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// My Family is Efficient and Focused 
// Story: Family First 
// by Monarilla 
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	Fluttershy ran into her bedroom, crying as she always did after a day of flight school. It was a place where she could be alone and no one could tease her, where she could cry away all her weakness. This was the only way she could keep a straight face in front of her family, as she couldn't bear letting them see her in such a state. She would cry until she could cry no more and then when her parents asked about her day she could tell them with a smile on her face that it was fine.

"Fluttershy"

"Eep!" Fluttershy jumped and almost hit the ceiling. She swiveled around to see her dad come into her room. "Papa! W-w-what are you doing in her?" She quickly wiped the tears off her face and made what she thought was a smile, trying to cover up the fact that she had just been putting the pegasi rain makers to shame. 

For a moment he just stared at her and frowned "I'm not going to spend one more day listening to you bottle your feelings up in this room just to make yourself look strong in front of us. That's not where strength comes from, it's not a disguise we wear to cover up our weakness."

Fluttershy went even more red than she already had been and stared shamefully at her bedroom floor.

Her father sat beside her on her bed, "Tell me Fluttershy, what has been making you cry like this? Correction, who has been making you cry like this?"

"No one papa," her voice was almost a whisper "I scraped my foot on the floor on my way back from school." She didn't include that fact that she was pushed over and it was actually in her classroom.

"I would have liked to believe you, but we live on clouds dear." Her father made something between a grunt and a chuckle.

She finally looked up at her father, she looked into those kind, caring eyes of his. They were warm and inviting and they were pleading with her to tell the truth. She couldn't help it, she broke down in front of her father. He held his daughter tightly  and stroked her mane as she pressed her face into his chest and let her tears soak into his suit.

"I'm sorry papa! I c-c-can't do it! I'm n-n-not as strong as you!" she said between sobs.

"Its okay sweetheart, papa's here. Papa will always be here and I will always love you with all my heart." He whispered into her ear, "We're going to get through this together."

After a few minutes of crying and a few extra minutes of hugging, Fluttershy and her father finally gave each other a little breathing room. Flutterdawn straightened his suit and dabbed the tear stains with his handkerchief, Fluttershy blushed a little at the mess she had made of her fathers suit.

"It's fine sweetie, it's only a suit." He chuckled "But it's about time we started talking business, I know this is hard for you but this is also a magical opportunity to teach you a thing or two about bullies."

"But how did you-"

"A father can always tell."

"Oh..."

"Now tell me, who are these ponies in your class who keep making you cry like this?"

Fluttershy sniffled and wiped her eyes a little bit more. "Who isn't making me cry? Everyone thinks I'm a useless flyer and that I"m just, just useless in general."

Flutterdawn was honestly surprised "That's absurd! Your grades are phenomenal, and you do all the after school programs. Well, except the ones involving flying."

Fluttershy smiled, it was nice to hear her father appreciated her hard work. "They know all that, but it's like nothing matters to them except flying. I don't know what I can say to make them stop teasing me.

Flutterdawn stared blankly into space, she was a little young but this couldn't go on any longer. He could easily make them go away but that's not how his family solved problems.

He picked up Fluttershy and sat her on her lap. "Do you know what I had to go through to keep our business alive?" 

Fluttershy pondered over this, she knew that her father was a wealthy businessman, as was her mother. She never really considered the difficulty included in running one of the largest company's in the world. "I don't know papa, what did you have to go through?"

He sighed, "Bullies, lots of them."

This was surprising for Fluttershy, no one crossed her father. "You were bullied papa?"

"As a child, as an adult, you never lose the timber wolves. You just learn to tame them." He smiled thinking back on all those times they tested him. He would always win. Always.

Fluttershy was confused "Tame them papa?"

"A pony who acts like a dog is treated like a dog. but dogs don't know English, they only know dominance." He paused for a moment preparing to make his final step. "Which is why its time to show you how we handle bullies in the Flutter family."

Fluttershy said nothing, she just looked up at her father, hey eyes glowing with curiosity.

"I'm going to teach you something that your brother and sister learned when they were far older than you."

"I don't know papa, I have a lot of schoolwork and I don't want to be a bother to you." 

Her father grinned "Don't worry sweetheart, this is fole play for Flutters. All you have to do, is look into my eyes and remember who you are." 

