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I am a terrible pony.
How do I know this? Well, the first clue would be my name: Obviously, I was too young to remember it, but apparently, I was named after an event where my crying (amplified by my alicorn magic) had destroyed the crystal heart. The magical artifact that keeps the endless blizzard surrounding the Crystal Empire from getting in and killing everypony in it. I had only been born a few days before I had almost taken out an entire Empire and killed thousands of innocent ponies.
I do not blame my parents for naming me this, though; they thought naming me Flurry Heart would give me the strength to overcome any problem I made for myself. (Actually, they said any problems I come across, but I know what fate has in store for me). They had no way of knowing that naming me such would set my future path for destruction and death. No, I haven’t killed anypony yet, but I know that’s where my fate is headed based on another thing: my cutie mark.
A crystal heart similar to the one my mother has, but what makes mine unique is the flurry of snow that covers half of it. My parents tell me that it symbolizes my destiny to become the next ruler of the Crystal Empire. How I will always protect the crystal heart that keeps the Empire safe from the unnatural snow that has plagued it for over a thousand years.
I don’t tell them, but I know they are wrong. For one thing, if my talent was to protect the crystal heart, then would I not have a shield around it similar to the one my father has? Or at the very least, the snow would be behind the heart. Not in front of it. Secondly, why would my fate have anything to do with protecting something I had already destroyed once?
It doesn’t add up, and like my Auntie Twilight says, “if something doesn’t add up, then it’s wrong.” Ok, I might be paraphrasing it, but I can tell that’s what she means. I’m good at reading between the lines.
I had gotten my cutie mark a few months ago. No, I hadn’t gotten it from protecting the heart from some great evil. If it had, then I would give more weight to my parents’ theory. I also didn’t get it from some great feat, like hatching a dragon egg after a Sonic Boom helped unlock my magic, like how it happened to Auntie Twilight. Or by showing sympathy to an evil enchantress who tried to steal my magic, such as had happened to my mother.
No, my story is rather simple; I got it by doing ice magic. See, I said earlier how, as a baby, my magic was amplified by my alicorn magic. Remember that? Good. Well, that was true, but sometime after I aged up to a filly, my magic had gotten weak. I could barely lift a pencil before my magic gave out, and I dropped it. My parents told me that that was normal. A lot of unicorn foals struggled to perform magic, and it would take them a lot of years and studying to learn how to control it and perform spells.
That’s the problem, though; I’m not a unicorn. I’m an Alicorn. I have more magic in me than all three of the pony races combined. I shouldn’t have these problems like regular unicorns, but rather, my problem should be trying to keep it under control.
Now that I’m a teenager, I have mastered telekinesis and can lift anything from something as small as a pencil to as large as a bookcase. I could probably lift something even larger, but I don’t have anything to test it on. Maybe later I’ll secretly travel outside the Empire and see if there’s anything out in that endless snow that I can test. I did find something very important out there after all…
Oh, sorry. Got a little distracted. Where was I? Oh, right. Well, I’ve mastered telekinesis, but I still struggle with learning other spells. Fire, healing, plant growth, and other things. No matter how many magic tutors my parents hired to teach me, I still couldn’t get past the beginner levels. My parents told me to be patient and keep at it, but I begged them for new teachers, convincing them that the teachers were the problem. I didn’t want to believe that the problem was with me.
It eventually got to the point that they asked Auntie Twilight to tutor me. She had mastered countless spells back when she was just a unicorn. Read countless books on the fundamentals of magic itself. And had once held the power of three alicorns inside her to help her defeat Tirek, a feat none of the other Alicorns have attempted. If anypony could help me unlock my true potential, then surely it would be her.
See, the plan was for her to stay for two weeks. We would have liked longer, but that was as much as she was willing to put her duties as ruler of Equestria on hold for. I wonder if she would have agreed if I weren’t her favorite (and only) niece. She had even made a schedule to fit in as much studying, spell testing, and catching up as she could in that short window. Typical Auntie Twilight.
But all that effort proved to be fruitless as I easily mastered the first spell she asked me to perform; freezing water. Since the Empire is surrounded by snow, none of my tutors had even thought of having me try ice or water magic. “It’s always good to think outside of the box,” Auntie had said when she first proposed the idea. “Of course, you might not have much use for it, but there’s no harm in tr–”
She had stopped talking when I instantly froze the cup of water she had placed before me. Apparently, a lot of unicorns struggle to perform this spell, especially as fast as I had done. Something about it taking a lot of concentration and focus to change the atoms and such inside it to something else. I’ll be honest; I was too shocked that I had actually correctly performed a spell that wasn’t levitation to hear what she actually said.
