Far to the North, there is a kingdom made of crystal called the Crystal Empire. This kingdom is surrounded by a frozen wasteland, but it is protected by a magical artifact known as the Crystal Heart. The Heart keeps the Empire warm by protecting it from the cold and snow with a magical force field. It also can blast evil unicorns that want to take over it to bits. But it could also get shattered to pieces by a baby alicorn screaming. During a crucial time. And almost made the entire kingdom freeze over while its subjects just said, “We’ve seen snow before,” and completely ignored it.
But, luckily, you know, everything came together in the end, and the Crystal Heart was restored, and yadda yah, you know, the usual. And that baby alicorn grew up, and so far hasn’t shattered any more precious artifacts with her voice. Yet.
A light breeze ruffled Flurry Heart’s multi-toned curls as she flew home from school, her saddlebag packed with all the homework she had to do over the weekend. It wasn’t that heavy, and would probably only take Flurry Heart an hour if she worked hard. Also in Flurry’s bag was a new book she’d gotten from the library earlier that day, a book she was just itching to read. The brief description on the back had told Flurry that the book was about a young earth pony heroine who was setting out on a quest overseas to prove to the rest of the world that earth ponies were strong and powerful, too, even though they didn’t have any special magic horns or wings. All they had was their strength and connection to the ground, as well as their knowledge and brains. And that was all anypony needed.
Flurry’s large wings caught an updraft, and the young princess soared upwards. The feeling was elating. It filled her up with so much happiness that Flurry closed her eyes and smiled, just her and the air rushing in her face. It would be much easier to just fly through her window and into her room, but her parents had been firm. She always had to come through one of the main doors and stop by the throne room so Cadance and Shining Armor could know that their daughter was home and alright. So, at the peak of her ascent, Flurry tucked her wings into a dive and zoomed down towards one of the four supporting pillars of the Crystal Palace, each of which had a door that led into the castle. Flurry’s wings snapped out at the last second, allowing Flurry to slow down enough to land. She trotted to the northern pillar and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, she turned down the hallway and opened the door to the throne room with her magic.
The throne room was the largest in the palace, and it was spacious and filled with light at any time of day. Tall windows lined the walls, spilling sunlight into the room, and a pink carpet lined with white that was wide enough for seven ponies to walk side by side led from the doorway to the throne itself, which was set on top of a pedestal with two levels. It was made of purple and different shades of blue crystals and was large enough for Shining Armor and Cadance to sit next to each other. On the right side of the lower level was a smaller replica of the throne for Flurry Heart since she became too big to sit with her parents.
Shining Armor currently wasn’t in the throne room. He was most likely out with his guards looking for the missing ponies. Cadance was sitting on the throne, holding a scroll and a quill with her magic, writing her weekly letter to Twilight Sparkle in Canterlot, telling the ruler of Equestria about the progress the Empire had made with the search, which was almost nothing. The princess’s forehead was scrunched up in worry, and dark circles lined her eyes. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since ponies started going missing. Cadance looked open when she heard the door open. A small smile crossed her face when she saw Flurry Heart.
“Good afternoon, Mother,” Flurry Heart said politely.
“Flurry Heart.” The Princess of Love put down her letter and walked down to meet her daughter. She opened one of her multi-toned wings and pulled Flurry in for a hug. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, Mother.” Flurry wriggled out of her mother’s hug and looked up into her mother’s tired purple eyes. They usually were bright and sparkled, but they hadn’t been that way in several months.
The door opened again, and two Crystal guards came in. They nodded to Cadance and left again. Flurry rolled her eyes. When the first ponies went missing, Cadance and Shining Armor had those two guards follow Flurry everywhere. It was a little embarrassing, to be honest. She understood where her parents were coming from. Whoever was kidnapping ponies would most likely want a princess, and Flurry Heart might seem like easy prey. The guards were supposed to be stealthy, so Flurry wouldn’t notice they were there, but if it was stealthy guards her parents wanted, they might want to pick some other guards. Flurry was aware of them from Day 1.
“Did you have any progress finding the missing ponies?” Flurry asked her mother when the guards left. Cadance flinched and turned away from her daughter. She didn’t want Flurry to have to worry about those kinds of things. She was much too young. Yet Flurry wanted to worry about them. Those ponies were her subjects, too. She needed to look after them.
“No, not yet,” Cadance sighed, still avoiding Flurry’s gaze. “Maybe your aunt Twilight will have had some more luck in Canterlot.” Flurry could tell her mother was just saying that to make her feel better, but she heard the layer of hopelessness under her mother’s words. Cadance didn’t think that anypony would have any luck. Whoever stole those ponies knew how to not leave any clues behind. “Why don’t you go work on homework?” Flurry started to protest, but one look from her mother told her she was being dismissed. Flurry turned and left the room. She climbed several flights of stairs and walked down more than a dozen hallways before she got to her room in one of the towers.
