“Alright girls, meet your tour guide, Sunburst!” Aunt Cadance gave a proud smile as she waved a wing at the orange and cream unicorn standing next to her. “He’s the Royal Archivist and a close friend of mine.”
The six of us stood in the bedroom hallway, just having put our stuff away. The Cutie Mark Crusaders all stared up at Sunburst in confusion, taking in his scraggly beard, glasses, and general unkempt look. I raised an eyebrow at Aunt Cadance before turning to Sunburst, who offered an awkward smile back.
“Ah’m sorry, but yer having yer Royal Archivist be our guide?” I tilted my head, my ears splaying to the side. “No offense, but seems like a bit of a waste.”
Sunburst shrugged, lifting his glasses off his face with his magic to wipe them off with his cloak. “Oh, I wanted to do it. After all, part of my job is to educate royal foals. And as the adopted daughter of Princess Luna, you fall under that umbrella Summer Storm.”
I blinked, my ears folding back for a moment. “Oh. Uh, good to know.” A faint blush of embarrassment flushed across my cheeks as I remembered that I was technically royalty.
“What’s a ‘Royal Arch-vest’ anyway?” Apple Bloom asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“Is it like a fashion thing?” Scootaloo chimed in, looking at Sweetie Belle for confirmation.
The unicorn in question rubbed her chin for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t think so, Rarity never mentioned something like that.”
“Think of me like the royal librarian, like Princess Twilight.” Sunburst paused for a moment and rubbed the back of his head, chuckling. “Except without the wings and royal title, of course.”
The Crusaders let out a small chuckle themselves, while I just raised an eyebrow. Soarin and Dash came back over during Sunburst’s embarrassing display, wearing their Wonderbolt outfits and goggles.
“Alright fillies, we’ll be right back. Princess Cadance just wants us to take a peek around the Crystal Empire from up high while we’re here.” Soarin answered the unspoken question, a confident grin on his muzzle.
Dash nodded and chimed in, “We’ll be back so fast you won’t even notice we’re gone!”
I bit my lip and nodded, finding the thought of Soarin and Dash leaving the empire weirdly uncomfortable. “If ya say so.”
Soarin winked and headed off down the hall, while Dash lifted my hat off my head long enough to noogie me. “See you in a bit, Squirt.” She giggled while I fixed my hat and turned off to follow Soarin.
Turning back to Aunt Cadance and Sunburst, I could see the latter giving an amused smile while the former quickly ducked her head to the side so I couldn’t see her expression. I frowned slightly but before I could ask about that Sunburst cleared his throat, gathering our attention to him.
“Well, I believe that we should head out now before it gets too late to show you four everything.” Sunburst adjusted his glasses with one hoof and nodded to himself. “Now come along fillies, we have a lot of ground to cover!”
Sunburst turned around and started heading out of the hall, while the four of us looked at each other with a bit of amusement. Without a second word, we followed him out of the hall and castle, although I did readjust my hat to better protect my eyes from the sun before I stepped out. The Crystal Empire was still more or less completely empty, everyone still likely just hiding in the homes from this changeling that was on the loose. Apparently.
I could tell that Sunburst was really trying while he gave his tour of the city, but damn was it hard to pay attention to him. He’d point at a statue or other artifact and give a basic overview of it, but it was clear that he was a scholar not really a teacher. His explanation was too dry, like he was reading off a remembered note that actually explaining.
After almost two hours of this, we wandered by a small park that looked almost copied and pasted from any other city park. Nice fresh green grass and trees, a little bit of non-crystal nature. Beautiful. In the middle of the park sat a young crystal pony colt, his coat a light shade of blue and mane/tail curly black-blue. He dejectedly kicked a ball back and forth all by himself.
“Mr. Sunburst?” I spoke up, catching the Archvist’s attention. “Do ya mind if we play in the park for a bit?”
“Park?!” Scootaloo yelled, prompting all three Crusaders to snap their heads in the direction of the park. The three of them began giggling and running into the park, chasing each other around.
“Maybe another...” Sunburst sighed as the other three fillies ran off anyway. “Okay, I guess the schedule wouldn’t be too affected if you four played for an hour.”
I let out a small chuckle of my own and nodded. “Don’t worry, Ah’m sure they’ll be less annoying once they run off some of that energy.”
