Shining Armor didn't bother to look up from the mountain of paperwork he was browsing. He recognized the knock of his aide's hoof on his office door.
"Enter." The stallion at the door trotted inside and closed the door behind him before bracing to attention. Shining kept reading the report before him. Oh sure, he actually liked his Aide. Flash was a competent soldier, a decent organizer, and a fair sounding board, but, Shining reminded himself, the pegasus was also dating his Little Sister Best Friend Forever, and there were some duties that trumped his role as a head of state for the Crystal Empire. This was one of them, surpassed only as Father to the youngest alicorn princess and Husband to another. Furthermore, it was never a bad thing to appear omniscient before the junior soldiers.
He mentally finished counting to forty, and then said. "What brings you in, Sentry? I thought you were off duty, today." He glanced up, smiling slightly at the croggled expression on his Aide's face. It had taken Shining Armor less than a week to discern his Aide's knock at his door, but again, Command required a certain Mystique. Besides, Shining mused to himself, Flash's Impassive Guard Face needs more work if he's looking this rattled.
"I am, Sir. Is this a bad time?"
"When I'm up to my withers in paperwork and reports? More interruptions like this, and you'll make Major by the end of the year." His wry smile turned genuine as Flash pulled a six pack of Sweet Apple Acres' Finest Dry Cider from the saddlebags the pegasus wore. "Maybe even Lieutenant Colonel."
Flash gave his boss a weak smile. "Sergeant Major Decorum's suggestion, sir. Said it was the best way to assuage Senior Officers when you had something to discuss."
Shining chuckled at that. "Well, he wasn't wrong." He gestured with a hoof to one of the seats before his desk. "What's on your mind, Flash?"
The yellow pegasus hoofed a bottle of cider over to his superior officer before twisting the cap off his own and taking a fortifying sip. "Well, sir-"
"Flash, you're off duty. Call me Shining. Or Shiny, if you like. Celestia knows Twily calls me that enough."
The pegasus took a deep breath. "Shiny...well, you're a father, right?"
The white unicorn snorted. "It's nice to see you're keeping up with current events, Flash. Flurry's just about ready to enter Magic Kindergarten, and the tabloids are keeping themselves afloat by running stories like 'Ten Amazing Things the Crystal Empire's Alicorn Infant Eats! Number 6 will Shock You!' and, my personal favorite, 'Flurry Heart: Adorable Princess or Sinister Threat to Life as we Know it?'. And they didn't even have to change her diapers." He snorted as he popped the top of his cider and took a hearty swig. "Spill it, Flash. What's on your mind?"
Flash Sentry turned his bottle back and forth in his hooves a few times, as if thinking how best to ask what he was thinking. "Well...what's it like?"
An alarm bell started ringing in what Shining Armor liked to think of as his Big Brother Best Friend Forever Warning Center. He straightened up in his chair and put on his best Offended Officer Face as he spoke. "Flash. Are you saying that my Baby Sister is-"
"No! No...No, we're not there yet." Shining had seen Flash face down hostile griffon bandits, rogue minotaurs, and even a mature dragon who had taken residence at the outer reaches of the Crystal Empire. Granted, in all those times, he'd been operating under the aegis of The Crystal Guard, and not that of Prospective Brother-In-Law to one of the most powerful Unicorns for miles around. Shining took particular delight in watching the pegasus stallion backpedal as best he could. It was Shining Armor's policy, when confronted with some pony who was digging himself a hole, to hand him a larger shovel.
"I mean, yeah, We've talked about it, for sure, and yes, she's got a lot of responsibilities now, and...I mean, she's started talking about having foals, just talking, Shiny, you can EXTINGUISH YOUR HORN" The pegasus stallion took a deep breath as his boss extinguished his horn. "What I mean, Si-Shining, is that...well..."
As Flash subsided in to a fit of fidgeting and stammering before Shining Armor snorted and said "Spit it out, Lieutenant!"
Flash froze up, his eyes wide, and the pegasus blurted out "Being a father, Sir. What's that like?"
Another instinct twigged in Shining Armor's consciousness, and he decided to respond with something he'd picked up his lovely wife: Answering a Question with a Question.
"Why do you ask, Flash?"
The pegasus shook his head and took another fortifying sip from his cider bottle. "Sir...did I ever tell you I was a Threebie?"
