Scattered Pages - Ponyville Ciderfest App Stories by RQK

by RQK

#TheWatchersDeal - The Watcher’s Deal

The Watcher’s Deal

Code Word: #TheWatchersDeal

The page is there. You see it floating within the alicorn’s mare’s magical grasp. But it’s everything else about this encounter that gives you pause.

You are above the Crystal Empire. The air is lifelessly frigid and a constant low whistle of an ever-constant breeze fills your ears. You can barely see the streets of the Crystal Empire under a thick layer of clouds, but you can see the magnificent Crystal Palace poking its way up.

You stand on nothing. And yet you do not fall through everything. This feels impossible.

You don’t even remember how you got here.

Moreover, the tall and lean mare before you similarly stands on nothing. Her piercing gaze is as cold as the snow below. She also carries some strange familiarity.

You do not recognize the scar over her right eye nor the image of a crystallized tree that is her cutie mark. However, you know the large, opal eyes and the soft, fuchsia coat. Her mane, long and with well-rounded curls, is a striking gradient of cerise and violet that is punctuated by a stripe of arctic blue.

A certain princess known best by those close to you as a mere foal comes to mind.

“Flurry Heart?” you hazard.

The alicorn chuckles. “In some sense. My name is Crystal Faire, but you would know me as Flurry Heart. You may call me that if you wish.”

There is no more doubt. Before you is the princess of the Crystal Empire; older, colder, and far removed from the triumphant character depicted in stained glass windows at Canterlot Castle.

She isn’t what you expected.

Crystal Faire—this strange version of Flurry Heart—chuckles. “I know I am not what you expect. But just as your choices up to this point have at last brought you before me, so have all the choices I and those around me molded and shaped me into this form. Just as a different set of choices would have produced some ‘me’ you are more familiar with.”

That had been a well-timed response. It was as if she was reading your thoughts.

She tilts her head. “Well, it’s not so much reading thoughts. I just have a special kind of magic that allows me to know what you will do next.”

Her gaze feels soul-piercing now. How?

“The how is unimportant. Just have confidence that I know much about you. And I know why you have come before me today,” she says. She flashes the page from the Book of All Stories.

She’s not wrong. You have come for the page.

You cannot help but watch her carefully as she now paces. Despite circling through the air, you can hear her hoofsteps echoing through infinity. You wonder if you truly are where you seem right now; if she really is who she says, or if she is something alien.

“You have been rather busy lately. You’ve had quite the hoof in directing the course of several histories. That kirin has caused quite a bit of trouble.” She chuckles and turns her gaze toward the sky as if contemplative. “As entertaining as it is, its time is finite. And I have confidence that this series of affairs will soon enough reach its proper, correct conclusion.”

She stops. Her eyes wander. “In such cases, I am not one to intervene, certainly not directly. I am content to observe you and your struggles, just as I have been.”

Crystal Faire looks at you out of the corner of her eye. “That being said, over the course of my life, I have become one who… nudges things in particular directions. Particularly… for affairs such as these.”

Your eyes fall on the page again. She hasn’t used the page—not yet, at least. But now you wonder what she might use it for—if she wants to use it.

Crystal Faire turns her gaze to the Crystal Empire. She watches it and considers it.

“As it so happens, I do have a particular use in mind for this page,” she says. She pauses to examine it. “However… perhaps it can be used for other purposes. You have, after all, gone through the trouble of coming all this way to find me.”

You see a yellowish aura course through her horn before she disappears. The page remains and flies through the air. You reach for it as it arcs around you, but you can’t get a grip on it. It’s avoiding you.

“Thus… let us make a deal,” Crystal Faire says, suddenly behind you. You whirl to face her.

And your mind races at what she means when she says ‘deal’.

“As I am aware,” she continues as the page rejoins her, “a few factions are vying for pages like this one. Heroes, villains like Queen Chrysalis, chaotic types like Discord…” She then points at you. “I will allow you to choose which faction obtains it.”

She disappears again.

“However,” she says in your ear, now suddenly next to you, “I will then choose how that faction uses it.”

As you recoil away, she chuckles and backs off. “And that is it. You get what you want, and I still get to choose my… nudge. So to speak. I believe this works out well for the both of us, don’t you think?”

You stop to think. While this doesn’t necessarily get you the page, the page will go where you want it to. It seems like a good deal. The question is… will she honor her word?

And what did she want to use it for anyway? You ponder this as you look down at the storm clouds surrounding the Crystal Empire.

“I wonder… what do you think of me?” She is suddenly in your other ear. “Am I heroic? Villainous? Am I an agent of chaos?”

Before you could give any sort of response, you see her reappear at a distance.

