“Honey, dinner’s ready!” Cadance called out to him as the kids were beginning to sit at the table. Tonight was leftover night, meaning that whatever had not been finished up in the fridge over the last two days was up for grabs. The whole family sat around the table, though Cadance was feeding Skyla her baby food. For each of the family members, Shining had a sliced pineapple souffle, Valiant the same, but not cut properly, Flurry had a caesar salad in front of her, and Cadance had alfredo pasta. There were also having spinach quiche tonight, but from the looks of it, it mostly remained untouched.

Mostly… because Cadance was currently trying to feed some of it to Skyla, who was on her high rise chair right next to her. And when she was doing it, her children were noticing the rather expressive faces she was making.

“Mom, you're making weird faces again.” Valiant spoke.

“Oh no, I’m not.” Cadance replied, still making her funny faces, focused on Skyla.

“Yes you are. Everypony can see them.” Valiant said again, even though it didn’t really stop her as he tried to bite into the side of his souffle.

“He’s right honey. Everypony can see them.” Shining then said, half focused on his food and half focused on the paper he was trying to read. Which had Cadance look up from the table and directly at him.

“Do you really have to read the paper during dinnertime?” Cadance asked, a bit annoyed.

“Yep.” Cadance rolled her eyes before turning her attention to Valiant. Just as he was trying to take huge bites from his souffle without even trying to cut it first.

“Smaller bites, Val! Yikes! Shining? A little help please?” Shining Armor sighed as he leaned over and began to cut Valiant's souffle. As he was cutting it though, that was when the pegasus decided to bring something else up. “So Val… are you going to tell your father what happened at school earlier today?”

“Uh… we learned about chemical compounds.” Valiant replied nervously. Causing Cadance rolled her eyes.

“Val got sent to the principal's office today… again.”

“Good… good…” Shining murmured, too focused on his mind.

“No, Shining! That's bad!” Cadance corrected him, which snapped Shining out of his trance.

“Wait, what!?” He asked, looking back at his son and his wife to try and understand what was going on as he was still cutting the souffle.

“Val got sent to the principal's today!”

“What!? What for!?”

“Nothing!” Valiant haphazardly lied.

“He decided to pull on of his ‘pranks' on his teacher, most likely during class.” Cadance inspected his son’s face in response. “And then, when his teacher tried showing us the video of the incident, he used his powers to make the footage all static… in the principal’s office.”

“It's not my fault they can't detect electromagnetic pulses at a whim like me.”

“Wait a minute,” Shining put the puzzle pieces in his head. “You ruined a tape used against you!? Why, I didn't know you can do that! Did you do anything creative?”

“Shining! We’re not supposed to be encouraging this behavior!” Cadance told him, before looking down towards the table.

“I’m not encouraging, I’m just asking if-”

“Shining!”

CRACK!!!

Valiant's plate broke, with some wood from table now sticking out as a chunk of the souffle was separated along with the plate itself. Something that Shining saw as even more frustrating as he backed up to his side of the table. “Well, that’s just perfect. First the car, now-!”

“Hold on, what happened to the car?” Cadance then asked, confused upon hearing her husband’s remarks just now. He just got up and gave Valiant his plate, taking the paper with him.

“Here, I’m getting myself a new plate.” As he left the table and Valiant was looking back at Cadance, the pegasus decided to try and change the topic of the conversation by looking to the other side of the table.

Though, before she could ask about her daughter’s day, she noticed something. “Flurry, are you alright? You haven’t eaten anything off your plate.”

“I’m not feeling the mood for salad, mom.” She answered.

“You don’t have to have salad if you don’t want to, honey,” Cadance told her daughter. “It’s leftover night. We got pasta, quiche, souffle… what would you like?”

“Pound Cake, perhaps?” Valiant teased. Which caused Flurry to glare daggers directly at her brother.

“Don’t even start-” She growled briefly, before being cut off by her mother.

