Things You Never Want to Hear as a Parent
“Mommy, can I ask you a question?” The young Princess’s voice was as soft and gentle as her white coat, and without hesitation her mother smiled warmly.
“Of course, snowflake,” said Cadence, her eyes gladly leaving the pile of royal correspondence on her desk in favor of her daughter. She stretched her wings gratefully and stood from the massive chunk of crystal that served as her work station, the smile on her lips growing as she stepped around it and started for the door where Princess Flurry Heart stood. “I was hoping to take a break soon anyway, so I’ll gladly spend it with you.”
The small alicorn filly smiled happily and leaped forward to plant her face firmly against Cadence’s pink coat, and with a giggle Cadence hugged her back fiercely. “Thank you, mommy!” she said, her voice muffled by the larger alicorn’s coat. “I was worried that-,” she withdrew her face and took a deep breath, a motion that caused her eyes to grow almost comically large as she gasped. “-worried that I was going to be bothering you,” she continued, the voluminous curls of her mane bobbing as she hopped backwards away from Cadence. “I know this is your work time, and daddy said that I shouldn’t come bother you, but…”
“Oh, don’t you worry about daddy,” said Cadence with a wink. “I’m sure that he’ll understand.” She stretched out her right wing and touched her daughter’s face with her purple-tipped pinions, and she felt her heart swell with warmth at the look of happiness that washed over Flurry Heart’s face. She’s almost eight years old, she thought, and she seems to grow more every single day… The thought was bittersweet to Princess Cadence, who was already unsure that she spent nearly enough time with her quickly-growing daughter, but there was nothing to stop the young filly from growing and growing until she sprouted into the beautiful mare she was destined to become. That’s the point of having my door always open, Cadence thought as she wrapped her wing around her daughter and pulled her close to her right side, the filly giggling loudly as she did so. So that she can always talk to me, no matter what’s happening.
“So, what is your question, my little crystal gem?” asked Cadence as she started forward, her hooves clopping softly along the stone beneath her. “Are your studies giving you problems again?”
Flurry Heart frowned as her short legs hurried to keep up with her much taller mother, which she had to do despite Cadence taking much slower steps to allow her to keep pace. “No, it’s not my studies… although I might be having problems soon if Aunt Twilight gets to pick my classes...” The tiny Princess stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry, her pink-tipped white wings rustling against her sides as if to accentuate the rough, gassy noise. “I don’t see why I have to study algebra and Starswirl’s ‘Theories of Magical Transference’ all at the same time – why don’t we do one and then the other?!”
Cadence’s smile became a grin. “Because that’s how your Aunt Twilight did it,” she answered simply. “She seems to think that the two complement each other.”
“She also thought pink and yellow went together,” Flurry Heart muttered furiously, her ears flattening against her pink, purple, and teal mane as she frowned. “I saw the pictures of her coronation – those colors did not compliment her coat in the least.”
Mirth rose in Cadence’s chest like a rocket, and it was only her varied experiences with children, both hers and not, that allowed her to maintain a straight face as she leveled her gaze at her precocious daughter. “Flurry Heart,” she said softly, her voice coated in a thick dose of parental warning, “what have I told you about saying unkind things?”
The indignant frown on Flurry’s face melted into one of remorse, and her ears seemed to sink even deeper into her mane, if that was possible. “A pony should build others up, not tear them down,” she recited sheepishly, her wings drooping down her sides.
“That’s right. Ponies should help each other feel better about themselves, and if you want to grow up to be a pony who helps others you’re going to have to control that tongue of yours, Princess.”
“Yes, mother…” said Flurry Heart, and Cadence knew that she’d hit a good chord with that warning. Flurry doesn’t say ‘mother’ unless she’s serious, Cadence thought with an inward smile. I hope that she’ll remember this. “…but it was a terrible dress,” the filly finished with an indignant toss of her mane. “Is it all right to tell somepony that colors don’t look good on them?” she asked, her bright sky blue eyes shining brilliantly up at Cadence.
Now Cadence’s smile returned as she rolled her eyes. “As long as you do it in the nicest way possible,” she said, her right wing reaching out and stroking Flurry’s mane once. The filly giggled again as the two alicorns exited the long hallway out into the main hall of the Crystal Castle, its high ceiling and shimmering walls a testament to the power and magic that flowed through Cadence’s kingdom. “Now, is that what you wanted to ask me about?” she said as she turned towards the doors on the far side of the room. “Because if it is, we can go get some lunch together. Would you like that?”
Flurry Heart’s eyes widened and she nodded happily. “I’d love to get lunch with you, mommy,” she said, leaping forward and flapping her wings rapidly so that she could hover at almost eye level with her mother, “but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh? Then what’s on your mind?” Cadence watched her daughter float above the floor, her face scrunched in concentration as she forced herself to stay in the air for three seconds, four, five, before she gasped and dropped back to the floor, her chest heaving as she gasped for breath. “A five second hover – you’re getting better, snowflake.”
“Thanks… I can’t wait ‘til I can fly like you and Aunt Twilight,” she grumbled, but after a moment of what seemed to Cadence to be intense introspection the filly shook her head vigorously. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk about, either! I wanted to ask you about something that’s been happening to me.”
The mother and daughter’s hooves clopped across the threshold of the Castle and out into the warm air of the kingdom itself, the fresh air teasing Cadence’s coat and blowing stray locks of her hair around as she focused on Flurry. “And what’s been happening to you?”