Shining Armor's eyebrows climbed towards his hairline and made for the same altitude as his horn. "No...no you didn't." He suppressed a frown. Mostly thanks to his wife's efforts, in the last few decades, the taboo for mating outside one's own tribe of ponies had diminished, but Life, it seemed, had plenty of opportunities to mess with ponies of all three tribes, and it wasn't uncommon for pegasus foals to be born to earthbound pony parents. To be sure, it was equally possible for unicorn foals to be born to parents without horns or earth pony foals born to those with wings and horns, but every now and then, a pegasus foal was borne aloft by a balloon, cast to the winds by parents who felt that their newborn should be raised among those who could experience Equestria in all three dimensions, rather than be shackled to the earth like their parents.
Shining Armor took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly. Granted, as the husband to an Alicorn, he had expected a certain amount of differences with his offspring, even had she not turned out to be both female AND an alicorn to boot. But, try as he might, he couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that his get would have been better off without him in his life. Granted, he expected that this point of view would only intensify once little Flurry Heart started to attract colts, but, he supposed, that he was hardly one to judge if another pony couple had less fortitude than he and his beloved Cadence. He shook his head to clear it and regarded his aide. "I didn't know, Flash Sentry. Though it's probably in your ponesonell file, once you have been under my command, it wasn't something that was held against you, or for you, for that matter."
The pegasus nodded, his expression grateful. While some ponies who climbed the Ziggurat of the Royal Guard tried to use every bit of leverage they could to argue why they were more or less worthy of command or, at least, higher promotion, Flash was one of the significant minority of Royal Guard officers who preferred, instead, to succeed on their own merits. It was yet one more reason Shining liked the eager young pegasus guard. Although he'd be damned to ten thousand years in Tartarus and Flurry Heart would marry a Second Person Story fan before he'd admit it to anypony.
Flash Sentry cleared his throat. "Shining...I've had some real prime examples of role models since I joined the guard...both good AND bad. But...well..."
The pegasus trailed off and Shining finished for him. "You don't have any example of what a Dad is like."
Flash Sentry nodded, his expression depressed, despondent, even, and he finished the last of his cider. "I was...well...Look." He lifted his head and met Shining Armor's gaze, his expression serious. "Shining Armor, I...I love your sister. She is, almost quite literally, the best thing that's ever happened to me. I intend to ask her to marry me within the year is out. That said," and at that point, the pegasus' voice caught in his throat, "Shiny...Your sister wants foals." He glanced at his commanding officer, searching for signs of horn glowing, superior officer irritation, or impending transfer to the edge of the badlands, and, finding none, Flash Sentry pressed his advantage. "I mean, I'm not...opposed to the idea, but I haven't had the best examples of having a father around."
Ah, the light dawns. Shining Armor nodded, as he levitated another pair of cider bottles from the ground to in front of himself and Flash Sentry. "And you aren't sure what to do if you're put in such a position."
The pegasus guard nodded, despondently. Shining Armor added up two and two and made four. "And you don't want to disappoint my sister, my aunts, or yourself." Or Me, Shining Armor left unsaid in the air, but he was certain it was understood. The unicorn prince rose from his chair and crossed to the cupboard in the back corner of his room. Simultaneously, the Light Red of his magical aura- only the most daring of enlisted referred to his aura as pink- flipped the lock closed on his office door. He glanced at Flash and smirked as his magical aura opened the closet and floated a decanter of amber liquid out onto the desk between them, along with a pair of tumblers. As the door shut, Shining Armor turned and resumed his seat. "Flash Sentry, what passes between us Does Not Leave This Room. Am I Understood?"
The pegasus straightened in his chair, his eyes bright. "Yessir!"
"Good" Shining Armor levitated the decanter of amber liquid into the air, removed the stopper, and poured a measure of each into the tumblers between them. "Being a father...well..." He snorted. "Do you know what my father told me, when I told him that Cadence and I were expecting?"
Flash Sentry shook his head, though Shining Armor knew that the younger pegasus had met his illustrious sire. Shining Armor had been told, through discrete channels, that the elder unicorn had impressed in no uncertain terms the mayhem and dismay that would be wrought upon Flash Sentry's career and physical wellbeing. Shining Armor was left with few illusions about the impression his father had wrought upon the junior pegasus officer. Shining Armor smiled into the tumbler of ambler liquid he held in his pastern before him and waited as Flash Sentry took a sip from his tumbler. "Dad said that having a kid was sort of like having a dog that was slowly learning how to talk."
