• Member Since 4th May, 2013
  • offline last seen 3 hours ago

Estee


On the Sliding Scale Of Cynicism Vs. Idealism, I like to think of myself as being idyllically cynical. (Patreon, Ko-Fi.)

E

It’s unfair, really. Adults can go where they want, do whatever they wish, and that happens in a world where those who know best are continually denied the chance to prove it. But his mother has been placed under an actual restriction. For a full night, she can’t eat or drink anything, or — well, it’s probably bad, especially with potions involved. It’s important to keep her out of the kitchen until morning, and all his father did was go to sleep. So who can make sure things come out right?

Shining Armor is on the case.

Unfortunately, the case is way past his bedtime.

(A stand-alone, no-prior-reading necessary part of the Triptych Continuum, which has its own TVTropes page and FIMFiction group. New members and trope edits welcome.)

Now with author Patreon and Ko-Fi pages.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 43 )

Author's Very Public Note: based on a story prompt from Shawnyall, used with permission.

It strikes me as hilarious that Triptych! Velvet and Night Light have swapped characterizations from Canon! Velvet and Night Light.

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To be fair, when I started the 'verse, the canon portrayals came in two flavors: Standing Over There and Potted Plant.

Poor Shining. This particular filly is not easier.

After some consideration, he briefly entertained the thought of finding a huge cardboard box somewhere, horn-poking a pair of eyeholes into the thing, dragging it into the kitchen, then inverting it and crawling underneath. His mother was stupid, and so just might believe there was an extra breadbox about. A very large one. Made of cardboard. With eyeholes poked into it. Which occasionally moved.
Shining thought about it, and then reluctantly concluded that she probably wasn’t that stupid.

Hope
Twilight Velvet: Uh? ...Just a box.

Probable Reality
Twilight Velvet: Shining, what are you doing?
Shining Armor: Uh... I'm in a box?

Hahahahahaha!

Such a well meaning little disaster. Shining demonstrates quite exceptional Kid Logic. Which, of course, is superior to grown-up logic in every way.

Does he have his cutie mark for Guarding yet? Because I was half expecting this little fiasco to end that way.

Oh, such a silly pony, shame he never grew out of it.

I loved this story, it was very cute. Also, Shining better prepare himself for more nights like that one with a little sister around

:rainbowlaugh: Magnificent fluff. It's fascinating to see the core values that will make Shining such a good soldier on display even before the fog of adulthood slips in. (And Cadence has definitely heard this story many a time. A parent's revenge is doled out in the form of embarrassment.)

Speaking of which, nice to get a sense of these two in the Continuum. When Twilight was Surging, this little incident probably seemed downright harmless in comparison.

Thank you for a great read.

Fillies are easier? Puh-lese

"Twilight! Put down the cookie jar! No magic in the kitchen!"
*turned to potted plants*
Giant dragon/ pet dragon
Princess Celestia's personal prodigy student
Saves Equestria
Again,
and again,
and again,
and so many more times they stopped counting.
Becomes a princess.
The paperwork.
Saves Equestria
again and again.
Goes to another dimension and gets a dance partner (WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT!)
Starts a school
...

Colt Shining Armor was adorable.

Awww!

So funny, and that reveal of the potions' purpose at the end!

Wow, those potions, to sex a foal.

Well, I expected that she was pregnant, or something, given the explanation delay, but wow, those terrible potions. Either it's just accepted as part of the usual stuff of pregnancy, or they really wanted to know for some reason.

----

What was the prompt?

Shining knew everything about life, and so the first thing he knew was that it was unfair.

Now now, most adults are like that too.

The world was run by those who were old and every child knew that the older you became, the stupider you got.

The world was unfair, because it was run by the old. In fact, their home nation was ruled by the oldest pony ever and Shining didn’t want to think about just how much stupidity that many years added up to.

Please tell me Celestia met young Shining Armor at some point and he explained his theory about how age relates to intelligence to her.

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i can't help but think of that scene where Discord hid in a box...

and this fan-comic also comes to mind:

There are few things more frightening than a fool with good intentions.

I can only imagine the level of catastrophe. And cackle madly at the thought that puts itself in there. Shining armor is if one thing, thorough.

Shining was very dumb and SO adorable.

Absolutely marvelous. I love what you did with the prompt! <3

CCC
CCC #20 · Feb 28th, 2019 · · ·

Compost is good for lawns, isn't it? Surely this means that the neighbours are screaming in happiness... right?

