A few hours after Flurry Heart had fallen asleep as the last, the moon came out from behind a cloud. It shone into the room, casting a silvery light on the sleeping fillies. The room was quiet, except for their slow breaths and an occasional snoring by Starry Skies. Until a sound came from the window, akin to a clank.
Huffing, a pony pulled itself up and over the windowsill. Tall, it stood between the sleeping friends on the floor, slowly letting its eyes wander over the unfamiliar room, without making noise, until it had spotted what it was looking for.
On the tip of its hooves, it snuck to Flurry Heart's bed. A grin forming on the face, the pony took position there and looked down on the sleeping princess, eyes widening for a moment as it noticed another filly sleeping in the same bed. But the expression of surprise only lasted for a second and, despite the unexpected development, the pony stayed confident. Lighting up the room more, the pony's glowing, blue horn revealed the face of a cream-colored stallion. He was still wearing a grin, an even broader one now, and the blue light made his face look slightly ominous.
“Finally it's happening,” he whispered in excitement. His voice was deep, but also full of youthful energy.
He readied the object in his left hoof, then reached out to the princess with the other one. Very gently, he poked her shoulder.
“Princess,” he whispered again, slightly louder this time.
Below him, Flurry Heart mumbled and shifted slightly, but did not open her eyes. She smacked her lips a few times, then lay still again. The stallion's heart started to beat faster. A smile formed on his lips as he observed the reaction of the young filly. He stretched out his hoof again, this time aiming for Flurry Heart's mane, and stroke over it tenderly, his smile getting deepened. Then he moved it to her shoulder again, giving it another poke, a stronger one this time.
“Princess!” he said, louder than before, but, so he hoped, not loud enough to awaken the other three fillies. “Please wake up!”
Flurry Heart stirred again. “Why now?” she mumbled. She was awake.
A blush and an expression of embarrassment appeared on the stallion's face now. “I'm sorry for disturbing your sleep, princess, but this is important. I needed to see you.”
In a crawling tempo, Flurry Heart moved her head to the left, then opened her eyes to look at the pony who woke her. Her vision was blurry, all she saw was a blue light, which she chalked up to the light of the moon, and a white blob in the middle of all.
“Sharp Pitch.....” she mumbled again sleepily. “What is so important? Why can't it wait until tomorrow?” A tiny yawn left her. Her vision began to clear, but only slowly.
“I'm sorry,” the stallion apologized again. “There were too many guards at the gate, so I–”
Just before he could finish his sentence, Flurry Heart's eyes shot open widely, something about the sentence having made her fully awake. As she realized it wasn't Sharp Pitch who she was talking to, a gurgling, high-pitched scream escaped her throat. The stallion in front of her startled and dropped the object in his hooves. It barely made a sound as it hit the floor.
“Princess, please don't!” he said hastily, then pressed a hoof on her mouth in panic. Hectically, he looked around, checking on the other fillies. They stirred now, their tiny limbs bulging the material of the sleeping bags. Magnolia moved as well. Beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead and he looked back at the young filly, who stared at him in fear. “Princess, please, there is no need to scream, I–” He could not finish the sentence once again.
In front of him, Flurry Heart squeezed her eyes shut, then her horn produced a twirl of her skyblue magic. It was swirling around her horn just for a split-second, then it formed a ball of light right on the tip of it. A thin ray shot out of it, right at the stallion. As the ray of magic pierced through his chest, the stallion stuttered and coughed. One, two, three shots more, then his eyes suddenly broke, now looking down at Flurry Heart cold and lifeless. With a thump, his body fell down on the floor, hitting it right at Sunny's side.
A gasp of shock on her lips, Flurry Heart opened her eyes and sat up in her bed, awaking Magnolia completely in the process.
“Flurry Heart? What's wrong?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.
Flurry Heart did not answer. In panic, she looked to the side where the stallion had stood.
His still widely opened eyes looked back at her as her glance fell on his limb body. The filly gasped again and she held a hoof at her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. As the realization what had just happened washed over her like icecold water somepony was spilling into her face, another scream sounded out of her mouth.
It was a second later that loud clopping of hooves approached the door. It got flung open and entering the room was Sharp Pitch. Shining Armor and Cadance were only close behind.
“Princess, why did you–” he began to ask the pressing question on his mind, but then halted, as the body on the floor caught his eye. Speechlessly, he let his eyes wander over the stallion. His mouth was open, tongue hanging out, and his eyes looked dead. Sharp Pitch was not able to make out any injuries from his position, but a puddle of blood that spread under his chest was more than he needed to see in order to fully determine the condition of the stallion.
