Shining Armor spends some time with his daughter while he is recovering from a war wound. They play chess, and talk about some thoughts the game brings up.
Written for the Father's Day Not-a-Contest challenge
Chapters (2)
Captain_Hairball
Joined 20th Oct, 2015 ·
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Cady Sense usually triggers off of impending couples, but there are always exceptions. (I do love the idea that precognition is a rare but recognized part of earth pony magic.)
Warrior Humans.
No one tell Sunset. I'm not sure if she'd facepalm or laugh for the better part of an hour.
This was a lovely father-daughter moment. The character of both Shining and Flurry shines through brilliantly, especially in how they're both very clearly related to Twilight. Whole dang family of nerdhorses. Thank you for this.
aww sounds sweet
Funnily enough, I'm also writing a chess story for Sock's non-test...
This would make for some interesting moments. For example, I thought under these rules this would be checkmate:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/776639903643467776/841386786122629130/unknown.png
but FoME pointed out to me that the white harmony can't capture either, so black harmony is free to go to g3.
10809701
Oh, neat! I looked forward to it.
10809707
I did not, I repeat, NOT play test this variant. It might in fact have some very catastrophic effects. It would make some mates easier and others harder, so it might be balanced? Maybe?
10809391
I'm kind of an earth pony fanboy; I think Luna's oneiromancy comes from the earth pony branch, too. It's to the point that in my one Fallout Equestria, the earth ponies are the most common tribe because the nature of their powers makes them adept at survival. Unicorns are such pansies that thestrals are more common.
This is something I wished more stories would touch on. Shining Armor's wife is an immortal alicorn who rules over an entire nation-state, his sister is also an immortal alicorn—not to mention the most famous, successful, and storied mare on the planet—and now ruler of the entire nation, his daughter is also an immortal alicorn with nigh immeasurable potential, and he... is a consort. At least at one time he was the commander of Equestria's military, but even that has been taken away from him.
Being wholly outclassed by the mares you love, including the little sister you used to protect, has to weigh heavy on the heart, even for one as caring as Shining, who likely is delighted at how much his family has accomplished. His cutie mark, his name, even his once chosen profession, all centered around being a protector for the ones he loves, but now? In that regard he is... well, useless. Would it spark depression? Jealousy? Anger? Or perhaps the taking of unnecessary risks in order to prove to
yourselfeverypony that you're still of value.Wow, that got away from me there...
Seriously, though, I really dig this story. Not nearly enough "Shining Armor and Flurry Heart bonding" fics out there. Plus, I'm a sucker for dad's doing their best and positive male role models. Great job, my dude. Best of luck in the nontest!
This was spectacular and very touching. Big thanks for it!
Either Twilight never told Shinning about Canterlot High. Or you're just ignoring Equestria Girls. Hard to tell. Very meh on the rest 😑.
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YAY!
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...
What?
I think you might have the wrong story.
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Heh. Yeah. I think this is his central conflict. I'm not even sure he was in charge of the EUP. Just the royal guard AKA 'Celestia's Speed Bumps'.
I will try to give him as many heroic moments as I can, and also his history books will do well and he will donate all the money to charity.
10810044
Thank you!
Ah, I remember learning to play chess with my dad, still know all the the rules... haven't played in a while.
Maybe not in Equestria, but I can assure you Shining, they exist, just ask your sister.
Lovely piece, and great father-daughter bonding moment.
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Hehe. Sometimes I take EqG out of continuity. Either that or he's lying to Flurry so she doesn't try to run away there.
10810278
Oh, right, right, right, the 'humans aren't real thing'. I sometimes take EqG out of canon; it's not bad but it makes things complicated.
10810742
10810278
Covered my ass in the footnotes. Love that fanfics are always editable.
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Wouldn't want any misadventures in the Human world, now would we? Depending on how you see the future of EqG, Sunset's got enough to worry about, and Auntie Twilight's probably got that mirror locked up in a vault in Canterlot castle that only she or Spike can access anyway.
