One hour later, Flurry was still underneath the table, safe from the rest of the ponies in the ballroom. She spent her time reading more of the Journal of Friendship, which she had hidden underneath her dress in case she got bored. The chapter she was on now was one written by Rainbow Dash. The lesson to this chapter read as follows:
Dear Diary,
Training with Spitfire and Fleetfoot for the Equestria Games was totally awesome. I mean, they're Wonderbolts and really know their stuff when it comes to flying. And when they asked me to fly with them as part of Team Cloudsdale, I gotta say, I was totally tempted. But there's Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps from Team Ponyville. They may not be the strongest flyers…well, let's face it, they're not the strongest flyers, but they sure get an A for effort! And they represent the home team of Ponyville. And as Pinkie says, "P for Ponyville."
Still, I can't deny it. I LOVE to win...really, really love it! But if I ever gotta choose between winning and being loyal to my friends...I'm always gonna choose my friends. 'Cause as much as I love winning, I love them waaay more!
-Rainbow Dash
“Oh yeah, I think this was another one of those special chapters that involved the ‘keys’ they received and then used to beat Tirek a few months later.” she said enthusiastically as she turned the page to the chapter summary. “Wow, this is exciting! I can’t wait to see what it’s like when they all get-”
Suddenly the tablecloth moved up and Flurry jumped and squealed as she saw her parents looking straight at her.
“Flurry?! How long have you been down here?” Cadance asked her.
“MOM! DAD! Um…only a minute or two! Hehehe…” Flurry said as she hid the journal behind her back.
Shining Armor used his magic to lift the book towards him.
“Flurry, did you sneak off to get this while the ball was going?” he asked her sternly.
“No, I had it hidden in my dress the whole…er, I mean…” she said as she stumbled with her talking.
“Flurry, dear, there’s a ceremony happening. Ponies everywhere want to talk to you. It’s rude to just hide away from all of them like this just to read a book.” Cadance said.
“But Mom, I’m really not enjoying myself! Seriously, I don’t feel good.” Flurry said, angrily, trying not to let her voice be heard by others around them.
Shining Armor put his hoof on her forehead for a few moments.
“No temperature. You’re not coughing or sneezing. Sounds like you’re just making excuses, young filly.” he said
“Dad, that’s not what I meant. I just can’t stand this ball! Everypony’s been treating me differently. You should have heard Crystal, Lavish, and Prism earlier.”
“Don’t worry about those three. We need to be ready. Apparently Principal Polished Hooves is getting ready to give you some award or a special offer to the Crystal Empire Magic Academy.” Cadance added.
“I know, that’s why I was under here the whole time! Starswirl said he’ll probably-”
They were interrupted by the sound of someone tapping a glass with silverware. The murmuring in the room stopped and everyone looked toward a nearby stage with a podium set up.
“Attention, everypony!” called Principal Polished Hooves as he set the glass and spoon on a plate that a nearby servant was holding. “We are about to begin our special announcements.”
“That’s for you, Flurry!” Cadance whispered to her daughter.
“UGH! I can’t do this!” Flurry moaned.
“Flurry, you’re going to be alright.” Shining said, putting his arm around her as she nervously tapped her hooves on the ground.
“First of all, since this ball is put on by the royal family every year, I thought it would only be fitting if we gave a very special honor to the princess herself: Flurry Heart!”
Everypony in the room clapped and all eyes immediately turned to Flurry once again. Her heart began to pound faster than ever before and sweat dropped from her head. She looked in the crowd and saw Starswirl who looked like he was trying to tell her that he couldn’t stop Polished Hooves from doing this. Flurry stood motionless for a moment. She took a deep breath and then exhaled and tried to calm herself down. There was no way of getting out of this so she figured she might as well go with it and try her hardest to not mess anything up.
“That’s your cue, sweetheart! Go on!” Cadance said as she nudged her daughter forward a little.
Flurry took a gulp and walked forward. Her heart was still pounding fast, but she did her best to suppress her emotions and just ignore everyone around her. She walked forward with the ponies stepping out of the way to make a path for her. By the time she had gotten to the stage, she felt a little better, but she was still very nervous.
“Thank you, Princess! We are honored to have you here tonight.” Polished Hooves said into the microphone at the podium. “Now, tell us: how goes your schooling in the Crystal Empire?”
He used his unicorn magic to hover the microphone over to her while he used a backup. She started talking into the microphone, but it caused the speakers to make a brief loud noise. The audience laughed a little and Flurry did the same to humor them. She then cleared her throat and tried again.
