Darkness shrouded the princess’s room, with even the melting candles doing little to bring relief.
However, if one were to peer in, they would see something very clearly: a red eye staring through the shadows. It was an eye that emanated magic and, more than that, unfiltered evil.
At least, that’s what Princess Flurry Heart liked to think when she wore her single red contact lens.
As a young teenager, Flurry found herself concerned with things far more important than silly subjects like math and history. Namely, the subjugation of the forces of evil under her command! And with this ritual she learned, that would soon be in her grasp.
The air turned cold. Flurry’s eyes lit up as the candles sparked and sputtered. Yes, yes, it was happening! The demon was here!
Quickly, she laid out long narrow strips of magical white cloth. She needed to act fast. Crossing her eyes and following the pattern of black dots that appeared in her vision, she tracked the path of the invisible demon. There!
With a wave of her horn, the cloth launched up into a spider web pattern. She could feel it. Moving her hoof as though pulling at a string, the web collapsed around a single point. She caught it! Now she needed to contain it.
Holding her reference manga up to the candlelight, she copied the hoof signs listed. Finally, she slammed her hooves together and the cloth blasted toward her right hoof, wrapping around it haphazardly.
The candles returned to normal. The sealing jutsu was complete.
Panting, Flurry looked at her hoof. She did it! Right there, sealed inside her leg, was a high-ranked demon. She would need to keep it under control, and surely there would be a risk of awakening a superpowered evil side, but this would grant her great power.
Power enough to—
“Flurry! Time for breakfast!”
The young princess winced. Her mom just had to interrupt her in her moment of triumph.
That said, if she waited too long, the pancakes would cool down, and she preferred them piping hot.
Flurry tightened her leg wrap and yelled down, “Coming!”
Opening the door flooded the room with light, making the young princess hiss. Regardless, she powered through and trotted down the hall, her curly tail bouncing against her black cloak.
Princess Cadance worked at the stove alone, wearing a peach apron and, as usual, her tiara and regalia. Often it was either her or Flurry’s dad who made breakfast, depending on who was busier that day. They of course had plenty of castle staff who would make breakfast, but they preferred making it personally for her. Apparently this was a habit her mom took from Auntie Celestia.
Looking back with a smile, the older princess slid a pile of seven pancakes onto a plate and then shook a bottle of ketchup, squirting the sauce on top. Flurry’s school friends always gave her odd looks when she told them about her breakfast, but she acquired a taste for it early on and it never left.
Cadance stroked Flurry’s mane. “Good morning, fluffyhead!” Her smile fell when she saw the cloth wrapped around Flurry’s leg. “Baby, did you hurt your leg?”
The young princess walked away and scoffed with a smile, exactly as she prepared. “No, mother, I have attained a power beyond mortal reckoning.”
Cadance sighed in relief and tilted her head. “Oh, so it’s one of your manga things.”
Flurry lifted and gripped her bandaged leg. “It’s no mere manga thing! This is true power! I can feel it surging through me.” She shook her leg as though something inside was seeking to break loose. “This power… it’s enough to surpass the power of a princess!”
Cadance giggled. “Well there’s one way you’ve already surpassed me.” Without giving the young princess time to react, her mother lit her horn and teleported her close, then immediately took her into a tight hug, rubbing her cheek against her own. “You’re so much cuter!”
Flurry flushed red and tried to push her away, to no avail. “Mom, stop! I have the power of darkness, you can’t treat me like this!”
Still the hug continued just long enough for Cadance to make clear she ended it on her terms, not because her daughter struggled. The older mare adjusted Flurry’s mane while the teenager adjusted her black cloak with a pout.
“Oh Flurry, you’re still wearing this?” Cadance said with concern in her voice. “Your wings are so lovely, you shouldn’t keep them hidden.”
“It’s fine!” Flurry snapped. “Leave me alone!” Immediately regretting saying that without even having to look at her mother’s face, she turned away and added, “Sorry, I just mean… It's cooler if I use my magic to fly, and it’s stylish. Auntie Rarity said so herself.”
Cadance sighed. “Alright, but still, I’d prefer if you let your wings free at home at least. Now come eat your breakfast.”
Despite the awkward conversation, Flurry didn’t need to be told twice and leapt straight for the table.
Flurry trotted to school, glancing back and forth to see if anyone noticed her new bandages. Surely the adults would be scandalized and even fearful of her dark bond, but it would be best to rip off the bandage, so to speak.
