Legends Never Die: A New Age

by bookhorse125

...Comes a New Beginning

Flurry Heart blinked her eyes open, her memory fuzzy. The last thing she remembered was some strange motorized basket, a pair of pegasi, and then she blacked out…

She shook herself, lifting her head and looking around. She was lying across an elegant bed, but it was suspended from the wall by golden chains. A fountain was in the middle of the room, gurgling pleasantly. A bowl of fruit stood on a pedestal next to a… very strange chair.

Flurry stood up, shaking off the nausea, and went over to inspect the chair. There was a series of buttons on one of the armrests and she cautiously pressed one of them.

Instantly, the chair began to hum and rumble, and Flurry jumped backwards in shock. She lit up her horn and aimed it at the possessed seating, preparing to fire, and then-

“Ah, please don’t blast the spa chairs!” came a voice, startling Flurry. She whirled around to see that one wall of the room was made up of golden bars, and behind them, flapping her wings to keep her in the air, was a pink mare. Her curly purple mane was adorned with a small golden crown, and her eyes were a hazel color. Strangest of all were her wings, which were fluffy and were a shade of white. “They’re very expensive and would be a fortune to replace, and on top of that, they’re very hard to install, so, would appreciate it if you could not zap them.” She landed behind the bars and folded up her wings, but not before Flurry caught a glimpse of a small gold rectangle hidden underneath them.

Reluctantly, she extinguished her horn, and the pony reached through the bars to press another button. The chair stopped rumbling and fell silent and still. Flurry hesitantly approached the bars, studying her. This pony obviously knew how things worked around here, so Flurry thought it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that she had imprisoned her here… though, honestly, her surroundings didn’t look that much like a prison.

Behind the pink pegasus was another pegasus, this one green and dressed in the gold-lined silver armor of a royal guard. There was something about him that was vaguely familiar…

“You!” Flurry gasped, taking a step forward and glaring at him. “You’re one of the ones who knocked me out, aren’t you?” She lit up her horn, sunshine yellow magic dancing up and down her horn like electricity in her agitation.

The guard looked confused. “Uh… we didn’t do anything. You asked where Princess Twilight Sparkle was, and Zoom told you she wasn’t here, and hadn’t been here for a long time, and you just sort of… collapsed. I had nothing to do with it, I swear.” Even so, he took a hasty step back as he eyed Flurry’s horn with apprehension.

The memory surfaced in her foggy brain, and Flurry calmed down, dousing her horn and feeling the shock and pain and grief she had been feeling recently came crashing in, overwhelming the mare and forcing her to sit down, tears welling up in her eyes and cascading down her face and splashing into a puddle between her hooves. The two pegasi exchanged a look, but before they could say anything more, three more pegasi came running down the hallway.

One of them, a blue one who looked all-business, was dressed just like the other guard, and had Flurry’s brain been functioning properly, she would have recognized her as well as the second guard she had encountered. Another looked only a little older than Flurry, with a pale white coat, wings that faded into blue, purple, and pink, and a brilliantly hot pink mane that was streaked with blue and darker pink, spiked up and short. The third, who looked older than the other four, had a light pink coat and a lavender mane that was done up on her head, wearing all sorts of jewelry and royal regalia. The white pegasus skidded to a stop beside the smaller pink one and stared at Flurry with wide eyes.

“Woah,” she whispered. “She looks like Sunny.”

“No, not quite,” the smaller pink one said. The tone of her voice when talking to the other pegasus made Flurry think they were sisters. “Sunny’s are all golden and glowing and only appear when she wants them to. Hers look… more solid.”

The white one turned to the older pegasus. “Mom, how about you take Thunder and Zoom… and see if there are any other lost ponies in the area.” She gave her a meaningful glance that said, “We want to talk to her in private. Trust us.” Apparently, this pony was much better at trusting ponies than Flurry’s own mother, because she nodded and left, gesturing to her guards to follow in suit.

