//------------------------------// // Lurking in the Shadows // Story: Legends Never Die: The Search For Sunny // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// She finally came to, blinking as she sat up. She was in Sunny’s lighthouse again… that was strange. Hadn’t she been in the Castle of the Two Sisters before? She was in the room that Sunny had given her to stay in back before… before all of this… “Urgh…” “You’re fine,” came Izzy’s voice. “I’m not sure what happened, but you’re fine now.” The unicorn came into view - she looked exhausted but cheerful. And was that worry? “What do you mean?” Flurry slurred, thumping back in bed, suddenly very tired. “What happened?” Izzy bit her lip. “I only know what Zipp and Pipp told me… You went to go see what was going on in the Castle of the Two Sisters - there was a strange noise, and you went to investigate. The villains weren’t there, but there was a giant black crystal, and when you saw it, you freaked out and sort of… fainted.” As the unicorn described it, a horrible sound echoed in Flurry’s ears: a cold, thunderous laugh that glorified in her misery- “Flurry? You okay?” Izzy was holding her hoof, levitating something over to her. “You should eat,” the unicorn said, pressing a plate of pizza into her hooves. “You’ve been out for two days.” “Two days?” “Well, more like a day and a half,” Izzy amended. “Relax, nothing terrible’s happened. I think you were just stressed. You’ve been under a lot of pressure lately - there’s nothing wrong with a little R&R.” “I missed out on two days?” “Like I said, it was just a day and a half.” Izzy nudged the pizza closer. “Come on, Flurry. You’re going to be fine. You have to be fine.” “I… you’re right, Izzy. I’m just…” Flurry sighed. “This whole situation… I always feel like I’m alone. Like there’s nopony I can call on for help… nopony left at all. Everything I knew is gone, and I-I’m never going to really recover from that. And then Sunny disappeared, and Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow are free, and now Sombra-” That name. That name. That name made her heart skip several beats, made her blood freeze, made her feel lightheaded like she was going to pass out again. She could feel herself swaying, threatening to tip- “I gotcha,” she heard Izzy say comfortingly. “It’s okay, Flurry, everything’s going to be fine.” “No,” she whispered. “No, nothing is fine.” She took a deep breath and thought of her mother - that usually calmed her down. But now it didn’t - it just made her more panicked. She thought of her aunt, her aunt’s friends, literally anypony… Her thoughts landed on Sprout. Zipp. Pipp. Izzy. Hitch. Sunny. Her friends. She could feel her pulse calming down, the feeling returning to her hooves. Her breathing returned to normal, and she took a deep breath. These ponies were her friends. “I’m alright now,” she told the unicorn, sitting up and using her magic to pick up the slice of pizza and bring it to her mouth. “Just a little… shaken up.” “You still haven’t told us why,” Izzy said. “A-and it’s perfectly okay if you’re not ready for that,” she amended hurriedly as Flurry winced. “Just know that… when you are… we’re here for you, Flurry. We’ll always be here for you.” “I know that,” she whispered. “And thank you. You’ll have to forgive me, I’m a little…” She shrugged, at a loss for words. “You know.” Izzy laughed. “Yup. Anyways, we were thinking we should plan where we should go next, but we didn’t want to make any decisions without you. Do you think you’re up for it now, or do you want to wait-” “Now,” Flurry said, standing up and shaking the nausea from her head. “We’ve delayed long enough - I don’t want to waste any more time. Besides, I - I think I know what to do about Sunny.” She started towards the door, her steps wobbly and small. Izzy stood next to her so Flurry could put her weight on her, and the two staggered out and up to the top of the lighthouse where the others were waiting. Zipp lay out a map on the platform underneath the giant lightbulb, where it wasn’t messing with the lamp or Sunny’s toy figures. Everypony gathered around her, and she and Pipp held it down with their hooves. “I think we should explore the Castle of the Two Sisters more,” Hitch began, pointing his hoof at where the ruins were on the map. “These villains clearly knew we would look there. They may have put the trap there to make us assume that the real Sunny wasn’t there - and we haven’t even seen it all. There might be worse things hiding there.” It sounded logical to Flurry… except for the giant crystal now in the throne room. “Um, maybe not do that.” “She’s not going to be in Maretime Bay,” Sprout reasoned. “There wouldn’t be anywhere for her to hide, unless there’s a system of secret tunnels underneath the city, and if there was, I feel like we would have found them by now.” “There might be in Bridlewood,” Izzy offered. “Or in what’s left of Ponyville - these guys are clearly going to be disoriented. They might stick to the places that they know.” “And there could always be something left from Ancient Equestrian times in Zephyr Heights, but as we are considered traitors now, I think we should stay away from the cities,” Zipp pointed out. “Even Ponyville. They might turn us over if it meant them getting what they want.” “Midge would never-” Pipp began to protest. “I’m not talking about Midge,” Zipp interrupted. “I’m talking about much more desperate creatures than him.” Pipp nodded as she realized who her sister was talking about. “Speaking of places they know,” Flurry said, suddenly getting an idea, “what about their old headquarters? From my time. Back when they first tried to work together to take over Equestria - they couldn’t have met in any of these places. It would have been too obvious, and Chrysalis is the only one who could effectively disguise herself. Like Izzy said, everywhere they once knew is either changed or in ruins now. They won’t want to find any random place - only somewhere they know they’ll be safe.” She studied the map over Zipp’s shoulder. “Evil villain headquarters,” Hitch muttered to himself. He turned to Sprout, as the stallion was muttering to himself. “Um, where