Firelight became suspicious when his daughter snapped at the neighbor’s fifteen-year-old daughter. He faintly understood his daughter’s ire; their front yard was no place to flirt with Sunburst when he was supposed to be cutting grass and handling machinery, but Starlight’s reaction had been quite…volatile to say the least.

“Starlight, honey,” he said softly, putting a hand on his daughter’s shoulder as he eyed her warily. “Calm down, there’s no need to make a fuss.”

Starlight’s shoulders were shaking, her eyes blazing as she gritted her teeth forcefully. “The nerve of that bit—girl!”

He focused on calming his daughter down and tried not to think about her outburst; she might be having a bad day, it could be hormones or a combination of both. He knew his child—his sweet, innocent Starlight was a good girl and sweet, innocent Starlight didn’t act impulsively, she was smart and would never do anything silly (never mind that he spent more time overseas in Italy, Spain, Germany, Norway, and England than in America with his daughter to properly judge her character).

No, he really knew Starlight. He trusted his daughter. His child was a perfect angel. She was his pride and joy—the most precious gift that Aurora ever gave him before she departed from this world nine years ago. He saw so much of Aurora in her…and yet the seed of suspicion had been planted, and began to grow when he started paying closer attention to his daughter.

And he promptly felt like a fool.

He started noticing everything, all the things he overlooked out of sheer stubbornness, all the subtle and not so subtle ways Sunburst and Starlight interacted. It was all there, plain as day—the lingering looks, the blushes, the cocky grins, the suggestive winks, the casual touches. Oh, how could he had not seen the way their hands lingered on one another, or the way they rested too low on the back, the clap on the shoulder that was more of a pat, the far too intimate cheek-pinching, the light-hearted punches that transformed into gentle caresses down the forearm, and the downright flirting!

He refused to acknowledge the fact that he should have seen this coming, having a teenage boy and girl living in close quarters was bound to lead to more than friendly relations. No, he rebuffed the possibility when his Starlight was concerned! And he wouldn’t have imagined his stepson to be this irresponsible either. He was a good lad, a straight-A student, he would never have expected this from either of them…but with the pile of evidence…the thought that his daughter and his stepson would…

He didn’t tell his wife about his suspicions—and he didn’t plan to—not until he was certain of what their children were doing behind those closed doors. He didn’t want to jeopardize his marriage by throwing accusations around, but most of all, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions too soon. If Starlight and Sunburst were indeed together…he wouldn’t know what to do.

He didn’t want Starlight to throw her life away for some boy, to fall for someone so deeply in her juvenile naivety, to build her life around a boy that would just let her down in the end, to let go of her hopes and dreams because this relationship took priority now, and dear god, what if she got pregnant!? Eighteen or not, she was far too young for such a responsibility. No, Starlight had a bright future ahead of her and he refused to let her turn away from it. Starlight didn’t need the influence of a man, much less from one who was her stepbrother!

It was a day in December, with Christmas quite close, that Firelight finally cracked under the mountain of evidence on top of him.

His wife was out, shopping for presents, while Sunset was in her room, tired from her late-night flight and most likely sleeping. He, Starlight, and Sunburst were watching reruns of a sitcom from the seventies, and everything was well until Sunburst excused himself to his room. He was relieved when Starlight stayed with him, and they started talking like they always did, talking about her friends and about how she was looking forward to university.

The thought of his daughter leaving in a few months broke his heart. A part of him deeply regretted ever leaving the country and his daughter behind for all these years, and now it was Starlight’s turn to leave, so soon after they had finally reunited and gotten used to having her so near. He had subtly—and perhaps selfishly—tried to persuade Starlight to attend a university close to their city, and even though Starlight applied here and got accepted, she also applied to other schools outside of the state and got accepted as well, and it was to one of those faraway universities that she decided to go.

He didn’t share his wife’s relief that their kids would be going to the same university, having a sneaking suspicion that they had planned this from the start. It was with this thought that he shot down the idea of Starlight and Sunburst sharing an apartment after living in the dorms for their first year.

Dread coated his throat when Starlight excused herself an hour later. He watched his daughter leave and clenched his shaking hands, trying to swallow his panic, and forced himself to remain seated, watching the television with unseeing eyes. He waited until the next commercial break before he made his way upstairs, standing in front of Sunburst’s room first since it was closest, leaning his head softly against the wood and listening intently. His heart fell when he heard hushed voices on the other side.

His hand was clammy with sweat when he twisted the doorknob.

“Dad, I can explain!”

Her words fell on deaf years, no matter how much she yelled and called for her father’s attention. Starlight realized too late that she had grown careless, let her guard down, and had given her father a reason to barge into Sunburst’s room, catching them in the middle of a make-out session.

