Imperial Forclousure

by The Sound of Loneliness

Unhappy Reunions

"Aunty, I don't think this is working. Maybe we should just do as Mom said and find an interpreter?"

"No, no, I am getting there," Twilight proceeded to draw an earth pony on the board. She then pointed at her drawing and then pointed at the stallion sitting across the room, he tilted his head. Twilight then drew another pony, with wings and a horn. She then pointed at herself, spreading her wings. "T-wi-light," she said with deliberation.

"Twai-lait?" the stallion repeated.

"Good enough," Twilight mumbled. She then pointed at the stallion drawing on the board and then at the stallion again. The stallion quizzically tilted his head again. "Ugh! Why is this so hard?!" Twilight exclaimed. They have been doing this for the better part of an hour.

"Aunty, don't get upset: communicating with ponies that speak a different language is always a challenge. You'll be there someday, for now, you need help."

"How are we going to find an interpreter if we don't even know what language he speaks?"

Flurry shrugged,
"Well, I didn't think this far ahead."

"Well, better start thinking then!" Twilight scratched her forehead, "What if we try flashcards?"

"You mean like they do for school fillies? Aunty, he's a little old for school," Flurry incredulously pointed out.

"No one is ever old for school!" Twilight was quick to contradict. "Small foals learn to talk without knowing how at first, adult ponies can too, eventually."

"Well, how long do you want to teach him? We don't even know why he is here and if he needs any help!"

"I guess you are right, it will take too long," Twilight returned to thinking, scratching her chin with her right hoof. "I suppose the best we can do is to put his photo in tomorrow's Crystal Herald and ask if anyone knows him, maybe he's someone's visiting relative. We could also try and find interpreters that way. I guess we'd have to try until we hit the one."

Flurry sighed. This was getting boring, if she was being honest with herself. Keeping Twilight occupied so she wouldn't notice anyone missing was bound to be boring, but this was ridiculous. Flurry glanced at the clock. It was twenty-five past eleven, almost twenty-six. The earliest mark was already missed so that means she'd have to stay with Twilight for any amount of time up to four hours before Moony is done playing detective. Though... since Tiny wasn't back yet she held a cautious hope that at least that part of the plan went as intended. She still wished this was over already, she had places to be. Not that the next stage will be much more pleasant.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Flurry breathed a sigh of relief. Finally.

"Yes, come in!" Twilight answered.

"Your Highnesses," a clean face in a helmet appeared from behind the door. "Your friend, Rainbow Dash is here. She demands to speak to you."

Twilight stared blankly at the guard,
"Who?"

"Rainbow Dash, Lady," the stallion opened the door wider and stepped aside.

Flurry clapped her hooves,
"Oh! Aunty Rainbow! Welcome!" While technically Rainbow was only here because Flurry herself gave her a boost, she was still glad to see her. The last time they met she barely reached Rainbow's knee.

Rainbow stared at Flurry with visible suspicion but didn't say anything. Flurry expected this, so she made her move first.

"Aunty Rainbow, it's so good to see you again!" Flurry quickly trotted up to the pegasus and took her in a hearty embrace.

"Wait!" Rainbow tried to push Flurry off, which she allowed. "I've seen you before."

"Of course you did! I am Flurry Heart, you and Aunty Twilight used to foalsit me so many times! Have you really forgotten?" Flurry feigned being saddened.

"Oh... Yeah... I think I remember now... Hello, Flurry, nice to see you again."

"Rainbow, is that really you?" Twilight finally remembered how to speak. Flurry quickly stepped away to let them see each other. "You look so... so savvy."

"Huh, I really am..." Rainbow finally decided to see who else was in the room, she did come for a specific reason after all. Noticing the stallion sitting inside and looking at her expectantly, Rainbow quickly dashed to him and deeply bowed. Although Flurry did pretend to be surprised, she wasn't pretending when it came to Rainbow's friend. She really had absolutely no idea what he was saying, so Rainbow coming along will make things simpler... for Twilight anyway.

Rainbow and the stallion entered a rapid exchange that lasted about a minute.

