In which a princess finds a human
A small filly was running through the snow covered streets of The Crystal Empire, excitement washed over her as her head whipped about, absorbing all the sights the city had to offer. Humans and ponies were milling about, sparing only glances towards the running filly before resuming whatever they were doing, unaware that the little filly was none other than Princess Flurry Heart. With her wings covered with a thick light purple hoodie, the princess looked just like an ordinary unicorn.
Flurry Heart had never been outside of the castle before, so when her bodyguard turned his head the little princess bolted. In the back of her mind Flurry Heart knew that she would get in trouble once she was found, but excitement overrode her logic. She was also curious about the humans, an entirely new race from another world that only recently made contact with the ponies via a magical rift. Sure, Flurry Heart knew some bits and pieces about humans and their world from her mother and father, but she had never actually seen a human outside pictures.
Humans fascinated the young princess with their furless bodies, weird flat faces, and their elongated feet. Flurry Heart always wanted to see a human from up close, and now she had the chance. Now all she had to do was—
The princess' line of thought was interrupted when she bumped into someone, causing her to lose her balance and fall flank first into the snow.
"Oh ow!" she yelped, looking down at her hurting bum.
"Are you okay?" a young voice asked. Flurry Heart lifted her gaze, her eyes widened when she saw a human, a child judging by his size. The child was also quite small, no older than Flurry Heart herself. He had short black hair, light brown eyes, and he wore dark blue hoodie with black pants.
"Here, let me help you." The child offered his hand. Flurry Heart looked down at the offered appendage and then back at the child's face. Without saying a word Flurry Heart accepted the offer and stood up with the help of the young boy. The two simply stood there in the middle of the street, staring at each other with equal amounts of curiosity.
The young boy was first to speak. "Are you a unicorn?"
Flurry Heart blinked a few times, the seemingly random question caught her off guard.
"Umm… yes…" Flurry Heart answered weakly, completely forgetting that it was only a half truth.
The boy's eyes suddenly lit up like a Heart's Warming tree as he inched closer to Flurry Heart.
"Really?! That's so cool! Can you levitate things? Can you shoot lasers? Can you make stuff explode?"
"N-No…" Flurry Heart replied, her ears slightly folded.
The boy noticed that as his smile slowly weakened. "Aww… why not?"
"Mommy said I'm too young to learn spells." Flurry Heart crossed her arms and looked to the side, pouting.
The boy seemed slightly disappointed, but as Flurry Heart glanced towards him he was looking like he was thinking really hard on something. Before she knew it, the child stuck his hand into a pocket in his pants and fished something that highly resembled a bracelet, with little colorful beads.
"What's this?" Flurry Heart asked.
"It's a candy bracelet," the child offered, pulling his sleeve and revealing another one on his wrist. "You eat it. Here, try it."
Flurry Heart took the bracelet and bit into one of the beads, almost immediately her eyes widened as the sweet and slightly tangy candy broke easily and dissolved inside her mouth. The young filly hummed in delight before speaking up.
"Wow, that's good!"
"I know right?!" the kid responded with a level of enthusiasm that only a child could have. "I'm Aaron by the way."
"I'm Flurry Heart, nice to meet you Aaron," the young princess responded in kind. "Are you here alone?" she suddenly asked, noticing the lack of adult humans near Aaron.
The boy shook his head, a sour expression taking over his face as he glanced towards the Crystal Palace. "No, I'm visiting here with my daddy, but he has important stuff and doesn't care about me anymore, so I ran. What about you?"
Flurry Heart's face mimicked Aaron's own "Same."
"Adults are boring," Aaron concluded.
"Yeah, all they do is talk all the time," Flurry Heart added.
"Want to go someplace fun?" Aaron asked suddenly, all signs of annoyance completely gone.
Flurry Heart fidgeted in place, looking down on the ground while kicking snow around her. "I don't know, mother always told me not to talk to strangers, let alone follow one."
"But we're not strangers," Aaron argued.
"We aren't?"
"Nope." Aaron pulled his sleeve again to reveal his candy bracelet. "We're candy buddies!"
"Candy buddies?"
