I sat with Skyla and dad as we allowed the doctors to do their work nearby. Skyla and I had been preemptively allowed to skip school for the occasion, but only for the one day.

“Inova?” Skyla asked, her voice thick with concern.

“Yes, Skyla?” I answered.

“Is mom going to be okay? The c-section sounds. . . Bad. The other way sounds worse, but. . . She’s also two months early.”

I gently pat her shoulders with a forehoof. “Mom will recover, and while she does, we’ll have to pick up the slack in court for her.” I knew I was probably ready with all the training mom and dad had given me, and the availability had been changed to weekends only so we wouldn’t miss school, but the idea of actually ruling, even for only a month with Skyla, had me feeling like I wasn’t ready.

“Three, two, one,” a doctor counted down before he levitated our sister out of mom. That was all the warning I had, and I managed to cast my earplug spell before the expected crying started.

It felt like a wall of pure sonic and magical force slammed into me. Everything was loud for a brief moment, then it felt like something exploded in my head before things began sounding muted. The doctors, somehow, managed to stay standing and focused as they cleaned things up, wrapped our sister up, and got her into mom’s forelegs, where she began quieting down, or so it looked.

I saw the doctors stagger around as they worked their magic to clean and heal mom. My earplug spell was off, but what little I could hear sounded like it was far away and underwater, which made no sense. Adding to my confusion was lines of red coming from the ears of the doctors and nurses. One of them came up to me, and it looked like she was saying something, but I couldn’t quite hear her. It was only when she pointed between her ears and mine that I put a hoof on my head. It came back with a red line on it. She waved for me to follow her and the rest of the medical staff with bleeding ears.

Sklya was not injured like I had been, and to my surprise, neither were mom or dad. She nodded to me and I left to go get treated. Along the way, I decided that it would behoove me to study and focus on healing spells for a bit.

When we found the unicorn doctor the other doctors and nurses were looking for, a silent argument began. The doctors and nurses insisted I go first, while I insisted on going last. Whether it was my royal status or the fact that I levitated one of them right in front of the doctor, I won the argument and waited for my turn.

Each treatment took around two minutes. After about ten minutes, it was my turn. Based on the doctor’s worried looks and the time he was taking on just one of my ears after cleaning out the blood, I started getting concerned. I saw a notepad and pencil sitting on a counter and levitated them over to write out my question. “How bad is it? No sugarcoating.”

He wrote out his response with a nervous expression on his face. “Your eardrums are almost completely blown out, more than the doctors’ were. I can heal and restore them, but you’ll have to avoid extremely loud sounds for a couple weeks so they can properly recover. Why do you think you have worse damage than the doctors?”

I thought back on the delivery and wrote out my best guess. “Earplug shield spell probably got overpowered and exploded. Skyla looked fine, so it may have been that. I’ll figure out somewhere to go to avoid the loudness.”

The doctor seemed satisfied with my written response and kept up the healing. It took about five minutes total to heal one ear, and the same for the other. “And we’re done,” he said once both ears were finished. “I’ll send a letter to Princess Cadence and Prince Armor to let them know what happened to you. If your new sister caused this, I highly advise keeping your distance for a while.”

“Thank you.” I was torn between feeling sad that I wouldn’t be able to see my sister and glad that I wouldn’t be near her. “Anything else?”

“Hmm, don’t attempt any extra healing on your eardrums, and avoid using the earplug shields or actual earplugs for a while.”

“Of course. Thanks, doctor.” I left his office and was about to make my way back to the maternity ward when I remembered what he said. At the same time, I saw something unusual outside the hospital: snow.

Snow in itself wasn’t unusual. The Empire was surrounded for many miles in all directions by the stuff. I’d been through it by train many times, and had even gone outside the shield on occasion. The swirling snow and wind was supposed to be outside the Empire, but it had somehow gotten inside.

I bolted through the hospital, got outside, and found out that what I saw wasn’t an illusion or trick. The howling wind, thick snow, and biting cold were very much real. Through the snowstorm, I was able to make out ponies running around in a panic to try and find shelter. Up above, what little I could see of the bubble that substituted for the sky was showing numerous widening cracks and large gaps. The urgency of the situation hit me hard, and I promptly started running towards the castle, channeling all my earth pony magic to run towards it as fast as I could.

I found the crystal heart in its rightful place. Just as I’d suspected, it was damaged. Just as I’d feared, the damage was extensive, having broken into numerous fragments. “Okay, stay calm, it’s just a puzzle,” I told myself. “A difficult puzzle with everypony’s lives in the balance, but still just a puzzle. No instructions, just memory.”

The first thing I did was sort the shards by whether or not they were cleanly faceted, which meant that part would be on the outside. The chunks that didn’t have a facet went into their own pile. As with any puzzle, I started with the outside.

