Returning Home
"Well, that's new. I didn't realize we were this close."
"That's because the most obvious clue that we were close was a gigantic spinning wall of snow."
Flurry Heart was roused by the voices of Sprout and Zipp, and gave a stretch inside her sleeping bag on the back bench of the Scouticus' passenger cabin. She looked up and saw Sprout in the driver's seat, Sunny in the passenger seat, and Zipp and Pipp in between them, with Pipp holding her phone up to the windshield, most likely recording whatever was in front of them.
Sunny turned and saw that Flurry had woken up. Izzy was still fast asleep on the right-side bench.
"Morning, Flurry. You want to take a look before we head down?" Sunny invited.
Yawning, Flurry got up and walked forward, while Zipp stepped back to give her room. The alicorn stepped up next to Pipp and saw that they had all been staring down at their destination; the Crystal Empire. The towering castle was the most recognizable, and not to mention the most uncovered; everything else was half-buried in snow, or completely covered.
"We were wondering where the storm went," Zipp commented from behind her.
"What do you mean?" Flurry asked.
"The last time we were here, there was a huge vortex around the city, a subzero vortex," Sunny began to explain. "Zipp led a team of fliers to scout the area a few weeks before our trip. They made camp to see if it would dissipate, and it never did, leading us to believe it had been holding position over the city since... We don't even know when..."
"That certainly sounds like the Windigos' storm," Flurry replied.
"But if that's the case, why did it dissipate now? When it was here, unmoving for generations?" Zipp asked, ever the investigator.
"If we see them again, maybe you can ask them," Sunny answered.
Flurry shuddered.
"Let's not do that," the alicorn told them.
"Well Sprout, we're ready whenever you are," Sunny told their driver.
"Alright, everypony buckle up. I'm going in slow, and if the trailer starts to slide, the only way to pull out of it is to speed up. So hang on," the earth stallion warned, and Flurry and Pipp took their seats in back. Pipp roused Izzy just enough to get her seat belt put on.
The vehicle slowly lurched forward. The lack of the storm made the descent much easier for Sprout, as he didn't have blowing snow and ice obscuring his view. His eyes darted from the path in front of him to the side mirrors to make sure the trailer was straight behind them and not sliding, right back to the front. The rising sun cast shadows that went sharply to the left, and even with the buildings half-buried, the way the sun's rays reflected off of them, instead of being obscured by a blizzard cyclone made it all the more beautiful, the rays reflecting off of the castle, breaking up the morning shadows into slivers that dotted across the expanse of white.
"Hey now..." Sprout muttered to himself, noticing the empty trailer being pulled behind them begin to list to the left. He gently accelerated until it got in line again, then let up on the pedal, continuing the descent into the Crystal Empire valley. "Don't even want to think about doing this with that thing loaded..."
"Maybe this giant bowl of snow will start to melt. You know, if the storm doesn't start up again," Sunny offered.
"One can only hope, but I don't even want to think about how long that'll take, not with how cold it gets at night," Zipp replied.
They came to the bottom of the snow valley, and the terrain leveled out. Sprout carefully snaked the vehicle and trailer around several half-buried crystal structures until they came to the center street that went right up to the castle, barely being able to make out the tread marks from their last trip here. He applied the brakes, came to a smooth stop, then set the parking brake, before leaving the engine idling.
"And we're back. So, teams of two again? Who's with me since Hitch is back home keeping that egg warm?" Sprout asked.
"I'll tag along with you, Sprout. Flurry can show Sunny around the castle, we barely started to explore that last time," Izzy offered.
True, their first expedition had come to quite the unexpected halt once they realized they had pulled a live alicorn out of a magical limbo.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Sunny said as she unbuckled herself and got up from the passenger seat, coming back to open the floor compartments and pull out their cold weather gear so they could start suiting up. "Sprout and Izzy in the closest house, Zipp and Pipp in the library, and Flurry and me in the castle. Just a reminder, we brought containers to keep items more secure in the trailer, and they're easy enough to move around empty, but let Flurry or Izzy know when you've got one to move back to the trailer, and they can help out."
One by one, they got dressed, got their radio headsets on and linked up, and stepped out into the snow.
"It's not abnormally quiet anymore," Pipp commented as she continued recording. "What do you think stopped the storm?"
