Home At Last
The snow started right around the middle of the second day. Already, almost everypony was shivering and were huddled together, and the frozen ground had specks of white on it that crunched under their hooves as they walked, but the flakes didn’t start falling until after they’d had their lunch break.
What started out as a gentle rain of snow soon became a freezing blizzard with winds that howled around them, whipping Flurry’s mane into her face. She could hardly see a meter in front of her, but Zipp somehow found her in the whirling snow. The pegasus princess’s face was covered up, but the look in her eyes told Flurry everything without needing words. She looked around and spotted a vague shape that resembled Sunny a few meters away. Sighing, Flurry lit up her horn and teleported them to just outside the protective shield of the Crystal Empire, where it was still pouring on the blizzardy conditions.
“This way!” Flurry called over the wind, lighting her horn so that the others could see her. “Follow me!”
The group of ponies stumbled together forward until they crashed through the magical shield and promptly collapsed upon arrival. Just like always, the sun was shining, helping melt some of the snow that had gathered in the streets and making the bits of crystal showing through gleam and glitter. Flurry remained on her hooves, having grown slightly used to the brutal weather around the Empire during her lifetime, and she removed the heavy winter gear they had packed.
“Did anypony feel something?” Sunny gasped, managing to stand up and looking around wildly. “Just a little while ago? It felt like - like my whole world went topsy-turvey and then righted itself again.” She looked at Flurry with both a question and an accusation in her eyes.
The princess smiled easily. “That’s just the shield’s magic,” she assured her. “It makes the surrounding environment a little disorienting, but I promise you’ll get used to it.”
“Oh my stars,” Pipp whispered, standing up. “Look. It - it’s beautiful.”
The other ponies stumbled to their hooves and looked in the same direction as Pipp. A huge palace stretched into the sky, surrounded by smaller buildings built to replicate crystals. Drifts of snow covered the streets but were slowly melting in the warm sunshine, and smaller crystal formations dotted the landscape.
“I think if that pony who collects crystals in Bridlewood would literally die upon seeing this place,” Hitch said, and everypony laughed.
Flurry led them into town, pointing out various landmarks as they went. “That’s the library, that’s where the guards usually lived, that’s the statue that we gave Spike after he saved the Empire, oh, and this is where we had jousting tournaments at the Crystal Fair!” Just walking through the city was making Flurry emotional - she kept remembering all that was, and knowing that it may never be again made her heart ache. This city used to be so alive - now it was little more than a ghost town.
“Your palace is huge,” Pipp said, reaching instinctively under her wing to pull out her cell phone and, remembering that it was no longer there, dropped her hoof. Zipp nudged her and said, “Bet I can beat you to the top.”
The princess leaped out of all her stuff and soared into the sky, whooping and hollering as she raced up the side of the crystal palace. Pipp laughed and soon met her sister in the sky, where they proceeded to do loop-de-loops and flips and all sorts of tricks.
“Did you ever have siblings, Flurry?” Izzy asked. The princess flinched, and Izzy hastily added, “Sorry, sorry, I - Forget I ever asked.”
“No, no, it’s okay,” Flurry assured her. “My parents decided that, after everything that happened with me and my Crystalling and the Crystal Heart, they wouldn’t have anymore kids. I still had plenty of friends my age, but none felt close enough to be like a brother or a sister. I always thought it would be nice.”
“What's Crystalling?” Sunny asked, looking up from her notebook, where she was furiously writing down everything she saw and trying to sketch a map of the city.
“It’s when a new baby is presented to the Empire, and they share their light and love with her, which is then transported to the Crystal Heart to make it stronger,” Flurry explained, then laughed as Sunny began to write at the speed of sound again. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
She ducked under the heavy purple curtains and held them aloft with her magic to allow the others to enter. Zipp and Pipp noticed that they were leaving and hurried to catch up.
“This is the Crystal Heart,” Flurry said proudly, gesturing to the artifact suspended in midair. “It keeps the Empire safe from the lovely conditions you saw out there and powered by the love and light of the Crystal Empire’s citizens.” Her smile faded as she realized what this might mean. “I suppose it might need recharging sometime soon here, but…”
She felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked over to see Zipp, who said, “We’ll get your kingdom back, Flurry - don’t you worry.”
