Twilight Sparkle smiled as she watched the display before her. Her father, Night Light, was now holding his first grandfilly in his hooves, tossing her high, then bringing her back down for repeated rounds of raspberries.
Twilight had to admit, it was a good ploy her brother had used this year. Today was father's day, and Shining Armor had decided to take the easy route and gotten their dad the absolute most generic father's day gift there was, a tie. He had even gone the extra generic mile and gotten one with a generic phrase written on it. But of course, that wasn't the real present, as evidenced that said tie did not in fact say "#1 Dad", but instead "#1 Grandpa". Simply by putting it into Flurry Heart's little hooves and having her present the gift it was clear what present he was actually referring to. And Flurry was making sure he knew it was a good present.
"Who's the cutest little filly. Oh who's the cutest little filly." He was getting way too into the idea of being a grandpa. But Twilight was ok with that. Since Shining Armor had finally given a gift Twilight had no hopes of outdoing, it meant she could finally give her dad the gift she'd been planning for the past few years.
Night Light seemed to finally be done playing with the small filly and cuddled her close while stepping over to Shining. He passed his grandfilly back before giving his son a big hug. "Thank you so much Shiny, I love it." The nearly forgotten box floated back up in his magic. The tie embroidered with the words floated itself out in his magic and tied itself in midair. He then presented it to the still giggling filly who promptly began nibbling on it enthusiastically. Shining Armor just smiled. Cadence scooted in next to him to make clear she took at least equal credit for the gift given. She was an official part of the family now, and so not immune to the minor amount of sibling rivalry on this holiday.
And Night Light loved to indulge on fathers day, mostly jokingly. He took gleeful joy in the attention given on his yearly holiday, probably more so now that he was old enough to dread his birthday. He even liked the fact that his children fairly obviously tried to outdo each other by just enough to not seem like they were trying to. That was why he had the expression of a colt at Hearts Warming as he now turned to his daughter.
"Well sweetie, I think that one is gonna be a little hard to top. What did you get me this year?"
Twilight only smiled at her dad's playful enthusiasm. "Unfortunately, you are going to end up one present short this year. I do have a great present for you, and I couldn't have done it without Spikes help."
"Not really. She basically just let me put my name on the card. This is totally Twilight's show."
Spike was sitting on the couch nearby, munching away on the last bits of the Father's Day breakfast they had decided to buy and bring over to the older couples house this year. He had grown up with the family too, calling Velvet and Night Light mom and dad as well. But he had never gotten into the sibling rivalry quite the way his brother and sister did. He was normally the tie guy, but Twilight had pulled him in to help her this year.
"That's not true. I couldn't have done any of this without him. Literally, all the memory spells I used needed me to be completely unconscious. I can't interpret and record at the same time." She smiled over to the little dragon who made the slightest bowing gesture before taking another bite.
She now looked back over to her father who's expression had become curious. "Memory spell? What did you use a memory spell for?"
Twilight gave a little blush as her horn began to glow and a medium sized wrapped box floated over and set itself at his feet. "It's something I've been working on for a while, but I ended up needing to come up with a different way of pulling it off. Hence, memory spells."
Night Light picked the box up in his own magic. With a curious but happy smile he lifted it to his ear and gave it a shake. His smile now became amused. "Oh sweet heart, did you get me a book?"
That gave Twilight a small blush again. Books were her usual gift as all her family could attest. But her dad did like books almost as much as she did, so she had been able to floor him with her selection before. She now smiled big as she noticed him begin to open it as she prepared to explain.
"Well yes, but this one is extra special." Her dad always took the wrapping paper off slowly, and Twilight had made sure to wrap it extra carefully this year. She wanted the chance to explain. "Do you remember that book you use to read to me when I was a foal?"
Night Light was only managing to get the ribbon off undamaged by this point. "Oh Twilie, which one. I read you so many over the years."
"Yeah, but do you remember that first one?"
Night Light paused as he was setting the ribbons that had been wrapped around the box to the side. He looked to his daughter and smiled big. "Oh yes, I do remember that one."
Twilight let her gaze drop a little, her smile now becoming slightly somber. "Well, I'm really sorry to say it, but I couldn't."
Night Light was now making good progress on the tape along the side of the box. "What do you mean? You just asked me about it so you must remember."
Twilight became a little sheepish at this point. "Yeah, but I couldn't remember some very specific, very important details. Like how it ended..... Or the title."
"What are you trying to say sweetheart?" By this time he had managed to tear open the side of the paper and finally pulled the box out. He began to lift the top off.
"I'm saying that I've spent the last few years trying to find a copy of that book. I've gone through every book in your collection like three times but I could never find it." Night Light now looked into the box, finding what looked like a very new hardcover book. However it was covered in what looked like a hoof made brown paper book cover. "So with a lot of help from Spike, I managed to make a new one."
