//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Good Morning, Sunshine! 
// Story: "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!" 
// by Fluttercheer 
//------------------------------//

	It was morning in Equestria and like every morning, Celestia stood on one of the balconies of Canterlot Castle to raise the sun, so that its golden light could spread over Equestria and bring warmth to her kingdom. It was an important task, the light of the sun she was responsible to bring to the lands gave warmth, it let flowers and trees grow, banished away the cold darkness of the night and woke up ponies with its gentle rays when they shone into their bedrooms. For one filly, however, the sun failed to do this task, as it was always widely awake already when the sun began to rise.
For as long as she could think, Princess Flurry Heart stood up extra early in the morning, to not miss the first rays of the sun when they entered her room and got reflected off of its sparkling crystal walls.
As soon as Flurry Heart had opened her eyes on this morning, a bright smile on her lips greeted the beginning day and with one quick movement, she threw the blanket off, jumped up in her bed and over to the window to her left. Having arrived there, she eagerly placed her forehooves on the windowsill and eyed the Crystal Mountains in the distance.
Beyond her, the façade of the Crystal Castle and the ground were still dark, but that was not something Flurry Heart paid attention to. All her interest was for the mountains in the distance, that looked as dark as the rest of the Empire, but with an orange glow outlining them, now. Her eyes were fixated on them with an excitement one didn't see often in the Crystal Empire. And as the sun finally peeked over the Crystal Mountains and let its light wash over them to bring the day, the eyes of the little princess lit up and grew in size, together with the smile on her lips that still adorned them the whole time, and her fascination for the celestial event broke out in all its intensity.
It was the most beautiful sight Flurry Heart knew. There were many wonders in the world she didn't discover yet in the five years of her life so far, but this one had a special place in her heart already. She would never allow herself to miss it.
While the scenery under Flurry Heart slowly awakened by the light of the sun and ponies sleepily began to leave their houses to enjoy the first warmth of the day, she just stood there and took in the magic of the moment, her eyes following the light that spread out from the mountains to the houses on the ground. As the sun was up completely and the whole empire illuminated, a broad grin flashed over Flurry Heart's face, then she took a deep breath. “Thank You, Auntie Celestia!” she shouted in a volume that rivaled Princess Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice, but was bell-like and cheerful, instead of intimidating. These were the first words Flurry Heart spoke every morning. She was a polite filly and always made sure to thank her godaunt for the gift she brought her every day.
Upon hearing her grateful exclamation, some of the citizens looked up to Flurry and smiles flashed over their own faces as their eyes fell on the happy little princess. Seeing Princess Flurry Heart so jolly was a sight they looked forward to every morning, almost as much as Flurry Heart looked forward to see the sun rising over the mountains. While Flurry Heart had her personal morning ritual with greeting the sun, they had theirs with watching the energetic young alicorn at her window. It warmed their hearts even more than the sun could and gave them one more reason to start the day. If their voices would be a match for Flurry Heart's, they would shout own thank-yous up to the small window in the tower of the Crystal Castle. But since they weren't, they showed Flurry Heart their gratitude with their smiles. Since the newest princess of their kingdom had begun with her morning ritual, their mornings became even brighter than usual and all of them made sure that Flurry Heart knew how grateful they were every single day.
After Flurry Heart had answered the many smiles and waved at the ponies under her like she did every morning, she left the windowsill and swiftly turned around to the door of her room, more than ready to tackle the new day that lied ahead of her. Without a pause in her movement, she raced over to the door and flung it open with her magic. The clopping sound of her small hooves resounded through the crystal corridor outside of her room as she galloped through it with all the youthful energy she could muster. And for Flurry Heart, this was a lot of energy. Her destination was the same as every morning: Her parents' bedroom. And like on every morning, her parents were still asleep when she dashed into the room and jumped onto their bed.
“Mommy, Daddy, it's morning, wake up!” she yelled squeakily at the top of her lungs and jumped up and down on top of them.
Both parents let out a groan upon having been awakened so brutal. “Flurry..... It's still too early. Go back to sleep, ok?” Shining Armor responded to his daughter's energetic outburst, his head half buried in the pillow.
Cadance at his side yawned and rubbed one of her eyes. “Daddy is right, Sweetie, we don't have to get up yet.” She reached out to the little bundle of energy that stood on her body, lifted her up and rested her at her side so that she could face her. Cadance chuckled as she saw the broad smile on the lips of her daughter and the fire that was in her eyes. “You're making this every morning, Flurry.” She shifted her head forward and nuzzled her nose. The little recipient of the gentle gesture closed her eyes and a giggle escaped her. “Wouldn't it be better to sleep for a little longer after you watched the sunrise?” she asked rhetorically. “There's still half an hour until we have to wake.”
“No!” came the quick answer out of her daughter's mouth, followed by a giggle.