“Good morning, Princess!” exclaimed a crystal pony mare walking down the street.
Flurry made a point of waving back with her bandaged leg.
“Have a wonderful day, Princess!” said a street vendor.
“OK but—” Flurry responded.
“Top of the morning to you, Princess!” said one of the teachers, pulling at his hat as he passed.
“What do you think of this?!” Flurry yelled louder than she intended.
Without breaking his stride, the teacher said, “Oh you look quite fashionable, Princess,” and was soon too far for the alicorn to reasonably respond.
Still, she tried. “That’s not what I’m going for! It’s transgressive and also not about fashion!”
As she got closer to the school, the street filled with other students. A not insignificant number of them stared at her only to quickly snap their eyes away and blush as soon as she vaguely looked in her direction.
Flurry frowned. Same as every day, they looked at her not as a fearful warlock but a beautiful princess. It’s like they didn’t realize she was carrying a powerful and dangerous demon inside her!
Thankfully, she spotted one of her close friends: Vampire, an earth pony with dyed black hair who was the most goff kid in school. He was sipping from a cup of blood—Flurry smelled it once and it seemed like a fruit smoothie to her, but who was she to say otherwise?—when he nodded at her. “Hey Flurry. Looks like you captured a demon. That’s cool.”
Flurry grinned and rushed forward. “Haha! Yes, I have indeed gained great power!” She shoved her leg into his face, making him back up but he otherwise didn’t change his expression. “By the end of the day, I’ll have complete control over it.”
He nodded. “Nice.”
It clearly would take a bit more work, but soon everyone else in the school would understand her diabolical nature.
Flurry gritted her teeth and grunted, slowly but forcefully waving her hooves in front of her. Her eyes sealed shut, she psychically visualized what was in front of her. The answer… was there!
Her eyes blasted open and she rapidly struck with the chalk held in her magic. The blackboard was peppered with marks as a cloud of dust formed. When it cleared, the chalk had completely disintegrated, and all that left was a large cool-S made from tiny white dots.
The teacher, Ms. Craft, sighed. “Miss Heart, can you please actually look at the question?”
Flurry narrowed her eyes and looked at the triangle drawn onto the blackboard. Glancing at the crystal pony mare, she groaned loudly, erased her masterful image, and then, grabbing a new piece of chalk with her hoof, drew the equation needed to solve for the missing angle and then solved for it.
The teacher’s face immediately brightened. “Exactly right! And such lovely hoofwriting!”
“As expected from our princess!” cried out an excitable young mare.
Flurry rolled her eyes. She had at least one fangirl in every class; thankfully this wasn’t the one that called her hime-sama. That was just weird. She sat back down as the teacher explained her solution to the other students.
Some days she was tempted to give the wrong answer, if only to get a different response for once, but that feeling always got tamped down. What she wanted to do was surpass expectations, not fall short.
Leaning back, she placed her back hooves onto the desk and idly shuffled a deck of tarot cards. She placed down three cards: The Tower, The Tower, and The Tower. Well, this was her deck of The Tower cards, so that was to be expected. The real trick was to not draw The Tower from it.
Half of her mind scribbled down the bits of new information Ms. Craft lectured about, the other half focused on the image of a tower in a lightning storm. She reached inside herself, grasping at the magic the demon granted. Truth be told, she wasn’t quite sure what it would be like. She tried focusing on her leg, but no dice; perhaps that just meant the seal was working. There still had to be some way to access the demon’s power without fully undoing the seal, though.
Then she felt it. Deep in her gut was a cache of magic she had never noticed before. It didn’t feel as alien as a demon’s power should have, but perhaps that simply meant she was already attuned.
Flurry took hold of that power and focused on the cards. Changing the images on them was child’s play, but with the demon’s power, she could rewrite the destinies the cards represented. Now that would be power beyond that of a princess!
However, the magic wasn’t cooperating. Rather than gathering around the cards, she could sense it scattered in different directions. And then it stopped. Flurry tilted her head back and forth. The magic was staying in the same place. It was trying to point out specific locations. Wait, this was demon energy… were these other demons inside the school she needed to fight?!
Flurry leapt to the ground with a grin and knocked her chair into the desk behind her. The entire class broke into yells, including Ms. Craft, but this was more important! Without explaining herself, the princess dashed out of the classroom and skidded to a stop in the hallway.
These magic signals… they were coming from other classrooms. What did it mean?
