A Snow Swept Heart

Chapters

The Gala (Edited)
Ten Years Later (Edited)
No Time to Recover (Edited)
The Border (Edited)
New Friends (Edited)
A Lunchtime Interlude (Edited)
Meeting a Princess

The Gala (Edited)

The Crystal Empire shined beautifully in the night as it was lit up in all manner of fireworks and as parties roared on. No party was as loud or as big as the one at the Palace, however. Dozens of carriages were letting out their VIPs, nobles and high ranking ponies from all over Equestria and even a few from the Griffon Empire. The reason for the celebrations was that the royal foal Princess Flurry Heart had finally gotten her cutie mark. It was a glorious occasion, to be sure. Her cutie mark was of a purple crystal heart with windswept snow blowing across it. Unsurprisingly, it was similar to her mother's--Princess Cadence--meaning she was next in line for the throne of the Crystal Empire.
In the grand hall of the palace, many stallions danced with their mares, while others stood to the side, either chatting or just enjoying the festivities. As per usual, all the guests wore their best attire. For this gathering, however, it was important to wear their best gowns and suits, not that they would be caught dead without them, for at this party, the royal family would reveal Flurry Heart’s cutie mark. For this reason everyone else must hide theirs as a sign of respect.

While there were many important figures in the hall, none were as important as the royal family and their guests at the far end of the hall. They were comprised of Equestria’s rulers Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as the Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle, the Crystal Empire’s rulers Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, and of course, the guest of honor: Princess Flurry Heart. The other Elements of Harmony were there, as well, but over the course of the night, they made their way into the crowd to mingle with different ponies or, in Fluttershy's case, find the Palace Gardens to talk to all of the nice animals. While Princess Cadence and her husband discussed various things with the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, Flurry Heart trotted up to Princess Twilight, who smiled down at the newly cutie-marked filly.

“Auntie Twi Twi,” she asked, using the cute nickname she came up with when she was still a toddler, “how long do I have to wear this dress? It's itchy!”

The purple alicorn giggled. “A couple more hours, sweetie. And you know it isn’t that itchy; Rarity made that special for you.”

“Yeah, I know, but it's still annoying. Why do I have to wear it, anyway?”

“Well, dear, it’s a tradition here in the Empire. When a foal gets their cutie mark, the family are the only ones who get to see it until they have the party for it. Make sense?”

“Mmmm, kind of, yeah.”

“Now, why don’t you go dance with your father. I think he’s wanted to for a couple minutes, now.”

Flurry Heart nodded and turned around. As predicted, her father was there, waiting for her. She trotted up to him, and together, they walked down the stairs to the main dance floor of the grand hall. However, as soon as they started to dance, they heard shrieks coming from the center of the hall. They looked over to see a circle of purple and green flames shoot up from the floor. A figure slowly rose from within the circle, a familiar unicorn stallion. He wore the barding and possessed the evil green eyes--seemingly on fire with purple flames coming out of them--he wore last he was seen. The only major difference from his previous appearence was his black mane. It was almost alive, flowing in a constant wind that was not there, much like Princess Celestia's and Luna's did. Gasps rose from all of the ponies in the room. King Sombra had returned.

“Oh, what a lovely gathering we have here. Sorry for gatecrashing, but it seems that I hadn’t gotten my invitation,” he said in his deep, yet smooth, voice. Shining Armor stepped in front of Flurry Heart and pushed her to be even more behind him.

“Sombra! What are you doing here?”

“Am I not allowed to bring the guest of honor a present to celebrate her cutie mark?”

“You stay away from her, you demon!” Shining took another step forward.

“Shining Armor! Halt!” Princess Luna called from behind him. The worried tone she used made him stop, though he still didn’t take his eyes off of Sombra.

“He’s been touched by the Nightmare; he is more powerful than ever, now,” the princess said. Shining Armor’s eyes widened, and he took a step back.

“How?”

Sombra gave a small laugh. “You’d be surprised at the lengths you have to go to in order to come back to life.”

“You embraced the Nightmare? For what purpose would you need something that evil?” Luna asked, glaring at him.

“It’s quite simple, really, Luna: to give young Flurry Heart her present,” Sombra replied with an evil sneer.

“And what is this present you speak of, Sombra?” Cadence flew over to her husband, landing next to him.

“Oh, it’s on its way. In fact, I think it’s arriving as we speak.” Sombra turned his head towards the main doors to the hall. They all listened and heard the sounds of a battle being one-sidedly fought, and it was not the Crystal Guards that were winning. Shining quickly turned to one of the guards protecting the hall.

“Get the princesses and my daughter out of here! Now!”

Sombra laughed loudly as he teleported away. No one knew where he went, but no one really cared, certainly not Shining Armor. He galloped towards the sound of the battle with what guards were in the hall and weren’t helping escort the princesses out.

“Shining, wait!” Cadence called after him, but he was too far to have heard. She looked down at Flurry Heart. “Honey, I need to go and help Daddy. I want you to go with your aunts, okay?”

“You’ll be okay, right, Mommy?” Flurry Heart asked, looking terrified.

“Of course, sweetie. I promise everything will be okay. I just need you to go with Aunt Twilight to Ponyville for a while.”

“O-okay, Mommy.”

Cadence leaned down and kissed Flurry on the forehead before turning and flying off towards the battle to help her husband. Flurry felt magic wrap around her as she was lifted onto Twilight’s back.

“Come on, Flurry, we’re going for a nice train ride.” Twilight said as she and the other Princesses and Elements galloped out a back entrance from the hall. They couldn’t fly to the train station--they would be too noticeable--so they had to risk running to it.
They exited the castle to a city of fire. It looked like whoever Sombra had brought to help him were reeking havoc on the city. Before any of them could wonder who was doing this, however, two ghostly figures appeared in front of them, wielding swords in their mouths. They charged the group, only to be blasted by Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.

“Come, before more of them are sent to get us!” Celestia said as she started to gallop through the streets to the train station, everypony else on her tail. Twilight and Flurry were at the back of the pack, and Flurry hugged Twilight's neck tightly, scared out of her mind. Flurry made the mistake of looking back towards the castle. To her horror, the castle itself was on fire. She could hear screams and the sound of battle in the distance, but what was worse was that several of the ghost ponies were behind them, galloping and catching up fast.

“Twilight! They're coming!” she screamed. Twilight looked back and gasped. She fired a bolt of magic at one, and it exploded into a cloud of whatever the ghost ponies were made of. Twilight turned her head forward again. In front of her, the ghost pony whom she had just blasted reappeared and swung the sword in its mouth. Twilight yelped as she ducked down, sliding under the sweep of the blade. She thought this would be enough, but when she heard the cry of the filly on her back, she knew she had miscalculated. Her head shot back to see what happened and was utterly shocked to see Flurry Heart minus two very important limbs: her wings. She started to tear up as she saw the severed wings fall to the ground far behind them. All that remained of them were two bloody stumps and a crying filly. Through her tears, Twilight lit her horn and surrounded the filly in healing magic. It wasn’t much, but it would do until her natural healing magic healed the wounds.

Princess Luna, having heard the commotion, flew back and started blasting any of the ghosts she saw, while the group eventually made it to the train station. Unfortunately, the train had already left, though it was in flying distance. Thinking quickly, the princesses, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash picked up those who couldn’t fly and started to get them to the train. As Twilight jumped into the air, she was knocked to one side by a ghost pony's spell. She barely managed to stay in the air, and she could tell Flurry was having a hard time keeping a hold on her back given her pain, so Twilight did her best to dodge the incoming spells. Twilight had no clue how these ponies were able to fire spells, but they were, and they were good at it.

She was approaching the train when she was hit by an especially powerful blast, knocking her to the side hard. She heard a scream as Flurry Heart fell from her back. She quickly stopped flying forward, hovering there, looking to see where Flurry Heart fell, but she couldn’t see her. She became frantic and was about to fly back to where she thought she dropped her, when she was surrounded by a golden glow.

“No, no, no!” Twilight franticly tried to fight the spell, but before she knew it, she was teleported to the inside of a train car in front of her friends and the princesses.

“Flurry Heart is still out there! She’s hurt! We have to go back!” she cried. She tried to gallop away, but she was stopped again by a golden glow around her.

