Flurry Heart's Story: Elements Assemble!

by AleximusPrime


Chapter 5

The train continued to move south, where Ponyville resided not too far from Canterlot. Flurry had been re-reading the first chapter of the journal where Twilight logged how she met her friends and then encountered Nightmare Moon and defeated her with their help. She felt the need to go over this chapter again since she too was heading for Ponyville for a similar reason. She found it interesting how Twilight originally did not want to go to Ponyville to make friends; she was just focused on figuring out how to stop Nightmare Moon’s return. Things were very different this time. Flurry actually did want to make friends, but there was no sign of a villain causing trouble, and she hoped nothing of the sort would occur. What was most important was that she would have the opportunity to relax and do something worthwhile besides all her boring princess duties back at home.
She took a quick break from reading to look out the window. To her excitement, she saw the Canterlot Mountain with the capital city on the edge of it. The train was already nearing its destination. She put her book back into one of her suitcases and watched out the window to see if she could locate Ponyville. The view of Canterlot disappeared behind some trees, but she knew Ponyville would appear eventually. A few minutes later, she started seeing pastures and cottages. A little further on, they were finally in Ponyville. The train began to slow down until it came to a halt in front of the station. The horn sounded and the train hissed and let off some steam. Some of the other ponies on board finally began to file out and Flurry’s guards got down from their seats.
“We’re finally here, Princess. Are you ready?” one of them asked her.
“More than ever!” she said, picking up her bags as the guards carried her suitcases for her.
They trotted out of the train and onto the platform of the station. The guards led her to the exit and they walked out onto the dirt path leading into the town. Flurry had a big smile on her face and was looking around at the town, trying to find sights she hadn’t seen before. The last time she was here was for the holidays a few months ago. Ponyville looked very different in the summer. A few ponies stopped what they were doing and looked out to see Flurry walking with her guards. Some of them started whispering to each other.
“Is that Princess Flurry Heart? I wonder what she’s doing here?”” said one.
“Spike told me she’s going to be spending a little time over at the crystal castle. I can’t remember why though.” said another.
Flurry smiled and waved to other ponies that noticed her to let them know she was happy to be visiting. She would still be treated like royalty here, but at least none of them would be as high-nosed and annoying as the ones back at home.
A little further on, they came to the path leading them to Twilight Sparkle’s crystal castle. Some of the staff members of the School of Friendship lived here. To the right was the school. There was nothing going on there at the moment since vacation had just started, but she noticed a pony mowing the lawn and another one helping to move some crates around. No doubt they were cleaning up after the school year had ended and preparing for any summer activities that would take place there.
In no time at all, Flurry and the guards were in front of the castle doors. Suddenly, the doors already started opening and out came Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst talking to each other. Starlight Glimmer was a bright lavender pony with purple hair with aqua highlights. She had her hair in a bun and wore glasses and was carrying some saddlebags with tons of books in them. Next to her was her old friend, Sunburst. He was also a unicorn who had a bright orange coat and burnt orange hair. He had white fur at the end of his legs and on his nose bridge. He wore large round spectacles and a forest green cloak with a brooch that resembled his cutie mark, but lately he had also taken to wearing a wizard’s hat. He had his beard grown longer and a mustache above it, sporting a look very similar to that of Starswirl.
“Well I’m just glad the school year’s over. Boy am I down for some R and R!” said Starlight to Sunburst.
“Starlight, look! Flurry’s here!” Sunburst said, tapping his friend on the shoulder.
“FLURRY HEART!” Starlight called.
“STARLIGHT! SUNBURST!” Flurry said as she dropped her bags and rushed forward to hug them.
Flurry didn’t remember it since she was a baby, but Sunburst used to be her “royal crystaller”. After she was too old for this, he moved to Ponyville and became Starlight’s vice principal while she was put in charge of the school after Twilight became the new leader of Equestria. She still got to see both of them every time she would visit Ponyville for special get-togethers or they would come to visit the Crystal Empire. She knew them as well as she knew all of Twilight’s friends.
“How’s our little crystal princess?” Sunburst said.
“I’m so happy to see you guys!” Flurry responded.
“Well we’re happy to see you! How long are your parents going to let you be staying?” asked Starlight.
“I don’t know, but I’m just so happy to be away from the Empire and having some time in Ponyville and not just cuz it’s a holiday or somepony’s birthday!!” Flurry said, excitedly.
“Well Starlight and I were just about to go head out to talk with the mayor about some important matters with the school. Spike is inside still cleaning the place up. He’ll be surprised to see you!” said Sunburst.
“Awesome! Well hey, will I see you guys later?”
“Definitely! We’ll be coming back to the castle after we’re done with the mayor and we’ll cook a special meal for you!” Starlight said.
“Also, Spike said he’s going to take you into town after you’ve finished unpacking and wants you to meet the former students who took out the Trio a while ago.” Sunburst told Flurry as he and Starlight began walking back into town.
“Oh, you mean the ones who are teachers now?”
“Yup. Sandbar and the others. They heard you were coming and wanted to stay in touch.”
“Okay! See you guys later! Thanks again for letting me stay here!” Flurry called to them as they waved. She then turned back to the guards who started walking in the front double doors. “Alright, sirs. Once I find Spike, you guys can head back to the train.”
The guards opened the doors and they all walked in to see the inside of Twilight’s crystal palace. Flurry had been here many times before, but this time seemed very special somehow now that she knew she’d be staying longer. Just over to the right she could see Spike making his way towards them. He had been dusting a nearby bust statue and dropped everything he was doing to come meet her. Spike was a chubby, purple dragon with a bright green underbelly and darker green spikes going down his head, back and tail. Flurry remembered him back when he was still a tad bit smaller but was beginning his adolescent phase. He had gotten his wings not long after she was born and was an accomplished flier now. Spike was a lot smaller back then and stood even shorter than most fillies, but he had grown as tall as her father. Despite his round appearance, he had grown very strong and could lift objects heavier than him, which helped out a lot with doing house chores. He had always been a regular go-getter for Twilight and never said no to a request for her. He was the most loyal and friendly dragon Flurry had ever met, and she would often refer to him as her “uncle” since he and Twilight had somewhat of a brother and sister relationship all these years.

