After a couple of long days at work, it’s finally Saturday. I have begun a ritual to close the store for the entirety of Father’s day weekend to commemorate my father’s death and so every child can spend as much time with their fathers as humanly possible. Plus, this being the only time I’ve really spent with Shining Armor and Cadance, along with Penny also having the weekend off, I want this weekend to be as fun as possible for them.
I decide to make vegetable and cheese omelets with all of the stuff I bought from the grocery store. The sizzling of eggs as they’re poured into the frying pan wakes Cadance and Shining Armor.
“Good morning!” I say to my friends.
“Morning Ian,” calls Shining Armor. “Where’s Penny?”
“She’s running to a friend’s house for something.”
“Okay.”
“Plus, she’s running to the store for tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“That’s right buddy. Penny and I are both off of work today and tomorrow, so we’re going to have fun, fun, fun tonight. Now, what do you like in your omelet?” Shining Armor and Cadance walk over to the table where all the ingredients are set. He then spots an ingredient that catches his attention.
“Whoa, is that bleu cheese?”
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Ian,” says Cadance, “bleu cheese is considered a delicacy in Equestria.”
“Really? I just bought a tub of it for 5 dollars at the Jewel.”
“5 dollars? That’s it?”
“I take you want some?”
I make them both an omelet. Hopefully by the time I’m done, Penny will arrive with her stuff and we can all eat together. Cadance asks for bleu cheese, scallions, and mushroom in hers, while Shining Armor asks for one with bleu cheese, mushroom, and tomato.
As predicted, I’m finishing Shining Armor and Cadance’s omelet when Penny comes in carrying a white mechanical box with wires.
“What’s that?” asks Shining Armor.
“Do you mind helping me carry some stuff?” she responds.
Shining Armor and Penny go back to the van. Penny is carrying a large plastic drum set with four multi-colored pads and three plastic cymbals with a different colored screw on top of them. Shining Armor carries in several plastic guitars and a plastic two octave keyboard. Penny runs back out one last time to grab a grocery bag with several boxes of AA batteries and a couple of wireless microphones with colored buttons and a control pad on them.
“So Penny,” says Shining Armor, “what is all of this?
“It’s Rock Band. It’s a game that we play in our world where you play songs by hitting colored buttons down a charted path.”
“I’m not sure what you just said, but it still sounds like fun.”
“I know. My friend has awesome Rock Band parties at her house and has her own channel on YouTube where she uploads all the new songs that come out every Tuesday.” Penny comes by as I’m finishing up making my own omelet. “Go sit down. I’ll make my own omelet.”
I sit down at the dining room table with Shining Armor and Cadance. We all wait until Penny finishes her omelet before we begin eating, which isn’t too long. We talk about ideas that we could do today, most of which I’d like to play by ear. Some ideas tossed around include a fun, social dip in the Jacuzzi, Penny and I playing for Shining Armor (for real), play Rock Band, dance a little, and maybe watch a movie when (or should I say ‘if’) the night winds down.
Shining Armor and Cadance are elated after breakfast because of the inclusion of bleu cheese, and in gratitude, decide to clean the dishes. While they do that, Penny and I, put fresh batteries into all of the Rock Band controllers for tonight.
This is going to be a lot of fun, I can tell.
We finish putting the last of the batteries in when Cadance and Shining Armor finish with the dishes.
“How about that hot tub?” I say.
Penny and I get into our bathing suits and make our way towards the Jacuzzi, where Shining Armor and Cadance are awaiting us (being that they didn’t need to change into bathing suits). The pool feels more crowded than usual, but being that this is the most people I’ve ever had in my Jacuzzi, I feel that it’s better to savor the friends that I have. I notice Shining Armor looking to the sky.
“What’s going on?” I ask him.
“I’m just wondering what my sister and aunt-in-law are doing right now.”
“I’m sure they’re doing everything they can to try and return you home. They should know more than anyone how much they miss you.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Armor? Is Equestria nice?”
“You have no idea. Everyone is extremely nice and the scenery is beautiful. My kind would welcome creatures like you with open arms.”
“That sounds good. Tell me, I’d like to learn more about Equestria. I’ve learned of some of the basic functionalities, but what else goes on?”
Shining Armor and Cadance spend a lot of time talking about the various towns of Equestria, including the one where Shining Armor’s sister, Twilight Sparkle, lives: Ponyville. They also talk about the various holidays which Penny and I humorously compare to our own. It is a pleasant conversation.
