Flurry Heart's Story: The Ghost of Grogar

“And I get a seven,” said Pound.

The rest of the kids watched as the two six-sided dice landed and Pound began to move his green player token. The game of Cue had a board with a plastic toy castle in the center. There were square cobblestone steps between and around each building that the character tokens could be moved over. On all sides were nine larger squares that represented buildings the players could enter during the game. The castle in the center was mostly for looks and could not be accessed by the player tokens, but it contained a chest at the top. Inside the chest were three cards that determined the criminal, their weapon and what building the crime was committed in.

“So once you get to one of these buildings, you get to guess three cards?” asked Cozy.

“Yup. You have to include the building you’re in but you get to pick a character and weapon,” explained Chip, as Stormy took his turn. “Since it’s early in the game, we can pretty much pick whoever we want until we narrow the results down. When you say which character used what weapon in that room, the player to your left can show you if they have one of those cards and only one. If they do have one of the cards, write it down so you remember to not guess it again. If they don’t have any of the cards, check to see if the one to their left does.”

“And the three cards we’re trying to guess are what’s in this chest at the top tower?”

“Yup.”

“Alright, I get five!” Stormy chimed as he moved his yellow token over five steps.

As they kept playing, the Apparition was reading Flurry’s Journal of Friendship book downstairs. He leafed through the pages until he got to a chapter that stuck out to him most.

“Friendship isn’t easy, but it’s worth fighting for…” he said, reading the final lesson of the chapter out loud. “So that’s how you did it, Accord: a hypnosis spell that turns them against one another. Heh. Child’s play. Even with all this potential you finally learned to embrace, I should have known you would resort to such a cheap method and only get yourself turned to stone a second time. And now look at you: still embracing the name of Discord yet playing the protagonist. The greatest feats of evil do not require a mind-control spell that a host can easily snap out of at any given moment. Allow me to show you the proper way to make children bicker.”

The Apparition closed the book and slowly crept through the living room and up the stairs. Once he got to the bedroom above, he shrank himself down to tiny size and slithered over to the game to read its instructions. Having understood the rules rather well, he quietly crept around each of them and observed their cards.

“Seven! Yes!” shouted Pumpkin as she moved her white token into a building at the base of the castle.

Everyone watched as Pumpkin thought hard and then made her guess.

“Alright guys, I’m gonna say it was Colonel Dandelion in the Theater with the Candlestick.”

Annie showed the Candlestick card to Pumpkin and Pumpkin checked it off on her notes. Annie then rolled the dice.

“Four,” she said, picking up her blue token and moving it up the steps before Chip took his turn.

“So Flurry, I know if one of us figures out the mystery, we open the chest at the top, but what if we don’t get it right?” asked Cozy.

“If you get all three right, you win the game and can show everyone the cards,” Flurry said as she rolled the dice and moved her red token. “If you get even one card wrong, you lose the game. When that happens, you can’t make anymore guesses for the rest of the game, but you still have to be in if you need to show a card when someone else guesses. I wouldn’t worry about that right now. We have to go through more of the game before we can start making the accusation.”

“Alright, I think I’ve got it now.”

“Good, because it’s your turn.”

Flurry handed Cozy the dice. Cozy rolled the dice and got a result for nine steps.

“Okay, I got nine. Oh, that means I can go into…what’s this place called? The Observatory.”

She picked up her pink token and then made her guess.

“I’m gonna say… Professor Prune in the Observatory with the Broadsword. Pound, do you have one of those?”

“Nope,” Pound replied, nodding his head back and forth.

“So does that mean I can check the chest?”

“Not yet. You gotta check with Stormy, and if he doesn’t have one, you ask Pumpkin next. Stormy, do you have one of those cards?”

“Yup. Everyone look away. Here you go, Cozy, and don’t tell anyone which card this is,” Stormy replied, showing Cozy the card for Professor Prune.

“Okay, and then I just write that down,” Cozy said, taking her notes and checking Professor Prune off. “Wow, this game is pretty fun, guys.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you suggested we play it!” Pumpkin said, happily.

The Apparition finally made his move. He crept underneath the table and phased through the wood and plastic castle set. Once he got to the top, he went inside the chest and looked at the cards. The combination was Pink Carnation in the Throne Room with the Rope. He listened to the children and waited for one of them to decide when to make the accusation and open the chest.

“Alright, I’m guessing it was Feather Duster in the Observatory with the Chain Mace,” said Stormy. “Pumpkin, do you have one of those?”

