Fractured Crystals

by Quick Fix

Common Ground

"Look, I-I'm sorry that this happened." Citrine stammered as he paced around, shifting in and out of the shadow of the castle above him.

"It ain't your fault, Citrine." Applejack replied, sounding distracted. That was fair enough though, considering she had a sobbing wreck of a pegasus burying her muzzle into her chest that she was trying to comfort.

After Flurry Heart's outburst, the three of them had returned to the castle to try and deal with what had just happened. Or tried to. Fluttershy was extremely rattled after her outburst and had barely made it to the base of the castle before the weight of everything had come crashing down on her. Applejack and Citrine weren't able to do much more than comfort her until it passed, yet she had been going for fifteen minutes now and was only just starting to wind down.

"But this is all my fault, I chose to believe in something and it hurt my friend so badly. Not to mention you, Fluttershy." Citrine started, scuffing his hoof along the ground sadly.

"You're not the only one at fault here. I ain't got a clue why Flurry Heart's reactin' this badly, but I know ah underestimated her response, so part of it's my fault too."

"And mine..." Fluttershy added quietly, bringing her head up to Applejack's shoulder and blinking away some of her tears. "I shouldn't have tried to shout her down."

"It was the right thing at the time, sugarcube. No telling how bad it would have gotten without your stepping in." Applejack reassured her, stroking between Fluttershy's wings gently. She knew the effect this move had from experience and within a few moments the pegasus was pressing up against her, feeling the tension bleeding away as she gave a last few quiet sobs.

"I, I know you're right. It's just so difficult to keep everything in check like this," She admitted, wiping her eyes and looking over at Citrine. "And it's hard not to feel responsible."

"But nopony can square the blame all by themselves," He finished, still sounding disheartened but gaining confidence from listening to them. "I guess we'll just have to keep moving and try to fix the situation as it is."

"Exactly!" Applejack replied, smiling down at Fluttershy. "An' we have an idea on where to go from here."

"We do?"

"Sure do. I didn't get the chance to tell ya before things spiralled out of control, but I think Flurry Heart's lying a bit about her dislike fer Citrine. If we can get her to be honest with herself..."

"And if we can help remain civil to him long enough to let him explain..." Fluttershy continued, standing on her own hooves again.

"Then I can have my friend back?" Citrine concluded, perking right up. The other two looked over at him and nodded. "I mean, if she still wants to be friends afterward."

"I hope she will," Fluttershy told him, looking round. "But, maybe we could come up with a way to do so inside?"

Her words made the other two realise that the cold was beginning to gnaw at them again. Even though right next to the magic of the crystal heart that kept the frozen north at bay, it was still the middle of winter and the day was beginning to come to a close. Applejack motioned for Citrine to follow them and helped Fluttershy back up the steps into the castle. The crystal pony nodded and looked over at the heart itself, staring at its steady rotation. His face seemed to go blank for a second before taking on a look of resolution. Neither of the others caught it though and remained none the wiser as he followed them inside.

Once back in their guest quarters and able to relax again, Applejack and Citrine went through their previous discussion with Fluttershy. The fact that not all Onyx Dawn members were as harsh as Flurry Heart had implied was a welcome relief and there was little doubt to his version of events after the altercation in the spa. The main issue now was keeping Flurry calm enough to allow him to talk for more than a few seconds.

"So, um, something I just wanted to be sure of," Fluttershy said as she nursed a cup of tea that had been brought up for her. "Citrine. You don't get anything extra from this, do you? Because, it sounds like Onyx Dawn would like to be close to a pony like Furry Heart."

"I promise that they don't even know about anything beyond me visiting the court today and that was just to confirm their next meeting with Cadance," Citrine replied, his worries becoming evident again. "Right now I just want my friend back."

"I know the feeling," Applejack commented, sharing a meaningful look with Fluttershy. "An' I think that Flurry Heart does too. We just have to get her to say so."

"But how? She wont even give you a chance to speak up for me. I know you two are good at what you do but, if she's set on refusing to see reason..."

"Then we need somepony else to decide we can speak up." Fluttershy spoke up. Applejack stared at her for a moment before the realisation clicked.

"Cadance and Shining Armor!"

"You saw how Flurry acts in her presence. I'm willing to bet that she wouldn't risk losing her temper like that in front of the queen. That could be the chance we need."

"Are you sure that the queen would be willing to see me around?" Citrine asked. "Onyx Dawn members arn't exactly popular in the royal court. You didn't see my meeting earlier and it was largely insignificant, but both Cadance and Shining Armor weren't exactly pleased I was there."

