A Sad Princess

"Happy eighteenth birthday, Madeleine!" everypony yelled as Madeleine walked into the castle after working full time at the orphanage.

Usually she would have a day off on Hearth's Warming Eve but she loved working with the foals, fillies and colts at the orphanage and hoped that they would get good homes.

"Thank you everypony but you know that it's also Thaddeus and Mum's birthday today." Madeleine said grinning at her sixteen year old brother Thaddeus who stood beside her father Duncan.

"We already celebrated ours before you came home. We wanted to have your birthday on your own because you've turned eighteen." her mother Elena said smiling.

It had been a great number of years of Madeleine's life. A few months before her sixteenth birthday, she got a part time job at the orphanage, she got her cutie mark when she was fifteen and Elena's friends' foals all had their cutie marks and six of them found love and she hoped the others would too. After a lot of hours of fun and games, birthday cake and presents, Ivar, his daughter Lily and his wife Lyla went home to their house which wasn't far from the castle.

"There is also a Hearth's Warming party going on at the queen's castle. We are to dress formal." Eloise said in excitement. "Can we go, Mummy? Can we, can we?" Miracle and Lulu Belle asked with the excitement that Eloise was having.

"Is Lily allowed to come with us?" Mandarin asked with pleading bright green eyes.

"Can Blackstone also come with us? You know that he's so dreamy." Lulu Belle said dreamily and Annabel laughed and scruffed her daughter's mane.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go to Svetlana's house and she can help us get ready and do all our manes. She's amazing at it apart from her merchant work." Colleen said in delight.

Everypony then walked out of the door. All the mares, Madeleine and the fillies were in Svetlana's house, sitting on chairs in front of the mirrors and trying on dresses.

"Does my mane look nice, Mummy?" Eloise asked in a panic and she checked to see if her mane was good.

She always wanted to look good, like those posh ponies but Eloise wasn't posh.

"It still looks good to me, Eloise." Svetlana said as she tightened a dark violet bow into her hair.

"Ow! Must it be so tight?" Eloise complained and she winced in pain.

"Remember the words your late grandmother always?" Colette said as Colleen was brushing Eloise's hair.

"Beauty is pain?" Eloise said and Svetlana walked off to tie Lily's mane into a bun and put some lilies in it.

Colette nodded her head slightly.

"Does this dress make me look good?" Valentina asked Annabel, as she spun around, wearing a sparkling green dress and she had an emerald necklace around her neck.

"It looks great, Valentina! It goes with your eyes." Annabel said in delight and Valentina hugged her tightly.

After an hour and a half, all the mares, fillies and colts were all dressed up for the Hearth's Warming party and they walked to the queen's castle as it was not too far.

"Lily, my little flower, you always look beautiful." Mandarin said and she blushed when he held her to his side and he gave her a kiss on the head.

They all arrived and the queen was standing outside the door with her second daughter who was the same age as Thaddeus. Her oldest daughter was now living in Lyngway with her husband. She adopted her second daughter when she was left on the castle steps, like the way Mandarin was left at the steps of the orphanage. The queen had her light brown hair tied up in a formal fashion, she wore a rainbow sparkled dress and she had sapphires in her hair.

"Welcome, loyal subjects! Enjoy the Hearth's Warming party! If you have anything to say, just let me know." the queen announced as she smiled and her daughter also did the same except it looked like she was forcing herself to smile. Thaddeus looked at her for a moment before he bumped into Madeleine from behind.

"Is something the matter?" Madeleine asked with concern.

"No, I just... umm... lost my hoofing is all." Thaddeus replied nervously then he tugged the collar of his tuxedo.

Everypony walked in and they sat down at a table.

"This is so exciting!" Annabel said and she nearly jumped out of her seat but Jordan held her down.

"I'm going to talk to somepony, I'll be right back." Thaddeus said and he got out of seat beside Madeleine and walked over to where the princess sat.

"Umm... hello." Thaddeus said nervously and the princess looked at him with dark green eyes.

"Hello..." the princess replied the same way he did.

"I saw you outside and it looked like you were forcing yourself to smile." Thaddeus said with a face of concern.

The princess nodded slowly then sighed.

"I just hate being a princess. I am always told what to do and everytime I get a question wrong, my tudor always hits me on the forelegs with a ruler. I am always told to smile but I just really can't," the princess said in a sad voice. "I'm never really allowed outside and I really want to but I'm afraid my mum will then lock me in my room if I try to go outside."

She then sighed and hung her head down. Thaddeus looked at her with sadness. He had never heard a princess say anything like that.

"But you have wings, you can just fly out of the window of your room and go outside. Lulu Belle used to do it a lot. She's the toughest and the most rebel out of all the foals in my home." Thaddeus said and he put a hoof on her shoulder.

"But my mum could take my wings away and I'll just be an earth pony but thanks for understanding me, I've never talked about it to anypony," the princess said giving a small smile. "My name's Crystal by the way."

She held out her hoof to him and after a moment's hesitation, he shook it and they smiled at each other.

When some slow violin and piano music came on, all the couples walked onto the dance floor.

"Would you like to dance, Lulu Belle?" Blackstone asked holding out his hoof.

Lulu Belle giggled a little.

"Lead the way, good sir." Lulu Belle replied and he took her hoof and led her to the dance floor.

The party ended and everypony went home. They went into the castle, all exhausted.

"Everypony, there's something I need to tell you," Madeleine said in a nervous voice. Everypony turned to stare at her. "I'm moving away in two weeks to Northern Arabland."

"What?!" Everypony gasped and Madeleine nodded her head slowly then looked to the ground.