would you put it, Sprout?” He frowned. “Maybe… someplace nopony would go. In both our time and theirs. Where’s a map of Ancient Equestria? Didn’t Sunny have one?” Zipp leaned back and groaned. “Yes, and she left all her father’s research in Zephyr Heights… and none of us can go there.” In response, Flurry lit up her horn and vanished in a flash of bright yellow light, reappearing a second later, using her magic to hold up a worn and faded map. “You mean this map?” she asked with a smile, enjoying the others’ astonished faces. Sprout was the first to recover. “Yes… can you put them side by side?” He and Hitch held the new one down with their hooves, next to the first. There was silence for a while as the former deputy thought until, finally, he reached over Pipp’s hoof and pointed at the modern map: “There.” Flurry leaned over to see what area he was indicating. It was a chunk of land down the river from the Everfree Forest - or what was left of it, directly south of Maretime Bay. It was one of few areas that was virtually unchanged, looking like a bland, nearly dead forest with swamps puncturing the miserable-looking place. She did have to admit that it looked very… villainy. Nopony would ever think to look there - it was so undesirable. “Then that’s where we’ll go next,” Zipp said in a decisive voice, rolling up both the old and new maps, giving them to Pipp. “We just need an hour at least to gather supplies, and then-” “Wait,” Izzy interrupted, looking at Flurry. “What do we do about Sunny? What if she’s… not her?” She took a step towards the alicorn, her expression pleading. “You said you had a way - at least an idea. What is it? Do you think it’ll work?” “You know a way to save Sunny?” Hitch and Sprout said at the exact same time. “...Maaaybe?” “Why didn’t you tell us?” Zipp demanded, pushing off of her front hooves, which were resting on the table, to rise to her full height, her wings flaring. “I wasn’t sure of it,” Flurry protested. “In fact, I didn’t even think about it until Izzy told me.” The unicorn blinked, confused. “I did?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. “When did I do that? I think I would remember doing that.” “When we were talking,” Flurry said arily. “Anyway, I think the way to bring Sunny back is through the magic of friendship.” Silence. “That’s it?” Zipp said incredulously. She sank back into her seat, grumbling, “Why didn’t we think of that before?” “How do you know it’ll work?” Pipp asked, landing next to her sister. Flurry flinched; she had been hoping to avoid this subject. “I… have experience with mind control,” she admitted. “When… actually, before I was born, over a thousand years before that, the Crystal Empire was taken over by… by…” She took a deep breath and forced any thoughts of him out of her head. “By a very bad pony,” she substituted lamely. The other ponies gave each other looks, and she rushed on. “He hid the Crystal Heart and enslaved the Empire’s citizens, mind controlling them. Celestia and Luna eventually turned him into shadow and banished him into the ice, but the Crystal Empire disappeared with it. It reappeared a thousand years later, and my parents… were sent to watch over it, because the… the very bad pony came back with it. “My mom put a protective shield around the Empire to protect it, but without the Crystal Heart, it was impossible to hold him off for very long. And while the Crystal ponies had been freed of the mind control, there was a lasting effect - they could hardly remember anything from a happier time. Without the ability to be happy, they couldn’t power the Crystal Heart anyway. “My aunt eventually found the Crystal Heart just as the very bad pony managed to make his way into the Empire, but Spike the Brave and Glorious-” a smile came to Flurry’s lips as she said it - this was her favorite part of the story, “-delivered the Heart to my mother, who restored it to its rightful place, and the Crystal ponies shared their love and light with it, destroying the very bad pony forever. “Or… so we thought. He eventually was… brought back, and this time, he took over the Crystal Empire again, my aunt and her friends used the Elements of Harmony to defeat him, he came back and destroyed the Elements, and my aunt and her friends had to use the magic of friendship inside them to defeat him, releasing all of Equestria from his mind control. “So I think we need to do the same thing - use the magic of friendship inside of us to free Sunny. I’m not entirely sure it’ll work - I’ve never seen something like the kind of spell she’s under - but we have to at least try, right?” “I agree with Flurry,” Izzy said boldly, stepping forward and lifting her head. There was something familiar about the story the alicorn had just told them, but she decided to worry about it later. “After all, a little hope is better than none at all, right? And we have to try. For Equestria. For us. For Sunny.” Her words had a rallying effect on the assembled ponies. Zipp flapped her wings so that she hovered over them. “All right, everypony. We’ll search this area that Sprout found, and if we find Sunny, then… we’ll do sparkle and rainbows and magic stuff. Still not entirely clear on how that will work, but… yeah. Get supplies for…” She frowned and did some mental calculations. “Two weeks. We don’t know how long we’ll be out there for, and it’s always good to have extra. Meet me in the entryway in an hour and a half.” Everypony nodded and began to disperse. As Flurry flew to her own room to find her bag, Pipp caught up with her. “Flurry? That very bad pony you were talking about - in your story? Was he… was his name King Sombra?” That name. Flurry felt herself freezing up, felt her mind go blank, felt the breath leave her lungs, felt her legs give out from under her, felt Pipp holding her up. She took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to clear the fog from her brain. “I… I can’t remember,” she mumbled, nodding at her door. “I’d better go pack…” She stumbled off, and Pipp put her hooves on her hips. “Okay, that pony is hiding something.” Her expression softened as she watched Flurry’s tail disappear into her room. “But what… and why?”