Cadance sighed a little, which Flurry noticed as a sign of her mother getting annoyed. A tiny frown appeared on Flurry's face, almost unnoticeable behind all the cheeriness. “But mommy, the sun is already up and the day has begun! That's no time to sleep anymore, I need to eat breakfast and pack my things for magic kindergarden and I need to meet Sunny and–“ Gently, Cadance put a hoof on the mouth of her daughter as she heard another groan from her husband.
“Darling.....” he said.
“It's okay, Shining Armor, I make her some breakfast.” There was a slight annoyance audible in her voice. Unwillingness in her motions, she slowly rose in their bed and removed her part of the blanket that was spread over her.
Flurry Heart jumped up from her lying position and then down on the floor, immediately as she noticed the movement of her mother, and before Cadance could leave the bed, she had already hurried out of the room and back into the corridor of the royal apartments they lived in. “YAAAAAAAAY!” A high-pitched exclamation of joy sounded back to Shining Armor and Cadance.
“Every morning there are a few moments where I almost regret this night.”
Cadance chuckled. “I'm sure you get used to it one day.” She got down on the floor and stretched herself a little, then she bent over the bed and gave her husband a kiss on the cheek. “Just get a little bit more sleep and I take care of our little fluffball.” Then she turned around and left the room, following her rambunctious daughter into the kitchen.
The corridors of the part of the castle they had their royal apartments in were a bit narrower than in the rest of the tall building. When Flurry Heart started this morning routine of hers, which was pretty much right after she had learned to walk, Cadance was always worried she could not turn around the corners soon enough and run into one of the hard crystal walls and hurt herself, but it never happened. Not only was her daughter very quick, it also turned out that she had excellent reflexes. Still, Cadance was careful and so she forebad Flurry to fly in this part of the castle, just to be safe, which was why Flurry Heart always galloped to their bedroom instead of flying to it. A smile flashed over Cadance's face while she was thinking about this.
A few years had passed now since she spoke out this flying ban here and even though Flurry Heart wasn't happy about it at the beginning, she never offended against this rule. She was a very obedient and well-mannered little filly, but also an energetic spirit who enjoyed her life to the fullest. Cadance was proud of what she and her husband had put into the world years ago, rightly so, and she knew that Shining Armor felt the same, even though the boisterous attitude of Flurry Heart was something his nerves didn't take as well as hers.
As Cadance entered the kitchen, her little pride was already sitting on one of the stools at the table, her hooves placed on the surface and a grin appearing on her face as she saw her mother. “Good morning, mommy!” she said, quieter now, but still with all that energy ringing in her voice. It was only now that Flurry Heart thought on wishing her a good morning. Even though she was polite, her hyperactive mind let her forget this sometimes and especially at morning, nothing could tame it.
Cadance approached her daughter and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. “Good Morning, Flurry!”.
A happy giggle sounded from Flurry as her mommy's lips touched her.
Having parted with her again, Cadance proceeded to the kitchen cabinets, opened them with her magic and hovered out two small plates with ornate crystal patterns and some slices of bread. She placed the bread slices on the plates, closed the bag with the bread and put it back into the cabinet, then she lifted out a glass with hazelnut spread instead. After she had opened a drawer and already wanted to lift out one of the crystal knifes in it, the knife she wanted to take was suddenly engulfed by a yellow magical aura and floated out of the drawer unsteadily and towards the glass with the spread. This was one of these moments where it became apparent that her daughter was very obedient, but not completely. Using magic was much more tempting than flying for little Flurry Heart and she could barely resist playing around with her magical abilities.
“Flurry Heart.” The voice of Cadance became admonishing now. The older alicorn grabbed the knife with her own magic, letting the yellow aura of the filly vanish in the process, and lifted it over to the glass with the spread herself, where she let it hover. She turned around and eyed her daughter disapprovingly. “You know that I don't want you to levitate knifes yet,” she reprimanded the young magic user, her voice slightly stern.
An unhappy expression appeared on Flurry's face upon hearing this and she pouted. “But I'm old enough, mommy!” She crossed her tiny arms to underline her indignation.
“Not yet,” Cadance answered her daughter's small rebellious act in the same tone as before. “You need more time before you can handle sharp objects like this safely.”
“But all the unicorns in magic kindergarden already do it.....” A frown was added to Flurry Heart's face. This time it was more noticeable.
“You are not a unicorn, Flurry Heart, and I want that you take more time with it.” The tone in Cadance's voice made clear to the scolded filly that her mother wouldn't tolerate any more backtalk. So she left it at pouting a little more and cocking her head to the side in an outraged manner, while keeping her arms crossed.