“Shouldn’t we send a message to Mom saying that we’re here and safe?” Pipp asked, her hooves twitching as if they had never gone this long without holding a cell phone and snapping a selfie. “Flurry said in two days, and it’s been almost that.”
“There should be paper in the library,” Flurry volunteered.
“There’s a library?” Sunny exclaimed, nearly dropping her journal as her eyes widened to the size of the moon.
The alicorn laughed. “Come on, I’ll show you the way,” she said, walking towards one of the doors in one of the four pillars that supported the castle. “Though, Sunny, I’m afraid all of it will need to stay up here for the time being.”
Sunny didn’t seem to notice, as she was furiously scribbling in her journal and muttering to herself, “So many books… ancient history… all the reading! The research, the discoveries, the stories! I just… I can’t…” She put her journal away and took a deep, calming breath, deciding to distract herself by looking around them like everypony else as Flurry led them through the palace. Once the alicorn pushed open the doors to the library, however, Sunny lost every sense of calm she had ever had.
“THIS IS THE BEST! DAY! EVER!”
Without really noticing, Sunny’s wings and horn appeared, and she flew off to inspect the shelves full of books which, by some miracle, were only slightly frozen to the crystal shelves. Sunny pried a book off, read the title, squealed, and repeated the process until she had an entire stack of unread material in her arms. She then settled down on the floor, opened the first book in her pile, and began to read.
Meanwhile, Flurry used her magic to thaw a scroll, quill, and ink, which she then handed to Pipp, who looked like she didn’t know what to do with it, before Zipp took over and began drafting a letter to their mother.
“So, Sunny,” Hitch said in a teasing voice, walking over to where the mare was sitting, “did you find anything interesting?”
She gave him a playful smirk. “Only the most amazing things ever,” she said, shoving the book she was reading at Hitch so he could read the cover.
“How to Properly Polish Your Crystals?” he asked skeptically, raising his eyebrow at her.
Sunny nodded overenthusiastically. “Yes! It is such an interesting read! You can really learn a lot from books like these, you know,” she reprimanded him, going back to her book so she didn’t see Hitch roll his eyes. “Would you mind finding me some more?”
“You’re already going to be here for a week with just those!” Hitch protested, but he sensed that there was no use in arguing with her.
Flurry was teaching Izzy the spell she was using to thaw things so that they could hopefully fix up a few of the castle’s rooms for that night. When the purple unicorn finally managed to unstick a candlestick from a desk, she cried, “Look! I did it, I did it!”
“Good job, Izzy!” Flurry congratulated her, turning to the others. “Hey, guys? Izzy and I are going to go unfreeze a few rooms, so, we’ll be… around.”
“Oo, I want to help!” Sunny exclaimed, leaping up and knocking her tower of books into Hitch, who had come back with more.
“...Are you sure?” Flurry finally said, glancing at Izzy. Sunny had been acting more like herself lately, but Flurry was still slightly wary around her. Izzy shrugged. “You don’t want to stay here and read?”
“Pfft, I can read anytime,” Sunny said dismissively, trotting over. “But how often do you get to see an entire palace that nopony has stepped hoof in for years? This is something I don’t want to miss!”
“B-but what am I supposed to do with all these?” Hitch spluttered, waving a hoof at the massive stack of books on the floor.
“Oh. I suppose you can put them back,” Sunny said good naturedly as she ducked out the door with Flurry and Izzy. “Have fun!” she called back to them. “What does Hitch’s face look like?” she whispered to the other two horned ponies as they left.
“Uh… something like this,” Izzy said, rearranging her face to look like Hitch’s pouty face. “Why can’t you turn around and see for yourself?”
Sunny looked shocked at the very prospect. “What? Turn around and ruin the dramatic effect? That is not how we work here, Izzy Moonbow. No, that is not how we work at all. One of the privileges of having friends from foalhood is being able to have them clean up after you,” she added teasingly with a sly grin at the unicorn, who snickered.
“I always thought that was what you were supposed to do with younger siblings who idolized you,” Flurry said thoughtfully. “At least, that’s what Aunt Rainbow Dash told me I should do if I ever got a younger sibling, though I never did, so it didn’t really do much use.”
“Well, that, too,” Sunny agreed, “but as I am lacking a younger sibling who idolizes me - or any younger sibling, in fact - Hitch is the next best thing I got.” She gasped. “Oh my stars, what room is that?”
