Flurry Heart and the Imprisoned King

The Crystal Express was barreling towards Ponyville at a breakneck pace. Flurry just looked out the window thinking to herself about what had happened two months ago and how nothing she was saying was getting through to her parents. She hadn’t once seen Sombra in those two months and she was worried about him. All she knew was he was still in his cell having a mental breakdown. She huffed.
Worrying about Sombra won't do me any good… Ugh!
She pulled out the journal she had brought with her, reading about the last conversation that she had with him. Her eyes kept leading to the paragraph about what had happened after she was dragged away.
“Next stop, Ponyville!”
The train pony yelled as they pulled into the station, Flurry closed her notebook and rose. She addressed Sweet Spear.
“Come on, we're here. Let's go see my aunt now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They exited the train making their way to Twilight's palace. Flurry had to pay up on the deal she had made with her, it was time to organize her library of a thousand-plus books. A punishment she created for herself by accident. It was also the only reason she was allowed to leave the Crystal Empire today. They reached the palace and entered, Twilight was at the door ready to greet them.
“Flurry Heart, my favorite niece, how are you?”
Flurry gave her a stoic look and answered.
“What do you think? Awful!”
She walked by her aunt and headed straight for the library with Sweet Spear right behind her. Twilight spread her wings stopping Sweet Spear in her tracks. She looked at Twilight and asked.
“Princess, what are you doing I have orders to-”
“I know but I want to talk to Flurry alone. I know what's going on and from what I hear she really cares for her friend even if everypony else won’t listen. I want to hear her side of the story. I’ve only heard Shining Armor and Cadence's side of the story. I know they worry about her. But Flurry doesn’t care what they say, she cares for somepony else. So, I want to know why she cares so much for this friend. Do you understand?”
Sweet Spear did really get it but she didn’t want to question the princess. She nodded. Twilight gave her a gentle smile.
“Why don’t you take the day off? Go have some fun. The Ponyville spa is quite relaxing and Flurry isn't going anywhere.”
“But I have orders to-”
“To have fun is your new order for the day.”
Sweet Spear wanted to argue but she decided not to.
“Yes ma’am.”
Sweet Spear trotted out of the castle and headed straight for town. Twilight watched her leave and went inside, making her way to the library.