The blankness in her father’s eyes disturbed her. There had been no explosion of anger like she expected, just silence so profound she thought she had gone deaf for a second. When she and Sunburst jumped apart, for the briefest of moments, Starlight was the focus of her father’s hateful glare, the darkest expression she ever seen on her father’s usually calm and loving features. It was gone before she could process it and his eyes were schooled in careful blankness as he left the room, his steps robotic and heavy.

Sunburst and Starlight ran after him, talking loudly, trying to explain, to make him stop and listen, because it wasn’t supposed to happen like this! She had really wanted to tell him the truth, never wanted him to find out like this, there simply had never been a right time to tell them and why was he going to her room?

“Dad, please listen to me!” Starlight paused as her father wrenched open her closet door. “Dad, what are you doing?”

“Packing your things, I’ll call your grandmother to come pick you up,” he said, his voice eerily calm, and Starlight was momentarily stunned as she tried to grasp the meaning of his words.

“W-What? No, you can’t do that!”

“You’re going to send Starlight away?” Sunburst said lowly, anger and panic barely contained in his voice. He scoffed, blue eyes flashing with disdain and for a moment Starlight thought he might actually throw a punch at her dad. “Classic.”

Her father turned around and fixed them both with a contemptuous glare. “You don’t have a say in this young man, so don’t paint me as the villain here. Did you think you could get away with this irresponsible behavior forever? Well, not anymore, I’m putting my foot down. Starlight, you are going to stay with your grandmother until I’ve decided what to do from here. Do you understand?”

Starlight’s hands were shaking. She couldn’t believe this. She was going to be sent away…just like that? Without a real confrontation? Her heart leaped into her throat as she tried not to burst into tears right then and there. She took a shuddery breath and looked at her father straight in the eye.

“If you want me to go then I will. To be honest, I’d rather live with grandma than with you. At least she wanted me close and never ran away to Europe when things got bad. She was always there for me, unlike you,” she spat, her rage getting the better of her, her control slipping from her shaky grasp.

She reached for Sunburst’s hand blindly, pointedly ignoring her father’s disapproving glare, and squeezed it reassuringly, showing him that no matter where her father sent her, her feelings for Sunburst would not change. She sought out his gaze, and her heart swelled at his small smile and his warm eyes. She knew she could count on him.

“Don’t be stupid, Starlight. You have no idea what you’re talking about,” her father said, closing his eyes as he rubbed his temple. “I did not run away to Europe; I went there to provide you a better future! Do you think this house and your schooling were cheap? I’m not the one who’s irresponsible here, you’re the one who fucked your stepbrother—”

“Oh, screw you! I was fucking him before you married his mom!”

Her father visibly recoiled, face paling and twisting into disbelief. But before Starlight could get her hopes up, before she could think that she’d finally reached him, that they could solve this in a peaceful manner, her father grabbed a handful of her clothes and tossed them on the bed.

“Pack your things. Now.”

Starlight’s heart shattered.

Firelight was as stubborn as mule, Sunburst realized, he simply refused to listen to anything they had to say; it didn’t help that Starlight seemed to have given up, and he felt his heart breaking when the tears started rolling down her face. He grasped her hand firmly and pulled her along with him, following his stepfather after he threw some of Starlight’s clothes haphazardly into a suitcase, still deaf to their pleas and plowing ahead like a loose bull down the stairs. Sunburst growled under his breath, terrified and yet determined to get his way; he wouldn’t let Starlight go again.

“You can’t send Starlight away just because you can’t deal with this shit!” He hurried after Firelight, trying to grab his shoulder to get his attention but he just shrugged him off wordlessly. The suitcase clattered loudly as he carelessly pulled it down the stairs behind him, making them flinch at the noise. “Listen to me! Sending her away won’t solve anything, I won’t let you!”

He threw him a withering look over his shoulder. “You best keep your mouth shut Sunburst, and from now on I forbid you from seeing my daughter!”

“I would like to see—”

“What is going on here?”

Relief and absolute terror flowed in Sunburst’s veins when he heard his mother’s voice. He didn’t get his hopes up when he saw his mom standing in the doorway, or expected any support from her as she looked at them with a concerned look, but he let himself faintly believe that she would be the level headed voice they desperately needed to sort out this mess. He watched with hard eyes as Firelight walked up to his mom, explaining what had happened with a calm voice and the crudest language.

And Sunburst knew that even a level-headed conversation was too much to ask for at this point. He had never seen his mother so pissed, but at least the weight of Starlight’s hand in his was a silent comfort.

