Sunny was trying very, very hard to keep her giggles internalized as she sat across from Flurry Heart, watching the Crystal Princess struggle to keep her fork and knife afloat in her magical grasp as she cut into the fresh hot pancakes in front of her as they sat in one of Zephyr Heights' diners that served breakfast. She was assuming that something had sapped Flurry's magic over the centuries that she had been in limbo, or that perhaps, just like the rest of the unicorns in Equestria, she was learning to use magic all over again.
"I guess no matter how many centuries pass, you really can't improve on the perfect pancake," Flurry commented as soon as she had swallowed her current bite of syrup-soaked breakfast. "So, now that we're in a more conversation-friendly setting, what is that you do for a living, Sunny Starscout?"
"Well, before Reunification Day, I ran a smoothie cart. I devoted pretty much all of my spare time to continuing my dad's research into Ancient Equestria, Princess Twilight, and her friends. Since we brought the Unity Crystals together, I've been helping run a history museum in Maretime Bay, using artifacts we've found, as well as sharing what we have with the pegasi and unicorns, and they with us."
"Your dad sounded like an amazing pony, Sunny. Again, I'm sorry that he passed before what sounded like his time."
"Thank you, and yes, he was. He was unbelievably patient with almost everypony... Everypony else who didn't think a day like this could come... A reunified Equestria."
A family of pegasi passed by on their way out, and not only the kids, but also the parents stared in wonder at the alicorn for just a moment, before they smiled awkwardly, with the parents offering short bows before hurrying their kids along.
Flurry returned the awkward smile to Sunny.
"Guess you're not used to that, either," Sunny offered.
"No no, that I am, sadly, completely used to," Flurry Heart answered.
"According to my research, alicorns were worshiped in Ancient Equestria, and nopony has seen one in, well, like we said, centuries. Now we've got one in the flesh."
Flurry couldn't help but cringe a bit at Sunny's explanation.
"Worshiped? That... Well, to be perfectly honest, that's probably more true than I'd like it to be, Sunny. I always tried to spend as much time as I could in the city, in the streets, with my citizens, letting them get to know me as personally as they could, so they could see that I was no different than they were. I guess I was always trying to convince myself of that much more than I was trying to convince them. Even back in my day, alicorns were extremely rare, and I was the only natural-born one in all of recorded history."
"Natural-born?"
"Every other alicorn had to earn either their wings or horn by accomplishing some great feat, like Twilight or my mom, or accept an impossibly heavy burden from others, like Celestia or Luna. But me? I didn't do anything like that. I took over looking after the Crystal Empire, and the Heart, once my mom and dad stepped down, but it was usually unbearably dull. I hadn't done anything to prove myself worthy of my wings or horn."
Sunny swallowed her last bite of pancakes.
"But you have, Flurry. You made the unity crystals, and that in turn, helped me and my friends bring all of ponykind together again."
Flurry smiled at Sunny's reassuring words.
"Thank you, but it wasn't just me. It took the sacrifice of Princess Luna and Spike, and if I had had my way, they never would have gone through with it; I guess that's why they had started the ritual before I had the chance to stop it, once I realized what the price would be, and now that I'm here... I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"I mean, are you supposed to know what to do? You've been in limbo for a really long time. I don't think you're supposed to hit the ground running towards, well, anything really," Sunny told her, finishing her last sip of orange juice.
"So, what do you think I should do, Sunny?"
Sunny couldn't help but shrug.
"Well, I know I'd absolutely love to show you our museum in Maretime Bay, and see if you can help me with missing pieces from Ancient Equestria. Other than that, just acclimate yourself to a new Equestria. Take some time to, well, to not be a Princess."
Flurry's eyes widened slightly at those last words, but her smile widened even more.
"When you put it like that... I really like the sound of that."
Sunny smiled warmly at the alicorn as her phone vibrated on the table.
"Say, what is that thing?" Flurry asked.
"Oh this? It's a smartphone."
"Well, I don't really know what a phone is, so whether it's smart or not probably doesn't matter to me," Flurry commented as she watched Sunny scroll through the alert she had just gotten.
Sunny giggled.
"They used to be just here in Zephyr Heights, but since reunification, they're rapidly becoming more popular in Maretime Bay and Bridlewood too. Ponies use them to keep schedules, talk to each other over long distances, keep up with news, learn new things... Just a whole bunch of uses."
Sunny turned the phone towards Flurry, and showed her a page from Ponypedia.
"Amazing... Libraries worth of knowledge at the tip of your hoof... Simply amazing!"
Flurry continued scrolling through Ponypedia pages while Sunny paid the bill for breakfast.
"Truth be told, probably one of the most popular uses is watching livestreamers. Princess Pipp is one of the most popular ones," Sunny explained.
"Livestreamers?" Flurry asked as they got up from their table and headed for the exit.
"Yeah, watching other ponies do things live on camera. For Pipp, it's usually beauty tips, singing, or blog updates. With a little bit of gaming thrown in, too."