She ran to another door, her wings fidgeting excitedly under her cloak. Slamming out open, she shouted, “Aha!”
The students and teachers blinked at her in confusion.
Where was the demon? What was she looking for? Horns! Of course!
She spotted some horns! No, Lyzolda’s a yak, that’s normal for her. Same Greater Fortitude the minotaur. And same for Mirror Tide, since she’s a unicorn.
Wait, was Mirror Tide a unicorn before? Hmm…
Before Flurry could investigate the magic signal further, a ruler struck her horn and suddenly it was all gone.
“Flurrabeth Annabelle Heart!” exclaimed Ms. Craft. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
The princess looked in the classroom then back at the teacher, her face red. “I, uh… don’t know.” She clamped her lips tight.
Without further word, she let herself get pushed back into her proper classroom. Probably best not to worry her teacher about the demons, she justified to herself later.
Having set Flurry back at her desk, the teacher walked back to the blackboard. “You’re such a good student, but you really must get this wild behavior under control. It’s unbecoming of a princess.”
Flurry looked down. “Yes, Ms. Craft.”
Without a hitch, the teacher returned to her lecture and Flurry’s classmates seemed to pay no mind to what she did. She was a princess, after all, and the occasional lapse could be forgiven.
Flurry sighed. Whatever she was feeling before was gone now.
After that, the day at Crystal Empire Prep Academy went off without a hitch, much to Flurry’s annoyance. Aside from Vampire, only her other close friends like Wifewolf the scene dragon paid any mind to her new set of bandages. And this was despite her loudly-but-not-too-loudly struggling against the demon inside her during quiet moments in class!
After classes ended, she spent some time talking about manga imported from the human world with her friends. After that, it was time to walk home.
“Hey Flurry! Wait up!”
Flurry turned to meet the squeaky voice of a pink unicorn colt with a yellow and orange patterned mane. She gave a polite smile. “Hey Lester.” One day months ago, Lester spotted her in the street and started following her around, and now he was often there to meet her after school. He was sweet, if awkward and annoying in that way that foals are.
Lester skidded to a stop, wagging his tail. “Woah, Flurry, you were able to seal that demon!”
Well, at least he appreciated her efforts. She laughed sinisterly and lifted her leg, “Indeed, the demon’s blood flows through me now!”
He eagerly brought his face in close. “Woah, I can feel it from here. Were you able to unleash its energy yet?”
Flurry frowned. “Not yet. There has yet to be a worthy opponent. I thought I felt someone earlier, but…” Her eyes widened. Wait, that energy… it was here! Energy that matched what was inside her…
The princess pointed. “Lester!”
He jumped up. “Gah! What?!”
“I can feel it!” She pressed her teeth together and scrunched her eyebrows in a way that she was sure made her look more serious. “There’s another demonic presence… inside you!”
“Me?! But I haven’t done any demon sealing things!”
Flurry considered this. “Perhaps there are free-roaming demons that possess creatures without them knowing.” Her eyes shined. “And I have to fight them! Yes! It’s perfect!” She pumped her front leg multiple times, shouting, “Nice!” each time.
Lester rubbed his legs. “Well, I guess I have been feeling weird lately… like there’s some discrepancy between what I feel and what I am.”
Flurry nodded. “Yes, classic demon behavior. Have you killed anyone recently?”
Lester started sweating. “Uh, no, not that I know of. Is that a risk?”
Flurry rubbed her hooves. “Not if I have anything to do about it!” She coated her bandages with magic, but, realizing it would look cooler, she instead bit them and dramatically ripped them apart with one swift motion.
Her exposed leg was covered in temporary tattoos—of alchemic symbols!—and she focused her magic first on dramatically floating the ripped bandages around it, and then on channeling the matching energy she felt inside her. It took several seconds of intense grunting to finally get a good grasp on it, but when she did, her eyes shot open. This was it! She was really going to channel a demon!
Failing to give a moment’s thought to what this would actually do, her horn lit up and she fired a blast of magical energy right at the cowering colt.
The princess’s yellow magic surrounded him in swirls, rising up until it coalesced into a white ovaloid, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Jagged cracks formed down its center until it split, exposing an opaque blob of sunlike quintessence, which subsequently fell onto Lester and splattered on his mane. On impulse, he shook his head, scattering the magic into the air, where it faded away. He sat on his haunches, rubbing his forehead.
Flurry walked closer and tilted her head curiously. “How are you feeling?”
