//------------------------------// // Imaginary Friends // Story: Sins of the Father // by TornadoBlitz //------------------------------// Ginger Bread pranced into the kitchen with a song on her lips. “Prince Monster would like more oatmeal,” she said to her mother. Sweet Roll laughed at her daughter. Not with malice, but simply being amused by her daughter’s endless imagination. Looking into the pot, there was a bit left over from breakfast: it was going to be thrown away anyway. “And how is the prince doing today?” she asked, putting the half serving of oats into a bowl. Ginger’s expression went grave. “His wing got hurt pretty bad last night.” Looking out the door, her frown deepened. “Somepony thought he was bad. Tried to hurt him.” Hoofing her daughter the bowl, Sweet patted her on the head. “I’m sorry your imaginary friend got hurt. You know where the rags are, if you need bandages.” Ginger scowled. “He’s not imaginary,” she said, before taking the bowl in her teeth, the trotting out the front door. “What does she do with all the scraps you give her?” Sour Dough asked, looking up from his paper. “Feed it to the birds.” Sweet shrugged. “I guess.” “We’re going to have some really fat birds soon.” Standing up from the table, Dough looked out the window. “She’s been feeding that imaginary friend of hers for three weeks now,” he said, watching Ginger trot behind the barn. Moving closer to her husband, Sweet kissed him on the cheek. “It’s been a hard winter, they need the food.” Dough leaned into his wife for just a moment. “It’s better that throwing it in the trash.” Standing upright, Dough walked towards the door. “Speaking of hard winter,” he said, slipping on a coat. “I need to fix that bit of roof, before the snow caves it in.” Sweet smiled, then went back to her own chores.“I’ll bring you some coffee here in a bit, to warm you up.” She heard Dough open the door, but then there was a long pause. “Umm... Honey?” Dough said. “What’s a matter dear?” Sweet said, turning with some annoyance at the draft her husband was letting in. “The guard from the Crystal Empire is here.” Sweet blinked, not sure if her husband, too, had taken up seeing the imaginary, then moved to look over his shoulder. Sure enough, a dozen shimmering guards were in front of their house. The only normal pony in the group was currently taking off his helmet, and walking up onto the porch. She’d seen that face in the papers enough — it was Prince Shining Armor. Both Sweet and Dough gave a nervous bow as he stopped before them. Not from any sort of fear, but rather amazement. The crystal ponies had been a legend until 2 years ago, but now their empire was only a few miles north of their little town. The few that had visited their town had been perfectly pleasant, if not a little out of touch with modern Equestria. “No need to bow,” Shining said, waving a hoof at the display. “I’m just here looking into a reported disturbance.” Dough tilted his head at the comment. “What’s the disturbance? It’s been quiet out here, your highness.” Shining shifted his helmet from one hoof to the other, not quite comfortable with the title. “Well, there’s been a lot of reports in town about a monster... raiding trash cans at night.” “Racoons get pretty big up here,” Sweet said, offering the first thing that came to mind. A smile spread across Shining’s muzzle as he laughed.. “No, the locals had a pretty consistent description. Some kind of pony-looking creature, but definitely not a pony. They almost caught it last night, wounded it pretty bad from what they told us.” The air went thick and the blood drained from both Sweet and Dough’s faces. “They wounded one of its wings, didn’t they?” Sweet asked, after a moment. This time it was Shining who tilted his head. “Yeah, how’d you know?” Dough pushed past Shining, making a quick trot towards the barn. “Our daughter has been feeding it,” Sweet said, shock taking all emotion from her voice. Shining stared at her for a heartbeat, letting the comment soak in. In a blink, he rushed to catch up with the farmer. A glance and a motion summoned his guards to follow. “Let me go first. Where are they?” Shining asked when he caught up. Sour Dough wanted to protest, but thought better of it. “She’s been playing in the woodshed a lot lately. I’d guess there.” Moving ahead of the father, Shining motioned towards the little building behind the barn. The first thing was to protect the filly. Lighting his horn, he readied a shield spell. His sergeant moved ahead without being told. Shining held his hoof up as Diamond Peytral neared the door, ready to open it as fast as possible. Before they opened the door they could hear a voice. “I’m glad you like that, Prince Monster. I’m really sorry about your wing, some ponies can just be the worst.” “Thank you,” said another voice. The look of surprise on Sour Dough’s face was enough to tell Shining that the second voice wasn’t supposed to be there. Shining nodded at his sergeant. The crystal pony nodded back, and jerked the door open. Inside, no monster greeted him, but he did see the filly. She was looking up at him with shock and confusion. Not bothering to wait for any monster to react, he wrapped her in a protective bubble. It was then that the monster revealed itself. “No, bad!” it yelled at him. Standing atop a pile of wood, it looked ready to attack him with everything he had. Well, It wasn’t really a monster. It was another foal, maybe three or four years old. He had a calico coloring, and one wing was bandaged with what looked like an old picnic blanket. Still... he understood why the locals had feared the little thing. What ever innocence the foal had, was spoiled by the horn jammed upon his head. The smooth red protrusion flickered and smoked purple and green. “Sir?” Peytral said quietly from the doorway, looking for orders. Staying as still as possible, Shining motioned from him to go away. “Surround the shed,” he said in a hushed voice. Peytral nodded, then vanished from sight, letting Shining Armor focus on the foal. There was no mistaking it, it was Sombra’s horn, smack in the middle of some poor pegasi’s head. Shining had thought it destroyed along with the rest of the villain, but somehow the strange looking