“Well…” The filly took a deep breath, her muzzle scrunching as she concentrated. “I guess… I’ve been hearing voices. Mostly at night, when everypony else is asleep, I hear voices… or maybe just one voice? I don’t know if it’s one voice or two or three, but there’s not a hundred of them or anything – just the one, I think.”
Cadence’s hoofsteps slowed as an icy prick of fear blossomed like growing frost in her heart. “…voices, Flurry?” she asked softly. “And… what is it that these voices say to you?” The filly’s frown deepened, her ears twitching amid her curls.
“That’s the weirdest part,” she said as the pair passed the Crystal Heart hovering in its place. “It’s not like they’re talking to me… but I feel like they want to.” She sighed and shook her head vigorously. “This is really hard to explain…” she whimpered.
Cadence stopped in her tracks, her hunger forgotten as she turned and dropped to her knees next to her daughter, her stomach clenching as the cold grasp of fear slowly wheedled its way into her. Flurry stopped and turned to face her, and Cadence saw her concentration melt away as she looked up at her. “Flurry Heart, I want you to tell me what you’re hearing,” she said, her words soft but insistent as she fought to keep the fear she felt from dominating her face. “It’s very important. I want you to tell me as much as you remember, okay sweetheart?”
“O-okay, mommy,” said Flurry, her wings fidgeting against her sides as she took a step towards the older alicorn. It was something that the little filly did whenever she felt nervous or scared, and deep inside Cadence knew that she was probably scaring her daughter with the intensity of her questions… but the sick, acidic tasted in the back of Cadence’s mouth didn’t care. My darling daughter… if only you knew the history that your beautiful kingdom has, she thought as Flurry shifted nervously on her hooves, struggling to find her words. King Sombra and the Umbra would love to get their hooves on her… and I’m certain that Chrysalis wouldn’t be above trying to take her away from me… Cadence’s eyes hardened slightly. I have to find out what this is.
“Just tell me what the voices said, and then we’ll go get some lunch, okay?” Cadence coaxed, doing her best to make her voice light once more. She nodded to Flurry Heart and clamped her mouth shut tightly against the flood of frantic encouragement and tainted promises that threatened to pour out.
“All right… well…” The filly took a deep breath and let it out, her eyes wide as she focused on the Crystal Heart beyond Cadence’s right shoulder. “It feels like I’m hearing a voice calling out for me… not like it knows that I’m hiding from it or anything, but… like you do when you can’t find me, but when you’re not worried about me… does that make sense?” She made an aggravated sound in her throat and pressed a hoof to her forehead as she squeezed her eyes shut. “I hear them call my name, but like they just need to find me to tell me something… and sometimes I hear things that sound like parts of other words, words that aren’t my name… but it’s… like I’m listening to ponies when I shouldn’t, through a door or a wall…” She sighed angrily, and Cadence saw the glimmer of tears at the corner of her eyes. “I hear them talking about the sky, and about the crystals, a-and how they’re… stopping something..?” She growled again and dropped her hoof angrily back to the ground, sniffling loudly as she did so. “I… I’m sorry, mommy, but I can’t remember any more than that…” She dropped her gaze to the ground, her small form shaking as she started to cry. “I tried to remember as much as I could, but…”
Flurry’s words weakened the fear that had solidified in Cadence’s heart and her tears caused it to fracture and melt away, and without waiting another moment the pink alicorn reached out with her front legs, grasped her daughter and pulled her into the tightest hug she could manage from her prone position. She felt Flurry wrap her front legs around her neck as best she could, her small form shivering as she fought her tears.
“Hush, my little gem,” she whispered, guilt welling up inside of her like blood from a wound. “I’m very sorry, Flurry Heart… I didn’t mean to scare you, it’s just that...” She sighed. Anything I say is going to sound like a justification for scaring her… Cadence squeezed her eyes shut and extended her wings, wrapping them around Flurry like a protective cocoon. “I should have been calmer about this,” she whispered, her stomach clenching in a completely different horrible way than before. “Hush, my little one… peace, my sweet…”
Slowly, Flurry Heart’s form ceased its shuddering, and when Cadence released her grip on the white filly she sat back and wiped a hoof across her eyes before meeting her mother’s gaze.
“Why did you get so scared, mommy?” she asked, her voice soft and quavering. “I didn’t think it was anything to be scared of…”
Cadence gave her a small, sad smile as she used her right wing to brush Flurry’s mane out of her eyes. “I’m so sorry that I got upset,” she repeated, “but… there are ponies in this world, Flurry Heart, that do not look on our family with much kindness.” She took a deep breath. “There was a pony who lived here in our very castle who would wish unknowable amounts of harm on me, your father, and even you if he was able to return… and I was afraid that it was him.”
Flurry Heart’s eyes widened, and despite Cadence’s protective embrace she shrank in on herself, clutching her hooves together over her chest. “And… and do you think it’s him..?” she whimpered.
“No, I don’t think so, thank Celestia.” Cadence withdrew her wings and legs from her daughter and stood, dusting herself off with her wings before placing them back to her sides. “If it were him, you would have felt fear… a lot of fear… but you weren’t scared when you heard these voices?”
The small filly shook her head firmly. “Nope.”
“Hmm… that does raise some interesting questions.” Cadence tapped her chin with her hoof. If it’s not Sombra… could it be Chrysalis? Or perhaps an enchanted item in her room that is trying to get her to use it..? “When did you first start hearing this voice?”