“UNCLE SPIKE!” Flurry said, lunging into his belly and rapping her hooves around him.
“There’s my favorite little princess!” Spike said, hugging her back and giving her a noogie on her head.
“I’m suuuuper excited about this stay, Spike! You have no idea how boring it’s been in the Crystal Empire.” Flurry said as she flew around him, flapping her wings.
“Hey, don’t sweat it, kid! Twilight told me about the ball last night. Sorry you had to go through that, but we are gonna do some awesome stuff while you’re here!”
“EEE! I know!” Flurry squealed.
“Alright Spike. We’re going to leave her in your care now. Watch after her.” one of the guards said as they both bowed to him.
“You can count on me, fellas! I’ll protect her like she was my own little hatchling.” Spike replied, patting Flurry on the head.
The guards walked out the door and Spike went over to close it. He then turned to Flurry, who could not stop smiling.
“Well, now that you’re here, I’ll show you to your room and we’ll get your things unpacked. I cleaned it up for you and put in a few little gifts here and there.” Spike said as he picked up Flurry’s suitcases with ease and started walking down the hallway.
“This is going to be the best vacation ever, Spike.” Flurry continued. “Last night was pretty rough, but I’ve practically forgotten about it now that I’m here.”
“Those three kids bothering you again?”
“Yeah, but I also got this scholarship offer to the Crystal Empire Magic Academy, which sounds nice and all, but get this, it was for summer school!”
“WHAT?! No way! Who in their right mind would go to summer school?!”
“Yeah, it was so weird, and the guy offering it to me just wouldn’t take no for an answer so I just kinda told him off.”
“Niiiice!” Spike said, putting his fist up in the air for Flurry to give him a hoof-bump.
“Thanks, but I kinda looked bad in front of the others and Mom and Dad weren’t too thrilled. They figured out that I wasn’t happy though and they let me come here after Starswirl and Aunt Twilight suggested it.”
“Yeah, Twilight’s super stoked that you’re here too. She’s a bit busy right now with some political stuff but she said she’ll be able to visit you tomorrow.”
As they were walking on, Flurry looked to her right to see the large room where the “cutie map” could be found. It looked exactly as she remembered it: a large, round table with seven crystal chairs seated around it. Six of them represented Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, while the seventh one right next to Twilight’s was for Spike which had to be rebuilt to accommodate his much larger size now. Hanging from above were the roots to Golden Oaks Library: the hollow tree that Twilight used to live in before it was destroyed by Lord Tirek and then refashioned into a chandelier. It had tons of little crystal shards hanging from it with photographs inside of some of the most memorable moments Twilight had with her friends. Flurry had seen this before but found this sight to be even more amazing now that she would be spending lots of time in this castle for a short vacation. She was so amused by the chandelier that she almost didn’t notice a small blinking dot on the round table map below. The holographic image of Equestria was barely visible and there appeared to be some bright shiny orb glowing over it somewhere. Flurry walked in a bit closer to see if she could make it out until she heard Spike.
“Uh, hey Flurry, whatcha doin?”
“Oh, sorry Spike, I was just admiring the cutie map, but…should it be doing that right now?” she said pointing to the map, but the glowing orb could no longer be seen.
“Doing what?” Spike asked.
“Oh. That’s strange. I thought I saw something glowing over it, but maybe I’m just seeing things. Does it still do that whenever it calls somepony to go solve a friendship problem?” she asked.
“Sure does. It’s called a few other ponies in Ponyville in the past few years every now and then, but things have been kinda lax lately. Ever since Twilight became princess, there hasn’t been a single major attack from any villains or any huge conflicts out there. I guess Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis’s defeat was a sign to every other evil creature to not mess with us now that Twi’s in charge. Hehe.”
Spike began walking back out the door to continue to the upstairs while Flurry followed him. She looked back one more time at the map to see it was still not glowing anymore. She wondered if it had been trying to tell someone that there was a friendship problem, but she didn’t think much of it and continued on to her room. She would have plenty of time to look into it later.