Flurry Heart knew that talking back even more now would result in house arrest, or worse, a complete flying ban for weeks! Flurry especially hated the latter, so she better kept quiet when Cadance had that special, stern and slightly strained tone in her voice. Yet at the same time, the stern reactions of her mommy when she tried lifting something sharp with her magic were something the young alicorn never understood. All of her magically gifted classmates were allowed to do much more with their ability by their parents, yet she always got so many things denied and was always reminded to be careful with her magic. And no matter how often she asked why, her parents always refused to give her a real explanation for their, in her opinion, completely exaggerated worries. They had no problems with her flying around as much and as fast as she desired, but when she used magic, it always led to raised eyebrows by them. It was a complete mystery to Flurry Heart, a mystery she just couldn't solve, no matter how hard she pondered about it.
Suddenly, she was thrown out of her thoughts by a plate with two slices of bread that had a thick layer of hazelnut spread on them being put down in front of her. Confused she looked up to see her mommy taking seat on a stool at the edge of the kitchen table to her left. She noticed Cadance reaching out to her with one hoof and then felt it ruffling through her mane.
“Now stop being sulky,” Cadance addressed her with a softer tone now. “I don't think you want that the bread becomes hard while you are busy with being offended.” She smirked slightly.
That was something Flurry Heart really didn't want. Her pout dissipated and she placed her hooves back on the table. She was hungry, so she rather ate something now than continue to ponder over the peculiar behavior of her parents. She activated her horn and once the nearest of the two breads in front of her was engulfed by her aura, she lifted it up and bit into it hungrily. Getting some breakfast now eased the little filly and soon, she allowed herself to have a little smile on her lips again and was chewing happily on her meal.
Cadance watched her with a happy smile adorning her own face as well. It was always like this. The little, joyful filly just couldn't stay mad for long. She took a bite from her own bread as she noticed that Flurry's eyes suddenly widened.
The filly gulped down the pieces in her mouth hastily, then she folded out her wings and flew over the table in the direction of the kitchen door. “Daddy!” she happily expressed and came to a halt directly in front of the face of Shining Armor, who had just entered the kitchen. “I wish you a good morning, daddy!” She stopped her hovering and fell around his neck, throwing the still slighty dazed stallion off balance.
A laugh escaped his throat, then he put a hoof on his daughter's back and buried his muzzle into her curly, lavender and blue mane, giving her a little kiss that made her squeal from joy. “Morning, Flurry,” he said as gentle he was able to with his tired voice. He approached his wife, with Flurry Heart still clinging tightly against him, and gave her a kiss too, which unlike Cadance's kiss for him earlier, landed on her mouth. They kept kissing each other for a few seconds, then they parted and Shining Armor proceeded to make some breakfast for him too. Flurry kept clinging at him while he prepared everything, though, to make things easier for him while preparing his meal, she changed her position and climbed up on his head instead, from where she watched him doing the task.
In other families this would have been a problem, but thanks to Flurry's persistent attitude of waking her parents up way earlier than necessary every morning, they could afford some more time together like this. Which was an improvement that even Shining Armor, with all of his grumpy mood at morning, couldn't deny. He looked up as he felt Flurry resting her chin on his mane and smiled.
As he and Flurry were back at the table, his little filly flew off of his head and returned to her seat where she finished her breakfast. Her bread was slightly crispy now, but she ate the remaining portion anyway to be properly sated for the school day ahead of her. Once she was done, Flurry drank a glass of milk that Cadance offered her, then she got up and made her way towards her room to pack her saddlebag, not without thanking her mother for the breakfast she had prepared for her.
As Flurry was back in the room that she had left so hastily about half an hour earlier, she lifted up the saddlebag that was lying on the floor at the hoofboard of her bed and levitated it over to her desk. The desk was packed with her utensils for magic kindergarden. She was up later than usual last night to get her homework done and so she didn't bother anymore to clean it up before she slipped under the covers.
There were some of her books; one about general magical theory, full with lessons about the different types of spells and in which situations they should be used and in which not, each type of spell with an own page that listed unwanted or dangerous side effects of it, and a book titled The History of Magic: From Starswirl the Bearded to Princess Twilight Sparkle. It was a recent edition that was published only a few years ago and updated with her aunt's achievements since becoming Princess Celestia's student and how she became an alicorn, as well as with the life stories of some other mages and wizards from the last years.
Even her Crystaller, Sunburst, got devoted a page for saving the Crystal Empire years ago as she was just a few days old. It was at this time that a monster had destroyed the Crystal Heart and almost sentenced the Empire to become buried under ice and snow. Her parents, together with her aunt, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and a mare named Starlight Glimmer, who was a student of her aunt at this time, were able to defeat the monster, but the Crystal Heart remained shattered. Until Sunburst came and figured out that her own Crystalling ceremony was the key to restore the ancient, magical artifact. It was an event she only heard about from her parents and which she later read about again in the book in front of her. She was too young when it happened so she couldn't remember anything about it. Flurry Heart shrugged, grabbed the books and put them in her saddlebag.
