It's a perfect day to let go
A warm, moist, briny smell assailed Shining Armor’s nose and for some reason it reminded him of a maternity ward in a hospital, though he couldn’t say why. The air was cool here, so much so that he almost shivered from the sudden contrast of hot and cold. His fillies were already squealing and whinnying with excitement… all three of them. Quivering with excitement, Cadance went off to pay the entrance fee.
Shining Armor knew of this building, its stories, its history. Before it was an aquarium, it was a sanitarium and a distillery—though why the original owner thought this was a good idea was now forever lost in the past. Some ponies sold quills and sofas, other ponies combined sanitariums and liquor distilleries. He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of Flurry sniffing with her sniffle-snorter.
“They have a shark and ray petting tank,” Skyla said, squinting at a nearby sign. “I wonder if they are slimy and gross? Don’t sharks bite? Are rays dangerous? Is it safe to pet them?”
“We’ll find out, Sproglodyte.”
“We saw cownose rays today on the boat.”
“We sure did, Fluffalump.” Arching an eyebrow, Shining Armor was a bit surprised that Flurry could name a ray. For a time, he thoroughly enjoyed feeling shocked by this development, but then he settled into a comfortable sense of pride.
“We’re paid for,” Cadance said from where she stood near the counter. “Let’s go see some fishies!”
Shining Armor watched as Skyla squirmed, hesitant to stick her hoof into the ray tank, fearful that a shark would come along and bite it off, no doubt. Meanwhile, Flurry was just waiting for something to get close enough to touch. Just as he was about to come to his daughter’s rescue, Cadance beat him to it, and poor little Skyla almost jumped out of her skin when her mother touched her.
“Dad.” Flurry seemed curious, but calm. “What would a shark-wrangling cutie mark look like?”
“I have no idea,” he replied, and he was left wondering how a pony would get such a mark in the first place. For a moment, he entertained the mental image of a pony lassoing a shark, but that was just too silly. “Let me guess, Fluffalump… you want to be a shark-wrangler?”
“Maybe just a little,” she replied, shrugging with her wings. “Might be fun as a hobby. Something to do so I can relax when I’m not saving the world.”
Two paths presented themselves; one was nurturing, gentle, and kind; the other hard, but potentially something Flurry needed to hear. Flurry had failed to save herself from the ice orcs, so he doubted that she was ready to save the world, so to speak. More and more, Flurry was becoming deaf to kind words and gentle encouragement, and only responded to blunt force trauma. He agonised over what to say, what to do, how to turn this into a moment where something might be learned, and while he struggled, a third option presented itself.
He failed to say anything at all, and as such, the opportunity was lost.
Now a little fearful, Shining Armor wondered how wide the gap would become. Flurry would grow up, she would become distant, edgy, and resentful. At some point, he wouldn’t even be allowed to be near her. She would take every opportunity available to shout at him how much she hated him. His father, Night Light, had warned him of a great many things, each of them worse and far more terrifying than the last. But, Night Light had also said that this insanity would pass… someday. Enduring it was a trial… the trial of Fatherhood.
Shining Armor had not one, but two daughters.
“Look, Fluffalump… a dogfish shark. He seems pretty docile.”
Flurry scooted a little closer, moving along the raised edge of the tank, until she bumped into her father. Resting her barrel upon the raised edge, she reached into the tank with her right front hoof and after stretching a bit, she was able to pet the rather serene shark, which, Shining Armor noted, seemed to enjoy being petted.
“It’s smooth,” she whispered, “I can feel it with my frog. I thought it’d be grosser.”
One day, Shining Armor realised with some alarm, Flurry would stop thinking colts were so gross. She’d already been kissing Sumac, something that was every bit as awkward and disturbing as it sounded. Practice kisses, so she’d have a better idea of what she was doing so she wouldn’t look stupid. Unaware that he was doing so, he frowned, uncomfortable with the fact that all of Flurry’s closest and most trusted friends were all older than she was.
Perhaps it was time to lock Flurry away in a tower.
“Dad, you’re acting weird. Stop that.”
“Daddy has anxieties, Fluffalump.”
“What is it about parenting that makes a pony speak of themselves in the third pony?”
“Oh… that’s an indicator that your foals have made you crazy.”
“Success,” Flurry said with Twilight-levels of snark.
The frown on Shining Armor’s face vanished and he chuckled. Flurry showed signs of being funny, but in a subtle way, very much like Twilight was. Shining Armor was more in your face funny, and Cadance had a gentle humour that sometimes bordered on sarcastic. Brushing up against his daughter, he marvelled at how things turned out, how certain traits manifested. His mother, Twilight Velvet, she had a sense of humour that was like a cinder block wrapped in the softest velvet, and she wielded snark like a wrecking ball. She could do with words what most unicorns did with spells, that is to say, she caused widespread, unchecked devastation.