Flurry’s muzzle scrunched again. “Um… I don’t remember all of the times I’ve heard it, but the first time I can remember hearing it was a few months after my last birthday.” She looked hesitantly up into her mother’s eyes. “Is… is that good?”
Her seventh birthday… okay, that might be useful down the line. “It’s perfect, snowflake,” said Cadence as she flashed the filly a warm, winning smile. “You’ve done a very good job of telling me what I needed to know about this, and I think I might be able to help you a little bit now, then a little bit more down the road. Okay?”
“Okay!” Flurry beamed up at her, eyes wide and ears perked. “So what should I do?”
Cadence sat down onto her rump, her voluminous tail curling around her as she reached out and touched her daughter’s chest. “I think… that you need to listen to your heart,” she said after a few moments of silence. “If you feel like you need to learn more about these voices that you’re hearing… I think you should do it.” Alarm bells sounded in her head even as she said it, and Flurry Heart mirrored her own uncertainty by arching an eyebrow up at her.
“Are… are you sure?” she asked, perplexed. “I… I should listen to them more?”
Cadence sighed and withdrew her hoof from Flurry. “I know it sounds a little strange, but hear me out.” She pressed her hoof to her chest, the golden shoes she wore clinking softly against the thin collar she wore as her royal raiment. “We are alicorns, Flurry Heart. I don’t know if you understand how much that means in our world, but it’s not something that’s very common. There are only five alicorns in the world that we’re aware of and, of those five alicorns, two move celestial bodies through space, one controls the power of friendship, and one,” she lifted her hoof from her chest and pointed to her face, “controls the power of love.” She dropped her hoof back to the stone beneath her. “And of the five of us, only three are natural born alicorns: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna…” Cadence smiled and reached out with her hoof until she touched her daughter’s nose. “…and you, little gem.” The filly snorted and giggled lightly, but she didn’t laugh for long. Her eyes were intent upon her mother, and Cadence felt a swell of pride in how seriously the filly was taking this. She definitely takes after the Sparkle side – Twilight used to give me that exact same look when we were talking about books. “This means that your special talent, your power, could be something to do with these voices – something that is unique to you and you alone.”
“You mean…” Flurry Heart’s eyes grew serious, “…that these voices could lead to me getting my cutie mark?!”
“Oh Flurry,” Cadence sighed and rolled her eyes with a smile, “I’m just suggesting that you might try to find out a little more about these voices while I do some research of my own. I’ll contact your Aunt Twilight about this, and maybe even your Great Aunts Celestia and Luna – I’m certain that one of them will be able to figure out what’s happening.” She patted Flurry atop her curly mane. “But – and this is a big but, Flurry Heart – if these voices ever tell you to do anything that might hurt you or others, or mention dark crystals and shadows, or tell you to steal the Crystal Heart for any reason, you come to me immediately.”
Flurry tilted her head to the left slightly, her eyes narrowing from beneath Cadence’s hoof. “Even at night?”
“No matter what time it is,” confirmed Cadence, ruffling the small pony’s mane gently with her hoof before placing it back to the ground. “If these voices ever tell you to do any of the things I mentioned, you come running and tell me what’s happening. Understand?”
The white filly nodded. “I promise,” she said, her tone more serious than any time that Cadence could remember. The Princess of Love smiled at the filly before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek.
“That’s my girl,” she whispered. “Be strong, snowflake, and we’ll figure this out together. Okay?”
“Uh-huh!” Flurry nodded so hard that her mane bounced completely out of place, mixing the triple colors in it and causing Cadence to laugh aloud.
“Oh Flurry… what am I going to do with you and that mane of yours?” she lamented. To her surprise, the filly leaped to her hooves as her face broke into a broad smile.
“Feed me! You said we were going to go get something to eat!”
At the mention of food, Cadence’s stomach let out a most unladylike growl so loud that she actually blushed. “Oh, well… I suppose that does sound rather good right now, doesn’t it?” she muttered sheepishly, drawing a loud laugh from her daughter.
“Mommy, your tummy sounded like a dragon!” she giggled, her childlike laughter ringing like crystalline wind chimes through Cadence’s whole body and driving the last vestiges of fear away from her heart. This filly is truly one of a kind, she thought, her smile returning as she rose to her hooves.
“So it does,” she said as she turned back towards the Crystal Kingdom’s market district. “Shall we go and see what’s for sale in the market? I think I heard that there’s going to be some new pies on sale there today.”
“Oh really?!” Flurry Heart leaped forward and took up her place next to Cadence, her tiny hoofsteps clicking against the stone. “I love pie!”
Cadence nodded and led the way towards the rest of their town, her dowsed spirits slowly buoying back upwards in the presence of the sweet filly that she was proud to call her daughter. These voices are certainly enough to give any pony, parent or not, something to think about, she thought as they left the shade of the massive castle in favor of the warm sunlight in the market, but if Flurry’s not scared of them – and as long as they don’t sound like Sombra or the other Umbrum– then I think that she’ll be fine. She cast a glance at Flurry, and despite her strong trust in the small filly she felt the cold prickle of fear in her heart once more.
I’ll send word to Twilight, Aunt Celestia, and Luna tomorrow. I’m certain that one of them will have some advice for me.
A Trail of Echoes that Lead to the Truth
“Flurry Heart… speak to you… listen…”
The light from the waxing half-moon outside poured through the window and into Flurry Heart’s room, its gentle silver rays filling the spacious and well decorated room with cool light and deep shadows. It was a peaceful sort of night and, despite the conversation she’d had with her mother earlier in the day, Flurry had no problem falling asleep as the wind sighed softly through her window.