Shining Armor did his level best to hold his laughter in as Flash Sentry choked and wheezed, amber drops of whiskey dripping from his nose as he made a noise somewhere between laughter, crippling agony, and agonizing self awareness. The pegasus recovered quickly. "Son of a diamond dog, warn a colt before you say that."
Shining Armor snorted, taking a celebratory sip of his whiskey. "Sorry, Flash. Low hanging fruit." He shook his head. "If you're going to be a part of this family, you might as well get used to it. Not everyone is as trusting as my Little Sister."
Flash straightened up in his chair, rubbing the back of one hoof across his face with chagrin. "Fair enough, Shining.But just...I mean, Flurry was your first. What's all that like?"
Shining armor sat back in his chair, took a sip of his whiskey, and pursed his lips. "Well. I wouldn't say that it's been all sunshine and roses..."
-----------🍼-----------
A scant week and a half after Flurry Heart's birth, Shining Armor was woken up by his lovely wife at some vague hour where the night was blending into the morning. It should be noted that the method of Shining Armor's trek towards consciousness was assisted by his mattress being upended and having the unicorn prince deposited on the Magnificent Crystal Bedchamber Floor headfirst, or by having Her Majesty, Cadence (private honorifics excluded in place of several less-than-royal imprecations that Shining Armor was thinking of at the moment) shouting from the adjoining Baby chamber "SHINY! SHINY GET IN HERE! I NEED YOU!!!"
After arranging his hooves into a vaguely effective form of locomotion, he managed to barrel into the Baby's Room, skidding to a halt as he encountered his wife, the love of his life, the queen of the Crystal Empire, holding a crumpled bundle to her...well, he'd tended to view that particular region of his wife as his private domain, but he was willing to make allowances for the needs of the baby. Cadance was staring at him, her eyes wild, her gaze distraught.
"She's not latching, Shiny! She's Not LATCHING! I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and she won't stop crying, and AUNTIES HELP ME SHINY I WILL TURN YOU INTO A RHUBARB IF YOU DON'T STOP LAUGHING THIS INSTANT!!!"
Shining Armor cut back on his laughter as he levitated Flurry Heart, rocking her in his light red aura as he floated her over to his wife. "Well, dear, first of all, our lovely daughter was in her bassinet. And, while that is a magnificent lamp, it's going to have one Tartarus of a time trying to latch on to you." He took the lamp in his magic and floated it back to the end table, where it belonged, while his daughter gained her hooves and latched onto his wife, who was gazing at him with an expression that mingled relief and suppressed neuroses in equal parts. He trotted over to his wife, nuzzling her. "It's ok, Cadance. We'll get through-"
He was vaguely aware of a brief sensation of motion, accompanied by the sensation of passing through a glass window, and suddenly Shining Armor was aware he was flying on a ballistic course outbound from the Crystal Empire proper and, he was certain, headed for a splashdown into the nearest lake.
-----------🍼-----------
"First thing's first, Flash, you're going to just have to accept the fact that whatever help you offer your wife and offspring, it will be met, at best, with indifference, derision, or scorn, and at worst with spontaneous teleportation, transformation, or inflagration." Or all three, on a bad day.
Flash Sentry grimaced. "Well, I suppose that's par for the course." He tossed off his whiskey, and shook his head. "What's it like, though? I mean, I know there's going to be times. But what's it really like?"
-----------☣-----------
"Ok, Flurry, So what I want you to do is focus your magic. Feel your thoughts gathering into your horn."
Flurry Heart nodded, her eyes crossed as they looked up at the point of her stubby horn just at the field of vision. "Okay, Daddy."
Shining wasn't quite sure how well his daughter was focusing, but he decided to press on, anyway. "Good. Now, focus on the apple on the table across the room. Feel its weight in your mind, and then, wrap your thoughts around it." Shining had to keep from following his own advice, watching his daughter's magical aura vaguely wrap around the apple on the table.
He couldn't be sure, but he was fairly sure he saw the apple quivering in fear. Then again, it may have just been his imagination. Flurry Heart's magical aura wrapped around the apple and, imagination or no, it quivered in her aura.
"Good, good. Now, I want you, just using that focus, to lift the apple from the table."
Flurry Heart's tongue stuck out from the side of her mouth as she concentrated on the apple, her aura flaring from her horn and the apple respectively. It rose, one hoof above the top of the table...then two...