I thought I had regained the full power of my Alicorn magic. I instantly tried a fire spell my previous tutor had taught me, but–just like last time–I was only able to produce a flame for a few seconds before it went out.
With Auntie’s help, I was able to produce a flame for ten seconds, and managed to light two candles at once with a single fire of magic, but it still wasn’t at the level I knew it should be. “You’re doing great, Flurry,” she had said, petting my mane as I tried to quell the anger rising in my chest. “A lot of unicorns your age struggle with this spell as well. There are a few expectations, but those ponies usually get a cutie mark that relates to fire, giving them a stronger attunement to it. If you keep studying and training, you could surpass even an adult unicorn with a fire cutie mark. You just need patience and learn not to be hard on yourself.”
Yeah, that sounds like good advice, but she’s wrong. If she wasn’t, then I wouldn’t have mastered every ice spell she taught me. In one afternoon, I went from freezing water to being able to create it out of thin air just a few hours apart!
Well, ok. Technically, it’s not out of “thin air.” It’s more like collecting the moisture in the air, gathering it, changing atoms again, applying the freeze spell, and doing it enough to make a hoofful of snow. It’s more complicated than how I’m explaining it, but that’s how easy it is for me to do. I don’t even have to think about it. I just want it done and poof! It’s done!
Auntie had a theory on why this was: Like I said earlier, she mentioned how some unicorns are more attuned to certain magic than others. This is often reflected in their cutie marks. Auntie’s cutie mark, for example, is a big star surrounded by smaller stars. This represents her attunement to magic, which gives her stronger magical power than the average unicorn. But since I’m an Alicorn, it was suspected I would have a strong attunement to all magic types, like Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna.
Like them, I was born an Alicorn, so why wasn’t my magic stronger? Besides my age (which my parents and Aunties insisted was the main cause), it could be that I have one attunement due to my parents being a Pegasus-turned-Alicorn, and a regular unicorn. A regular unicorn that–unlike his baby sister–has an attunement to protective magic, most commonly in the form of barriers. Those factors could be holding my magic back, forcing it to focus on one area. If that was true, then ice magic would be the strongest for me.
“You can still learn other spell types,” Auntie said. Her eyes were soft, yet held a hint of panic, as if she was worried I was upset about this. “It might take you a…bit longer to master–” I noticed how she hesitated. We both knew it would most likely take more than a ‘bit longer.’ “--but it’s possible. Magic isn’t about mastering all aspects of it, though, or even how powerful it is. It’s about how you use it. Whether you use it for the betterment of creature kind or for their destruction is what determines what kind of pony you are.”
She then got this huge grin on her face as her eyes lit up. The telltale sign that she was about to launch into one of her positive speeches that aimed to inspire all who heard. “This could be amazing news! Just think about it, Flurry: If you’ve already mastered ice spells, and gained a cutie mark of it and of the crystal heart, then I have no doubt that your destiny has something to do with the Empire, outside of being its future ruler. Perhaps when you’re older, you will be the one to figure out why this nation is haunted by a never-ending blizzard. Then, you can use your mastery of ice and snow to get rid of it! It’ll open up huge possibilities for the future of the nation!”
I wish I could be as optimistic as her. I really, truly wish I could dream of such a future. I wish I could believe in it and continue on with my life, living my days in peace and happiness as I head forth towards a future I think I’m destined for, but I can’t. Because I know the truth: I am not this Empire’s savior, but its destruction.
There are just too many clues for it that I can’t ignore: My past, my name, my magic, and now even a cutie mark to seal the deal. Nopony else sees the signs, or maybe they’re just ignoring them, but I can’t.
I won’t.
Oh, don’t look so scared! I’m not planning on devoting my life to the darkness, waiting for the perfect chance to take out my parents, destroy the Crystal Heart, and then let this Empire freeze. No, no, no.
You see…My destiny might be that, but I won’t let it railroad me to such a destination without a fight. I have a plan.
When I was younger, probably around seven, I was playing hide and seek with my father. Normally, we’d play in the living room or bedrooms, but I wanted to hide somewhere new. Somewhere that would take him a while to find me, and make me the hide-and-seek champion. The castle is very big, so there were a lot of places I could pick. I searched around for a bit before I found a door that led to this seemingly endless staircase. The place had some torches lit up on the walls to help guide a pony down them without falling, but that bottom was still swallowed up by a cold, endless darkness.