“Twilight, I’m sorry. There isn’t time; it's too late,” Celestia told her, wrapping a hoof around her.

“How can you say that! She’s just a child! She could die!” Twilight screamed as she tossed Celestia’s hoof away.

“And if we go back, we all could die, Twilight. Whatever those constructs are, they’re more powerful than my sister and I can handle. We can’t risk everypony here, the only defense we have for Equestria, by going back. As much as I wish we could, we can’t save her,” Celestia explained, a tear falling from her eye.

“But--” Twilight started, before Celestia put a hoof to her mouth.

“If she survives, we will find her eventually. If she doesn’t, well... we’ll find her eventually, okay, Twilight?”

“O-Okay, Princess.” Twilight hugged Celestia, who happily hugged back as the train made its way on the long journey to Canterlot.

Ten Years Later (Edited)

Snow Heart walked down the street of the quaint little town. She had lived here all her life--well, at least most of it--and she’s enjoyed it ever since she wandered into the town ten years ago. The locals were extremely nice to her, even if they were concerned why an eight-year-old filly covered in blood was walking in the snowy wasteland. They checked her over but couldn’t find any wounds, so they cleaned her up and asked her who she was. She, however, didn’t know who she was, where she was, or even how old she was. "Amnesia," they said, which didn’t stop them from being nice, however. They gave her a new name, and since they figured she was around eight--that’s when cutie marks could start appearing--they set her up in the town's orphanage. It wasn’t glamorous, but she didn’t want glamorous; she just wanted a place to sleep. She got more than that, though. She got friends like Stargazer, her best friend, who was walking behind her.

Stargazer was a dark blue pegasus with a black mane. On his face were a few light blue freckles that Snow Heart to this day says are cute, which lead to many, many blushes from the stallion. It amused Snow Heart to no end, which is why she kept saying it. Stargazer had three light blue stars for a cutie mark. When Snow Heart asked him how he got it, he explained that he had always been fascinated by the stars. He always would look at the stars and read about them. One day, before Sombra took over, he and his parents went to the Crystal Empire. Apparently, there was a big to-do about the child princess. His parents were taking him to a family friend’s house for a party when the big takeover happened. He was a bit secretive of what happened then, but she could surmise what happened since he then went on to say that he used the stars to navigate back to this village since he was alone--well, that and he was also now in an orphanage, so it was pretty easy to see what happened, though she never asked him about it specifically.

Then there was the third member of their little party: North Star, a rather large bat. Stargazer found him while he was out of town in the woods, studying the stars, when a bad blizzard came in from seemingly nowhere. It covered the clouds and Stargazer couldn’t find his way. North Star, however, was able to show him how to get home, and they’ve been friends ever since. Thankfully, North Star expanded his friendship to Snow Heart. The bat was a weird one, as far as Snow Heart was concerned; it seemed almost intelligent, though she still was happy to call it a friend.

Together, they walked through the market, looking for the different supplies they needed to make dinner tonight, as it was their turn to make it. The older ponies at the orphanage were asked to help out around the house. Most ponies accepted it, and some didn’t. They were still allowed to live in the orphanage either way, though the ones that didn’t accept the responsibility were usually looked down upon. Snow Heart and Stargazer both took on the responsibilities, though; they both felt they owed the owner, an older unicorn mare that insisted on being called Mum.

As they walked through the market, they couldn’t help but notice that all of the vendors seemed on edge. That wasn’t very uncommon, with Sombra’s death squads roaming around to ‘keep the peace’. They were actually called Peace Keepers, but the amount of times they stopped violence was grossly outnumbered by the violence the squads produced. Of course, they didn’t do it in the open, but stories from survivors had spread pretty fast. But the vendors seemed to be more on edge than normal. Snow Heart trotted up to one of the vendors, a nice stallion that specialized in cabbages.

“Sir? What’s going on? Everyone seems scared.”

“It’s the Peace Keepers. They’re raiding different places in town,” the stallion said. Snow Heart and Stargazer looked at each other in confusion. What did he mean by raiding? As if to answer their question, they heard a scream come from the other side of the market. They galloped over to see what was happening and to help if they could, though any thoughts of helping were quickly diminished as they saw what was happening.

A death squad had surrounded a house and were in the process of grabbing everypony inside. The screams were coming from a mare who was on the ground, obviously in pain, if the unnaturally-angled foreleg was anything to go on. Snow Heart took a couple steps forward to try to help the mare any way she could, but Stargazer held her back. She looked at him, and he pointed back at one of the squad members going over to the women and violently punching her in the face. The mare was knocked out instantly, though it looked like she was dead.
It wasn’t over, however. They looked back at the house as two of the squad members dragged a stallion, presumably the mare’s husband, out of the house. They were asking him questions the two bystanders couldn’t quite make out, so they slowly walked closer till they could just barely hear them.

“I swear I’m not a rebel! I’d never do anything like that against King Sombra!” the stallion exclaimed.

“We’ll see about that; we have very good intel suggesting you are,” the apparent leader of the squad said through the black barding that was the squad’s normal uniforms. The victim was about to say something else when another of the squad came out of the house.

“We have confirmed that there is Equestrian contraband in the house.”

“What? No, no, if anything is from Equestria, it's from before the war! I swear! Please!” the stallion pleaded. The leader looked like he was reaching for something when he brought his head back around fast. In his mouth was a small dagger. Snow Heart and Stargazer gasped as they saw the stallion’s neck start to bleed. The two barded ponies holding him up till then dropped his soon-to-be-lifeless body.

The leader started to make his way over to the unconscious mare on the ground. Snow Heart wanted to look away, she didn’t want to see what was about to happen, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of the scene. All she could see was the stallion’s life-blood draining from him and the soldiers about to do the same to the poor mare.

Before she did something stupid, Stargazer grabbed her. “Come on, Snowy. Let's just go,” he said in an attempt at a calm voice. He was just as scared as she was, but they couldn’t stay, so he had to take her home. She looked at him and nodded. They turned back towards the orphanage and trotted away, not looking back as the soldiers produced a small sword and brought it down.

No Time to Recover (Edited)

Snow Heart sat down on one of the chairs in the kitchen. She and Stargazer had just gotten back from the market and the event that kept running through her mind, the brutal deaths of the two ponies out in front of their own home. Snow Heart couldn’t comprehend why it was done.

She started, “I can’t believe they--”

“I know,” Stargazer interrupted. He wasn’t trying to sound like he didn’t care, but he was processing what happened himself, so it came out as such.

“Right in the market!”

“I know.”

“In front of everypony!”

“I know.”

“We have to do something!”

“I--What?” Stargazer dropped the can of food he was putting away and looked at her. “You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I’m serious! You saw what happened. Sombra is going too far if he’s ordering public executions like that!” She stood up from her chair, a look of determination in her eye.

“You say that like Sombra is a good emperor. In case you forgot, he came into power by killing Princess Cadenza and her husband, as well as incapacitating the entirety of the Crystal Guard. What could you possibly do?”

“I... I don’t know yet…” Snow Heart’s determination faltered as Stargazer said this. She was feeling some bitterness and sadness when he mentioned the princess and the guard, though she didn’t know why.

“Snowy, I know you mean well. You hate to see ponies hurt, but be real here, you’re one pony, and while I’m sure hundreds if not thousands of ponies in the empire would agree with you if they could, they’re being smart and just trying to live their own life. I mean, look at us, we’re eighteen, our whole lives ahead of us. Sure, our country isn’t the best, but we’re still alive.”

“Hmph.” Snow Heart fell back on her haunches again and crossed her forelegs. “Why do you have to be the grounded one between us?”

“Because if I wasn’t, the world would end due to all the crazy stuff you do,” he said with a small smile on his face.

“Hmph, I slightly overcook a sandwich one time and no one lets me live it down.” She rolled her eyes.

“Snowy, you turned it into burnt liquid… I’m still not sure how that’s physically possible.”

“That was one time!” She glared at him, and he met it with a similar glare. They continued to glare at each other for a couple seconds before bursting out laughing. Snowy loved that about Stargazer. They argued sometimes, but he always seemed to know what to say and do to make her feel better, even if it's teasing her. Though, that particular memory was admittedly funny, so she had no problem laughing with him.

