//------------------------------// // For Thy Father // Story: Journey Further // by Basic Information //------------------------------//         Sitting atop of a modest throne decorated with colorful fabrics and expensive fur. A lord of virtue sits in rapt attention as the only pony to keep his focus for more than a minute is now pacing back and forth in front of him, throwing one of her famous tantrums. The lord couldn’t help but to compare the mares rainbow features to his own. Her mane and tail were the exact shade of multi-colored hues as his were, if not even more messy and bright. Still he could be doing anything else right now, like going through tax policies or organizing the next tournament that's coming up. But no, his daughter comes first.         Sighing deeply, he started to slouch further into his chair before speaking a word. “Dash… Please, my headache is returning.”         “Well my headache has never stopped since you thought you could just ship me off!” The daughter of said lord spoke angrily towards him. Her attitude was enough to make the Pegasi guards in attendance more than a little nervous. After all she was known for her rather grating and aggressive nature.         “Thought? No, don’t you understand daughter of mines. This is something you must undergo for our people,” At this point, the lord was nearly beyond trying to reason with his daughter. “We have to do this, otherwise those crafty Unicorns will just sweep right in after time!”         “What of it! We’ll go to war, show them what for!!!”         “ENOUGH!” He was at his wits end, having to slam his hoof down on the arm of his throne just to get his point across, his headache was back in full force.         Several of the less experienced guards shifted uneasily in their light iron plated armor as their lord rarely showed that much raw emotion. Even Rainbow Dash was slightly taken back by his display, while uncomfortably flying in her rather simple dress that was forced upon her by none other than her father. She’d prefer to go raw as much of the Earth Ponies do on their farms, but her father insisted ‘forcefully’ that nobility doesn’t dress in such simple manners, or not at all for that matter. That was an argument that she could never win, and this one was another one that was going to fly through her hooves.         “Fluttershy… Could you please escort… My daughter back to her chambers.” The lord said dismissively to a maid that was blending in quite well with the background.         Fluttershy was a young yellow Pegasus wearing a simple, yet demurring maids outfit. She had been serving the family for as long as she could remember, and her upbringing had been nothing short of a mystery. But she’d never been the one to cause problems, and actually she was possibly the only one the lord could trust to calm his daughter down when needed.         The Pegasus in question squeaked when she was addressed. As she has always been accustomed to due to the fact that she was rarely spoken to, unless it was with her friend Rainbow. Looking up timidly from behind her long pink mane, she nodded lightly to the lord as she trotted silently to Rainbows side. Instead of moving along, the fiery mare sat for a few extra moments in defiance. That was until she found herself defenseless to the shy maids pleading eyes. Knowing no other way of defeating the pitiful onslaught, Rainbow sighed in defeat and started to begrudgingly leave the main room of the manor.         Out of sight of her father and his guards, she began ranting once more. “I can’t believe him! He’s so… SO!”         “Oh, I think Lord Blaze is only thinking of all of us…” Fluttershy meekly spoke, doing her best to defend the lords decision.         “Ha, he’s just turning into a money hungry noble like the rest of those Unicorns…” Instead of walking down the corridors she was adamantly flying aggressively the whole way. Making it extremely hard for the yellow Pegasus to keep up.         “But Rainbo-”         “But nothing Shy, I don’t care how things work… He just can’t ship me off to marry some stuck up Pegasus in the north!” Rainbow yelled, ignoring all the servants that were giving her strange looks as they always do. “I mean look at this DRESS!”         The flying mare pointed down at the entirety of her equine body. She was nearly covered neck to hoof in a itchy purple dress that could easily be described as frilly. There weren’t many other defining features to it as Rainbow requested it to be plain, and simple. Yet that had seemed to fall on deaf ears as her father only wanted the best.         “I-I think it looks nice…” Fluttershy stuttered slightly, making sure she didn’t offend her friend in any way.         “...Fluttershy, you think everything looks nice.” Dash could barely be mad at the mares attempts to cool her down, she never knew why she even tried most of the time. It was almost always best to stay out of Rainbows way when things got heated, but the maid would always find herself talking her down.         Shaking her head lightly at the thought, Rainbow Dash immediately stopped flying when she reached the door to her chambers. Opening it with a swift buck just to let out the rest of her tension, she trotted heavily to her overly decorated bed before jumping up on it with a cushiony thud.         “Not as good as clouds…” Rainbow was waiting for a response, but didn’t receive one. Wondering why, the Rainbowed Pegasus looked up from her bed to see her friend meekly looking at her from the other side of her door. Facehoofing at the sight, Rainbow hated it when she always did that.         “You know you're welcomed in here.”         “Oh I’m sorry…” The timid mare apologized.         “Sorry, for what?”         “I-I… Um… Sorry” Fluttershy was at her point of an endless repeat, a place Rainbow found herself in with her all too often.         “You know what, stop talking and just listen… Alright.” To the dressed mare that was a fair compromise. She would talk about her feelings, as long as her friend stopped saying sorry for everything.         Nodding her head in agreement as she sat down on one of the assorted pillows Rainbow had thrown around her room, Fluttershy was ready to listen. Seeing this, that forced Rainbow to spill the beans once and for all.         “I don’t care about none of this stuff ya know, I mean I do, but I don’t. Father says there is always a reason for things, and right now I don’t understand mines. Why is it that I have to go off and marry some Pegasus prince I don’t even know, I mean why can’t I just take up arms and protect my father like some Knight or something.” Sighing, Rainbow looked to her friend to find her listening like the friend she was. “I hate to say this, but where is the romance in it all…. Not to say I’m looking for it, but if I’m going to marry, I want to marry that one stallion that can sweep me off my hooves. Not some puffed up bloat in some puffed up castle....”         Fluttershy understood completely, she nodded in agreement. Not at all forgetting about the no talking rule, her job was to listen. It wasn’t like she was forcing herself to just because she was in service to her father. No, it was much more than that. Rainbow Dash use to listen to her problems and issues, even every once and a while she would go out and do something about it. Rainbow had saved Fluttershy on more than one occasion, she even remembered when they both earned their Destiny marks together. However her attention was back to her friend as she was going to continue.         “I love him shy, but he makes it so hard. Now he is throwing a tournament for any vassals of our land to prove they are worthy enough to escort me to the north… All these knights are going to be fighting for a long shot chance, but refuse to see the danger right in front of us… COWARDS, THE ALL OF THEM!!!” Rainbow Raged.         There was nothing more to discuss, the one sided conversation was done and Rainbow was reduced to yelling murder into her poor pillow. Her shy friend did the best to console the raging Pegasus by gently rubbing the back of her head, whispering light words into her ears. ~Around the same time, east of the Rainbow Throne~         There were few houses that would openly support the Rainbow Throne, even fewer still that would even go as far as to raise the Rainbow’s banner over their own. House Fire, Thunder, and Snow were all loyal Pegasi houses that would do such a thing, but one house with in the protection of Lord Rainbow Blaze was equal to their ranks as well, yet were far different. For off in the hilly countryside close to the Rainbow Blueblood borders sat a small fief dedicated to metal works and armor crafting. The productive fief belonged to a Unicorn house, but not any Unicorn house, it was one that served the Rainbow Throne, house Belle.         House Belle had served the Rainbow Family for generations, even after the King's policies begun to rule the lands. There smith-works had provided much needed armor and weapons for their lord's cause, and the loyalty of their house had never been questioned. For the head of the House, Grand Belle had raised his sword many times to protect their land. But age can do things to a Stallion, and with only two Daughters he felt as though the strength of his family would falter in the future. It was a well placed fear due to his wife now being infertile and his oldest daughter showing a strange obsession with clothing and design.         But he had a plan, all great stallions have plans for disaster. He still had many years left to bring up his oldest daughter, to train her to be what she must me. Looking from his old wooden chair he sees his oldest daughter whose only about seven. Playing gently with her baby sister who is babbling with delight at the royal purple curls bouncing before her.         “Rarity, I’d like to show you something.”         Grand Belle couldn’t stop reminiscing about when he confronted his Daughter fourteen years ago about learning about knightship. To this day he still doesn’t regret a single action taken, all the tears shedded by his daughter… It all came up to the point where they are now, preparing to protect what they firmly believed in.         “Grand I know you want the best for the family, but is this right?” The elder wife of Grand asks with clear skepticism in her tone.         “Darling, you know with this strife the Lord needs us now more than ever. With no sons to send him, Rarity will have to do,” He says sternly from his chair overlooking the training grounds he had built himself behind his small manor. But any doubt he could have had was instantly washed away as he looks off to see his daughter in question skillfully practicing her sword techniques. “I have trained our daughter for fourteen years, her magical prowess may not be much to speak of, But her form and technique with the sword is flawless… She will win the tournament without a doubt.”         “Oh yes, I am sure of that dear. But like me she is still a mare Grand, they won’t let her just waltz right in there.”         “Hush now, all that has been taken care of. Let's just enjoy our morning and think of greater futures.” The stallion made it clear the conversation was over, and his wife obeyed.         He always knew what he had done would make him a laughing stock to many nobles, even he thought about calling the whole thing off for many years. Yet his daughter showed great telekinetic control and sustainability, despite her being unable to master a wide array of spells, limiting herself to only three. Her unorthodox sword style coupled with her telekinetic control gave her an almost omnipotent offense. Although it was practically unheard of, he knew that his Daughter would become a great knight for the Rainbow Throne one day, he almost wished he could say the same for his youngest daughter. Who happened to be encroaching onto the scene.         “RARITY, RARITY, RARITY!!!” The little filly was shouting the entire way to her older sister, who remained blissfully unaware of her incoming presence while practicing.         Rarity’s unorthodox sword style actually consisted of utilizing a heavy broadsword which was approximately forty five inches long with a sharp double edged blade. Much to her father's charging, Rarity spend a lot of her time customizing the hilt and sheath of her weapon to better express her creative tastes, all while still maintaining functionality. But her broadsword wasn’t the only part of her arsenal, she also had a small dagger floating by her waist with the use of her telekinesis. Unlike her broadsword that was cutting and slashing across the practice dummies, Rarity would only use the dagger to penetrate the weak points that would usually be found on armor. It was a rather basic strategy really, have a distractedly large blade assault you and then right when you least expect it, there is a dagger penetrating your neck. But at this point, the offensive mare is so engrossed with her practice nothing else really mattered at that point.         As soon as the happy younger sister unfortunately stepped into Rarity’s range, time stood still as the sharp dagger found its way centimeters away from the middle her younger sister's eyes.         “Uh… Hi…” The younger sister squeaked. Realizing instantly her own fault, Rarity’s rigid stance immediately broke down into that of a caring sister. “Oh my, Sweetie I am sooo sorry! I told you about interrupting me while I’m practicing.” “Yea, but I found this flower and I wanted to give it to you!” Sweeties demeanor reverted back to happy as she presented the strange, but colorful flower to her older sister with a hoof. “I found it while I was playing with Scootaloo and I thought what if I gave this to Rarity, you know, because flowers mean good luck and all…” “That’s a Orange Blossom darling, it means fertility…” “Fer what?” “Erh.. um NOTHING!” Rarity quickly responds, snatching up the flower to avoid any further prying of the matter. If Sweetie didn’t know her own sister, she would have thought of her becoming a Knight some type of fantasy. Actually from previous experience, she couldn’t honestly deny the fact that she still does. Cause she could clearly remember last week, when Rarity was screaming in her room over some spider and father was berating her for being overcome by some bug. It was awkward dinner afterwards. Still the young Belle had just as much faith in her own sister as her father did. Even though Rarity would never tell her why she had to train so hard everyday, the curious filly knew one thing though. She had the best sister in the world. “Rarity, cease training.” Both sisters recognized the stern voice immediately as their fathers, and they knew better than to keep him waiting. “Yes father.” The reply was standard, however what wasn’t was Sweeties look of disappointment. The young Belle knew where her older sister was getting ready to go, and she really hated it. Her mother would always say everything was going to be fine, but she was young… Not stupid. The little filly saw knights before, but she never saw the same ones twice and she always listened in on the Pegasi who’d buy armor from there father. They only spoke of killing and quests, something that Sweetie would never want her sister to do. But she could tell by Rarity's obedience to their father there was nothing she could do, she was going to lose her big sister. “Do you have to go…” “Darling,” Rarity’s response seemed a little scripted, but Sweetie could tell that she wasn’t going to get much more. Watching her sister sheath her weapons and dust of her light leather vest made the younger sister wince a bit. Then watching her trot off back to the manor was just soul crushing. Rarity knew what she was doing to the little filly, but her family depended on her success and if her own fantasies were to be sacrificed then so be it.