“Well, you are…” The colt said, a cocky grin on his face as his sister glared even more. But what they also noticed was the pair of crystals that were rising over her shoulders.

“I said don’t even start, you little twerp!” Flurry snapped at her brother, going as far as to point one of her utensils as if she was wanting to stab him with it.

“Hey, no yelling at the table!” Cadance told both of her kids as she tried to get both of them to calm down and not fight each other. “Honey, a little help here?”

Yet… the only kind of thing that she got from her husband was something not really helpful. “Kids… listen to your mother, please.” That just had the pegasus give off a deadpan expression, but it did calm tensions a little bit for the moment so everyone could have the chance to eat.

Unfortunately… Valiant had one last remark that drove her sister to her breaking point. “If Pound Cake were over for dinner, she would eat anything-”

“Alright, that’s it!”

Immediately after her brother said that, two crystal shards zoomed past Valiant’s head. Impaling themselves to the wall as her brother tried to duck for cover underneath the table. However, that plan didn’t get him far as his sister proceeded to tackle him to the floor and try to beat him up under there. However, her sister’s movements have had something fall down to the ground, and Valiant realized that it was his father’s cell phone.

Extending his hand, he grabbed it and used his powers to have the camera flash stun her sister. Giving him the opportunity in order to break free. He kicked his sister off, and levitated both the toaster and blender, ripping both contraptions into multiple pieces and reassembling the parts to create a gun that, as soon as he pulled the trigger, fired burning coils like an SMG. Flurry growled and raised a shield of crystals, blocking the burning projectiles.

“KIDS!!! STOP!!!” Cadance yelled, taking the contraption out of Valiant’s hand and throwing it away, and kicked down Flurry’s crystal wall. All that did was have both kids tackle each other and throw multiple punches to each other. Their mom tried to grab both and pull them away from each other. “SHINING!!!”

Meanwhile, Shining Armor sat in his office with the paper, reading the various articles, but stopped upon one that got his full attention. “Hunh? Flash Sentry… long time advocate of superhero rights and member of the canterlot royal guard… is missing?” After looking at the article and the picture of the stallion that was on there, he soon realized who exactly was the pony in the photo. It was someone that was a hero during the glory days. “Centurion…”

“SHINING!!!” Cadance’s voice broke out, taking Shining Armor out of his trance. He walked out to see his family in a fight that made the dining room look like a warzone, with Skyla on the side, laughing at the sight like it was somehow funny.”Shining! It’s time to intervene!”

“You want me to intervene!?” Shining asked, all his anger finally coming out. “Alright! I’ll intervene!” He turned into his medal for and grabbed Flurry, who was firing crystal shards wildly. “Stop right this instant, Flurry!”

“Valiant started this!” Flurry yelled.

“You need to take a joke!!!” Valiant yelled back.

“You’re all out of control!” Cadance yelled.

The struggle came to a halt as the doorbell rang. Shining and Cadance released their kids, as Flurry quickly picked up her crystal shards and Valiant brought back the toaster and blender back into their original forms. Everything seemingly went back to the way it was, albeit, some holes and burn marks were still around.

Which lead to Valiant then getting up out of his seat. “I guess I’ll get the door then,” He said, getting out of his chair and walking over, opening the door a mere inch… and recognizing the stallion on the other side. “Hey, it’s Spearhead!”

“Hey, whiz kid,” Spearhead chuckled, while looking at the rest of the family. “Hey Cadance… I didn’t come at the wrong time now, did I?”

“Oh no, not at all!” Cadance greeted with an authentic, welcoming tone.

“You didn’t have to brush on over here so quickly now…” Shining chuckled, while his friend let out a fake laugh and a deadpan face.

“Haha… like I haven’t heard that one before.”

“Hey, Spearhead!” Valiant gurgled from his glass of water before spitting it out.

“WOAH!!!” Spearhead pulled out a spray can and made a bucket of water appear from a quick spray, leaving no mess behind. The family applauded at the scene, though Valiant mumbled to himself.

