A Tale of An Old Officer and His Delicate Daughter

by Mandalore the Inept

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Sad, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Fluttershy
Length: 5225

Fluttershy spends some time with her father and learns of how he became the stallion that he is now.

Blazing "Blaze" Glory is a busy stallion. He's a single father who works early hours dealing with bruised egos and late hours with bruised bodies. When his daughter gets her cutie mark in a near death situation, Blaze forces himself and by extension, his subordinates, to work at such a grueling rate that his employers force him to take a vacation in order to cool off. Learning that they will have two weeks to spend together, Fluttershy wishes to bond with her busy body father. Deciding to make her father breakfast in bed for the first day, Fluttershy notices a dusty old maroon beret hiding in the pantry. Figuring that it must have belonged to her father, the filly puts it on, intending on returning it. Little does she know that the beret would bring forth the story of her father's life.

Published 2013-09-06 06:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-29 03:59:24 UTC

A Quiet Morning-Chapter One

There are times when one just wants to sleep, blissfully unaware of the world around them so that they could revel in their grand dreams of fantasy and pleasant memories of times long past.

“Dad.” a soft voice whispered, trying to rouse the cocoon of sheets from its slumber.

Unfortunately for Blazing Glory, life as a single father had to take precedence over any pleasant dreams he may or may not have had.

“Ugh.” came the reply from the bundle of sheets

“Daddy~” there was that little voice again.

The bundle groaned, “Can’t play with you now kiddo,” the golden pegasus turned in his bed, “Daddy’s trying to get some sleep tonight...” he semi-pleaded to the voice.

A bell like giggle came from next to his bed, “Daddy, you’re silly. It’s already past noon.”

This caused the sheets to come off a little, the stallion peeked out his red maned head at the outside world. Pure, heavenly, unwanted light intruded his senses as his old looking brown eyes adjusted to this new stimuli.

‘Well, shit.’ was what the stallion wanted to say to himself as he sat up. Of course, he couldn’t just say that with his young daughter in the same room as he was, so his mind translated it into a tamer phrase.

“Huh, would you look at that.” the stallion muttered as he rubbed his eyes with his hooves, the identification tags on the ball chain around his neck jingling around as he rigorously tried to rid himself of ocular irritation. Blazing Glory was really starting to feel older, waking up groggily at the apex of the day instead of alertly getting up at the unholy buttcrack of dawn as he was used to. Although taking a vacation from his time intensive occupation might have had something to do with that.

With the abominable blanket finally defeated, the gold stallion rose from his bedtime coffin with a yawn. He took a great whiff, as there was this delicious smell of maple syrup in the ai-

‘Waaaait a second’ he thought to himself. ‘I don’t remember making breakfast.’ He looked down at the foot of his bed where the tiny voice was coming from. There he saw his little daughter, a vibrant smile on her half hidden face, a familiar maroon beret on her pink maned head, and a large silver tray of food and drink balanced on her back.

'...How, where’d she...' he thought before being interrupted.

“I made you breakfast!” the little filly cheerily announced, the bright light of the outside world reflecting off her bright, cerulean eye.

‘Breakfast in bed?’ the stallion thought to himself, once again not necessarily complaining of this anomaly from routine. He took the silver tray off the filly’s back, trying as to not ruin the meticulous presentation that his daughter had created. A sad smile graced his face as he saw a little rose in a small turquoise vase on the top right side of the tray.

‘Wist.’ was the name that came to the stallion’s mind. He immediately wrenched his mind from his late spouse. ‘Daughter first, brooding later.’ he thought, physically shaking his head. He turned his attention the plate before him; a tower of three, golden brown pancakes with a dash of butter on top, looking as soft as the clouds that their house sat upon. On the side there were two eggs, sunny-side up, and a gratuitous amount of stack of hay bacon, all in its glorious fried goodness. He felt his mouth water a bit as the heavenly scent of bacon reached his nostrils.

‘Hay bacon.’ was all the veteran could think of as he licked his lips. His head reared back for a second before the pony froze up, his eyes became pinpricks as realization struck his hunger addled mind.

“Uh, Fluttershy?” the stallion asked his daughter.

“Yes daddy?” the little filly said, her eyes full of hope and expectation.

“When did you learn to make pancakes? Or eggs?” he inquired, now a little suspicious of scrumptious looking food presented before him.

The little filly retreated further behind her pink mane, fearing that her father did not appreciate her gesture of kindness.