“Nope,” Pumpkin replied.

“Annie?”

“Yeah, I’ve got one,” Annie responded, carefully showing him the card for Feather Duster while everyone else closed their eyes or looked away.

“Alright, my turn,” said Pumpkin, rolling the dice and getting a result that allowed her to enter the Balcony.

“Alright guys, I’m guessing it was Pink Carnation on the Balcony with the Dagger.

Annie then showed her the card for the Dagger and rolled the dice for her turn. The next whole round just had everyone moving and not entering buildings. When they got to Cozy again, she was ready to make the accusation.

“Alright guys, I think I know the cards in the chest,” she said.

“Are you sure?” asked Pound.

“Yup. Alright…I accuse Pink Carnation…in the Throne Room…with the Rope.”

“Alright, only one way to find out,” Flurry said, using her magic to lift the chest off of the castle piece in the center.

Before the chest moved out, the Apparition cast a spell to transform the Rope card to Spear so Cozy would guess wrong. He then quickly disappeared. Flurry handed the chest to Cozy and Cozy opened to check the cards. She was excited once she saw that her first two guesses were right, but then frowned once she saw that she guessed the wrong weapon card.

“Aw. I’m sorry guys. I only got two of them right,” she said, glumly.

“That’s okay, Cozy. It happens,” Flurry said.

“But I still have to be in the game?”

“Yeah, you just can’t do anything except show a card that someone tries to guess if you have it,” Pound told her.

“Alright. Well I guess we can’t all be winners. It’ll still be exciting to see who does win.”

Pound then rolled the dice and moved a few spaces over. The next few turns were not enough to let anyone enter a building until it was Chip’s turn.

“Alright, five. That puts me in the Marketplace!” Chip said, moving his purple token. “And I think it can give me a chance to accuse. I accuse Pink Carnation in the Throne Room with the Spear.”

“Ah. The young farmer boy is smart,” said the Apparition as he changed the Pink Carnation card to Professor Prune. “But not smart enough.”

Chip checked the cards only to realize he had lost.

“Darnit. I got one wrong too.”

“Wow, two of us in a row? That’s a little weird,” said Stormy.

“It’s okay, guys,” Pound said, “Sometimes that happens cuz we didn’t know what Cozy got wrong earlier, so we all have to make our own guesses based on what cards we’re shown.”

Flurry then took her turn and got a result to place her token in the Throne Room.

“Alright. I accuse Professor Prune in the Throne Room with the Candlestick.”

Flurry opened the chest to see she got all of them wrong. The three cards said Blue Macaw in the Marketplace with the Axe.

“What? I got all three of them wrong? How’s that even possible?!”

“It’s okay, Flurry. Remember we can’t all be winners,” said Cozy.

“I’m not mad about not winning, I’m just confused. I spent all that time observing all the cards I saw. Something feels off.”

“Well let’s just continue, Flurry,” Pound said taking his turn.

As everyone else kept playing, Flurry looked curiously at the chest. Since she could not make anymore guesses, she thought she would observe the guesses everyone else was making. She marked off Professor Prune, Throne Room and Candlestick and took note of the correct three cards, waiting till someone made another accusation. When it was Annie’s turn, she made it.

“I accuse Colonel Dandelion in the Observatory with the Axe.”

Annie checked the cards. Everyone waited anxiously for her to tell them she had won, but unfortunately her guess was also wrong. She hung her head and put the chest back.

“I also got all three of them wrong.”

“Wow, this game is intense!” Stormy said.

“Wait a minute…” Flurry said abruptly, as everyone drew their attention to her. “Guys, I think something’s wrong with the cards.”

“Uh…Flurry…” Pound began to say.

“Seriously, I accused Professor Prune in the Throne Room with the Candlestick earlier, but I got it wrong and one of the cards that I saw in the chest was Axe. Annie guessed Axe but said that she got all three wrong. How did she not see Axe it but I did?”

Everyone looked at each other suspiciously. Finally Pound spoke up after rolling his eyes.

“Hold on. Let me check and see the results” he said, opening the chest, “Annie, did you see Blue Macaw in the Marketplace with the Broadsword?”

“Yeah.”

“What? When I last checked I saw Blue Macaw in the Marketplace with the Axe!” Flurry said.

“I saw Pink Carnation in the Throne Room with the Spear!” Cozy added.

“What? How is that even possible, girls?” asked Chip. “I saw Professor Prune in the Throne Room with the Candlestick!”

“What the hay is going on?!” asked Stormy.