“I liked it when your clothes wash off.”

“I’ll be back later!” Shining Armor said as he got up, excitedly.

“Where are you going?” Cadance asked him, surprised at how quickly he got up from the table after that.

“It’s Wednesday!”

“Wednesday… Oh right,” The pegasus realized what her husband meant, before saying it out loud. “Board game night.”

“More like bored game night.” Valiant snickered.

“Val…” Cadance gave her son the evil eye before turning to the two stallions leaving. “Tell Honey I said hi, Spearhead.”

“Will do, Cadance!” Spearhead yelled as Shining pushed him out of the house. “‘Night Cadance! ‘Night kids!” With that, the door closed behind them. Leaving the three kids with their mother at the table as they tried to have what was left of dinner.

And also leaving Cadance to look back at her son, who was trying to smile a bit despite the situation he found himself in. “Don’t think you’re off the hook just yet for your trip to the principal’s office, Val. Your father and I are definitely going to be discussing about this later.”

“I’m not the only kid sent to the principal’s office, you know.” Valliant replied, going back to eating his souffle.

“Other kids don’t have powers,” Cadance retorted. “Now look, it’s perfectly normal to-”

That small statement though… did not sit really well with Flurry as she looked back at the rest of her family. “Hold on… Normal? What exactly do you know, matter of fact, anypony in this family know about normal?!”

“Now Flurry-”

“Mom, look at me! I wanna feel normal, I wanna be normal around other ponies,” Flurry continued to speak. “The only normal one around here is Skyla, and she doesn’t even understand how much of a nerd dad is!” Skyla let out a laughing fit in response as what Flurry said began to sink in a little to Valiant.

“Lucky.” He muttered to himself. Cadence turned to Valiant, looking at him the same way that Flurry was looking at them now as his facial expression changed in a heartbeat. “I mean on being normal.”

Some time had passed since Shining had left the house with his friend Spearhead and right now, they were sitting in their car, listening to the police scanner that was in his friend’s car as the pegasus was recalling an old story. “So… there I was, like in some real deep trouble. One more snarky remark from this guy and I’m ending up as an elegy… Fortunately, I was able to create some cover and what does Baron Von Merciless do?”

Shining knew the answer to that one right off the top of his horn. “He starts monologuing…”

“Exactly! He starts monologuing!” Spearhead said as he rolled his eyes. “He starts reading like this declaration of victory and goes on about how fragile I am compared to him and how my defeat was foretold, and how everypony in the world would bow before him… Blah blah blah…” Both Shining and Spearhead were laughing at that, before the earth pony said something else. “I mean, the guy has me cornered and unable to do anything, but he won’t shut up…”

At that moment, came a new transmission on the radio “10-4, we have a PC-211 past first street…”

“PC-211…” Shining repeated to himself, trying to raise the volume on the radio in order to hear the rest of the report. “That’s an armed robbery…”

“Oh dear Celestia, this is just beyond sad…” Spearhead rolled his eyes, even though what the unicorn was hearing on the radio was getting him excited.

“Yeah, it’s a robbery…” said the unicorn, a smile of confidence on his face as he turned to look at his friend. “Wanna go catch a robber? Could be fun.”

“No,” His friend stated bluntly, before turning to face his friend directly. “To tell you the honest truth, I wanted to go get some friends and actually play Ogres and Oubliettes for once. Hell, if we aren’t doing that every wednesday evening, then what exactly are we doing then, Shining?”

“What? We’re protecting the public.” Shining replied back before taking a drink of water from a cup that was in the front cupholder between them.

That was when Spearhead sighed and placed a hand on his forehead before leaning in on the driving wheel of the car. “Yet, nopony asked us too.”

“What?” The unicorn raised an eyebrow as he set the cup he had back in the cupholder. “Did you need a royal summons from the princess like when we were in the guard?”