“Oh... you don’t like it.” she murmured, her eyes wandering downwards. The stallion couldn’t help but sigh a bit, his daughter always assumed the worst of situations. He brought a hoof under her chin so that she see the small smile he was giving her.

“Fluttershy, you didn’t even let me try your food yet, how could I know if it’s terrible?” he questioned her. This little dose of logic got Fluttershy out her sullen state, an embarrassed blush and giggle emanating from the little filly.

“I’m sorry fo-” She tried apologizing for her behavior, but he quickly silenced her with a quiet shush.

Her father couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

‘Sometimes I wonder if she’ll ever learn to stop apologizing for everything.’ the stallion thought to himself. It only took a moment for him to remember why she apologizes a lot in the first.

The stallion sighed as he desperately warded off the need acquaint his face with his front hooves.

“It’s alright kiddo, no need to worry yourself over something as small as this.” Blazing Glory said. ‘Not like she can burn down a cloud house anyway, right?’ he reassured himself. ‘Though this does explain that burnt pan from last Friday-’ his thoughts were interrupted when his stomach rumbled, the near universal sound signaling hunger. The stallion couldn’t help but redirect his gaze back to the silver tray, the crisp, gold looking pancakes and the smell of fried hay bacon were looking more and more tantalizing with every passing second.

“‘Sides, it smells delicious, so....” his head disappeared amongst the pile of food, the sounds of vigorous chewing and swallowing emanating from the now disorganized pile of food. Fluttershy could only look on with disgusted delight as her father annihilated the breakfast she made for him. Not even a single crumb survived the onslaught.

It was only after a few moments did Fluttershy find her voice again.

“...Did you like it?” she meekly asked, as if the sight of her father licking the plate like a dog didn’t already her question. The stallion was wiping his muzzle with the napkin as he turned his head to look at his daughter, picking some flecks of food out of his five o'clock shadow.

“...That was actually pretty good, Fluttershy!” he beamed, any pretense of hunger vanquished by the abundant morning meal. Truth be told, years of sustaining himself on mess hall chow and ready-to-eat rations had sullied his idea of a good meal.

“Oh, I’m glad you liked it!” Fluttershy smiled, and that brought a brighter smile to his face, too.

The stallion put the rose-bearing vase on his nightstand before getting out of bed. His very messy, unsorted bed. He groaned. Old habits die hard.

“Hey, Flutters.” Blazing Glory called his daughter.

“Can you help your old pops out and put this tray in the sink? I have to deal with something.”

His eyes never left the unorganized mess that was his bed.

“Ok dad.” Fluttershy said, letting her father place the tray on her back. After making sure that the tray and plates on it wouldn’t fall off, she turned around and headed out the door.

“Oh and don’t worry about washing the dishes, I’ll get to that later.” he called after her before grabbing the lower part of his sheets, he pulled everything off and unceremoniously dumped them on the floor.

*****************

As Fluttershy walked down the stairs, she couldn’t help but wonder what events today would bring. Since it was still the middle of summer and her father had finally gotten permission from his employer to take a vacation, Fluttershy had finally gotten the opportunity to spend some time with her father. He always seemed even busier after the Flight Camp incident.

Fluttershy turned around the corner of the hallway, her destination in sight. Very carefully, she put the tray down into the sink, just as her father told her to. Then all of the sudden, she heard a cracking noise come from upstairs.

“Fuck!”

“Dad, are you alright!?” Fluttershy shouted with as much effort as she could muster. To her credit, it didn’t sound like somepony was blowing a dog whistle.

“...YEAH, I’M FINE!” her father replied, her ears faintly picking up her dad’s words.

She took off the maroon beret to wipe a bead of sweat she hadn’t noticed had developed on her forehead. But before she could put it back on, she found herself wondering why this particular piece of headwear was so significant.

‘Daddy never told me about what was so important about this hat.’ Fluttershy thought to herself as she let her eyes wander to the silver centerpiece She felt a shiver flow down her spine as the silver pegasus on the insignia impassively returned her stare, as if to challenge the young filly to threaten the Equestria-faced globe that it held in the protection of its hooves and wings. There were also some words, but they were too worn for her to see. Placing the beret on the coffee table, she allowed her imagination to run wild.

‘Maybe he was a firefighter!’ Fluttershy excitedly imagined, the idea that her father bravely battled burning blazes when he was younger was an exciting prospect, and would certainly make for even more exciting stories!

‘Or, maybe he was paramedic!’ the filly fantasized, envisioning her father swiftly soaring the skies to save suffering civilians. It would also explain how he got so good at treating ponies when they got hurt.

