“Can I just stay up for a little bit, dad? Pweaaase?” Lilac pleaded as she hopped several times, her blue and yellow hair bopping up and down in rhythm. Her sky-blue eyes glimmered with puppy tears as she puckered her lower lips, her hands clenched against each other in prayer.
Sentinel rolled his eyes – same color as his daughter – as he looked over from his desk decorated by scrolls, quills, ink wells, and a lamp. He rested his cheek on his palm, elbow down on the desk surface as he faced towards her. “It’s really late for you though. You’re really not sleepy?” Lilac quickly responded with a rough nod, and he sighed. He had a lot of work to complete for the next Night Court’s session, and with his daughter refusing to rest, he was going to have a lot on his hands tonight.
The fact that his daughter was hugging against the orange coat of his arm didn’t help much. It prevented him from working at all. “Come on, dad! Let’s play!”
Sentinel softly chuckled as he patted her purple head with his free limb. He couldn’t resist her cute passive-aggressive ways to persuade. “Well I guess I don’t have much of a choice now.”
“No, you don’t.” Lilac released his arm as he got up from his seat, and giggled loudly as he picked her up and hung her over his shoulder. She retaliated with pounding fists on his back. “Hey! That’s not fair!”
“Well sometimes, we must make sacrifices to get what we want. You want to stay up late, don’t you? Well I don’t recall you taking a bath earlier. Bad girl, you are.”
“I hate baths! I don’t need one, and I don’t care for one.”
“Well I care cause I don’t want my daughter to smell bad,” Sentinel laughed as he started to make his way to the bathroom, careful to not have his daughter bump into the doorframe. He picked up a new set of clothes for her on the way from her closet.
“So what if I smell bad? Nopony is gonna notice.”
“Oh I’m sure they will.”
Lilac let out an unhappy grunt as she crossed her arms. Her dad would always win these small battles with his literal big advantages. Soon she found her tiny feet settled on the smooth, tiled floor. She thought about escaping with a fleeting sprint, but her dad had already closed the door behind them. Lilac watched with a small frown as her dad began to fill the bathtub with water, testing the temperature every now and then.
“Alright, the bath is ready. Do you want to wash yourself, or will I have to do it for you?”
“I can wash myself. I’m a big girl,” Lilac grumbled.
“Okay. I’ll wait outside then.”
Chaotic stepped out of the room and closed the door. He leaned against the wall opposite from the bathroom door, and his horn glowed bright red as several scrolls levitated from his work desk. Several minutes of water sloshing and quill writing passed by rather quickly, but the calm silence surprisingly allowed the stallion to finish his work pretty well. When the last necessary pen stroke was made, the draining of the bathtub could be heard, and the bathroom door opened, revealing a slightly wet Lilac in her clean bed PJs. They were blue, decorated by crescent moons and stars.
“I’m done, dad.”
“Not yet you’re not,” Sentinel said as he held up a towel he had prepared while she was in the shower.
“What? Oh no dad, I’m already dry enough,” Lilac nervously chuckled.
“Here comes the Towel Monster!”
“Eek! No dad! I’m too old for that!” she screamed in laughter as she ran.
“Then get over here!” Sentinel grinned as he chased.
“No!”
The game of cat and mouse was intense, but fast as Sentinel easily cornered her in her bedroom, snatching her up in the towel’s dryness. He ruffled her mane to rid the remaining water locked in, leaving it in somewhat of a big mess. He then carried her over to her bed, sitting upon it with her on his lap. She was about to voice a complaint until a brush started stroking the back of her mane. Her grumbles soon became relaxed mewls. Lilac, while she would never admit it out loud, absolutely loved having her hair brushed by her father. It was warm and comforting, the way his one arm gently embraced her while the other tended to her mane. It was a double win for her.
“Ahh, so the wild tiger is finally tamed,” Chaotic smiled as he continued to brush.
“N- no it’s not,” Lilac objected, albeit weakly as she relaxed her back against his chest. She snuggled even deeper into his embrace, causing him to adjust his arms so he could still brush comfortably.
“Ah, but why am I hearing a kitten then?”
“I- it’s not a kitten! It’s an angry tiger!” Lilac said as she let loose her best growl. Sentinel absolutely loved how cute it actually was, prompting him to kiss the crown of her head before he went back to brushing.
Once finished, he began to tuck her into bed despite her light whining. “I want to play some more, dad.”
“There will be more of playtime tomorrow. For now, you need your sleep.”
“Well… can I get a bedtime story then?”
“A bedtime story, eh?” Sentinel hummed as he took a glance at the shelf next to her bed. His fingers stroked each spine of the books, the tips tracing along the titles. “Ah! How about The Hobbit? It’s your favorite.”
“Oh yes please!” Lilac smiled. She was about to yawn slightly, but quickly suppressed it before her father could notice. He did though, but quietly said nothing as he pulled out the book.
He turned to a page, and began to read. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
His voice continued to weave the tale for Lilac, planting images of a strange world of warriors and creatures in her mind. As he continued further and further, her eyelids began to droop to a close. Lilac struggled to keep awake, but alas for the poor filly she couldn’t stay her conscious, and was soon lightly snoring. Sentinel stopped in mid-sentence when he noticed. He was almost lost in the book itself. He left a bookmark in place of where he stopped, and shelved it back from where it came. He then graced a kiss on Lilac’s forehead.
“Sweet dreams, sweetie. You have a big day tomorrow.”