“Don’t answer that,” she commands. “I have seen what you will say about me already. So… time to choose.”

[CHOICE]

Which faction should Crystal Faire give a page to?

> Heroes.

> Villains.

> Chaos.

[ENDING A: HEROES]

Crystal Faire smirks. “So you choose to give this to the heroes.”

At first, nothing happens. You expect the page to disappear somewhere. But it does not.

Instead, Crystal Faire creates a quill out of thin air. And she hums a soft tune as she writes a few choice lines into the page. Lines you cannot see.

Before you can protest her using it instead of giving it to some heroes, a loud whistle erupts from the Crystal Palace as a rainbow shoots from its tip. The rainbow explodes in all directions, dispelling the entirety of the storm and revealing clear, sunny skies in all directions.

And when you next look down, you can finally see the streets full of crystal ponies glistening in the sunlight. Some appear as if they are cheering. It’s a familiar sight; a normal sight.

At that, the page disappears. Crystal Faire begins to depart, passing by you as she goes.

She stops for but a moment and says, “You chose well. As I knew you would.”

She then trots onward before disappearing into nothing; a loud bang signals her departure.

And now you are left alone to stand there, impossibly as you are, to ponder what she has just done.

(+1 page for Heroes)

[ENDING B: VILLAINS]

Crystal Faire cracks her neck. “So you choose to give this to the villains. Well…”

The page suddenly disappears within a loud bang. You can’t fathom where it went—yet.

She suddenly appears in front of you. “Now that you have chosen,” she says, her voice now much more sinister, “allow me to let you meet an old friend of mine—some version of her, anyway.”

Before you can react, your world folds together. All your senses collapse into a single point, and for a moment, you do not exist.

When it comes back out, you fall and hit the ground. It’s hard and green-colored and feels… organic.

You look up to see a horde of changelings staring back at you. They all have blue eyes, black carapaces, and numerous holes in their legs. You see a much larger one of them—Queen Chrysalis—looking down on you from atop her rocky throne.

You see another, colorful changeling. Thorax, ascended with his green carapace and orange horns, lays unconscious underneath one of Queen Chrysalis’ legs.

A quick glance around sees several cocoons containing the silhouettes of ponies hanging from the ceiling.

Queen Chrysalis throws her head back and laughs. “Well, you must be the one who I should thank for giving me that page of tremendous power. See what I was able to do with it?”

With a swift kick, Queen Chrysalis sends Thorax tumbling to the floor. He barely responds.

And now she turns to you. “Now, since you are here,” she sneers, “it should be only fitting for us to express our gratitude.”

And without further prompt, the entire changeling horde converges on you.

(+1 page for Villains)

[ENDING C: CHAOS]

Crystal Faire laughs. “So you choose to cause chaos? So it shall be, then.”

The page suddenly disappears within a loud bang. You can’t fathom where it went—yet.

With a mischievous grin, Crystal Faire approaches you. She passes you by but not without patting you on the back.

“Do keep an eye on the storm, will you?”

Before you can react, your world folds together. All your senses collapse into a single point, and for a moment, you do not exist.

When it comes back out, you fall and hit the ground. As you pick yourself up, you notice that it is still cold and windy. But as you glance around, you find that you are now in the center of Ponyville with its homely, timber-framed and thatched-roof homes.

You shiver. It’s freezing. And Ponyville is covered in snow.

“Discord!” a shrill voice cries. You turn to see Twilight Sparkle yelling at a draconequus lazing about the sky.

Discord floats down to meet her. “Come on, Twilight. A little more thanks are in order.”

“For what?” she spits.

“I saved the Crystal Empire after you broke the Crystal Heart.” He held a claw to one of his ears. “Come now, let me hear you say it?”

Twilight Sparkle looks a little more red in the face. “I admit that you did. But now we have this here. Get rid of this storm!”

“I can’t.” In a flash of light, he reappears wearing a raincoat. “I can only take the storm around the Crystal Empire and move it somewhere else.”

“Did you have to move it to Ponyville!?” Twilight Sparkle cried.

Discord laughed. “I have to move it somewhere!” He bent down and patted her on her back. “But fear not, Twilight. I know you’ll solve this little conundrum somehow.”

(+1 page for Chaos)

Author's Note:

For further reading about this alternate Flurry Heart—Crystal Faire, see Reflections - Fimfiction

Comments

[Janicethelight]

I love Flurry Heart, or Chrystal Faire in this case. The idea of her using your choice to influence what happens is interesting. I like it. I'm also curious why she changed her name!

[RQK]

11757571
For further reading on Crystal Faire, refer to this story (by yours truly): Reflections - Fimfiction