Chapter 4
High upon a private balcony, Flurry Heart looked down upon the city known as the Crystal Empire. It grew like some strange crystal organism, a curious garden tended by her mother. The buildings were shaped crystals that sprang up out of the ground. Everything possessed a strange organic flow to it, even with odd angles and asymmetrical shapes. Some of the spires and towers leaned off to one side, but inside, the floors were level and secure.
The population was exploding and new buildings were necessary. So very necessary. Almost every day it seemed that there was a new building, a new structure, or the start of something new. Flurry too, had this magic, but it was weak. It was a magic that would grow stronger with maturity, but it wasn’t a magic that she wanted to study because it was boring.
Having been crystallised, Sunburst could cast the magic too, but being a unicorn, his abilities were limited. It didn’t stop him from teaching though, because Sunburst had a direct connection to magic that allowed him to know and understand it in depth. Flurry wished that she had this connection, because then she would not need to study, she would only need to do. Flurry liked doing and thinking was best left to others, like her trusted Professor Egghead.
She sighed, missing Sumac. The ponies that she was trusted with here weren’t the types to get dirty, or have fun, or wrestle, or throw down in the mud, no, these were gentle, delicate, dainty ponies that got the vapours the moment there was even a whiff of danger. These were little ponies, helpless things for the most part, and she had been born to protect them. But they were awful to be around and all of her real friends were in Ponyville.
“Not all of us are called into the light, Flurry Heart.”
Without even turning around, Flurry knew who was speaking, and something about his voice made her shiver in the summer sun. She continued looking down, feeling sulky, and didn’t turn to look at him, knowing that he was just going to keep talking no matter what she did. Such was the way of things; she was a foal and was at the mercy of the adults in her life.
“Leave us, this is private matter.” Then, after a moment when no sounds of hooves could be heard: “I said to leave us. Do you think she is not safe with me? Am I to take this as an insult and deal with you accordingly? Begone before my patience exhausts itself and you find yourself taking on an unnatural new shape!”
Sighing, Flurry made a mental note, as that was clearly how one gave a meaningful, motivating command. The clank of armor and hooves making a hurried exit made her ears perk, and she heard the soft rustle of fabric as her other tutor approached. Even though she very much wanted to be alone—at least, as alone as she could be given the fact that there were always guards around—she was glad for Dim’s company.
“Flurry, the sun does not suit you,” Dim said in a low voice as he came to stand beside the pink alicorn filly.
“I don’t get what you mean,” she replied, and for a moment, she turned to look up at Dim. “Are you going to be cryptic and make me work for it, or will you be helpful today, I wonder.”
“You are already having a hard day, I will be straightforward.” Smoothing out his cloak, Dim sat down, balanced on his haunches, and rested his forelegs upon the balcony rail in front of him. The wind made the brim of his hat wobble, and the sun glinted off of the goggles that protected his eyes. “I have tried discussing this with your mother, but she does not wish to hear it. It distresses her, because she understands the parallel a little too well. Alas, I too have an understanding of this parallel, having experienced it for myself.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Give me time, Flurry.” Dim clucked his tongue and it was obvious that he was gathering his thoughts.
Having nothing to lose, Flurry decided to be patient and she looked back down upon the city. Her city. Well, one day, it would be her city. Maybe? Did she really want it? She didn’t know. It wasn’t like her mother would ever grow old, and Flurry didn’t know how succession would work. She had no real understanding of her own accession to power and how it would happen. Maybe when the time was right, a new crystal city would be started elsewhere, grown from the ground, and it would be like starting a new orchard, or something.
“Flurry, little Skyla is the sun, and you… you are the moon. You need to make peace with being the moon. This is something you need to make peace with now. Skyla will outshine you with her brilliance, making the darkness around you feel all the more… darker. Yes, darker. You are doomed to be the lesser light and you will know Luna’s pain—but this does not mean that you have to make Luna’s mistakes.”
Ears perking, this got Flurry’s attention, all of it, and she turned to look at Dim.