The pieces that went together fused together, but the cracks remained visible on the surface, like scars that hadn’t healed over. I didn’t time myself, and in my focus, I lost track anyways. After a while, I successfully got it all together. The heart released a magenta burst of light and began floating in place again. It was still cracked and wobbled a bit over the pedestal, but it looked stable.

Dad showed up shortly after my success, and he was out of breath. “Inova, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I took some slow breaths to try and relax a bit. “Just had to fix the bubble and save the Empire. Did I succeed?”

Dad inspected the heart. “It looks like you did, but we’ll have to see how it looks outside.” He turned to me. “I saw the note from the doctor. If you need to stay at the castle, there’s a room set aside just for you.”

“I was going to talk to Diamond and see about staying with her. The castle just seems too. . . Big. Does that make sense?”

Dad laughed a bit. “That’s exactly what your mom and I were thinking before we moved out to our home. It was just too much space for us.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Anyways, your mom’s going to be stuck in the hospital for a couple days to recover. I’ll let her know about your plan.”

“Thanks. I’d better go get my stuff.”

We walked outside and looked skyward. The bubble was still mostly full of gaps and cracks that let the outside weather in, and it was still really cold, but it was marginally better than when I left the hospital.

I knocked on Diamond’s front door.
Diamond answered, and she was shivering. “Inova! Is everything okay? What happened?”

“Details later. Can I come in?” I saw a clock on the back wall and realized it had been a bit over two hours since my little sister had destroyed my ears.

“Yes, please do.”

I entered and set my stuff down. “Where are your parents?”

“The cold knocked them out, so I put them in bed together.”

I brought out the double eagle blanket from the things I’d brought. “Then let’s join them so we can all warm up. For once, this is a Princess’s order.”

“Yes, Princess.”

I found the master bedroom easily enough, and as Diamond had said, Nick and Ruby were bundled up in bed. With some telekinesis, I manipulated their blanket and mine, let Diamond in, then joined and wrapped all four of us up. All three of them felt a bit chilly and were slightly shivering. I was sure I felt chilly to them as well. The thick blanket coverage and our shared body heat began warming things up, and I closed my eyes to rest a bit.

“Psst, Inova,” Ruby quietly said before nudging my muzzle with hers.

“Hm?” I slowly opened my eyes. “Oh, hey. Are you okay?”

“I will be. What happened?”

“My new sister was born, and that’s when things went wrong.” I adjusted myself a bit. Nick and Diamond weren’t disturbed by my motion. “She cried when she was pulled out, and that destroyed multiple eardrums, including and especially mine. It also destroyed the crystal heart. All are fixed, but will take time to heal.”

“Oh. Why are you here?”

“The doctor said to avoid loud sounds for a while, so I thought I’d see if I could stay here until things quiet down. Literally.”

“Well, how could we say no? We’d love you to stay as long as you need to.”

“Thanks.”

When I got back to school the next day, before the snow had been cleared away from the roads, Skyla ran up to me, despite looking incredibly tired and cold herself. “Are you okay, Inova?”

“I’ll be fine.” There had been a few magical shockwaves I’d felt while I was at Diamond’s place, and it left me a little shaky. Diamond and her parents felt it too, as did everypony I asked. “What about you?”

“Flurry Heart loves me, and I love her too, but. . . Her wings and horn are freaky huge. Her eyes too. And her crying. . . It’s something you hear and feel. Between the three of us, I think I’m the only normal one.”

I couldn’t find the will to argue the point, and it wasn’t just from the blast of snow that fell on me from a crack somewhere in the bubble. “You’re probably right. I’m staying with Diamond until things calm down a bit and my ears heal up.”

“Dad told me that. Well, good luck with your classes.”

“You too.” I shook the snow off and went inside.

In Canterlot, Celestia and Luna met for dinner. “Good evening, Luna,” Celestia said as she set a cup of coffee on the table.

Luna yawned, looked at the cup, and giggled. “They make coffee cups this size?”

“I’m cutting you down to one cup of coffee per night.” The gallon sized coffee cup, by design and the matching phrase printed on it in big bold letters, easily undercut anything serious Celestia may have meant. “More importantly, there’s been more chaos in the Crystal Empire.” Celestia levitated a newspaper over to Luna.

Crystal Kingdom Chaos 2!

The much anticipated event of Princess Cadence bearing another foal has come to pass, and as Prince Shining Armor described it, this royal filly did not come into the world quietly. No foal does, but this one takes the cake and the bakery.

The filly, named Flurry Heart, had to be delivered two months early by c-section. The early delivery was known and released in advance, though common speculation was simply that Cadence and the filly were growing fast due to their nature as alicorns. That reason was wrong. Flurry Heart has very abnormal proportions for a foal, and a normal birth would have broken some bones.