That had, of course, been much earlier in the night, and now the once slumbering young Princess lay on her back, her eyes trained on the ceiling as she frowned in concentration. Mom said that I should try to learn more about the voices that I hear, she thought, but even if I could hear them better, I don’t know if it would help…
She shifted amid her sheets, her mane shifting beneath her head as she pulled her blanket up tighter around her neck. The voices she heard in the night always talked in a weird, broken kind of way that made understanding them even harder than hearing them in the first place, and hearing them was really, really hard. If only there was something I could do to make the voice louder, she thought, her nose scrunching as she frowned deeper. Or make my ears stronger, I guess…
“Crystals……traveling...down…speak to you…”
Flurry sighed and rolled over onto her side, her mane pillowing beneath her cheek as she turned her bright blue gaze to the stars beyond her high window. Or maybe I’m just thinking about this all wrong. She wrapped her front hooves in her blankets and drew them up against her chest, the silken softness of the sheets forming a soothing pressure against her coat. What is it that mom said earlier today? That I had to listen to my heart…
“…begging you… Sky… to reach…”
The filly smiled out at the stars twinkling in the sky. Listen to my heart… I wonder if Aunt Twilight would agree with that. Her aunt, Princess Twilight Sparkle, had been her tutor for as long as she could remember and, if her mother was telling her the truth, since even before that, as well; apparently the purple alicorn had been reading complex equations and scientific journals to her as bedtime stories ever since she’d been born. As Flurry grew so did her Aunt Twilight’s desire to teach her, and Flurry had to admit that she had learned an incredible amount from her scholastically enthusiastic aunt – not the least of which had been the scientific method of deductive reasoning. Flurry’s brow furrowed again as the words she heard filtered once more to a murmur at the edge of her hearing, like somepony was muttering just outside of her door.
According to what her Aunt taught her, if she couldn’t prove that the voice was just one pony talking to her, then she couldn’t prove that it wasn’t more than one pony. It’s so jumbled and hard to hear, it could be more than one pony talking to me, she reasoned, though even as she thought it she felt a surge of doubt inside her, a sinking feeling along her back that made her frown.
“Believe……… follow…”
The voice tickled the edges of her hearing again, each space between the words that she could hear filled with mumbling noises that she knew were more words but had no way of actually hearing. It was unbelievably frustrating for the young filly, and with a vexed sigh she rolled away from her window and onto her back once more, her eyes staring up at the familiar ceiling.
“Believe,” she muttered, her ears twitching. “Follow…” They were words that she’d heard the voices say before, but without knowing the other words around them it was impossible for Flurry to figure out what they really meant. She squinted up into the dim light, her mind churning away at the puzzle before her. I’ve heard my name a lot, so I believe that they’re trying to talk to me… and if they want to talk to me, do they need me to follow something? Somepony? Do I need to follow the voices? She strained her ears into the silence, doing her best to hear just a little better so that she could catch the elusive words that darted like fireflies just out of reach.
“Down”, the voice said again. “See… truth…”
Down… has it said ‘down’ before tonight? Flurry’s brow furrowed. Oh, why didn’t I start making a journal of everything it said?! That’s what Aunt Twilight would have told me to do – record my findings! She lifted her right hoof and knocked it firmly against her forehead. You big dummy, Flurry Heart! You probably could have figured out what it was trying to say to you by now…
She let her hoof drop back to her bed, her spirits sagging. “Believe…” she muttered again. “Yeah right… like things will happen just because I believe… I have to be smart about this, and I haven’t been…”
“Please listen… Flurry…”
She sighed again and rolled over onto her other side, her face away from the bright moonlight from her window. I guess I’ll just wait until Aunt Twilight or Great Aunt Celestia or Luna tells me what to do… it keeps asking me to listen, but I can’t any more than I am… She squeezed her eyes shut and put her hooves over her ears, her breath catching in her throat as sadness welled up inside of her. Please just leave me alone, she thought with a sniffle. I don’t want to hear you anymore… I’ll sleep with ear muffs if I have to…
“…please help me.”
Flurry’s eyes shot open, the tears that had collected at the corners of her lids trickling down her cheeks as she bolted upright in bed. She held her hooves out in front of her, her eyes wide as she stared down at them. I heard the voices anyway… she thought in surprise. Even though I had my ears covered, I still heard them… She shook her head slightly, her mind whirling in shock almost as badly as it had done the very first night she’d heard the voices. But if I can barely hear it normally, even when I’m really quiet and still… how could I hear it through my hooves?
Her ears stood straight up out of her mane, and after a moment of shocked silence she raised a hoof to her chest. “I’m listening with my heart,” she whispered, her whole body tingling. “I’ve never heard it ask for help before… it must have always been too soft for me to hear! But if I heard more of it that time…” She lifted her right hoof from the bed and stared at it, her mind working furiously on this new information. If it’s talking so I can hear it with my heart… then I need to cover my ears and try again, she decided with a nod. Her hooves darted to her ears once more and she used the tips of her hooves to fold her ears down against her head, plugging them as completely as she possibly could, given the circumstances. The entire room fell silent against the combined pressure of her folded ears and her hooves, leaving Flurry Heart in a world of silence save for the sound of her own heart beating.