“Hello everypony. I’m pleased to be here. Now, um…my schooling, you say? Well I’m definitely pleased with it. My teachers say I’m one of their best students and I’ve learned some of the most powerful magic spells from Starswirl the Bearded…”
The audience took a quick moment to clap for Starswirl as they all turned to him. He looked around and bowed his head in respect. They then stopped and turned back to Flurry.
“Yes, he’s the best magic teacher I’ve ever had. I’m very thankful for my schooling, sir. I couldn’t ask for a finer education.”
“Well then, Princess, how would you feel if I were to tell you that there is a finer education out there for you?”
Flurry knew right away what was about to happen. He was going to give her a full-ride scholarship to the magic academy. She wasn’t sure what to think of this.
“Uh, there is?” she replied.
“Indeed. I have spoken to the board, and we have decided to offer you a scholarship to the Crystal Empire Magic Academy!”
The audience applauded loudly and some of the ponies started cheering for her already.
“Wait, what?” Flurry said, surprised.
“That’s right, Princess! You have excelled faster than any student we’ve seen before, your grades are straight A’s, and Starswirl has given nothing but the highest possible praise for your efforts. We’ve been talking about it for a while now and we think it’s time you move on to greater things in CEMA. A princess such as yourself deserves nothing less.”
“Even though I’m only ten years old?”
“Age means nothing to us. We have accepted ponies as young as you before, just like Celestia accepted our grand leader, Princess Twilight Sparkle, into the School for Gifted Unicorns at about the same age. We would be honored to have you there, Princess. What say you?”
Flurry stood there, confused and bewildered at everything that she just heard in the past minute. She wasn’t sure what to say in response to this. She looked at her parents in the audience. They both had big smiles on their faces and were nodding their heads up and down. Flurry then remembered the friendship lesson she had just read in the Journal and thought that maybe she was going through a similar moment. Rainbow Dash chose to stay with her friends and represent them instead of the Wonderbolts; perhaps Flurry was meant to do the same with this offer to the Academy, only she wasn’t choosing friends over it and she didn’t want this scholarship to begin with. She wondered if maybe she had been living that life all along: being forced to learn too much and not get out enough to make friends that were as adventurous as her and longing for a simple lifestyle. Ironically, her aunt Twilight started off as a regular unicorn that didn’t want to make friends and loved her studies more than anything. If Twilight had accepted such an offer, she never would have found her friends and they never would have used the Elements of Harmony to defeat many villains. Flurry knew this scholarship wasn’t for her, but it wasn’t as if there was much for her to look forward to anyway. Turning down this offer to the Academy certainly wasn’t helping to better the situation, but accepting it would only make things worse.
“Uh…sir, I don’t think I’m sure I can make a decision at this time…”
“Oh I understand, Princess. This is a big step for you. Though it would be very helpful if you could decide soon since classes will be starting in two weeks.”
“Wait…two weeks?!”
“That’s correct. CEMA does summer schooling starting this year, but I’m sure somepony of your upbringing is fine with such a change and will tackle the responsibility rather well.”
“Um…not really, sir. I mean I just finished my school year and was looking forward to three months of free time just like practically everypony else has.”
“Oh, hahaha, of course you do.” Polished Hooves said as he laughed a little while the audience laughed with him. He then stopped and walked over to Flurry. “Listen Princess, everypony wants a good holiday to relax at times, but there is nothing more fine than a serious education to prepare oneself for the world ahead, especially one who is going to become the leader of her own country one day…”
“Well yeah, but-”
“…and your parents had a bit of tough schooling as well, but they went right through it. You will be amongst some of our finest students in the academy.”
“But sir, I’ve taken classes with other great students too. Not that I don’t want to be around the CEMA students, but this just seems like a bit too much for me. I’m not too sure I can say yes to this on such short notice, especially right before summer vacation.”
Polished Hooves looked like he was starting to get scared about being humiliated in front of everyone else. With tension in his voice, he continued trying to coax Flurry into accepting his generous offer.
“Oh, but Princess, did I mention we also have the finest magic-teachers in CEMA? I mean, Starswirl isn’t in there, but we do have some very gifted unicorns from all over Equestria that teach classes and with how great you already are, and the fact that you are an alicorn and can no-doubt learn a bit faster, you will certainly become very powerful! Why, one might even say one day you will rival Twilight Sparkle herself! We would be honored to have an alicorn like that in our school!”
Flurry looked into the audience and saw her parents smiling nervously. Even they didn’t seem too fond of this offer now. Starswirl was off to the side, looking very displeased and shaking his head back and forth as if to tell her that she should not accept this offer under any circumstances. Feeling as though she was just being taken advantage of, her eyebrows moved down and she slowly began to scowl at the smooth-talking unicorn before her.
