As Flurry stood outside of her sisters room, she heard her sweet mothers voice, singing the old lullaby her mother used to sign to her when she was a child. It had been a week since they had returned to the Empire, and Flurry could not stop thinking about her small talk with Caspian. She had trouble sleeping at night and attending her royal duties at day. It had bothered her so much to the point she had to confront her parents about it. She waited for her mother to finish laying her sister to sleep, and she got more and more nervous about it. What would her mother say? Was it true about the party, meant for her and Caspian?

“Flurry darling, what are you doing out here?”
Flurry snapped back to reality and turned to look at her mother. Her mother just stared at her with a grin and a confused look.
“Um, ah mother, I just, I was just witing for you. I have to talk to you about s-something.” Flurry stumbled with her own words, and she got more nervous about it as her mothers face chnage into a concerned expression.
“Flurry dear, is everything alright?”
“Well, I, Caspian and I talked to each other during the party, and he told me something that you would know about.”
Cadence, looked surprised and….scared?
“Flurry dear, there is something you need to know, and you have to undersatand that, you have to accept it the way things are going to be.”
Flurry’s heart started to pound so fast in her chest and so loud she could hear it in her ears.
“What do you mean?!”
Cadence sighed, and for the first time in her life, Flurry saw sadness in her mothers eyes.
“Flurry, as you may know, every kingdom has their traditions, and for the Crystal Empire, we have our own. Some change over time, but some stay the same for years. One of them is marriage, and our tradition says, if a male is first born, he may choose a mare from the Crystal Empire, or from other kingdom. But if a mare is first born, she~~”
Cadence stopped in her tracks, and looked like she didn’t want to continue her own sentence, and wished Flurry would understand.
“What, what happens?!” Flurry was beginning to get frustrated and scared, and her answer came out at a yell.

“What is going on? Flurry sweatheart low down your voice, your sister is sleeping.”
Both Cadence and Flurry turned to face Shining Armor as he asked, but quickly Cadence turned to face the floor.
“Is there something wrong?” Shining Armor asked again with concern in his voice as he turned to his wife and daughter.
“Father do you know about the party too?”
Shining also looked surprised at the question.
“Flurry, we didn’t want you to find out about it so soon, we would’ve talked about it to you next week.”
“Find about what, what is going on next week?!”
“Flurry keep your voice down, next week we have a dinner with the Duke of Canterlot, his wife and his son. Flurry, the Duke’s son, Caspian, proposed to unite the two kingdoms in a traditional way.”
Shining Armor paused to take a breath and continued before Flurry could say anything.
“Flurry, Caspian has asked for your hoof in marriage, and when he asked for our blessings, and your mother and I agreed to his proposal.”
“What? and you didn’t ask what I thought about it?!”
“Flurry understand that our traditions have to keep on going, and you as a princess has to follow them. You have to sacrifice yourself for this, you will understand~~”
“No I will never understand why. Why do I have to marry someone I hate? You and mom didn’t follow this path, you two chose each other for love. Mother, you are the Empress of Love, you can sense and understand that I don’t feel anything for him-”
“It doesn’t matter what you feel for Caspian, you have no choice in this Flurry!”
“Why can’t I have one?!” Flurry shone her magic through her horn and flapped her wings open in anger , as did her father in a threatening way.
“Because you don’t and you never will have a say in this or in anything else!”

Flurry stopped, and just stared at her father is disbelief and bretrayal. His father, the one that always scared away any colt who would talk to her, had gone mad. She felt a lump in her throat, and a sudden urge to cry. But only the tears came flooding through. Flurry took slow steps back, turned her back to her parents and ran. She heard her name being called, but she could only hear a muffled sound. The clopping of her hooves sounded through the empty halls of the castle. She entered her room and slammed her door shut, her breath sharp and fast, and as she stood there she started to sob. She wanted to leave, she didn’t know where, but she wanted to leave, now. Looking at the window, she grabbed her blue cloak, and just like that she let her self fall down before extending her wings and flying up in the sky.

As the distance between her and the castle grew, tears streamed off of her eyes and her sobs grew louder.

~