Back at the Castle

“I got your message Cadence,” Starlight Glimmer gasped teleporting into the war room of the Crystal Castle. “Have you found anything?”

Cadence, Twilight and Gleaming Shield surrounded a map of the Crystal Empire with forlorn expressions, each shaking their heads.

"We've sent out the entire Crystal Guard, and every scrying spell we know. But we’ve found nothing, it seems that Flurry Heart knows how to cover her tracks and conceal her magical footprint,” Gleaming said with a sigh.

“We’re not giving up,” Cadence assured her looking up from the map, then frowning. “But it’s been hours and we don’t have a single lead.”

“What about the infant Flurry Heart? Any word on her?”

"It seems the one we had before was a changeling in disguise, we have Chrysalis interrogating her but she keeps insisting that Chrysalis was the one who sent her,” Cadence added her voice tinged with frustration. “And she might well have been, Twilight found signs of memory tampering."

"Not just in her but in all of the ponies we’ve recruited since coming to the Crystal Empire, except Gleaming here.”

There was silence, a silence that echoed through the large circular room. You could hear every little noise from the tapping on the wood of the war table to the slightest creaking of the suits of armour around them. Each pony there was at a loss, unable to see what path was forward. A silence that was only broken by a soft pitter-patter of footsteps in the hallway rushing towards the door.

The doors flung open and in entered the timid shy Pegasus holding a young infant alicorn and a large thick book in her arms. The young Flurry Heart seemed oblivious to everything going on around her, her eyes wandered with genuine childlike curiosity. Yet no one paid attention to Fluttershy’s entrance until she spoke up.

“I’ve gotten Flurry Heart!” She shouted, drawing the attention of the four women.

“Fluttershy? But you- how?" Twilight spluttered, eyes darting between Flurry Heart and Fluttershy. "Where have you been?"

"I caught Flurry Heart's leg and was teleported alongside her to her hideout," she explained with a small smile of pride on her face. "And thanks to the element of laughter she wasn't able to be concerned about it."

"So where's Master and Mistress did you rescue them?" Starlight asked, her head peaking around Fluttershy for any sign of them, but the pegasus could only shake her head.

"No I'm really sorry but before I could do anything Flurry Heart disappeared with them. She only let me go because of the Root of Laughter, I rushed here afterwards with her," Fluttershy explained, her eyes somewhat apologetic.

"Damn, it Flurry Heart could have taken our Master anywhere in time and space. We'll never find her," Twilight despaired, running a hand through her mane, which had fizzled significantly as it tended to do when she was stressed.

"But we might not need to," Cadence said pointing to her daughter with a dark glint in her eye, something her daughter gave a soft whimper to, where Fluttershy shielded her with her arms.

“You mean mind control her now?” Twilight asked, calming down significantly, and slowly turning to her sister-in-law with a thoughtful expression.

"Yes, so that way she won't become the threat she is now."

"The last time I tried something like that I ended up creating the same disaster that I was trying to avert, and it all turned out to be over nothing anyway," Twilight said, remembering the incident. Starlight, Gleaming and Cadence looked at her, their heads cocked sideways in confusion. "It's a long story."

"Even if we don't we could cause disaster to the timeline," Starlight added, she seemed uncomfortable with messing with time given her past experiences.

"Um excuse me..."

"They have a point dear."

"But if we do nothing we guarantee that our daughter will ruin all our dreams," Cadence pointed out, "I'd rather chance it rather than guarantee that she wins. It's not as if she'll just disappear if we do nothing."

"Perhaps we should..."

"We could trick out time perhaps, you know make it appear the same somehow. Maybe by altering Flurry Heart's memories with illusion magic or something," Starlight pondered, a hand on her chin and her eyes furrowed in thought.

"So make her think she's free but really a ****... it's possible but we don't know her past which would make it a lot easier to match the events together."

"LISTEN TO ME!" Fluttershy squealed, drawing the attention of the four mares, frozen in shock to hear the quiet Fluttershy scream. "I also found her diary."

She showed them the dusty leather tome she had found whilst exploring the catacombs, she had skimmed through it in a hurry when she found it, but what she had found had upset her greatly. "It's a fairly new diary you see, it's only a few weeks long."

"Does it tell us where she's taking Master and our Mistress?" Twilight demanded, seizing the book out of Fluttershy's hands and skimming through the pages with a **** speed.

"Not that I could see Twilight but I just feel so sorry for her," Fluttershy explained, causing four pairs of eyes to stare daggers at her. “I know she’s trying to destroy our Mistress’s harem but I don’t think she’s really doing this because she believes in free will, at least not really.”

“Then why?”

“Because she’s lonely that’s why! She feels that because of the harem she never had any true friends or any real family, you’ve been so focused on making Master and Mistress happy that you forgot about your own daughter?” Fluttershy cried out, and both Gleaming and Cadence looked at each other awkwardly, guilty expressions stretched across their faces as their gaze shifted to her infant daughter.

Cadence approached Fluttershy and humbly held out her hands, and Fluttershy handed Flurry Heart over to her. She pulled her daughter in closer and rested her head against Flurry Heart's sparkly sapphire hair. The young child cooed happily as her little hands squeezed her mother's cheeks. Another pair of arms wrapped around the two, this time belonging to Gleaming Shield.

"I guess she does have a point, we may have served our Master and Mistress too much that we'll neglect her," Gleaming pointed out to her wife, who only gave a stiff nod of the head.

"We still need to save our Master and Mistress from her."

"Perhaps if she's happy as part of the harem she won’t have any need to rebel against us. Especially if there’s something about the harem that’s great that she won't have without it,” Fluttershy suggested her voice bright and cheerful. Then her eyes turned half-lidded and seductive, “like perhaps she’s friends with some of Spike’s children. Maybe children who haven't been born yet could be really good friends."

"Or a sister..." Cadence mussed with a whisper.

"That's interesting and all, but if that's going to work, why would Flurry Heart be here right now against us?" Starlight asked with a sigh.

"Maybe we could ask her?" Fluttershy asked naively.

Meanwhile, Spike's eyes were closed tightly shut, travelling through time was a familiar experience but in no way was it a comfortable one for the dragon. An experience akin to speeding along a rollercoaster without the harness. From how Rarity squeezed his hand so tightly, he could tell she was not enjoying the experience any more than he did.

But then it stopped, the whiplash like that of a car crash, yet Spike found himself **** to open his eyes. The smell of sea salt wafted through his nostrils, and he could hear the crashing of the waves against the shore. There was a bustling of ponies and cars not unlike Manehatten, though not anywhere nearly as dense.

"Where are we?" Spike asked, forcing his eyes open and being blinded by the bright sun.

"Somewhere where I can find five others to wield the elements to remove the power of your roots. You're several hundred years in the future Spike. Welcome to Maretime Bay."

A/N: Not sure how people are going to respond to me putting G5 content here, but I'm mostly including the setting as an excuse to put G5 as an option on the straw poll (though I doubt people will vote on it).

Also, I think I made Flurry Heart too sympathetic last chapter, so I'm aiming to make it so she gets a happy ending while still keeping the harem intact. Make it so she ends up happier because of the harem than she would be without it. Thoughts on that would be welcome.

Crowdfunding for Commissions: https://ko-fi.com/darkstar239

Still need an editor, though I doubt there are many that can keep up with my schedule.