‘Like that one time Rainbow Dash tried to fly through lightn-’ Fluttershy started to recall an incident with her prismatic friend when she heard the heavy hoofsteps of her father coming down the stairs. Turning around, she saw her father pluck some wood out of his short red mane as he trotted over to the couch.

“Hey there kiddo, sorry I took so long. Dang sheets got tangled up there.” he apologized to his daughter. He paused for a second, before muttering under his breath:

“I also might need a new bed frame.”

“What was that, dad?”

“Nothing sweetheart.” the stallion said nonchalantly as he moved towards the kitchen. Stopping at the sink, he noticed that there was a grey plate and a greasy pan along with the white plate he ate from earlier..

‘Well, guess I don’t need to make breakfast then.’ Blazing Glory thought to himself as he let a stream of warm water splash onto the dishes. Letting the water pool up onto the plates he grabbed the worn sponge that laid behind the silver tap with his mouth, gently holding the sponge as to not drop it, but not too firm as to release any...leftover liquids from the porous cleaning utensil. Celestia knows that was something he wanted to avoid ever happening again.

Blazing Glory’s ears twitched alertly as he scarcely heard the soft hoof-falls of his daughter. He smiled.

“Trying to snatch a cookie behind my back again?” the stallion asked teasingly, never looking up from the sink as he started lathering dish soap onto the sponge.

“W-w-what!?” the filly froze in her tracks. “I-how did you know?” she squeaked out.

The stallion chuckled as he started scrubbing the frying pan.

“I’m just kidding, Fluttershy.” the stallion clarified, not wanting to upset his sensitive daughter. “Is there something you need?”

“Oh.” Fluttershy understood. ‘Thank Celestia.’ she silently thanked the Princess for her father’s apparent ignorance before returning to her original intentions.

“Um, I was wondering if I could help.”

“Go ahead, I don-... huh?”

Blazing Glory looked at his daughter, a puzzled expression accurately displaying his inner thoughts. When did kids ever want to do chores?

“Sure, just...dry off the plates and put in the cabinet when I’m done with them.” he suggested. “Lower one to the left, next to the oven.”

For the next minute, the only sounds that were heard were the soft sounds of water splashing upon porcelain and iron, the squeaks of rags, and the clatter of plates being stacked. Silently, father and daughter worked together to eradicate the threat of bacterial buildup amongst the tableware. It could be said that not a single germ survived to tell the tale of the combined assault of the seasoned stallion and his delicate daughter. Finally the stallion spoke.

“Well...that takes care of that.”

Fluttershy looked at her father, his expression never changed as he spoke. She opened her mouth to speak.

“...”

“Thanks for the help, kiddo.”

She never got to say anything as her father turned towards the living room and walked away.

“...Was it something I said?”

*****************

As Blazing Glory sat upon his living room couch, a thousand thoughts flowed through his mind, but only one persisted.

‘She’s growing up.’

The stallion scratched his head with his front left hoof as he sought potential motives for his daughter wanting to aid him in doing chores in the house aloud.

“Maybe she wants more of an allowance...But what the hell would she even buy? Toys? ...No, she hates playing by herself...Maybe she found herself a boy?...What the hell am I saying!? She’s barely just gotten her cutie mark!”

After a few moments, the stallion hung his head and sighed.

“Goddamnit, I have no idea what my own daughter wants.”

‘Why don’t you just get up and ask her yourself, Blaze?’

The stallion looked up, confused and somewhat frightened by the disembodied voice.

“Shade?”

‘You seem so interested in getting to know her, why do you not go up and ask her yourself.’

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was only a memory.

“But you always did have a point.”

Opening his eyes, the stallion’s view centered on the beret that laid on the coffee table in the center of the living room. Setting his hooves back onto the floor, he walked slowly towards the beret.

“I don’t know why she brought this old thing out, but if this damn sweat mop showed me anything.”

Gingerly taking up the relic in his front hooves, the stallion placed the beret on top of his shaved head so that the silver flash would be facing forward.

“...Its that I can’t sit around and expect rainbows and sunshine to fix everything. Time to be a dad!”

With the maroon beret on his head, Blaze set about with new resolve to do one thing.

“Let’s Go!”

Author's Note

So...this is my first story, but that doesn't really matter. (Unless you want it to.)

Anyways, enjoy. (or not, your choice.)

P.S: May not update frequently, apologies in advance.