As their laughter died down, Snowy’s ears perked up. She thought she heard something from the other room, almost like crying. But that couldn’t be right; she knew there were a few younger kids in the orphanage, but they were usually taking a nap or playing outside at this time before dinner. She put her hoof to Stargazers muzzle, shushing him. Before he could voice any concerns on why she did so, she started to walk towards the door, ever so slightly peeking out. He raised an eyebrow before he finally noticed the crying himself. He went over to her and they both looked out, not seeing anything in the hallway. It seemed to be coming from the big family room. The family room was the only room with a big fireplace, meaning the room was good for the orphanage ‘family’ to come together for stories or meetings.

Together, they slowly made their way down the hallway and peeked into the family room. Inside, they saw Mum sitting in her old rocking chair, crying. This made both their minds reel; neither of them had ever seen Mum cry like this before. She did, of course, cry sometimes, like when one of the foals were adopted, though that was happy crying. This was sad crying. Something bad had happened; they knew it. Snowy made her way in first.

“Mum? What’s wrong?” she asked, coming to within a few hoofs of the chair and the mare in it. Mum looked up to see the two sitting there looking worried. She weighed her options before deciding that they were old enough to know and understand, so she explained.

“You see, dears… a couple of good friends of mine were… well… killed today.” She waited for the two gasps that were expected and was not let down.

“What? Wait, where?” Snowy asked. Thoughts of the two that were killed at the market flooded her mind. Did she witness the death of Mum’s friends? She sure hoped she didn’t. Mum tilted her head slightly, confused why she would have asked, but answered anyway.

“Near the far edge of town. They lived in a house together. Apparently, the Peace Keepers thought they were harbouring contraband, while I know for a fact they weren’t, but somehow they found some and after that… well… you know.” Mum looked down as tears came to her eye again. She brought a hoof up to wipe it.

“Then the two at the market weren’t the only ones?” Stargazer silently asked Snowy, trying to say it quiet enough for Mum not to hear, but she always seemed to have supersonic hearing.

“You two saw them murdered?” She asked, shocked, her eyes widening. Both Snowy’s and Stargazer’s ears flattened as they looked down. Snowy answered first.

“They just… killed them! For the same reason. All we could do was watch.” She shuddered from the memory.

“Oh, dears… I’m so sorry you had to see that. You two don’t deserve that kind of thing; you’re both nice and sweet. Why don’t you go upstairs and rest? I can handle dinner.”

“It’s alright, Mum, we can still make dinner,” Snowy reassured her.

“I won’t take no for an answer, little missy, and you know that. Now get your flanks upstairs. I don’t want to see either of you till I call for dinner, you hear?”

“Alright, Mum,” both Snowy and Stargazer groaned in unison. They turned around and headed upstairs.
They didn’t share a room, but Stargazer could often be found inside Snowy’s room or vice versa. They were inseparable aside from sleeping and going to the bathroom. Today was no different. They both walked into Snowy’s room and sat on the bed.

“Why is Mum making us come back up here? It's our turn to make dinner. Plus, she’s the one who lost somepony today, not us,” Snowy said, pouting. Though she was secretly glad that Mum gave them the night off--she was mentally exhausted from today's events--she wouldn’t tell anypony that, not even Stargazer, even though she knew he felt the same way.

“I think she just wants to have her mind on other things. You know she's normally just sitting on her chair reading or doing something before dinner. She has a lot on her mind now and probably doesn’t want to think too much on it. Also, like she said, we went through a lot today. She probably wants to give us a break.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re--Hey, what’s that?” Snowy asked as she looked out her window. Below, on the ground, they could see black-armoured ponies walking up to the front door of the orphanage before knocking on the door.

“W-Why are Peace Keepers here?” Stargazer worriedly asked as he looked out the window next to Snowy. He had an idea in his head, but he didn’t dare give it any real thought.

“Us… It has to be because of us! Why else would they be here?” Snowy looked at Stargazer in a panic.

“But why? We just saw it happen. It wasn’t our fault they did it in broad daylight!”

A knock came from the door. Both ponies in the room held their breaths, scared about what could be behind the door. The silence was deafening for what seemed like an eternity before they heard a voice from the opposite side of the door.

“Dearies, are you awake?” Mum asked. The two ponies in the room sighed in relief as they opened the door to let the older mare in.

“Mum! What’s happening?” Snowy asked, gazing at the door. Mum shushed her almost immediately.

“The Peace Keepers are here to ‘recruit you’, and you both know what that means. You two need to leave now. I will not let them take two of my favourite foals.”

“But where are we gonna go, Mum? This is the only place we know,” Stargazer said. Mum glanced at the door, hoping that the Peace Keepers were still waiting downstairs.

“There’s a mare I know in Equestria. Her name is Granny Smith. She lives in a town called Ponyville. Go there; she’ll take care of you two. I know she will. Go south until you cross the border, then ask for directions. Now, get going. Use the back staircase and run. I’ll try to hold them off. I’m not sure how long I can, though. I love you both.”

“But Mum--" Snowy started, but Mum cut her off.

“No more questions. Go on.” She pointed to the door. The two looked at each other before starting towards the door.

“We love you, Mum,” they both said as they exited the room and headed to the back staircase.

“I love you both.” Mum left the room and headed back downstairs to face the Peace Keepers.

Snowy and Stargazer sprinted across the backyard and the plain behind it. Their brains focused on getting as far away from the building and their deaths as possible. They didn’t want to leave Mum or the other kids but knew Mum wanted only what was best for them, so they left, hoping the Peace Keepers wouldn’t hurt any of them.

Climbing the hill at the end of the plain wasn’t the easiest with the snow covering it, but they trudged along. They were cold, extremely cold; they didn’t even have scarves. Still, they trudged on, meeting North Star as they ran up the hill. Once they got to the top of the hill, Stargazer looked back. He gasped at what he saw. “Snowy… Look.”

Snowy stopped and turned around. Her eyes widened at the sight of the orphanage, her home, in flames. Her world shattered. If she couldn’t see her breath due to the cold, she wouldn’t have known she was even breathing. Her eyes became misty with tears. She wanted to turn away, but she was frozen, staring at everything she knew burning away. Thankfully, she had Stargazer to break her out of it.

“Come on, Snowy. We can’t stay here, even if we want to.”

Snowy nodded and took off again with her friend. They didn’t look back again. They couldn’t. There was nothing left for them.

The Border (Edited)

Snowy and Stargazer galloped for as long as they could. The snow and temperature made it hard for them to move and slowed them down considerably. They eventually, however, found themselves at the end of the heavy snow and at the beginning of the tundra that comprised the border of the Crystal Empire and Equestria.

While the war had been over for a few years now, they still had to be extra cautious. The no pony's land between the two countries was about half a mile wide and was marked off on either side by fences. The fences themselves were not really the problem; it’d take a few seconds to fly over. The problem was in getting the timing just right. Soldiers patrolled the outskirts every few minutes and had orders to kill on sight if somepony was trying to get across. Then, of course, there was the Equestrian military, who, if the propaganda was to be believed, were under the same kill orders. While Snowy highly doubted that the Equestrian military would fire at ponies trying to escape the Crystal Empire, she thought it would be safer to avoid them as well.

“Ok, so it looks like the guards patrol in this area every couple of minutes. It’ll be close, but I think I’ll be able to lift you over the fence,” Stargazer explained as he got back to the small hill they were planning from. It was a fair distance from the fence, as they didn’t want to get caught as they were trying to figure things out.

“That only leaves what we do when we get to the other side.” Snowy put a hoof to her chin, pondering.

“If they don’t just kill us when we get over there.”

“Hey! If it was that dangerous, Mum wouldn’t have told us to go there, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. So, what’s the plan, exactly?”

“It’s simple. We sneak over, wait for the guards to pass, then you lift me up and over, and then we run.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that simple.”

“Don’t be so negative, Stargazer. Unless you have a better plan?”

“Nope, this is the best we got, but I trust you Snowy. We’ll pull it off.” He smiled at her, and she smiled back before looking back towards the border. Ahead of them, a group of guards was starting to pass in front of them.

