I Just Want to Make You Proud

"He's...gone?"

Yan's mother could barely hold her tears as she told her son of this recent tragedy. The tan coated pegasus sat on his haunches in the living room, tears streaking down his cheeks. His sobs echoed through the dead silence of the house.

"Dad can't be gone...p-please tell me this is some sick joke..." He said through his sobs.

Yan's mother could only shake her head before looking away, preventing her son from seeing the tears.

He gave in. His head hung as he let his cries take over. The young stallion, now resembling a scared little foal, clung to his mother as he cried at the loss of his estranged father.

The next day, Yan, his mother and his aunt left Manehatten for Ponyville to attend his father's burial and reading of his will. Yan had no tears left to cry as he watched his father's casket, owner deep within the eternal slumber of death inside slowly lower into the ground. Each said their final goodbye to a stallion who suffered an early faint. Yan caught a glimpse of a pink-maned pegasus who was gazing at the casket, sobbing softly. She left without saying a word, leaving Yan confused...

The thought quickly left his mind, as the reading of the will brought more. The event surprised the three to a great extent.

"I, German, leave my son, Yan, my home along with its furnishings and any of my possessions," said the elder, suit-clad stallion reading off the will.

Yan instantly snapped back into reality. He left his house to me? He thought.

"Did I hear that right, sir?" He asked, his voice high, yet cracked and dry from the recent events leaving a heavy dryness in in his throat.

"I believe you did. Your father left his house in your ownership."

Yan stared at the stallion in surprise. Why would he do that?

***

Yan sat on his haunches in front of his father's grave, reminiscing the day's prior events.

"I never...got the chance to tell you...Dad...how much I missed you...I w-was waiting til I could move out, and see you, but...but..." The pegasus couldn't continue, as the tears took over.

"U-um...are...did you know German?" A small, shy voice softly emanated behind Yan.

He quickly sniffled and wiped away the tears staining his cheeks.

"Oh, uh, y-yeah," Yan muttered, "he was my father..."

"O-Oh, I didn't know..." the filly said, shy and quiet.

Yan looked behind him to see a teenaged, pink-maned pegasus with a cream colored coat. She was hiding her eyes behind a pink curl.

"Did you know him," He asked, social awkwardness showing.

"He, um, was a friend..." She spoke softly, appearing to be as shy as Yan.

It took him a few minutes to recognize her, but Yan recalled seeing this pony before. She was there earlier at the burial, crying. The filly left early and didn't say anything, so he didn't have to time to ask her who she was.

"Y-you were at the burial earlier...weren't you?" He asked.

"Oh, um, yeah, I think I saw you there, too, but, I-I didn't want to say anything..." She replied. Socially awkward silence followed. The two didn't seem to know how to carry on a conversation.

"W-what's your name?" Yan asked shyly.

"Um, I-I'm Fluttershy..." she said in a voice nearing a whisper.

"Oh...that's a nice name..."

"What?" She asked, appearing to have not heard the the tan-coated stallion.

"Oh, uh, nothing," He stammered.

More silence.

"I'm sorry; I don't really know how to talk with ponies very well..." Yan sighed.

"Oh, neither do I..." Fluttershy said. "German liked to talk to me, though...he was older, but he was a nice person..."

"He was?" Yan asked.

"Yeah, w-was he not very nice to you?" Fluttershy asked, her voice cracking slightly, signaling the arrival of waterworks.

"N-no, it's not that, I, um..." Yan paused from his outburst. "He and my mother separated when I was a foal. My father stayed in Ponyville, while my mother and I moved to Manehatten..."

"O-oh, I'm sorry..."

"No, it's fine," Yan took a deep breath to calm himself.

Yet again, more silence. Yan was never used to talking. In school, he was always bullied for looking like a filly, which didn't help his social skills much.

Suddenly, Yan felt a presence beside him. He glanced to his right to see Fluttershy sitting beside him, looking at the headstone.

"It's so unfair, him passing..." She muttered distantly. Yan continued to stare at the headstone, blushing from embarrassment. He quickly glimpsed at the gap between them. A foot of grass between him and the pink-maned pegasus. Yan returned his stare at the headstone for a long while.

"Oh, gosh, I didn't even tell you my name after you told me yours," Yan just remembered he forgot to introduce himself. "Gosh, I'm sorry, I'm so awkward...I-I'm Yan..." He stammered out at the last second, almost forgetting to say his name again.

"Yan sounds like a nice name," Fluttershy quietly replied. "B-but, don't worry, I'm awkward too..."

Yan was glad to have met somepony with so much common ground with him, but still struggled to talk with her.

"Fluttershy, there ya are!" Somepony shouted from behind the two. They both looked over their shoulders in unison to see an orange mare with a blond mane galloping towards them. She was wearing a dusty cowboy hat, which was looking to fall off due to the galloping.

"Ah was lookin' fer ya..." She gasped. "Oh, who's this fella? Is he yer, uh, you know..." She winked at Fluttershy, who in turn began to stammer in embarrassment.

"N-no, he's not, he-"

"Ah know, sugarcube, Ah'm just messin' with ya. Besides, you don' look like the type to, er, 'get intimate,' in a cemetery...speakin' a which, why are ya here?"

"I-I came to see German..." She murmured.

The mare looked around. "Ah don' see hi-" The realization hit her like a sack of bricks. "oh, uh...Ah, um, Ah'm sorry..." She said, looking down at the grass.

"No, it's fine..." Fluttershy sighed.

"So, um, who's he?" The mare gestured her head towards Yan with her head.

"I, um, I'm Yan..." The pegasus shrinked back, a lump forming in his chest. "I'm German's son..."

"Ah'm sorry...Ah've been messin up today..."

"No it's alright, I, um, gotta go, y'know, new house and all, so, uh, yeah, bye, Fluttershy," The pegasus stammered before taking flight back to his new acquired home.

***

As Yan descended from flight at his doorstep, he cursed himself for being so rude. The second that orange mare appeared, he lost his ability to think. He didn't know why she has such a lethargic effect on him, but it was potent. Yan opened the front door and stepped into the house, now his abode. It was fully furnished: couches, a bed, a few of his father's knick-knacks, refrigeration, all the bells and whistles. Yet, no matter how filled the home would be, it would never fill the emptiness that pulsed within him. He walked up the steps and shuffled into the first bedroom he could find and collapsed onto the bed. He and his mother and aunt dropped off all his belongings in the living room earlier, but Yan wanted to go back to the cemetery. He could worry about organizing all of the furnishings later.

In less than an hour, Yan had cried himself to sleep.