She sat on her bed for several long minutes as she strained to hear something, anything from the mysterious voices… and just when she was about to give up, she heard it:
“I guess I shouldn’t really expect you to help me…” the voice said with a sigh. “I mean, you don’t even know who I am…”
Flurry Heart’s eyes widened as she sat transfixed on her bed, her chest squeezing as she finally heard the voice in more than just a few broken words, and in that moment she knew two things for certain: that, despite her lack of evidence to support her point, there was indeed just one voice speaking, a voice that felt distinctively female to her… and the owner of that voice was reaching out to her for help.
“…and I don’t even really know who you are,” the voice continued, its words still rounded and muffled despite Flurry’s best efforts to plug her ears. “But the truth is… that you’re the only one I can turn to for help… the only one who can save me from this place.”
She needs my help. The thought bounced through Flurry’s mind faster than Aunt Twilight’s friend Pinkie Pie could bounce through a room, and without wasting another moment Flurry leaped from her bed, her ears uncurling as her hooves hit the crystal floor. Somehow, attaching more information to the voice – a gender, a reason, a plea – made Flurry’s heart burn with a need to help that she’d never experienced before. It was more than just what she felt when she strove to help the other fillies and colts around her, and even more than what she felt when she was helping her mother and father help the citizens of their kingdom; this was something more, something that had stabbed the filly in her soul and ignited a fire inside her that she couldn’t ignore. She darted for the door, her wings rising from her back as excitement boiled inside of her, but as she approached the exit that would lead her to the hallway she slowed to a stop, her wings drooping as she frowned.
“Don’t be stupid, Flurry Heart,” she muttered to herself. “You don’t even know where to go to help her! I mean, she could be on the other side of Equestria for all you know!” She bit her lip and turned to her right, her hooves clicking sharply against the stone as she began to pace. “But there’s got to be something I can do,” she whispered. “I could go to mom…” the thought perked the Princess up for a moment, but her smile faded just as quickly as it had come. “…but she won’t be able to do anything without more information.” The alicorn growled under her breath. “Urrrgh! Why isn’t there a place where I can just come and talk to you?!” She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could. Why can’t I just come and talk to you?! She repeated in her mind. In her head she imagined screaming that at the image she’d formed of the pony talking to her, a filly about her age who was on the other side of a wall that she just couldn’t reach. Why can’t we just talk?! WHERE ARE YOU?!
She sat down onto her rump, her wings drooping dejectedly. It’s no use… I can’t figure this out on my own. She lifted her hoofs and pressed them against her ears as tears rose in her eyes again. I’ll just tell mom about this tomorrow… maybe then we can figure this out… Flurry squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hooves against her ears even harder. I’m so sorry, she thought. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you…
“Down,” the voice said.
Flurry’s eyes shot open again, her breath freezing inside of her. …down? she thought. Why just ‘down’? I mean, before the voice was at least saying words together, but that sounded almost like it was answering my… Her eyes widened. Did… the voice just respond to my question? She sat silently near the entrance of her room, barely daring to breathe as she listened for more information from the mysterious voice. Moments passed, stretching into minutes as she waited, until finally she closed her eyes tightly once again. DID YOU JUST ANSWER ME? she thought, again imagining herself shouting the words at the top of her lungs. She took a breath and held it, her ears flattened against her head beneath her hooves as tightly as she could manage.
The silence beneath her ears was deafening, a deep, dark shadow of soundlessness that threatened to swallow her whole... until a voice echoed gently across the black dunes of her mindscape:
“Yes!”
The filly’s wings burst open, and she had to press her hooves to her mouth to keep from screaming with joy. “Oh my gosh… ooooh my gosh,” she gushed, her chest swelling with excitement until she thought she would burst, “that… that’s communication! She was talking to me, not just at me!” She laughed loudly, the sound echoing in her silent room. “I talked to the voice!!” she shouted, not even caring if her mother woke up.
“Mommy!” She sat up straight, her wings spread almost completely horizontal from her back as she stared at the door. “I should go tell her about this right now! She did tell me to come to her no matter what time it was if I found out something more.” She rose to her hooves and hurried forward, her hoof grasping the knob of her door firmly before she stopped herself. “Whoa, there… easy, girl…” she muttered to herself, withdrawing her hoof from the doorknob carefully, as if it had suddenly turned into a venomous snake. “Is this really worth waking mom up for? Sure, the voice managed to answer a question… that doesn’t mean you suddenly know what it is.” She raised her eyes back to the door, her ears standing straight up as she stared determinedly at it. “That doesn’t prove anything – it could be a ghost, or a changeling, or a pegasus down a storm drain, or anything! – and that’s not something you can take to mom and wake her up for.”
A smile crept onto her lips, and her hoof slowly rose back to the doorknob. “If you find the voice, though… that would be worth waking her up for.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Down. That was the only instruction that the voice had given her when she had asked where it was: down. It wasn’t a great start, but it was more than she’d received in all of the months she’d been hearing the voice, and that was more than enough for Flurry Heart.
So it was that the Princess found herself moving lower into the Crystal Castle, her hoofsteps solemn and lonesome as she moved from the low tower that housed her bedroom into the main castle, then down into the level below ground. There wasn’t much in the basement below the castle, or at the very least not that Flurry had ever discovered, and the lack of ponies around in the hallways made it seem even emptier than usual. Flurry’s eyes darted to the left and right as she traversed the crisscrossing halls of the basement, her ears perked and her heart racing despite how familiar she was with this particular part of her home. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come down here to play hide and seek, she thought as she walked, the soft illumination from the magical lights attached to the walls causing her coat to all but glow an iridescent white. Not to mention how often I’ve come down here during the winter when it’s too cold to be outside.
