Mystery Mare

"Princess Flurry, would you like me to change these roses?"

"No."

"But, Your Highness, you've been staring at them for—"

"No, Arrow Whizz." Rotating, Flurry turned a glare on her lady-in-waiting. The yellow pony bit down on her lower lip, blue mane mussed up, but the look the princess must have given her shut her up. "I'm fine, really."

"O-oh. Okay." Shyly, Arrow Whizz reversed her light blue eyes to her hooves. "But if you need anything..."

"I'll make sure to summon you." Boredly, Flurry plucked at a feather in her herculean wing, wondering why Father had nitpicked such a doormat to entertain her. Whizz was... alright, albeit bland.

In fact, everything was bland these past days. Flurry couldn't help a wince from escaping her jaws every time she recalled the exchange between her and her father. "You're crown princess," the king had growled, his eyes narrowed in daggers just for Flurry Heart. "I expect you to handle your part well."

"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot my entity's just being a princess." Flurry mock-pouted. "Tell a maid to add 'lock the window' next time around, Dad."

"Something you should be handling?" Father's scowl deepened tenfold. "This is the third time I caught you off palace grounds myself, Flurry Heart, and it's not a good family image—"

"Oh, right! Family image. Silly me. Well, thank the sun and the moon Sunburst veiled my wings there, eh?" The princess whirled on her hoof, about to depart. She'd had these types of lectures a little too many times already.

Hornglowing the knob into submission, Flurry decided she'd swing by her mentor's study while she was at it. It would probably shut the rowdy king up, anyway. With one last distasteful glance over her shoulder, she strode her way out—with a bang? "Ouch!"

Caressing her skull with a hoof, she peeked open a previously screwed-shut eye to see that her aura was still enfolding the doorknob, sky-blue and enticing...

Wait. Her aura was sun-golden.

"Dad, open the star-cursed door," she snapped to the snobby stallion, feeling her patience give way to annoyance. Silence followed, yielding Flurry no choice but to look her father in the eye.

Yet as she was craning her neck, another blue-pigmented beam sliced through the air in the form of lightning, gliding locks of her mane up with its impact as it dashed precisely past her ear.

Knowing what was about to come, Flurry unfurled gigantic wings, chancing a grating laugh before bolting into the air and hovering right underneath the ceiling. A mocking smirk adorned her features when her gaze met Shining Armor's once more. "A little too mad there, aren't ya?" She taunted, fluttering just out of reach when her father summoned hurtful magic her way.

"Over here!" Crack! Flurry scrutinized a loose piece of crystal, now two bits as it fell to the light-deprived ground, with enlarged amusement. "Bad luck! Over here!" Snkkk!

It went on like this for a while, father and daughter battling in their own bubble. Flurry would dodge, throw in a comment, and urge the furious king to circulate her with lethal shots. But none of them hit.

None until now.

Flurry had been outstretching her front hooves, churning them in the air as her limbs propelled her on a swim-motion, when a strike hit its target—something acutely unexpected. Everything else happened too fast: her eyes bulged with surprise. She attempted fluttering her wings to no avail. Her feathers ensconced her as she went crashing to the ground, the whole of her body twirling in her haste to slow down the fall, yet a deafening thump! accentuated her failure in doing so.

Pain crippled her to the spot, disabling her ability to do anything more than pull herself up to a slouched sit. A faint pattering of hoofsteps pronounced Father's arrival, who all but had his hoof jabbed deep into her chest the next heartbeat. "You're going to obey me, got it?"

The last of his stinging words echoed in Flurry's head as she cringed and shook her head, snapping herself out of the vivid flashback and overlooking her bedroom: stately, plentiful, and boring. And a couple of guards must be flanking it, too. Better than thinking about that crazy old stallion.

Rolling out of the bed, ensuring that Arrow Whizz had departed as requested, she clipted over to the bedroom doors and cracked one open. The coast looked safe upon first glance, water-clear crystal shimmering in the disarray of the light leak, but it didn't take long for a gray guard to materialize—followed by his identical teammate. "Your Highness," he rumbled, dipping his head before straightening. As usual, both possessed yellow eyes similar to that of a preying eagle's.

"Hey, there." Flurry went for casualty. These two would be her sole company for a while yet to come. "How's your day going, good sirs?"

She'd already managed to ruffle the feathers of the second one, who seemed to employ interest in anything but the princess before him, though she had to give the first one credit: he met her head-on. Perhaps it was going to be harder to sneak out now.

But she always liked a challenge.

"Decently, Your Highness."

"Anything new?"

"Nothing I'm aware of, Your Highness."

"Well..." Flurry shifted do that one of her feather brushed a guardpony's side, feigning sadness with her wide, cerulean eyes, pouting lips, and flushed cheeks. "I'm feeling rather lonely, Mister..."

"Shard Shooter," the second one quipped, nervousness riling up his irises, though the first remained adamant on staring ahead aimlessly. That was easy.

Paying little attention to the latter, Flurry bit back a smirk as she gave Shard Shooter a once-over. "My, my! What a lovely name you have. Are you a particularly adequate shooter?"

To her amusement, Shooter nodded. "Adequacy and bravery are the key to a successful guardpony!"

"Well, I'm just a princess. All I need to do is look pretty." Suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

"You already have both of those— I mean, you don't just have any of those—" Shard Shooter trailed off, his scrunched snout speaking volumes of his confusion and ever-expanding embarrassment.

Flurry almost felt bad for the awkward position she placed him in—almost. "That's okay," she reassured him smugly. "I know that I'm pretty great." She showcased her gradient wings and flipped her mane, the pride inside of her manifested firmly. Yes, she was the princess of the only pony kingdom to exist, heir to the throne, and overall just the best. She was no individual for being grounded.

Shard Shooter eyed her admiringly, marking a job well done. "Well," she pushed, hooves prickling to weasel her way out, "princesses need food, too. Mind if I go to the kitchen?"

Shard Shooter's expression creased with uneasiness, but Flurry figured he wasn't going to do much when it came to stopping the enchanting princess. With a good-natured salute, she veered towards the end of the hallway—

"Halt!"