“Now’s our chance. They’re passing us. Let’s go,” she whispered, and they started making their way towards the fence, moving slowly to not draw attention to themselves. Thankfully, the lack of trees made it easier to not step on branches, though it also meant they were pretty much out in the open, with only some rocks to hide behind. They hid behind the rocks every now and again when it looked like one of the guards were starting to look in their direction.

They made it to the edge of the road in front of the fence that the guards patrolled and looked up and down it, making sure no guards would see them. They nodded to each other and sprinted across the dirt but stopped just before the fence.

“Ready, Snowy?” Stargazer whispered to her. While there wasn’t anypony around them--they hoped--they still had to be careful about talking loudly.

“Yep. Raise me up,” Snowy said. Stargazer took off and wrapped his hooves around Snowy’s barrel and started to lift her up slowly.

“Gosh, Snowy, I didn’t know it’d be this hard to pick you up,” Stargazer said, pumping his wings.

“Excuse me?” Snowy snapped and glared at him.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” he quickly apologized.

“I’m watching you, Stargazer. I’m watching you.” Snowy narrowed her eyes at him, and they giggled lightly.

They got to the top of the fence, being careful to avoid the razor wire at the top, and were about to cross over when they heard the last thing they wanted to hear.

“Halt!”

Their eyes widened as they heard a guard scream that. Snowy looked back to the road, and to her horror, there was a patrol of guards aiming crossbows at them. They fired.

“Left! Now!” Snowy screamed to Stargazer, who complied immediately, jerking left and just barely avoiding the barrage of bolts.

The bolts hit the ground in several places. However, some hit things that were buried in the ground: land mines. The land mines were lined with special runes that, when pressure was applied to them, overcharged and exploded, sending fire and shrapnel everywhere, enough to maim or kill even the toughest earth pony.

Apparently, a bolt hitting one is just enough pressure to set them off, as jets of flame accompanied by explosions went off below the two airborne ponies, causing them to scream as they jerked to the side at the sudden explosions.

“We can’t land here! You have to fly us to the other side,” Snowy yelled over the jets of flames.

“I’ll try!” Stargazer replied as he doubled his efforts to get them to safety. Snowy kept looking behind them, calling out when to dodge waves of bolts. She even had used her magic to deflect a couple closer ones.

She had just deflected a wave of bolts when one of them managed to slip past her telekinesis and looked to be traveling right at her. She was about to slap it out of the air when she blinked, and the bolt flashed and changed into a sword. She blinked again, and it changed back to a bolt. She quickly batted it down, wondering what just happened.

She didn’t get a lot of time, though, as seconds later, an explosion and a jet of flame shot up right next to them. She screamed and heard Stargazer scream too, though his was mixed with pain. She looked up and saw that one of his wings got scorched.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” she called up to him. He had one eye closed, likely because of the pain.

“I can’t keep us up; my wing hurts too much. Oh, jeez..." he replied as they slowly lost altitude. Snowy brought her hooves in as they got closer to the ground. They both shut their eyes as they assumed this would be their end: hitting a landmine and exploding into a million pieces.

Instead, they hit the ground and tumbled, giving them a few bumps and bruises, but they didn’t explode. They both opened their eyes and looked at each other, confused.

“Are we dead and don’t know it?” Snowy asked. Stargazer answered with a groan.

“Nope; my wing still hurts like Tartarus.”

Snowy looked around, still wondering why they weren’t dead when she noticed that they were only a few minutes away from the Equestrian fence. A few minutes from freedom.

“We’re almost there, Stargazer. We’re almost there! Come on!” She got up and went over to help him up. He groaned and stood up, only to fall down again.

“Damn. I’m out of energy, Snowy.”

“Nope, not hearing that. Come on.” She lifted him off the ground with her magic, struggling a bit before plopping him on her back.

“Oof. And you complained I was heavy,” she teased as she started to move towards the fence.

“Ha ha, very funny.”

In a few minutes, they were at the fence, not too different from the fence on the opposite side, albeit less intimidating. It didn’t even have a razor wire top. They approached it and were only slightly shocked that a patrol of Equestrian guards was approaching them.

“Stay where you two are, and we’ll have you safe and sound in a few moments,” a female guard told them as she used magic to open a small door in the gate, one that wasn’t there seconds ago. Snowy and Stargazer walked through the door and took their first steps into Equestria, feeling as if their great journey was finally over--or, at least, close to being over. The guard mare looked at them and smiled. They smiled back.

“Welcome to Equestria, you two. I’m just sorry I have to do this. Protocol and all." She turned toward the rest of the guards. "Get the colt to a medic, and then get them to a holding cell!”

New Friends (Edited)

“What?” Snowy and Stargazer asked, surprised. They had just passed the border between the Crystal Empire and Equestria, a border which many ponies have tried and failed to cross. But now they stand just beyond the Equestrian border fence and are being arrested. Truly a lucky day!

The female guard gave them a small smile, however. “Don’t worry, kids. It’s all just protocol. We just have to fill out some paperwork, and then we can get you to wherever you need to go.”

“Why should we believe you?” Stargazer asked. Having lived in the Crystal Empire most their lives, trusting guards wasn’t exactly a thing that happened too often.

The mare gave a small sigh. “I understand your concern. I was in a similar position a few years ago when I escaped myself, but I learned, and you will too, that we’re the good guys here.”

“Miss, you escaped the empire?” Snowy asked amazed others managed to do it, too.

“More than that. I escaped the capital,” The mare said with a proud smile, though it soon turned to a sad frown. “I was one of about three that actually managed to reach Equestria.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” Stargazer stated as a medic pony came up to inspect his wing.

“We started out with twenty,” the mare stated with a noticeable hint of venom. Both Snowy and Stargazer flinched hearing this, their ears flattening.

Snowy quickly went up to the mare and gave her a small hug. “I’m sorry, miss. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”

“Gah, kids hugging me, my only weakness.” The mare chuckled softly as she ruffled Snowy’s mane. “Don’t worry about it, kid. It’s in the past. I can’t change it, only learn from it and come out a better mare.”

“Hey!” Snowy squirmed under the mare’s hoof. “I’m eighteen, and my name is Snowy, not 'kid'.”

“And mine's Stargazer,” her friend added.

The mare smirked. “I’m Violet Scout. Nice to meet you two. Come on. I’ll get you two a deluxe cell,” Violet started to lead them to an installation in the distance, presumably their base of operations.

The "deluxe cell" that Violet told them about turned out to be more like an inn room than a cell. In actuality, it was just an officer’s quarters that the base had converted to hold refugees from the Empire. There were even two relatively comfortable-looking beds in it.

Violet let the two exhausted ponies into the room, where they almost immediately flopped onto the beds and fell asleep, the adrenaline from the day’s events finally wearing off. Thankfully, it was a peaceful night and neither had any nightmares. Then again, if they did, they were within the range for Princess Luna to come help them.

The next morning, they awoke to find Violet waiting for them.

“Sorry to disturb you two, but it’s nearly noon, and we have to talk about what’s going to happen next.”

Snowy yawned before answering, “And what's going to happen next?”

“I thought you said we were going to be free to go,” Stargazer added.

“You are, but like I said last night, we have procedures to follow. Now, why don’t you two get cleaned up, and I’ll bring you over to the mess hall to get you two fed. I’m sure you’re hungry.” As if on cue, both ponies' stomachs gave a small growl. Violet smirked and chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

The two took turns in the adjacent bathroom while Violet waited for them. After a half-hour, they both were clean and very hungry. Violet led the two down a few halls to the cafeteria. She opened the doors to reveal a quite humble-looking cafeteria, considering the size of the building they were in. In fact, only a few other ponies were in the room. Without giving it any more thought, they got in line and got their food.

After they got their food and sat down, Snowy frowned. She said, "Hey, Stargazer, does this all feel...weird?"

"Weird?" Stargazer looked around. "Now that you mention it, yeah, something feels...off. What do you think it is?"

Snowy followed Stargazer's lead and looked around. At the counter, the cooks were smiling, one even whistling a happy tune. One pony sitting by himself was reading while eating, also sporting a small grin on his face. At another table, two ponies were having a conversation that Snowy couldn't quite make out. Suddenly, they both burst into laughter, one apparently having said something funny.

