//------------------------------// // Part 6: Royal Talks // Story: The Hardships of A Father // by MajorFrostwing //------------------------------// The Hardships of A Father Part 6: Royal Talks By: Major Frostwing I awoke the next morning to the sounds of soft snoring and something warm and soft gripping me. I cracked my eyes open seeing coral pink invade my vision. I let out a small groan shifting to get more comfortable. My head felt fuzzy but I knew the reason why. "We did polish off an entire bottle of wine between the two of us." I mumbled as I gave up the futile attempt to go back to sleep. Once I spoke out loud I knew I couldn't go back to sleep. I untangled Fluttershy from me before getting to my feet stretching my body out. I felt cold when I left the bed but that was the price for waking up. I quietly left the room making my way downstairs to go and check up on my son. He was sitting by the couch tossing a ball back and forth between Rarity and her little sister. He smiled walking up to his son ruffling his hair as he opened a closet pulling out a new shirt. "Darling it is so good to see you up and about. How was your date with Fluttershy?" I looked over my shoulder seeing Rarity and her sister looking at me with big grins. "It went well." I said sliding my shirt over my self letting out a sigh. "Dinner was fantastic and we talked about what I used to do before Sam." I smiled as I slid the new shirt over my back. "Darling I never got to ask when I first saw them but what are all those black marks covering your body?" I stopped looking down at my arms and chest. "I really liked tattoos when I was younger." I said putting my shirt on. "I'm not proud of some of them but others make me happy." I leaned against the closet door smiling. "It just seems as if you have hundreds of cutie marks." Rarity said looking at the tattoos on my forearms. "What's a cutie mark?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "It's a mark that shows our special talent." Rarity slid up he sleeve showing off her right shoulder. A trio of baby blue diamonds seemed to sparkle in the low light. "This is my cutie mark." "Looks like a standard tattoo to me." I said rolling up my sleeve looking at my blank right shoulder. "That's strange." I said running my hand over my shoulder. "What's wrong darling?" I ran my fingers over the blank flesh on my arm. "I used to have a crow on this shoulder and a raven on the other..." I continued to stare at the blank flesh. "I just got it a month ago..." Rarity looked at me confused. "Jeremy are you going to be alright?" I snapped away from the mark sliding my sleeve down. "Yea yea I'll be alright. Just wish I had an idea what was going on." I said looking over to Sam who looked concerned at me. "Daddy?" Sam asked getting up hugging my leg. "It's ok Champ I don't need all these tattoos anyway." I pat Sam on the head smiling as he smiles back. "Come on Champ I'll make you some breakfast. You are more than welcome to join us Rarity." I said as she smiled sweetly to me. "I would love to darling but sadly I have to take Sweetie Belle back home. Plus I have all kinds of work that I need to do." She walked over giving me and Sam a hug. "Treat her well Jeremy." Rarity whispered in my ear as she got Sweetie Belle leaving the cottage. "Oh well more for us. Afterwards we will feed the animals." I said as I went into the kitchen getting the materials to make pancakes. I could make a mean Pancake. After a few minutes Fluttershy made her way to the kitchen sitting down next to Sam. She looked exhausted so I poured her a cup of coffee passing it over to her. "Just how you like it." I said as I poured Sam a cup of juice which I passed to him as well. "Did you sleep well?" I asked both of them while flipping a pancake. "Oh yes I slept wonderfully." Fluttershy said taking a sip of her coffee. "I had an awesome dream Daddy I was a superhero and I could fly and stuff." I looked over my shoulder smiling at both of them. "Pancakes are almost done." I said as I pulled the last pancake off of the skillet setting it on the final plate. "Alright dig in." I set down the plates in front of both of them also pulling out the syrup for them to use. We all ate in relative silence. -------------------------------------- Later in the day we all decided to go visit Twilight. she told us earlier in the day that someone wanted to meet both Sam and myself. I didn't know who we were to meet but whoever it was seemed important. "Daddy who are we meeting?" I looked down to Sam smiling. "Maybe we will get to meet a Princess and you can sweep her off her feet." I said as he smiled brightly to me. "I think Twilight wants us to meet the Princesses." Fluttershy said as I looked over at her with a dumbstruck look on my face. "Wait seriously!" I placed a hand on my head letting out a sigh. "Oh dear. That's not good." I ran my hand through my hair letting out a low whistle. "I feel dizzy all of a sudden." "Oh no maybe you should sit down." Fluttershy and Sam quickly moved me over to a bench where I sat down holding a hand onto my head. "One fuck up that's all it takes... One fuck up and they will send us back to our world. Wait... wasn't that what we wanted all along?" I asked myself as I tried to get control over my breathing. "This isn't our world but... I'm finding myself not wanting to leave... Sam has friends a better home than I could ever give him. As long as Sam is happy there shouldn't be any problem." I nodded slowly coming to my senses. "Good. Very Good." "Jeremy are you going to be alright?" Fluttershy asked as I looked up at her smiling. "Yea Fluttershy everything should be alright." I said shaking the last of my fears and doubts from my mind. "Sam we have something worth fighting for so no matter what we are going to stay in Equestria." I looked down to Sam to see him nod a look of determination on his face. "Right." He said clenching his tiny