Sunset liked to start her mornings with a simple cup of coffee, but since today she felt especially well-rested, she considered indulging herself with a cappuccino or a latte macchiato. She hummed quietly as she walked down the stairs, confident in the feeling that today would be a good day. This Christmas would be a nice one, she was sure since her mother had invited her father over for Christmas dinner in an effort to get along and Sunset was excited. Besides, she had already purchased all the presents she needed, so all that was left to do was to kick back and enjoy her vacation.

Then she stepped into the living room and everything came crashing down.

Her mother was shouting at Sunburst, her stepfather looked like he would strangle anyone that stepped too close to him, Starlight’s face was drenched with tears, and her brother looked torn between wanting to brawl or ripping someone’s head off, the only thing holding him back was Starlight’s hand in his.

“How could you do this!? What made you think you could get away with this Sunburst!” Her mother yelled, her face red and green eyes flashing, for a moment she was sure that steam would be pouring out of her ears at any moment. “Sleeping with your stepsister, are you out of your mind!?”

Oh.

They found out, huh?

She backed away slowly, edging away from the commotion, and tried to slip by unnoticed into the kitchen. It was too early to deal with this shit, she needed her coffee first, at the very least. She couldn’t start her day, or deal with this drama, without the blackest coffee she could get her hands on.

“Sunset!”

Sunset closed her eyes with a groan. So much for that plan.

“Hey mom,” she smiled groggily, hoping that if she played dumb, she could get away from this because nopenopenopenope, she would not get involved with this.

“Come over here, now,” her mom said, running a hand through her hair in agitation.

“Uh, okay, just let me get my coffee and—”

“Sunset Shimmer Flare, get over here right now!”

Okay, if her mom used her full name like that it meant that shit was about to go down. Sunset didn’t even try to hide her disdain as she made her way to the couch and flopped down with a miserable groan. “Urgh, fuck my life.”

Starlight didn’t even listen as her stepmother dragged poor Sunset into this. She hadn’t even done anything. She sighed and looked at her father pitifully, nearly shrinking away at the disdain in his eyes.

“Did you know what Starlight and Sunburst were doing, Sunset?” Her stepmother asked, a little calmer than before, though depending on Sunset’s answer, her calm demeanor might not be for long.

A tense silence followed, and Starlight felt like she would faint and she clutched Sunburst’s hand tighter for support. After what felt like hours, Sunset sighed. “Yeah, I knew.” She looked at them sharply, blue eyes dark and impenetrable.

Stellar was seething. “Then…why didn’t you tell us?” she asked between gritted teeth, her fists clenched in a white-knuckled grip.

Sunset seemed to ponder this a little, cocking her head to the side. “Uh, because it was none of my business?”

“How can it not be your business when your brother and sister are having sex?!”

Starlight winced at her loud voice, but Sunset didn’t even bat an eye at her mother’s outburst.

“Because they can do whatever they want. They’re not related, no matter how much you try to stress the opposite, they are nearly adults and they been together longer than you two,” she said and motioned towards her father and stepmother with a lazy hand.

Stellar paused, looking bewildered for a moment. “They…what?”

“It’s true,” Starlight chimed in, pushing her dread aside as she clutched Sunburst's hand for courage. “Sunburst and I were together before you decided to get married.”

She looked at her incredulously and then turned to her husband. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? They kept this a secret and—”

“But we wanted to tell you! We just…we weren’t sure when,” Starlight mumbled, looking down at her shoes.

“Even if we had told you, what would you have done? Not marry? Would you have been okay with us being together?” Sunburst cut in; his voice leveled.

Stellar Flare looked uneasily from her husband to Sunburst to Starlight before she turned to her husband again. “We…we could have figured something out. If you had told us sooner, we could have talked about it and—”

“Break us up so it wouldn’t be awkward for you two to get hitched?” Sunburst said snidely.

“No! I wouldn’t have forced you apart, Sunburst. Who do you take me for?”

Sunburst looked away, grumbling something under his breath. Her father remained unfazed and Starlight knew better than feeling confident with Stellar’s hesitation.

“Starlight,” he began and Starlight felt like a small, stupid child again, a child that needed guidance, a child too naïve to make her own choices. “What if you two break up in the future? Would all this awkwardness be worth it then?”

“If I’m not mistaken, you were pretty young when you married Starlight’s mom, and it turned out alright,” Sunset said nonchalantly, making her chest flutter with gratitude. Sunburst hid a snicker with a well-placed fake cough and her father glowered at the oldest sibling as if he was ready to strangle her before he turned back to his daughter.

“Honey, I’m sure you feel like he is the one and that you’ll live happily ever after, but you are so young, there are so many things you don’t know about yourself or the world…I know I didn’t,” he finished quietly, not quite meeting Starlight’s gaze. “I was only nineteen when I married your mother and had you, I don’t regret it, but it was the hardest thing I have ever done and we both missed out on a lot of things. I don’t want the same to happen to you.”

