//------------------------------//
// A Walk in the Park 
// Story: Strange and Stranger 
// by False Door 
//------------------------------//

Leaves rustled softly in the trees casting dappled sunshine on the sandy little path which cut through the park. Birds twittered in the sky, the sound mingling with the laughter of foals somewhere on a distant playground. Another happy couple walked by, the ponies totally absorbed in each other and off in their own little world. This was where the magic would happen.
Princess Flurry Heart sat slumped alone on a park bench. She wore dark sunglasses and a purple hoodie with the hood pulled over her head but permitting her horn to protrude out. A small group of happy squirrels scampered and chittered about her as she casually tossed them shelled walnuts from a bag she'd bought at the store. Supplies were running low which made her nervous. The whole point of the walnuts was to attract squirrels which were to attract attention from ponies and also give her a pretext to talk to them and maybe, if she was lucky, one would be a hot, eligible stallion.
Her schemes in such matters were rarely direct, often banking on a stochastic element that made things half natural and half contrived. Though when she thought about it nothing really ever felt natural.
A new red squirrel with a nicked ear and a bald patch on its tail bounded over animatedly and sat front and center before her, begging expectantly like a dog.
Flurry fluffed the paper bag in her hooves as she looked inside but only found dust from walnut skin. “Oh, sorry, little guy,” she sighed. “Looks like I'm all out. Maybe next time.”
The squirrel looked around at the host of other squirrels happily munching their bounty of free nuts, many of which had enjoyed five or six already. He stared back at her and scowled intensely.
“What's with the attitude?” she scoffed. “Look. Empty.” She inverted the bag, producing only crumbs. “It’s not my fault. You show up last, what do you expect?”
The unimpressed squirrel narrowed his eyes. He slunk slowly away, casting a vindictive glare over his shoulder all the way to a thick hedge where he vanished from sight.
Flurry furrowed her brow in lingering indignation. “What the hell?” she grumbled under her breath. “Punk…” She shook off the strangely dirty look and turned her attention to the sadly empty spot next to her. Now what? This was all a wash.
The bench was big enough that it, in theory, didn't feel that weird to sit on with a stranger. She'd been waiting for a while now, giving plenty of room, but no one had stopped to sit yet. She'd seen ponies at this bench a lot of times in the past and there were plenty of strangers out today enjoying the nice weather. She thought it would make a simple and easy socializing tool for her.
Flurry sighed in defeat and crumpled her bag into a ball with her magic, tossing it in the nearby trash can. Why was the spot suddenly so vacant now that she was hanging out at it? Maybe she looked weird or something, she thought.
She felt slightly more comfortable around other ponies while incognito but at the same time her appearance said neither approachable nor sexy and looking. Come to think of it, wasn't feeding squirrels something old mares did? How was she supposed to leverage her natural looks without being identified as a princess? Or conversely, how was she supposed to be comfortable socializing in her own skin?
A blue, crystal pony stallion came by, a jogger. The squirrels scattered as he came in hot but coasted to an idle. He walked in circles in her peripheral vision as he cooled down, catching his breath, a faint sheen of sweat on his brow. Flurry's eyebrows raised in intrigue as she surreptitiously took in his physique. He had a build a little on the burly side, not really a runner's body but she didn't care one way or another. She liked anything.
She almost gasped when he plopped down on the bench next to her. Immediately a lump formed in her throat as she began fumbling through a mental checklist of things she should probably try and other things she should probably refrain from doing based on many past negative experiences.
Focus on things you have in common, was her takeaway game plan.
“Hi,” grinned Flurry.
The stallion turned to her as if uncertain she was addressing him but he smiled back. “Oh, uh, hi.”
“So, you like parks too?”
“Yeah.” He agreed.
“And sitting, I see. I also like to sit.”
“Yep...”
“You might say we're kindred spirits in that way.”
He nodded hesitantly and scooted a quarter inch closer to the hoof rest at his end of the bench.
Her eyes went down to the cutie mark on his flank which was a masonry trowel. Flurry didn't know what that was or what it was for but she knew it didn't have anything to do with exercise, competitive galloping, jogging or anything like that.
“It's nice that you have a hobby outside of your cutie mark. It's good to not feel constrained by it. I try to keep lots of hobbies myself. Rock collecting, bottle cap collecting, counting grass, counting ants, just counting while you wait. Exploring abandoned buildings. Making decorative bird nests out of hair. Have you ever walked straight ahead with your eyes closed and you try to go for as long as you can without running into something or opening your eyes? That's actually a hobby I came up with myself. My record is a hundred and twelve steps but it all depends where you do it. Empty hallways make a good control.”