“Maybe...” Sunburst let out a small sigh and offered an awkward smile down at me. “Go on and play with them, don’t wait for me.”
I let out a small chuckle of my own and started making my way over to the girls’ game of tag. Halfway there I couldn’t help but glance at the lonely colt, who was now just sitting there watching the four of us. I let out a small sigh before turning on one hoof and heading over to him. He watched me head over to him quietly, just staring at me with crystal blue sad eyes.
God, he reminds me of my brother. Socially awkward as hell.
“Hello.” I greeted, offering a small warm smile to the colt. Thankfully he was a little shorter than me so I wasn’t looking up like most colts. “Mah name is Summer Storm, what’s yers?” I also stuck my hoof out for a hoofshake. Y’know, a proper greeting.
The colt blinked at me for a second, but instead of getting awkward he instead gave me a small smile and shook my hoof. “M-my name is Crystal Hoof. Nice to meet you.”
“So...what’re ya doing all by yerself?” I looked to the left and right for emphasis, obviously seeing no one. “Ah thought that there’d be more ponies to play ball with.”
“Oh.” Crystal Hoof looked down and started to play with his soccer ball absentmindedly. “E-everypony is hiding in their homes on account of that changelin’ on the loose.”
I furrowed my brows and tilted my head in confusion. “Then why aren’t ya hiding?”
Crystal Hoof blushed in embarrassment, his ears folding back. “I-I don’t have a home to hide in. I’m an orphan.”
“Oh...” I felt my own ears flick back as I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. “Sorry t’ hear that. If ya want, ya can play and hang with us while we’re in the Empire.”
Crystal Hoof looked up, a small awkward smile on his muzzle. “I-if that would be okay. I’d love that. Not many ponies like me...I’m weird...”
I let out what I hoped sounded like an encouraging laugh and turned to head over to the Crusaders, waving my wing in the universal ‘follow me’ gesture. “We’re used to weird folks, don’t worry. C’mon, let me introduce you to the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Sneaking into the Crystal Castle was an easy task for an experienced changeling like Nightshade. Almost worryingly easy. With the number of maids and other servants hiding at home or otherwise refusing to come to work alongside the guards being overworked, the guards didn’t blink an eye at her put-together ‘unicorn maid’ disguise.
Admittedly it was only ‘put together’ by her standards, but she was on a time crunch. So dragged up memories of a Canterlot Castle maid had to do, drawn from that blasted wedding. A silver coat paired with a dark blue mane/tail, with a cutie mark of a lemon next to a washcloth to finish the look. So stood Lemon Fresh, maid of almost a dozen years.
Now, where can I find evidence that Flurry Heart isn’t dead....? Maybe she’s hiding
The unicorn made her way through the winding crystal halls slowly but with a deliberate purpose. Blending into the background of anything that was going on in the halls, nopony was worried about the thoughts of a simple maid making her way through the halls. After all, she looked like she knew where she was going and there were bigger problems going on, so who cares?
As ‘Lemon Fresh’ made her way through the castle, hooves lightly tapping on the clean crystal floors, she kept her ears up to listen for the sounds of a young filly or doting mother. Unfortunately, the castle was almost completely empty and deathly quiet. She couldn’t even really smell any of the leftover emotions left by those that would usually walk through these halls, just the background Love radiated by the Crystal Heart. That background emotion made ‘Lemon Fresh’ internally grit her teeth as her stomach growled, starving after so long without a true changeling meal.
Nearly an hour of wandering passed before the disguised changeling finally caught a whiff of emotion. But instead of the sweet hint of Love she was aiming for, ‘Lemon Fresh’ instead could smell two much more bitter and spicy emotions: Grief and Frustration. Following the trail, the fake maid found herself next to a simple wooden door, partially cracked open instead of completely closed.
Peeking inside, ‘Lemon Fresh’ found the source of those strong emotions: Princess Cadance herself. The pink princess was sitting in front of a crib, hugging it with her wings while she sobbed over it. In Cadance’s forehooves was a framed picture, but ‘Lemon Fresh’ couldn’t make out what was on it.