“Luna is of no less importance than her sister, Celestia, but it took her a while before she could see value in herself,” Dim said, his words slow-spoken and drawn out. “Her real talents lie not in ruling, though she is a wise and just ruler on her own, but in protecting. Luna is capable of rule, but her sister is far more suited for the task. For too long, she languished in her sister’s shadow and tried to compete with her sister to be better… to do better… to prove that she could. She has given up on that and now, she focuses on what she is good at. Tormenting and teasing me—”
“And protecting Equestria?” Flurry’s voice had a somewhat squeaky feminine quaver to it.
“Yes, I was getting to that.” Dim leaned forward and rested his goateed chin upon his forelegs. “She and I, we have embraced the night, but more importantly, we have truly come to believe that doing so does not make us evil. We are necessary and we do what must be done. It was… difficult making peace with that. For both of us. It was painful, but we endured it together.”
“And so now, I need to embrace the night? Is that what you are saying?”
“A winter’s day can be sunny and pleasant… but a winter’s night is bitter indeed.” Dim’s mouth moved for a few seconds, his thin lips trying to form words, but nothing came out. He kept trying though, determined to say something. “Isn’t that the point of the Hygge, Flurry? To hold back the bitter, life sapping cold of the night? The terror of darkness? Is this not why the light dwellers light fires, bury themselves beneath blankets, and have togetherness? The Hygge is responsible for Hearthfire, right? It kept the the cold, the darkness, and the monsters away. You, Flurry Heart, are the Luna of winter.”
“I am,” Flurry gasped as she saw the truth of it and she knew.
“I have my own connection to the fires of the hearth as the Champion of Chantico.” Dim struggled to say the words and Flurry Heart leaned up against him. “It is my sacred duty to keep the hearth fires burning and to protect the peasants from the terrors of the night. It was a long, long road, but this sacred duty helped me to make peace with myself.”
“You have your own connection to the Hygge because cosy love begins with home and hearth.” Flurry, now thoughtful, gave careful consideration to Dim’s words. There was truth in them, a powerful, burning, blazing truth that filled her brain with fire—but also peace. Why peace? She didn’t know, but she was intrigued. Even more interesting, Skyla was terrified of what the dark might bring and Flurry had been protecting her sister from the dark since she was a little yearling.
The Hygge was a love powered by winter’s cruelty—a cruelty that cut the deepest at night, when there was no sun to warm anything, the world was shrouded in darkness, and the terrors of the night came out of their shadowy sanctuaries. Thinking of this, Flurry had a moment of total clarity—something like an epiphany but stronger—and she felt a strange fire that seemed to blaze just beneath her cutie marks, both of them.
The way to move forward was unknown, as was gaining her mother’s acceptance.
Reclining in the grass, Sumac enjoyed his last day of freedom. Tomorrow, before the sun even came up, he would be on a train to the Crystal Empire where he would arrive and not be greeted as himself, but as the Heir of Lulamoon Hollow. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but he did his best not to stress out about it, knowing that his friends would carry him through.
Learning how to preen himself was… well, it could only be described as an experience in sensual discovery. Preening one’s self was customary, but allopreening, the very thing he had done with Silver Lining, was akin to making out. Sumac suspected that if Gloomy found out what had been done, there would be words, and he didn’t even want to think about how Wormwood might react.
“That was wonderful,” Silver Lining murmured to her companions.
“It sure was.” Pebble lay with her head resting against Silver Lining’s fuzzy thigh.
It seemed that Pebble liked watching and that was fine with Sumac. The itchiness in his wings was gone for the most part, but Silver Lining had told him that the itchies would return in a day or two if he didn’t follow through with proper preening. His spit had changed, which meant that he had done more than just grow a pair of wings. Now his spit had an oily rainbow sheen to it, like soap or oil in water.
“Why didn’t we do this sooner?” Pebble asked.
“Do what sooner?” Silver Lining grunted as she lifted her head from the grass and she strained to look Pebble in the face.
“This.” Pebble made a sort of half-shrug and her hind legs wiggled. “Why didn’t we just sort everything out and come together?”
“I didn’t want to come between you.” Silver Lining allowed her head to fall back down to the grass and her beak made a clicking sound. “It’s complicated and everything felt so strange. It still is, just a little, even though it just feels good to be in love and not have to hide it.”