I already liked this and then they started talking totally-not-Warrior-Cats and I was sold.
Shining and Flurry is wholesome, and the chess pieces I thought were very clever. Very sweet stuff!
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Thank you.
As I mentioned some of this is autobiographical; that includes my daughter holding forth at length about her Warrior Cats theories. Though usually with less subtext than is presented here; she just likes talking about them.
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That would make a terrible story which I will never write.
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Oh really now?
Well, I'll keep an eye out anyway
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It would certainly not involve her meeting Sunset, and would not be perfect for the Unusual Pairings contest.
I am not exploring this idea as we speak.
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Thought I'd say it case you were being sarcastic.
Text doesnt really show tone all that well, and emojis can only take you so far.
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Sorry, I got carried away. Yes, I can't promise I'll actually finish it but I finally have some inspiration for that contest.
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Quite alright
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Makes sense now. I kinda thought this might be the case.
10810020
Shining Armor being prince-consort is pure speculation, though fruitful speculation as your post and this story demonstrate. He could just as easily be the William of Orange to Cadance's Mary Stuart (William and Mary having been Queen and King Regnant rather than Queen and Prince-Consort of England). MLPwiki names him as such, though as far as I can tell this is unsourced and thus also pure speculation.
Hrm
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derpicdn.net/img/view/2021/3/21/2576189.png
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I've never liked hospitals. It comes with being the son of a RN (Registered Nurse). Happy patients don't stick around.
I've never liked war either. My grandparents were war refugees and my parents were draftees against the Red Menace, but to them it was home. I'm the lucky one being born away from it all but I was a 9/11 high school graduate. I pussyed out the 'great adventure' and heard about the shitshow we're supposedly leaving now(?) from my friends. I was also in Newtown when "method actors" entered the lexicon.
I'm not naive about how slowly it takes for organizational changes to be identified, planned and executed on either. For the past year I've been dealing with businesses trying to avoid bankruptcy cause the tax man wants his cut so I'm an "essential worker". Working from home? Whats that?
The story is fine. It just doesn't move me the way you intended but I won't fault the story for that.
Obligatory "the series would have been 100x better if spotted leaf never died"
After action vignettes and parenting short stories are so cozy.
10813364
I asked my daughter about this over discord five minutes ago and she's not gotten back to me yet but she hasn't stopped typing.
W
Ok, this was short but very sweet. I loved your handling of a bit older Flurry, showing first signs of actual maturity and how she listens to Shinning, and also Shinning showing that he can make mistakes himself and admit them.
I also have to say that I loved the little jokes in the footnotes, and a good way to explain some things that could be confusing without spelling them out in the narrative, which would take away from the story.
I would say that I would've liked to see more, but that isn't really a critique, the story works perfectly well like this.
Also
Cadence had warned, which in retrospect looked less like a hypothetical example and more like a premonition from the earth pony part of Cadence’s alicorn powers.
I love this little bit of lore, very interesting
Good job!
Howdy, hi!
I loved this fic. Dad Shining is the best thing, and I love to see it. His interactions with Flurry are heartfelt and I love that Flurry does feel like a child in this. She loves her dad and she doesn't know how to process her feelings towards whom she thought was invincible. Despite being off-screen Cadance also felt really great.
I just love me some good Shining Armour fic and for a character bogged down by a lot of garbage on the site, I just love to see such a wholesome piece with one of my favourite characters in it.
Thank you for the read~!