“Alright, calm down!” Pound shouted as he started taking everyone’s cards to check them. “Look, let’s just start over and we’ll count these cards to make sure they’re all fine.”

“But Pound, aren’t you wondering how that happened? How many cards are actually in that chest?” Flurry asked.

“Only three. Blue Macaw, Marketplace and Broadsword.”

“But…how…ugh! Alright fine, we’ll start over.”

“Alright, here are the cards,” Pound said, sounding angrier as he went. “Professor Prune, Colonel Dandelion, Blue Macaw, Feather Duster, Pink Carnation, Bronze Buckler, Cold Hard Cash, Hot Tamale, Broadsword, Candlestick, Dagger, Chain Mace, Spear, Axe, Rope, Grappling Hook, Marketplace, Balcony, Throne Room, Observatory, Theater, Coloseum, Library, Dining Hall, Prison Block. We’ve got all the cards and I’m not seeing any duplicates. No extra cards are in the chest. Now can we play again and not fight?! Good!”

Pound furiously shuffled the cards. Everyone else looked scared, while Flurry was rolling her eyes and nodding her head back and forth. The Apparition watched them through the windows in the toy castle, smiling wickedly at the bedlam.

“Excellent. The princess noticed my one mistake earlier, yet they still continue to fight. That’s it, children. Let the anger flow through you. Let it divide you.”

Pound did his best to calm himself down as he passed the cards out. Flurry was already mad enough though and had started to lose control.

“Pound, if you’re going to be like this maybe we should just-”

Pumpkin then whispered Flurry’s name and stroked the tip of her hoof over her neck. Flurry just closed her eyes and sighed.

“Alright, we’ll be the same players as last time to avoid confusion. Does everyone have their cards? Good. I’m putting three, count em three, cards in the chest here and putting it up top.”

The Apparition watched as Pound placed the cards back in the chest. He entered the chest again and saw Hot Tamale in the Prison Block with the Chain Mace. The kids took their turns and he watched as Pound and Flurry tried their best to calm down, but could not get rid of the irritated looks on their faces. For several minutes, the kids continued to play, making guesses along the way until it was Stormy’s turn and he tried to make an accusation.

“I accuse Hot Tamale in the Prison Block with the Chain Mace,” he said, determinedly.

The Apparition changed Prison Block to Observatory and watched as Stormy grew disappointed at losing.

“WHAT?! I got it wrong too!”

“UGH!” Flurry groaned.

“Alright, everyone calm down,” Pumpkin said, nervously.

“Yeah, Stormy just didn’t take good enough notes,” Chip remarked.

“Hey, I did too!” Stormy responded, abrasively.

“Guys, come on, let’s just keep playing,” Cozy begged as Pumpkin took her turn.

The next few rounds had several others making guesses until Pound was ready to make an accusation.

“Alright. I accuse Hot Tamale in the Observatory with the Chain Mace.”

Once he opened the chest, he found he had gotten all the answers wrong. He closed the chest, crossed his arms and placed one hoof over his face in disappointment.

“You got it all wrong too?” Stormy asked.

“Yes,” Pound said, flatly.

“Pound, maybe Flurry’s right,” said Chip.

“Guys, it’s okay, we can just keep going,” said Pumpkin as Stormy took his turn.

Pumpkin rolled after Stormy was done and got a result to go into the Marketplace where she prepared to make a guess. The Apparition was getting tired of doing his deeds in the center castle, so he decided to phase back through the table and start switching the cards the kids were holding. As Pumpkin began to make her guess, he observed Annie’s cards right next to her.

“Alright. Hot Tamale in the Marketplace with the Candlestick,” said Pumpkin.

“I have one,” Annie said.

Annie then picked up one of her cards that said Candlestick, but the Apparition had switched it over to Rope. Before Annie could see what was done to her card, she showed it to Pumpkin.

“Uh…Annie, I didn’t guess that card,” Pumpkin said.

“Huh? Oh, sorry I picked the wrong…wait…I never had that card. And where’s the one I was going to show you?”

Annie started looking around to find her Candlestick card but could not find it anywhere.

“I could have sworn I had that card. Maybe I was confused.”

“Well I’ll check the others. Chip, do you have one?”

“No,” Chip replied.

“Flurry?”

“Me neither,”

“Wow, really? Nobody has Hot Tamale, Marketplace or Candlestick?”

Everyone nodded their heads back and forth. Pumpkin then eyed the chest in the castle and smiled mischievously.

