Flurry Heart awoken from the light of the sun in her soft, cloud-like bed. Her mind was racing of possible outcomes of the Crystal Kingdom, from all the nightmares she had recalled. She calmed herself, getting out of bed. She lived in the crystal castle with her mother and father, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Today was her 18th birthday, and the preparations were very similar to the crystalling she had when she was born. She decided to get ready as soon as possible.
With no time to waste, Flurry Heart slipped on one of her many dresses, with golden silk on the inside, and pink and blue floral patterns on the outside. Rarity, a friend of her aunt's made it for her from her last birthday. She put on her crown, and headed outside her bedroom door.
She could recognize the smell of freshly-cooking pancakes made by her dad. Her parents greeted her as soon as she walked in the kitchen, with great smiles that shone in the sunlight. Her mother was the first one to speak.
"Good morning, dear," greeted Princess Cadence. "Happy birthday! The cake should be here in half an hour."
"Cake?" Asked Flurry Heart to herself. "I thought this was royal with no friends..."
Princess Cadence happily explained her silent question. "Dear... I hope you don't mind if this is normal this year.." She grew slowly nervous. "We think some of your family and friends might want to come over this year."
Flurry Heart was happy with the answer. "Thanks! Things were just too uptight last time..." Before she could speak again, Shining Armor had interrupted.
"Morning, sweetie! Happy birthday," He said cheerfully. "You're very lucky that I have everything prepared." Flurry wondered what he meant with that statement.
"Follow us," He announced.
Flurry Heart followed her parents into a huge decorated room with crystals everywhere. The tablecloth was a soft pink with roses for the centerpiece. The plates and cups were polished chinaware with folded napkins at the side. Everything was extremely neat and tidy, and the floor was almost spotless. Flurry Heart was speechless.
"T-thank y-"
"I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT DOING THIS," yelled Shining Armor, proud of his work. "DO YOU LOVE IT?!"
Flurry Heart chuckled at her father's slight insanity. "I love it, thanks dad.
...
Later that morning, almost all of Flurry's family arrived to the castle. While she was busy getting ready, Shining was greeting everypony at the door, and Cadence was making last-minute preparations. She was soon called down 7 minutes later, knowing that her family had wanted to see the exited pony.
She came to the first floor of her home, seeing many family members staring at herself with happy expressions. She found it kinda creepy, and kinda weird. She pushed those thoughts aside, and wanted to see aunt Twilight. She set off to find her through the crowds.
Eventually she found her, and wanted to speak to her. She spoke from the back of her, when she was having a conversation with her mother.
"Aunt Twilight?"
Twilight turned around to see the happy mare smile at her presence. "Flurry Heart! Happy birthday!" She then showed her a birthday present, in a shape of a book. "You can open it now if you like," said Twilight.
Flurry Heart carefully opened the green wrapping paper, and slid off the golden bow attached. Inside was a book on ancient gemstones and relics, with a chocolate brown cover. Although it was the same gift as every year, Flurry was happy with the handbook resting in her hooves.
"Thanks, Twilight!" she smiled at her aunt happily, and had a conversation in time which seemed like forever.
...
Shining Armor watched the hundreds of ponies come inside the castle door. It was more difficult than he thought to greet so many ponies at a time, especially for a fancy party. He finally heard his wife's voice call him after a while.
"Honey! We're ready."
Shining Armor began to follow the princess into the depths of the crystal building. But just before he went inside, he noticed something in his sight that looked black in color.
Many clouds of black smoke arose from the outside of the kingdom, causing the sky to turn brown. Shining quickly realized what this was, and ran inside.
He rushed past Cadence in time to get to the ponies inside. The ponies who saw the fear inside his eyes wondered what was going on. He took no effort to scream at the top of his lungs:
"SOMBRA IS ATTACKING THE EMPIRE!"
The ponies were in panic at the hearing of his words, and scrambled in hiding to evacuate the situation.