Removing the books from the desk revealed her notebook. It was surrounded by her pencils, her quill, an open ink bottle and her sharpener. She lifted it up to take a look inside before putting it into her saddlebag too. She skipped through the pages a little and moaned. They were full of red markings and notes from her teacher.
Flurry Heart was by far no bad student. Perhaps not the best, but definitely above average. She even got very good grades in most of her tests. And yet, her teacher, a stallion listening to the name of Austere Knowledge, called Mr. Know by her and her classmates by his insistence, always judged her homework rather harshly. He was nitpicking over small mistakes she made, criticized her hornwriting, that everypony else called beautiful, and basically never had a good word left for her. Sometimes she suspected that he just didn't like her, but then again, he was known for teaching his students in a very strict way, so maybe that was just him and she didn't live up to his standards. It was something she shrugged off most of the time as well. As long as her grades stayed as good as they were, Flurry didn't care too much about his nitpicking.
As the notebook had found its way into her saddlebag, she put the lid on the inkbottle and placed it inside the bag as well, together with her quill, her pencils and her sharpener. She was in no rush with all of this. There was plenty of time left for her to pack everything before she had to leave the castle to make her way to the magic kindergarden in the eastern part of the Crystal Empire and to meet her best friend along the way and have a little chat with her before class started.
As she was done with preparing for the kindergarden, she snappily threw her saddlebag on her back and cantered out of her room to her parents who were still in the kitchen, now drinking coffee to become fully awake for their royal duties. “I'm leaving for magic kindergarden now!” she announced as she bursted into the room, once more in a volume loud enough to make her parents definitely become awake if the coffee shouldn't obtain this result. She trotted up to Cadance first and gave her mommy a tight hug, followed by a kiss on her cheek, which was answered by the motherly ruler in the same way. Then she darted over to her dad and the farewell procedure repeated itself, with the only difference that Shining Armor answered the lovely gestures by his daughter with a kiss on her forehead, instead of her cheek. Standing in the doorway after the heartfelt goodbyes, Flurry Heart turned around to her parents a last time and waved at them. “Bye mommy! Bye daddy! See you in the afternoon!” She winked at them and then she hurtled off down the corridor and out into the huge crystal throne room.
She galloped through it in an unbeatable tempo, slid down the banister and motioned through the entrance hall with the same speed. Along her way through the castle, she galloped past a few guards and presented them with a quick wave, to which they answered with a smile on their lips upon seeing the wild foal and waves of their own, the latter of which Flurry Heart almost didn't see anymore in her tempo. Near the massive entrance door of the castle, she flared her wings and simultaneously activated her horn to swing the gate open. As she had reached the exit, she did a jump into the air, began to flap her wings and took off into the blue morning sky.
Flurry Heart felt the familiar breeze tugging at her mane as she soared through the air away from the castle and let out a loud cheer. She closed her eyes for a moment and just enjoyed the beloved feeling of freedom, then she shot them open again and made a sharp turn to the right before she was too far away from the castle.
Every morning, she flew a few laps around the castle, just enjoying the tempo and the cold morning breeze around her, before she really made her way to the magic kindergarden. This was Flurry Heart's second daily ritual and it was even more important to her than watching the sun rise up in the sky. She loved the feeling of tempo and the adrenaline pumping through her veins during her fast flight. It felt like adventure to her. What made it even more important to her was the fact that her best friend she went to magic kindergarden with every day wasn't a pegasus, so she had to trot to the kindergarden with her instead of flying to it. At best, she could hover a little at her side, but this was of course no replacement for real flying. So she had to get her flying fix before she would meet her friend. The only thing about this routine that she didn't like was that she would rather be flying haphazardly across the whole empire instead of flying the same laps over and over again. But this was bearing the risk to arrive late for school, so the laps around the castle had to do it.
As Flurry felt that she had enough – which was something the young alicorn had to estimate, rather than she wanted to, because there was not enough time for flying infinite laps around the castle, in fact, Flurry never wanted to stop – she came to a halt in the air and landed in front of the majestic crystal castle.
One would think that Flurry Heart was out of breath now, but no, the filly had an amount of energy most ponies would become jealous of and give everything for. All she did after her joyous and ecstatic flight routine was immediately reorientating herself.
Flurry Heart turned around and faced the numerous streets opposite to the castle now. Swiftly, her eyes darted over them.
Still a bit befuddled from racing around the Crystal Castle it took her a few seconds to make out the right street that led to her destination, like every morning, but once she got it, the little ball of energy set herself rapidly into motion again, this time on hooves, not on wings, and zipped into the street faster than anypony could have said “Crystals” to meet up with her friend.