The small group looks up at the Castle of Friendship. It’s tall crystalline towers sticking high into the air. It reminded them very much of pictures of the Capital that they’ve seen, though that being said, it did stand out among the small, quaint, town, and not exactly in a good way. The town’s wood houses and thatched roofs were nowhere near the hard crystal surface of the castle.
However, that’s not the only thing that stood out about the castle. The castle was also swarming with guards. They wore lavender tinted armor with a six-pointed star on the front. Some of them flew around the outside of the castle while two stood guard in front of the gate to the castle. These two guards were the same one’s that the small group, led by Violet, were approaching. Snowy and Stargazer looked to the guards with a bit of amazement, they weren’t as dark and dread filled as the guards in the Crystal Empire, but they wore much more ornate armor than the efficiency-oriented and bland equipment that Violet and the other border guards had on.
Violet seemed to notice their amazement and spoke up with a small chuckle.
“Astral Guards, Princess Twilight’s personal security, quite impressive huh?”
She smirks as she gets two nods as a response.
“They’re mostly for show honestly, but if needed they could defend the town pretty effectively, some of the best-trained ponies get selected for them.”
“But wait, why are they here if they’re highly trained? Shouldn’t they be somewhere else?” Snowy spoke up and asked.
“Because we are an extension of Princess Twilight’s power. We go where she tells us and do what she asks us to do,” A deep voice answered for Violet. Snowy snapped her head forward to see the two Astral Guards at the gate, she hadn’t even realized they were that close.
“What he said. Hey Lance, how you doing?” Violet asked with a smirk. Lance gave a small smirk back.
“Hey, Vi. So, you’re the pony that helped the refugees, figures.”
“Nah, we didn’t do anything but let them in through the fence, they crossed it all on their own. Tough kids here.”
“We’re not kids,” Snowy huffed, earning a chuckle from the three guard ponies. Lance gave them a smile as he responded to Snowy.
“We know kid, we’re also glad you two made it across. If you go inside, Spike, Princess Twilight’s assistant, will be waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Lance. Hey, if I’m still in town later wanna head over to the bar? I heard from Mrs. Cake, Berry Punch got in some Griffon Moonshine,” Violet gave a laugh.
Lance sighed, “I’ll see about getting leave for the week then.”
“I’d get two weeks, just in case you get fully drunk.”
He snorted and waved them off. As they made their way to the castle door, Stargazer couldn’t help but turn to Violet and ask, “Are Griffon drinks really that strong?”
“Oh yea, their moonshine is actually pretty weak in terms of griffon alcohol, their harder stuff could kill a pony. See, griffons have a much higher alcohol tolerance than us ponies, so they need harder stuff to even give themselves a small buzz for longer than a few minutes.”
“Wow, that’s impressive.”
“Tell me about it.”
As they got to the massive castle doors, a silver aura wrapped around them, slowly pulling them open, presumably by guards inside. With the door opening, a pony-sized figure was revealed, though they were certainly not a pony, much to the two refugees. In front of them was a purple and green dragon, scales covering his body, snake-like eyes, and a clipboard in his claws. Neither pony had ever seen a dragon before, though heard they were rather vicious. Seeing one standing in front of them in such a manner threw them for a loop.
The dragon finished writing something down on the clipboard and peered up at them, smiling.
“Ah, welcome to the Castle of Friendship, and more importantly, to Equestria. I’m Spike, Princess Twilight’s number one assistant!” The drake said with a smile. Snowy and Stargazer just looked at him, not exactly sure what to make of this, apparently, nice dragon. Thankfully Violet knew about Spike before hoof, so she gave them each a little bump.
“It’s not polite to stare,” She chuckled as she stepped ahead, “Hello Spike, I’m Lieutenant Violet Scout of the second border guard division.”
“Violet Scout? Weren’t you the first pony to escape the Empire?”
Violet winced ever so slightly, “Yes, but it’s not exactly something I want to be known for.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Spike apologized, rubbing the back of his head. Violet waved her hoof dismissively.
“It's ok, I get it all the time even if I don’t like it, anyway, this is Snowy Heart and Stargazer,” Violet motioned to the two next to her, both of whom smiled slightly at the drake.
“Hi you two, I hope you’ve had a good experience in Equestria so far.”