"Rainbow, do you know what he's saying?" Twilight asked, not entirely believing in Rainbow knowing more than one language.

"Of course I do! He's my... eh..." Twilight suspiciously narrowed her eyes. "...Landlord, yeah."

"Landlord, huh?" Twilight was evidently not buying. "Rainbow, do tell me, why your 'landlord' doesn't even speak regular Ponish in Crystal Empire? This is a bit of a coincidence for both of you to be here at the same time."

"Well, actually, we were looking for you!"

"Really now?"

"Yes, really... Twilight, I know it's been a little while and we didn't part on best of terms, but my landlord and I really need your help," Rainbow then sheepishly smiled, almost in exactly the same way as she used to do.

"So, let me get this straight. You left your friends to go and do what you want, you didn't even write me a letter in years and now you come back because you are in trouble. Rainbow, it's things like this that make me wonder how we became friends in the first place."

"Oh, you are the one to talk! You and Rarity were the ones who went to work for our enemy! Did you really expect me to just forget? You never even apologised! Except to her for not caving in sooner!" Oh-ho! This was getting fun! Flurry sure loved that future wasn't set in stone otherwise spoilers would've been unbearable.

"I wanted to do something good for other ponies! If that meant working with Nightmare Moon then it was what I was going to do! What I was sorry about was not seeing how selfish I was! I wasn't going to brew venom for pointless revenge like you were! I did good while you had to be isolated so that you wouldn't hurt anyone anymore! You know, ponies get worse for what you did!"

"Whoa! I am so-so grateful! I am so grateful that I wish I had a shiv with me when I was in the room with her! Too bad I wasn't quick enough with that though, if there ever was a good thing to get busted for it would've been killing tyrants!"

"Tyrants?! She went out of her way to protect you from your own stupidity!"

"...Well, if I was such a pain maybe she shouldn't have," Rainbow answered after a small pause.

Flurry figured this was as good a cue as she was getting,
"It sounds like you two need some one-on-one time. I'll just go tell mom, she might want to hug you later, Rainbow." Flurry didn't wait for her answer and did her best to disappear out of view as fast as possible. Twilight and Rainbow continued arguing after she left.

Now was the time to nudge some more pieces into place, but this time Flurry needed some help. Well, actually, quite a bit of help. Raising the dead was tricky and dangerous business, and the dead she was going to raise was far-far too important to rely on her own, admittedly, meagre necromantic knowledge. No, she needed a real expert.

Flurry looked behind her to make sure she was alone. The soldier that brought Rainbow has already gone back to his post. No one will miss her if she was gone for... let's say half an hour. Rainbow and Twilight will keep catching up for at least ten more minutes and likely even a bit more than that. Then they will have a more friendly interaction and also the business talk too. As long as she was efficient, no one would know she was ever gone and that would be important because her intentions somehow leaking out to Moony would be absolutely disastrous in the majority of visions she explored.

Flury envisioned where she was going one more time: a cave close to a mountain's summit, snow lying in heaps, a view of the farmlands and a sea on the horizon. Flurry was already there. She didn't envision the cold, biting wind. Flurry swiftly ventured into the cave, this was already unpleasant enough.
She was quickly, internally, rehearsing what she predicted would be the most effective words to get the favor she required.

"A visitor. Oh, how I just love visitors," the disembodied voice spoke sarcastically. "I know who you are, the pretender's foaling. But you came at a fortunate time; a thousand years ago, you would not have left my adobe."

"Now-now, just because you and my mom are old friends it doesn't mean that we have to be that way too. I came to bargain not argue," Flurry said her carefully chosen words.

The voice loudly snorted in return,
"You came to bargain with me. Why should I? You have nothing of value to offer me."

Flurry contently smiled,
"Oh, I think I have exactly what you want, the only thing that you want. You want to know a place, I know that place."

Sombra paused. FLurry could tell that this was going exactly where she wanted.

"What place?" he asked with much less arrogance this time.

"A place where Luna waits for you," Flurry answered simply. "I know where she is, we could go there right now if you want."

