Shepherd Groaned while sitting at the table with an empty pot of coffee, mostly full mug of coffee that shined with sun, moon and Twilight's cutie marks… He was feeling a bit better after the massive amount of coffee he had put into his system but still, he was tired. It's been about a week since Twilight confirmed that yes, Shade was indeed his daughter.
After he got home that night with the little filly, he stumbled his way upstairs and crashed into bed like a zombie, a swirl of thoughts still twisting and turning inside his mind. He woke up the next day to find his house a complete wreck. Things turned upside down and right side up but just turned completely around. His coffee mug was somehow on the ceiling, it was upside down but still had coffee in it, he could see it. There was a little note hanging from the handle of the coffee mug that said. “I didn’t do it.” ~Your benefactor of Chaos, Discord.
Shepherd wanted to dispute this as false but, he had much more troubling things on his mind. Like for instance, where was his daughter? He paid no mind to the completely wrecked house and started looking through the upturned furniture and backward shelving….
“Hmm,” his groggy mind starved but he made do. It took him around an hour but he found Shade inside what was once his hallway closet. Now apparently turned into Shades new Den. The only reason he found it was because of the strange black chitin next to the door that had her name on it. How he had missed that he would never know. When he opened the door it kinda looked like the opening of a wasps nest, but had a light green glow coming from within the hole. Shepherd silently stared before he decided to close the door very slowly.
That was a week ago, he still has no idea what happened inside the house that night but he decided he did not truly want to know and just went with it, it's not like he has not seen crazier things here in Equestria. He took up his coffee mug that he managed to pry from the ceiling and took a drink out of it while also reading the newspaper while also thinking on other things.
Such as how the work on the Belfry was progressing. It was not entirely as he pictured it but in the end, it was turning out nicely. The Thestral ponies started out just living in the trees around the area but as the Belfry was being built from the ground up, they decided to start moving in, turns out that the Belfry was a single large building with several tall towers coming from the roof of it. The open areas at the top of each tower were the most sought after areas to live within. Each tower had a Belfry of its own, but instead of bells, they had long, hollow tube like structures in the middle of each one. Each tube would allow the wind to flow through them allowing a gentle melody to flow out into the surrounding area almost like that of an organ but much more subtle.
There were twelve towers in all and each one would be worked by a Thestral family. Every hour one of the twelve Belfry's would sing its own special tune to denote the time of day. If Shepherd was being honest with himself, it was glorious and turned out much better than he had once thought it would.
Shepherd opened his eyes and went back to looking at the newspaper.
“Nobel Outcry.” Read one of the titles.
“Several years ago a strange creature appeared in the land of Equestria. His appearance was met with worry but over time the ponies of Canterlot along with the town of Ponyville had seen him as little threat. Since then new information has come to light on the human.” Shepherd skimmed over a lot of the article. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Yadda Yadda, Land Grant. Blah blah, Duke. blah. Oh, here we go. Duke Fancy Pants. Shepherd liked Fancy Pants, They were always comfortable, he joked in his head before continuing reading the article
Duke Fancy Pants stood before the reporters stating that everything was perfectly fine and that there was no fear from human known as Shepherd. He stated that and I quote. “The human Shepherd is a standup fellow with only good intentions in his heart. He is working for the betterment of all kind,” Shepherd pushes his lips nodding.
“I knew I liked him.” He thought to himself, lifting his coffee mug up to his lips taking a drink.
At this point in the Prince Blueblood came up next to Fancy pants and made his announcement.
“Oh this should be good.” thought Shepherd as he read.
Prince Blueblood stood before the crowd stating. “The Human Shepherd.” Here we go. “Is an amazing leader, and I, Prince Blueblood have decided to share my holdings along with my wealth with Duke Shepherd to help promote peace and Harmony among all near and far!”
Shepherd spit his coffee all over the newspaper and coughed repeatedly. “WHAT?!”