"Everything just seems so...relaxed," Snowy finally concluded. "Look, everypony's smiling."

"Oh, yeah, they are," Stargazer said. "I guess I'm just not used to that. Everything in the Crystal Empire was so dire. No joy or laughter, and definitely no smiles."

"Yeah. I like this, though. If this is what Ponyville is like, I could definitely get used to it."

"Me, too."

The mystery solved, both ponies turned to their meals.

They each got the same thing: scrambled eggs, some hash browns, and a nice, red apple. While Snowy and Violet grabbed a cup of coffee, Stargazer got a cup of orange juice, having never liked coffee. The food wasn’t the greatest--it was still military grub, even if it looked good--but it was still better than what they usually ate. That is until they came to the apple. They took one bite of the apples and knew at that moment that they just ate the best thing in their lives. Violet was quick to take notice.

“I see you two enjoy your apples. They come from Sweet Apple Acres. The best apple farm in the world, no ifs, and's, or buts. In fact, you’ll be able to see it when we get to where we’re going.”

“Oh? Where are we going? And why?” Snowy asked, still chewing on some apple, thoroughly enjoying it.

“Well, all ponies that make it past the DMZ are required to speak with one of the princesses. The closest one to here is actually in Ponyville: Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.”

Snowy gasped as she suddenly remembered a purple alicorn smiling at her. She had no clue who it was or how she knew the alicorn, but something about her seemed familiar. She blinked and looked up at the two ponies staring at her. It took her a couple seconds to realize she was on the floor and looking at the ceiling.

“Are you okay, kid?” Violet asked, looking concerned.

“Yeah, I’m fine… What happened?”

“You just kinda zoned out for a second and fell,” Stargazer explained.

“I’m fine, Starry. Just ignore it, please.”

“But Sn- “

“Ignore it,” Snowy insisted, sitting up and receiving a small nod from Stargazer. She turned back to Violet, “So, you said we were going to Ponyville?”

“Uh, yep. We can leave as soon as you two are ready to.” Violet seemed to be taken aback by the whole event, not expecting anything like that.

“I think we’re just about ready. How long will it take to get there?”

“Well, about a day’s travel by train, with about an hour to get to the train.”

“That sounds okay. We were actually supposed to go to Ponyville anyway to see a Granny Smith,” Snowy explained, with Stargazer nodding in agreement.

“Oh? Well, then you two have to go to Sweet Apple Acres. Don’t worry, you can’t miss it. Anyway, if you two are ready, we can go.”

The two nodded and got up from the table, bringing their empty trays and cups to a receptacle. From there, they waited for Violet to sort a couple of things out, and soon enough, they were making their way out of the base and towards a smaller village in the distance.
The only real thing of note in the town was the train station. Violet explained that the village was set up mostly just for the installation and was populated mostly by families of those who worked in the base.

Even though Violet said it would take an hour to get there, the trip into town only really felt like a half-hour at most. Snowy guessed that it was the excitement of finally being safe, or just the lack of ever being bored, as was often a problem for her. She always found something to be interested in, which of course got her and Stargazer into more trouble than she would care to admit.

Surprisingly, there was a train waiting for them at the station. Though Violent explained they radioed ahead and told another installation to send a train, it still seemed to know they would be there at that time.

The train itself wasn’t like anything either of the Crystal Empire refugees had ever seen before. Sure, they’ve seen trains before, but all of them were military trains, black and armored. This one looked almost like a gingerbread train and looked very welcoming and comfortable. The inside was even nicer still. Feeling at ease, they all climbed onto the benches in the one passenger car and settled in for the long ride ahead of them.

Snowy woke up from a nap later that night, having fallen asleep about an hour into their journey. She looked over to see that Stargazer was asleep, having fallen asleep some time after she did. She noticed, however, that Violet was at the other end of the car from them. Curious, Snowy slowly got up and walked over to her.

“You still up?”

Violet gasped softly before turning to look at Snowy. “Hey, you’re up. What’s up?”

“I just saw you over here and was wondering why you weren’t asleep.”

“Oh, you know, just thinking about things. Nothing to concern yourself over, really.”

Snowy wasn't convinced. “It’s about when you escaped, isn’t it?”

Violet’s ears drooped, and she looked out the window. “Yeah. Seeing you two make it brought back a lot of memories. Memories that I’d rather forget.”

“Well, maybe if you talk about it, you’d feel better. I mean, I understand if you don’t want to, but know I’m here if you do.”

“Heh, thanks, Snowy. I’ll probably tell you eventually, but now isn’t really the time, if you can understand.”

“Yeah, I understand. Whenever you’re ready to talk about it, I’ll listen.”

“Thanks. Now, you should go back to bed. Can’t have you meeting the princess looking all tired.”

Snowy smiled and started to head back over to her spot. “Yeah. You should get some sleep, too, Violet. I’ll see you in the morning.”

A Lunchtime Interlude (Edited)

Ponyville was approaching in the near distance, and the small group got their first look at the quaint town. The look of the small town surprised them; they expected a seat of power would look more...powerful. The town did have a giant crystal castle on its far side, though, so that was something. It reminded Snowy and Stargazer of pictures of the capital before the war that Mum had shown them: all crystal yet somehow managing to look somewhat natural.

The rest of the town reminded them of their own town, albeit with a lot less snow. Everything looked nice and humble and pretty aside from a couple outstanding buildings. There was a large grouping of farm buildings with acres upon acres of apple trees stretching as far as the eye could see. Violet explained how Sweet Apple Acres used to be half the size, only having a farm house and barn, but due to the war, the farm had to expand. She also explained that the rest of the town, for the most part, had remained the same as before the war.

“So, since she’s expecting us, we might want to head directly to the castle. We can explore the town after your meeting,” Violet explained as they started to slow down, approaching the station. The two younger ponies gave her disappointed groans. She chuckled and shook her head, knowing exactly how they felt, having been in their shoes before. She thought for a moment before amending what she had said. “Well, since we got here early, I suppose we could go to the local bakery and get something to eat. Does that sound like a better idea?”

The two brightened up and nodded eagerly.

“Great. Now, just warning you, some of the ponies in this town can be a little…overbearing, but they mean well, and if you ask them to back off a bit, they will.”

“You sure know a lot about this town, Violet,” Snowy pointed out.

“Yeah, I used to come here a lot when I was training to be a guard. There’s a guard training facility between here and Canterlot, so we had the option to go to either place when we had free time.”

Snowy looked out the window as the train finally stopped at the station. She saw a few ponies glance up at the train in the station, curious about the few cars attached to it, but for the most part, ponies went about their normal lives.

“So, do you like being a guard, Violet?” Snowy asked, still looking out the window.

The guard mare paused as she grabbed the one bag she brought. “Hmm, it’s a bit hard, but yeah, I enjoy it, though I have my own reasons for being a guard.”

“I think I might want to join them.”

“Are you sure, kid? It’s a big decision, one that will affect your friends and family.” Violet glanced over at Stargazer, who Snowy thought hadn’t been listening in, but as she glanced over as well, she saw his ears flatten a bit as he walked out of the car.

“Oh… I see...” Snowy’s ears flattened as well as she thought about how much she needed to talk to Stargazer. Throughout this whole thing, she really hadn’t talked to him about what he was feeling. She needed to rectify that. Maybe at lunch. With that, Velvet and Snowy also walked out of the car and into Ponyville.

They walked out of the train station and got their first good look at the humble town. It was busy, ponies going about their business, at stalls buying various items, all the while smiling and interacting with each other much like how the ponies in the military base interacted. It was still kind of odd for the two refugees to see so many happy faces in one place. Nevertheless, the three newcomers put on smiles and waved back to those who waved at them. They walked down the main street past the market and town square, only to stop when Snowy and Stargazer laid their eyes on a real-life gingerbread house.

“Yep, that’s Sugarcube Corner, and no, it’s not real. It’s just a really decorated house,” Violet giggled, “Oh, and you shouldn’t keep your mouth open. You might catch flies.”

“Is that the bakery we’re eating at? I’ve never seen anything like it,” Snowy asked.

