Flurry Heart was waiting in the airstation while the others prepared to go look for Sunny. As she wasn’t from this time period and most of her belongings were either frozen beyond repair or still in the Crystal Empire, it had taken her a dishearteningly short amount of time to pack. She sighed and surveyed the station around her for what felt like the last time.
Everything was feeling final these days. As if a big battle was coming, but she didn’t know when, she didn’t know where, she didn’t know with who. All she did know was that it would be awful and destructive.
Out of the corner of her eye, Flurry spotted the box full of Friendship Journals pushed against the bookshelf. Likely that these were printed but never got sold. She used her magic to levitate one over to her, feeling that she would need a reminder of what was in it in the days to come. And while it was nowhere near as valuable as her aunt’s original journal - Sunny had that one, so Celestia only knows where it would be now - the lessons were all still there. She slipped the purple book into her bag just as the elevator creaked and lowered Sprout into the room.
“Where’s everypony else?” he asked as he stepped off the lift.
“How should I know?” Flurry responded, rolling her eyes and smirking playfully. “You guys are slooow…”
“Oh, I’m sorry, have you been specially trained for preparing for a life changing quest to save your friends from the forces of evil?” he retorted.
Flurry grinned. “Maybe.”
“That, I don’t doubt,” came Zipp’s voice as she lowered herself into the room, followed by Pipp, who was double-checking to make sure that her phone was tucked under her wing. Flurry noticed that, while she was in Zephyr Heights, Pipp would frequently let her phone out of sight, but as soon as she stepped outside the city limits, she kept checking to make sure she had it on her. Flurry didn’t blame her - losing her phone while they were walking to the Crystal Empire had clearly taken a toll on the young pegasus.
Zipp pushed the lever on the lift, and it began to rise again. She trotted over to Flurry and Sprout with Pipp behind her. “So, where’s our first stop?”
Before she could answer, the lift once again began to creak, revealing Izzy and Hitch. The unicorn and earth pony leaped out of the basket as it reached the ground and trotted over to join the group by the large window.
“I was thinking Maretime Bay?” Flurry suggested. “Sunny’s lighthouse. There might be some clues as to where she went and who took her. Besides, there’s the disappearance of the Elements of Harmony to think about. Whoever’s behind that, they clearly know what they do.”
“But Sunny wasn’t taken at her lighthouse,” Pipp argued, “she was taken at the Tree of Harmony. And these villains clearly wanted to make sure that she knew where to find them - they likely won’t be as careless to reveal themselves again unless it’s part of an elaborate plan.” She noticed Zipp looking at her with a proud and surprised expression and fluffed her wings, holding her head a little higher. “Is there an entrance to the Hall of Princesses from the Tree?”
Flurry thought about it. “I believe there’s an entrance in the Castle of the Two Sisters… and the Tree is right on top of the ruins.”
“Maybe we should go there,” Izzy chimed in, “and look for any clues about where they might have taken Sunny. Then we’ll go to Maretime Bay and search Sunny’s lighthouse.” She raised her hoof to show that she agreed with the plan, and everypony else did the same. Flurry turned and marched towards the airstation’s door.
“Aren’t we going to the Hall of Princesses?” Zipp asked, gesturing to the bookshelf.
“If we were,” Flurry said, pausing and turning to face them, “we don’t know where we would end up. It’s a bit of walking, but then we can search for the entrance after we look at the Tree.” She used her magic to pull open the doors and trotted outside. The other ponies shrugged and followed.
Once out on the streets, Pipp took over and led them through the maze of backroads until they arrived at the entrance to the secret exit out of the city.
“Why are we avoiding the guards?” Izzy asked as they ducked behind a dumpster to avoid a patrol. “We haven’t done anything terrible yet… have we?”
“We openly pledged our allegiance to Sunny,” Zipp hissed in an undertone. “That’s enough to charge us with treason right there. And now we’re trying to sneak out of the city - any guard would think that we’re up to no good, princess or not. I mean, when have we ever snuck out of the city when things are alright?”
“That is a fair point,” Izzy admitted.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Hitch led the way down the narrow tunnel, sometimes walking so fast that he disappeared from view and would come back annoyed at how slow they were walking.
“Can you guys hurry up?” he once said, prancing his hooves anxiously. Flurry knew that, if he didn’t have to wait for the others, the sheriff would run all the way to the Tree of Harmony himself. “Sunny needs us!”
“She only left yesterday,” Pipp grumbled at the back of the line.
“She didn’t leave,” Hitch corrected, “she was stolen. And if you want to get her back, then hurry up!” The stallion bounded away into the dark tunnel while everypony else groaned.
“It’ll be fine,” Izzy told them encouragingly. “Hitch just wants to find Sunny. We all do.” The unicorn thought for a moment. “You know, when Sunny and I were heading to Zephyr Heights, we sang a song to help the time pass.”
“Yes!” Pipp exclaimed at the same time Zipp yelled, “No!”
“Try something new, take a chance, just believe it!” Pipp started singing, and Zipp groaned, flapping her wings to hover just off the ground so she could clap her hooves over her ears.
Izzy grinned and sang along. “Let out your light, shining bright, can’t you feel it!”
“Oh stars, please no,” Zipp whispered in a quiet prayer, now clasping her hooves in front of her. Flurry laughed and joined in, and the princess quickened her step until she was right behind Hitch. Flurry, Pipp, and Izzy purposefully increased their volume so that the ponies back in Zephyr Heights could probably hear them. They sounded terrible, but they didn’t care. Flurry felt like this was the most fun she’d had since they pulled the pizza prank on that guard.