"How would a brat like you know? Are you trying to play me?!"

"Not at all! I can show you exactly what you want to know right now and for almost nothing from your part but one small favor."

"Ughrr... What favor?"

"Well... it's a little embarrassing, actually. You see... I have this little pet project and I need to raise someone from the dead. Not like a skeleton or a zombie though, no, I mean to revive their body back to being alive. I also need it scrubbed of its original owner. Teach my friend how and I will help you find Luna again."

"Hmph! So you expect me to have a word with this firend and teach them necromancy. Perhaps you also want me to make a wheel square?"

"I have absolutely no doubt that you of them all can manage and besides, my friend is very well known for being a sucker for learning. So, would you like to see Luna now?"

Sombra silently manifested in front of her, his menacing visage showing her he wasn't in any better mood now.

"Great!" Flurry disarmingly smiled at him nonetheless. "Let me just set us up..." Group teleportation was not something she used often but she knew exactly where she needed to go. Besides, knowing your own possible futures brings a whole host of reasons why you shouldn't mess up your spells.

"...and have them bring extra passes, give them an extra thousand bits if they ask for more. We must have the passes by the next full moon or our friends in Manehatten will be trapped there with no way to come back," Luna was in the middle of giving instructions to a thestral mare. They were standing in a circular room with a spherical lantern hanging from the ceiling. The room had no windows and only had a map a table and a sofa. The table was full of paper: letters, newspaper cut-outs, folders, pictures. There was a single door, where Luna was currently standing together with her thestral.
Flurry never really met any of them. She knew they existed and she had an idea what they are like, but she kinda wanted to someday know one. If things go nicely, she will have an opportunity to meet quite a number. If no, then just one.

The thestral looked directly at her,
"Intruders!"

Luna sharply pivoted around preparing to face whoever infiltrated her hideout,
"F-Flury Heart? Is that you?" Well, Flurry was glad that at least someone remembered her from long ago.

"Hi, Aunty Luna!" Flurry smiled happily. "Sorry for popping in so suddenly."

Luna dashed forwards to her, damn, she was fast when she wanted to be. Flurry had to remind herself exactly what her great aunt really was and how easily Luna could hurt her.
Luna visibly wanted to give her a hearty embrace, but stopped just short, remembering that much herself.

"You... you are so tall now," she remarked.

"I am old now, Aunty. Don't worry, all the birthdays you missed were boring."

Luna's face immediately darkened,
"Flurry Heart, I apo-"

"I told you, Aunty, don't worry about it," Flurry reassuringly pat her slightly below the shoulder. Luna was still taller than her so reaching Luna's shoulder wasn't exactly comfortable. "I know you are very busy and mom always said that there's time for everything, it just isn't the time yet. I promise you: there will be time for us to catch up on everything in the end. We can read novels together and paint, and gather Lavander, and play pranks on aunty Celestia. You have noooo idea just how long I had to come up with the best pranks we can do together!"

Luna actually smiled dreamily at that,
"Yes, that will be a splendid time."

"It's always better together," Flurry repeated her practised smile again. "Aunty, someone has been looking for you," Flurry gestured at the dark shadow by the wall.

"Oh..." Luna wasn't surprised, just sad. Flurry really wished she could spend some genuine time with her aunt, truth be told she always wanted to, but it was just as she said: there was time for everything and now it wasn't the time for that.

"I'll come see you again soon," Flurry said gently. "I'll even bring Mom if you want and aunty Celestia too. Moony got her and big D get along, imagine that!"

"Hah..." Luna chuckled, once. "Maybe just you is enough for now, Flurry."

"Sure thing, Aunty. You two just need a word alone now, but I'll be back soon!" Flurry then winked mischievously at the bewildered thestral mare still standing at the open door and disappeared again. Now to tell Mom about Rainbow... and probably be left without pocket money for a week for bringing her over without asking. There was no way in the world she would be able to fool Mom into thinking that she had nothing to do with her old friends popping out of thin air in her castle.

Comments

[Carbon]

I hope Flurry know what she do. Situation now is quite complicated.