//------------------------------// // Explained and Unexplained // Story: Legends Never Die: A New Age // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// “I just - I can’t,” Sunny said, clutching her head in her hooves. “So you’ve said,” Flurry replied dryly. “Many times.” She looked at Zipp with a look of exasperation that said, “Is she always like this?” The pegasus’ expression said, “Just you wait.” Flurry’s expression changed to fear and horror, and Zipp laughed. The three ponies were all alone in the airstation, the noon sun shining through the window and creating reflections on the floor. Flurry still felt a wave of sadness whenever she saw her aunt’s cutie mark, and she was glad that not many ponies were around to see her struggling. Pipp and the others had gone to get some lunch, promising to bring some back for them. “Your aunt was Princess Twilight Sparkle?” Sunny stuttered. “That - that means that… Wow. Okay. I was not expecting this. Wait, that means - Well, there’s no easy way to say this, but… you and I are related. Very distantly, of course,” she added hurriedly as Flurry opened her mouth to ask how. “From what I’m told, Twilight Sparkle was my ancestor on my father’s side of the family. Don’t worry, I still don’t completely understand that, either.” Flurry let a small smile slip. “My dad was her brother. My mom was…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it. “Like you?” Zipp asked, nodding to her. “Wings and horn and all that?” “How did you get yours, by the way?” Sunny asked, sitting forward. “I’ve never seen any like yours - then again, I haven’t seen any others than mine. I got mine when three magical crystals reunited and brought back magic after generations of it being missing, but I haven’t read about anything like that happening in the Guardians’ time, so I was just wondering.” “I was born with them,” Flurry said slowly, mentally pondering what Sunny had said. “My mom… she brought love to ponies, and Celestia noticed, and raised her as her own. My aunt finished a magic spell about friendship. They both went to this place where the transformation actually happened… Did you say that you are an alicorn?” The earth pony nodded and stood up, facing the window. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, the reflection of the pink star on her face. Sunny began to glow, and when she turned back to Flurry, a glowing golden horn and matching wings had appeared. “Woah,” she whispered. Sunny laughed. “These are not ‘woah’, trust me. Yours are ‘woah’. These are temporary, and I haven’t even figured them out yet.” “It’s just - I’ve never seen a pony unbecome an alicorn,” Flurry protested. “Well, I suppose there was Cozy Glow, but she only became an alicorn off of stolen magic, so, perhaps not the best example.” “Cozy Glow…” Sunny muttered to herself. Her hoof gravitated to her blue saddlebag, with Flurry’s aunt’s cutie mark drawn in slightly darker blue. “How did you get them?” Flurry asked, curious. “It’s a long story,” Zipp said, looking towards the back of the station. The hot air balloon basket was being lowered to the floor, and when it was, out stepped Pipp, followed by another pegasus that Flurry assumed was her mother, flanked by the two pegasi guards she had seen outside the prison. Flurry’s spine stiffened automatically, but Zipp gently touched her hoof, and she relaxed. She knew that these ponies wouldn’t hurt her, but it was still hard not to harbor a feeling of anger that they had taken over the legacy that her aunt had created, demolishing it and replacing it with lies. I have to trust them, she thought, taking a deep breath. None of this is their fault. Equestria was saved because of them. She stood up and followed Zipp and Sunny to meet the new arrivals. “Hi,” Pipp said breathlessly. “Sprout and Hitch are hopefully getting some lunch, and Izzy left for Bridlewood to talk to her friends. I told her not to tell them too much, we probably don’t want too many ponies to know about a magical city to the north. I mean, some ponies might get the wrong idea and try to corrupt its magic - though I’m sure it can’t be used for that, right?” she finished, looking at Flurry hopefully. The alicorn shrugged. “I mean… it shouldn’t be. The only pony I’ve ever known to do it…” An image flashed in her head of her parents in chains, forced to kneel before a black unicorn by their own mind-controlled citizens- “Flurry?” Zipp’s voice sounded far away. “Are you okay?” “I… I’m fine,” she finally made out. “He’s gone. My aunt and her friends dealt with him.” “Oh, wow,” Sunny whispered, her voice full of awe. “I can only imagine what that must have been like… The Guardians of Harmony