Once we get out, we realize that it’s almost lunchtime, so we make some cucumber and cheese sandwiches. Not too filling, seeing as Penny is going to order some pizza after she told me that Shining Armor and Cadance really liked it.
Once we’re done with lunch, I bring Penny, Cadance, and Shining Armor to the basement where we can play our songs. I find it strange playing songs without the accompaniment of the rest of the instruments, but a friend from college developed a website where he sells “naked” tracks: MP3s of songs that don’t have one or more of the instruments so a person can play along on any given instrument without the actual part playing over, giving the player a sense that he/she is playing the song. I was a great benefactor in helping him record the guitar parts for certain songs, so he gave me a membership that guarantee’s free songs for life.
Penny and I download some naked tracks that are missing guitar, bass guitar, and vocal parts. We spend the next few minutes afterwards organizing them in a playlist.
“You know,” I whisper, “the night I met Cadance and Shining Armor, I noticed that you were wearing a Nightwish t-shirt. You know any songs by them?”
“Do you?” Penny softly replies. I nod “That Imaginaerum album is pretty much the only album of theirs that I really know.”
“Me too. Let’s play it.”
“Okay.”
Shining Armor and Cadance sit down on sofa cushions that they took off the sofa on the other side of the basement and took a seat. Penny and I stand by each other, each with a microphone (unlike the Xbox ones upstairs) on a stand.
“Hello friends!” I yell as if he were addressing a pantheon of adoring fans. This causes Shining Armor and Cadance to laugh, which in turn causes me to blush. “Anyways,” I say in a quieter voice, “we have a wonderful show for you. So get pumped and enjoy the music.” Shining Armor and Cadance applaud genuinely. “Let’s go,” I tell Penny.
I hit the play button on my Windows Media Player. Each song has an introductory beat so starting off is easier. Our 1st set includes Porcupine Tree, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, Yes, and of course, Iron Maiden. Shining Armor and Cadance appear to be highly favorable about human music, especially the calmer and more serene Yes and Pink Floyd.
To cap off our performance, Penny and I play the entire Imaginaerum album front to back. Shining Armor and Cadance especially like this band, mainly because of the use of orchestra in the timbre. In fact, a couple of the songs get them really moving. They dance lively and energetically during I Want My Tears Back and Arabesque. They even go into steady slow dances during Turn Loose the Mermaids and The Crow, The Owl and the Dove. It’s during this moment that I realize how much I appreciate Penny playing with me. Our duet vocals on The Crow, The Owl and the Dove are particularly intimate and really bring forth a lot of emotions in me. By the end of Song of Myself, there isn’t really anything to play, seeing how the title track finale is an orchestral instrumental. Shining Armor and Cadance cheer us as we bow in appreciation. Penny and I sit next to Shining Armor and Cadance as we listen to the last song together.
“Thank you so much for that,” says Cadance as we walk up the stairs to the kitchen.
“It was our pleasure,” replies Penny. With all of the songs played, the time is now 4:15. Penny calls the pizzeria for delivery while I fix Shining Armor and Cadance a drink. As I come back up, Cadance and Penny are talking.
“I didn’t know you two had such great singing voices,” Cadance continues.
“Oh come on, they weren’t all that great. And you please be a little more quiet; I’m ordering the pizza now.”
“Okay.”
Penny orders four large cheese pizzas while I go to the stereo in the living room to put on some music. I merely put on my iPad and set it to shuffle.
“Alright,” Penny says, finishing the order, “see you then. Bye.” Once she finishes, I turn up the volume so more music can fill up the house. I find that the first song that comes on is Lay All Your Love on Me by ABBA. I begin dancing to it, much to Penny’s delight.
“You said you liked all kinds of music,” she laughs, “but I didn’t know you liked ABBA.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask. “This song is freaking awesome! Now dance with me.”
I outstretch my hand, inviting her to join me. Once she lays her palm on mine, I grab her and swing her close to me as we both dance to the chorus. Shining Armor and Cadance join in on the dancing as well. Throughout the songs, we switch partners, me dancing with Cadance and Penny dancing with Shining Armor. I half-expect to find dancing with a pony to be, well, awkward, but I’m pleasantly surprised to find how natural it felt dancing with her. I was even surprised by some of the moves we did, including one where she made me fall only to have her catch me with her wing and push me back onto my feet. It was exhilarating to say the least.
Once we heard the doorbell for the pizza, Shining Armor and Cadance knew the signal to hide. Penny answers the door.
“Your pizza, ma’am,” said the delivery boy.
“Thanks.”
“That will be $65.30.” Penny hands him four twenties. “Change, ma’am?”
