It was late at night in New Guardia as the group sat around the game table. The consensus for the game that night had been Boggle and, as expected, James was losing … badly. Shining Armor made sure to practice whenever he knew they would be playing it. He had an unbroken wining streak against James and this time was no different. However he wasn't expecting Lofty to have been so close when the final scores were eventually tallied.
“And another win for me.” Shining Armor said with a grin.
“Hah, I just let you win.” Lofty said matching his grin. “Next time I won't go so easy on you.” Holiday chuckled as she listened to her wife taunting the proud stallion.
“Little slow today James.” Shining Armor said, still grinning.
“Give me a break.” James said defensively. “I'm working with a completely different alphabet here.”
“Excuses.” Shining Armor joked.
“Don't make me invite your sister, she'll knock you down to second. Third once Lofty stops feeling sorry for you.” James said in a mock threatening tone.
Lofty laughed aloud a moment as Shining Armor blushed, knowing full well that Twilight would dominate the group.
Bow Hothoof smiled encouragingly. “You did an amazing job James! You're the only one here who even reads a second language, much less plays games with it.”
James smiled at the zealous encouragement, even though he didn't feel anywhere near as proud of the achievement as Bow. “Anyone want one last drink before heading out?” James asked as things
“No thank you.” Holiday said. “We've got to get back to start dinner before Scootaloo gets home from school.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” Lofty said as she reached walked over to her saddlebag and pulled out two paper bags, holding them with her wings. “These are for Sara and Amber. Home made cookies!”
James chuckled. “They'll have to wait for these until after their dinner tomorrow.”
Lofty scoffed and gave him a cocky smile. “Come on, they're kids. Spoil them a little.”
“I'll see you two later.” James said with his own half smile.
“Oh, right!” Holiday said as Lofty helped her with her saddle bag. “Are you and Lucca available to watch Scootaloo Tuesday?”
“Any time, with or without notice.” James said, and after a quick word of thanks Holiday and Lofty left.
“I should probably be going too. Windy and I'll be visiting Rainbow Dash while we're here. Of course you're welcome as well.” Bow said as he walked to the door.
“No thanks, it's actually getting late here. I've just got time for a drink before turning in. But I think she's coming by for her dinner in the morning.”
“Oh, Windy and I can come along too so we can visit our grandfoals.” Bow said before wishing James a good night and returning home himself.
James smiled, he had to admit that even though he and Rainbow Dash weren't a couple (despite her parents insistence) he was happy that his daughters finally had grandparents.
Shining Armor smiled as they were the only two left. “I'll take that drink.” He said with a shrug. “As much as I love being a father, it's nice to get away occasionally.”
“Were you in the same room as I was?” James asked with a laugh. “Half our conversation was about our daughters … Well, niece for Holiday and Lofty.”
“It's nice to get away from the responsibility of being a father.” Shining Armor corrected.
James chuckled as he collected two frosted mugs from the replicator, giving one to Shining Armor as they walked to the den. James took his chair as Shining Armor sat on the couch and they nursed their drinks as they idly chatted about whatever topic that came up. Eventually their conversation was interrupted by James's youngest daughter, Amber, as she poked her head in the door and smiled.
James cocked his eyebrow at his daughter as she walked in, smiling sheepishly as she did. “Aren't you tired? It's almost two in the morning.”
“Nope.” She happily said, shaking her head and making her long golden hair fly wildly around her.
“Come on, tomorrow may be Saturday but it's still not good to stay up all night.”
Amber stuck out her lip and pouted. “But you stay up all the time.”
“I'm old, I regret it, and as your father I'm telling you to go to bed.” James gently reprimanded.
She huffed a moment before putting her pouting lip away. “Okay dad.” She said as she walked over and hugged her father. She then turned and walked over to the couch and hugged Shining Armor. “Good night, Shining Armor.”
Shining Armor wrapped his foreleg around her and returned the hug, letting her go after a couple seconds as she held on.
“Amber.” James firmly said. He wasn't blind to his daughter's actions and knew right away what was going on, partially because he was looking for it in his elder daughter, Sara.
At her father's tone she promptly released Shining Armor and with a parting wave skipped off.