The basement was made of stone and tiled almost identically to the castle above, and the only notable difference between the two were the sconces set on the walls that provided the perfect amount of light to the area, leaving nothing dim or in shadow. Flurry had heard many scary stories from her friends about basements and lots of reasons why none of them would ever set hoof in one, but the Princess had never feared her basement the way that her friends apparently did. I guess maybe it’s scarier if you don’t have lights… or guards, she considered.
“I know my basement’s not really great,” said the voice suddenly, and in spite of herself Flurry Heart jumped into the air with a yelp, her wings extending and holding her aloft for several moments before she retracted them and dropped back to the stone below her.
“D-don’t scare me like that!” she hissed into the silence, her heart pounding against her ribs as she struggled to breathe again. “That’s really mean to do to somepony!” She placed a hoof against her chest and forced a deep breath into her lungs, trying a motion she’d learned from her mother. She held the air in for several quick moments before exhaling steadily, her racing heart causing her breathing to quaver in the silence around her. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath before thinking, It’s not very polite to scare ponies like that, you know.
“Yeah, you’re right – sorry about that,” said the voice, and Flurry Heart was shocked at how quickly it was responding to her now. I wonder if it has anything to do with me getting closer to it, she thought, and the voice responded immediately.
“Yes it does, actually. You’re getting closer to where I am, and that means that there are fewer crystals between us to block and absorb my magic.”
Is that how you’re communicating with me? asked Flurry as she hurried forward, her eyes again sweeping the doors around her as she walked. Using your magic? To her surprise, she heard the voice laugh at the other end of their conversation, a soft, melodious sound that filled her with joy and sadness all at once.
“Of course! How else did you think I was doing it, Flurry – that I was just psychic?” In spite of this voice being only in her head, Flurry Heart blushed furiously in the even light of the basement.
Well how was I supposed to know? She asked silently. You might be actually talking, but I’m just thinking my answers, I’ll have you know – that seems like the kind of thing that only a psychic pony could manage… assuming that there are psychic ponies in the first place…
“Yeah, sorry about that, too,” the voice said sheepishly. “I’d meant for this spell to make it so we could actually talk to each other, but I’m not very good at making spells just yet so it linked me to your mind instead of projecting you my voice… meaning that only YOU could hear me.” The voice sighed as Flurry passed a large, dark pantry that held a good deal of the castle’s cooking supplies, the shapes of the cooking pots and dishes inside distorted by the light pouring in from the hall. “If things had worked out the way I’d wanted them to, you’d have found me a long time ago…”
Flurry reached the end of the hallway and stopped, her hooves clacking together as she stood up straight and closed her eyes. Well I’m going to find you now, she thought with a smirk. So talk to me, oh disembodied voice: which way should I go?
The voice snickered. “Disembodied voice? Don’t tell me you haven’t heard my name? I’ve told it to you a hundred times!”
No… I’m sorry, I guess I never heard it. Flurry lowered her head, her ears drooping against her mane as her bottom lip protruded slightly. It was really hard to hear you while I was upstairs, and you never tried to talk to me during the day when it would have been WAY easier for me to hear you.
“Well that couldn’t be helped,” the voice said, and Flurry thought she heard a bit of indignation in her words. “I couldn’t talk to you during the day because I… I’m not able to roam around the castle during the day.” Flurry frowned, but before she could ask why not the voice laughed bitterly. “But that won’t matter once you find me, Flurry Heart… I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this…”
The alicorn Princess shifted on her hooves, her wings fidgeting at her sides. Speaking of, which way do I need to go?
“Oh, right! You need to take a right and then a left after two more doors.” Flurry nodded and turned to her right, her mane swishing around her shoulders as she started down the proper corridor. The voice was silent for a few moments, and Flurry was about to ask for the next directions when it spoke again. “And I’m sorry for not telling you my name earlier,” she said, and Flurry could hear the smile in her voice. “My name is-,”
Suddenly the voice stopped, her words dropping away into silence so deep that Flurry actually faltered a step and skittered to her right before she managed to regain her balance. “What was that?” she wondered aloud, giving her head a small shake. Her vision blurred for a heartbeat as she refocused on the hallway ahead of her, but it passed just as quickly as it had come so she didn’t even bother slowing down. “That felt… really weird…” she murmured, her head spinning ever so slightly. “Like not the fun, good kind of weird, either…” She frowned deeply as she continued forward, taking the hallway on her left after she passed the second door, just like the voice had said. There she stopped and waited for the voice to return, shifting uneasily from her right hooves to her left as she reached out with her mind. Yoo-hoo, voiiiicccceee, she called mentally, I’m in the hallway you told me to get into and now I need more directions!
Only silence greeted her mental shout, and despite the quiet of the basement remaining unchanged the small Princess felt the uneasiness in her heart grow with each second that her friend the voice remained gone. She waited what felt like a full minute in that absolute stillness, her ears ringing with the sound of the castle’s silence in the late night hours until finally she let out a sigh and rustled her wings as loudly as she could.
“Well… is that it?” she wondered aloud. “Aren’t you going to lead me to you??”
