It was a room like any other - at least, on the outside. On the inside, it was also just like any other room. Except for the light pink alicorn lying on a small bed, which was the only other thing in the room, other than a simple nightstand and a lamp, which was currently dark. There were no windows. Nothing. Twilight felt another wave of anger at Lupines.
Flurry Heart’s colors were slightly paler, dimmer. She looked like all the magic had been sucked out of her… No. No, nonono no. That couldn’t have happened. If it did…
Cadance rushed to the side of the bed, Twilight following a second later. Flurry looked alright, but there was something off. Twilight could tell. She reached out and tentatively shook the young alicorn awake. Flurry raised her head and blinked open her beautiful turquoise eyes. Except that they were no longer turquoise. Twilight sucked in her breath sharply and Cadance whimpered. Flurry’s eyes were gray and empty of all color, and, even worse, glazed over and blank. There was no recognition or any feeling whatsoever. It was like she was already gone…
Twilight shoved those thoughts away. No. She refused to believe it.
“Flurry Heart,” she whispered, “remember me?”
Flurry blinked once and smiled placidly.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, “but I don’t really know who you are.” Her voice was flat and emotionless. Cadance burst into tears, collapsing into Twilight. Twilight’s own sight was getting blurry with tears as she stared at the pony who had once been Flurry Heart.
Flurry sat up on her bed. Twilight noticed that one of her ankles had an iron band around it. It was pulsing with a gentle light.
“Cadance,” Twilight mumbled. Her voice was barely audible. “Look. If we can get that cuff off of her… I think she’ll be back.” Cadance stopped crying, but she still looked miserable. A new determination filled her eyes and she sat up straight.
“Okay,” she muttered. She lit up her horn and shot a blast straight towards the cuff. Flurry’s gray eyes widened and snatched her leg out of the way just before it was hit.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she practically yelled. “I have to wear that! It’s a matter of life or death!”
Cadance and Twilight glanced at each other, uncertainty in their eyes. Twilight wondered, deep down, if that was true. If Flurry was just a corpse, kept alive by magic to be a bargaining chip. She shoved those feelings away into her secret vault of shoved-away feelings. She would need to get a new one soon. She nodded to Cadance: Do it.
Twilight suddenly leaped at Flurry Heart and tackled her to the ground. The lamp fell to the floor and shattered. Flurry struggled and wriggled as Twilight held her leg down.
“Let me go!” she cried. “Don’t do it! I have to! Let me go!” Flurry flapped her wings frantically, and Twilight held them down as gently as she could. Cadance lit up her horn again and blasted the cuff as hard as she could. It absorbed all the magic and stopped glowing. A heartbeat later, it opened up and clattered to the floor. Flurry immediately went limp. Twilight and Cadance stared at the broken cuff on the floor.
“Wow,” Twilight said, “that was easy.”
“You’ll jinx us,” Cadance scolded. Twilight smirked at her, but stopped when she saw Flurry.
“Oh, no…” Twilight hurriedly stepped off of her and stood back for Cadance, who practically ran at her daughter. She picked up one of her hooves and let it go, but it dropped like a stone. Tears welled up in Cadance’s eyes and started to spill. They splashed on Flurry’s dead body. Cadance bowed her head and her horn touched the tip of Flurry’s. For a moment, there was silence other than Cadance’s weeping. Then Flurry’s horn lit up, as well as Cadance’s. Twilight noticed that Flurry’s magical aura around her horn was gray, although it was previously yellow. Where the two horns met, a small ball of white light formed. Where Flurry’s horn met the white orb, the aura turned back to yellow. Slowly but surely, the color came back to Flurry’s horn, and when it met Flurry’s forehead, the color came back to that area, too. It spread to the rest of Flurry’s body, and when every bit of Flurry’s body had been restored, she gasped and opened her eyes. Once again, Flurry’s eyes were a clear turquoise color that resembled the Crystal Heart. They landed on Cadance and widened in surprise.
“Mom?” Flurry coughed out.
Tears welled up in Cadance’s eyes again, but this time they were tears of joy.
“Flurry!” Cadance grabbed her daughter and pulled her into the biggest hug in the history of the world. Flurry hugged her mother back. Then she spotted Twilight, and her face lit up the whole room.
“Aunt Twilight!” Flurry launched herself at Twilight and embraced her. Twilight wrapped her hooves around her niece for a moment.
“All right, all right. Let’s get moving,” she said reluctantly, gently pushing Flurry away. “We have to meet up with my friends; they’re getting everypony else.”
“We’re going home?” Flurry leaped into the air and did loop-de-loops. “EEEEYYYYEEEESSSS!!!!”
Normally, Cadance would have reprimanded Flurry for this very un-princess-like behavior. But she was so overjoyed at having Flurry back, she wouldn’t have even gotten mad if Flurry decided to eat all the cookies in the world. Twilight smiled and led the way out the door.
“This way, guys.”
The three alicorns ran down the halls and emerged on a balcony overlooking the palace gardens. They spread their wings and launched into the crisp night air. Flurry never stopped chatting about everything she could tell them. Twilight and Cadance gasped and furrowed their brows in anger at all the right places. It felt so good to have Flurry back, Twilight felt like her heart would swell right out of her chest.
Twilight’s hideout came into view. She and Cadance touched down gently in front of the cave and folded their wings. Flurry, however, kept flapping and zooming in small circles around their heads.
“I haven’t been able to fly like this in months!” she exclaimed as she performed a double back-flip. “I’ve been kept up in that horrid cell. It was awful!”
“I’m sure,” Twilight said absently. She was glancing at the cave. She swore she saw shadows or figures moving in there… Maybe her friends had come back early. But there weren’t nearly enough. Cadance was oblivious to this. She was watching Flurry with delight written all over her face. For the first time since the first ponies went missing, she looked like herself again.
“Come on, Flurry,” Cadance said, a smile in her voice. “You must be exhausted. Take a quick rest while we wait for the others to come back.” She turned and started walking into the cave. The moment she disappeared into the shadows, there was a scuffling sound, and a muffled scream. Twilight backed up nervously, and fear entered Flurry’s eyes.
“Aunt Twilight?” she asked nervously. “What’s going on?”
From the shadows emerged a half-dozen Anoian guards. Two of them were dragging Cadance outside. Her muzzle and hooves and wings were bound, and a cuff was clamped around her hind leg, preventing her from using magic. She let out a muffled cry. The other four surrounded Twilight.
“Flurry,” Twilight muttered, just loud enough for the young alicorn to hear, “get out of here. Find my friends.”
“Aunt Twilight?” Flurry’s voice was filled with fear and uncertainty.
“GO!” Twilight yelled, leaping into action. She blasted a guard with her magic, knocking him back. Spreading her wings, Twilight flapped hard, trying to gain ground. The other three guards spread their wings and chased after her. Flurry was winging away in the direction of the guardhouse. She hoped Flurry was going to find Red. Twilight had told Flurry about her. In a moment of hesitation, one of the guards knocked into Twilight’s wing, dislocating it. Twilight cried out in pain as she plummeted to the ground. She landed in a heap.
The guards tied her up in the same way they did Cadance and dragged the two of them to the prison house.
“Where’s Flurry?” Cadance muttered. Or, at least, that’s what it sounded like to Twilight.
“Safe,” Twilight tried to say. Cadance must have gotten the message, because her shoulders sank in relief.
Twilight glanced around uneasily. Something about how the guards had known about their secret location made her wonder if there was something else going on here… Somepony must have told them. Twilight’s eyes widened in the sudden realization.
A spy… no, not just a spy. A betrayal.