With the late morning rays of the sun shining through the windows, the Crystal Castle somehow felt more of a ghost town to Flurry than before. When she was here last, the sun hadn't hit the castle for weeks due to the blizzard that had done nothing but intensified until she had made the call to evacuate the city.
Being in these halls brought the memories rushing back. She began to miss her staff, her hairdresser, but most of all, she missed Spike.
But again, she was grateful that they had evacuated in time. The very last thing she wanted to see in any building they checked out was frozen corpses huddled in the corners under blankets trying to get whatever warmth they could.
"So where do you want to look first?" Sunny asked as she walked beside the alicorn in the frozen castle corridors.
"My quarters... It was the last place I was before we put a stop to the Windigos," Flurry replied.
"Did it ever get lonely up here?" Sunny asked.
"Lonely? Not usually. Dull? Yeah, more often than I'd like to admit. It was something my mom always tried to warn me about, and I never really knew what she meant until I took over," Flurry answered, pausing as they came to her bedroom on the fourth floor.
The Crystal Princess' quarters were relatively straightforward and simple; a bed, nightstand, desk, closet, and a triple full-length mirror. The sun coming in through the open window further showed how nearly everything had frosted over; the sheets hanging off of the bed where Flurry had tossed them on her final night here didn't so much as billow in the slight breeze, as they had frozen in place.
Flurry walked over to the desk and her horn lit up as she reached into her saddlebags, coming out with a small ice scraper. She placed the blade diagonally against the frost, and began scraping away the ice, revealing the glass surface. Sunny had been looking at the frozen state of the bed, and came over to see what the princess was doing, watching as the scraping revealed a piece of parchment that had been sandwiched between the glass and the oak surface. When the frost had been cleared, she leaned over the desk, and read the writing:
To whomever finds this letter,
I won't presume to know who you are or what you're doing up here; perhaps a citizen of this fair city that is hopefully returning home, or a descendant. I hope it hasn't been too long. While I have not personally witnessed any of the unrest down south, the very mention of it breaks my heart.
I do wonder what the accounts will be like. To see what the collapse of Cloudsdale must have been like firsthand when it came down on top of Canterlot, or Ponyville as it was slowly overtaken by the Everfree Forest. Every report I have received in the months following have only described the situation as worsening.
While I yearned to join my evacuating citizens, I believe that it is my destiny to use the Crystal Heart to banish the Windigos to oblivion before they can end life everywhere. Ponies shouldn't cooperate together under threat of a frozen fate; they should do so because they love and care for each other.
If you find this, and the lives of Equestrians are still dire, I implore you; learn to love each other again, please. Princess Luna, Spike, and the crystal ponies sacrificed their home so that all of you would get that chance.
Sincerely,
Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire
"I'm always afraid to ask how bad things got," Sunny commented as she stepped away from the desk, looking over at Flurry for a moment before walking over to the window, looking out at the half-buried city. "All the unity that Princess Twilight and her friends accomplished... All that becoming undone... I don't like thinking about it."
"Honestly, neither do I, Sunny," Flurry said. "But if there's one caveat you could take away, make it this; that no matter how much you revere somepony, no matter how high a pedestal you put them up on, it's very important to remember that nopony is perfect; Not Twilight, not Celestia or Luna, or me."
Sunny smiled at the alicorn as she took the scraper and very gently began to pry the panel of glass up off of the desk, just enough to pull out the parchment, putting it in a protective envelope before depositing it back into her saddlebags.
"I'd say that's another piece for the museum, if you'll allow it," Sunny said. Flurry immediately nodded.
"You won't have to ask me permission for much, Sunny. The only things I'd like to keep are..."
The alicorn paused as she looked around, and came over to her nightstand, where a frosted picture frame sat next to the bedside lamp. She again took her ice scraper, and gently ran it from corner to corner, revealing a photograph of her mom and dad, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor.
"This is all I really want to keep for myself. Mementos. I know there should be a journal of Twilight's that she sent me. I'm honestly not sure where I put it. It should be around here somewhere..."
Sunny began to pull on the frozen drawer of the nightstand, before likewise getting out a scraper and began to gently pry at the edges.
"What about Yakyakistan? That's further north, right?" Sunny asked as she began to gently work at the edges of the drawer.
"It is, in one of the valleys of the Crystal Mountains," Flurry responded as she carefully slid the picture frame of her mom and dad into her saddlebags.
"Do you think they're still up there?" Sunny asked.
"No reason to think they wouldn't be. But I won't even pretend to know that we'll be able to easily resume diplomatic relations with the other nations of Equus. When the civil unrest started, most nations wanted no part of it. Not when the nation that began to unite all the races began to break apart at the seams," Flurry explained.
"Do you have any idea how it happened? It couldn't have all been Cloudsdale collapsing down on Canterlot," Sunny asked.
"No, it wasn't all that. I don't want to recite events to you from memory, because those could prove to be inaccurate. But I will say to remember that nopony is perfect, Sunny. Nopony... And those that think they are were a very big part of the problem."