Night Light now stared intently at the book. With his own hooves he gently removed it from the box and opened the cover. There was nothing on the title page. When he opened to the dedication however he found hoof written text reading, "To the Best Dad Ever".
He quickly ran his hoof along the pages, seeing printed text spanning many chapters as the pages flipped before his eyes. He looked up to his daughter in wonder.
"Do you like it? I had some trouble finding a book maker that would actually print it, you know, since I had to admit the story wasn't my own. But I finally found a small shop where they accepted my sob story. I'm glad though, they actually did a good jo..." Her speech was cut off as she felt familiar forelegs wrap around her.
"Oh Twilight sweetie, this is amazing." He held her like that another minute before breaking away, quickly wiping his foreleg across his face while he did. "But you know, I believe I do still have that book around here somewhere."
Twilight was suddenly surprised. "What? Where? I went through all your books. Even your stash of rare books you think I don't know about."
Night Light looked over to his wife. "Told you somepony had been in there." Velvet only rolled her eyes. "But I don't think it would have been in any of those places," he said as he turned his attention back to his daughter. He then proceeded over to an end table next to the couch, opening a small cabinet built into its base.
From inside he floated out what looked like an old local directory. He set that aside and kept digging. Beyond that, shoved all the way to the back, was an even older local directory. But as he removed it Twilight's eyes grew as she saw a familiar, even more worn, hoof made brown paper book cover over the top of it.
He passed it over to Twilight. She took it in her own magic, opening it to find it to be just what it looked like. A book full of addresses and ads for many local businesses. Old ones, some having closed many years before. She looked up to her father with many questions in her eyes.
"You were too young to remember much from before you started going to Celestia's school." Twilight's head tilted at the statement. "The reason you had to do something as advanced as hatch a dragon egg for your trial was because we had to sign you up for the advanced program. One where the advanced students got scholarships, because there was no way we'd be able to send you without one."
Twilight's eyes lit up as some revelation dawned on her. Night Light continued to explain. "Things started turning around for us after that, possibly due to being associated with the princess, but that doesn't really matter. Before that, we never had any money for things like books. But I had seen the wonder in your eyes, so I knew I needed to feed it."
Night Light now lifted the directory from Twilight's hooves, replacing it with the book she had brought. "You made the whole story up?" Night Light smiled warmly in confirmation. "That's why I couldn't remember the title. That's why we never finished the story."
"Yeah, and it was clearly worth it if how far you've come is any indication." The two embraced again. Upon parting Twilight noticed his horn glowing and a quill floating over. "Although, I did always have a good source of inspiration as far as the protagonist of the story was concerned." He turned to the blank title page. With dramatic sweeps of the quill he wrote something on it. Turning it back to her, Twilight read the embellished writing out loud.
"Twilights Tale: The Path of Destined Greatness".
Twilight could only smile at the cheesy name. She reached over to hug her dad again. He planted a loving kiss on her cheek in the process. They then broke away and gave a deep sigh.
"Well. If we want to keep to tradition then I think it's time for me to go around and show off my wonderful kids to all my friends." His smile then became very goofy once again. "You all brought your crowns right. That guy down the street has been bragging about his kid and all his gymnastic stuff for months."
It was Shining Armor that answered. "Yeah we did Dad. We even made one for Flurry even though she's going to out grow it in about two days."
His smile got bigger. "Sounds great, let's get a move on everypony."
Velvet rolled her eyes again as she followed her nearly prancing husband out of the living room. Spike lazily lifted himself off the couch and followed shortly behind, Cadance following just behind him. Twilight and Shining brought up the rear.
Twilight floated both paper covered books over to a table. As she turned back to follow she was met with the glaring eyes of her bbbff.
"You know I still won even if you brought him to tears right." His tone was playful, but still challenging.
"Pffft. Only because of Flurry. I only did this this year because I didn't want to blow you out of the water too badly."
"I still win, and that means I'm up by two now."
"No way. If you're counting the grill, that was from both of us that year."
"Yeah, but it was my idea."
"Yeah, but I found out which one he wanted."
Night Light poked his head back into the room. "Hey, if the two of you are going to fight over who loves me more, then please do it where other ponies can see."
The siblings rolled their eyes, but smiled as they joined their dad.
Author's Note
Definitely not my usual work. In fact this is my first non romance fan fic. I think it came off a little simplistic, but in the end I'm more it less happy with it. Hopefully you all enjoy as it is a subject that is close to me and I hope is close to you all.
As mentioned in the description, this story came about through inspiration from "That First Book", a story by Let's Do This.
Please check it out
EThat First Book
Twilight realizes she's lost track of a book. But it's not just any book... it's *that* book: the first one she recalls being read to her...
Lets Do This ·
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if you liked my story. In fact, feel encouraged to check it out even if you didn't.
Happy father's day to every one. Give your dad's a big hug today if you can.