At his side, Shining Armor and Cadance had noticed the same. Their eyes stared down at the dead body in disbelief. Cadance covered her mouth in shock and her husband was gritting his teeth.
While Magnolia, Sunny and Starry were still rubbing their eyes, confused over the sudden commotion that woke them up, Shining Armor bellowed a command. “Sharp Pitch, bring the other fillies outside!” His voice was strained.
Cadance hurried at Flurry Heart's side and, wrapped in her magic, put her from shock now stiff daughter on her back. Then she galloped out of the room and into the corridor, where she headed straight for the bedroom she occupied together with her husband.
Shining Armor stayed behind. For a moment, he contemplated checking the pulse of the stallion, but then shoved the useless thought away as he realized his mind was just still engulfed by futile hope. While Sharp Pitch impelled the other three fillies and led them out of the room, Shining Armor noticed something on the floor, right to the stallion's hindlegs. He wrapped the thing into his magic, lifting it in front of his eyes. It was a card, shaped like a heart. A very tidy hoofwriting on the front said “For Princess Flurry Heart”.
A gruesome suspicion coming over him, Shining Armor opened the card and silently read the words written in it:
Dear Princess Flurry Heart,
please accept this card as a sign of support. I know about the problems you have to face right now, but not everypony in the Crystal Empire is against you, princess. I was always admiring you when you greeted the sun in the morning and the things I know about you now have not changed this.
I know that you only attacked my little brother to defend yourself and I hold no grudge against you for it. Me and my family still love you, Princess Flurry Heart, and I wanted to give you this card to lift your spirits and ease your mind.
No matter what happens, I will always support you, princess.
In admiration and loyalty,
Silver Hoof
As he had finished, Shining Armor opened his mouth and just stared down at the card, feeling cold suddenly. He crumpled the card with his magic and let it fall to the floor, where he stomped with his hoof on it. Then he turned around swiftly and left the room, leaving the corpse of the stallion behind.
He found Cadance waiting with Flurry Heart in their bedroom. Starry Skies, Sunny Spirit and Magnolia were there as well, surrounding the bed in which Flurry had been placed by her mom. The fillies looked crestfallen, their faces indicating Sharp Pitch had filed them in already.
Flurry Heart herself was in a state of shock. She did not cry, just laid in her parent's bed motionlessly and with wide, open eyes, the blanket on her body heaving and lowering itself under her heavy breaths. She stared at the ceiling, seemingly not noticing any of her friends and neither her parents. Cadance faced her daughter, eyes ridden with concern and sorrow, then she looked over to her husband. Shining Armor's heart felt like getting stabbed as he saw the condition of his wife and daughter. Only Sharp Pitch appeared relatively calm, yet even his face showed signs of distress if one just looked hard enough.
Taking a deep breath, Shining Armor addressed him. “It's almost morning. Please accompany the fillies home and tell their parents the sleepover had to end early because Flurry Heart wasn't feeling well.”
Sternly, Sharp Pitch nodded, then he motioned Flurry Heart's friends out of the room, each of them only leaving reluctantly. In the corridor, Sunny stopped suddenly, her sad eyes looking down at the floor. Sharp Pitch gave her a nudge as a sign to move forward, but Sunny stayed where she was.
“I'm not leaving,” she said after a few seconds, without looking up. “I'm staying here with Flurry Heart.”
“You can't,” Sharp Pitch said with a sigh. “You heard the order I got, I need to bring you all home right now. Come, let's go now, I'm sure you are going to see Flurry Heart–”
“I'M NOT LEAVING!” Sunny interrupted him with a desperate cry. “I am her best friend and she needs me and I'm staying here!” Sunny's voice was fast and it sounded stressed.
Now a flash of anger appeared on Sharp Pitch's face and he shuffled with his right hoof on the floor, a sign that the guard lost his patience. “I'm not in a mood for this,” he said taut, his voice strained. “I have strict orders and the last thing your friend can need now is your stubbornness.” He gave her a push. “You will leave with the others now or I–”
“It's okay, Sharp Pitch, let her stay,” the voice of Cadance rang out into the corridor. It sounded weak. “But please bring the other two fillies home. Flurry Heart needs rest.”