fists. "Good now let's go meet these Princesses." I got to my feet picking Sam up. "Maybe you can still woo one of them with you devilish charms." I teased him as he tapped his fist against my jaw. "Daddy stop teasing me." I laughed as Fluttershy giggled at our antics. ----------------------------- We arrived at Twilight's in good time. I reached out to knock on the door when it opened up suddenly revealing a very frazzled Twilight. "Uh Twilight you got a bit of..." I began motioning my entire face. "Crazy on you." I pointed out as she twisted her head to the side letting out a loud crack. "You are LATE!" She said as her eye twitched. "Twilight you are making us more late by not letting us in." Her head snapped back to it's normal place as she smiled again. "Oh sorry." She gave us a sheepish smile moving out of our way as we stepped inside. What I saw gave me pause two mares stood in the center of the room they were both tall and had an air of Royalty about them. I swallowed my fear as I picked up my son walking forward. The two women before me were both beautiful stunning even but what really caught my eye was the fact they looked to be polar opposites. The first on was a pure white with long flowing hair of pink, sea-foam green, and gentle blue. She wore a long white flowing dress with golden sandles. She had a golden crown and necklace on her. I continued my observation of her noticing her white wings and large white horn on her head. The other woman was just like the white one just with negative color. She had blue fur and the hair of a night sky. She wore a black dress and wore a black crown and necklace. She had large blue wings and a long blue horn. "So you must be Jeremy and Samuel I have heard a lot about you from Princess Twilight. We have also heard of the lengths you went all in the name of your son." The white one said with a smile. "It's nothing really anyone would have done it for their own family." I scratched the back of my head embarrassed at the praise. "Sadly that is not always true most stallions can't handle the responsibility to take care of their own colts and fillies." She said with a sigh. "I would never abandon my son I would rather die than let harm come to him." I stated with confidence. "I'm sorry I get ahead of myself. May I have your names?" I asked as they both nodded. "My name is Princess Celestia I control the sun and I am co-ruler of the kingdom of Equestria." The white one said with a bow. "Our name is Luna. We control the moon we are co-ruler of Equestria." The Blue one said albeit a little louder than Celestia. "A pleasure to meet both of you Princesses. I am Jeremy and this is my son Samuel." I looked down to my son watching him stare at the two Princesses with wide eyes of curiosity. "Sam do you want to say hello to the Princesses?" I asked him to see him nod. I set Sam down to see him walk slowly over to them. The Princesses watched him with smiles. Sam walked up to Luna looking up to meet her eyes he gave her leg a hug. I couldn't help but chuckle as Luna picked up Sam holding him up in her arms. "Hello young one." Luna said with a smile. Sam smiled looking at her long flowing hair. "How do you get your hair to do that?" Sam asked flatly. "Tis but a spell." Luna answered with a smile. Luna looked to me. "Tis such a well behaved child how far would you be willing to go to keep him safe?" The room went quiet at that one question. "Luna it is impolite to ask such a question so forwardly." Celestia said before looking to me. "I'm sorry but it is a question we have to ask though." "How far am I willing to go to keep Sam safe?" I asked as Sam looked to me with a smile. "I won't lie to you Princess if you were to try and take my last bit of happiness away from me I don't know what I would do." I clenched my hands into fists. "But I know I would do everything in my power to get him back. I would rather die than lose my son." I let my hands relax as I heard a crash behind me. I looked back seeing that a vase had fallen off of a table shattering on impact. I looked back to Luna and Celestia to see them nod. "Sorry but we had to ask. I just hope you won't cause troubles in our country until we find some way to send you back." Celestia said with a smile. "Now then we only came today to find out a few things about you but we learned enough from Twilight's letters. We hope you have a good day." Luna set down Samuel as he ran back to me. Both of the Princesses disappeared in a flash of light. I smiled picking up my son. "I think they like us Sam." I said ruffling his hair with my hand. "Must have been those devilish charms of yours at work." He giggled trying to bat away my hand. -------------------------- -Canterlot Castle- "You saw it did you not sister?" Luna asked Celestia as they sat in the throne room. "Indeed I did sister. When Jeremy spoke about protecting his son he somehow lifted the vase and dropped it when he relaxed."Celestia said thinking back. "We should inform Princess Twilight that she should check on his magic levels and if possible see if he can be trained to use his magic." Luna stated with a sigh. "I could feel that magic he was using it felt dark and deathly cold." "It is the same as anyone who is willing to stand up to us to protect a loved one. but I will agree it does feel more malicious than anyone else I have met before. I felt as if he would try to strike us down if we were to try and take his son away." Celestia let out her own sigh. "As long as one of the elements keeps an eye on him he will be under control and not be a threat." "Agreed sister. Though I can feel it on the horizon... something is coming and I fear we might see how far Jeremy is willing to go." Luna looked out of one of the windows watching the sky. "It is almost time to raise the moon sister we should prepare." Celestia said getting off of her throne moving to her spot to lower the sun quickly followed by Luna.