Then suddenly Flurry Heart's aura contracted and the unfortunate apple was crushed into an improbable amount of pulp that scattered across the room.
Shining Armor pulled the goggles from his eyes and considered the fruit basket with a critical eye. "Not bad, Flurry. Let's move on to...bananas."
-----------☣-----------
Shining Armor smiled at the internal memory. "Having foals is like..." He searched his mind for the best possible turn of phrase, and nodded. "It's having miniature versions of you and your wife that you get to raise and corrupt and experience your favorite things through new eyes with." He sipped again at his tumbler of whiskey, noting that his glass was nearing empty. "It is, without a doubt, the greatest adventure that you will experience in your life, and the greatest honor." He frowned into his glass. "Auntie Celestia once told me that while foals are their own ponies, the fact that they are loaned to us for a brief while is the greatest of blessings. She's not wrong." Shining Armor floated the decanter of whiskey up and splashed another measure into his glass before looking back up at his aide. "Does that help, Flash?"
The pegasus nodded, a small smile playing around his lips. "Yes, Shining, I suppose it does." He tossed off the last of his tumbler, and then raised it in salute. "Thanks for your time, Boss. If you'll excuse me, I've a letter I need to write to your sister."
Shining Armor snorted. "Certainly, Flash. And don't be too circumspect. Twily has never been one to let grass grow under her hooves."
The pegasus rose to attention and gave Shining Armor an academy textbook perfect salute before he turned and left the office, shutting the door behind him. Shining Armor laughed to himself as he levitated the last bit of report he'd been reading up in his magic, trying to find his spot as he held the report before him in one tendril of his magic, while he levitated his tumbler of whiskey to his lips in another. Flash isn't bad, as far as things go...he just needs some encouragement.
Silent Armor shook his head as he turned another page on the report, sipping at the whiskey, as he heard the door open and then shut again. "What's up now, Flash, did you forget the last couple of bottles of cider? I'm afraid those have been claimed as property of the crown." Shining Armor kept reading his report, but...
In his years as a Guard, Shining Armor had become a connoisseur of the various flavors of Silence. There was the Subtle Quiet of a watch where nothing was going on, there was the Threatening Silence where Someone was Responsible for Something, and Had Better Claim Responsibility Before The Whole Squad Was Put On Report, and then there was the Amused Silence of An Alicorn Waiting For Something. This last silence was particularly invaluable to members of the Royal Guard, and, as Husband to an Alicorn Princess, it was one Shining Armor had come to know well.
Reminding himself that, while he might appear to be omniscient and imperturbable to his Guard, Cadence could teach a master class in Omniscience and doctorates in Imperturbabilitude, but that was still no excuse to stop playing the game, Shining Armor lowered the report to the desk in front of him.
Cadence stood just inside the door to his office, the lock turning shut in her magical aura. Her eyes glimmered with suppressed heat, and she had a wry grin across her muzzle. "Hello, Shiny."
Shining Armor took another sip of whiskey from his tumbler. "Afternoon, Dear." He raised his eyebrows, looking around his office. "Where's Flurry?"
Cadence's smile deepened, as she strode around his desk. "She's being well looked after by Sunburst and Starlight."
"Ah." Shining Armor made sure his tumbler was empty before he levitated the bottle back to the cupboard in the corner. He suspected what was coming next, but even if he was wrong, that was no excuse to waste good whiskey.
"I saw Flash Sentry leaving as I arrived." Cadence leaned against the desk, her eyes half lidded. "I was hoping he would come to you for advice."
"Oh yes?" Shining Armor swiveled his chair to one side, regarding his wife with an anticipatory air.
"Yes indeed. He had questions about what it was like to be the sire of foals." Cadence's statement was perfectly frank, though Shining Armor noted that her magical aura was poised at the edge of his desk. Shining decided to be patient. It would only help to play the game to its completion.
"He did indeed. But what brings you here about that, my lovely wife?"
While Cadence had a great deal of reserve, poise and control, Shining Armor knew his wife well enough to read the signs. Therefore, it wasn't a surprise to him when Cadence's aura swept his desk clean of reports, quills, and inkpots while Cadence stooped in close and kissed him forcefully on the mouth, sending fire through every single one of his nerve endings and sending his heart soaring higher than any pegasus could fly.
"Isn't it obvious, my lord husband?" Cadence breathed as they came up for air some subjective decades later. Her eyes were deep and her breath throaty as she said "I want another one."