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I think I'm a but late here but I'm curious if you interpreted the story to be pro-war?
good pony names!
love the atmosphere of this setup so far, with this understated transition as a core part of it. really reminds me of Victorian-era writing in a way
and a great folding-in of decidedly un-Victorian concepts. i do enjoy the dynamic of Twilight explaining nerd stuff to her older brother, too
and ugh, yes! this is exactly the type of Shining/Cadance dynamic i love to see explored
oh yes, that is extremely ominous!
ha, super cute!
lots of great seeds for the future Flurry Heart's character planted here, very ominous combined with her magical powers being far stronger than her wisdom
ugh, i absolutely love this, folding in characterization and theme into the exposition of a very world-immersed version of chess
and this! just everything about this, i have to keep myself from quoting every line.
this bit of adorableness really underscores all of the other serious themes of this work! Flurry is in the end a child, and Shining her father, despite all the questions of power and royalty and divinity that surround them.
love the classification scheme! and yes, very wise of them both
love this bit of xenofiction. i may absolutely have to steal this! the name harmomo itself reminds me of both "harmony" and "Houyhnhnm", the latter of which i only now realize is extremely relevant to MLP fiction... oh, and the very Anglic "takestones" is also great, really makes sense given how Germanic griffon names are
beautiful and perfect worldbuilding! this is a story that makes me quake with envy that i am not the one who has written it or come up with these ideas. taking seriously the very odd mixture of power, divinity, and mundanity that is the alicorn's place in Equestria is something i love to explore and see explored, and you've done it maresterfully here. who better to explore this concept with than Shining Armor, the mortal who is somehow a husband, brother, and father to three different Alicorn Princesses? those roles would be something that i would find very difficult to synthesize into a Shining Armor that holds his own, carving out a place and a will for himself in such rarefied company (even himself recognizing this as an arbitrary game divorced from the channels of real power, but that is what you do!), but you make it seem so natural, wrapping it all into what is on the outside a very light and wholesome slice-of-life. absolument magnifique!
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Insomnia providing comment replies!
LOL I went back and read these footnotes to see what you were talking about and damn did I write that? Heh I feel arrogant when I think that but these were good.
There's a whole story based on footnote 1. that I need to finish. One of those 'I started it for a contest then got distracted and blew past the deadline' ones. It's good, though. I has Sunset and Wally in it. Hold on, opening Scrivener file so I'll remember it exists next time my puppy is taking a nap.
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I appreciate the 'Victorian' comment. I like Victoriana. I get that stuff off Gutenberg sometimes. Frederick Douglas, George MacDonald, and partial re-read of Anna Sewell in the past year or so.
I really like these comments thank yooou!
Question, is that a "Warriors" reference there?
Just asking. ;)
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If you mean Warrior cats: yes but based on my daughter’s reading I haven’t read much of them.
If you mean the 1979 film I don’t remember making a reference to it but that’s the kind of thing I do unconsciously all the time.
11354338
I mean Warrior Cats.
xD
We share fanons on this.
11497053
I’m very much if the “powerful but subtle” earth pony magic school. What else was Feeling Pinke Keen about, after all?
This was very good! Both as a character piece looking at Shining, but also as a rare and precious story where he and Flurry are just dad and daughter.
Speaking of which, Flurry Heart was adorable in this. She's clearly a smart kid -- with an "agile and easily distracted" mind, as Shining puts it -- but still a kid. She loves her dad, and thinks the world of her mom, and retains the childish innocence even in the face of bad things, like her father getting his leg rebuilt after a close call with a cannonball.
And yes, those footnotes were cool!
This was a really lovely story. I like your use of footnotes and I like the reasons behind each footnote, to explain both the convention of the ponyworld and just how things work, like their version of chess. I also do like that
It was really neat to see this tackled from a first-person perspective and the way you give such a sense of how Shining feels, why he wanted to participate, that slight whisper of almost defensiveness as to the decisions he's made and why. He's very alive and real and noble, but not without a bit of obstinance. That just makes him more alive, though, and his decisions more understandable.
I also get told "I told you so" a lot.
I like that there's consequence, too. Like, even in this magic world of magic ponies, where he gets his leg magically reattached, it still sucks. It's not instant and immediate and it compliments the rest of the story well in that hint about the limitations of the alicorns. And Shining makes a good teacher in the way he works with his daughter.
Really good work. You have really lovely range in your writing.
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!