“It is my sincere hope to come between friends,” Sumac said to the girls beside him and his words made Silver Lining start giggling. The big griffoness laughed—causing the best parts of her to jiggle—and she clutched her sides with her talons. Pebble though, she made strange faces, funny faces, and Sumac couldn’t quite figure out what it was that she was doing.
“Pebble, is something wrong?” Sumac asked.
“You… punned.” When she paused, Pebble sounded as though she was straining.
“You’ve been making a lot of funny faces lately, Pebble.”
The filly grunted, let out a huff, and made yet another a weird face. “Well, every time I get mad I do what my mother suggested and I practice my kegels.”
“What?” Sumac blinked and then studied Pebble’s face. Something about her laboured breathing was music to his ears. “What are those?”
“Get me angry someday,” she puffed in response, “and you’ll find out.” Sucking in a deep breath, she held it for a short time; then as she let out a slow, measured exhale, her body relaxed while a serene expression returned to her face. “My mother has been doing angry kegels all her life and it is her secret for staying so calm. ‘Don’t frown,’ she told me, ‘clench and flex.’ Best advice she ever gave me.”
“You’re such a weird filly, Pebble Pie.” Sumac had trouble making himself heard over the sound of Silver Lining’s laughter. Since he had no idea what she was talking about, he changed the subject. “Acceptance is hard, isn’t it?”
“Acceptance of what?” Pebble asked while she pulled herself up into a sitting position and smoothed out her dress. “Hey… hey… this entire time, you’ve been looking up my dress and checking out my panties, haven’t you?”
“Yeah.” Sumac too, pulled himself up into a sitting position and noticed that Pebble was making her funny faces again, but was also trying not to make her funny faces while she did whatever it was that she was doing. “Little dolphins and pink hearts.”
“You pervert!”
This sent Silver Lining into a fit of hysterics, and she began to roll from side to side in the grass, mussing her wings, and now her eyes were bloodshot from laughing too hard. Sumac gave his wings a half-flap to shake away any debris and was mindful about getting them dirty again. They were a chore to clean alone, but with Silver Lining around…
“You keep seeing my undies, Sumac Apple.”
“Well, you keep flashing them at me every chance you get. You can’t fault me for looking. If you don’t want me looking, do a better job of hiding them.”
“I’m going inside,” Pebble announced in a somewhat troubled deadpan. “I’m thirsty and that last batch of kegels gave me a cramp.” She rose, stood on all fours, and brushed some grass from her bright blue dress. “Also, I’m hot and I think I want some ice cream.”
As Sumac came in through the mudroom and into the kitchen, a flying playing card stuck into an apple. This made him pause and with a slow turn of his head, he looked at the thrower. Boomer stood on the end of the table, her dainty claws still raised, and her odd, omnidirectional eyes were both looking at her target. Beside her, standing on the floor, was Megara.
“Do it again, Boom Boom.”
Swiping up another card—Sumac saw that it was the nine of hearts when the face flashed towards him for a second—Boomer made another throw with a motion that had an uncanny fluidity. The card spun through the air and an eyeblink later, it too was lodged into the apple sitting on the hearth, almost, but not quite touching the first card.
Unimpressed, Pebble made her way to the fridge while her sister Megara studied Boomer’s efforts with a critical eye. Silver Lining sat down on the floor near Megara and her eyes were filled with curiousity as Boomer picked up another playing card. With a flick, this one too went soaring through the air and stuck into the apple a few yards away. Sumac whistled and gave Boomer a nod of support.
“It’s a neat trick, but it’s only a trick,” Pebble deadpanned. “I just don’t see the practicality of it. The both of you have spent what, five or six years practicing throwing stuff… all that time would have been better spent doing something else.”
“Oh, it has a use,” Megara replied in a pride-pricked rumble and her tail straightened into an outraged exclamation point.
“What?” Pebble, almost at the fridge, turned around to look at her sibling. “Show me. Prove me wrong, Meg.”
“Sumac, I’m sorry,” Megara said, apologising.