Only silence answered her, both mental and aural, and for the first time that night Flurry felt a sliver of fear slide into her heart. It was true that the basement wasn’t a scary place to be for the Princess… but something about her friend’s silence just didn’t feel right. It was so sudden, she thought, her ears flattening against her mane as she poked her head around the corner to her right, her eyes wide and alert. Almost like somepony had stopped us from talking to each other…
Then, as she was turning her head to look down the hall to her left, the voice returned with a vengeance. “Flurry Heart, you have to RUN,” she commanded, her tone as hard as a stone and sharp as a sword. “Run down that hallway with everything you’ve got! You have to get to me FAST!”
Flurry Heart’s eyes widened in shock at the voice’s tone, but despite her inquisitive nature the filly turned on her hooves and began to run as fast as she could go, her mane and tail flying elegantly behind her as she dashed down the long hall. Where did you go?! She managed to think while she was running. And why am I running?!
“I got caught,” the voice hissed, her words tickling Flurry Heart’s mind as she hurtled along the hall, her hooves clattering loudly along the stone. “A unicorn tried to stop my spell, but he couldn’t keep me from casting it for very long. Now they’ve gone to get HER, and unless you get here RIGHT NOW all of my plans are going to fall apart so HURRY UP, FLURRY HEART!”
“Her?” gasped Flurry as she ran, her wings flapping randomly at her sides as if to propel her forward. Who’s HER? And why are you so… Flurry’s eyes widened as she galloped. …afraid.
There was no questioning it: even though Flurry was running at full speed down a hallway, and despite only being able to talk to each other through their minds, Flurry could hear the fear in the voice’s words, the panic and the desperation. Whatever was coming had her friend scared to death, and what was most definitely not good.
“Never mind,” the voice snapped. “Just keep running until you hit the last door on the right, and then get inside as fast as you can!”
Flurry Heart’s fear rose in her throat, the acidic tasted tickling the back of her mouth as her chest squeezed tightly once more. Her friend had never spoken to her like that, so harsh and commanding… whatever was coming was surely awful, and as Flurry skidded to a halt outside the door that the voice had indicated she started to question what she was doing for the first time since this whole crazy adventure had begun. The door didn’t look much different than any of the countless others that she’d passed, but this one was tucked away in a hall she didn’t recognize… and it was locked tight by a large iron padlock, its black surface glinting dully in the light from the sconces.
Um… the door is locked, she thought, biting her lip as her heart began to race. I’m not sure I can get in…
“Then open it!!” the voice demanded, and Flurry was shocked to find that she could hear it not only with her mind, but with her ears as well.
“Hello?!” she called through the door, her wings rising from her back in excitement. “Are you in there?!”
“YES! Oh Flurry Heart, please hurry!” the voice answered her. “You have to get in here and help me, please!”
Despite the urgency in the voice’s words, Flurry found herself hesitating outside of the locked door… and despite her earlier certainty, the Princess realized that in this moment she had no idea what to do. She lifted her hoof and pressed it against the large lock, her heart pounding in her ears as her chest heaved from the run. If a room is locked, that generally means one of two things. One: that there is something valuable inside that somepony wants to keep others away from…
“What are you doing?!” the voice shouted, its tones still strangely garbled and round around the edges. “Break that lock and get in here, Flurry Heart! PLEASE!!”
…or two: that there is something inside that somepony wants to KEEP inside.
“PLEASE, FLURRY HEART!! HURRY!”
The Princess squeezed her eyes shut, her teeth grinding together as she grimaced… and after a moment her horn flashed brightly in the controlled light of the basement, its brilliant blue hues washing over everything in the hall. A second later there was a loud clattering as the massive lock hit the floor, its arm melted in half.
Flurry Heart’s hoof pushed the door open and she staggered inside, her vision swimming as she struggled to stay conscious. I’m still not so good at magic just yet, she thought as she started blinking to clear her head. I probably shouldn’t have done that… Mom and Aunt Twilight are going to be SO MAD at me…
“Flurry Heart… it’s really you…” The voice washed over her like a spray of sea water, the other pony’s words filling her ears like roaring surf. The filly’s eyes widened, and in spite of the headache that was quickly sprouting at the base of her horn she brought her gaze up towards the source of the voice, uncertainty filling her whole being like a blast of cold winter air.
The room was the standard size for a storage room, but unlike the other rooms here in the Crystal Castle this one was empty save for a single, large mirror that stood against the far wall… and peering through the mirror’s murky, dusty surface was the figure of a pony, its head bobbing from side to side as if it were trying to find the least dusty part to see through.
Oh my goshhhhhhhh… Flurry Heart hurried forward, her blossoming headache all but forgotten as she approached the mirror. “Is… is that you?” she asked cautiously, her words echoing as sharply as her hoofsteps in the bare room. “Is it really you, voice-friend?”
The pony on the other side of the mirror nodded vigorously, the blurry silhouette of her mane bobbing jauntily as she did so. “Yes, Flurry Heart, it’s me! Now come over here and touch the mirror, okay?” Her voice was filled with anxiety and fear, and as Flurry watched the pony in the mirror threw a quick glance over her shoulder into the unseen room beyond her. “If we don’t hurry they’re going to catch me, okay? So I need you to come over here and touch the mirror for me!”
Flurry’s trepidation returned like a gale, its mighty force blasting away her excitement and courage as she halted a single step away from the mirror. “Why… why do you need me to touch the mirror?” she asked as she squinted at the pony’s form. It looks like a mare, she thought. She looks a little older than me… who IS she? “Who are you?” she asked, putting voice to her thoughts. “You never did tell me your name.”
“And I’ll be glad to tell you everything you want to know after you touch the mirror, okay?!” The pony on the other side turned in a quick circle, her tail lashing her sides in agitation. “Seriously, Flurry, we don’t have any time for games like this – please just touch the mirror!”