“Yep. Oh, before we go in, I should warn you about Pi--And, they’re gone.” Violet rolled her eyes and walked after them.

Snowy was the first one to enter the store, though "enter" wasn’t exactly the best way to put it. "Barged in" was more accurate. She burst through the door and barely had enough time to skid to a halt in front of the counter. Followed closely behind her was Stargazer, with Violet catching up soon enough.

“Hi, Mrs. Cake.” Violet waved to the pink-maned, blue-coated mare behind the counter.

The mare smiled and waved back. “Hello, Violet, dear. What brings you to town?” she asked before looking down to the two younger ponies. “And are these your friends?”

“Kinda. They’re…work-related.”

“Oh! I see. Well, it’s good to have you two here. I hope you enjoy your stay. Now, what can I get you?” She looked down a hair to the two friends, smiling, though if either of them were looking at the Cake mother, they would see her smile was a bit sad.

“Hmm, a cinnamon bun,” Snowy exclaimed, her mouth nearly watering at the sight of the treats.

“I think I’ll have…a éclair, please,” Stargazer pointed to the éclairs in the display. Mrs. Cake nodded and began to collect the items they asked for and put them on plates for them. Before she handed them the plates, she also placed a couple mugs of hot chocolate on them.

“There you go, dears.” Mrs. Cake smiled at them.

“You two go grab a table, I’ll pay for lunch. I also need to catch up with Mrs. Cake a bit.” Violet waved them off, smiling. The two nodded and started to walk to a table, deciding on the one in the corner, feeling safer where they could see anypony coming. Snowy rubbed the back of her head, thinking of how to start talking to Stargazer about everything. She knew he was hiding his feelings about things, and she wondered if it was her fault and if he was mad at her for dragging him all the way here. She sighed and took a sip of her hot cocoa before looking over to him.

“Sooo, this town’s nice, huh?” she started, just trying to make small talk before she managed to talk to him about what was really on her mind.

“Yeah, it kinda reminds me of home a bit. More bright and cheery, though,” Stargazer replied, taking a bite of his treat.

“Yeah. I like it here. Nice place to live if you don’t mind monster attacks from time to time, but those are super-duper fun!” a new, chipper voice said between them. The two friends yelped and fell off their chairs as they finally noticed the pink pony sitting in the chair in the corner, a chair that would have been impossible to sit in without either of them noticing.

“Where the hay did you come from?” Stargazer blurted out as he got back on his hooves and started to help Snowy up.

The pink pony continued to smile widely. “That’s something you should know by now, but I guess I can tell you. You see, when a mare and a stallion really like each other or are drunk, they go into the bedroom or wherever they please, and- “

“Stop! I don’t want to hear any more. Forget I asked!” Stargazer put his hooves to his ears in an attempt to drown out the pony’s explanation.

Snowy giggled. “So what’s your name, miss? And did you have to scare us like that?”

“Oh! I’m Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s premier pink party pony! Sorry about scaring you, but I love surprises, though Twilight did say I shouldn’t surprise ponies like that anymore, but I like it. Anyway, you two are new, which is great because it means more new friends and a fun ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!” To punctuate her speech, Pinkie threw her hooves in the air as confetti exploded behind her…somehow.

“Pinkie, I was wondering when you’d turn up,” Violet chuckled, walking up to the three.

“Hey, Violet! When did you get into town?” Pinkie exclaimed and nearly teleported to her side, shocking the two between her and Violet. Violet just rolled her eyes.

“Just an hour or so ago, with these two. They’re from the Empire.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened slightly, and her mane somehow deflated slightly. “Oh!” Pinkie turned to Snowy and Stargazer. “I’m sorry for scaring you guys like that, but I know you will really, really, really like Ponyville, and I’m going make your ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party extra special!” As she spoke, Pinkie’s hair became poofier than it was before she heard where they were from.

“Thank you, Pinkie. We’d be more than happy to have a party after we talk to Princess Twilight,” Violet answered for them. “Now, I think Mrs. Cake needed to talk to you about an order of cupcakes. Why don’t you go see her? I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie chirped as she literally bounced off. Violet chuckled before addressing the two confused ponies. “Sorry about Pinkie. I did warn you that some ponies were a tad bit overbearing.”

“It’s okay. She did seem really nice, though why did she get really sad all of a sudden when you said we were from the Empire?” Snowy asked.

“Well, it in part has to do with how oppressed the Empire is compared to Equestria. Being her, she felt sad that you guys had to live there, though most likely, it’s because she was friends with the family who used to run the Empire.”

“You mean Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor?” Stargazer asked.

Violet lowered her voice as she answered, “I’d keep your voice down about it. It’s still a sore subject in Equestria, and it always just sparks an argument. Are they dead, aren’t they, did their daughter make it out, et cetera.”

“What do you think? You lived in the capital,” Snowy chimed in, keeping her voice low, though the interest was clear in her voice.

Violet rolled her eyes. “I say good riddance. It’s because of them that Sombra is back.”

“That seems rather unfair, don’t you think? They couldn’t have known.”

“You probably don’t think so, but believe me, they’re the reason for all the bad things that have happened.”

“I think you’re being rather closed-minded, then.”

“Yeah, well if it weren’t for them, my husband would still be alive!” Violet exclaimed, though still keeping her voice low enough to not draw attention. Both her young friends looked at her with shock on their face, not knowing what they should say to this newfound knowledge. Snowy was still willing to try, though.

“I-I’m sorry, Violet. I didn’t know.”

“No… No, Snowy, it's okay. You couldn’t have known.” Violet sighed and took a very big interest in her hooves, “But you understand my feelings a bit better now, at least.”

“D-Do you want to talk about it?”

“Soon, maybe. Not now, though… I’ll just leave you two for the rest of your lunch. I’m sorry for snapping at you.” With that Violet turned around and trotted off.

“W-Wait…” Snowy started, though it was too late. She gave a small sigh before turning back to Stargazer.

“You okay, Snowy?” he asked.

“No, not really, but what about you?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Snowy sat down at the table again, motioning for him to sit across from her. She waited for him to sit before answering. “It's been so hectic for us, there's been nearly no time to think or talk. I’ve just been making decisions without talking to you about it. Hay, that’s the main reason we’re even here…”

“It’s okay, Snowy. I know you did things that you thought were best.”

“So you’re not mad at me for that?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” He winced slightly as Snowy all but deflated. “I mean, I’m not mad, I’m just kind of sad that you don’t really talk about stuff with me before you do them.”

“I’m sorry, Stargazer. I promise I’ll try to talk to you before these big decisions again.”

“Thank you, Snowy. You know, I do agree with most of what you decided to do. I’ve just been thinking of what it has cost us.”

Snowy blinked and tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“Home, Snowy. We both saw what happened.”

“O-Oh… Yeah.” Her ears flattened as she looked down. “Do you think any of them got out?”

“I sure hope so.” He went over to her and gave her a small hug.

“Hopefully, we can find out at some point.” She hugged him back.

“Yeah, who knows what the future will hold for us?”

At that, Violet walked back over, smiling now. Both Snowy and Stargazer tilted their head at this, the guard mare having gloomily left only five or so minutes ago.

“You can’t stay sad around here for too long with Pinkie,” she stated with a smile.

“Well, I’m glad to see you in a better mood, at least.” Snowy smiled back.

“I am, too, honestly. Now, I think it's time to head over to the castle, don’t you?”

Both Snowy and Stargazer gave her a nod before they got up and started to walk out of Sugarcube Corner, though not without thanking and saying goodbye to Mrs. Cake and Pinkie. Before too long, their destination stood ahead of them: the Castle of Friendship.

Author's Note

Hey, everyone! I'm not dead! But I have been busy with real life. That's why it's taken me so long to bring you a new chapter. To try to correct that, I worked more and gave you guys a bigger chapter than normal. It's a pretty big character development chapter so please let me know if it was enjoyable or not. Hope you all did enjoy, though.

Meeting a Princess

The small group looks up at the Castle of Friendship. It’s tall crystalline towers sticking high into the air. It reminded them very much of pictures of the Capital that they’ve seen, though that being said, it did stand out among the small, quaint, town, and not exactly in a good way. The town’s wood houses and thatched roofs were nowhere near the hard crystal surface of the castle.

