//------------------------------// // Floating // Story: The Brother and The Sitter // by Spike120812 //------------------------------// Floating If a new emotion could be invented, Shining Armor had done exactly that. Floating. Standing in the library by one of the shelves, Shining Armor not only looked like he was, but he somehow felt "floating”. A mix of happiness, hopefulness, and any other possible positive emotion had been used to create this new emotion. One could almost swear he was propelled by tiny hearts coming out of nowhere. The kiss in the light drizzle, the dinner, just being with Cadance; it may have all happened just two nights ago, but it was a night he would never forget. He was walking on air, and almost nothing could pull him out of his blissful trance... almost nothing. "SHINY!" Shining Armor snapped out of his thoughts and turned his head to see Stardust entering the library and trot towards him. She may have been a few minutes late, but Ms. Paige's didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Stardust," Shining Armor called back to his friend. She stopped in front of Shining Armor and with both of her forehooves, brought his face mere centimeters from hers. "Tell. Me. Everything." After being released from her constricting hold, Shining Armor spilled all of the details about his date with Cadance, from her dress, the restaurant, his early screw up, their stories, and the night ending with a kiss on the cheek. "Awwwwwww!" Stardust drew Shining Armor in and wrapped a foreleg around his neck and noogied him with the other. "Attacolt, Shiny." Stardust's friendly assault on Shining Armor's head continued for a few seconds until Shining Armor managed to wiggle his way out of her grasp, laughing the entire time. "Thanks, Star, but didn't I already tell you about it?" "No," Stardust deadpanned. "You came home, said it went perfect, and then you practically knocked out on the floor!" "Oh yeah..." replied Shining Armor, a bit ashamed as he remembered himself knocking out in the living room. Shining Armor looked back on that day and realized that he was up from sunrise into the very late night. The fact that he didn't knock out on the floor the instant he got home was a miracle in itself. He spent the day after his date like his little dragon brother, sleeping. His house was silent for most of the day, much to Twilight's delight since she buried herself in her literary collection. Stardust began to nudge playfully at Shining Armor's shoulder with a sly grin. "Soooooo, got any plans for next time?" Shining Armor put a hoof on his chin in contemplation."I was thinking about that; and maybe I could take her to Joe's one night." "Oh thank Celestia," Stardust exhaled. "For a minute I thought you were gonna try and find a way to outdo yourself." "I'm not that desperate!" Shining Armor defended loudly, inadvertently gaining the attention of a certain yellow librarian. "Stardust! Shining Armor!" Ms. Paiges called from behind her counter. "Yes, Ms. Paiges?" responded the two assistants with a hint of fear in their voices. "I may be old, but I can still hear the sound of ponies not working!" Stardust and Shining Armor raced towards the front counter to pick up part of the enormous pile of books that needed re-shelving. "Sorry, Ms. Paiges. We'll get shelving," said Shining Armor very rapidly before speeding off to his first area of work. "Stardust," called Ms. Paiges, making Stardust stop her walk towards her coworker. "Yes, Ms. Paiges?" Ms. Paiges motioned Stardust to come closer with a hoof. A little reluctantly, Stardust walked over to the counter. She was met with a small smile on the old librarian's muzzle. "Is it true? Did Shining Armor finally take Cadance out?" Stardust stood there for a second, shock present on her face, but that was quickly replaced with a little smirk of her own. "Uh-Huh. Dinner at Lumière de Ètoiles." Ms. Paiges brought her hooves up to her mouth in an awestruck gasp. She had known Shining Armor liked Cadance, but to take her to a place like that spoke volumes of his crush. Her eyes began to glimmer a bit like a grandma's would when seeing her grandchildren. "Awww... Well, I'm happy for him. The poor nervous wreck deserves it," Ms. Paiges spoke with a bit of a laugh. Stardust couldn't help but laugh as well. "He's getting better, ma'am." "I'm sure he is," said Ms. Paiges half-heartedly. "Oh, Stardust?" "Yes, Ms. Paiges?" Ms. Paiges narrowed her eyes, and her pointed glasses lowered a bit as she gave one of her signature librarian glares. "Get back to work." "Yes ma'am!" Stardust took off with her stack of books towards Shining Armor. Very few things scared her, and that glare was one of them. Ms. Paiges was left with an annoyed look as she ducked behind her desk and pulled out a little coin sack. She grumbled a bit as she pulled out ten bits from her sack. "So much for that new purse." ************** "Ooooh. Yes, right there... Ahhhhhh, yes that's the spot." Silence and blissful moans filled the large light purple room that served as the royal spa. Inside, Blueblood was in the middle of a tension numbing massage, not that he really had any stress or tension to numb. Next to him, one of the spa ponies was rubbing some sort of soap into his cousin’s mane, who was seated close by. From her