Love the Flurry art! We need more awesome stories with Flurry in it and hope she comes to G5 soon. I have to wonder if Sunset and Misty will find the letter and picture? I feel like we might be seeing some hints from this chapter to the other story. 🧐
Can’t wait for more.
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I'm keeping them pretty much separate. Honestly, writing them both right now is a little tricky because they are both currently up in the Crystal Empire.
In Sunrise, Sunny has already found and removed Flurry's letter for the museum, so Sunset has likely already seen it.
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Oh yea forgot about that. It’s cool you’re writing two stories which are both at the same location. It’s nice having them separate!
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One is likely going to end decidedly sooner than the other one. It's going to take a hard turn fairly quickly.
Not saying which one, because I'm a slutty tease. In a pure fanfiction sense.
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I bet it’s Flurry’s story here… I hope she gets a few good chapters before the end which I assume this alternate universe will have a sequel?
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You're likely correct as this story was the branching "What if" timeline.
As for this chapter, I have to wonder who thought they were perfect, cuz I'm pretty sure all of the Alicorns in the past never thought they were.
All this talk of perfect makes me think of a certain bug, and makes me want to bust out into song...
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Instead of Opaline I won’t mind the villain be the bug queen. Would be cool. Though I definitely like to see Flurry vs Opaline
Yeah that's always another question I wonder what happened to the other creatures around Equestria that's still a huge major mystery that still not solved yet
Ok so flurry heart and sunny are checking around the palace for any potential history item and flurry is hoping not to find anybody here who didn't evacuated that would be very heartbreaking but it looks like they went to her room where everything was when she disappeared and she even wrote a letter to anybody in the future if somebody find it and she really missed her family and friends I really feel bad for her I wonder what else could happen now guess we'll find out next time
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No plans for a sequel to either branch, as of now.
Make Your Mark is moving entirely too slow, and I have no idea where to take this series next.
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That is alright. Take the time to figure it out.
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Both the series you could diverge from what is happening in the series and just more take inspiration from them. With both your could lead up to the final confrontation with Opaline, with her being the base cause that has caused all the problems.
For this story specifically you just mentioned something this chapter that could be a good plot going forward. The other nations. It could be about Flurry helping set up relations with the other nations again and even defrosting the Crystal Empire again?
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To be fair, this series (in both branches) is gradually going more and more into the Alternate Universe territory anyway (not that such a thing is bad), so you should just feel free to trust your imagination and use that fact as freedom to do the stories your way.
Howdy. Once again, you did a great job on the exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Definitely appreciated the dialogue between Sunny and Flurry as they were going through that room and Flurry's memories. The reaction to spotting Luna's letter was also well done, as was the slight foreshadowing for Flurry's eventual encounter with Opaline (i.e. the truthful observation of how nobody is perfect and those that think they are need to be watched out for).
REALLY looking forward to more of this.
And, on another note, I'm pretty sure the yaks are not only still around (well, the descendants of the G4 yaks anyway) but are very likely thriving. This is because the yaks never had magic - just pure brute strength and very thick fur. Thus, the disappearance of magic would have very little, if any, effect on them. Griffons are also very likely to still be around and, if their abilities (being based on a hybrid of the abilities of birds of prey and jungle cats with the addition of opposable thumbs) were NOT magic based like the Pegasi, might have been at the top of the heap prior to magic's return (which, admittedly is a theory inspired by Nitro Indigo's AU fan-fic Rainbows After Rain and one of the sidebar author's notes concerning additional information on that world).
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Honestly, you shouldn't worry about following cannon. When you start a series as early into a shows run as you did it's all but guaranteed things are going to diverge.
And yeah, I do hope we get more MYM soon. I was promised pony Woodstock and if they don't deliver...
Wait, what about Flurry’s crown? That should have still been there, right?
It's hard to believe that even after everything Princess Twilight and her friends did for Equestria would only change the way the future would be drastically.
You forgot to add a period at the end of the paragraph.
Why does something tell me she might be hinting opaline.
Aw, Flurry...she's not wrong though. I'm intrigued to learn what might have happened because of those ponies who thought they were perfect
Permission to hug the flurry?
She needs it A LOT
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Hopefully chapter 4 will give us something
At the very least i do hope flurry gets a good ending here partially
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True
I mean look at equestria tell your tale
Its based off the idea of what if sunset came back in g5?
Its taking the stories we get from tell your tail but adding its own spin to it!
That's a good way to do it
Great chapter!
The mention of Yakyakistan really makes me hope that, in the future, you end up doing a story in this series about the other races of Equestria reappearing and interacting with the ponies again. Though there would likely be quite a bit of tension since the ponies were the ones responsible for everything falling apart in the first place.
I wonder who she could be talking about. Could should be about to tell her to watch out for a bad egg called Opaline?
I do truly believe Flurry Heart is a wonderful addition to this little world. She is possibly one of the few ponies whom saw what happened and understood it at least somewhat. She is part of this world's memory due to her extended lifespan She would be an amazing help to bring a truly golden world.
Where'd you get that breathtaking artwork of an adult Flurry from? Deviantart?
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All of it comes from Derpibooru.