However, that’s not the only thing that stood out about the castle. The castle was also swarming with guards. They wore lavender tinted armor with a six-pointed star on the front. Some of them flew around the outside of the castle while two stood guard in front of the gate to the castle. These two guards were the same one’s that the small group, led by Violet, were approaching. Snowy and Stargazer looked to the guards with a bit of amazement, they weren’t as dark and dread filled as the guards in the Crystal Empire, but they wore much more ornate armor than the efficiency-oriented and bland equipment that Violet and the other border guards had on.

Violet seemed to notice their amazement and spoke up with a small chuckle.

“Astral Guards, Princess Twilight’s personal security, quite impressive huh?”

She smirks as she gets two nods as a response.

“They’re mostly for show honestly, but if needed they could defend the town pretty effectively, some of the best-trained ponies get selected for them.”

“But wait, why are they here if they’re highly trained? Shouldn’t they be somewhere else?” Snowy spoke up and asked.

“Because we are an extension of Princess Twilight’s power. We go where she tells us and do what she asks us to do,” A deep voice answered for Violet. Snowy snapped her head forward to see the two Astral Guards at the gate, she hadn’t even realized they were that close.

“What he said. Hey Lance, how you doing?” Violet asked with a smirk. Lance gave a small smirk back.

“Hey, Vi. So, you’re the pony that helped the refugees, figures.”

“Nah, we didn’t do anything but let them in through the fence, they crossed it all on their own. Tough kids here.”

“We’re not kids,” Snowy huffed, earning a chuckle from the three guard ponies. Lance gave them a smile as he responded to Snowy.

“We know kid, we’re also glad you two made it across. If you go inside, Spike, Princess Twilight’s assistant, will be waiting for you.”

“Thanks, Lance. Hey, if I’m still in town later wanna head over to the bar? I heard from Mrs. Cake, Berry Punch got in some Griffon Moonshine,” Violet gave a laugh.

Lance sighed, “I’ll see about getting leave for the week then.”

“I’d get two weeks, just in case you get fully drunk.”

He snorted and waved them off. As they made their way to the castle door, Stargazer couldn’t help but turn to Violet and ask, “Are Griffon drinks really that strong?”

“Oh yea, their moonshine is actually pretty weak in terms of griffon alcohol, their harder stuff could kill a pony. See, griffons have a much higher alcohol tolerance than us ponies, so they need harder stuff to even give themselves a small buzz for longer than a few minutes.”

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

“Tell me about it.”

As they got to the massive castle doors, a silver aura wrapped around them, slowly pulling them open, presumably by guards inside. With the door opening, a pony-sized figure was revealed, though they were certainly not a pony, much to the two refugees. In front of them was a purple and green dragon, scales covering his body, snake-like eyes, and a clipboard in his claws. Neither pony had ever seen a dragon before, though heard they were rather vicious. Seeing one standing in front of them in such a manner threw them for a loop.

The dragon finished writing something down on the clipboard and peered up at them, smiling.

“Ah, welcome to the Castle of Friendship, and more importantly, to Equestria. I’m Spike, Princess Twilight’s number one assistant!” The drake said with a smile. Snowy and Stargazer just looked at him, not exactly sure what to make of this, apparently, nice dragon. Thankfully Violet knew about Spike before hoof, so she gave them each a little bump.

“It’s not polite to stare,” She chuckled as she stepped ahead, “Hello Spike, I’m Lieutenant Violet Scout of the second border guard division.”

“Violet Scout? Weren’t you the first pony to escape the Empire?”

Violet winced ever so slightly, “Yes, but it’s not exactly something I want to be known for.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Spike apologized, rubbing the back of his head. Violet waved her hoof dismissively.

“It's ok, I get it all the time even if I don’t like it, anyway, this is Snowy Heart and Stargazer,” Violet motioned to the two next to her, both of whom smiled slightly at the drake.

“Hi you two, I hope you’ve had a good experience in Equestria so far.”

“Everypony has been so nice so far, it was kind of weird at first,” Snowy spoke up. Stargazer nodded, adding his own thoughts.

“Yea, especially the guards, they’re not as nice back as the ones we’ve encountered here, and not nearly as nice as Violet is.”

“Aren’t you too sweet, buy some kids some lunch and they love you forever,” Violet chuckled.

“You also did help them across the border,” Spike pointed out. Violet just shrugged.

“Eh semantics.”

This got a chuckle out of the others. Spike waved a claw, motioning them to follow him.

“I’ll bring you to the council room, Twilight is a bit busy so she’ll be in in a couple minutes; until then feel free to just sit and relax.”

They walked down the center corridor towards the map room, located at the center of the castle. Snowy and Stargazer looked around at all the doors and the crystal-like construction of the hallway, even the doors looked like opaque glass or crystal. This did bring a question to Snowy, which she was quick to bring up.

“Mr. Spike? Why does the castle look so different from the rest of the town?”

“Hmm? Oh, that’s a long story, to be honest, to try to simplify it though: We had to defeat an escapee from Tartarus who stole everyone’s innate magic and the only way to do that was to open this magic crystal chest that gave Twilight and our friends magic rainbow powers. After defeating him, the chest took the magic it gave my friends back and the chest embedded itself in the ground and grew this castle.”

Spike stopped hearing the hooves of the others behind him. He blinked turning around to find Snowy and Stargazer staring at him like he had two heads, aside from this they didn’t move at all. Violet looked at the two before glancing over to Spike.

“I think you broke them.”

“What, it wasn’t that crazy.”

“They weren’t born yet; they never knew how normal that kind of thing was in Equestria.”

“Oh, point taken.”

Violet rolled her eyes as she poked Snowy’s muzzle, causing the young mare to jerk out of the trance she was in. She then moved over to Stargazer and did the same, thankfully to the same effect.

“Sorry, that just sounded… just wow,” Stargazer commented.

“Yea, I don’t think they ever told us much of pre-Sombra days,” Snowy added.

“There’s probably a reason behind that, a lot of things have been stopped by Twilight and her friends,” Violet sighed, “Can’t let the populace know there’s something that could save them.”

“But they didn’t save us.”

Spike was quick to speak up, “They tried, nopony thought Sombra would come with an army, Twilight and our friends can do a lot, but that was asking for more than they could handle. Twilight commanded the forces to try to take back the Empire, you passed the result of that.”

Snowy sighed, thinking back to the border crossing, the mines, and how hard the guards tried to shoot them down, “Yea, you’re right, I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t have to be, I don’t know what it was like in the Empire, but you’re right we didn’t save you, even if we tried,” Spike put a claw on her back. Snowy slowly smiled to him.

“Thanks, Spike, I understand you did all you could.”

“If we’re done moping we shouldn’t keep the Princess waiting,” Violet called from up ahead a bit, smirking as she stood next to Stargazer. Spike and Snowy chuckled as they moved to catch up to them.

“Actually, you’re probably going to be waiting for her, very busy like I said.”

They walked into a large round room. At the center of the room was a rounded table with 7 chairs surrounding it, cutie marks were displayed on each of the chairs save one. Above the table was a large chandelier that seemed to be made out of the roots of a tree. The three ponies and dragon approached the table.

“You three can take a seat here, I have to go do some more work for Twilight but she should be here soon,” Spike said motioning to the table.

“Thank you, Spike, hope we get to talk again later,” Violet started.

“Definitely, have a good talk with Twilight,” Spike waved to them as he started to walk out of the room, the three responded in kind as they took their seats.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, not entirely sure when Twilight was going to walk in, so they didn’t think starting a conversation would be ideal. However, as the minutes dragged on and there being nothing else to do aside from looking around the room or talk, Snowy decided to initiate the latter.

She opened her mouth to say something when a pop of magic deposited a purple alicorn in the chair opposite of the three. In her magic were several books, scrolls, and other papers, as well as an ink jar and quill. She didn’t seem to notice them at all, at least until she spoke.

“Please don’t get up, I’m sorry to keep you waiting, as you can see I have a bit on my plate,” She lowered the various items and gave the group a halfhearted smile, “Welcome to Equestria, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Snowy and Stargazer looked at her with wide eyes, sitting before them was a full blown alicorn. Of course, they have heard of alicorns, but to actually see one in pony was something else altogether. Twilight looked at the two before sighing.

