision on her part… It helped lead to her downfall." Flurry tried to wrap her head around his answer but couldn't. It didn't make sense to her. "If what you're saying is true why didn’t she-" "I said get lost! I'm done talking about that liar." He glared at her again, as he stood up to his full height. Even from behind the bars, Flurry could tell he was taller than her. She swallowed her building fear, as she answered him. "Okay. Fine, I’ll stop for tonight but I’ll be back tomorrow just you wait.” “Lovely.” He groaned. She put both journals away as she walked away from his prison back to the secret passage. He watched her leave thinking to himself. What an odd child? Redemption for me... How funny. A monster like myself doesn’t deserve such a thing...Still, she’s more pleasant than the guards. I just hope she doesn’t come back tomorrow like she said she would. She irritates me more than the guards or her wretched father. She made her way back to her room. She put her saddlebag down and took out her journal. She looked over the passage the spell had written about Princess Amore. The description was perfect, her spell copied every word he spoke perfectly, she couldn't pull away from the writing. As she read the passage again for the third time she grabbed a quill and started to draw on the page next to the passage. Princess Amore was now next to the passage although she felt she didn't do her justice with her doodle. She put the quill down, as she sighed heavily. “Poor Amore, she's destined to remain shattered forever... Maybe I’ll convince him to help her one day. After all, he can't be that bad if he left her alive. And he's been a decent acquaintance so far, for supposedly being an evil tyranny. I know I can change him.”  She smiled to herself. Her smile faded as asked aloud to herself, "I wonder why he thinks she's a liar thought. What he said doesn't make sense? She knew he was an umbra… whatever that is… Guess, I'll learn more tomorrow."  She jumped onto her bed, a yawn escaped her lips. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.