Flurry Heart, however, did leave other injuries upon her delivery. The five doctors tending to Princess Cadence and Flurry, being right there, had damaged eardrums and bleeding ears due to her crying. Princess Inova’s eardrums, however, were almost completely destroyed, due to an earplug spell of hers getting overwhelmed and exploding from the magical force that came with Flurry’s crying. Thankfully, the doctors and Princess Inova were all promptly healed. Princess Inova, under doctor’s orders, has to keep her distance from Flurry Heart for a while, and has chosen to stay at a friend’s house.

Unfortunately, blown eardrums were not the full extent of the damage from Flurry Heart’s birth. Her crying came with both incredible volume and a powerful magic wave felt throughout the Crystal Empire. This wave broke the crystal heart, causing the bubble to crack and fracture, letting in the cold and snow. Shortly after her ears were healed, Princess Inova ran to the castle and set to work putting the crystal heart back together. She succeeded, and the Empire’s bubble was stabilized. As of the writing of this article, the bubble is still full of gaps and cracks, but is slowly repairing itself. The snow is being pushed from the paths and roads, with the Crystal Guard taking charge of coordination and leading the efforts.

No deaths have been reported from the cold blast, but multiple ponies, largely from the areas near the edge of the bubble, have been hospitalized due to hypothermic shock. The most common action taken for those who were chilled was to bundle them together with blankets and put them in a central room. As of the time of this article’s writing, none have fully healed, but all have shown vast improvement and new friendships are being formed.

Estimates for the Empire’s recovery time from the bubble’s fractures range from six to ten days. Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor have said that outside help for cleanup efforts isn’t necessary, but the freeze did render a large amount of food inedible, damage houses, and destroy other belongings. They ask that any donations of food or material goods be given to the citizens first, along with any efforts to repair what was destroyed or replace what was lost.

Luna set the newspaper down. “Sister, might you be thinking what I am thinking?”

“Let Fancy Pants take some time off from legislation so he can bring a crew and supplies up there and be the good noble that he is?” Celestia asked without hesitation.

“Did you talk to him about it already?”

“He somehow heard about it before I did, and he already has the ponies and goods in motion. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already on the way there.”

On the train to the Crystal Empire, Fancy, Fleur, Finesse, and Fromage were sitting in a regular passenger seat. In the fully packed seats around them were the determined volunteers that Fancy and Fleur had gathered to help the Crystal Empire and its ponies. There were no other passengers on the train. All the other cars were loaded up with food, construction materials, and other goods, ready to be given to those in need.

For the noble family onboard, it wasn’t about looking good, though it certainly did. It wasn’t about showing up the other nobles, even if it would. It wasn’t even about giving the youth a lesson in generosity, gratitude, and hard work, but they would get it anyway. No, it was first and foremost about helping those in need and making sure the help got where it was needed most.

Some distance into the ride, Fancy walked up to the front of the car and pinned a large map of the Crystal Empire onto the wall. “Everypony, your attention please.” He immediately had everypony’s attention. “We don’t know where help is most needed, aside from the perimeter.” He produced a pointer and pointed to the train station, located a few miles in from the bubble’s edge. “The first thing we need to do is survey where the damage is. The pegasi among us will do that with flyovers and asking the ponies there. You will do that as soon as we disembark.” The pegasi, including Finesse, nodded in understanding. “Everypony else will work to unload the train. Fleur will talk to those living near the station to see if we can use their kitchens. If we can’t, we have backup options onboard. Either way, we will set our meal and grocery section up around the station.” The small crew of six cooks and Fromage nodded in agreement at the plan. “Once we have the reports from the pegasi, the builders will go out and do what they do best. I will make invoices for any extra materials we need shipped in. I will leave prioritization to you, but until the citizens are taken care of, not a single nail is to go towards any damage done to Princess Cadence’s home. She wants help to go to the citizens first, and that’s what we’ll do.” The builders, over half of those onboard, nodded in agreement. “The care teams will be distributing blankets, scarves, and hugs to those in need. Once again, I leave it to you to prioritize who gets help.” The care team nodded in agreement. “Finally, if the locals want to help us help them, let them. You may ask, but don’t be too disappointed if they don’t want to or can’t help.”

Unseen and unnoticed by all, a living shadow caught the underside of the inbound train and got past the fractured barrier. Through its senses, it saw the magic of all in the Empire. Four stood out and blazed like beacons in the night. A fifth bright one was also noted, far from the others, but compared to the four, and even its own magical power, it wasn’t nearly as bright.

The shadow would wait for the right time to strike. Acting too soon would do it no good, after all.

Author's Note

This was written before I did any research on Sunburst and his role with canon Flurry Heart. Heck, it was planned out before I even knew about Sunburst. The fact that he and Inova are both orange ponies with a history of difficulty casting spells is entirely coincidence.

Also, as of the posting of this chapter, the story's like count is over 200! Whoo!