“No, you keep it.”
“Thank you very much. By the way, you look really sweaty. Are you having a party in there?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, have fun."
Penny waits until the delivery car is out of view.
“The coast is clear,” she says.
Shining Armor and Cadance hide from upstairs and come down to the kitchen, where they each take a plate that Ian set on the counter with the boxes of pizza.
After a relaxing dinner in the living room, Cadance then questions the plastic guitars in the living room.
“What are these? Are we having another concert?”
“Not exactly.”
After inserting the Rock Band 3 disk into Xbox 360 after plugging it into the living room TV, Penny and I set up the instruments in their proper placements while we explain in much fuller detail how to play the game. Penny even plays a little bit of Highway Star by Deep Purple on the plastic five-button guitar as a demonstration.
“That seems simple enough,” says Shining Armor.
“So, who wants to play what?”
I first took a pro guitar (guitar controller with six strings) while Penny took the plastic bass controller and vocals while Cadance takes on the electronic keyboard and Shining Armor took drums.
I figure that they’ll both use magic to play the instruments. I mean, there’s no way a pony can play the drums or keyboards with their hooves.
I was half right. Shining Armor picks up the drumsticks with his magic while Cadance rests her hooves on the keyboard.
This is going to be interesting.
We browse through the selection of songs.
“What’s Llama?” asks Cadance.
“The hardest song in the game,” I say flatly.
I know the song and how to read the pro guitar charting, so I pick expert. As does Penny. As do Shining Armor and Cadance.
Now this is going to be good.
FOur minutes later, I look at the score. Five gold stars.
Wait, what happened?
“That was fun!” says Cadance.
“How did you two do that?” I ask.
“I used to play piano in school,” says Cadance.
“And you can do that without fingers?”
“I guess so.” Shining Armor then explains himself.
“It’s a requirement to play drums in our military.”
Okay, that one makes more sense.
We play some more songs in the format we’re in, when Cadance has a question.
“Is it possible to do vocal duets in this game?”
“Yes.”
Shining Armor and Cadance retire from their current instruments and grab a microphone. Penny continues the bass while I man the drums.
“So where are these duet songs?” ask Cadance.
I show her a few of the songs that would be suitable for them, including Total Eclipse of the Heart and two Lady Antebellum songs that they have available (Need You Now and Perfect Day) for Cadance, while Shining Armor has his eyes on Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. As they sing their songs, I find myself amazed that they know the melodies despite never having heard the songs before.
“How are you doing that?” I ask. “Have you heard these songs before?”
“Actually we have. Penny showed us on the ‘net’? Am I saying that right?”
It could be worse. She could have taken them to worse places.
After what feels like hours of playing and singing, we find ourselves exhausted, but the night still feels young. I figure now we can relax and watch a movie.
We head downstairs with me browsing my collection.
“What do you feel like watching?”
“I’ve always wanted to see Hugo,” says Penny.
I pull out the Hugo Blu-Ray from my shelf.
“How did you know that was there?”
“I browsed your shelf the first morning I spent here.”
“Do you mind Hugo?” I ask Cadance and Shining Armor, to which they reply by shaking their heads. “Hugo it is.”
Everyone makes their way to the sofa to relax. As the movie begins starting up, Penny goes upstairs to make bowls of popcorn. After giving us each one, we begin the movie. I’ve already seen the movie and I’m feeling strangely wiped, so I lie down on the couch and lull myself to sleep.
________________________________________________________________________________________
I wake up and find that it is morning, as evidenced by the clock on the wall that says 6:32. I nuzzle my head deep into the pillow, trying to fall back asleep, but I notice that the pillow is firm. I look around to find myself sleeping on Shining Armor’s stomach. I notice that he’s out cold, so my fear of waking him is diminished. I look to see Cadance sleeping next to Penny, her wing opened and covering her for warmth. I smile at the sight, but I know what today is. I gently lift myself from the couch and tiptoe upstairs, careful not to wake anyone.
Today is Sunday, June 17, 2012. Father’s Day. The first one I’ve had since my dad died. I always wondered how I would spend the day without him, but I certainly don’t feel as sad as I imagined I would. I can easily contribute that to the appearance of Shining Armor, Cadance, and Penny into my life. Had I been alone, today would have been much more unbearable. However, I feel strangely optimistic. I head to the back deck and sit on the railing looking out over the forest behind me as the sun rises over the trees.
I didn’t realize how long I sat out here, but I hear a knocking at the door. I see Penny there on the other side of the glass, but I continue to look over the horizon. She walks out and sits with me.