“Everypony has been so nice so far, it was kind of weird at first,” Snowy spoke up. Stargazer nodded, adding his own thoughts.
“Yea, especially the guards, they’re not as nice back as the ones we’ve encountered here, and not nearly as nice as Violet is.”
“Aren’t you too sweet, buy some kids some lunch and they love you forever,” Violet chuckled.
“You also did help them across the border,” Spike pointed out. Violet just shrugged.
“Eh semantics.”
This got a chuckle out of the others. Spike waved a claw, motioning them to follow him.
“I’ll bring you to the council room, Twilight is a bit busy so she’ll be in in a couple minutes; until then feel free to just sit and relax.”
They walked down the center corridor towards the map room, located at the center of the castle. Snowy and Stargazer looked around at all the doors and the crystal-like construction of the hallway, even the doors looked like opaque glass or crystal. This did bring a question to Snowy, which she was quick to bring up.
“Mr. Spike? Why does the castle look so different from the rest of the town?”
“Hmm? Oh, that’s a long story, to be honest, to try to simplify it though: We had to defeat an escapee from Tartarus who stole everyone’s innate magic and the only way to do that was to open this magic crystal chest that gave Twilight and our friends magic rainbow powers. After defeating him, the chest took the magic it gave my friends back and the chest embedded itself in the ground and grew this castle.”
Spike stopped hearing the hooves of the others behind him. He blinked turning around to find Snowy and Stargazer staring at him like he had two heads, aside from this they didn’t move at all. Violet looked at the two before glancing over to Spike.
“I think you broke them.”
“What, it wasn’t that crazy.”
“They weren’t born yet; they never knew how normal that kind of thing was in Equestria.”
“Oh, point taken.”
Violet rolled her eyes as she poked Snowy’s muzzle, causing the young mare to jerk out of the trance she was in. She then moved over to Stargazer and did the same, thankfully to the same effect.
“Sorry, that just sounded… just wow,” Stargazer commented.
“Yea, I don’t think they ever told us much of pre-Sombra days,” Snowy added.
“There’s probably a reason behind that, a lot of things have been stopped by Twilight and her friends,” Violet sighed, “Can’t let the populace know there’s something that could save them.”
“But they didn’t save us.”
Spike was quick to speak up, “They tried, nopony thought Sombra would come with an army, Twilight and our friends can do a lot, but that was asking for more than they could handle. Twilight commanded the forces to try to take back the Empire, you passed the result of that.”
Snowy sighed, thinking back to the border crossing, the mines, and how hard the guards tried to shoot them down, “Yea, you’re right, I’m sorry.”
“No, you don’t have to be, I don’t know what it was like in the Empire, but you’re right we didn’t save you, even if we tried,” Spike put a claw on her back. Snowy slowly smiled to him.
“Thanks, Spike, I understand you did all you could.”
“If we’re done moping we shouldn’t keep the Princess waiting,” Violet called from up ahead a bit, smirking as she stood next to Stargazer. Spike and Snowy chuckled as they moved to catch up to them.
“Actually, you’re probably going to be waiting for her, very busy like I said.”
They walked into a large round room. At the center of the room was a rounded table with 7 chairs surrounding it, cutie marks were displayed on each of the chairs save one. Above the table was a large chandelier that seemed to be made out of the roots of a tree. The three ponies and dragon approached the table.
“You three can take a seat here, I have to go do some more work for Twilight but she should be here soon,” Spike said motioning to the table.
“Thank you, Spike, hope we get to talk again later,” Violet started.
“Definitely, have a good talk with Twilight,” Spike waved to them as he started to walk out of the room, the three responded in kind as they took their seats.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, not entirely sure when Twilight was going to walk in, so they didn’t think starting a conversation would be ideal. However, as the minutes dragged on and there being nothing else to do aside from looking around the room or talk, Snowy decided to initiate the latter.
She opened her mouth to say something when a pop of magic deposited a purple alicorn in the chair opposite of the three. In her magic were several books, scrolls, and other papers, as well as an ink jar and quill. She didn’t seem to notice them at all, at least until she spoke.