lying position, Cadance was in a state of total relaxation as one of the spa ponies was washing her mane. "Blueblood, this was such a good idea." "I know. Just one of the many ideas of my genius mind," bragged Blueblood, earning an eye roll from Cadance, though he didn’t take notice. The spa pony that was working on Cadance's mane came to a stop on her work to let the soap settle into Cadence's candy-colored mane. "Okay, Princess, let that settle for a few minutes, and I'll be back for your rinse." "Also, Prince Blueblood," said the other spa pony as she finished off Blueblood's massage, "I'll go fetch the seaweed and cucumber slices." "Take your time," replied Cadance. "Make it quick!" demanded Blueblood. The two spa workers ran into another room to gather materials, and once they were out of earshot, Cadance spoke up. "Blueblood, what happened to the other spa ponies?" "Oh, I fired them," Blueblood answered nonchalantly with a wave of a hoof. "You fired Aloe and Lotus?!?" "They got rough on one of my massages," explained Blueblood. "Next thing I know, they started screaming at me and yelling something about building their own spa. Pfffft, as if." Cadance let out an aggravated sigh; of course Blueblood would fire somepony over something so small. "So," he began, "how was your date with Shining Armor?" Cadance took a moment to remember the night and started to see the date playback through her imagination. It was perfect in her eyes, it was everything she had hoped for... though a kiss back from Shining Armor would've been nice. "Blue, it was perfect. He took me out to eat, we talked, laughed, he walked me home," she paused as she smiled a little wider, "then I gave him kiss goodnight." "You kissed him?!" Blueblood nearly screamed, concern gripping his voice. "Relax, it was just on the cheek," Cadance reassured with a smirk as she found Blueblood’s protective instinct hilarious. "Just tell me if he tries anything funny..." "He's too nice to try anything." "So, I'm guessing you still want to date him?" Cadance let a dreamy sigh escape her lips. "Uh-Huh." "Is that why you're getting your mane done?" asked Blueblood playfully. "Mayyyyyyybe." Blueblood laughed at his cousin's answer. He knew what she meant, and that's what intrigued him. In the time he'd known Cadance, he had never seen her really try to impress ponies with her looks, which explained why she usually went out without her royal slippers or any princess-like accessories, and tended to just put her mane up in a ponytail. Now she was going so far as to getting her mane done and two days ago she dragged him into her room for six hours to get his opinion on a dress! Blueblood realized that Cadance really liked Shining Armor, and seeing her happy when she was around or thinking of Shining Armor was good enough to make him happy. "Well, I'm sure he'll love your new manestyle, Cadance," said Blueblood with a genuine smile. "Thanks, Blueblood." "You know," started Blueblood with a hoof on his chin, "all this talk about you and Shining Armor makes me think that I should look for a mare myself." Cadance instantly perked up as she thought of something, "You knowwww, Shining Armor has a friend. Her name's Stardust. Maybe you two could—" "I don't date commoners," interrupted Blueblood, making Cadance internally scream with frustration. How he could go from caring relative to complete flankhole in the blink of an eye was a complete mystery to her. "Speaking of commoners, why is HE here?" asked Blueblood as he pointed a hoof behind the royal pair and towards another bed with a small purple and green dragon sound asleep. He was wrapped in seaweed, with two cucumber slices on his eyes, one of which seemed to have a bite mark. "It was Twilight's turn to look after Spike today, but she and Aunt Celestia are working on more complex magic, so I offered to look after him before I take them home," Cadance explained, smiling at the adorable purple and green sleeping bundle of seaweed and scales. "You sure it's a good idea to give a dragon a seaweed wrap?" inquired Blueblood as he raised an eyebrow at Spike. "He seems fine with it," answered Cadance as Spike let out a few unconscious laughs from whatever dream he was having. Doors flung open and fast-paced trotting followed, catching the attention of Cadance and Blueblood. They looked towards the open doorway and saw the two spa ponies returning with the supplies on their backs. "About time," pouted Blueblood as one of the spa ponies started his seaweed wrap. "Okay, Princess, is there any particular style you have in mind?" asked the other spa pony, already halfway through Cadance's rinse. “I sure do.” *************** "It's almost closing time you two!" called Ms. Paiges towards her assistants a few shelves away. "Almost done, ma'am," called Shining Armor. The two assistants' day went just like any other at the library. Shelve books, fill out return records, help any ponies that wanted to check a book out; the usual that came with their job. The two were just about to finish their shelving just as Shining Armor spoke up. "Hey, Star?" "Yeah, Shiny?" "Remember when you tried to tell me something when I went over to go help Cadance with the burning decorations a few days ago?" "Yeah," replied Stardust, still shelving some books. "It was about