Lester’s amber eyes widened. “Oh my Twilight, I realized why I’ve been feeling so weird!”
“Because of the demon possessing you!”
“Because…” he got up and beamed brightly, “I’m not a colt, I’m a filly!”
Flurry gasped, looking at the temp-tattooed leg then back at the colt filly. “The power of a demon!” She grew a toothy grin. “I did it! Something beyond the power of a princess!” She started to do a little dance that involved shaking her legs wildly, but quickly caught herself. “Oh, but Lester, are you OK with all this, or do you want me to change you back?”
She no longer felt that strange energy inside her young friend, making her mouth twist slightly. Was this even reversible?
Lester waved her leg. “No, I mean, you didn’t physically change me, as far I can tell. It’s just that, looking back now, I’ve been feeling weird about being a colt for a while now. Like before my last haircut I was thinking it’d be nice to keep my mane long and pretty, but I got it cut because that’s what I always did. It wasn’t super bad or anything, just small stuff like that, but I feel a lot more clarity now. I think that’s what your magic did!”
Flurry smiled in relief, then a sudden thought made her smack her head. “Wait, did that magic literally crack your egg?”
Lester laughed. “I guess it did, yeah.”
“That’s great, Lester!” She scrunched her brows. “Wait, should I call you Lester?”
“Uh, well, it’s not like I have a name prepared, but I guess you’re right that Lester isn’t exactly a filly name.”
Flurry smirked, “You know, if you’re taking suggestions, then this is a good opportunity to improve your chances of getting into Magic School with my aunt.” Looking around, she put a leg to the side of her head conspiratorially. “Ponies with names like ‘Twilight Sparkle’ and ‘Starlight Glimmer’ tend to do well, and your second name is Dawn, you’re already halfway there. You could go for something sparkly!”
Dawn hummed. “Well, my name is already close to Luster…”
“Then there you go! Luster Dawn!”
The filly gasped. “Luster Dawn! Of course! And wow, I just got a new name from a princess!” She squealed and bounced up and down. “Wow, everything already feels so different! Forget homework—well, don’t forget homework, I should do that first, then I need to figure out what to do next! Do I want a filly voice? I think I do!”
The alicorn was truly happy for her, her eyes following the filly as she jumped, but something bit at the back of her head. What exactly was demonic about all this? Was there a demon possessing her to make her think she was a colt? Is that how it worked?
Luster’s eyes widened and she ceased hopping. “Oh, you know what? The way you, uh, cracked my egg, it’s a lot like what I’ve heard about your mom’s magic. You know, how she can bring out the love that already exists within creatures. But I guess it’s gender stuff with you instead. So maybe this is your—”
Flurry’s face twisted in horror. “My princess power.”
“Yeah!” Luster put her hoof to her mouth. “Oh wait, no!”
It was too late. Flurry fell onto the floor, banging her hooves against it in grief. “Nooo! I was supposed to go beyond the power of a princess! This is just more princess stuff!”
Luster’s mouth hung open, unsure what to do, but suddenly it came to her. “But who heard of a princess of gender stuff, right? That demon of yours let you break the laws of, uh, gender, and, uh, society!”
That sounded haphazard to Luster, but to her relief, it worked like a charm. Flurry sat up, swished back her mane, and swiped her nose with her hoof. “Heh. It’s a dark road, but Hell will soon be my domain.”
Luster laughed lightly.
Flurry trotted past the castle guards and released a breath once she finally reached the royal residence and some semblance of privacy. She inhaled then loudly sighed as she placed her book bag on the floor. She looked down at her leg, once again bandaged up to seal its power. It was one thing to keep up appearances in front of Luster, but she couldn’t stop thinking back on what happened.
She spotted her mother sprawled out on a couch, with her tiara and regalia placed onto a table. There must have been an exhausting meeting, she supposed. “Hi, Flurry!” she exclaimed, lifting her head from the armrest. “How was school? Did everycreature like your new power?”
Flurry groaned and rolled her eyes. Of course that’s what she asked about.
Her eyebrows creased and she sat up. “Darling, what’s wrong?” She patted the cushion next to her. “Come on, tell me what happened.”
Flurry looked around. She considered ignoring her, but that would make her ask about it later. Plus, it was a really jerky thing to do. She was trying to attain the power of shadows, but that didn’t mean she should be rude.
The young princess sat down next to Cadance, who smiled at her.
After a moment to think, Flurry decided to go straight to the point. “Mom, is cracking eggs a princessy power?”