bravely marching into battle to liberate Equestria of a cruel oppressor, standing together, defeating every adversory…” She gave a contented sigh, and her eyes glazed over as Zipp and Pipp laughed. Their mother smiled and turned to Flurry. “Your Highness… It will take me forever to get used to saying that to another pony. Pipp told me you were royalty. But I’m sorry about earlier. As you can probably imagine, you appearing here came as a bit of a surprise to us. I apologize for any inconveniences we may have caused you, and I promise that we’ll do everything we can to help you.” Flurry nodded her head in acknowledgement. “I understand. Thank you, Your Majesty. I accept your apology. And I apologize for all the trouble I’ve caused. This has all been a bit of a shock to me, too.” “Wow,” Pipp said, grinning. “You are so good at this whole royalty thing. All cower before me, all ye lesser ponies, for I am far superior to you, your puny lives are nothing to me.” She shuddered. “And whenever I imagine Zipp like that, I know the apocalypse is coming soon.” Zipp shoved her sister, the two of them laughed. “Queen Haven,” Sunny ventured, “would it be too much to ask for some funding for an expedition to the Crystal City - Empire? I know that I would like to see what it’s like, and I think Flurry would like to return home for some answers.” She looked to the alicorn for confirmation, and she nodded. “I think I might be able to convince Phyllis for some, too.” “Of course,” Haven said, looking startled that she even had to ask. “What exactly do you need?” “I-” Sunny turned to Flurry with a question prominent in her eyes. “Nothing too fancy,” she assured the queen. “There might still be some of the old railways through the mountains, and the Crystal Heart keeps the worst of the weather at bay, so something simple will be enough.” A bright purple light lit up one corner of the room, and Izzy bounded up to them, grinning, looking so much like Pinkie Pie that Flurry’s heart ached, but it was also filled with something else. Was it… hope? Hope that her family’s legacy had been passed into capeable hooves? “I told Lemon Pie and Glacier that we think we found the Crystal City,” the unicorn said excitedly, “and they were so excited! Are we going? Please tell me we’re going, or else I will, like teleport there on my own. Is the entire city made of crystals? Is it shiny? Is it cold? It’s still up there, right? Are we going?” “Yes, we’re going,” Sunny laughed. “How about… in two weeks? Would that be good? Enough time to get what we need?” Flurry shrugged. “Every time I needed to get there, I’ve just taken the train.” With a horrendous screeching sound, tall doors over to the side were shoved open, and two earth pony stallions entered, bickering. The red one - Sprout - was holding two long, thin boxes that were wafting some strange yet savory scent that made Flurry’s mouth water. “I’m telling you, it was all wrong!” Sprout spluttered. “Everypony knows that pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza!” “You can literally put anything on pizza,” the yellow one - Hitch - retorted, petting a white ball of fluff with tiny wings that barked happily. “If there can be avocado on toast, there can be pineapple on pizza.” “It’s just weird,” Sprout insisted. “Pineapple and tomato sauce and cheese - not a good combination. We never did that in Maretime Bay.” “This isn’t Maretime Bay,” Hitch replied coolly, focusing instead on holding a treat out to the dog and slowly rotating it in a circle so that the dog followed it. “We should be open to other ponies’ opinion, Sprout.” He tossed the treat to the tiny dog, spotted the group of ponies, and trotted over, Sprout in his wake, still grumbling about the sinfulness of pineapple on pizza. “What is pizza?” Flurry asked, tilting her head at the red earth pony, who now looked horrified and forgot all about pineapple. “You’ve never had pizza?” he asked incredulously. Flurry shook her head, seeing how far she could agonize the stallion. “It must be one of those newfangled inventions,” she said with a yawn. “Something I shouldn’t waste my time on.” She put on her royal I’m-so-much-better-than-you aloof expression. Sprout’s jaw hit the floor. Literally. “I - you - Here.” He shoved one of the boxes at her, and Flurry used her magic to open the box. Inside was a circle of baked dough, topped with cheese with something red peeking through beneath the heavy layer. The circle was cut into eighths, and Flurry lifted up a slice, rolling her eyes and saying, “Peasant food.” But the moment the tip of the slice touched her tongue, her eyes widened, and she gobbled the entire thing in what was such an un-princess-like