Sharp Pitch looked over his shoulder. Without saying another word, he nodded, then walked past Sunny Spirit, to do what he was told. The crystal filly trotted back into the bedroom, then at Flurry Heart's side. Seeing the open eyes of her best friend, combined with her immobility, confused Sunny. She sniffed. “I-Is she s-sleeping?” she asked without looking away from her friend, her voice already sounding tear-filled.
“No, she has a shock,” Shining Armor answered truthfully. His voice had lost its usual strength as well.
“Shining!” Cadance hissed at him, sharper than she had intended, then she looked at Sunny, whose tears were now flowing freely. Only now it became apparent how much the new situation was wearing at her own mind.
“W-We only w-wanted to have a s-sleepover,” she began to stammer. “F-Flurry felt b-better..... W-We all f-felt g-good a-and now..... n-now–” A heavy sob interrupted her sentence, making it impossible for her to continue.
Attempting to calm her down, Cadance wrapped the young crystal filly in a hug. “Ssssh,” she cooed. “Flurry Heart needs rest now, Sunny. She will feel better soon, she just needs some hours of sleep.” Behind the comforting tone, her voice sounded unsure and shivered.
Still hugging the filly, Cadance looked over to her husband. “Shining, please bring Sunny in the guest bedroom. She needs sleep as well now.”
Quietly, Shining Armor nodded. He gently tried to lead Sunny out of the room, but she did not budge, unable to take her crying eyes from Flurry Heart. As every attempt had failed, Shining Armor took the filly in his magic and carried her outside. Sunny squirmed.
“No, let me stay here!” she whimpered.
“You are going to see Flurry Heart tomorrow, I promise!” Cadance shouted after her, then Shining Armor had left the room with the filly. The whimpering continued in the distance, slowly getting quieter, until a closing door shut out the sound completely.
Alone now, Cadance brought her full attention back to her daughter. Nothing had changed. Flurry Heart still eyed the ceiling from her widely opened eyes, the shock and panic she had to go through apparent in them. With the gentle care of a mother, Cadance moved her hoof over Flurry Heart's mane and face, now tears appearing in her own eyes. After sobbing a few times and bringing her voice into a somewhat stable condition, Cadance began to sing. In her soft voice, she was singing Flurry Heart's favourite lullaby, while tears streamed down her cheeks.
It was without effect, but Cadance kept singing the song, always starting anew once she had reached the end of it. She only interrupted herself once to close the door of the bedroom with her magic, as loud, armored hoofsteps indicated that Shining Armor had called other guards to bring away the body in Flurry Heart's room. Then her voice filled the room with the lullaby again.
As Flurry Heart's eyes finally closed, after more attempts than Cadance cared to count, the alicorn mare was tired. Feeling exhausted and at the end of her strength, Cadance placed her head at her daughter's side and, sitting in front of the bed, fell asleep as well.
As Flurry Heart awoke hours later, she thought she had a bad dream, at first. Above her, the ceiling rotated and immediately, she had to close her eyes again, waiting for the vertigo to subside. “Why do I feel so dizzy?” she asked herself.
At her side, she sensed the presence of somepony and, as she felt better, sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes like nothing happened. She looked to her right, nothing in her face indicating that she wondered why there wasn't a wall and why she, instead, looked into Sharp Pitch's face. The guard sat on a wooden chair, motionlessly, with his eyes on her. His forelegs were placed in his lap and his upper body was hunched forward slightly, a posture one could interpret as casual and relaxed, if it wouldn't have been for the gaze in his eyes. It was only interrupted by occasional blinking.
The tired expression in Flurry Heart's face made room for confusion. “Sharp Pitch? Were are Sunny, Starry and Magnolia?”
“They are at home, princess. Only Sunny is still here.” Sharp Pitch did not move.
“Starry and Magnolia left? Why?” Now the confusion shared the room in her face with disappointment. “And where is Sunny?” she immediately asked, leaving the guard no time to answer the first question.
“Your friend is in the guest room, princess. She is probably still asleep.” Sharp Pitch's voice was monotonous, like he was saying things he had prepared earlier and went over a thousand times. For a moment, it let Flurry Heart feel a cold, creeping fear. She shuddered slightly, unable to make sense of the feeling.
Averting her gaze, she looked to the left side of the massive bed. It was unmade there, the ruffled blanket and bedsheets showing that somepony had slept at her side during the night. She started to feel a pressure in her head and grimaced. Something didn't add up and it let the cold feeling of fear rise in her heart again. Flurry Heart looked back at her guard.
“Where are their sleeping bags?” she asked, feeling uneasy. “Why did everypony leave me, Sharp Pitch?”