Strangely, the sheer grief radiating off the alicorn didn’t feel fabricated or forced at all. It felt unabashedly real. The very same grief and rage that Nightshade felt when she found her family turned to stone...
With a small internal hiss ‘Lemon Fresh’ pulled away from the door, but accidentally stepped on a squeaky board. The crying came to a sudden stop, leading the fake maid to awkwardly look up at the alicorn now staring at her, bloodshot eyes wide as dinner plates.
“Uh, hello?” ‘Lemon Fresh offered, giving a small bow. “Sorry to bother you, Princess, just heard a sound and wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
Cadence blinked before rubbing one of her eyes and looking away. “Everything is fine, but thank you.” She paused for a moment and tilted her head, one of her ears folding back. “I’m sorry, but what’s your name? I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m Lemon Fresh, a new hire, Princess.” The maid offered a small bow.
“Ah. A pleasure to meet you, Lemon Fresh.” Cadence smiled, before sighing and frowning.
“Nice to meet you too. Now, uh, I have duties to attend to. May I depart, Princess?”
Cadence blinked and chuckled, shaking her head. “Of course, of course.”
With that Lemon Fresh stepped away from the Princess, walking ever more quickly once she was a respectable distance from the alicorn. A faint sigh of relief passed from the disguised changeling’s lips at narrowly avoiding being caught.
That....what is going on here? Did I really kill Flurry Heart...?
“Scootaloo, go long!” Apple Bloom yelled before bucking the soccer ball halfway across the park.
Scootaloo jumped into the air, her wings buzzing for a moment to give her some extra height, just enough to try to spike the ball into the space between two trees that marked off the other team’s goal. Crystal Hoof stood in the way, his face determined as he threw his scrawny form in the way.
“Oof!” Crystal Hoof wheezed as the ball whacked him in the side, knocking the air from his lungs. Instead of falling over though, he gritted his teeth and kicked the ball up towards me.
“Go long Sweetie Belle!” As it flew in the air I did a little corkscrew to build up momentum and kicked the ball as hard as I could, sending it flying across the little slice of the park. With a small yell, the little unicorn jumped up and headbutted the ball, sending it whizzing past Sunburst the goalie.
“GOAL!!!” Sweetie Belle yelled, dancing in place.
I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo groaned. Even Crystal Hoof cracked a small smile. Unfortunately, the one-sided celebration came to an end as Sunburst cleared his throat like a dusty old teacher.
“It’s getting late girls, we should head back for dinner.” Sunburst smiled down at the group of us. “Don’t want the Princess waiting too long after all.”
At once all our stomachs rang out in hunger as we all realized how late it got. Sweetie Belle coughed and blushed in embarrassment. “Yeah, we should probably head back. I’m hungry.”
“Me too!” Scootaloo chimed in.
“Yea.” Apple Bloom nodded, turning to Crystal Hoof. “Yer folks are probably wonderin’ where yer at too.”
“Oh, uh, yeah, my folks.” Crystal Hoof’s ears folded back and he looked away. “Uh, I don’t have any.”
I blinked and landed next to him, giving him a sympathetic look. “Yer an orphan?” He sheepishly nodded in response, so I looked up at Sunburst. “Is there anything we can do to help? Like an Orphanage, or the Princess?”
Sunburst hummed and rubbed his chin as he thought before shrugging. “I don’t think there’s an orphanage in the Crystal Empire, but we can always ask Princess Cadance about it.”
“Then he should come over for dinner!” I stared up at Sunburst, narrowing my eyes in challenge.
“I, uh, don’t know if we should bring somepony in without asking her, but...” Sunburst sighed in defeat. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. As long as you’re okay with it, Crystal Hoof.”
Crystal Hoof sheepishly nodded, much to my delight, so we all started heading back to the Castle.
At the edge of the Crystal Empire, a trio of ponies stepped through the magical wall separating the winter scape outside from the safe space inside. The two mares - one pegasus, one unicorn - wore the armor of Crystal Guards, although damaged and beat up from some unknown fight. Between them stood a scraped-up unicorn stallion with a battered cloak covering him from the worst of the elements. Or at least a bad attempt at it.
A grin formed on the stallion’s face, his eyes blazing with a fierce will undampened by the scrapes and bruises hidden by his coat. “Ah, it is good to be back.”