“Well that means I can make an accusation! Alright, I accuse with all those three cards!”

Pumpkin used her magic to bring the chest out of the tower and open it up to find the cards for Cold Hard Cash, Coloseum and Axe.

“You…you’ve got to be kidding me! How are none of us winning this?! I’ve never seen Cue go on this long!” Pumpkin squawked.

“Alright, Flurry, what did you do?!” Stormy demanded.

“What did I do? What makes you think I would sabotage this game?” Flurry asked.

“You have magic! Did you change the cards or something?”

“Storm does have a point, Flurry,” Pound added.

“Why are you accusing me of that when we’ve got another magic user in here?”

“Because Pumpkin usually can’t use her magic on something if she can’t see it. Also she doesn’t know a spell powerful enough to switch cards around like that.”

“It’s true,” Pumpkin said, forlornly.

“So Flurry, did you switch the cards to help someone else to win?”

“What? No!”

“Well I’m just saying, since we were all fighting earlier, it could be possible you’re trying to manipulate the outcome so to help us get along, but it’s caused trouble.”

“You can have your theories, Pound, but it wasn’t me! How about we just see what the results are in that chest and then decide who got close enough to the result?”

“Flurry hold on, maybe we should…” Cozy tried to interject, but Flurry had already opened the chest.

Flurry looked in amazement at the cards. Not only were there cards she had already seen in both her pile and others, but there were more than three cards in it. She looked up at everyone else and turned the cards around. They all gasped collectively. She then turned to Pound and scowled at him.

“Pound…IT WAS YOU!! Why did you put more than three cards in the chest?!” she hollered.

“I didn’t put in more than three!”

“Well I didn’t use my magic!”

“Guys please!” Cozy begged frantically, as the hysteria got worse. “There are twenty-five cards, right? Let’s do a count and see how many we each have!”

“Maybe we should try again and have someone sit out to make sure the cards never change!” said Stormy.

“Good idea! I vote you!” Chip added.

“Why me!? I don’t wanna be bored!”

“You’re more likely to cheat!”

“Pumpkin did you take my card earlier? I thought I had Candlestick, but I never got Rope!” Annie asked Pumpkin.

“No, I didn’t take your card! Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know! Maybe to manipulate the outcome so you could win!”

“Say whaaaaat?!”

“Seriously, I think it was Pound! He was the one who switched the cards!” Flurry shouted, standing on the table and knocking over some of the game pieces.

“Yeah, well I think it was Flurry with her magic!” Pound shouted back, pressing his nose firmly against hers.

“Guys, stop it now!” Cozy screamed, trying to push them apart.

“I accuse Pound in the Clubhouse with Axe!”

“I accuse Flurry in the Clubhouse with Magic! Also, you really were the one who ruined the STES earlier like you said! After all, you’ve done a good job of ruining our first day here!”

Flurry looked hurt by Pound’s words at first, but then gritted her teeth in rage. She was so angry; she sounded like a kettle that had been sitting on top of a stove burner for too long. She puffed up her cheeks and untied her bows as her face turned red.

“Great job, Pound! You made her mad!” shouted Chip.

“Uh…what’s she doing?” asked Cozy.

“Oh no! She’s becoming a Hot Tamale!! EVERYPONY HIT THE DECK!” Pumpkin cried, ducking under the table.

Everyone watched as Flurry threw her bows aside and began to levitate without using her wings. Her hair moved upwards as if she was underwater and her body glowed brightly. She puffed her cheeks even harder and then finally let all her anger explode. Her irises turned red and her hair now had the appearance of fire.

“GAAAAAAAAH!!! AAAAAAGGGGGH!!!” Flurry roared.

Everyone else put their heads down under their hooves and hid under the table. Flurry took pauses between each eruption to catch her breath and then start over again. She had black marks around her body like she had caught on fire. She continued raging with her fiery hair until a stream of white foam doused her completely. Pound had grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and used it on her before an accident could occur. He then set it down and looked concernedly at Flurry, realizing already he had taken it too far and made her this way. She shook off all the foam and glared at him. He was about ready to start apologizing but her wrath was too quick.

“Pound, what was that for?!” she shouted, angrily.

“What? You were going to set the whole clubhouse on fire!” he replied.

“Yeah, did you have to do that in a place made entirely of wood?” asked Pumpkin.

“For real, Flurry!” Stormy added.

“That wasn’t fire! That was my hair! The magic flows through my follicles and creates an effect that resembles….UUUGGGHHH!! You know what, forget it! If you’re going to be like this, I don’t want to play anymore games with you, Pound Cake! And you guys too if you’re gonna take his side like this!”