“Sorry for what”—as he spoke, Megara made a smooth flicking motion with her paw and something red and silver flew in a blur towards Sumac—“OOOOOO BY DAMN!” Feeling an agonising bloom of pain in his leg, Sumac’s head dropped downwards to see what Meg had done to him. When the colt looked down, he began to prance around in both pain and panic when he saw the dart sticking out his leg. “It’s in the bone! It’s in the bone! I can feel it in the bone!”
“Cast a spell, Sumac.”
“FRONK YOU SIDEWAYS, MEG! IT’S IN THE BONE! THE BONE!” Sumac made an effort to pull the dart out, but when it began to wiggle, rubbing against the bone, chills shot through his body like when claws were dragged down a blackboard, which caused his magic to fizzle out and let out a wordless screech. Sputtering, he pranced around, unable to stand still.
Boomer lept from the table, scurried across the floor, reached the spot where Sumac was prancing in place, stood up, and with a quick yank of her claws, tugged the dart from where it was lodged in the colt’s front leg. A little trickle of blood stained Sumac’s beige hide and Boomer made an expression that was almost like a cringe.
“I take back everything I’ve ever said,” Pebble deadpanned to her sister. “I can actually see the use in that.”
“Told you so.” Megara turned her head to look at Pebble for a moment, and then returned her attention to Sumac. “Sorry, you know how it is, Sumac. Sometimes, sisters just have to settle stuff.”
“It was in the bone!” Sumac hollered and he began to prance around again while Boomer retreated. “I could feel the metal squeaking against the bone and I couldn’t cast a spell! I couldn’t pull it out!”
“I’m pretty sure that Boom Boom could take out somepony’s eye with a playing card,” Megara said as she watched Sumac bounce around the kitchen. As the manticore spawn spoke, Boomer flicked another card at the apple on the hearth and hit her mark. “It’s nice having fingers.”
Silver Lining, still laughing, went over to help Sumac with his leg and when she reached him, she did her best to comfort him while blood dribbled down his fetlock. The colt gave Megara a wounded look and behind the lenses of his spectacles, his eyes were glassy with tears. Boomer flicked another card and this time, a thin slice of apple was sheared off.
“Professor Egghead can dance quite a jig, can’t he?”
“Fronk you right up your dirty tailhole, Meg!”
None of them heard the sound of hooves until it was too late, and Tarnished Teapot appeared in the doorway leading into the living room. “What is going on in here?” he demanded to know while his horn almost scratched the top of the doorframe.
Right away, every youthful face in the kitchen had done their best to look innocent, but Tarnish wasn’t having it. He glowered with terrific ferocity in the doorway and Sumac knew that Tarnish had heard what had been said about fronking Meg right up her dirty tailhole. The colt gulped and was no longer worried about the tiny hole in his leg, as there were bigger problems.
“I demand to know what is going on in here! What is with all of the cussing?”
Sumac knew that they were all busted…
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forget takeing out a eye you can lombotamize someone with a well place throw (thats not a joke, you actualy can lombotamize someone if you throw a well placed sharp object in the right spot. Needles to say "dont try this at home")
Um Megara throwing a dart at someone hard enough to penetrate bone crosses the line between "adolescent shenanigans," to "criminal assault." I'm pretty sure you could end up with 5 years in pony juvie if Sumac opted to press charges.
8393459
Oh, they do horrible things to one another all of the time as part of 'live fire' combat training. It's fine, really. I know it seems terrible, but it's okay.
Dim is playing what is quite possibly a very dangerous game
Sumac, well, what can we say. Sumac is in trouble. Again.
8393468
Sumac...SNERK
Wow, didn't think Meg could be such a prick. She really stuck it to Pebble, and got her point across to Sumac. I hope this lesson sticks in. It was great having Tarnish dart in at the end there. Also, white devil, white devil?
I see, the Heart of Winter is love turned against the dark. In this setting? Well now, that makes Flurry dangerous.
To be fait, i'd also freak the hell out if someone through a dart into my leg that hit the bone.
8393574
You speak the language too?
was the ace ventura reference planned or spontaneous?