“I’d like one, yes,” Spearhead then retorted, before leaning back in his chair and looking back at his friend. “Shining, we been sneaking on out every night since you first had Flurry in order to do this and…” For a moment, a new thought entered his head as he looked back at the unicorn. “You remember Centurion… Orange fur? Pegasus that could shoot lasers from his wings?”

“Of course I remember him. The three of us were in the same platoon of the royal guard before we each decided to take on hero work,” Shining replied, while also mentioning something else. “He was also mentioned in the paper.”

“Well, he had trouble adjusting to civilian life as well… From what I know, he first came back to the guard, but the stress of it didn’t really help him try to settle down.”

Then came a completely random question from Shining. “When was the last time you’ve seen him?”

“I don’t see anypony from the old days at all, Shining. Just you and Cadance,” The earth pony clarified for him. “And come on, we’re pushing our luck as it is right now. Can’t we just get some coffee or something at Starbuckers?”

“Oh come on, come on… You can’t say that you don’t have fun when we do this.”

“Look,” Spearhead told towards Shining, “I’ll admit that it was entertaining the first few times, but if we keep doing this, somepony’s going to-” Yet, before he could be able to finish his sentence, that was when they both heard something on the police scanner that caught their attention.

“All officers, be on the lookout for a group of ponies going through Watercolor and Easel. There’s been reports of break in’s and vandalism over the last few hours and it’s likely that they’re still on the loose.”

That, had Spearhead blink for a moment. “Wait… Watercolor and Easel? Did I hear that right?”

That had Shining realize what he’s talking about a few moments after hearing that himself. “Isn’t that where your studio is?” When Spearhead had to retire from being the Canvas and relocate, he decided to actually pursue a career path with that of what fit his powers best. But, he did more than just become an artist. He not only got his own studio, but it also served as a recreational center and had afterschool programs for ponies. Flurry herself even went there and that was where she learned how to draw.

“It may not be a robber, but at least we’ll probably be able to catch somepony tonight.” His friend said, which caused Shining to cheer out loud as he pulled out of the small alley in between the two buildings and took off.

As they were leaving though, there was somepony that looked to be in a unicorn in the back of a silver car… and was currently speaking on the phone. “I think my hunch was correct… the big one is the Iron Steed.” Some robotic beeps came through the phone, sending a code through. “He has put on a few pounds, but isn't out of his hero days… I take it you want to be able to see him in action?”

“Come on man, seriously? I think we’ve hit enough places for one evening…” Out of the group of four ponies, each one was dressed rather similarly. They all had some form of dark clothing on and wore a hood over their face. Three of them had backpacks on in order to carry a series of paint cans inside while two of the ponies with bags carried a baseball bat. Just in case if the pony that was in charge of the group could not exactly get into the building without tripping any alarms.

But there was one of them. A unicorn who’s horn was sticking out from underneath his hood, that was having some doubts as to whether or not they should keep doing this. “If we keep on doing this, the cops will catch us.”

“You said that the last three times and look what happened,” The earth pony who did not have a backpack on said to them. “Besides, we already scoped the place out earlier and there’s nopony here this late. Now, are you going to do this with us or not, Inkwell?”

The unicorn, who just looked back at the earth pony, glared back at them. “You know what… Forget this. I’m going home… I didn’t want to even be part of this and yet, you say that it was the only way I get to be friends with you. Well, forget it… I rather not be friends with someone who thinks doing this is fun, Rocky-”

Of course, when the unicorn tried to leave, both of the other ponies with the bats blocked his path as knocked him down to the ground as the earth pony began to speak to him. Unknowingly though… from around the corner, Shining and Spearhead were hiding in the shadows.

“What the heck?” Spearhead spoke up. “Shining, are you seeing this?”

“Yeah.” Shining answered. “By the looks of it, this was an initiative, but that guy backed out. Seems this break in just got better.”

“No, that’s not what I mean, you idiot…” Spearhead said, before looking back at him. “That unicorn… I know that kid. He just moved here and signed up for the same after school program Flurry’s in… What exactly is you plan here, Shining? I can’t have him think that his own teacher by day is some kind of vigilante by night.”