The library was already in disarray, books were stacked into neat piles on the ground. Flurry picked up a stack and started to look them over. She decided to organize them by age and by their author's last name in alphabetical order. Twilight entered and sat down in her armchair smiling warmly at Flurry. Flurry caught a glimpse of her aunt's face. She stopped and looked back at her. She was confused.
“What?”
“What's going on at home?”
“Nothing you can help with. I made a mess and I even got you in trouble too. I’m sorry, Auntie Twilight. You told me not to touch that journal and I did anyway. I even took it with me out of Sombra's study. I'm sure you're mad at me too.”
Twilight smiled.
“I’m not mad at you. I can’t change what happened. And I may have gotten yelled at by Shining Armor about what happened but that doesn’t change my view on the matter. Now, I’ve heard all about your mess and from what I've heard it’s really a friendship problem.”
Flurry was surprised that Twilight knew about everything but guessed it was only natural. Her parents had to have told her all about it and they probably wanted her to lecture her while she worked. She rolled her eyes.
Great a speech on proper friendship making. Just what I need right now.
She furrowed her brow. Asking defensively.
“Are you going to lecture me on proper friendship making? And how to make better friends, Auntie?”
She raised her voice in annoyance.
“No I’m not, I want to hear what you have to say.”
Her jaw dropped. No pony had wanted to hear from her or hear how Sombra wasn’t such a bad pony. She coughed and sat up straight.
“Wha?.. Well, uh why?”
“Cause I don’t have the whole picture yet, I only have half. Which is your parents' story, so I want to hear your story. Go on, please enlighten me.”
Flurry thought it was a joke but then again Twilight was never one for jokes when she talked about a friendship problem. Flurry looked at her, gave her a half-hearted smile and started.
“Well he’s my friend. He even told me he liked me to a certain degree.”
Twilight just kept smiling at her gesturing for her to continue.
“And well it all started out as just research on Sombra’s history since no history book mentions it. And you and my other two aunties won’t tell me anything about that time so I did some digging of my own. I found out he was in the dungeon and decided to go see him for myself, but after meeting him and talking to him… I consider us friends. I wrote everything down during our conversations for the sake of research but now... Well, I don’t care about that anymore, I just want to make sure he’s okay.”
She pulled out her journal and held it out, it was enveloped in magenta magic as it floated over to Twilight. She opened and started to read.
“Here you can see he didn’t lie to me. He didn’t twist his words or even hurt me like everyponys been saying.”
Flurry bit her lip as Twilight read the journal. A chuckle escaped her lips as she read, quickly reading through the book. Twilight closed the book and set it down. Looking at Flurry. Flurry continued defending herself.
“But I hurt him and I want to help make it better. I know I can’t do much but I can’t just leave him to rot. Everyponys been doing that for sixteen years now, plus a thousand when he was first sealed away. It’s just I...I care about him.”
She looked down, she knew Twilight would be disappointed in her too.
“You're a good friend Flurry, I can tell by your journal here.”
Flurry’s head bolted up as she gazed at Twilight, words failed her. Twilight laughed a little before addressing her in a motherly tone.
“You're trying to do what your parents can not. They don’t trust him because he hurt them. Even using you against them when you were a foal. However, you don’t care about that because you're looking past that. Sure at first you did it for research but reading this book, it’s clear you care for him. You know when your mother and I finished reading his journal, I felt sorry for him but never considered befriending him even after he came back. And since every time I was in the Crystal Empire I was busy with family, I had forgotten about him just like everypony else. Only reminded of him whenever you asked about him. Even when I was reminded about him I didn’t do anything for him.”
Flurry was stunned, her mouth a gap. As she stared at her aunt. Twilight's sweet tone was something she was missing at home. Since she and her parents still had a grudge match going on at home and a decent conversation was off the table. Tears started to fall down her face as her bottled up emotions started to pour out.
“Auntie Twilight! I don’t want to be a bad friend or a bad daughter but I don’t know what to do! My parents won’t listen and I can’t shake the guard no matter what I try. He’s all alone, and, and what should I do!?”
She buried her hooves into her face as she sobbed, Twilight got up and embraced her saying in a reassuring voice.
“Don’t worry, Flurry. It’s time for the Princess of Friendship to help with this friendship problem.”
Flurry looked up at her and laughed between sobs.
“You're such a dork. That’s why I love you though.”
“I know. Now, hold on tight to me, we're teleporting all the way to the Crystal Empire.”
Flurry smiled as Twilight's horn started to illuminate, she grabbed Flurry's notebook as she cast her spell.

The dungeons were dark, silent and somehow even colder than usual. Sombra sat in the middle of his cell looking out at the spot where Flurry usually sat. He never looked away from it and he never seemed to move, like he himself had become a statue.
She's gone just like Hope… Why do I even care?
His ear twitched as hoof steps approached, the usually pegasus guard who had been here for sixteen years and a new guard, a crystal earth pony. They stood in his line of view but he didn’t move. He didn’t even get up to intimate the new guard like he usually would. He just sat there feeling empty. The new guard spoke in a gravelly tone.
“I thought Sombra would be more frightening? Instead he's just sitting there. All sad like…Heh, you alive, you schmuck.”
He didn’t engage her. He didn’t even look at her, he just sat there. The pegasus guard was surprised. For the duration of two months he didn’t eat or sleep but to take an insult was unthinkable. He had to report this to the princess and his captain immediately. He didn't like Sombra but grauding him for sixteen years made him come to understand him. He understood that he disliked everyone and looked down on them even from behind bars and any insult thrown his way he would throw back tenfold but this was the last straw. This behavior was not normal. He was acting like a corpse. He turned to the new guard before she could say anything else.
“We're leaving now.”
“Wha-”
“Back to your post. Now!”
He ordered it loud and proud, something he never did. Being a higher ranked helped as she turned and got back to her post. He watched her leave as the two satillions were left behind. He looked back over to Sombra, his usually tired expression came back.
“Sorry about her.”
“...”
What does it matter?
He sighed.
“I may not like you but you're not acting like yourself. I’ve been guarding your cell for sixteen years now, I can tell that something is wrong.”
“...”
Who cares? Nothing matters.
“It's the young princess, isn't it?”
“...”
The guard just stared at Sombra trying to see if there was any movement. Nothing, he didn't even twitch. The guard turned away and left him in the cold silence of the prison.