Cadance tilted her head. “What, like in a food fight?”
“No! I mean, like, you know Lester, that dweeby colt? Well I cast a spell on her and now she’s Luster, a dweeby filly.”
The older princess’s eyes widened. “Oh!” She tapped her chin. “Was this a spell to turn a colt into a filly, or did you just bring out something that was always there?”
Flurry fidgeted. “Luster said she already had those thoughts, but I don’t know.”
Cadance sighed. “Oh, that’s fine then. That sounds like a very princessy power, Flurry!”
Flurry threw her front legs up. “That’s exactly the problem! Every single time I do something cool and exciting, it turns out it’s because I’m a princess!”
Cadance’s brows furrowed.
Flurry’s wings rustled under her cloak. “Supreme magical skill? Because I’m an alicorn. Everyone thinking I’m super pretty even though I dress like this? Because I’m a princess. Destroying the Night King and bringing peace to the ice zombies? Because I have an epic destiny and that’s only expected from an alicorn princess. And now all that effort to seal a demon in my leg just awakened a princess power! I hate it!”
“Oh Flurry,” Cadance said, reaching her leg around her daughter’s shoulder. After she didn’t resist, she brought her into a hug. “You’re a wonderful little pony, with or without the expectations others place on you.”
Flurry sighed. “I feel so terrible complaining about this. I know I’m already super unique, being the first naturally born alicorn in over a thousand years and all that, but I just want something special about me that isn’t that. But it’s such a small thing to get upset about.”
Cadance stroked her mane. “It doesn’t matter how small it is, your feelings are your feelings, and they’re worth addressing. You’re already acting quite a bit different from me and your aunt at your age, for what it’s worth. Just keep being yourself and everyone will see how different you are.”
Flurry pressed into her mom, and after a moment said, “There’s one more thing.” She pulled away and touched her belly. “When I cast that spell on Luster, I was pulling at something I felt inside me. What do you think that means?”
Cadance hummed. “Well, when I cast love spells, I pull at the love inside me.”
“So what I have is… gender stuff, then.”
Her mother shrugged. “Could be. This is new territory for me.”
Flurry put her hooves together in front of her snout and thought. “Mom… could you call me a stallion instead of a mare?”
Cadance giggled. “Well I wouldn’t have called you a mare yet in any case, but of course, my little stallion.”
Flurry immediately winced. “Actually, never mind.”
“You still want to be a mare, then?”
“It’s like… despite everything I said, I still want to be a princess. I want to look pretty no matter how I dress, I want to be cool like you and the other princesses, I still want everything I have right now. I just want… more than that.”
“Have you considered that you could be nonbinary?”
“Of course, Mom! You know I have nonbinary friends. But that doesn’t sound right either.”
Cadance smiled. “You’ll figure it out, but you have your whole life ahead of you. Plenty of time to try things out and see what works best. You don’t have to fit in any one category, you know. You can pick and choose what works best for you.”
“I guess…” Flurry mumbled.
Pick and choose, huh? Part of her thought that felt freeing, but another part thought that didn’t feel much different from being told to be herself and everything would work out. It was hard to imagine what the options were on her own.
Seeming to sense her thoughts, Cadance added, “And of course, knowing exactly what you can pick and choose comes from interacting with a lot of other creatures and—”
“—making friends,” they said together.
Flurry giggled, but then sensing an opportunity, her eyes widened and she said, “Ji—”
“Jinx!” Cadance said first. When her daughter pouted, she stroked the young mare’s mane. “I can’t let my guard down with a future demon lord in my house,” she added with a wink.
“I almost got you that time,” Flurry said under her breath.
Her mother smiled. “In the meantime, if you still want to do something non-princessy, you can talk to your dad once he gets home.”
Flurry leapt to the floor and, with an excited smile, started wagging her tail. “You mean he’ll finally teach me sword fighting?!”
Cadance’s face broke a bit. “We’ll talk about it.” She gained a sly smile. “In any case, I see those wings of yours wriggling under your cloak. You can keep them covered outside, but you’ll hurt yourself if you don’t free them at home!”
With a quick wave of her horn, Flurry’s cloak flew off and two humongous pink wings blasted out. Each was as long as her whole body from the tip of her horn to her flank, and the resulting eruption knocked over a table and the pottery on it—which was easily caught in the air by Cadance’s magic.
Flurry’s face flushed red and her wing flaps created great gusts of air. “Moooom!”