"If you're with us, you'll be alright." Applejack told him reassuringly.

"But you won't exactly be meeting with them. You'll be meeting with Flurry Heart. They'll just be keeping the peace so you two can work things out." Fluttershy added.

"Okay..." Citrine closed his eyes and sighed deeply, steeling himself. As he opened them again, the others could see that his eyes had taken on the glint of a full crystal pony. "Let's do this. Once you've finished your tea."

"Oh, are you sure? We're not sure how much longer the court will be present today." Fluttershy asked, looking down at the cup resting in her front hooves.

"I don't know if I can do this without your help. But I can't ask you for it in good conscience without letting you have a rest first." Citrine replied, sitting down as if to emphasise his point.

"You're a good pony, Citrine," Applejack told him, nodding slightly. "Shame it's not a pony like you running Onyx Dawn, the kind who really could help the empire to it's peak without messing things up for everypony."

"Thanks..." Citrine looked aside thoughtfully as he simply waited for now, bottling up his nerves and silently reminding himself why he was doing this. He had a chance to fix all his mistakes of the past few days and maybe lay the groundwork for something much bigger, if he was lucky.

---

The empty hallways echoed with three sets of hoofsteps coming down as one. The unity of movement between Fluttershy, Applejack and Citrine had been unintentional but the stallion seemed to be boosted by it. It was early evening before they had been ready to go, partly due to Fluttershy's need to rest and partly due to Citrine's nerves, but with Celestia starting to lower the sun it had to be now. None of them said a word as they made their way back toward the throne room, they all knew they were mutually supporting each other for this. As the approached the doors though, one of the guards, a ruby red crystal stallion, blocked their entry.

"Sorry, but access to the throne room is currently prohibited." The guard told them as they approached. Citrine flicked his ear slightly as he heard that before Fluttershy patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"He's with us." Applejack told the guard, hoping that would ease the issue of letting an onyx dawn member back into the throne room.

"Your associate isn't the issue. King Armor has restricted access to everypony at present. It's a temporary issue, it'll only take a minute before you can go through." The guard explained. Even as he said it, Fluttershy's ears flicked as she picked up the faint sound of magic at work beyond the closed doors. None of them knew exactly what it was for though and by the time she had processed the sound it began to die down again.

A full forty seconds of silence passed before the guard nodded and stepped aside, opening the doors to the throne room. Applejack, Fluttershy and Citrine stepped through quickly, noting that everything seemed to be the same as when they had been here earlier. Cadance and Shining Armor were both on their thrones, though Shining looked even worse than he had before and seemed to be trying to rub away a headache. Applejack paused for a brief moment at the sight before sticking with the others as they approached.

"I know they're getting worse but you were talking like-" Cadance was saying to her husband quietly, though she stopped when she saw the group approaching, flashing him a 'We'll talk about this privately' look before straightening up.

"Applejack, Fluttershy. It's good to see you again," Shining said as they reached the thrones, his voice carrying the slightest hint of tension. "Citrine, I didn't expect to see you again so soon."

"Me neither, your highness." Citrine replied, bowing his head. Shining looked surprised at the motion before nodding.

"Well the thing is, we're pretty darn sure that Citrine is the one havin' the friendship problem we're here to solve." Applejack explained.

"Also, um, it might involve Flurry Heart too." Fluttershy continued. Cadance tilted her head slightly and her eyes narrowed but she held her tongue.

"An' we were hoping you could help us out a little," Applejack said once Cadance had relaxed again. "Has Flurry happened to come back to the castle? We kinda lost track of her earlier."

"Huh. That's not like her..." Cadance commented, tapping her chin. "But one of the guards did mention that she had returned to the castle about an hour ago."

"Oh, good," Fluttershy took a breath and rubbed her leg slowly. "We were hoping, if it's alright with you, if you could bring her here. I don't think we can solve this any other way...If it's no trouble with you."

"Of course it isn't trouble. We're always happy to help friends like you," Shining Armor replied with a smile before turning to another aide, a blue crystal stallion. "Lazuli, could you find Flurry Heart and let her know her presence is required please?"

As the stallion bowed and left, Applejack frowned slightly to herself. She couldn't explain why, but the more she was around Shining, the more his presence felt really, oddly familiar. As if she'd seen him only yesterday despite not seeing the king himself for months. She didn't have time to put much thought on it though. It was time to do what the elements of harmony did best; help bring some friendship back to Equestria.