But it had to be dealt with, and so Shining forced his body to turn on the stoop, until he was staring out at the visible portion of the lawn.

The facehoof seemed to be fully justified.

My first thought was that he had locked himself outside. I should have known that it would be worse...

This was a cute story. I wonder if his parents ever found out about his nighttime patrol?

Maybe fillies were easier.

LOL, good luck with that. We all know who that filly is going to be.

Truly, a brave and stouthearted foal heading towards a future as a glorious and noble stallion.

And he never even considered the easy path of sleeping against the parent's door. That's how noble he was, even as a foal.

After some consideration, he briefly entertained the thought of finding a huge cardboard box somewhere, horn-poking a pair of eyeholes into the thing, dragging it into the kitchen, then inverting it and crawling underneath. His mother was stupid, and so just might believe there was an extra breadbox about. A very large one. Made of cardboard. With eyeholes poked into it. Which occasionally moved.

"Hrngh... Cadance. I'm trying to sneak around, but I'm dummy thicc..."

That was a sweet story. But yes, it's true, parents are very stupid.

the laughing, it wont stop !!!

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...Yeah! The sight and smell until the benefits take effect has no bearing on their reaction whatsoever.

CCC

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Wouldn't have solved the issue of the en-suite bathroom. That would have still required particular (and very quiet) care.

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He seems a little too young for the mark here, but I bet this is one of the formative incidents that led him there.

Echoing the sentiments that it's really cool to be able to catch the little traits that build him to his mark even this early on. Just using certain words for his task and showing his thought processes in finding his solutions lets you know just how much it truly is at the core of him. All without Shining himself being aware of it, so it's just for us to see and recognize the foreshadowing. I like that.

Man, the kid writing is strong lately! It's a hard demographic to nail down without either being twee and overly cute or mini adults that are just as annoying to read. It was a really fun and cute story, I really enjoyed it.

Maybe fillies were easier.

Yeah, just keep telling yourself that. :rainbowlaugh:

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In the postmortem of the event, the first part of the disaster was actually easy to identify. Neighbors who stepped outside to find part of their lawns coated in compost could be reasonably expected to scream, and screams could wake ponies up, especially if the last tenth-bits of the initial potion drenching were finally wearing off.
So that would mean getting up. And upon getting up, his mother would have naturally noticed the dirt, along with all the things which their neighbors were desperately wishing was dirt, thus proving how little wishing actually did. Her typical first move upon seeing dirt was to go for water, the nearest source was her own bathroom, and that would have led to discovering the blocked faucets. Since all of the blocking material had been pushed up out of sight, she would have no idea what was wrong, nor would she have tried to remove the clog when she didn’t know there was one. Time would have also been lost to staring around the filthy bathroom in horror, and that allowed extra water pressure to build.
It was possible that she’d also tried to use the restroom trench. Shining had considered that water running into the trench started out clean, and acted accordingly.

Oh yeah. The clues are subtle, but I think that they would have figured it out

This is going in the favorites. Seriously, the watching the catastrophe slowly building was hilarious.

Hah, excellent. :)

They're going to regret those words some day.....when it becomes crystal clear just how much damage she let Coordinator do to her.......

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ok i have to ask what words are they gonna regret?

This is downright adorable.

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I think thinking/saying that girls might be easier. I think they meant to say that they'll realize how wrong they were, not exactly regret.

As a bachelor with no experience with expecting: Is intentionally cleaning your digestive tract supposed to help with detecting a baby, or what? I got from the blurb that it was about Velvet being pregnant with Twilight (and it's easy to see where she got her...quirks), but her "medication" seems at odds with what's going on.

Can someone explain, please?

Maybe fillies were easier.

I rather doubt that this particular filly was any "easier" :pinkiehappy:

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It's probably intended to coat your digestive track so it will show up better on the X-ray.
That's why you can't eat or drink anything.

First I smiled. Then I giggled. Then I chuckled. By the end, I was cackling. What a filial son young Shining Armor is... and what an idiot. Some things never change, I suppose.

They thought things like school and homework and (this was the worst thing imaginable: Shining knew that because he hadn’t been able to imagine anything worse) foreign language studies.

I think there's a clause missing here.

I could think of only one thing while reading this excellent tale of disaster:

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