Aaron's response was a toothy smile and a nod. The boy's joyfulness was contagious and soon Flurry Heart smiled as well. She hastily put the candy bracelet on her own wrist and extended her own arm, meeting Aaron's halfway.
The two grabbed each other's hand and shook it firmly. "Candy buddies!" they chanted together, laughing and smiling broadly.
"Well come on, don't just stand there, follow me!" Aaron turned around and started to run.
"Hey no fair!" Flurry Heart called as she chased after Aaron, the two laughed as they zipped past ponies and humans alike.
Time is a fickle thing, it can move slowly or it can move impossibly fast, but one fact about time always remains, and it's that time flies when you're having fun. And boy did Aaron and Flurry Heart have a fun day.
Aaron and Flurry Heart sat next to each other under the shade of a crystal tree, enjoying some peace and quiet after a long and exciting day. The tree itself provided no shade from the setting sun, as the leaves had all fallen in preparation for the cold northern winter, but the view it provided was truly breathtaking. The tree was located on top of a hill right next to the borders of The Crystal Empire, giving an unobstructed view of the entire city.
"Today was so much fun!" Flurry Heart exclaimed, adjusting herself against the tree's bark.
Aaron giggled in response. "Yeah, you're the best, candy buddy!"
The two laughed some more, unknowingly scooting closer to each other as the cold evening air started to pick up. As Flurry Heart snuggled against Aaron, her eyes glanced across the Crystal Palace and a small frown tugged at her lips.
"Say… Aaron…"
"Hmm, what is it?"
"Can we remain friends?"
"What do you mean?" Aaron asked, confused by the question.
"You're only visiting, right?"
"Yeah, so…?"
"So it means you will have to leave sometime, right?"
Aaron's expression began to change, as realization dawned upon him. "I guess…"
"Can you promise me that we'll still be friends then?" Flurry Gave Aaron a pleading look. "I-I don't have other friends…"
It's true, Flurry Heart never had any real friends, only fake ones that simply wanted to be her friends on account of her being a princess. That is also the reason why she never told Aaron about it the entire day she spent with him.
Aaron looked down upon himself, deep in thought. Suddenly, his eyes sparkled as he caught something jutting from under the snow.
It was just a simple stone with a sharp end, but it gave the young boy an idea. Moving to pick it up, Aaron stood up and faced the tree bark he was leaning against. He raised the stone and began carving into the bark. Standing up as well, Flurry Heart leaned against Aaron's shoulder in order to better see what he was doing. It was a crude carving of two stick figures. One had a round head and the other one had more of an egg shaped head with a line jutting from its forehead. The two figures had their crudely drawn hands intermingled with one another and crudely drawn smiles carved upon their faces.
"There! Now we're besties for life!" Aaron proclaimed proudly, tossing the stone aside and admiring his little masterpiece. Aaron moved aside to let Flurry Heart a better view and her heart —like her namesake— fluttered.
The gears in the young princess' mind began to turn. She thought back about her other 'friends' and how vastly different Aaron was. Perhaps she could tell him the truth. Perhaps he would be different.
Gulping hard, Flurry Heart decided, she would tell Aaron about her true identity and hope that he would still remain her true friend.
"Aaron, listen. There's something I want to tell you…"
"What is it candy buddy?"
Hearing that nickname gave Flurry Heart the courage she needed. A small smile formed on her lips as her confidence grew.
"You see Aaron… I'm a prin-"
"Flurry Heart!"
Both Aaron and Flurry Heart turned around.
"Mommy? Daddy?" Flurry Heart blurted out, shocked at what she was seeing. At least a dozen guard ponies and a single human rushed towards them with none other than Flurry's own parents in the lead.
"Oh sweetie we were so worried about you!" Princess Cadance said once she reached the two kids, kneeling down in front of Flurry Heart and embracing her tightly.
"What you did was extremely irresponsible, young lady!" Prince consort Shining Armor said behind Cadance, his arms were crossed but his face betrayed his voice, he was just as much relieved to see his daughter safe and in good health as his wife.