Misunderstandings-Chapter Two

Fluttershy slowly trudged her way towards the stairs, her steps soft and quiet so as to not rouse her father from his musings. As she climbed up the stairs, Fluttershy couldn’t help but wonder how she had ruined this day for herself and her father. At the top of the stairs, Fluttershy sighed, her head hung low in shame and despair.

“I guess dad just doesn’t want to spend time with me.” the filly sniffled as she walked towards her room.

“Fluttershy?” her father’s coarse voice called out from downstairs.

“Oh no! Dad’s mad at me, isn’t he!” she said to herself as she meekly flapped her wings in an attempt to hasten her speedy escape from an inevitable reprimand. Unfortunately for herself, all this managed to accomplish was to trip herself over her splayed, flailing appendages. Despite this painful setback, Fluttershy managed to get into her room and shut the door.

“Fluttershy?” the same voice called over the steady beat of hoofsteps coming from the stairs.

Fluttershy wasted no time in searching for a suitable place to hide herself. She quickly dashed over to the closet and opened the door. The dark interior of the closet contrasted heavily with the bright fluorescence of her cloud based room. For a brief second, Fluttershy started to recall a story that her friend Rainbow Dash had told her.

‘And when you least expect it, a monster is gonna pop out of your closet...AND RIP YOU TO PIECES!’

Fluttershy immediately shut the closet door. Monsters did not seem like such good hiding partners if they were going to eviscerate you afterwards.

Her head turned to the side, the filly scouted additional spots in her room as potential hiding areas. After she ruled out the chair for being too small to even hide behind, the curtains of her window being too see-through, Fluttershy’s face lit up in realization. She jumped over to her bed and lifted up the skirts that touched the cloud. With a gasp, she pushed her head and neck through the gap, only to feel burning sensations come from her awkwardly bent legs. After a few seconds of struggling, Fluttershy gave up.

“Oh, why did my legs have to grow so big!?” She lamented.

And then she heard the knocking at her door.

“Fluttershy? Are you in there?” Her father said outside of her door.

The filly’s eyes became verdant pinpricks in a white lake, her mouth screamed a silent terror. Desperate for a solution, her mind flew like a frenzy of desperate gulls, clawing at every corner of her subconscious.

‘What do I do? What do I do?!’ the thought persisted in her mind, like a jingle played ad nauseam.

‘Go to bed, child.’ a voice said, its haunting presence sending a chill down the filly’s spine. It took most of her will not to scream. Instead Fluttershy fell onto her haunches, petrified.

“Who...who-?” the filly squeaked out, her fear of her father now replaced by her fear of her new guest.

‘Ask no questions. Go...’ the voice faded off, but it had its effect, for the filly concluded that she did not to be out in the open any longer. Fluttershy shot into her bed just as the door opened up.

*****************

Blazing Glory couldn’t help but smile. His stomach was full, the housework was done, and the day was still very much alive. Today, there would be no training to addle him through the morning and the night, no papers to fill out in the afternoon. No, today he was going to be the father he always wanted to be.

The stallion turned his head towards the kitchen and called out for his daughter.

“Fluttershy?”

He was half expecting the filly to come running out of the kitchen. What he got was silence. Cautiously, the stallion moved slowly towards the archway of his kitchen.

“...Is this payback for brushing you off?”

The stallion sighed at his insensitivity. This was not something he wanted right now.

“Listen, I’m sorry about earlier kiddo, it was really rude of me to...just…”

What Blazing Glory saw made him freeze in horror.

The kitchen looked pristine, the dish rack was devoid of any dirty plates, there was no water splashed anywhere, no specks of dirt on the floor. But this wasn’t Blazing Glory’s problem.

What was his problem was that his daughter was nowhere to be seen.

The stallion felt his body tense up, the hairs of his body stood on their ends as fear and anger built up in his mind. With much hesitation, the stallion looked towards the small, rectangular window from where light was coming into the kitchen. It was sealed and locked. As the stallion looked around the barren kitchen for any signs of struggle or intrusion, he heard a small thump come from upstairs. Immediately, the stallion ran towards the stairwell with as much speed as his legs could carry him, nimbly avoiding the archway.

“No, no, not again!”

The stallion began to gallop up the stairs as he heard a door slam down the hallway.

“Fluttershy!?”

The stallion kept his pace steady until he heard a distant voice in his mind.

‘Calm down. You need to think rationally.’

The stallion skid to a halt before he could bash down the door to his daughter’s room. Glaring at nothing in particular, the stallion began to reply to the disembodied voice in a hushed voice.