Now, there was finally some emotion entering Sharp Pitch's face. Concern appeared on it and he leaned against the back of his chair.
“Where are you now, princess?”, he asked, still monotonously, but with a hunch of fearful curiosity audible in it.
Flurry Heart blinked. “In my room.” The cold, creeping fear intensified as she finally noticed a difference. “What is wrong with my bed? Why is it so big?” She spoke the second sentence with a whimper.
Sharp Pitch got up from his chair now. Standing in front of the confused filly, he put a hoof on her shoulder. “Do you remember anything, princess?”
“Mhm!” Flurry Heart nodded, now suddenly wearing a smile again. “Sunny, Starry and Magnolia, we had a sleepover together..... It was the second night already. Sunny was telling a scary story and Magnolia was really afraid. Then we decided to go to sleep. But we talked for a while after laying down. I fell asleep as the last one. Then I woke up again and–”
A sharp pain flashing through her head, her uninflected voice got interrupted and she held a hoof at her left temple. Face distorted, she looked down at the blanket covering her hindlegs. Then the pain disappeared as fast as it had come and her eyes grew wide. “There was somepony in my room!” Flurry Heart turned around to Sharp Pitch rapidly. “Somepony was here, Sharp Pitch!” Her voice was ripe with fear now.
In the next moment, pictures appeared in her mind, bombarding it in a rapid sentence. She held both hooves at her head. “There was a blue face..... I thought it was you, but it wasn't. I screamed. Then I couldn't talk. Then everything was black.” Her voice picked up pace while she spoke. Flurry Heart closed her eyes and began to shake her head between her hooves. “There was a sound, a strange sound! I opened my eyes and then he was on the floor!” Opening her eyes again, she gasped. All of a sudden, her face looked completely clear.
“He was on the floor,” she repeated, her voice sounding weak now. Then, her eyes got filled up with tears. Flurry Heart turned away from the guard, who had watched her behavior and listened to her answers in grim silence, and tucked up her legs. Embracing them with her hooves, she bent forward and buried her head in the blanket. There, she started to weep freely. Between her sobs and weeps, that grew louder and louder by the second, she only repeated the same sentences. “He is still alive! He is, right?”
Flurry Heart did not receive an answer from Sharp Pitch. With no idea what to say, he just looked at the weeping young princess, eyes empty, until his silence answered the question for her. Her weeps became louder.
“I want to see mommy! And daddy! Bring them here!” Between her sobs, her voice sounded demanding now.
As calm as possible, Sharp Pitch answered, “Princess, they are in the throne room. They discuss the situation with Spike and your crystaller.”
“Then tell them to stop and to come here right now!” Flurry Heart pleaded, without looking up.
Slowly, Sharp Pitch shook his head, not caring that she couldn't see it. “They sent me to you, princess.”
All of a sudden, Flurry Heart shot up her head and gave her guard a dark glare. It was full of hatred behind her tear-filled eyes. “Why YOU?” she spat out the question, her voice rising. “I don't care about you, I never wanted to have a guard! I want to see my parents, not you!”
“Princess, you have to calm down and listen to what I have to say. It is important.” He placed a hoof on her shoulder again, but Flurry Heart slapped it away, fury in her eyes now.
“Don't touch me! I want to see my parents, send me my parents, now!” She shot a hoof at the door, emphasizing her demand.
“Princess, there are things we need to talk about. It is by order of your parents, they commanded me to be here when you wake up.” He stood still now, not approaching the outraged filly again.
“Why you?!” she asked again. “What do you know? You don't know how I feel now!” She got interrupted by a sob making its way up her throat and out of her mouth.
“My life will never be the same again now!” She shot a hoof at him now, her face showing increased stress. “You weren't here when it happened! You haven't seen anything of it! There is nothing a numb, soulless guard like you can to do help ME!” Having finished the rage-filled talk, Flurry Heart just stared at him, biting her lips and an expression of hopelessness in her face.
For Sharp Pitch, the last statement was almost too much. His face became twisted in anger and his hooves began to shake. With the last bit of control he could muster, he kept them on the floor, waiting for them to stop shaking and for the hot feeling that spread out in his chest to subside. He answered Flurry Heart's stare with a stare on his own, a stare so cold, that it made the young alicorn shiver.
As minutes without conversation had passed, the anger in his face got replaced with a strange, broken expression. A few tears entered his eyes as well now.
“I-I have seen more than you know, princess,” he said, his voice faltering.