And then there was that time when Twilight Velvet and Dim had tried to out snark one another at that fancy supper for the aristocracy. He shivered at the memory, balked at the unpleasantness of it, and was thankful that Flurry, for all of her developing snark, didn’t seem to be mean spirited. His mother and Dim had vented their bile and their resentment upon the ruling class, no holds barred, no mercy, nothing held back.
And just when things couldn’t’ve possibly gotten any worse, Maud Pie had joined in…
“Dad, ponies and fish have a lot in common,” Flurry said to her father while she stood staring into a tank full of fish swimming to and fro.
“How so, Fluffalump?” he replied while watching the moonyfishes swim back and forth.
“Fish have schools, ponies have herds.” Flurry’s nose bumped up against the glass with a soft, muffled sound and when she breathed, the glass fogged around her nostrils. “Everypony and everyfishie have to stick together for survival, and if somepony or somefishie breaks off from the others, they run the risk of being gobbled up. Look at them, Dad. They just swim together, moving as one. What makes them do that? How do they know when to change direction all at once? What makes us stick together as a herd? Why is this so… so… so—”
“Ingrained?” he said, being helpful.
“Yeah. Ingrained. Why is this so ingrained in us? Like, what if being in a herd wasn’t good for us any longer but we’re still stuck with that thinking? What if it became detrimental to us and—”
“Detrimental, Fluffalump?” Shining Armor couldn’t help but think of Cadance’s big study.
“I pay attention to Sunburst… sometimes… when I feel like it.” Flurry pulled her nose away from the glass, shuffled her hooves against the tile floor, and her tail flicked from side to side. “Like, everypony around me thinks they know what is best for me and there is this big problem about me doing what is best for all of us, with nopony stopping to think what is best for me. Now, I don’t meant to sound selfish, and I really do feel bad for having my own wants… and I… well… all those ponies… all that peer pressure… I can always hear them talking…” Flurry’s words died with a soft, muted whimper of pain.
“First off, Fluffalump, never, ever feel bad about having your own wants.” Shining Armor failed to realise just how stern his voice was, or that he was even speaking as the Captain of the Guard. “For a time, Princess Celestia completely sacrificed her own wants for the good of others and it very nearly shattered her mental health. She is still recovering, still learning how to establish healthy boundaries and say when she wants something. I don’t want this happening to you.”
“Dad?”
“You listen to me, Flurry.” Shining Armor tore his gaze away from the fish, looked down into his daughter’s eyes, and he observed her every squirm, her every fidget. “We’re not like other ponies, Flurry. We’re Royals. That doesn’t make us better than them, just different. We have duties and obligations and things that are expected of us. The hardest part of our existence is learning how to balance what we want versus the needs of others. It is a situation fraught with peril and it is so easy to make mistakes. Cadance and I make them all the time. Your mother made a mistake with the Crystal Cotillion and thinking that you could just ignore what the aristocracy was saying.”
At this, Flurry seemed stunned and her maturity melted away, leaving her foalish.
“Cadance thought she could have her cake and eat it too. She thought she could satisfy the aristocracy and make you happy at the same time. It’s a mistake that she won’t make a second time. And dangit, Fluffalump, if you’d just listen to your mother and stop trying to bang heads with her, you’d know this already, because she’s tried to tell you a few times. But every time she even mentions the words ‘Crystal Cotillion’—”
“I start screaming and shouting,” Flurry whispered, interrupting her father.
Now silent, Shining Armor waited for his words to sink in, and he watched Flurry’s eyes, hoping for some signs of intelligence, of recognition, some indication that she understood what he was saying. Flurry was looking back at him though, maintaining eye contact, and even in her current foalish state, she was brave, so brave. It made his heart swell with pride.
“I… didn’t know that about Auntie Celestia,” Flurry said to her father. “She made herself sick?”
He nodded, but remained silent.
“So me having my own wants and needs, that’s normal? It’s not bad?” Flurry seemed more confused than anything, and her ears splayed straight out on either side of her head. “Dad, it seems like everypony knows what’s best for me and I still haven’t figured out what is best for myself. I hate it. It’s like, I can’t figure out what it is that I even want, but it feels like everypony has my life already planned out for me. Even you, sometimes. And I… just… get… a bad case of the angries.”