“Uh, no, haven't tried that.” The stallion eyed his watch nervously. “Oh, look at that. I should probably get going. It was nice talking to-”
“Wait, where are you going?” she blurted.
“I- I have to run some errands,” he stammered.
Flurry giggled. “Run… some errands. I see what you did there.”
His face tightened with a desperate kind of apprehension.
“So what are your favorite errands?” That seemed like a natural segue question, she thought. It felt like she was getting better at this.
“I… I don't know,” he shrugged hopelessly.
Flurry frowned as the conversation seemed to be petering out on his end. If she wanted to keep this going she needed to change tactics. It was time to flaunt her natural assets. She straightened up in her seat, brushed back her hood with one hoof to let her luxurious mane unfurl. Then, just as she had practiced in the mirror, turned back to him, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
She smiled tentatively. “What's your-” All of a sudden the previously spurned squirrel returned with a leap, latching onto the side of her face. Flurry let out a scream, leapt from the bench in a panic and tripped flat on the ground where she flailed her legs, rolling about in terror. The squirrel skittered all over her writhing body, looking for places to bite and scratch. Flurry rolled side over side across the hoof path into a bush, trying to shake the animal from her and wailing the whole while.
The alicorn scrambled back to her hooves, frantically swatting herself amongst the shrubbery but quickly realized that the assault was over. Panting, she looked confusedly in all directions but couldn't find the squirrel anywhere.
“Phew, glad that's over,” she chuckled with all the good natured mirth she could muster. Then, having lost her hood and glasses, swept her frazzled, leaf riddled mane back with one hoof. Her eyes returned to the bench.
“Anyway, what was I-” Flurry stopped short when she saw that the stallion had also vanished. Her face fell. “Hey, where did you-” She looked down the trail to see a cloud of dust wafting away into the distance.
She stamped her hoof in frustration. “Ugh, that was completely your fault,” she railed at the nearest tree, totally clueless as to where the squirrel had actually gone. “I had everything under control and then you swooped in and ruined my conversation! I am never bringing nuts to this park again and it's all your fault! You hear me?”
A pair of briskly trotting ponies came by the ranting alicorn, who still stood disheveled in the bushes and shaking her hoof at the tree. They nearly left the path all together to give her a wide enough berth as they passed, making sure to avoid eye contact. - - -







Flurry Heart decided to call it a day after the unprovoked squirrel attack. She went home to lick her wounds both literally and metaphorically, unsure if she could ever return to the park for numerous reasons.
“I didn't even get his name,” she mumbled to herself ruefully. She didn’t emerge from under the sanctuary of her comforter until evening fell. Then the princess showed up for family dinner unusually quiet.
Cadance looked across the table to see her daughter listlessly poking lettuce pieces around on her plate with a floating fork. She never played with her food unless she was thinking about something or not hungry and she was always hungry.
Cadance set down her glass and cleared her throat. “So, how did it go being outside in public today?”
Flurry screwed up her face before absently knocking a cherry tomato off of her salad mound. “Well, it went-” She paused, trying to come up with an encouraging way to describe her experiences but came up empty. “It went,” she sufficed, nodding evasively.
Her parents shared suspicious glances.
“Did you go out dressed like a stalker?” asked Shining dryly.
Flurry looked up from her mess. “That's one opinion,” she shrugged defensively.
“Find any hot guys?” laughed her mother, ever the optimist.
“You make it sound like I'm somepony who just desperately wanders the streets in the middle of the day looking for random stallions to bring home.”
“Aw, so that's a no?”
“Mom, of course I found a hot guy. It was love at first sight. We talked for hours,” she expounded facetiously.
Her mother rubbed her hooves together conspiratorially. “Well, alright then. When's the wedding?”
“Already happened,” she put flippantly.
“You didn't invite us to your wedding?” gasped Cadance.
Flurry knocked down a crouton into a puddle of thousand Island dressing. “I didn't invite anyone. I almost didn't invite myself, what with my penchant for ruining important moments. It’s fine; we can have a big flashy ceremony later but yeah, I'm already legally married. Done deal. We never have to talk about it again. Just slip the throne under my door on your way out.”