Blueblood, wasn't it?" Stardust gave a smirk as she shelved her last book. "Uh-huh." "How did you know about him?" Stardust's horn began to glow, and from a few rows above her head, a bright white book floated down to her side. "I shelved this a few weeks ago and gave it a little look-through." Shining Armor looked at the white book, 101 Interesting Facts about the Royal Family. "Of course," droned Shining Armor stoically. He stayed there for a few seconds before turning and facing one of the shelves. He brought his head back a bit aaaaaand... *Thwack! *Thwack! *Thwack! "Closing time, you two!" called Ms. Paiges again from her desk. "Give Shiny one more minute, ma'am," Stardust called back to the old mare while watching Shining's episode. *Thwack! *Thwack! *Thwack! Shining Armor drew his head back from the case he just struck and looked at his friend. "Ya done?" Stardust asked blank-faced. "... Almost." *Thwack! *Thwack! *Thwack! Shining Armor took in a deep breath, and turned to face Stardust. "Okay, I'm done." The two assistants made their way to the entrance of the library, waved goodbye to their boss, and headed off towards their homes. Celestia was taking her time setting the sun as beautiful shades of burning orange and red painted the evening sky. It was a sight that Shining Armor wished he could share with a certain pink alicorn... maybe someday. Their trip home didn't take too long, and was spent just like their usual walks home, talking and reminiscing. The reminiscing was mostly done by Stardust, specifically on all the other times that caused Shining Armor to go into one of his "episodes" like earlier. "One stupid book. One stupid book," he kept repeating, annoyance and shame grasping his tone. Stardust walked by him, trying to hold back her laughter, but that was proving to be near impossible, especially since she had just reminded Shining Armor of another one of his blunders. "And after Cadance left the library, you smashed your head into the wall for like ten minutes straight," she managed to say through her gasps for air. "Oh, and then there was that time you knocked over an entire shelf in front of her, and nearly crushed that stallion." By now, she was in hysterics. Even Shining Armor was laughing at his own mistakes. They were funny in retrospect, but ONLY in retrospect, at least to him. "Did I really screw up that much?" Shining Armor asked, a little frightened at the numerous examples Stardust managed to think back on. "Write down all the times you’ve messed up, ya could fill Twilight's collection... five times." Shining Armor brought a hoof to his face, making the red from his earlier episode grow more vibrant. True, he messed up A LOT, but one sure thing came out of it. "Yeah, well THIS screw up," he said with a hoof pointed at himself, "managed to get a date with the most beautiful mare in Equestria!" Shining Armor declared, puffing his chest out in rare pride. "When did I go on a date with you?" Stardust joked, causing the two to laugh a bit. "But seriously, I'm proud of ya, Shiny," she praised, giving a nudge at Shining Armor. "Hey, maybe I should find a colt for you, Star." "This mare don't need help findin' a colt, but I appreciate the gesture, Shiny." Shining Armor rolled his eyes at his friend’s bravado, something he always admired about her. Their stroll down memory lane, at Shining Armor's expense, ended as he arrived at his house and made his way up the front porch. He waved Stardust off, and she continued her walk home. He turned to the door with a grin. It would be the first day he'd seen Cadance since their date, and he only hoped he could play it cool... hoped. With a gentle click of the lock from his magic, he walked in only to be blindsided by two set of forelimbs pulling him into a tight hug. "Oh, my baby! I missed you so much." "Welcome home, son." Through his scrunched up vision, thanks to the tight embrace, Shining Armor looked up to see a blue unicorn stallion with a darker blue mane he recognized as his father, Night Light, and a light grey unicorn mare with a light purple and white striped mane he knew as his mother, Twilight Velvet. "Mom! Dad!" he exclaimed with a wide smile while trying to return the hug as best as he could from his constrained position. "When did you guys get back?" "Just this afternoon, honey," Velvet began before her husband took over. "We thought we'd surprise you when you came home from work." "Shining Armor!" called a high-pitched voice from the kitchen belonging to a certain filly. Shining Armor broke away from his parents and looked towards the kitchen to see said filly, Spike, and Cadance sitting by a small stack of gifts on the table. "We got presents!" Twilight squealed like it was Hearth's Warming. Shining Armor trotted towards the kitchen, smiling dreamily as Cadance motioned for him to sit next to her. That's when he noticed something new about her... her mane. Once again it changed. Replacing the light waves from two nights ago were bouncy curls that fell to the base of her neck. Once again Shining Armor found himself staring dreamily at Cadance, causing the pink mare to blush slightly. "Can we open them now? Spike's already digging into his!" Twilight complained, pointing to the infant dragon sucking on a sky blue sapphire. "Alright, Twilight," Velvet complied. At