Shining pulled out two ski masks from his pocket. “I took this off of the last guys who tried to break in that house a few weeks ago. Put yours on, and speak in a low voice.”

“Always like you to be prepared…” Spearhead whispered, before putting his on. Shortly after, he began to use his spraycan to make what looked like a slingshot as he looked back at him. “You got a rock I can use? If I take out the streetlight, it would be harder for them to see us.”

“Let me do this.” Shining grabbed the slingshot and threw it at the streetlight, shattering it, making everything dark.

“What the-?!” One of the ponies said out loud, getting their bats up as if they were holding an actual weapon. “What the buck was that just now?!”

In that moment, both Spearhead and Shining watched as the young unicorn used the chance to trip one of the stallions and make a break for it. “Hey, where do you think you’re going, punk!?”

“Go, now!” Spearhead told Shining.

“WHOO!!!” Shining cheered, running into the trio.

“What the-!?” One of them yelled before receiving a hard punch across the face. Shining turned into his metal form, as one of the stallions swung at him with their baseball bat, only for the sports equipment to shatter and break upon impact.

Despite his friend being impervious to anything these punks can throw at him, Spearhead himself had to use other means in order to try and defend himself. Back in the royal guard, the officials that were training the cadets that would work specifically for the princess a form of hand to hand combat that would be used when it came to disarming targets. In Spearhead’s case, while his opponent was swinging wildly, he quickly went for his attacker’s hands, forcing pressure onto the joints of his wrist and making them drop their weapon.

Right after that, Spearhead threw another punch to knock out the target as he turned to Shining. Who seemed to be holding up rather well from the looks of things. Well, until after one last punch to knock the last person out, did he wince in pain.

“Ahh! Oh my back!”

Spearhead just rolled his eyes before looking back at him. “Looks like you overdid it… How about you go back to the car and take a breather,” The earth pony suggested, before spraying his paint can to create what looked like a series of ropes. “I’ll go tie these guys up for when the cops get here.”

“Yeah… I need to lay off the cake.” Shining Groaned as he waddled his way back to the car while Spearhead began to tie up the crooks and empty their bags so the police would see the evidence. All without accidentally leaving any form of evidence behind. Though, to him… the thought of Shining passing up on cake, matter of fact any kind of treat, was something that he saw as unlikely.

By the time that he had gotten back home, Shining’s back did feel a bit better as he was able to walk slowly to the door without any real pain. Quietly, he opened the door and entered the dimly lit home as he made his way through the kitchen to try and go to bed. On his way over, he happened to notice something that was left out on the counter.

It wasn’t cake, but some cookies from the new bakery that he had heard about called Sugarcube Corner. There were a few crumbs on the plate already, leading him to think that Cadance had them out for the kids earlier in the evening. And in his mind, one cookie would not be as big of a treat as a whole piece of cake.

Yet, as he took the cookie and began to walk towards the bedroom, he stopped. Looking towards the living room, he heard a light switch flick on… and in one of the living room chairs was Cadance. In her evening gown, arms folded and looking directly at him. “I thought you would be back before midnight…”

“I said I’d be back.” Shining replied. But as he tried to turn away, he heard hoofsteps as Cadance began to walk over to him. Pinching around his shoulders for a moment.

And as he turned around, that’s when he noticed that what she was holding… was a splinter of wood from earlier. “Is this… debris?”

“Uh… no, it's just an accident I made.”

“I highly doubt accidents when playing a board game would lead to pieces of wood in your clothing…” Cadance told him.

“Well it did. We got excited, I jumped for joy, and broke the chair I sat on.”

“Really? And when were chairs autographed by Benny Bones?” Cadence questioned, before looking back at him. “You were trying to get a ‘workout’ in… were you?”

The look of guilt on Shining’s face was all that Cadence needed to see before she facepalmed herself. “You know how I feel about that, Shining. Darn you, we can not blow cover again!”