foal had become another of Sombra’s victims. Or perhaps some foal he sired... No the colors were all wrong for that, and his jaw was far too soft to be Sombra’s blood. Shining couldn’t help but feel sorry for him; a pawn in an unforeseen scheme. That didn’t mean he was about to let his guard down either. What ever magic had affected the foal was dangerous. “Easy there,” Shining said, taking a step back to face the unfortunate foal. The foal answered with a growl, jumping down from the pile to be between him and the filly. Lowering himself to the colts level, Shining readied a sedation spell, while letting the shield spell drom rom around the filly. “I’m not going to hurt you.” The filly bolted to the colt’s side the moment her hooves touched the floor. “Leave us alone...” Shining smiled at the two, but kept his focus. “I’m sorry. It was just a protection spell. I’m Prince Shining Armor. Who are you?” The filly brightened up at the introduction. “I’m Ginger Bread, and this is Prince Monster,” the filly said, giving him her best bow. The colt seemed less impressed, but he did relax a bit; the vapors of dark magic around his horn growing thinner. He nodded out of respect. “Prince Monster?” Shining asked, confused. “Of course!” Ginger Bread beamed “He has wings and he has a horn. That makes him an alicorn, which makes him a prince.” “I see.” Shining chuckled, smiling at the filly’s bubbliness “Well then, Prince Monster. Surely you have a different name than that?” The foal remained silent, his eyes staring back at Shining Shining sighed “Look, I’m sorry for startling you, and for reacting the way I did. We heard reports of a mon... dangerous creature, and apparently it was in here. Believe me though, I am not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.” The foal looked like he was deep in thought about his next words The colt glared at him with suspicion “Don’t hurt Ginger, promise?” he asked. Shining nodded, but the action didn’t satisfy the colt. Seeing he needed a bit more of an oath, Shining lifted one hoof into the air. “I promise to protect her, and see that she isn’t harmed.” The colt relaxed at the formal oath, and stepped closer. “Talk here, or outside?” “No, Prince Monster!” Ginger Bread cried “Please don’t go out. I don’t want you to get hurt again.” The foal looked back at the filly and smiled “It fine. Don’t want you hurt.” Shining was impressed; monster or not, the amount of kindness he had for Ginger Bread was reassuring. “How very noble of you.” Shining said, getting the foal’s attention. “I’ll protect you too, if you’ll let me, but we can stay in here for right now.” “Okay,” the foal said, accepting the offer by sitting down. “Do you have another name besides Monster?”   The foal slowly shook his head. Shining wrinkled his face in confusion. “Who named you that?” he asked. “Father,” the foal responded. Before Shining could ask the foal who “Father” was, the door opened. “Sir!” Diamond Peytral shouted, stepping into the room while still looking behind him. “We have the-” his words died as he turned to see the red-crystal horn and the fine mist of dark magic around it. Reflex went before thought, as he leaped next to his captain, and lashed out with his magic. The shot went wild, as Shining flung his own sergeant back out the door with a spell, but the damage was done, not to Peytral, but the foal. A surge of dark magic had twisted his face into mask of rage and fear. More dark magic collected on the foals horn, readying for an attack, but Shining loosed his own magic first. The sedation spell he had readied cracked against the red horn, dropping the colt unconscious to her floor. “No!” Ginger cried, throwing herself in front of the colt, in an attempt to protect him. “He’s just asleep.” Shining said. “See, he’s breathing just fine.” Ginger paused to examine the colt’s breath, while Shining stepped outside to check on his sergeant. He was about to ask if he was okay, but fear was still in Peytral’s eyes, even as he scrambled to his hooves. . “That horn!” Peytral gasped. “How in Tartarus does he have that horn? Sir, how is that even possible?” “Enough!” Shining roared. “No more cowering. You are part of the Crystal Guard, Sergeant. Act like it.” Peytral immediately stood up and snapped to attention. This was Shining Armor’s way. Generally he was a fair and kind captain and ruler, treating his troops with respect , but he was not afraid to get strict and force the ponies under his command to toe the line. “Now,” Shining said, after calming down “We will discuss that little stunt you pulled when we get back to the empire. For now,” Shining rounded to face his soldiers that weren’t currently’ surrounding the shed.  “It seems that we have found our monster. What we will do now is take him back to the empire with us. When he wakes, he will have the chance to explain his story. Am I understood?” “Yes, Captain,” chanted the platoon. Looking back to the guards that were still holding post around the shed, he waved for them to rejoin the others. “Line up, we’re going home,” he said, stepping forward to collect the unconscious colt from inside. Despite everything, Shining couldn’t blame Peytral for his actions. It had only been two years since the fall of Sombra, and the memories of the horrendous hardships that tyrant forced upon the crystal ponies still ran deep. Back inside the shed, he found Ginger still over the colt. She had made another bit of bandage from tablecloth, wrapping it around his head and horn. “Now ponies won’t see,” she said, looking up with sad eyes. “What’s going to happen to him?” Shining sat next to her with a heavy sigh. “We’re going to get him help. Princess Cadance and I will see how to get him the help he needs.” He could tell she didn’t fully understand him, but nodded anyway. “Please, promise me he isn’t going to be hurt anymore. He’s my friend and he’s been through enough.” Shining nodded. “I will. Protecting ponies is my mark.” Taking the colt into his magic, Shining gave the filly a smile before standing. “We need to go now though. Thank you for helping him.” Ginger nodded, watching as her friend was draped across Shining’s back. Reaching up, she touched his limp hoof. “Good luck, Prince Monster.”