Now Flurry’s ears flattened against her mane and her eyes narrowed. “And why do you want me to do that?” she asked. “Why don’t you tell me why, and then I’ll decide if I-,”
Suddenly a loud bang echoed from inside the mirror, and the pony silhouette leaped in shock. “OPEN THIS DOOR THIS INSTANT,” came another voice through the mirror, and Flurry Heart’s eyes went wide at the tone of this new voice: it was harsh and cold, like the wastes around the Crystal Kingdom in the winter time, and as she watched the silhouette in the mirror shrank down, cowering as she stared behind her.
“I WON’T!” she screamed. “I’LL NEVER SURRENDER TO YOU!” The pony in the mirror turned back to Flurry Heart and placed her left hoof onto the mirror. “Flurry Heart, I’m begging you to touch the mirror – please, if you don’t do this she’ll catch me, and I’ll never have this chance ever again!”
Flurry bit her lip, her breath coming in sharp gasps as she stared at the hoof before her, its pad so close. She raised her hoof and stretched it forward… but before she touched the glass she withdrew it to her chest, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
“I… I’m afraid,” she whispered. “I don’t know anything about you, and-,”
There was a small explosion from within the mirror, and suddenly a shaft of brilliant light poured into the room on the other side. The room appeared to be about the same size as the one that Flurry currently stood in, and as the light poured over the other pony Flurry managed to make out some features: she was tall and a little lanky, probably in the middle of her teen years, and had a long slender horn atop her head… as well as a pair of wings on her back, which she raised in alarm as she turned her head back towards the door.
“Oh dear Celestia,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “It’s over…”
Flurry’s eyes darted to the barely visible door behind her mirror-friend, and to her shock she saw a tall, regal pony standing silhouetted in the doorway: a mare with a voluminous mane, slender horn, and elegant wings extended in a pose not unlike a predatory bird who had finally found its prey… and deep in her heart, Flurry thought that she recognized that silhouette…
“NOW YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU HAD OBEYED ME,” the pony in the door thundered. “AND I’M GOING TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU NEVER SEE THIS MIRROR AGAIN!”
The tall pony took a step forward, and Flurry’s mirror-friend turned back to her.
“Please…” she whispered.
Flurry Heart swallowed audibly… and extended her hoof as quickly as she could, the curve of her hoof matching the curve of the mirror-pony’s hoof exactly.
As soon as Flurry’s hoof touched the mirror it warped, as if two ponies had each grabbed a side of the large mirror and twisted it as hard as they could. She watched as the pony in the doorway on the other side crouched and lunged forward, her wings propelling her towards the smaller pony at the mirror. Her mirror-friend flinched, anticipating the blow…
…but just as the larger pony was about to grab her, the mirror fractured at their touching hooves, the crack resounding in the room like thunder.
A wave of magic, clear yet tangible like the waters of a crystal spring, burst from the crack and washed Flurry Heart away from it, pushing her across the room and against far wall next to the still-open door. The magical wind blasted her mane back away from her face and she threw her left hoof across her eyes to protect them from the shards of glass that she knew must be coming… but to her surprise the glass never came. The blast of magic waned and ceased as quickly as it had come, plunging the room into a silence even deeper than before.
Flurry Heart stood unmoving for several long seconds, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps as she tried to grasp what had just happened. The mirror shattered, didn’t it? But… but if it did, why aren’t I impaled with about a thousand shards of glass? She let out a long, shaking breath and lowered her hoof from her eyes… and what she saw made her gasp yet again.
The mirror’s glass was laid perfectly out in a circle around what had been the mirror’s base, every shard placed as if somepony had used magic to arrange them. The base had flattened out into a broad circle, an intricate set of runes glowing a faint blue around the edges of the wood as the magic faded from them… and kneeling in the middle of it all was a pony, a mare a little bit older than Flurry herself. She had a coat of soft pink, a dual tone gold and purple mane… and as she stood shakily she opened her bright blue eyes – eyes the same color as Flurry Heart’s.
The Princess took a shaking step forward, her jaw dropping open in shock. “What… what happened??” she whispered. “What was all that… a-and who…” She pointed a hoof at the other mare, her whole body shaking from exertion, fear, and uncertainty. “Who… are you?”
The other mare offered her a smile that looked as shaky as Flurry Heart felt, her wings rustling against her side as she took a deep breath. “That was a mirror between worlds,” she said with a nod at the glass around her. “It wasn’t a very good one, but it was designed to transport a pony between worlds just one time… so nopony could ever follow me.” She sighed in relief and collapsed back to her knees, her wings rising on her back as she smiled up at Flurry. “You did great, by the way… I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you what was happening any better…”
“Who are you?!” Flurry demanded, her knees quaking. “Tell me your name, o-or else I’m going to go get my mom and dad!”
The taller alicorn smiled slightly. “Actually, I’d love to meet them… because I’m their daughter, too.”
Flurry’s eyes widened until she thought they would pop out of her head. “What did you… who…” But before she could repeat the same question the other young mare raised her hoof, forestalling her words.
“My name is Princess Skyla… daughter of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire and Prince Consort Shining Armor of the House of Twilight, First of Her Name. I spent seven years building that mirror… the worst seven years of my whole life… but it was all worth it…” She let out a sigh of relief and laid her head onto her hooves, a smile touching her lips. “...because I’m finally home.”