“Well tonight was different! I stopped a potential murder!”

“You did what?!” Cadance asked, gasping at the sound of that. Before realizing something. “Dear Celestia, please don’t tell me you’ve been listening to the police scanner again.”

“I can't handle it! It was a potential break in to Spearhead's studio, and the victim was one of Flurry’s classmates! He's just a kid who realized what he did was wrong and was going to die. Do you want a dead kid on your conscious!?”

“Okay, I get that… but if that were not the case, would you still have done what you did?” Cadance then asked, which lead to a rather long pause from the stallion as his wife let out a deep sigh. “Shining, I know you want to be able to help ponies like what we did in the glory days, but uprooting our family again in order to relive those days is not a good thing-”

“Oh!? And I suppose forgetting about that is better?”

“No… The glory days did happen, but our family is what’s happening right now and you are missing it,” Cadance then said, before bringing up a subject that Shining was not expecting. “Not to mention the fact that I still can’t get over the fact that you actually want to miss your own son’s graduation. He looks up to you as his idol. You should be there for him!”

“Ok, first off, I wanted to, but I have work. And second, it's not a graduation, it's him moving from the fourth grade to fifth grade!”

“It’s a ceremony for Luna’s sake,” Cadance told him. “How would it look on us if we’re not there to support him?”

“That is not a ceremony! It's just a way for them celebrate mediocrity for something that is mandatory, and not for anything like graduating high school!”

“This is not about you, Shining… This is about Val. We need to have him do something productive for him. We can’t just have him be pulling pranks every day he’s in school-”

“Is that what this is about!? Then let him join the computer club! Let him do the stuff neither of us know a thing about! Let him do what he does best!”

Now Cadance was beyond annoyed with Shining. It’s almost as if he forgot the reasons as to why they were trying to live here in the first place. “Don’t even try to make me the bad guy here, Shining. You and I both know exactly the reason why we can’t do that!”

“Why not!? Are we really going to have our kids be afraid of using their powers!? You want them to be hurt instead of being able to protect themselves!?”

“No! And for the last time, this is not… ABOUT… YOU!!!” That last shout caused one of the lights in the corner to flicker as both Shining and Cadance turned around.

It was in that moment that they realized… they weren’t exactly alone right now. “Kids… you can come out now.” Valiant stuck his head from the corner, followed by Flurry, both looking a bit worried by the sight of their parents arguing. “Everythings okay… we were just having a talk.”

“A pretty loud talk…” Flurry replied back.

“Yes,” Shining replied “and we’re sorry for that. Your mother and I still love each other, it's just… well…”

“We don't exactly agree on everything.” Cadence added.

“Yes… but that’s not what’s important,” Shining tried to redirect the conversation. “Because your mother and I are always a team. We’re always united… against…… uh… against…”

“Bad influences?” Valiant asked.

“I was going to say bad guys, but yeah… bad influences.”

Cadance sighed as she looked back at the kids now. “We’re sorry that we woke you two up… It won’t happen again. Now, I think all of us should get some sleep.” With that, both Val and Flurry got up from their spots in the living room and went back to their room, while Cadance went back to hers so she and Shining could get some much needed sleep.

Author's Note

And with that, we see how Shining is finding it difficult to try and be 'normal'. From when it comes to being with his family to even when he's out with friends. Poor guy can't catch a break.

Oh and we get the chance to look at Flurry's powers as well as the powers of his friend, Spearhead. Flurry's power is the ability to be able to conjure and create crystals that surround her body. However, there are two crystals that are on her back that take on the form of wings. In order for anypony not to notice them at school, she wears jackets on at all times so they remain covered and therefore cannot be seen by anypony.

As for Spearhead, his power is the ability to be able to have whatever he paints with his spraycan come to life. Whether they be objects, props or creatures, if he can create it, he can bring it to life. Only thing is, there is a limit to how many of his creations he can have come to life and it also depends on how much paint is left in the can.
-Frost