Unlike most foals at that age, I wasn’t afraid of the dark. Perhaps I got the adventurous gene from my Auntie Twilight, or perhaps I wasn’t afraid because at that age, my magic was still strong enough that a sneeze would make me randomly shoot a laser out of my horn. Either way, I knew this would be the perfect spot.
Even though I couldn’t see it, I knew the staircase would take too long to walk down, so I just flew to the bottom. There wasn’t really anything down there, except for a large, double steel door. If I had thought about it, I would have found it odd to see something NOT made out of crystal in this Empire, but I didn’t. All I cared about was finding the best hiding spot, so I lit up my horn and grabbed one of the handles. The door was heavy, but with my powerful magic, it just took a bit of pulling and grunting to make it slowly open.
The room inside was another pit of darkness. The torchlight outside only managed to light up a small part of the edge. The moment my hoof touched past the door, the torches inside lit up. In an instant, the whole room was covered in light. It wasn’t an empty room as I had expected.
Inside, there was a cell made of iron with a rotted bed of hay and two dishes inside, presumably for food and water. To the left of the cell, on the other side of the room, was a crystal table. I couldn’t due to my height, but I would later find out that on there were varying tools: A pair of pliers, a hacksaw, a screwdriver, and a hammer. Each of them were rusted from time and…something else.
In between the table and cell were five rusted chains sticking out from the crystal wall. One for each of a pony’s legs and their neck. On the ground, under the chains, was a huge dark spot. My young mind couldn’t comprehend that it was blood. Blood that had dried over the years in this small space.
I didn’t get scared by the room. I even went inside and started to look around for a place to hide. I didn’t get a chance to, because a few seconds later, my father called my name. I had left the door at the top of the stairs open, so he knew I had wandered in. I was upset that he found me so quickly, but…
I’ll never forget the look of horror on his face. I’ve seen him in scary situations before with villains. In those times, he always looked determined and firm, not showing any fear that the enemy could use against him. I didn’t think he could get scared, but seeing him like that…I still see it. The look of horror in his eyes, how pale his already white coat got. That spooked me more than that room ever did.
Later, when I got older, I realized why my father was so scared: That room was a torture room used when Sombra still reigned. I found old journals where he would write about how he would bring any disloyal subjects down and would torture them until he felt they learned their lessons. He would keep them down here for weeks, sometimes months, until he deemed them loyal again, or they could no longer handle the torture, and…they would die.
Sometimes, he would bring any spies he found down here and torture them for information. These he would happily kill. Sometimes he even experimented on them, seeing how many ways he could torture a pony before they died. In the last few of his journals–set before Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna defeated him–he wrote about how he suspected some of his subjects of being spies. Even though they couldn’t leave the Empire, he thought some of them were somehow giving information to my aunties about how he was ruling, about how cruel he was, and about his experiments.
He would bring any ponies he found suspicious and torture them ot reveal their secrets. He wrote about how they were too “stubborn” and “disloyal” to tell him the torture, so he would end up killing them. It’s obvious to anyone reading that he was just a paranoid nut who was killing innocent ponies.
Feh. What kind of ruler does that to their subjects? Disgusting.
Why did I bring that up? Well, I never thought about that room after that. I ended up forgetting it until two weeks after I got my cutie mark.
Even with Auntie Twilight’s tutoring, my magic still wasn’t as powerful as I wanted it, outside of my ice spells, of course. I had grown a bit better than I had been before she came, but still below the level of most unicorns. Auntie promised it was just my age and not to worry. She also promised to come back sometime in the future to help me continue my studies.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her it would never happen, because I was planning on killing myself.
Now that I’m older, my parents allow me to explore the Empire on my own. They don’t see a need to always be with me, especially since they’re busy with their own duties. They also don’t assign a guard to be with me at all times, like Auntie Twilight suggested they do. “Flurry is a teenager now. She needs her privacy,” my mother told her. “She’s also safe as long as she stays inside the Empire. There’s no harm in giving her some freedom.”
I had always been grateful for that, especially when I decided I would kill myself by stepping out into the winter wonderland just outside the barrier. I had sneaked out of the castle when it was night, and I knew my parents were asleep. It was easy to sneak past the guards. It wasn’t long before I was standing at the edge of the barrier.
I’ll admit I was hesitant. I have no idea how long I stood here, just staring at the endless snow outside the warmth of the Empire. I knew I needed to do this. I had to stop myself from becoming another monster in the history books of Equestria. I might not have had any urges to destroy the Empire or hurt any of my subjects, but how long until that changed? I couldn’t feel it, but I knew there was a monster inside of me, waiting for the perfect moment to overtake me.