“Why should I? For all I know, my daughter is getting foalnapped! I am not going to just stand here and wait while my daughter gets snatched, not while I have anything to say about it!”

‘And so you would jump into the sea rather than building a bridge in order to get across.’

This brought the stallion’s rage to a standstill, his rage gradually being replaced by confusion.

“What!? Damnit Shade stop speaking in metaphors!”

‘Impatient as always.’

Blazing Glory groaned. The fact that he was being reprimanded by a voice in his head was not lost on him. He looked at the door in front of him, the need to break down the door and charge in screaming teared at his mind. The voice spoke one last time before it faded off.

‘Do what you will. But know your actions will have consequences. Act wisely.’

His eyes wandered downward, the scowl on his face never disappearing.

“...Fine. I’ll do it your way.”

The stallion took a few deep breaths before he, this time very slowly and calmly, walked up to his daughter’s door and knocked on it three times.

“Fluttershy, you in there?”

As the stallion waited for his daughter to answer, he thought he heard a muffled thump, so with another deep breath, the stallion twisted the doorknob and walked straight in.

*****************

Immediately the stallion made what could be described as something between a sigh and a groan.

Fluttershy’s room wasn’t messy. There were no overturned furnishings, no looted, broken open closets, no signs of a struggle. So for Blazing Glory, the good news was that there was no burglary of his house, or the kidnapping of his daughter. The bad news for him was that he got riled up for nothing, which only served in giving him a headache.

“Hey kiddo...you alright?” Blazing Glory gently whispered to his daughter.

“...!” The lump responded with a predictably pathetic sounding whimper.

The stallion sighed. He reached out his front hooves in order to try and peel the blanket off his daughter, but the lump shrank further into the mess of thick cotton when a shimmer of light exposed her frightened face.

“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”

Once again, his answer was met by another whimper.

“Fluttershy, it’s me, please come out.”

The bundle of blankets stopped shivering, but the filly inside did not come out. The house was silent once more, the filly sniffling every few seconds or so, while the stallion stayed at his post, getting progressively more frustrated.

‘What the hell happened? ...Was it…’

“Fluttershy, are those boys from the flight camp bothering you again?” Blazing Glory asked.

“...No…” the filly whispered.

‘Good.’ the stallion thought to himself.

“Did something happen between you and Rainbow?”

“No.” the filly once again replied, her turquoise eyes now poking out of her blanket, looking downwards.

“Did anyone hurt you?” the stallion asked, a scowl starting to form on his face.

“No.” she said once more.

‘Why isn’t she making eye contact wit-’ the stallion thought, only to realize what was going on. His scowl disappeared, mellowing out into a neutral frown. He took off the beret and placed near the side of the bed, as to not scare his daughter further as he came to a conclusion.

‘...She’s afraid of me.’

“Fluttershy.” the stallion said quietly. This change of tone caused the filly to look up, confused as to why her father’s voice had become uncharacteristically flat.

“Are you afraid of me?” he asked.

“...Yes.” the filly closed her eyes and lowered her head, as if waiting for the inevitable.

“Why are you afraid of me?” Blaze asked, his tone still flat.

“...I…I...” Fluttershy began to speak, only to hesitate and quiet down.

The stallion raised an eyebrow to show his daughter that she held his attention, but otherwise his face was still frozen.

“...I thought, that...” The filly stopped as she choked down a sob before she continued.

“I thought that you might be mad at me.” she whimpered.

The stallion took pause, he let the new information sink in as he carefully considered his next words.

“...Why?” the stallion said.

Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to be confused. She poked her head out

“Why? What-what do you mean?”

“I mean, why would I be mad at you? You didn’t get in trouble, did you?” the stallion questioned his daughter.

“No.”

“Well then, what made you think I’d be mad?”

Fluttershy tensed up, as if expecting some sort of divine retribution to rain down upon her head as soon as she had spoken.

“...Do you promise not to be angry if I tell you?”

“On my life.” her father gave her a small smile. This got Fluttershy’s spirit up as she looked her father in the eye, her head now fully poked out of the blanket.

“Okay, since you really want to know;” the filly began before she took a deep breath.

“Last night when you weren’t looking I had two cookies a bottle of soda in the fridge even though you told me not to have any then when I woke up I made you breakfast so that you might be happy today so we could spend time together but when we were cleaning in the kitchen I thought you were mad at me for cooking when you did all the cooking for yourself so I hid so that you wouldn’t punish me please don’t hurt me!”

The filly panted, her short but breathtakingly rapid explanation left her with little air. She looked towards her father with some hope that he would understand her explanation.