“You miss your dad, don’t you?” she asks.
“Like you couldn’t believe.”
“I’m sure I could.”
“How? At least you still have a father.” I then notice as Penny’s head hangs down in sadness.
“Ian, there’s something I need to tell you. It’s just I never thought of the right time to tell you… until now.”
“What is it?”
She tells me about her dead father, which comes as a shock to me. She tells me about the crash, her dropping out of school, and the change to her rent. She tells me about how much her father’s positive attitude impacted her life and why she is what she is.
“Ian,” she says. “I’m sorry I never told you this sooner.”
“No,” I interrupt, “don’t be. I’ve kept secrets too that I thought I never would want to reveal.”
“You can tell me. I won’t judge you.”
I tell her my story. About my dad, his marriage to Mallory, the debt she put us in, the subsequent divorce, and the stress of it all becoming the final nail in my dad’s coffin. I then tell her that it was my father’s death that almost caused me to become a recluse for the rest of my life.
“It wasn’t until Shining Armor and Cadance showed up that I realized that my life would be better in the company of others. It was their encouragement that allowed me to muster the courage to ask you out. If they had never come, I would have never really met you.” I can’t help a tear rolling down my cheek. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m an idiot right now.” I then feel a pair of arms wrap around my chest.
“You’re only an idiot for calling yourself that,” says Penny, still hugging me. “I could have asked you just as easily, but I’ve lived a life where people rejected me for being too plain. I thought you would rebuff me for the same reason.” I turn my head to Penny and cup her chin in my hands, having her look at me.
“You couldn’t be plain if you tried.” We then both hug each other as the sun fully rises in the sky.
After we reveal our emotions, we share more pleasant stories about the good times we had with our fathers. I talk about my dad teaching me to play instruments, the first concert he ever took me too, and my first tour into the shop. Penny talks about the trips they used to take together, the times they spent at the movie theater, and a particularly funny anecdote about a failed attempt at baking her dad a cake for his birthday.
Our merry conversation is interrupted by another tapping on the glass. It’s Shining Armor and Cadance. We both hop off the railing to join our friends inside.
“What’s this about?” asks Shining Armor.
I tell him what day it is, provoking a drooping of ears from both him and his wife and a sullen look on his face.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, “I didn’t know.”
“No need to feel sorry,” says Penny in a chipper tone. “Today is a day of celebration!”
Penny makes apple-cinnamon spice pancakes for breakfast, something she would make her own dad every Father’s Day. I see how delicious they look, especially with a tall glass of milk sitting in front of me.
“Here’s to our fathers,” I toast, “the people, and ponies, who nurtured us and taught us everything we know. Because without them, we wouldn’t be the people we are today.”
“Cheers,” calls everyone, clinking glasses. We then began our pleasant Father’s day breakfast.
________________________________________________________________________________________
By lunchtime, we just have leftover pizza from the night before. That’s when Penny gets a phone call on her cell. She answers it.
“Hello?”
“…”
“Really? Great.”
“…”
“Yeah, hold on just one second.” She then turns to us. “It’s my landlord. He said that the plumbing has been fixed and I can move back into my apartment.”
“Oh,” I say. I begin to look a little sad, seeing as how she’s going to be leaving here. Shining Armor and Cadance look a little unhappy at the prospect of their friend leaving the house.
“What’s wrong with all of you?” asks Penny with a giggle. “Do you really think I’m going to leave when I have two friends in need of company while Ian manages the store all day?” She then remembers her status as a guest in my home. “Well,” she addresses me, “that is if you want me to stay.” I smile.
“Penny, it would be my utmost pleasure to let you live in my home.” Penny grows wild eyed as she picks up the phone to her landlord again.
“Sorry, you still there?”
“…”
“No, it was just the host who kept me in. To be honest, I’m going to stay with him.”
“…”
“Listen, I know you’ve been very kind to me during my residence, but I just feel like… moving on.”
“… …”
“I’ll come by this afternoon. Thank you so much. Bye.” Cadance, Shining Armor, and I look for an answer from her. “He wants me moved out by tomorrow afternoon. Ian? You think you can help me?”
“Of course,” I answer. I walk over and embrace her. “By the way, you said you were staying to keep two friends company. What about me?”
“Well,” she said, “I think you’ve ranked higher than a friend in my book.”
“What?”
She puts her lips to mine and we kiss for the first time.
“Aww,” go Cadance and Shining Armor. I wave them away, causing them to giggle. We continue for another minute with Cadance and Shining Armor presumably watching.