"Well, do we have any idea what changed since the last time we were here?" Zipp asked.
The bit dropped for Sunny.
"Flurry."
"Yeah?" the alicorn asked, assuming Sunny was calling for her.
"No, I mean, you're what changed. We got you back to the vehicle so quickly we didn't load anything else. You were all we took out of here last time."
"You make a good point. But, I wasn't generating the storm. I was fighting back against the Windigos that were creating it," Flurry replied.
"You think they were trying to keep you locked away?" Pipp asked.
Flurry remembered her final, taunting words to the enraged otherworldly creatures.
'You may get us, but you will go no farther, do you hear me?'
It wouldn't surprise her if they had wanted to hold her here for all eternity, their final vengeance against the Crystal Empire for keeping their frozen doom from the rest of Equestria.
"Well, we won't get much done by standing here wondering about it. Move out, ponies!" Zipp said, after opening the back of the trailer and pulling out the first empty cargo container, with her and her little sister pushing it towards the library.
"Hey, Flurry. Are you okay? I mean, being back here? Seeing your city like this?" Sunny asked.
The alicorn nodded immediately.
"Yes, I'm fine, Sunny. It hurts seeing it like this, but it could certainly be much, much worse; frozen bodies everywhere. We had the foresight to evacuate everypony in time, and I can only hope that the Empire's descendants are still among us today."
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I wonder how different it will be for the Misty story... Will it still be stormy there? I think it's a good story plot for Flurry to find her people where ever they had gone too.
Though lately, I feel like your chapters have been short for both stories... is everything ok?
Hey there. Once again, this was a wonderfully done chapter with great exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Really appreciated the reflections on certain things on the return trip to the Crystal Empire (such as the lack of a big storm during the return trip, the possible reasons for that lack of a storm and Flurry's admission on her feelings concerning both the last time she was here AND this trip). And, yeah, also really hoping to find at least a few of the surviving descendants of the Crystal Ponies sometime after this trip is done.
REALLY looking forward to more of this.
ok i did not see that coming.
I am now wondering how many pony's it really takes to charge the hart?
11546523
I'm working on five stories at once. Chapters are usually a single scene now and don't usually go above 2500 words.
I'm not sure if I've said it yet, but I really like how you write Sprouts character as a good and competent pony
Not sure if it's just me but I think it might have something to do with Flurry Heart.
lift to the left.*
Hopefully...
11546736
Nope, it's list:
to tilt to one side in a state of equilibrium (as from an unbalanced load)
11546778
Ok, now that makes sense, thx for the clarification.
I wonder what they find
Sprout
Poor flurry heart she'll probably feel even more guilty if not everybody did not evacuate
Ok so it looks like the group finally reached their destination and flurry heart is still kind of worried what she will find her old home but it looks like the others are still going to do the same thing try to find any significant items to find but I wonder what they're going to find guess we'll find out next time
11546856
I was going to joke and say
Jimmy Hoofa
Caramel Sandiego
Waldo
Amelia Erhoof
A case that reads "In case of Opaline, Break Glass" containing a giant squeaky hammer and a Pinkie Pie plushie.
But that's just being silly.
Perhaps the spell Creating the storm stopped when flurry was released
However now that its released
I believe the windegos are capable of returning again
I truly am glad for this side of the story. Sunsets was great but i must admit, seeing Princess Flurry Heart in this position. In this world... I feel like this is a real missed opportunity for the actual show.
Here you have a character whom never really got any character development, because she was a baby and thus a character you can pretty much create as you wish. One which can in all likelihood make the time skip and could end up playing some kind of key role in defeating Opaline as she could well know something more concrete about such a pony. Also i still have noticed how Zipp doesn't like the idea of being a princess or ruling. So perhaps Flurry could offer a way out of sorts. She has ruled a nation before and ruled it well for even longer then it seems Queen Haven has.
Concerning, depending on what the actual source of the storm was, and how it was maintained...
11547463
Yea, Flurry Heart wasn't really used much at all in FIM.
11552422
Indeed, which is why being an alicorn of natural birth and thus perhaps hopefully of natural immortality which means magic being gone doesn't strip Flurry Heart of her immortality as it is natural... natural her i mean. She could have been a really good character.
And now…we wait for updates xD