There was that perplexed look on Flurry's face again.
"What's a blog?"
great chapter
flurry not understanding technology my beloved <3
How to NOT be a Princess, volume 1. 😄
Reviving from hibernation, even a magically conducted one, is very taxing on the body. It's likely only due to the hardiness of Alicorns that Flurry is even able to do what she is so soon after awakening.
"Well, I know I'd absolutely love to show you our museum in Maretime Bay, and see if you can help me with missing pieces from Ancient Equestria. Other than that, just acclimate yourself to a new Equestria. Take some time to, well, to not be a Princess."
Flurry's eyes widened slightly at those last words, but her smile widened even more.
Well I'm sure flurry heart would love to do that since she always not fun of being all Royal or anything like that
Yeah that's true because in the movie we did not see the two cities have phones or technology like that but now in the TV series tell your tail and make your mark now all the cities have one and it's pretty cool that technology really evolved and it's going to be very interesting to see flurry heart with these Technologies that's going to be fun
There was that perplexed look on Flurry's face again.
"What's a blog?"
This is going to be a very long day for flurry heart lol
This is a pretty interesting one so it looks like Sunny offer flurry heart for breakfast and they even talk about how sunny gather up the crystals to bring back the magic and flurry even explain about Luna and spikes sacrifice and everything which that's pretty sad and flurry heart has no idea what to do anymore but sunny wants to see if she can check out the museum maybe help out with the history which flurry heart would like to do and Something tells me she's going to have a little fun with these Technologies well I guess we'll find out next time
Hey there. Thanks very much for getting the next chapter to this story up. Definitely well worth the wait. Absolutely adored the dialogue between Sunny and Flurry, especially with Flurry confused by smart phones and the mention of certain other adjustments.
Just about all I can think of is stuff I already mentioned before: i.e. Flurry, after getting a bit more of her strength back, helping the assorted ponies (all of them including the Earth ponies) learn how to control their newly restored magic better (and especially helping Sunny learn how to better use her "training wheels alicorn" abilities), meeting some of the surviving descendants of the Crystal Ponies and restarting her Aunt Twilight's friendship school.
But, anyway, certainly looking forward to more of this.
Aww, sweet Flurry, she doesn't know the modern technology
This new chapter is very good, I'm giving you six stars for doing a good job. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Watch out Flurry is going to become a blogger or content creator. She is a alicorn she can do it forever
Really there isn’t that much art? You could use AleximusPrime Flurry art since his Flurry Heart Stories are very good. I think you can find YouTube videos except for that one that made Flurry a bad girl…
Well, hopefully this series can be enjoyable no matter how long. I can’t wait for her to learn about the world and just be free being a citizen now unless she wants to figure out how to save her Crystal Empire from the snow?
I totally forgot you have it were Flurry was the one to make the crystals and not Twilight. Which I wish that was the case.
'and they with us' makes no sense. It should really say just 'with us.'
Until G5's first 44 minute special that is...
But it really was princess twilight from what was revealed in the comics but I'll let this one slide for obvious reasons. 🙄
Quite the out of time feeling when she has to learn about phones, and now she runs the risk in becoming livestreamer herself XD
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Been looking around there is plenty of art if you want to use baby or child Flurry. Sure not crazy amazing like Sunset but there are adorable ones
Throwing this out there, what if you had a combo story where both Sunset shimmer and Flurry Heart meet? Both stories are offshoots why not have the offshoots meet?
That either needs to be, "sip of orange juice," or "bite of pancakes."
"Oh, this? It's a smartphone."
"Every other alicorn had to earn either their wings or horn by accomplishing some great feat, like Twilight or my mom, or accept an impossibly heavy burden from others, like Celestia or Luna. But me? I didn't do anything like that. I took overlooking after the Crystal Empire, and the Heart, once my mom and dad stepped down, but it was usually unbearably dull. I hadn't done anything to prove myself worthy of my wings or horn."
"Worshiped? That... Well, to be perfectly honest, that's probably truer than I'd like it to be, Sunny. I always tried to spend as much time as I could in the city, in the streets, with my citizens, letting them get to know me as personally as they could, so they could see that I was no different than they were. I guess I was always trying to convince myself of that much more than I was trying to convince them. Even back in my day, alicorns were extremely rare, and I was the only natural-born one in all of recorded history."
"No, no, that I am, sadly, completely used to," Flurry Heart answered.
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I understand your thoughts, and yes, that would be more proper, but that is perfectly normal modern slang.
Might be regional, not sure, but definitely common where I am. "Last bit of" can apply to both quantitative and qualitative nouns in colloquial speech.
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Overlooking is incorrect in this case! Flurry Heart "took over" and was "looking after" the crystal empire! Therefore it should be separate!
That's fuckin hilarious!
Also.... Worrisome.
At the very least, I sincerely doubt that Screamingisfun's Flurry Heart is going to be usable for you.