“That’s the kitchen.”
“And that?”
“A spare bedroom.”
“And that?”
“A shoe closet.”
“Really?”
Flurry snorted. “Of course not. That’s the throne room. We don’t really have shoe closets. More like shoe boxes. Because most of us only have about one pair that we only use on special occasions, and that’s it.”
“There’s a throne room?” Sunny looked as if she might just pass out.
“Is it sparkly?” Izzy demanded.
“Number one, why would there be a palace without a throne room? Number two, yes, it is very sparkly, or it will be, once we get done with it.”
Both mares’ faces lit up before they scrambled to get through the door at the exact same time when it was only open enough to let a single pony get through, resulting in them both landing on the floor in a tangled pile.
“Woah,” Izzy murmured, pushing Sunny off her and standing up. The other pony stood up, too, and looked around in wonder.
“This is. The best. Day. Ever,” Sunny whispered to herself.
“I think you already said that,” Flurry said teasingly, pushing the doors open and entering without mishap. Most of the things inside the palace only seemed to have a thin layer of ice over them that easily broke, though whether that was true for the rest of the city remained to be seen. “Or do you say that for every day?”
“Not every day,” Sunny insisted indignantly. “Only on the best ones.”
“Which is every day,” Izzy said, laughing as Sunny swatted her with her golden wing.
“Anyways,” Sunny continued, looking around, “where should we sta-”
A wave of heat suddenly engulfed the room, and when it ended, Sunny and Izzy looked up to see Flurry’s horn still glowing.
Her cheeks turned red. “Sorry. I was wondering if I could do an entire room all at once, and… I can?” She looked around the room, as if scanning it for any bits of ice that may have escaped her. “Maybe we should split up. We’ll cover more ground faster.”
“Sure,” Izzy agreed. “I’ll stay with Sunny, and you can go by yourself.” Flurry nodded and flew out of the room. Izzy turned to follow, but before she could, Sunny caught her arm, and the unicorn could tell that, by the serious look on her friend’s face, that this was something she wanted to talk about in private. “What is it?”
Sunny took a deep breath. “Izzy, you know when I’m… not quite me?” Her friend nodded. “Well, that’s because… I’m not. There’s something or somepony putting these thoughts in my head and making me act like this, and I know that they aren’t true, but I’ve got no way of resisting them, except… I think I might have found one. I’m still afraid, though. I’m scared that I’ll get you all hurt in some way, scared that you won’t want to be friends with me anymore… I already lost you all once, and I’m afraid it’ll happen again.”
“Sunny…” Izzy put her hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. “You don’t have to be afraid. We’re not going anywhere. We’ll help you through this, no matter what. We can-”
“No,” Sunny said, her voice choked up, pulling away. “No, Izzy, I just… I don’t want them to know. I feel like it’ll put them in danger. I’m telling you because you’re my best friend, and I want you to know what’s really going on. You have to promise me that, if things go bad, you’ll protect the others. If I’m right about this, there won’t be any coming back from it if I fall. I want you to keep them away from me, keep them safe. Promise me, Izzy.”
She still looked surprised and a bit confused, but she said, “I promise, Sunny. And just so you know, you’re my very best friend, too.” The two embraced. “Now, what do you say about warming this place up a little?”
Sunny laughed. “I say that’s a great idea.”
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I would say how in the world is there a magical Shield but then again because of the magic returns I get that answer my question but what about the crystal heart
Lol that is so like how Twilight will react to that
Oh wow they finally made it after a frightful Journey they finally made it to the Crystal Empire and it looks like since the magic Returns the shield and the Crystal Heart is activated but who activated it but anyway flurry heart show the others around her kingdom which is like deja vu all over again like season 3 premier and sunny it's starting to feel a little bit better but not really she even admitted to Izzy something is wrong with her but she didn't want to worry the others even though her attitude did not help her situation but hopefully she can find a way to stop it without losing anybody well let's see how this will go next time
Wow, this chapter was INTERESTING!
11191784
Serious Twily vibes coming from Sunny at this point. The Twilynanas gene 🧬 must run thick, even through earth ponies
Well at least someone knows now.
…
she didn’t make the number 1 mistake in that situation