"Oof." Flurry's haunches hit the cafeteria floor hard, and she tumbled onto her back. She opened her eyes to see her adversary—Scarlet Rose, the meanest most terrible filly in all of second grade—towering over her with an ugly smirk plastered across her muzzle.

Flurry squeaked, and looked away from Scarlet's persecuting glare. To her left, was a sea of foals staring at them, chattering amongst themselves. She squeezed her eyes shut and faced the opposite direction. She took a sheepish peek and saw what she thought was a mirror image. She closed her eyes again, trembling, and wished she was back home in bed.

"Hey!" shouted a blue colt as he emerged from the crowd, "You can't push her! She's my friend! [i]And[/i] a princess!" The colt knelt next to Flurry's head and outstretched a hoof, smiling. "You okay?" 

Flurry took his hoof and nodded, whispering, "Yeah." She hopped up, teetering back and forth as she struggled to balance herself. With a sigh of relief, she brushed the dust off of her coat."Thanks, Scooter." She offered him a weak smile, but it quickly faltered at the sound of: 

"She's not a princess!" Scarlet sneered, flipping her crimson mane like an arrogant model, "she's just some prissy Alicorn." 

Scooter stepped forward, pointing a stiff leg at her. "She is too a princess! And she's not prissy! [i]Unlike you,[/i] Scarlet." 

"Oh yeah? What's she princess of? Griffon Wings?" The cafeteria erupted into condescending laughter as Flurry felt her cheeks burn.

"No! She's not, you big bully!" Scooter gritted his teeth, and his nose flared. 

"Princess of [i]what[/i] then?" Scarlet repeated.

The colt stammered, "Th-the princess of, uh, the, uh... Crystal Empire? Yeah! The Crystal Empire!" 

"No she's not! Her mom is, not her." 

"No, she is too, right Flurry?" Scooter said, staring back at his friend. 

Flurry’s eyes were fixated on the ground, unable to face her peer. Her hooves shook like branches in a storm, mistyness clouding her eyes as a heaviness filled her lungs. "I-I-I don't..." She tilted her head so only Scooter could see her glossy orbs. "I don't know... " she murmured.

Scooter's eyes drooped. "Oh." he said, rubbing the nape of his neck, his cheeks flared from within. "I'm sorry..." He trotted past her, head hanging like a reef. 

Scarlet must have said something else, because as he walked by, the lunch room stocked with another round of reverberating laughter. 

Flurry sighed, though she knew Scooter couldn't hear her. 

"It's not your fault..." 

[hr]

Flurry Heart stood in the doorway of her parents’ bedroom and saw her dad, outstretched on the bed. "Dad," she sullenly called, "am I a princess?" 

Shining glanced up from the newspaper he was reading and smiled. "Of course you are, you're Daddy's Little Princess!" 

"Not that," Flurry crossed one of her forehooves in front of the other and tried her best not to look at her father. "I mean, like an [i]actua[/i]l princess." 

Shining frowned in disappointment. He sat up fully, and dangled his hind-hooves over the side of the bed. He scratched his chin with a taut grin. "Technically, you're a duchess, since your mom's a princess. But that pretty much makes you a princess." He regarded his daughter; she was frail, flushed of her usual bubblegum pink color. He crinkled his brow. "Why do you ask?" 

"No reason," she said, tracing the carpet floor with a hoof. She looked up at him with dispirited eyes. "The carpet's soft."

He ambled over to her side and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "What's wrong kiddo?" 

She stared up at her father, then sighed. "Scarlet told everyone I wasn't a princess and made fun of me." 

"Oh, don't worry about her. She's just jealous."

"About what? She's right. I'm not a princess." Flurry huffed, and ran her hoof across the anemone-like carpet. 

Shining gently tugged at his daughter's chin, "Of what?" he echoed, "did you forget that your mother’s the princess of the entire Crystal Empire? Or that your father is the captain of the royal guard? Or how about the fact that you're the only birth-Alicorn Equestria's ever seen?" He smiled, reaching a hoof under his daughter's ribs to tickle her. 

She giggled, pushing his hoof away. "Stop it." 

"What?" He grinned. "I'm just messing with you," he said, continuing his tickling attack. 

"Stop! Stop!" she pleaded over a barrage of laughter, before finally collapsing on her father's leg. Breathless, she spoke, "Thanks, Dad."

"Anytime, my Flurry Heart."