“...”

“...”

The filly lowered head again, this time she was sure her father was angry.

Or at least she did until her father went mad.

“Hehehehe, hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The stallion cackled, his roaring laughter echoing throughout the house. Fluttershy was sure she broke her father. So she did what she did best. She froze up. It was only after another minute of mad laughter did Blazing Glory finally calm down.

“Sweet Celestia,” the stallion coughed out as he tried to catch his breath.

“I haven’t had a laugh like that in a long time.”

“S-so...you’re not mad at me?” the filly blurted out, unsure of what to make with the whole situation.

“Fluttershy, when I was your age, I did some pretty stupid things. That was nowhere close to stupid. What you did was very sweet of you. So no, I’m not mad at you.” the stallion finished his explanation by wrapping his daughter in a great big hug. Fluttershy reciprocated by wrapping her forelegs around her father’s neck.

“Did you like the food, daddy?”

A hearty rumble of a chuckle emanated from the stallion's throat before he answered.

“Yeah, I liked it a lot kiddo. Guess this means you’ll cooking for both of us from now on.” Blazing Glory playfully remarked.

“Really!? Oh thank you so much dad, I promise I won’t let you-” Fluttershy began to beam with joy before her father interrupted her.

“Let’s not jump the gun now, Fluttershy. I was only kidding.” Blazing Glory tried to clarify to his daughter what he had meant. Fluttershy wanted to pout but saw that her father was not yet finished speaking, so she waited as he continued.

“But since you really seem like you want to help, I’ll tell you what. You can help me cook, but you’re going to have to follow my instructions to the letter. Understood?” the stallion offered.

“Yay! I get to cook with you now!” the filly cheered, the sight of his daughter so elated brought cheered the stallion up.

“Alright well, now that that’s out of the way... anything in particular you wanna do today Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy did not expect her father to say that. Though she had spent the last week preparing herself for her first family vacation, she expected her father to have something planned out. So she naturally she said the first thing on her mind.

“What?”

A sheepish grin worked its way onto the stallion’s face as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Heh, yeah...sorry about that.” he weakly muttered before continuing.

“I...actually never really thought about what we’d do with my vacation time before they threw me out.” Blazing Glory emphasized his statement with an absent minded flick of a forehoof, which bumped the beret back into Fluttershy’s view. Fluttershy frowned as she looked at the piece of headwear.

“...Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you.” the filly said as she looked at the fallen beret.

“Do you now?” the look of disappointment and frustration on the stallion’s face was replaced by one of attention and focus.

“What’s that?” a yellow hoof directed Blazing Glory’s view towards the maroon beret.

The stallion sighed wistfully as he gingerly picked it up, as if one were to hold a child. The memento had seen better days, tears and rips snaked along the worn fabric of the woolen cap. Even the centerpiece, the proud coat of hooves that adorned the vine colored beret, had lost the sheen that it once held. A flurry of emotions pervaded his mind. Sadness. Anger. Pride. Shame. Joy.

“You want to know what this is?” he held the beret up to his daughter so she could get a better look of her father’s keepsake. The filly nodded, which prompted the stallion to look at the clock, the small and large hands over the 12 and 6, respectively. This prompted another dejected sigh from the stallion.

‘Probably can’t stall a curious filly for eight hours.’

“It’s a long story, kiddo.”

“We have time.” the normally demure filly said. Blaze frowned for what this entailed, but behind his stony exterior he laughed.

‘That’s exactly what her mother would have said.’

“You sure you want to hear it?” Blazing Glory warned one final time. But his daughter just nodded again, her curiosity remained steadfast. The stallion closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath, before he began to tell his daughter about the last day of his old life.

“Well, it all started nearly 25 years ago, at a small town called Dodge Junction.”

Author's Note

So...its been nearly two months since I released the first chapter. Quite sorry about that, school and college apps tend to drain anytime I have to type my story. That and the fact that I suck at writing stories, but I digress.

Once again, if you see any errors/want to point out fallacies/ tear my story to shreds/rip my heart to pieces, etc, I'm all ears.

Next chapter: The Shootout at Dodge Junction. There will be blood, so the gore tag has been added in preparation.

P.S: Sorry about the Cliffhanger. Again. Not very good at ending chapters.

P.P.S: Anyone/pony here know where I can find someone from whom I can commission art from.

Edit: Had to reformat the story a bit, the transfer from Google Docs to FIMFic is a nasty process. Apologies to those who had to read the chapter with the problems.