“Is that was this is really about?” she said, angrily as the ponies in the room began to gasp. “You want me in there to treat like some trophy because I’m an alicorn princess? I’m sorry sir, but I’m starting to feel like this offer isn’t for my own benefit but yours!”
The entire room was in an uproar as they began to murmur to one another over Flurry’s outrage. Shining Armor and Cadance rushed forward to get to the stage and calm everyone down.
“Everypony, everypony, please!” Shining frantically called out as he stood between his daughter and the already-scared, snobbish principal. “Look, my daughter has had a rough night and I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Principal, maybe now isn’t the time for Flurry to join the CEMA just yet.”
“That’s right, maybe she should wait till next year instead. I’m sure she might be ready by then.” Cadance said with her wing around Flurry, but Flurry had already had enough.
“No, Mom. This school isn’t for me. The answer is no.”
The entire audience gasped loudly and Polished Hooves buried his face into the podium.
“I’m sorry everypony, but just because I’m a princess doesn’t mean I have to be in the most prestigious school in the Empire. Honestly I’d rather attend a quaint little schoolhouse in Ponyville. At least they have summer off.”
More ponies gasped even louder at hearing this remark. Some of them already began to fire back.
“Ponyville schoolhouse?! Why, I never!” said one pony.
“Who could possibly turn down such an offer?!” said another.
Shining tried his best to calm them all down.
“What she means to say is it’s a bit too much…Flurry? Where are you going?”
Flurry jumped down from the stage and angrily stomped off past the crowd. Shining and Cadance ran after her, calling her name as Crystal, Lavish, and Prism watched Flurry scamper past them.
“Aw, well isn’t that just sad!” Prism said, sarcastically.
“Poor poor princess! Looks like she’s not ready. Hopefully she gets over it someday and learns to pony up.” Crystal said while acting dramatic and putting her hooves to her cheeks.
“Oh please, Crystal!” Lavish replied. “With an attitude like that, I don’t even think she’ll ever be ready to lead the Crystal Empire. Hehehe!”
The three of them snickered brutishly as Flurry used her magic to force open the doors and run out of the ballroom. She left them open for her parents to follow her out. Shining and Cadance made their way through the entrance and closed the doors behind them. Flurry stopped running and just stood there, waiting for her parents to scold her.
“FLURRY!” Cadance called. “Flurry, please! What’s gotten into you?!”
“I knew I shouldn’t have gone to this ball tonight.” Flurry responded, still sounding irritated.
“Look, we know Principal Polished Hooves didn’t make such a great impression, but did you really have to take it that way?” Shining asked her.
“Well what would you have had me do instead, Dad? Lie and tell him I was okay with it?”
“Flurry, we get that you don’t want to go to the Academy, it’s understandable, but you could have handled that better.” Cadance added.
“Handled it better?! Look, I know you guys are king and queen, and you’re my parents so I’ll do what you say, but I’m not just going to do everything these crazy aristocrats out there expect me to do! I don’t want to go to that school and I don’t want to be around all these snobby, rich ponies who just suck up to me all the time!”
“Flurry, please stop it! This isn’t becoming of a princess!” Shining barked.
“Well…WELL MAYBE I DON’T WANT TO BE A PRINCESS!!!”
Flurry used her magic to remove her tiara and threw it to the floor. The tiara clanged and rolled over in front of Shining and Cadance. The king and queen didn’t know how to react. They were both horrified and confused and weren’t sure they could be angry with their daughter anymore despite her outrage. She had every right to be mad. Flurry stood there, angry and breathing heavily until her breath slowed down and her face started to look sad as she realized what she just did. Her lip began to quiver and she rushed off to a nearby stairwell that led to her bedroom, crying as she ran.
“Flurry!” Cadance shouted.
Starswirl came in beside them and tried to block them from going after her.
“No. Let her be.” he said.
He watched as they stood and hung their heads in grief. At the top of the stairs, Flurry disappeared behind a door, still weeping. Starswirl closed his eyes and could only think of how Flurry was not only right to turn down the scholarship, but also needed to get away from this life. There was also another reason why Flurry needed to make friends. It was something he had had a deep discussion with Princess Twilight about. He needed to let the king and queen know this and they needed to know now.
“Highnesses, I think it’s time we discussed your daughter’s future.” he said.
“Do you mean…” Shining began to say.
“Yes, Shining Armor. Your sister was right. It’s time.”