“Me?” Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. “I have to do right by you and prepare you for the future. It’s a tough thing to do, Fluffalump. I have an obligation to see that you are schooled and prepared… for the future that you choose. I also have a job to make certain that you don’t wreck your future… or the futures of other ponies for that matter. The Lulamoon name is mud, Fluffalump. It has been for a long, long time. They’re outright reviled. And Sumac had a chance to come out from beneath that shadow and do good. But now? Sumac is just another Lulamoon. Your little stunt at the cotillion has left Sumac with a lifelong uphill battle for acceptance. See, Fluffalump, I’m your friend, and your father. You make it hard to be both. I have an obligation to protect you from things you don’t understand yet so that they won’t hurt you.”
“I’m sorry… I… am… I’ve said this so many times already.”
“One bright future ruined, for the cost of your tantrum. This is what it means to be a Royal, Fluffalump. When you make mistakes, other lives bear the cost. I’m trying to prepare you for a lifetime of this. There will come a time when you make a mistake and others will pay for it with their lives. That is what it means to be us. If I make a poor choice as a field commander, I might get a whole bunch of soldiers killed. I have to bear that weight on my shoulders. It darn near breaks my back. I have been the direct cause of death for others.”
Flurry’s eyes began watering and Shining Armor could see the faint lights glimmering in the tears that welled up. Was everything sinking in? He had no way of knowing. Would she forget this in a week? There was a good chance of that. He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and tried to figure out what to feel. Reaching out with one foreleg, he pulled his daughter close to him and then sat down on the floor, right in front of the fish tank.
“I’m still trying to prove my own mother wrong,” he confessed, deciding that now was a good time to give Flurry a peek into his own private existence, his thoughts. “My mother, your grandmare, not long after you were born, she told me that I could either be your father, or your friend, but there would come a time when it was impossible for me to be both. She said that if I acted as your friend, but not your father, then I would mess you up, but she also warned me that there would be times that if I acted as your father and not your friend, then you might feel betrayed and hate me for a time. I’m still trying to figure out all of the things my mother said to me, and being the fool that I am, I am still trying to take the middle path to prove her wrong.”
“So I get my stupid from you?” Flurry asked, her lower lip quivering whilst she leaned into her father’s embrace.
“Well, Flurry… I can’t say that you get it from your mother, because she’s right over there and probably listening to every word that we’re saying. But I can tell you that against the advice of everypony, the entire village of earth ponies that raised her and knew her, she went and picked a fight with an evil pony named Prismia. Now, your mom was a filly when she did this, and this is most certainly evidence that she has some problems listening to what others tell her.”
When Cadance nickered, Shining Armor’s ears pricked.
“Uh-oh,” Flurry said to her father.
“I took a gamble and lost,” he replied.
“Let’s keep looking at the fish, Dad.”
“Sure thing, Fluffalump.”
“Dad, you have to stop calling me that. It’s super embarrassing.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“Wait… wait… that wasn’t you agreeing to stop calling me ‘Fluffalump,’ was it?”
Giving his daughter a loving squeeze, Shining Armor smiled.
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Maybe Dim and Velvet should've start flinging spells sounds like it might of been safer. Especially after Maud got involved from the sounds of it.. Wonder how much burn creme was needed afterwards
At some point i hope we get to read what velvet and dim said.
Dawww, Daddy Armor moments are great.
Jesus. That sounds like the most nonviolent-yet-ruthless confrontation ever!
*prays to a little star that we see that someday*
Seems like a good idea.
Wise and foolish within the span of a single paragraph.
That was a good talk.
Ah. You begin to understand.
Soooooo... how much would you charge us to write the Twilight Velvet / Dim story?
8929117
It's funnier as a noodle incident. No matter what I write, it will never be as funny as the perceived imagination of the event.
"Flurry would grow up, she would become distant, edgy, and resentful. At some point, he wouldn’t even be allowed to be near her. She would take every opportunity available to shout at him how much she hated him."
Holy Hell, why is Shining so convinced of this? I know Flurry can be a brat, but I doubt she'd go THAT far.
8930051
Just because someone has thoughts and fears doesn't always make them true. People are afraid of things. Shining Armor is deeply afraid of becoming estranged from his daughters.
1) this chapter is adorable
2) We need this as a thing now
I still struggle — really struggle — to reconcile that ponies are so different from... well, from me, I guess. And others too, I suppose. Despite having said it myself several times, I still struggle with this huge cultural divide. Sometimes I can understand it, even if I don’t like it. Sometimes it’s just too alien to me, even if I have to accept that things are the way they are and there’s nothing to be done about it.
I have really enjoyed reading this story. Which really just shows that the times I enjoy her most, is when she is not a central character to the story.
Certainly there was some powerful words of Wisdom from Shining, and hopefully with these talks, the both of them can better help Flurry to become a much better pony in the future.
Last, but not least, you have GOT to write the Ultimate Contest of Snark between Dim, Cadence, and Maud <3
This story is honestly real sweet. Real heartwarming.
No, you didn't get it from him -he still has his.