Once they rounded the corner, the white pegasus seemed to relax. She stepped up to the bars and said, “What’s your name?”

Flurry sniffed, dragged her hoof across her face to get rid of any more tears, and stood. “Flurry Heart.”

She smiled. “Hello, Flurry Heart. My name’s Zipp, and this is my sister, Pipp. Look, I’m sure you’re probably very confused, so let me just say what we know. You teleported into the city, approached two of our guards, and asked to see Twilight Sparkle, but when they told you she wasn’t here, you collapsed, and said guards brought you here so that our mom could contact us… well, actually it was our friend she really wanted to contact, but I guess we work for the time being, right, Pipp?”

The other pegasus nodded. Her eyes were flitting back and forth between Flurry’s wings and horn with a question in them, but Flurry didn’t bother trying to figure out what it was.

“Do you know where I am?” she asked Zipp. “I thought I was teleporting to Canterlot, but this can’t be Canterlot. It looks so different, and it’s filled with pegasi and all these glowing, moving pictures of ponies that I don’t recognize, and I’m so confused right now.” She almost wanted to sink onto the bed, which looked hypnotizingly soft after an extended nap in a magic bubble, but she had to get answers first.

Zipp and Pipp exchanged a glance. “This is Canterlot,” Pipp said slowly, like she wasn’t sure how to break the news. “Except… now it’s Zephyr Heights. It’s… future Canterlot.”

The words didn’t really register in Flurry’s brain, so she decided to let the matter go. So many questions crowded in her brain that it would be a relief to get some of the easier ones out of the way first. “Okay, I’m sorry if I sound rude, but who exactly are you guys?”

Pipp lifted her head, rolled her shoulders back, and spread her wings majestically, while Zipp rolled her eyes, like she knew what her sister was about to do and hated when she did it.

“We are the princesses of Zephyr Heights,” Pipp said haughtily. “Our mother is Queen Haven, and Zipp here is heir to the throne. I’m really famous, too, you know. I sing and do shows and vlogs and stuff.” She tossed her head and gave her most dazzling social-media-popstar smile.

Flurry Heart did the only thing she could do. She burst out laughing. She doubled over and almost kneeled on the floor, wheezing, tears streaming out of her eyes. Both princesses looked surprised, then Zipp’s expression shifted to amusement and Pipp’s to offended. “Okay,” Flurry gasped, standing back up. “That was a good one. That was funny. Look, I only know of three princesses in Equestria, and neither of you are one. Also, the only queen I know of is an evil shapeshifter who tried to take over Equestria multiple times. So, no way what you’re saying is true.”

Pipp started spluttering, so Zipp told her to shush and spoke to Flurry in a soft, comforting voice. “Look, Flurry Heart… I don’t know exactly where you’re from, but it definitely isn’t from this time period.” Pipp’s ears pricked up, and she looked at Flurry with a gaping mouth as if she was figuring something out.

“Do you think it’s like-” She broke off, not sure how to put what she was thinking into words, but Zipp seemed to grasp it.

“You got one, too?”

Pipp nodded. “A white unicorn with a curly purple mane. She - she taught me to be generous with what I have.”

Flurry’s own ears pricked up at the mention of that pony. Zipp looked surprised at her sister and said, “I met a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. She told me to always be loyal to the ponies I care about, even if they don’t deserve it.” She turned back to Flurry. “But… they were all sparkly and stuff, and they disappeared.”

“You met Rarity and Rainbow Dash?” Flurry asked in a hushed voice. “Where are they? Are they here? Can I talk to them? Do they know where my aunt is?”

“They’re not here, Flurry,” Zipp said mournfully. “They haven’t been here for generations. This is the future of the world they left behind. I’m sorry, but… I don’t think anypony you knew before is alive anymore.”