The other human, an adult judging by his height, approached Aaron and crossed his arms in the same fashion as Shining Armor, the only difference was that his face showed nothing but pure anger. "Aaron Richards you are incredibly grounded right now, like, all the way grounded! After I'm done with you, you'd be lucky if you ever see the sun again! What were you thinking running away from me in a foreign country?! Do you have any idea how worried your mother was when I told her that you simply up and vanished?!"
"I-I'm sorry…" Aaron apologized, his face hung low.
"Don't be mad at him!" Flurry Heart found herself saying, catching everyone by surprise. Flurry Heart's brief resolve crumbled under everyone's gaze and she quickly looked down again.
"Flurry, sweetie… you know this boy?" Cadance asked.
"Sort of," Flurry Heart mumbled. "We played together all day…"
Cadance exchanged looks between Flurry Heart and Aaron, her eyes slowly drifting towards the carvings on the tree bark. A small smile tugged at Cadance's lips as she stood up and faced the only adult human in the group.
"Mr. Richards, please allow me to personally apologize for our children's actions and how it affected our meeting today. If you will I would be more than happy to reschedule my day tomorrow so we can pick up where we left off."
The man known as Mr. Richards bowed his head towards Cadance before replying. "I appreciate the offer, princess, but I'm afraid I have other pressing matters to attend to tomorrow, and I'm sure you are just as busy as I am, if not more so. As it so happens I still have a lot of unfinished businesses here in The Crystal Empire in the coming years, I'm sure we'll meet again," Mr. Richards finished with another bow and a smile, a smile that promptly vanished when he snapped his head towards Aaron. "Come, young man, let's call your mother before she worries herself to death, and figure out a proper punishment for your little stunt today!"
"Okay…" Aaron replied, defeated, following his father as he left. He turned his head and his eyes locked with Flurry Heart. He waved his hand weakly in her direction and she responded in kind, sad that her only true friend was leaving.
"Come sweetie, let's go home," Cadance spoke softly, offering her hand to the young filly. But Flurry Heart wasn't paying attention, instead her gaze was fixed on her candy buddy, who was slowly fading away into the distance.
"Sweetie?" Cadance approached her daughter, kneeling next to her and was about to inquire as to what is wrong, but before she could utter a single word Flurry Heart dashed off.
"Aaron!" Flurry Heart called. "Aaaaaaron!"
Finally approaching a hearing distance, both Aron and his father turned around just in time for Flurry Heart to jump on the little kid, causing the two to fall onto the soft snow.
"Promise me that we'll meet again!"
"Flurry, what's gotten into y-"
"Promise me!"
"Alright, alright, I promise," Aaron replied, unsure how to react to the situation. With Flurry Heart on top of him, the only thing he could do was to hug the little filly, a hug that Flurry was more than happy to return.
By the time Flurry Heart's parents caught up to her, she was already rising from the ground, helping Aaron as well.
"Flurry Sweetie, it is not polite to bump into people like that," Cadance scolded her, though the little smile on her face did not help drive her point across.
Mr. Richards exchanged looks between Flurry Heart and Aaron before finally sighing.
"Aaron…"
The young boy turned around and looked up to meet his father's gaze.
"Once we get back home you're in big trouble…" Aaron hung his head low, too ashamed to look in his father's eyes. "But, if you behave yourself from now on, I see no reason why I shouldn't take you with me on my next business trip to The Crystal Empire."
"Really!" Aaron's and Flurry Heart's eyes lit up. As if moving as one, the two children rushed to Mr. Richards and hugged his legs. Trying to keep at least some air of professionalism in front of Cadance and Shining Armor, Mr. Richards tried and failed to suppress the smile slowly spreading across his features. Even Cadance and Shining Armor could not keep their straight faces in the sight of two truly happy kids.
"Alright, alright, that's enough hugging for today," Mr. Richards said, Aaron and Flurry Heart obeyed without question. "Come Aaron, let's go home."
"Okay daddy!" Aaron walked up to his dad and grabbed his hand, he turned around and waved back to Flurry Heart. "Bye candy buddy!"
Flurry Heart smiled widely before waving back.
"Bye Aaron!"
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed this simple and incredibly short story. I might add another chapter, depending on the reception