“Please don’t get up, I’m sorry to keep you waiting, as you can see I have a bit on my plate,” She lowered the various items and gave the group a halfhearted smile, “Welcome to Equestria, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Snowy and Stargazer looked at her with wide eyes, sitting before them was a full blown alicorn. Of course, they have heard of alicorns, but to actually see one in pony was something else altogether. Twilight looked at the two before sighing.
“I guess I should be used to ponies being amazed at meeting an alicorn for the first time.”
Snowy blinked, there was something wrong with the Princess but she couldn’t exactly tell what.
“Sorry Princess,” Stargazer spoke up. Twilight gave a weak wave.
“Please, call me Twilight, I don’t like to use titles,” She didn’t really explain aside from that, and she seemed on the verge of resting her head on one of her hooves. She seemed drained almost. Snowy could only guess the last few years haven’t been great to her.
“Now, can you all please tell me the story of how you got here? I’m rather interested.”
Snowy wanted to ask Twilight if she was ok, but wasn’t sure if she should, frankly for all she knew this was how Twilight was all the time, though, for Princess of Friendship, she sure didn’t seem that friendly. She decided to wait for now and instead explained her and Stargazer’s story, with Violet explaining her part in it.
It took a while to explain everything and answer the questions Twilight had, but they did eventually finish. Twilight leaned back slightly in her chair.
“That’s quite a story you two, I’m glad you both managed to make it here, I guess the last question I have for you two is what you plan to do now?”
Snowy and Stargazer blinked, not exactly expecting that question, though in hindsight they probably should have. Violet answered for them, however, or at least for Snowy.
“Snowy said she was interested in joining the guard, though I told her she should think about it for a bit, get settled into Equestria and what not.”
Snowy nodded, not having made a decision on that yet.
“I have to agree, I really appreciate you wanting to join, trust me when I say it’s not as glorious as ponies think,” Twilight added.
“Don’t worry I want to think about it more before I make any sort of decision on that,” Snowy gave a small smile, though glanced over to Stargazer, seeing him smile a bit too.
“Now then, why don’t I show you two where you’ll be sleeping until we can get you a house?” Twilight asked, standing up and starting to walk around the table. She smiled, though still seemed a bit tired. The other three stood up and went to go follow her. As Snowy got up and walked from the table it seemed to have flickered to show a map or some sort of magical hologram, Snowy blinked.
“Lieutenant, you can stay too if you’d like, I can pull some-,“ Snowy didn’t see exactly why Twilight had suddenly gasped but an instant later a strong force threw her against the table. She fell to the floor with a thud and a groan, unsure of what just hit her. She tried to stand back up but something was keeping her down. It was a lavender aura, and it was coming from the horn of the extremely angry alicorn moving over to her.
“Guards!” Twilight screamed, almost snarled. Only moments later two guards burst in, spears at the ready.
“Princess?” One of them asked.
“Hold her down.”
“T-twilight w-what’s going on?” Snowy asked, her ears flat against her head in fear, she thought she was brave for crossing the border, but if it wasn’t for Twilight’s magic, she’d be curled up into a ball.
“Shut up changeling!” Twilight spat out, causing Snowy to do just that. Violet moved over to them, somewhat carefully, hesitant on who’s side she should be on here.
“Princess, are you sure? She came from the Empire and she doesn’t seem like a changeling.”
“She is a changeling Lieutenant. I know it.”
“How do you know?” Stargazer asked, reading to leap in to save Snowy if he had to, though his shaking body showed he was pretty much in the same boat as Snowy.
“No pony could possibly have that cutie mark, now hold her down!”
The two guards quickly followed their orders and held down Snowy in their magic as Twilight let her aura dissipate from around the scared mare. Twilight quickly switched spells to the one they developed after the Canterlot Invasion. It would dispel changeling magic and revert said ling to its natural form. It was non-painful to the target, though Twilight somewhat wished it did this time. She shot the beam at the tip of Snowy’s horn. It widened to form a scanning bar that slowly made its way down Snowy’s entire body.
“T-that can’t be right…” Twilight exclaimed with wide eyes. She shut them once more and began the scan again. Her eyes widened even more as she received the same result.
“W-how? They physically can’t do anything to fool the spell!”
“I’m not a changeling!” Snowy exclaimed, not daring to try to squirm free for fear of the guards holding her down doing something to her.