“She's very affectionate.” Shining Armor said with a smile.
“Yeah.” James answered uncomfortably.
“What's wrong?” Shining Armor asked.
James didn't know if Shining Armor noticed what was going on, but he saw it as clear as day. “I'll, uh, I'll have to have a talk with her tomorrow.”
Shining Armor looked to James confused. “Talk? About what? The hug may have been long but I don't see anything wrong with it.”
James shook his head. “Trust me, it's necessary. And you'll probably have to have a talk like this with Flurry some day.” He stretched as he stood up. “Well, I should probably follow suit and turn in too. Have a good day, Shining Armor.”
***
It wasn't long after returning to his world through the door that connected Twilight's Castle to New Guardia Castle that Cadence and Twilight approached him.
“So what too you so long?” Cadence asked with a smile. “Everypony else came through a while ago.”
“We were about to go looking for you.” Twilight added.
“James and I had one last drink before I left. Apparently he has to talk to Amber about something though.” He said, still puzzling about what James could have been getting at.
“Oh, what about?” Twilight asked as she walked alongside her brother.
“I don't really know.” He admitted. “Something about how friendly she is I guess. It was right after she hugged us goodnight.”
Cadence and Twilight both “ooh”ed and giggled as they smiled at the innocence of the whole situation.
“What?” Shining Armor asked. “James said I might have to have this talk with Flurry and if you know I'd like to have some idea about what to expect.”
“I think I'll have that talk with her when the time comes.” Cadence said with an amused grin.
“What's this talk?” He asked again, more confused than ever that he's the only one who didn't seem to know.
***
After breakfast that morning while Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles were spending time with Amber and Sara, James sat down to have a talk with Lucca in her workshop.
James sighed and picked up a random component to fiddle with before he spoke. “So I could be reading entirely too much into this, but I think Amber might have a crush on Shining Armor.”
“How do you figure?” Lucca asked as she leaned forward, dropping her elbows on the schematics she had drawn up for her current project.
James nodded as his omnitool blinked to life. “Our first hints were these.” He said as he brought up an image of several paintings Amber had done. Two of which were focused on Shining Armor in a heroic pose. Another with Amber alongside Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart. While Sara, Lucca, James, and Tali were in the painting too, they seemed to be placed more to the left than Twilight's family which was more centered, while Amber was closest to the center with Shining Armor.
“These were over a couple months, so it caught me off guard while I tried to convince myself it was nothing.” James explained.
Lucca took off her glasses and began cleaning them.
“And then last night she hugged Shining Armor for at least six seconds longer than necessary.” He finished.
Lucca put her glasses back on and nodded. “I guess we both missed this.” She commented after a moment.
“I was not ready for this.” James sighed as he leaned back.
“Is any one?” Lucca asked as she rested her chin on her fists.
“I thought I was ready for Sara to have a crush. I'd even expected her to have one on Tenchi, everyone else seems to.” He said as he mulled it over in his head.
“I wasn't expecting Shining Armor either, we're completely different species, and morphologies. But I guess it makes sense.” Lucca offered. “She looks up to Twilight, and Twilight is really close to her brother. Amber probably wanted to emulate that too, but instead she developed a crush. She's at an age where these things start to happen. What's he have to say about it?”
“He's completely clueless.” James commented. “I'm going to have a talk to Amber later, try to let her know that what she's feeling is okay but not to get her hopes up.”
“Good luck.” Lucca said, shaking her head. “While we're on the subject, have you noticed anything about Sara? Is she just a late bloomer or do you think she's hiding something from us?”
“I'd like to think she isn't hiding anything, but we don't talk like we used to.” James said with another sigh.
“Don't feel too bad about it. I'm sure she'll come around eventually.”
“Were you ever like this with your parents?”
“For a while. It was that day when I decided to learn all I could about machines when dad and I finally bonded over something. I wish I was closer to mom, and I guess that did happen in it's own way because of that gate.” Lucca went silent as she lost herself in her memories.
***
James stood outside Amber's bedroom and, not for the first time, wished that his daughters would stay his little girls forever. But he knew how ridiculous the notion was. And how if it were somehow possible that they could remain children forever, they would miss out on so many great things in life.