And she did just that, at first they were just eyes, two big balls of jelly in her fathers skull. What could possibly be in eyes? they couldn't speak, they couldn't hide, they could cry but that never solved any of her problems. But this wasn't a joke, her father wasn't joking, she could tell from...his eyes. She stared deeper into them, she was starting to see more in them. She saw love, confidence, pride, honesty, and dozens of other words in her fathers eyes. Then one word came up she wasn't expecting. Shame. it taunted her and tortured her and turned her inside out. She felt the tears building up in her eyes but she kept looking. Her shame had manifested itself in her fathers eyes and approached her with a terrible hunger. She desperately wanted to look away but she couldn't let down her father. And then she remembered. She remembered her honor role certificate, she remembered the beautiful dress she made with her nana, she remembered the time she fell and got her cutie mark, and she remembered all the pride she felt at those moments. It built up around her like a wall which her shame could not pass. She saw as her shame desperately tried to break through her barrier and at that point she did something she had never done before in the face of shame, she laughed. And as her shame shrunk to the size of a grape, she realized what her father was trying to tell her, his eyes and his gaze could tell many stories and now, so could hers. She had read his eyes and beat her shame. For the moment.

Their eyes broke away from each other and Fluttershy fell back on her bed exhausted. "I think I understand papa, I really do." 

"When your grandfather taught me this gift, I saw a much different story than you. But beating you shame wasn't the point, the challenge depends on the person. The point was what my eyes, and now yours can do with little more than a stare." Her father jumped into an inspiring pose, which made Fluttershy giggle.

"But what does it matter that I can stare at them? does it really work better than words?"

"Better and easier than any word you can think of. When they look into your eyes they will see whatever you want them to see." Flutterdawn walked to Fluttershy's balcony and watched the sun set.

"So what now papa?" Fluttershy said joining him

He looked down at her and grinned "Now, I'm going to tell you what we're going to do." 

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Fluttershy was pulled out of her dream and back into reality as the carriage came to a jolting halt. She looked up at Snouten who was climbing off the carriage and calling over the luggage. He then spread his wings and flew over to the mansion followed closely by the luggage. As Fluttershy peaked out of the carriage she could see her family at the main door waiting for her. She wanted to hide, she wanted to go back to her cottage but she wasn't stupid, she knew that was not an option. 

"You can do this," She reassured herself "Deep breath, back straight, pride and power is the key."

She emerged from the carriage and planted her feet on the ground in front of it. The world came to a stop around her as she looked upon the picture perfect image of her past. Her loving but strict parents, her clever but cocky older sister, her enthusiastic and egotistic younger brother, and of course her older brother was no where to be seen. They all stood in front of the family mansion, a magnificent structure built both into the clouds and into a mountain as well. Some say it's beauty rivaled the Canterlot palace, but it wasn't like many people had more than a few moments to gaze upon it unless they were invited. The Wiltwing estate, cleverly named after the unfortunate curse of being a member of the Flutter family. Weak wings. In fact legend has it the Flutter family began their entrepreneurial empire from a business selling flight aids. But now was not the time to think about her past, she had some reuniting to be done.

"Sissie!" Her brother, Flutterdawn Jr squealed "You made it! You made it!"

Fluttershy gasped as her brother crashed into her head first, sending both of them flying back into the carriage. "Dawnie! I think I'm suffocating, please get off!

Her brother sprung off of her and back out the carriage, he jumped in place eagerly waiting for his sister to climb back out. Eventually she did, and kindly smiled at her brother, hoping that he wouldn't jump her again.

"It's so nice to see you again Dawnie" Fluttershy looked up at the rest of her family. "And it's nice to see you as well." For some reason that only sounded like it was directed to her sister.

"It's been too long Fluttershy" Her sister smiled as they approached each other for a hug. "I wanted to visit truly but I've been very in the griffon kingdom. Being in charge of the company's international relations and all

"I never knew!" Fluttershy said astonished, "Congratulations Flutterfree, I'm so happy for you."

"Hey sissie! Guess what? Dad say's when I get out of college I can run the bakery division of the company! I'm so excited I could burst!" Unlike her other siblings and her, her little brother never really caught on to discretion of class. Though that didn't stop him from being in eighteen different Fluttersweet bakery commercials. people called his smile contagious. Kind of like a certain somepony who she'd never see again.

"That's wonderful Dawnie, I'm so proud of you." Fluttershy was a little distant, this was the first time since she arrived that she had thought about the fact that her friends, her best friends, were miles away.

"What about Flutterdream? Will he be arriving later?" Fluttershy was curious to know why her brother hadn't showed up of all occasions.

"He's gone, he won't come back, never speak his name in front of me, or our parents, or Flutterdawn junior ever again." Her sisters gaze made Fluttershy's world go dark, around her, this only happened when her sister was very serious about something.

"I-I'll keep that in mind" Fluttershy whispered

The dark shroud lifted and her sisters smile returned "Good then, why don't you come in and we can have lunch. We have so much to catch up on." 

The two sisters and their little brother joined up with their parents and walked into the mansion. All the while, five figures quietly approached the mansion wearing guard uniforms.