There had to be, and this was the only way to stop it.
So, I gathered my courage and walked out. Have you ever been outside the barrier? It’s cold. Colder than anything any pony has ever experienced. The wind immediately latches onto you, biting into your very bones. A pony could survive out there for a little bit, but eventually that coldness will overtake them. It will fill their whole inside until they can no longer walk, and they collapse into the snow, unable to do anything except wait for their life to fade away and the snow to cover their corpse, hiding them from sight.
I didn’t get to that point, or anywhere close, as I had only taken a few steps before I found a body. It was a Griffon. He was half buried in the snow, unmoving, his wings limp beside him. We usually didn’t get Griffons this far north, so I was a little curious, but seeing as he wasn’t moving, I thought he was dead and was about to move on.
That’s when I heard a groan. He was alive, but barely. I knew he would die any minute if I didn’t get him someplace warm. Even though I was planning on dying, I couldn’t stand by and let some creature’s life end so shortly. That’s just how nice I am. So, I lifted him with my magic and placed him on my back. I thought about taking him to my parents for help, but then an idea crossed my mind.
I had no idea why it had, but I decided to follow it anyway. After all, there had to be a reason, right?
Even though I hadn’t thought about it in years, the moment I picked up the Griffon, I remembered the old torture room I talked about earlier. I knew I could hid– nurse him back to health down there without anypony noticing. Even though my parents hated that room, they knew it was harmless and saw no reason to guard it, seeing as there weren’t any magical artifacts that a pony could use down there. They did, however, remove the rusted equipment, the chains, and the cell, leaving the room bare.
Despite that, my father still put a magical lock on it to keep my younger self out, but he had quit maintaining it years ago. It was so weak that it just took a little spark of magic to undo it, allowing me to slip in with nopony the wiser.
The Griffon didn’t awake for days. I stayed by his side, keeping him alive with a blanket, a small bed of fire I made out of that old, rotten hay, and some medical spells I had learned. There were times I wasn’t sure if he would make it, but I refused to give up. I tried to stay with him as long as I could, but I had to leave him at times so my parents wouldn’t get suspicious of my absence.
The day he woke up, I was sitting beside him, reading one of Sombra’s old journals I had found while looking for anything that could help the Griffon. He was shocked to see me, but was very grateful when I told him how I had saved him. He told me that his name was Greg. He was a refugee from the Griffon Kingdom.
My knowledge of it was limited. All I knew was that it was a kingdom in poverty with very little food to sustain them all. I thought maybe that’s why he escaped, but then I realized, ‘Why would a starving Griffon come to a winter wasteland?’ Yes, the Crystal Empire is here, but getting there could be a very dangerous journey. Most ponies that visited took the train, as it led right into the Empire.
Maybe it was because he was so grateful to me that when I asked him, he easily admitted the truth; He was a criminal. He didn’t say what he did, but it was bad enough that there were Griffons looking for him. He knew they wouldn’t come after him if he fled to the Crystal Empire. He made sure they saw him fly into the wasteland, so they would think he died and would give up the chase.
Perhaps he thought that because he didn’t expect to live either.
I promised him that nopony would know he was here. He could stay here and rest up, since his body was still weak. All I asked was that he not leave the room until I deemed him ready to leave. He eagerly agreed. He probably would have agreed to anything that I asked.
I sneaked him water and food, kept him company, shared stories with him, and laughed with him. He developed a close bond with me. All the while, I kept up my appearance for my parents and my studies. This continued for a good while until he felt healthy enough to walk and fly. “I think I’m well enough now to leave. Do…you think your parents would be ok with letting me live in the Empire?”
I told him I would ask them and give him an answer tomorrow, and that he should focus on resting for the rest of the day. I made him a cup of tea to help with relaxation. He happily drank it, showing how much he trusted me. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep.
The look on his face when he awoke hours later, chained to the wall, pained me. He looked so scared, so confused, so…hurt. Of course, he questioned me, asking what was going on. I explained to him that I had drugged the tea I had given him, so he wouldn’t awake as I installed new chains to the wall, recreating the ones my father had taken away.