“What's his name?” asked her dad, forgetting to completely swallow his drink first.
“Um… Fire… something… Yeah. Fireface, I’m pretty sure.”
“He sounds cool. We're really happy for you.”
“Thanks,” she replied flatly, finally running out of sarcasm steam. “But in all seriousness, it's going to take me a while to emotionally recover enough to go back outside alone.”
Cadance’s face softened. “Oh honey, if you're really serious about looking, you should try a different venue, maybe something designed for finding a special somepony. You should try one of those singles excursions where you go to the mountains or an island resort and have an adventure with strangers. It makes it easier to interact.”
“That sounds scary,” muttered Flurry, finally lifting a forkful of salad to her mouth.
“Everything sounds scary,” sighed her mother frustratedly.
They'd been having this discussion for over ten years now. Since the dawn of her adulthood, nothing had changed. She'd never once had a coltfriend, never even kissed anyone. The closest she'd gotten was having a date for senior prom. Throughout her adolescent years she'd indulged in the excuse that boys were just intimidated by her dad but now that she was a grown ass mare and he was mellowing in his fifties, it seemed it was past time to have a personal reckoning. Maybe she was just weird and getting weirder every year.
Flurry put her food on hiatus again. “You probably should have paid homage to the time honored tradition of producing an heir and a spare. We all know which one I would have been. There's still time to remedy that, I guess. Starting now though… you'll have to wait quite a while for a return on that investment.”
“Yeah, I'd be in my golden years by the time we could finally leave the castle and see the world,” added Shining. “My heart might not be able to take zip lining or parasailing.”
“I think the cynicism at this table has officially reached critical mass,” muttered Cadance. “I don’t want you to lose hope. You’re a lovely young filly-”
“Mom, I’m thirty,” she shot back.
Cadance waggled her eyebrows. “But you’re an alicorn.” 
“But dad isn’t.”
“Hey now, what are you implying?” he grunted.
“I am serious though,” continued Flurry. “Because this is really hard for me and I'm starting to doubt I'll be able to inherit the empire because of it. But, now that I'm thinking about it, I guess love isn't really necessary for marriage. I'm sure there's someone out there interested in a completely political marriage even if it's with me. Then you could at least pass the torch and go have fun. Maybe things will even iron out between us after he's trapped with me for several years, like… an acquired taste.”
Cadance recoiled internally at the thought of her daughter resigning herself to a loveless union just to tick the last box on the coronation shopping list. Not only did it sound like an awful life but it felt like a personal failure of the Princess of Love.
“Oh, you don't want to do that,” she argued in disgust.
Flurry threw up her hooves. “Well I don't know what I'm supposed to do then. I can't even get guards to talk to me for very long. I thought I was making progress with Bowstring for a while but it feels like our relationship has stagnated now because we can’t seem to get any further than listing our favorite smells.”
The forced proximity of the castle guards made them easy practice dummies for Flurry's romantic misadventures. She was like a blind fox in a henhouse.
“Bowstring?” laughed her mother dismissively. “Well, no wonder. Bowstring is gay; he wouldn't be interested in mares like that. He's just too awkwardly polite to say anything and embarrass you.”
Shining turned to her in confusion. “Bowstring’s not ga-”
Cadance swiftly kicked him beneath the table and shot him a disapproving look.
“Oh… that Bowstring,” he corrected woodenly. “Yeah, gayer than springtime, that one.”
Flurry's eyes widened in revelation. “It all makes so much sense now,” she gasped. “He didn't even seem to care when I revealed how granola bars are always C2 in vending machines.”
Her mother had no idea what to make of that comment but at least she seemed to feel better about that particular deadend. “You’re going to find someone who loves and appreciates you for you. I truly believe that.”
Flurry Heart said nothing but her expression quickly darkened again as she seemed to slide right back into her troubles. - - -







That night, Flurry laid awake in bed, her social ineptitude cycling through her brain like a leaf caught in a murky eddy. She made jokes with her family about her relationship issues all the time as a way of coping with her repeated failures but despite that, it still really hurt inside.
She wished a great many things. She wished she could have a normal conversation with everyday ponies as if she were an everyday pony herself. She wished to find someone on her own terms the way her parents had found each other. She wished she could take the throne too for that matter but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do anything. All of those problems were tied together in a knot and it made the whole situation feel infinitely heavier.