Flurry pointed to Stormy and Pumpkin as they shimmied behind Pound. Chip and Annie walked in behind Flurry to take her side. Neither of them were impressed with Pound.

“She’s right, Pound!” Chip said, firmly. “I don’t care what happened to the game; you could’ve handled that better!”

“I agree!” Annie said. “Why did you have to accuse her of doing all those things? We should’ve just stopped playing!”

“No offense, but she did kinda overreact,” Pumpkin said.

“Yeah, she was accusing Pound too!” Stormy added.

“Of course you’re going to defend your brother, Pumpkin! And you’re no different, Stormy!” Chip hollered.

“Cesium Celery!”

“Beryllium Broccoli!”

“Guys, please!” Cozy pleaded. “This is no way for friends to beha-”

“If you three are going to be that way, then fine by me,” Pound told Flurry, Chip and Annie before turning back to the other two. “Pumpkin Cake, Storm Streak, come on. Let’s find something else to do.”

Pound, Pumpkin and Stormy marched angrily downstairs as Chip and Annie stayed behind to wipe off Flurry. Cozy watched the former three go down and tried to stop them.

“Guys wait! Can’t we just…” she tried to say before Pound slammed the door behind them.

“I tell you, sometimes I just can’t stand him!” Flurry complained. “I don’t know why he has to pretend like he’s the one in charge!”

“He does that cuz he’s the oldest,” said Annie.

“Yeah, but he could’ve been nicer. Usually he’s in the right, but this wasn’t one of those times,” Chip added.

“I’m sorry I overreacted back there, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I should apologize eventually, but I’m not in the mood for that right now,”

“Guys…why did it have to be this way?” Cozy asked them. “I thought you were friends. I wanted to be with you all to help with my reformation.”

“Well I’m sorry Cozy, but sometimes friendships don’t always work out. At least you can say you weren’t the bad guy this time,” Flurry told her.

Cozy hung her head in sorrow and picked up all the cards and tokens for the Cue game. She then folded up the castle set and put everything back in the box. With nothing else to do and already so disappointed in her friends for their actions that day, she trudged over to her bed and sat down to look out the window. Back by the game, the Apparition slowly crept out and returned to the shadows, smiling wickedly. He had done his deed and now awaited nightfall to make his next move.

Downstairs, Pound had turned on the TV and put in a VHS tape for he, Pumpkin and Stormy to watch. It hadn’t been rewound, so they had to wait a few minutes before watching it. He sat down and sighed deeply.

“She’ll come around again, bro,” Pumpkin said, putting her hoof on his shoulder.

“I hope so. I feel bad about what happened up there. I really do. I’m just gonna have to wait till she’s ready to talk it out. Today’s been totally ruined and I blame myself.”

“Don’t you guys wonder what was actually going on up there with the cards though?” Stormy asked. “Probably wasn’t Flurry, but who could it have been?”

“Who knows,” Pound replied. “But we’ll worry about that later. Right now let’s just get our mind off of things. We might not be able to play any video games, but at least the VHS player still works…for now.”

An hour passed and the sun had set. Flurry, Chip and Annie had all kept themselves busy by looking through some picture books in the upstairs bedroom while Cozy read a book before going to sleep. Pound, Pumpkin and Stormy had already fallen asleep during their movie and the player had finished. As Flurry, Chip and Annie began to fall asleep much faster than normal, the Apparition lifted them with his magic and brought them downstairs to be with the others. He placed all six of them on a round rug in the center of the downstairs living room. As they slept peacefully, he started to circle around them.

“There you go, Accord. I created a little dissonance without even needing to cast a single mind-control spell like you did with Princess Twilight and the others. That way they’ll all know their feelings toward each other were real and it will be harder to bear. Will they learn their lessons and make up? Hopefully they do. I’m depending on these little ones to figure out every challenge I throw at them tonight, but we are done with the real world for now. So rest, dear children, and let us play a different kind of game. I’ll see you in there. Hahahaha!”

An orange aura surrounded all the kids, as a curly, Y-shaped symbol appeared in the center of the rug. The Apparition laughed and absorbed himself into the symbol. The symbol disappeared, but the laughter could still be heard and the children were all still glowing. Although asleep, their minds were slowly transported into another realm. Their physical bodies would be fine in the real world, but they were about to go on a perilous adventure in the dreamscape, and this time, this ghostly spirit would have full control.