“I guess I should be used to ponies being amazed at meeting an alicorn for the first time.”

Snowy blinked, there was something wrong with the Princess but she couldn’t exactly tell what.

“Sorry Princess,” Stargazer spoke up. Twilight gave a weak wave.

“Please, call me Twilight, I don’t like to use titles,” She didn’t really explain aside from that, and she seemed on the verge of resting her head on one of her hooves. She seemed drained almost. Snowy could only guess the last few years haven’t been great to her.

“Now, can you all please tell me the story of how you got here? I’m rather interested.”

Snowy wanted to ask Twilight if she was ok, but wasn’t sure if she should, frankly for all she knew this was how Twilight was all the time, though, for Princess of Friendship, she sure didn’t seem that friendly. She decided to wait for now and instead explained her and Stargazer’s story, with Violet explaining her part in it.

It took a while to explain everything and answer the questions Twilight had, but they did eventually finish. Twilight leaned back slightly in her chair.

“That’s quite a story you two, I’m glad you both managed to make it here, I guess the last question I have for you two is what you plan to do now?”

Snowy and Stargazer blinked, not exactly expecting that question, though in hindsight they probably should have. Violet answered for them, however, or at least for Snowy.

“Snowy said she was interested in joining the guard, though I told her she should think about it for a bit, get settled into Equestria and what not.”

Snowy nodded, not having made a decision on that yet.

“I have to agree, I really appreciate you wanting to join, trust me when I say it’s not as glorious as ponies think,” Twilight added.

“Don’t worry I want to think about it more before I make any sort of decision on that,” Snowy gave a small smile, though glanced over to Stargazer, seeing him smile a bit too.

“Now then, why don’t I show you two where you’ll be sleeping until we can get you a house?” Twilight asked, standing up and starting to walk around the table. She smiled, though still seemed a bit tired. The other three stood up and went to go follow her. As Snowy got up and walked from the table it seemed to have flickered to show a map or some sort of magical hologram, Snowy blinked.

“Lieutenant, you can stay too if you’d like, I can pull some-,“ Snowy didn’t see exactly why Twilight had suddenly gasped but an instant later a strong force threw her against the table. She fell to the floor with a thud and a groan, unsure of what just hit her. She tried to stand back up but something was keeping her down. It was a lavender aura, and it was coming from the horn of the extremely angry alicorn moving over to her.

“Guards!” Twilight screamed, almost snarled. Only moments later two guards burst in, spears at the ready.

“Princess?” One of them asked.

“Hold her down.”

“T-twilight w-what’s going on?” Snowy asked, her ears flat against her head in fear, she thought she was brave for crossing the border, but if it wasn’t for Twilight’s magic, she’d be curled up into a ball.

“Shut up changeling!” Twilight spat out, causing Snowy to do just that. Violet moved over to them, somewhat carefully, hesitant on who’s side she should be on here.

“Princess, are you sure? She came from the Empire and she doesn’t seem like a changeling.”

“She is a changeling Lieutenant. I know it.”

“How do you know?” Stargazer asked, reading to leap in to save Snowy if he had to, though his shaking body showed he was pretty much in the same boat as Snowy.

“No pony could possibly have that cutie mark, now hold her down!”

The two guards quickly followed their orders and held down Snowy in their magic as Twilight let her aura dissipate from around the scared mare. Twilight quickly switched spells to the one they developed after the Canterlot Invasion. It would dispel changeling magic and revert said ling to its natural form. It was non-painful to the target, though Twilight somewhat wished it did this time. She shot the beam at the tip of Snowy’s horn. It widened to form a scanning bar that slowly made its way down Snowy’s entire body.

“T-that can’t be right…” Twilight exclaimed with wide eyes. She shut them once more and began the scan again. Her eyes widened even more as she received the same result.

“W-how? They physically can’t do anything to fool the spell!”

“I’m not a changeling!” Snowy exclaimed, not daring to try to squirm free for fear of the guards holding her down doing something to her.

“Princess, why do you think she’s a changeling, even your tests are showing that she’s not,” Violet stepped towards her.

Twilight stepped back from Snowy, looking to Violet, “Because the only pony able to have that kind of a cutie mark, that specific cutie mark is…” The color started to drain from her face, the outcome she both hoped for and dreaded finally becoming a reality. She looked back to Snowy, tears threatening to spill any second as she finished her sentence.

“Flurry Heart.”

Everypony was silent, not sure what to make of this new accusation. Twilight was the only pony who wasn’t stuck in this state. She was trying and failing to contain her tears as she dropped to a sitting position. Snowy, or was it Flurry, watched Twilight, mouth agape, not sure what to make of this information. She knew who she was… she thought. She is Snowy Heart, she is eighteen years old and she traveled here from the orphanage she stayed at in the Crystal Empire. How could she be the princess and heir to the Crystal Throne? That was ridiculous… but at the same time… made sense in a way, she wandered into the village half frozen, yet survived, even doctor said that was a miracle, she had no idea where she came from before that. Then there were the visions, were they really visions, or were they memories? How would she even know though?

Violet cut her thoughts off there though, “Wait, you’re telling me that Snowy is Princess Flurry Heart, the sole surviving heir to the Crystal Throne? How? She’s dead, this has to be just a coincidence.”

“No… cutie marks don’t work that way, and the cutie mark for royals of the Crystal Empire work even more different than that,” Twilight started through tears, “Crystal Empire Royals all share similar cutie marks, tying them to the Crystal Heart. Aside from that even, cutie marks are unique to a pony, the cutie mark doesn’t suddenly become available for use when a pony dies. T-this is Princess Flurry Heart.”

With that, Twilight moved to hug the still confused pony, only for said pony to back off. Twilight stood back, a bit hurt by the action though somewhat thinking it might happen.

“T-twilight, look I think you might be right, some things in my head add up to the same thing… but I don’t know, I can’t remember anything from before I started living at the orphanage, I really don’t remember you, if I even am Flurry Heart. I mean I don’t even have wings. I guess what I’m saying is… I’m really confused.”

“Amnesia… that would make sense I guess,” Twilight’s ears flattened, she knew of a way to retrieve her memories. It just wasn’t exactly the most legal way. It would certainly make Celestia frown. But at the same time, this was Flurry Heart, one of the only family she had left aside from her mother. She has to bring her back. But if she does then Flurry will remember what happened. No… she has to let Flurry choose if she wants it, its only right and fair.

“Flurry… I have a way to get your memories back, it’s not going to be easy for either of us, but I know we can get through it if you want that is.”

Flurry, or is it Snowy, this is really confusing, looked like she was ready to say yes, nearly jumping at the chance to get back the memories of her life before wandering into the town. Instead, though, she glanced over to Stargazer. He looked both scared and confused at just what was going on. She couldn’t blame him, she was too. But she knew she couldn’t just make decisions like that, she wanted to talk to him first, plus she wanted to think about all of this herself, it was so much. She looked back to Twilight.

“I-if it’s ok Twilight, I’d like some time to make that decision, I want to say yes so badly, but it's going to change my life so much, I’m sure, and I want to get my friends opinions on it.”

Twilight smiled widely, the most genuine smile Snowy had seen on her face all day.

“Of course Flurry, I probably couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ll have my guards show you to your rooms, I’m sure you're tired.”

Snowy nodded and got up, she looked over to Stargazer and Violet, though to her confusion, the later was already walking out, not even waiting, Snowy was sure something was wrong. Stargazer and she were about to walk out of the room with Twilight’s guards when they heard Twilight’s voice once more.

“Flurry, I know you might not want to, but will you allow me to tell Princess Celestia and Luna? You’re family to all of us.”

Snowy took a moment to think about it. If she didn’t it would save her some trouble, but Twilight was right, if she was indeed Flurry Heart, not telling the other princesses would be rather mean and cruel. Even if it turned out she wasn’t Flurry, though she had little reason to doubt she was at the moment, it wouldn’t really hurt having them here.

“Alright Twilight, though can you tell them tomorrow? It gives me time to think.”

“Of course Flurry, good night… I’m happy to have you back.”