Do you remember when I said I had a plan? A plan to keep myself from submitting to the darkness I was destined for? You see, I’ve found a lot of Sombra’s journals. So many that my parents failed to find, as if they weren’t looking for them. They talked about his rule. From the very start, he was a monster, but as the journals continued, he slipped further and further into madness. Most ponies thought he was born evil since there were no records of his life before being King, but I found what they all missed:
In my search, I happened to find a journal that wasn’t written by Sombra. This one was written by somepony named Radiant Heart. Apparently, she was childhood friends with Sombra. In it, she explained Sombra had been a normal foal, except for how whenever the Crystal Festival came around, he would be in extreme pain. It would last until the festival ended, and he would be fine, only for it to start over the next year. She theorized that’s why he took the Crystal Heart: to stop the pain it was causing him.
I also looked into what turned Auntie Luna into Nightmare Moon. According to the books and Auntie herself, what turned her into Nightmare Moon was the jealousy and hate she felt after her subjects seemed to appreciate the sun more than the moon. She had tried to keep it inside, never sharing her struggles with anypony, but that just ended up consuming her and allowing Nightmare Moon to take over.
Do you notice what they have in common? They both had pain that they had no outlet for. They kept it bottled in. and it rotted them from the inside out. A thousand years ago, mental health was a mystery to ponies, often thought to be the result of a curse or a spell gone wrong. Nowadays, we know better and can help treat it. We know how important having outlets for stress is. If I want to keep from rotting like them, I need an outlet.
Now, I’m not saying I have pain inside of me, but I know one day I will. I might as well start now and learn how to keep it under control. This way, I can keep myself from harming innocent ponies.
Auntie Twilight said my ice magic would be powerful, but even I didn’t know how far I could go. Did you know we have about sixty percent water in our bodies? A fun little trivia to most ponies, but for me…Well…
If you freeze all the water at once, the creature will stop moving, frozen in whatever position they were in, like a statue. Greg was stuck with his beak wide open, his eyes wide as he begged me to release him from his chains. He had no idea what had just happened. I theorized that all of his organs had been frozen as well, killing him instantly. A fact I would later find out when I felt like digging around (pun intended).
You wouldn’t tell that from just looking at him. To a normal pony, it might look like he died from a brain hemorrhage or something. Of course, if they were to cut him open and look at him during an autopsy, they would see that his organs had been frozen. They wouldn’t know how, but there would be an investigation.
I’ve been meaning to research a way to thaw out the organs and try to make them look healthy. This could be useful if I ever have to lead the Empire in a war: I could sneak into the general's room, freeze his insides, and then thaw him out to make it look like he just died in his sleep. The war would be won with limited or no bloodshed.
Of course, this could just be a romanticized fantasy developed by a teenager that has no bearing on the real world, but it’ll be an interesting experiment to try.
Experiment. Teehee! I’m a scientist just like Auntie Twilight!
I also learned how to turn water into icy spikes. I learned that by doing that to Greg’s insides. The spikes shot out from inside him, causing him to explode into a mess of blood, organs, and flesh. He only had a second to scream before that. A very messy way of eliminating a future enemy. I’ll probably only use that when I have no choice.
Hm? How could Greg scream if he was already dead? Oh, I’m sorry. I skipped ahead. Sorry. Lately, it’s been hard to keep my thoughts together for so long. They’re always veering this way and that way. Probably just from stress.
You see, I haven’t just been studying Sombra’s past or my magic studies. I’ve also been studying the dark arts. I found some spell books that must have belonged to Sombra. There’s some he’s circled, like a spell that makes you see your worst fears. Could be good to paralyze and confuse your enemies, I guess.
Now, now, don’t look so scared. I’m not going to abuse the spells and become corrupt. There’s been enough of that in history to warn against it. Instead, I’ll just be using one spell: regeneration. It’s a spell that brings the dead back to life.
With it, I can bring back any creature from even the most violent deaths. Even Greg, whom I had splattered all over the walls and floor, had been placed together and brought back like he hadn’t even died before. Of course, he still remembered the death and started screaming. The spell doesn’t erase memories.
So, I continued to experiment on him with different spells and different ways I could use them, like using my flame spell to boil the water inside of him instead of freezing it. I was amazed I could even do that! It’s like my magic was getting stronger for some reason. Whenever I ran out of ideas, I would just look through history books for inspiration. I’ve even learned ways to tort– kill a creature without magic.
Like a fashionista from Trottingham who would skin her victims alive and use their pelts in her clothing designs. She hid their bodies by turning them into the faceless mannequins that she used to display her creations. When asked why she kept her victims alive instead of killing them to take off their fur, she explained that the magic inside all of us made our pelts feel alive. If you kill somepony and take their fur, it becomes lifeless. It’s not as soft or colorful as if you do it while they're alive.