He groaned and scratched the back of his head before knocking on Amber's door. “Sweetheart. I think we need to have a talk.”
“Just a minute dad.”
“Everything takes a minute.” He mumbled to himself as he waited. There was the unmistakable sound of hurried cleaning but it wasn't long before the door opened.
Amber's room was large for a child's room, but it was an average sized room for the castle. The walls were an off white and covered in sketches Amber had made and some she had colored in, most were at least partially covered by the many paintings Amber had done, and she would rotate the ones she liked to various places. Right now, above her bed was one of the paintings of Shining Armor that James had shown Lucca earlier. Her bed itself was directly across from her bay window overlooking the garden of the central courtyard. Her work desk beside the window had a sketch of several animals in the woods just beyond the castle playing with each other. In the center of the room was a banged and scratched up easel that James had repaired on more than one occasion. On it was her most recent school assignment, and she was painting the view from her window. Probably not as grand as some of the other students might get from their windows, but her rendering of the garden before her was impressive.
Her armoire had more stuffed toys than it had clothes, and her bookcase was simply a place for her to keep her art supplies and more paintings. Beneath the easel was a random smattering of colors and splotches almost akin to several works of art James had seen in his youth, but now only reminded him of how many rugs his youngest daughter had ruined.
With his view on the floor for the moment he found that the minute she had kept him out had been spent shoving the clutter beneath her bed. Amber sat on the edge of the concealing bed and smiled up at him as she pulled the covers to try to hide what she had done.
“What did you want to talk about?”
James shook his head as he looked down at his daughter. “It's about last night …” He began before his daughter cut in.
“Why can't I stay up on the weekends?” She pouted as she pursed her lips.
“It's not that. I don't mind you staying up late on weekends.” He said calmly. “Though two am is a bit late for you still. … Look, it's pretty obvious that you have a crush on Shining Armor. Just …” James sighed again as he tried to think about what he was going to be saying. “Just don't think he's going to reciprocate your feelings. He's happily married with a daughter of his own, and more than twice your age.”
“So I shouldn't care because of that?!” Amber said while scowling.
James shook his head. “No. Caring is fine, even your crush is fine. I just don't want you to start thinking there's more than that, it will hurt a lot if you start convincing yourself of that.”
“You can't tell me who I can and can't like!” Amber shouted.
“I'm not saying you can't like him.” James tried to emphasize, keeping his voice down. “It's fine that you like him, just don't think he likes you as anything but a friend.”
“What about you and Rainbow Dash?” Amber demanded. “She's younger than mom!”
James groaned and rubbed his forehead. “Rainbow Dash and I are friends, nothing more. And this isn't about my relationships. I just want you to understand that you can't hold out for Shining Armor. He likes you, but only as a friend. Okay?”
“… Okay.” Amber huffed.
James sighed yet again and walked to the door, turning back as he crossed the frame. “And shoving the mess under your bed isn't cleaning, pull it out and put it away.”
***
The Friday after next Cadence approached James as he sat in the Guildhall after his lecture. “How did your talk with Amber go?”
James sighed and shook his head. “She's been mad at me all week. I guess it's good she's talking to me still, even if it's mostly her trying to be hurtful.”
Cadence shook her head and smiled. “I was worried that might be the case.”
James cocked his eyebrow as he looked to her. “So you thought I wasn't the right one to have this talk.”
Cadence shook her head. “Not exactly. It's that you and Lucca like to think rationally, and a crush isn't rational. Did you tell her why she shouldn't have a crush on Shining Armor, or did tell her that she should be careful?”
“I told her to be careful.” James answered, not seeing where she was going.
“Uh-huh. You were trying to predict the future, and wanted to protect her from something that may not even be a problem. Did you even ask what she liked about him?” Cadence said, giving him a sly look.
“… No, I didn't.” James admitted.
Cadence grinned. “I'll have a talk with her. I might know just a bit more about the subject.” She began to walk away when James called out to her.
“How did you know it would turn out like this?”
“I was Twilight's foal sitter, and you two think just like her.” She answered easily. “She thought she could rationalize these things too. And from what I heard about her reaction to that prank you and Rainbow Dash pulled, she still does.”