And just then there was a knock at the front door, but Shepherd did not move from his spot, just staring down at the soggy newspaper with a face of shock and befuddlement.
The knock came again from the door. “I’wl gwet it!” An adorable voice called from the hallway, the front door opened. “Hewwo!”
There was another voice speaking to Shade. “O’kwa!” And then the little changeling came into the kitchen “Addy! wIt's the Mawl Ware!
Shepherd shook his head and wiped the coffee from his chin getting up and heading into the living room door, Shade buzzing up to him and into his arms where she gives him a nuzzle on his scruffy cheek and giggling at the feeling of his rough beard on her chitin.
He was still in shock at what he saw in the paper when he got to the still open door, the post mare, a gray pony with a blond mane and tail and a bubbly expression stood at the door with a clipboard. “Sign here please” She spoke cheerfully handing him the clipboard, he took it numbly and with the help of his daughter, he signed the paper with an ink coated fingerprint. He was surprised however to find that all he received with a single vanilla envelope.
“Oh, uh… Thank you.” He spoke to the mail mare and she turned, with a flap of her wings she was off almost colliding with another pegasus that was yellow with an orange mane. He slowly closed the front door but Shade was still trying to peek through it as it closed.
“Addy?” Shade looks at her daddy and he blinks looking down at his daughter.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“I wink ooo waave a stalker.” The cute little ball of chitin and adorableness said.
Shepherd just looked at her without speaking. He wanted to ask how she knew what a stalker was, or why she thought that, he also marveled at the fact that she said stalker without any double u’s involved. But instead, he said. “Honey, daddy has too much on his plate right now, he doesn’t need any stalkers to go along with it.”
Shade just nodded at this looking down, and then looked back up at Shepherd. “Want we tw wet wred of whem?” She asked her father.
He just shook his head at her and smiled. “You are adorable.” He said poking her on the nose making her go cross eyed causing her to change shape into a little earth pony filly. “But not to worry, Daddy will be fine.” He sighs. “Well, if daddy doesn't go insane that is.” He mumbled to himself as another knock came to the door, but this time the knocking came from the kitchen.
He walked back into the kitchen taking a deep breath before taking hold of the door handle while also still holding his filly in his left arm. He opened to door.
“I'M SORRY!” Shepherd flinched slightly but then glared at the changeling Queen. “I didn’t mean it to happen!”
“You have a lot of explaining to do!” Shepherd said sternly causing Chrysalis to flinch slightly.
“If it makes you feel better it wasn't my fault this time.” The Queen mumbled.
“This time?!” Shepherd almost yelled, he then thrust the little filly into her mother's face. “I still want to know when and what happened the first time!”
Queen Chrysalis blinked and then leaned in and nuzzled her daughter gently before looking back at Shepherd. “I think we are talking about two different things, how about we sit down?”
Shepherd nodded pulling the filly back into his arms near his chest and walking back over to the kitchen table folding up the soggy newspaper and tossing it into the bin before taking a seat, Chrystlas sitting next to him and Shade sitting on the other side of him. Chrystlas made to speak but Shepherd cut her off with a raised hand. With the other he lifted his coffee mug to his mouth and taking a drink from it, the cutie marks now having shifted around to show a rather wicked looking horn, he sits the mug down.
“Alright, first off…”He paused to take a breath to calm himself. “Did you use mind control magic on me?” He asked while looking Chrystlas in the eyes.
Chrystlas looked appalled. “I would never do such a thing! Why would you even ask that?”
“Well, considering I now have a daughter now and I have no idea how or when that happened I’m at a complete loss.” Shepherd looked sternly at the Queen but let out a sigh. “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed, you could have at least woke me up.”
Chrystlas looked at Shepherd and then her daughter and then back to him before it hit her. “OH!” She spoke aloud before laughing. “Oh no, no, that didn’t happen.”