I’ve tried both ways, and she was right. The coat I made out of Greg’s feathers felt so much warmer, lighter, and more breathable compared to when I flayed him after I killed him by stopping his heart with my magic. Oh, don’t worry; the regeneration spell always returns his pelt (do Griffons call it pelt?) back to him. Otherwise, he would just be this creature of meat and tissue.
Actually…that would be interesting. I wonder if there’s a spell to turn a creature inside out. That way, I could study their insides up close and see how they react to different things. I’d learn more from that than any medical book.
Oh, sorry. I zoned out again. Now, where was I? Oh yes! This one time I used a spell on Greg that exploded his hea–
“Um, e-excuse me, b-but why are you telling me this?”
Flurry Heart paused in her lecture to look at the pony that had spoken. The pony was a female Earth pony. Her fur was as white as milk with a mane as red as a ruby. The contrast between the two seemed to make her mane shine even brighter. With her mane resting against her neck, it made Flurry picture the red as blood, pouring out of the mare’s neck after being sliced open.
Red staining innocent white.
On her flank was a cutie mark of a quill resting against a notepad. Her name was Ruby Writer. She was a rather lonely mare that had cut her toxic family off years ago, then moved to Manehatten to achieve her dream of becoming a famous writer. Luck hadn’t been on her side, though, as nopony was willing to give her writing a chance. Especially since she had no friends who could put in a good word for her. Or friends of any kind.
A rather lonely mare.
Flurry Heart had learned all this as she picked up the mare from the train station. It only took a few prodding questions to get Ruby to spill her whole life story. Either because the mare was lonely and liked having somepony interested in her, or from nerves from being escorted by a Princess.
She had been surprised that a Princess was leading a nobody like her to the castle. Flurry had told her that normally she didn’t, but it was a special occasion since it wasn’t often a pony arrived on a train by themselves in the middle of the night. Flurry said she didn’t want the mare to feel scared, so she would lead her to the castle to rest, and then tomorrow she could find a new home to live in.
“To let you know why I lied to you,” Flurry said. Her tone was sweet and light, as if she were about to gossip with her girlfriends. “Didn’t you wonder why I was out late at night instead of sleeping in my bed like everypony?”
Ruby shifted in her seat on the couch. She clenched the teacup in her hooves as she moved it up to take another sip of the tea Flurry had poured for her, before she had gone into her life story. “I-I assumed you couldn’t sleep. Whenever I can’t, I walk around outside. The fresh air helps c-clear my mind.”
Flurry hummed as she took another sip of her own tea. She closed her eyes as she did, but she could feel Ruby’s eyes darting around the room, trying to figure out a way to escape before Flurry could stop her with her magic. A feat that would be impossible for an Earth pony without some distraction or miracle. She knew Ruby knew this as well, since she had been doing this for the past thirty minutes and still hadn’t made a move.
“You’re a bit right,” she said, opening her eyes again. “I couldn’t sleep, but I wasn’t outside to clear my mind. As I mentioned before, regeneration can bring back any part of a creature, no matter how damaged. If, for example, I was able to explode a heart and then burn any remaining parts into nothingness, leaving no trace of it behind, the spell would be able to bring it back and make it work like new.”
She paused. “Or perhaps it creates a whole new one?” She muttered. She stared down at the floor for a moment before she shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you’d think this would be the same for everything, but it’s only true for a majority. There’s actually one thing that wears down from being brought back over and over; the soul.”
She levitated the teapot and refilled Ruby’s cup. The mare blinked. She hadn’t said anything, so how did Flurry know it was empty? She would have ignored it and continued to try to think of a way to escape, but Flurry was staring at her.
Staring at her with those blank blue eyes. It sent a chill down Ruby’s spine. She wasn’t moving, wasn’t speaking. Just staring at her, waiting.
Ruby gulped. She went to move the cup up towards her mouth, but froze when Flurry said, “Wait.” She looked up.
“The tea has gotten cold. Let me warm that up for you.” Her horn lit up, wrapping around the cup. “There you go,” she said, releasing the magic after a moment. “You know…you have really beautiful eyes.”
Despite herself, Ruby could feel her cheeks reddening. Nopony had called her pink eyes beautiful before. She took a sip of her tea. ‘Hm. Has it always been this sweet?’ She thought as she took another sip.
“Anyway,” Flurry said, snapping Ruby from her thoughts. “You cannot physically harm a soul. Not even with magic. It’s just impossible. You can, however, wear it down. I have no idea how many times I brought Greg back. How many experiments I’ve done on him. At first, I kept a list of each experiment I did, so I wouldn’t repeat, but I soon dropped that after the hundredth one. I mean, I’m doing this to relieve stress. I’m not doing this for some sick enjoyment.”