Flurry’s room had been kept simple by Flurry Heart. Anything and everything her parents gave to her that screamed, “I’M AN ALICORN PRINCESS!!! I’M SUPER SPECIAL!!!” had been stuffed in the small box underneath Flurry’s bed. She’d put a special charm on it that allowed it to hold absolutely anything, and that it would never run out of space. Other than that, Flurry had a simple bed with a frame of light blue crystal, light pink and white bed covers, and a darker blue crystal nightstand with a matching crystal lamp. A picture of Flurry with her parents and Aunt Twilight and all her friends at Flurry’s last birthday party was next to the lamp. A white desk and stool were under one of the windows on the left of Flurry’s door, and another window was in the same place, just on the right side of the door. Across from Flurry’s desk was a white bookshelf stuffed to overflowing with basically every kind of book imaginable.
The only thing that told anypony who walked in that this was the room of a princess, despite the obvious fact that it was in a palace, was the crown stand right next to the door. A white pillar as tall as one of Flurry’s wings held a velvet cushion with a glittering tiara perched on top. It was a simple silver frame with light pink and blue gems sparkling in the sunlight that streamed in through the windows. A large, clear gem in the shape of an oval was in the center of a silver arch with gems dotting the frame. Two identical arches, only smaller, were on each side of the larger one, their bases overlapping one another. A simple glass case was over the crown, to protect it. Flurry’s parents had told Flurry, very sternly, that she couldn’t get rid of her crown, or else her parents would lock her in her room and take all her books away for a full day, and her library privileges for a month. It was Flurry’s love of books that kept the crown in her room, although she was very tempted about every other day to pull out her box and to shove the crown inside, pillar and all. Today, however, was not one of those days.
When Flurry walked into her room, she glanced at her crown, but she let it sit, as she just ignored it and hung her saddlebag on a hook next to the crown stand. She used her magic to take out her books and quills and scrolls covered with notes and set them down on her desk. She plopped down on her stool, using her magic to open one of her books and unroll a blank scroll. She picked up a quill, dipped it in the ink jar on the corner of her desk, sighed, started writing.
The sun was setting when Flurry finished. The red and gold rays of fading sunlight colored everything they touched a shade of orange. Flurry sighed and rubbed one of her eyes as she used her magic to roll up her scrolls, stack her books, and gather up her quills. It probably wouldn’t have taken Flurry so long on a normal day, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the missing ponies. Who could have taken them? Who would have wanted to take them? What would anypony want to do with a couple of ponies? Flurry used her magic to open her saddlebag, take out her book, and bring it over to her, opening it and flipping to the first page. Flurry tried to concentrate on her book, but her mind kept straying away. Soon she was staring out the window as the sun slipped behind the horizon. A maid came up and announced that it was time for supper, and Flurry went numbly. She was quiet throughout the meal, for which her father was still not present.
“Flurry, dear, are you alright?” Cadance finally asked.
“Yeah, just… just tired.” Flurry didn’t look at her mother. It wasn’t a lie. She was tired, but not in the way she wanted her mother to think.
That night, Flurry tried to sleep and failed. She tossed and turned, and even tried humming, then singing to herself. But nothing worked. Flurry stared out one of her windows at the bright, silver full moon glowing in the sky amidst the small pinpricks of the stars. A cool night breeze blew in and calmed Flurry down immediately. Flurry slowly got out of bed and walked over to the window. It was the window on the right side of her door, so she didn’t have her desk in the way. Flurry tentatively hopped up on the window ledge and slowly tipped out of the window.
The rush of adrenaline filled her veins, as it did every time she went flying. The cold night air rushed past Flurry as she plummeted downwards. It was so peaceful she smiled. A moment before she would have flattened against the ground, Flurry’s pale pink wings snapped out, catching a breeze and lifting Flurry upwards, soaring above the roofs of her kingdom. Flurry’s wings pumped, pushing her forwards, towards the mountains. Flurry loved flying over the mountains. They were so wild and free, so beautiful all at the same time. Flurry flew low, skimming over the surfaces of cold lakes, her hooves brushing against the thin layer of snow that was on the mountains year-round. Flurry dodged around boulders and skinny evergreens, the grin on her face growing with every second she was in the air. Once, she even whooped, the sound echoing throughout the rocky mountains.
Flurry passed over a frozen waterfall, the stream completely iced over. Snow banked up on the shores. And… wait, what was that? Flurry stopped, flapping her wings to keep her hovering. Her bright turquoise eyes scanned the ground. She could have sworn she saw somepony dash into the little grove of trees over there… Flurry shook herself. It was nothing, she told herself as she slowly flew away. It was probably a squirrel. Or a rabbit. Nothing to worry about. But she couldn’t quite convince herself that.
Flurry suddenly shot upwards like a rocket, climbing up above the clouds. She felt like she could fly to the moon. She curved backward and plummeted back to the ground. The grove of trees grew closer and closer until Flurry flapped her wings, skimming over them, heading back towards the palace. The thrill ride seemed to make her more tired.
A rope suddenly closed around her middle, and she was yanked out of the air.