Shepherd looked at her with a confused expression, seeing this Queen Chrystlas let out a slight cough regaining her composure and made to open her mouth again before looking over to Shade. “Shade, you wouldn't mind running off to play for a little bit would you, mommy and daddy need to talk adult things.”
“Awwwww.” Came the disappointed voice but she did as she was bed and scampered down from the chair and scuttered off to the hallway, there was a squeak of a door.
Shepherd was going to speak again but Queen Chrystlas raised a hoof. “All the way Shade!” There was a light huff of disappointment from the hallway as the closet door closed with a click. Chrystlas give a nod and turned back to Shepherd.
“Now, let me explain,” Chrystlas spoke causing Shepherd to sit back and nod for her to continue. “When a Changeling Queen wants to have lots of babies, she finds herself a mate.” Shepherd nodded. “Well, when she does this she can have hundreds of grubs.”
Shepherds eyes grew very wide at this staring straight at Chrystlas, but the queen continued. “That is not what happened. You do not have hundreds of lings, just the one. “ Shepherd let a breath out through his nose and relaxed once more, he took up his coffee in a slightly shaky hand and down the rest of it in a single gulp. “What happened was, at our first meeting you showed such, love and allowed our hive to live here in this peaceful land and because of that love, and over time it grew inside of me until it became little Shade.”
Shepherd looked at the Queen. “I think your confusing love for kindness.” The queen waved a hoof at this. “And I'm pretty sure I don't have that much kindness in me.”
“Well, you don't anymore.” Muttered the queen.
“What?” Shepherd asked.
“Nothing!” Queen Chrystlas replayed. “Just know that we never did anything physical.” She smiles at Shepherd. “Though I wouldn't be against it.”
Shepherd Clapped his hands together. “ALRIGHT! None of that! I need you to take Shade for a couple of days.” Shepherd said to the Queen as he stood and went to refill his coffee. “I have a lot of things I need to get done, It's not that I don't love her, I do very much but I need to get some rest and things just keep piling up on top of me.” He trailed off when Queen Chrystlas placed a hoof upon his shoulder.
“I understand.” She said to him.
“Thank you.” he replayed back.
The Queens horn glowed a dark green for a moment and then went out after a little bit little Shade came back into the kitchen. “Wes Wommy?”
“I’m going to take you back to the hive for a few days. Daddy needs to get some work done and needs his rest.” There was a sad sniffle but Shade nodded. Shepherd bent down and picked up his daughter and give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Don't worry sweetheart, I’ll miss you very much but I'll come visit as soon as I can.” He said poking her in little muzzle causing her to change back into the little changeling once more and causing her to chuckle.
After that, the Queen and Shade left and returned to the Hive that sits in the back corner of the yard. He let out a sigh, sad to see his daughter go, but also feeling a little lighter in understanding what was going on and why he has a daughter now, and how. Shepherd shut the back door with a click turning away from it.
‘Wait.’ Shepherd thought to himself, “Didn’t Chrystlas say she was sorry for something?” He shrugged it off. Too much to worry about right now, but as he came to the middle of the kitchen he looked around completely at a loss for what he needed to do.
He walked over and took up the vanilla envelope but stopped just before opening it. He closed his eyes and counted down from three. Upon reaching zero there was a knock at the front door. “Of course.” He said as he sits down the envelope and made his way to the front door. The last time he went to the front door he was freaking out, why was that again? He opened the door just as the mail pony made to knock once more but stopped when Shepherd opened the door.
“Ah good, you're home. Sign here please.” Shepherd took the clipboard and signed the paper. “What is it this time?” He asked dreading the answer.
But instead of answering, the unicorn pony turned around and yelled out. “Bring it in!” Shepherd looked out his front door as a massive amount of cloud was pulled through the skies, “Oh sweet mother of baby Flurry Heart.” Shepherd said as what looked like several acres of clouds with buildings on top of them flew over his home, one looked to be a fancy hotel. Shepherd promptly passed out into the floor, the front door closing by itself.