this, Twilight instantly ripped through the purple and pink wrapping of the rectangular gift. Once she got through the wrapping, she squealed with joy when she saw the gift... a book. A Full History of the Hayman Islands: First Edition. Twilight rushed to her parents and squeezed them both with unnatural strength in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Twilight quickly said before letting her parents go and taking off to her room with her new book held in her magic. "You're welcome," Velvet and Night Light replied in a casual tone that came with learning how their daughter reacts when getting a new book. With Twilight now muzzle deep in her book, Shining Armor and Cadance were left to open their own little trinkets. Shining Armor quickly tore open his small gift to see a Hayman Island snow globe with two plastic ponies in the center of the globe looking each other adoringly. Shining Armor looked up to see his dad raising his eyebrows repeatedly while Velvet nodded her head to her side, motioning to Cadance. Shining Armor decided to ignore the parental teasing to pay mind to Cadance as she delicately undid the wrapping surrounding her small gift. From it, she pulled out a glass heart filled with gleaming white sand and crystal blue water. "Wow, thank you, Night Light. Thank you, Velvet," Cadance beamed as she held the glass heart in her hooves. "Anything for our favorite foal-sitter," Velvet replied before turning her attention back to her son. "So, what did you do while we were gone, Shining?" Shining Armor listed the usual; work, looking after Twilight, Cadance looking after Twilight, helping at the Summer Sun Celebration, preventing another Spike fire. Then, he came to a pause as he looked at Cadance with an adoring look. "I also," he stepped closer to Cadance, "we also," he corrected, "went on a date two nights ago." Cadance blushed a bit as she leaned into Shining Armor. Velvet and Night Light on the other hoof were in a state of total disbelief. Both were wide-eyed and their jaws nearly hit the floor at the news. They knew of their son's crush, but they didn't expect him to act on it for at least a few more weeks, partially for the sake of their bet, but still. With the initial shock now gone, both of Shining Armor's parents couldn't help but smile widely. "My baby... my baby..." Velvet said through a joyful sob, making Shining Armor go red in the face. "Mom..." Shining whined out, causing Cadance to giggle at Shining’s foalish behavior. Hearing her giggles only made Shining go even redder. "You know, Shining," Night Light began, a sly grin on his face, "your mother and I are just gonna be unpacking the rest of the night. Maybe you and Cadance would like to step out for a little stroll? Dinner? Something?" "Ugh... I... think... what... ugh..." Shining was lost. His dad was basically shoving him into another date. "That sounds lovely," Cadance interjected, sparing Shining Armor more of his mumbles. "Great!" Night Light beamed before heading behind the two teenage ponies. In a cartoonish fashion, he shoved the two along the floor towards the front door of the house while naming a few places they could go. Night Light flung the door open with his magic and shoved the two outside. "Have fun you two," he said with a wide grin before disappearing back inside the house. Shining Armor and Cadance stood at the front steps, both had looks of surprise plastered on their faces at Night Light's strength. "Well... that happened," said Cadance, slowly descending the stairs of the porch. "Sorry about that," Shining apologized as he hung his head a bit. "It's fine, Shining." Cadance looked around at the slowly emptying streets. Celestia was about ready to raise the moon, and the sky was painted in slowly darkening purple clouds. "So," she began, turning to Shining Armor, "where should we go?" 'Okay, someplace casual, but nice. Casual, but nice... ughhhhhh,' Shining Armor's mind was racing to find a solution. After a few moments of thought, Shining Armor instantly sprung up in a full grin. He bowed a bit as he offered a hoof to Cadance. Cadance happily took Shining's hoof, and the two galloped off. "So where to?" "It's a surprise." *************** Night Light stood by the door with his ear pressed against the wood. Once the sound of hoofbeats finally silenced, he let out a sigh of relief before turning to his wife. "Oh, my baby boy," Velvet sighed out. Night Light came up to his wife and held onto her in a warm hug. "Come on, honey. It was bound to happen.” "I know, honey.” Velvet let out a long sigh as she realized something. “Our little Shiney-Whiney is growing up." "I know, honey. I know. But you knowwww... Shining's out of the house, Twilight's reading a book... so that gives us a few hours to ourselves." Velvet let a devilish smile crawl on her face. "You'll get the wine and candles, and I'll get the spaghetti." The two ran towards the kitchen, ecstatic for their spontaneous date night, but upon reaching the kitchen, they were met with a small lavender filly wearing a smirky grin. "Twilight?” “Shining Armor told you about his date a few nights ago, right?” Twilight asked, already knowing the answer. “Yeah. Why do you ask, honey?” Velvet asked. Twilight outstretched a forelimb as her smirk widened. “Pay up, mom and dad.”