All potential questions vanished from Flurry’s head as the weight of Zipp’s words sank in. Flurry stumbled backwards, mumbling, “No… no… it’s not possible…” She collapsed onto the floor, unable to stand anymore, unable to do anything, really. The bars raised, but Flurry didn’t care. Zipp put her wing around her, and Pipp held her hoof, but Flurry didn’t notice.

Her mother was gone, her father was gone, her aunt was gone, everypony she knew was dead… She choked back a sob and noticed that Zipp and Pipp were having a conversation.

“...should get Sunny,” Zipp was saying. “I think she’ll be able to explain this better than we can.”

Pipp nodded in agreement. “You go get Sunny, I’ll show her the airstation. You’re faster than me, anyways. Zipp,” she added when her sister made sounds like she wanted to interrupt, “trust me on this.”

The white pegasus slowly nodded and withdrew her wing, leaving the cell and galloping down the hallway. Pipp gently helped Flurry Heart to her feet, keeping a wing over her back to keep her steady. “Come on,” she said, leading her out of the cell, “there’s something I want to show you.”

Flurry didn’t care much where they went, but soon she was feeling strong enough to walk without Pipp’s support, which was fortunate, because the pegasus princess led her down a dark and excluded hallway, pried open a grate, and told Flurry Heart to jump.

She landed in the basket of a hot air balloon - Just like the one my aunt used to have, Flurry thought with another wave of grief - which was suspended over a large, open room. Pipp joined her and pushed a lever, which allowed the basket to begin lowering to the floor. Flurry looked around and noticed the tables lined with artifacts, shelves packed with books, and then she lifted her eyes to the stained glass window that took up an entire wall and gasped.

“I know, right?” Pipp said, trying to sound cheerful for Flurry’s sake, leaping gently out of the basket when it touched the ground. “Isn’t it amazing? Izzy did a great job of putting it back together. It was all broken when we found it, but-”

“No, no,” Flurry interrupted, pointing at the large pink six-pointed star at the top of the window, surrounded by five smaller white stars. “That’s my aunt’s cutie mark,” she whispered. “I’d know it anywhere. But why is it here?”

“My friend Sunny might be able to help you with that,” Pipp said after hesitating. Now she stared at Flurry Heart as if her horn was creating bright pink rhinos that were now parading through the streets and sneezing glitter. To be fair, she could do that, but she wasn’t doing that right now… right? “Right now, I’ll take you through what we do know about what happened.”

She explained to Flurry the copies of the newspaper articles that they found in the sheriff’s office in Maretime Bay, the copy of the map Sunny’s father had found, the box full of friendship journals, the books crammed on the shelves, the artifacts lining the walls, the window, the crystals it displayed, her friends’ theories on what happened, and was explaining how she and her friends had brought magic back, not once but twice, when she noticed that Flurry wasn’t listening. In fact, the new pony was curled up in a corner, shivering despite the fact that it was a relatively warm summer’s day.

“Hey…” Pipp walked over to her and spread her wing over the shivering pony. “Are you okay? I can stop if it’s too much. I’m sorry if-”

“You’re fine,” Flurry interrupted, speaking quietly. Pipp noticed that this was the only place in the entire station where you couldn’t see the star at the top of the window. “I’m just… not ready to remember all this stuff yet.”

Pipp nodded, completely understanding. “There’s just… one thing I wanted to ask you. Did you ever know… a pony named Rarity? From what you said earlier, I thought you might recognize the name or something. It’s totally fine if you don’t, I was just wondering.”

Flurry nodded, and her eyes got a sad, far-off look in them. “She was one of my aunt’s best friends,” she whispered. “Element of Generosity… master of fashion.” She chuckled a bit at the memory. “She and my aunt and four other ponies went on all sorts of adventures together. I was too young to remember most of them, but I’ve been told the stories so many times it’s like I was.”