“Princess, why do you think she’s a changeling, even your tests are showing that she’s not,” Violet stepped towards her.
Twilight stepped back from Snowy, looking to Violet, “Because the only pony able to have that kind of a cutie mark, that specific cutie mark is…” The color started to drain from her face, the outcome she both hoped for and dreaded finally becoming a reality. She looked back to Snowy, tears threatening to spill any second as she finished her sentence.
“Flurry Heart.”
Everypony was silent, not sure what to make of this new accusation. Twilight was the only pony who wasn’t stuck in this state. She was trying and failing to contain her tears as she dropped to a sitting position. Snowy, or was it Flurry, watched Twilight, mouth agape, not sure what to make of this information. She knew who she was… she thought. She is Snowy Heart, she is eighteen years old and she traveled here from the orphanage she stayed at in the Crystal Empire. How could she be the princess and heir to the Crystal Throne? That was ridiculous… but at the same time… made sense in a way, she wandered into the village half frozen, yet survived, even doctor said that was a miracle, she had no idea where she came from before that. Then there were the visions, were they really visions, or were they memories? How would she even know though?
Violet cut her thoughts off there though, “Wait, you’re telling me that Snowy is Princess Flurry Heart, the sole surviving heir to the Crystal Throne? How? She’s dead, this has to be just a coincidence.”
“No… cutie marks don’t work that way, and the cutie mark for royals of the Crystal Empire work even more different than that,” Twilight started through tears, “Crystal Empire Royals all share similar cutie marks, tying them to the Crystal Heart. Aside from that even, cutie marks are unique to a pony, the cutie mark doesn’t suddenly become available for use when a pony dies. T-this is Princess Flurry Heart.”
With that, Twilight moved to hug the still confused pony, only for said pony to back off. Twilight stood back, a bit hurt by the action though somewhat thinking it might happen.
“T-twilight, look I think you might be right, some things in my head add up to the same thing… but I don’t know, I can’t remember anything from before I started living at the orphanage, I really don’t remember you, if I even am Flurry Heart. I mean I don’t even have wings. I guess what I’m saying is… I’m really confused.”
“Amnesia… that would make sense I guess,” Twilight’s ears flattened, she knew of a way to retrieve her memories. It just wasn’t exactly the most legal way. It would certainly make Celestia frown. But at the same time, this was Flurry Heart, one of the only family she had left aside from her mother. She has to bring her back. But if she does then Flurry will remember what happened. No… she has to let Flurry choose if she wants it, its only right and fair.
“Flurry… I have a way to get your memories back, it’s not going to be easy for either of us, but I know we can get through it if you want that is.”
Flurry, or is it Snowy, this is really confusing, looked like she was ready to say yes, nearly jumping at the chance to get back the memories of her life before wandering into the town. Instead, though, she glanced over to Stargazer. He looked both scared and confused at just what was going on. She couldn’t blame him, she was too. But she knew she couldn’t just make decisions like that, she wanted to talk to him first, plus she wanted to think about all of this herself, it was so much. She looked back to Twilight.
“I-if it’s ok Twilight, I’d like some time to make that decision, I want to say yes so badly, but it's going to change my life so much, I’m sure, and I want to get my friends opinions on it.”
Twilight smiled widely, the most genuine smile Snowy had seen on her face all day.
“Of course Flurry, I probably couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ll have my guards show you to your rooms, I’m sure you're tired.”
Snowy nodded and got up, she looked over to Stargazer and Violet, though to her confusion, the later was already walking out, not even waiting, Snowy was sure something was wrong. Stargazer and she were about to walk out of the room with Twilight’s guards when they heard Twilight’s voice once more.
“Flurry, I know you might not want to, but will you allow me to tell Princess Celestia and Luna? You’re family to all of us.”
Snowy took a moment to think about it. If she didn’t it would save her some trouble, but Twilight was right, if she was indeed Flurry Heart, not telling the other princesses would be rather mean and cruel. Even if it turned out she wasn’t Flurry, though she had little reason to doubt she was at the moment, it wouldn’t really hurt having them here.
“Alright Twilight, though can you tell them tomorrow? It gives me time to think.”
“Of course Flurry, good night… I’m happy to have you back.”