She giggled into her hoof. The giggle was light, yet it weighed heavily on Ruby’s shoulders. She saw a spark flicker in Flurry’s eyes for a moment as she did. She also thought she saw a black squiggle shoot across them, but ignored it. She had to be seeing things. Her head was feeling light after all.
“I’m not sure when, but at some point his soul just…died.” The smile dropped from Flurry, going back to the neutral expression she held during their entire talk. “His body was back, his organs were healthy, yet they weren’t working. He just lay there, staring at nothing. Not even breathing. It seems even dark magic can only avoid death for so long.”
“It’s sad, really,” she continued. “I really did like him. He was the closest friend I’ve ever had.”
Ruby’s stomach clenched, threatening to throw up the tea she had just drunk.. She wanted to throw her cup away, to scream at Flurry about how she could do those things to a “friend,” but…she didn’t. Even though she knew she should have felt angry, she didn’t. She felt rather calm. More at peace than she ever had before. She blinked as she tried to keep her eyelids open.
“But now I need a new friend,” Flurry said. “That’s why I was outside: I know it’s a long shot, but I was planning on seeing if I could find a new friend outside the barrier. It wouldn’t even matter if they were dead, because I could just use my magic to bring them back to life. But then…you came.”
Ruby’s eyes widened as she saw Flurry smile at her. The smile was unlike anything she had ever seen before: She knew Flurry was trying to give one full of sweetness and happiness, but this one…it was twisted. It filled the mare with dread, turning her insides cold. It gave off a silent promise. A promise that if Ruby didn’t escape right now, then her future would be filled with nothing but pain.
Ruby threw the cup at Flurry. She didn’t wait to see if it connected as she jumped off the couch and raced towards the exit. She ignored how fast her heart was already pounding, how heavy her legs felt, and how short her breath was. “HEL–”
Ruby gasped as she awoke. She jumped up to her hooves and went to continue running, but she was roughly pulled back. She screamed as her head smacked against crystal. “What th–” She went to lift her hoof to rub her head, but the thing wrapped around it made her pause.
There was a silver chain wrapped around it and her other limbs. She couldn’t see it, but now she could feel the one wrapped around her neck. She was chained to the wall behind her, barely giving her any room to move. She was seated on a bed of hay with two bowls filled with food and water before her.
“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no!” Her eyes shot around the room. It was all crystal, except for the steel double doors at the front of the room. There was a table next to her with various instruments on it, including a hammer.
This was the room Flurry had described in her story. The one that once belonged to Greg. Now, it belonged to her.
“Glad you’re awake.”
Ruby’s eyes shot to her right. Flurry Heart stood there, her back to the mare as she stood in front of a furnace. The same one a blacksmith used. “W-what…” She started to ask, but her words failed her as she took in Flurry’s appearance.
Earlier, she had looked just as picturesque as an Alicorn should be: A colorful mane and tail that curled at the end to keep it off the floor. Her fur and wings had been brushed and preened, showing how-well groomed she was. The colors of her fur and mane had been so bright that she seemed to shine.
But now…she seemed so different that if she didn’t have such a unique cutie mark, Ruby would have thought it was a different Alicorn. The colors of her mane and fur were dull, almost looking grey. Her mane and tail were longer, lying against the ground as she stood, with the ends split, as if she hadn’t brushed them in a very long time. The feathers of her wings were ruffled, with some feathers barely hanging on. It was obvious that Flurry would be unable to fly with them until she preened them.
The most shocking part, though, was the black electricity that was coursing through her mane and tail. They twisted and turned, looking like squirming maggots.
“It’s amazing what a glamour spell can do,” Flurry Heart said. Her voice was so flat and detached now, as if she truly wasn’t there in the moment. “Just cast it and boom; I look as beautiful as everypony expects me to be. Of course, it doesn’t cover everything.” Ruby knew she was talking about the black electricity. “So, I may have to use a teeny, tiny bit of black magic to cover it up. It’s not completely perfect, though.”
The memory of how Ruby saw the black squiggle shoot across Flurry’s eyes appeared in her mind.
“It’s dark magic,” Flurry said in a way that seemed like she was answering a question Ruby hadn’t asked. “I’m not sure why it looks like that, though. Maybe because magic is like electricity? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll figure it out after I get some sleep.”