“Y-you say it like-” Pipp started, but broke off once she noticed a bright flash in front of the window. She trotted out from behind the bookshelf so that her friends could see her. Izzy, Hitch, and Sprout looked a bit alarmed, but Sunny looked like she was going to explode, either from excitement or worry, Pipp wasn’t sure, and she didn’t think Sunny did, either. Zipp was looking winded and exhausted, her wings flopping on the floor on either side of her. She was probably too tired to even flap. Sunny spotted Pipp and ran over to her.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Zipp was too tired to tell us much, just that we had to come to Zephyr Heights. Has something bad happened? Something terrible? Is magic going to disappear again?”

“See, this is why I keep telling Mom to hurry up with those cell phone towers,” Sprout was saying to Hitch, both of them watching Zipp.

“Wow,” Pipp heard Izzy whisper, and she spun around to see that the purple unicorn had pranced right up to Flurry Heart and was grinning at her. The other pony was standing and looking at Izzy as though she reminded her of somepony. “Hi, new friend! My name’s Izzy!”

“What the-” Sunny sidestepped Pipp and cautiously approached Flurry. Her eyes widened as she noticed Flurry’s wings and horn, both solid and not made of glowing light. She opened and closed her mouth, unable to speak.

“Like I said,'' Zipp panted, her wings still drooping, but able to form somewhat legible words now. “Emergency.”

“But-” Sprout looked back and forth between Sunny and Flurry with a bewildered expression on his face. “Sunny, you - But the crystals - How does she-” He turned to Hitch as if expecting answers, but the other stallion looked just as confused as he was.

“Hello,” Sunny said gently, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. “My name is Sunny Starscout, and these are my friends. This is Izzy, that one over there is Pipp, and those three over there are Zipp, Sprout, and Hitch. Forgive me for saying this, but would you mind telling us where you’re from? There’s just a lot of confusion surrounding you, and if you could help us out, we would appreciate it.”

Flurry studied the mare in front of her. Her pink mane was streaked with red, yellow, and blue, which was unusual. Flurry got a sense of strong magic from her, though not as strong as her mother’s or her aunts. Don’t cry, don’t cry-

“My name is Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire,” she said, automatically lifting her head a centimeter. She pointed at the star on top of the window, saying, “Twilight Sparkle was my aunt.”

Author's Note:

Gonna be posting chapters by the hour today - got about six more that are ready to go.

Or maybe I'll do them all at once. You guys tell me what you'd prefer.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Comments

[bookhorse125]

Listed in Popular Stories, thank you so much!

[Yoshifan30]

Instantly, the chair began to hum and rumble, and Flurry jumped backwards in shock. She lit up her horn and aimed it at the possessed seating, preparing to fire, and then-

Aww poor flurry heart she never seen these Technologies this is going to be very hard for her to be in this generation

[Yoshifan30]

Flurry Heart did the only thing she could do. She burst out laughing. She doubled over and almost kneeled on the floor, wheezing, tears streaming out of her eyes. Both princesses looked surprised, then Zipp’s expression shifted to amusement and Pipp’s to offended. “Okay,” Flurry gasped, standing back up. “That was a good one. That was funny. Look, I only know of three princesses in Equestria, and neither of you are one. Also, the only queen I know of is an evil shapeshifter who tried to take over Equestria multiple times. So, no way what you’re saying is true.”

Wow again that is a lot to take in

Although she kind of forgot that there was another queen and it's from the hippogriff Queen Novo

[Yoshifan30]

Ok so it looks like flurry heart is woken up in the cellar but it looks like it's the same place that Izzy and sunny was but anyway she got confused where she was until the Pegasus sisters came along At first she was a little confused what was going on but Zipp and pipp explain everything what was happening and where she has but flurry heart didn't wanted to believe this but unfortunately it is the truth so zipp went back to get sunny and the others and pipp show her around the artifacts they found but after that sunny and the others finally made it here and something tells me this is going to be a long explanation about this

[Magic135]

I thought it was funny when Flurry laughed when Pipp said she and Zipp are princesses.