Zipp let out a sigh of relief when she saw the crystal door in the side of the tunnel wall, indicating that they were at the end of the road. Hitch stopped suddenly, causing Zipp to bump into him.
“What?” she hissed. He gave a sharp jerk of his head at the opening to the tunnel where sunlight was pouring in, and Zipp turned around to see her friends rounding the corner, still singing their hearts out. Zipp snapped at them to be quiet, and once they saw the look on her face, Pipp, Izzy, and Flurry shut their mouths simultaneously.
“What’s going on?” Sprout whispered to Hitch, crouching beside the sheriff - the tunnel widened out here.
“Don’t know,” he muttered under his breath. “Stay here.”
The stallion crept forward until he was right beneath the hole. He cautiously poked his head out and looked around. All of a sudden, he jerked his head back inside and backed away from the opening.
“Guards.”
“What?” Pipp shrieked, and Zipp shoved her hoof in her sister’s mouth to keep her from screaming anything else.
Izzy lit up her horn and opened the door in the wall, gesturing to the others to follow. They hurried up the crystal staircase and shut the door behind them. Even so, it was only when they reached the first room in the heart of the tree that they dared to breathe again.
“Where’s Flurry?” Sprout asked, spinning around in a circle and noticing that the alicorn was not present.
A bright yellow flash lit up the room, and Flurry Heart appeared. Everypony jumped but managed to just barely refrain from screaming.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “I had to cover the door with dirt so nopony would find it, and… woah.”
“Isn’t this place amazing?” Izzy danced around the room with a huge grin on her face. “It’s the Tree of Harmony, and apparently it used to be made entirely out of crystals, but then magic disappeared, and-”
“I can’t believe it’s still here,” Flurry marvled. She noticed her friends looking at her strangely and said, “I only saw it a couple of times - I’m amazed that it’s all still somewhat intact.”
“Uh, guys?” Hitch was peeking out of a window that was hopefully concealed from outside viewers. “We may have bigger problems.” He stepped to the side as Zipp, Pipp, Izzy, Sprout, and Flurry came rushing over to peer outside.
“Oh, no,” Zipp muttered under her breath.
Zephyr Heights guards were swarming around the tree, at least a dozen of them that Flurry could see. She blinked and shook her head. No, it wasn’t just pegasi - there were earth ponies and unicorns as well. She recognized Zoom, Thunder, and… Alphabittle. The large gray unicorn was standing in the midst of it all, looking like he was searching for a friend, not an outlaw.
At least some ponies may still believe us, Flurry thought ruefully.
“How did they get here so fast?” Pipp hissed.
“They probably didn’t have to walk through a cramped tunnel with obnoxious singers,” Zipp grumbled. “The pegasi can fly, and the unicorns can teleport.” She turned to Flurry. “Couldn’t we have just teleported?”
She blushed. “Probably. But then we would have ended up right out there, where they could see us.”
“You don’t think they’re really after us right now, do you?” Izzy sounded worried. She wrung her hooves together. “M-maybe they’re just looking for clues on those three villains.” Even as she said it, the unicorn didn’t look very hopeful.
Sprout narrowed his eyes at Alphabittle. “Nah. They’re looking for Sunny.”
“How do you know?” Hitch demanded.
The former deputy pointed at the large gray unicorn. “Because that is what you looked like for the first few hours after Sunny disappeared.” He studied the sheriff again. “Actually, you still look like that.”
A guard passed right by the window, and everypony ducked.
“So what do we do now?” Izzy asked in a hushed voice once they had passed.
Flurry took another look at the treehouse around them. “We’re not going to find anything out there if they’re looking in the same place as us, and nothing we find won’t have been found by them first.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Zipp mused. “Don’t you have a finding things spell?” The alicorn nodded. “Then use that.”
“I can guarantee that none of the ponies out there are as skilled as you are,” Izzy added helpfully.
Flurry sighed and lit the tip of her horn. She stood up and trotted downstairs to the door and out into the tunnel. She groaned and turned to look at the others, who had followed her. “I knew it,” she said, “everything’s out there-”
She froze as her horn started tugging her in another direction - back towards Zephyr Heights. Curious, Flurry allowed it to lead her to another door hidden in the wall a little ways away from the first. This one was made of wood and iron and looked like it had been there for hundreds of years. The others looked somewhat unimpressed by this, but Flurry noticed something carved into the ancient wood: a sun and a moon.
“Uh, Flurry?” Zipp said cautiously as the alicorn pushed the door open, wincing at the loud creaking sound it made. “Perhaps we should-”
The pegasus cut herself off as Flurry trotted into the door and disappeared from sight, confident as you please. Hitch and Sprout exchanged a look before going after her, followed by Izzy, Pipp, and Zipp. Izzy and Flurry lit their horns, so there was a bit of light, enough to illuminate a stone staircase with no railing going around the edge of the pit in circles, disappearing beyond the horn light.
“What is this place?” Pipp murmured to her sister, but it was Flurry who answered.
“The Castle of the Two Sisters. It used to be where Celestia and Luna lived - they were sisters - when they ruled Equestria before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon and Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon. After that, Celestia moved her castle to Canterlot, and this castle was left to ruin.”
They reached the bottom of the staircase, and Flurry looked around until she found yet another wooden door with a sun and moon carved into it. As she reached for the handle, she froze. The tip of her horn illuminated a small coral pink feather caught in the hinges.
“What’s going on?” Zipp demanded, instinctively stepping towards her sister.
Flurry didn’t answer - at least, not with words. She used her magic to pull the feather free and show it to the others, saying, “We aren’t the first ones down here.”