manner that her mother would probably have her sent to her room. But she didn’t care anymore. “You guys can share that one,” Flurry declared, using her magic to wrap the open pizza box in sunny yellow light and pull it towards her. Haven and the guards excused themselves, hiding smiles as Flurry tried in vain to keep her precious pizza out of the reach of the others. Eventually, laughing and smeared with tomato sauce, the seven ponies debated on what to do with the remaining two slices. Sprout said that at least one of them should go to him, Izzy insisted that they should go to Flurry, who had never had pizza before, and then Pipp got an idea. They snuck up to one of the guards on patrol and set the two leftover slices on a plate, which Flurry carefully placed just below one of the guards’ nose. The pegasus sniffed, looked down, and his eyes widened when he saw the pizza. Looking around to make sure that no one was looking, he reached down to grab it. Flurry took hold of a nearly invisible string with her magic and gently tugged the paper plate just out of his reach. The guard looked surprised before his features changed to determined. He slapped his hoof down on the plate, but, once again, Flurry had tugged it away. Flaring his wings, the pegasus jumped on the pizza, and the plate slid just past his hooves. Zoom strutted down the hallway and snapped at the guard, who pointed at the innocent plate of pizza sitting on the floor with an accusing tone. Zoom studied the plate and spotted the thin string tied to it, and she immediately knew what was up. She bent down and picked up a slice, taking a bite, and shrugging to the other guard, who looked shocked and angry. Zoom barked an  order at him and walked down the hallway, passing by the seven ponies’ hiding place. Flurry wasn’t sure, but she thought the blue pegasus gave them a wink. Smothering giggles, Flurry teleported them back to the airstation, where they all cracked up laughing. “Did you see his face?” Zipp howled, wiping tears from her eyes. Flurry grinned. “Yeah, he was like-” she spread her wings and fixed her expression with one of frustration “-surrender, ye self-moving plate of pizza, or I shall be forced to execute drastic measures on thee!” “Oh, no, please, good sir!” Sprout wailed, throwing his hoof over his head and pretending to faint dramatically. “Please spare the life of a poor slice of pizza!” “Never!” Flurry exclaimed, standing up on her hind legs and raising her wings. “I shall eat thee in one bite!” The six ponies ran around the airstation, shrieking and hollering as Flurry chased them, shouting things like “Come back here, you distasteful scoundrel!” and “Surrender and - I mean, or - be devoured!” It was a long time before they finally got their breath back. “So, Flurry Heart, right?” Hitch asked. All seven ponies were sitting in front of the stained glass window, watching the light dance through the colors and create shapes on the floor. “And… you said you were a princess?” The alicorn nodded, the light dancing across her pale pink coat. “Only by default, though. My mother… she was a princess, so…” She shrugged. “I was supposed to have my coronation and become an official princess with a purpose and a special title and all that, but then… things started going south for everypony.” Beside her, Sunny’s eyes widened and she gasped. “You mean… you were there when magic disappeared? How did it happen?” Flurry shook her head, avoiding everypony’s gazes, though she felt them on her.. “I wasn’t… there, per say. I was… locked away, I guess you could say - frozen in time. My mother cast a spell on our most powerful artifact so that it would protect me - only me - for as long as it still had magic, and that it would release me once things were… better.” She wrapped her wings around herself and glanced at Sunny, seeing the question in her eyes. “I think that the magic housed in artifacts is much stronger than our physical magic,” she explained. “Back when I was little, somepony tried to transfer all the magic in Equestria into another realm, so, bit by bit, magic vanished over the next three days. Artifacts were the last to go. I think it’s because our magic is tied directly to ourselves - and as an extension, how we live with each other. Magic housed in artifacts stands alone, but even it can’t last forever if other magic has disappeared. They just last… longer, and are less powerful than they used to be.” She hunched her shoulders. “I promise I don’t have any more clue than you do. I’m not even sure what’s happened in the past several years.” “Maybe… maybe we could figure it out… together?” Sunny offered. Flurry turned to her and smiled. “I’d like that.”