She turned to face Ruby, causing the Earth pony to gasp. Before, Flurry’s face had been youthful and bright, fitting her age, but now there were dark circles under her eyes. Her face seemed to sag, as if weighed down by years of stress and heartache. Ruby didn’t notice that, though, as her eyes were locked onto Flurry’s. Her eyes were now a dark red, with the whites being a bright green.
“Just a side effect,” Flurry muttered, but she didn’t seem to be talking to Ruby. When she spoke, Ruby could see a pair of fangs in her mouth now. They were sharp and pointed, looking similar to a Diamond Dog’s. She had never seen a pony with those before. It was unnecessary, as ponies didn’t eat gems or meat and had no need for fangs.
“Why am I here?! Let me go!” Ruby screamed. She hit her hoof against the chains, trying to break them with her Earth pony strength, but she couldn’t even put a scratch on them.
“I need a new friend,” Flurry said. “Since Greg died, I need someone new to help keep the darkness out of me.”
“B-but you said h-his body was still working!” Ruby hiccuped as tears poured down her face. “I-if it is, why can’t you use it instead!? Why do you need a live one?!”
Ruby cried as she waited for an answer, but Flurry didn’t respond. Instead, she turned her head away to stare back at the furnace. “Such a shame,” she muttered. “He had stopped begging for death, too.”
“SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!!” Ruby screamed at the top of her lungs. She screamed for as long as she could, stomping her hooves to try and create as much noise as she could. She kept this up until her throat was hoarse and her hooves were sore.
Flurry didn’t look at her. She hadn’t even flinched when Ruby started to scream. “Why are you screaming?”
Ruby panted, trying to regain her strength to scream again. “B-because,” her voice was weak and hoarse now, “y-you’re gonna–”
“No, I know that. I mean..” She turned her head to look at her, her eyebrow raised. “Don’t you remember when I told you this used to be Sombra’s torture room? How I boiled Greg alive from the inside? Do you honestly think they didn’t scream? They didn’t try to scream for help? Sure, you could argue that if somepony even screamed from Sombra, nopony would be brave enough to come help them, but don’t you think the guards or even my parents would come rushing if they heard screaming?”
“N-no…” Ruby’s ears fell against her head. Her eyes shot around the room again, though she knew she wouldn’t be able to see what she was looking for. “This room is–”
“Soundproof, yes,” Flurry nodded. “Which is perfect for my next experiment.”
“E-experitment?”
It was then that Ruby noticed that Flurry’s horn was lit. She pulled out a black metal object from the furnace. The top of it was bright red from the extreme heat it had been put through. “I had read in a book about a stallion that stabbed his victims’ eyes. The book failed to go into detail about it. Such a shame. I was curious about how it looked. Did the eyes pop? How much blood came out? What happens to it if you do a small slice instead of a stab? So many questions were going through my mind, getting louder and louder each time. I knew they wouldn’t be quiet until I saw how it looked. Luckily, Greg was there to help me.”
She turned towards Ruby, ignoring how the mare pressed herself against the wall, in some vain attempt to put more distance between them. “There were a lot of tests I did with his eyes, but I grew bored with that. I thought I had done them all, but then when I saw your beautiful pink eyes, and a new thought came to my mind: ‘What would they look like if I put something hot against them?’”
“YOU’RE INSANE!” Ruby screamed, but Flurry made no indication if she had even heard her. “Do you even hear yourself?! How could you think such things against another pony?!”
“I already told you,” Flurry took a step towards her, her regal shoes making a clack against the crystal floor. “If I sacrifice one creature, then I can stop myself from becoming the monster my destiny wants me to be.”
“YOU’RE ALREADY A MONSTER!”
Flurry halted, her right hoof still hanging in the air. For a second, Ruby thought maybe she had gotten through to the Alicorn. Maybe she had been blinded to her own actions, but now she would see the truth and let Ruby go.
That hope was shattered when Flurry shook her head. “No,” she said, her voice still flat. “A monster would have enslaved all of the Crystal Ponies or tried to take over Equestria. I don’t want that. I still care for my future subjects. I still want to protect them and make sure no villain ruins that for as long as I can. I have no interest in ruling all of Equestria. Just my Empire, so therefore I am not a villain.”
“That doesn’t–” Ruby started to shout again, but she instead inhaled sharply as the metal object hovered right in front of her left eye.
“I know it’s hard to be a sacrifice,” Flurry said, “but take comfort in the fact that you are helping to make Equestria a better place. You are preventing a monster from being born.”
“Flurry, no, PLEASE!”
“I promise you, this hurts me more than it hurts you.”