“But Starlight’s not pregnant,” Sunburst said, offended and angry.

“And I’m not like you, dad,” Starlight whispered, and then continued louder and with more determination. “Because I actually deal with my mistakes instead of running away like you.”

She almost regretted her words. Almost. The stricken look on her father’s face broke her heart, she was close to forgetting everything, wanting to hug her dad and apologize, because even if he made mistakes, Starlight loved her father and loathed to see him so hurt. The air was full of uneasiness, everyone at loss for words. Sunset was the first to move, shuffling awkwardly from the couch and muttering something about coffee under her breath.

The doorbell rang, and after a brief moment, Sunset peeked back into the living room and mumbled. “Goldie is here.”

Starlight sucked in a breath, her eyes burning as she helplessly looked from her father to Sunburst. She swallowed hard. “Okay, I’ll just…get going then,” she said quietly, giving Sunburst one last hug and discreetly kissed him on the cheek before she withdrew with a sad smile. He looked unsure for a moment before he finally let her go. She glanced briefly at her father as she took her suitcase, and bid farewell to her stepmother, who returned the gesture uneasily.

She was so stupid, hoping that her father would change his mind, but Starlight knew that he needed time. Maybe leaving for a while would do her some good. She smiled bitterly and came to a stop at the kitchen door, seeing Sunset sitting at the small dining table, no cup of coffee in her hands as she stared forlornly at the wall.

She cleared her throat, catching her attention. “Hey, um, thanks—” she blushed, pushing through her embarrassment as she spoke, “—for sticking up for us, I mean. And I’m sorry we dragged you into this mess.”

She blinked, tilting her head to the side before she smiled a little. “It’s alright, that’s what big sisters are for.”

Starlight’s throat felt too tight all of the sudden. She nodded weakly, muttered a quiet goodbye before making a mad dash for the door, running into her grandmother’s embrace. Goldie grunted a little, taken aback by her granddaughter’s enthusiasm, but for the moment she ignored her tear-stained cheeks and guided her to the car, knowing that whatever had happened could wait until they were home with an apple pie between them.

Firelight sighed as he stepped into the park, the bright sunny day at odds with his dark mood. It didn’t lessen when he saw his mother, white curly hair shining in the sunlight and her customary pink shawl over her shoulders, sitting on the park bench like nothing was wrong. She had called him the same day he sent Starlight away, trying to talk sense into him. He hung up on her because he was a grown man and knew what was best for his child.

And yet there he was, he somehow agreed to meet her so they could talk about Starlight. He didn’t know what was there to talk about, he was a grown man and Starlight was his child, he had the final say.

“Mother,” he greeted her curtly, nodding as he sat on the bench next to her. He wanted to get this over with, for he had work to do later on.

Goldie smiled and asked simple questions. How was work? Had he been eating well? How was Stellar doing? All in that same gentle tone that he heard since childhood, though weathered from the years, and some of his anxiety left him, for he could never stay angry at his mother for long. They spoke a little more as the pigeons watched them curiously from the ground, and then flew away when they didn’t offer them seeds or bread crumbs. His mother offered him an apple and he took it, rolling it around in his hands pensively, knowing what was coming.

“About Starlight,” she began uneasily, sighing loudly as her green eyes were focused on the apple she was peeling. “She told me everything.”

Firelight sighed. “Then you know that I won’t change my mind, she can hate me all she wants, but this is for her own good.”

“You have always been a stubborn man, but this isn’t about you this time, my granddaughter is miserable.”

“She should have thought of this before she decided to sleep with her stepbrother,” he gritted out, fists clenching.

Goldie grimaced but stayed quiet, and Firelight felt a pang of sympathetic pain. The last thing a parent wants to think about is their child having sex with anyone, much less with their stepsibling.

“It wasn’t easy to accept,” Goldie said slowly, “it really wasn’t, the first thing I wanted to do when Starlight told me was to hunt the boy down and make sure he couldn’t touch her again.” She sighed before she continued. “But then I thought, Starlight’s all grown up now and this boy makes her happy, what right do I have to stand in their way?”

He snorted. “Please, she told you that? Did she made you come here so she can get back at me through you?”

“She has no idea about this meeting, and I wanted it to keep it that way.”

“Mom, you can’t be seriously condoning this…relationship, don’t be ridiculous. She’ll end up unhappy and alone. She is too young to—”

“Starlight’s a smart girl, and what makes her happy doesn’t necessarily make me happy. It’s her choice to be with whoever she wants to be, and as her grandmother, I’ll support her however I can.”

Firelight gulped, his hands shaking. He hated how right she sounded, hated how he was being treated like a villain just for protecting his daughter. “She thinks that everything’s okay now, but she is so inexperienced and sheltered, I just want what’s best for her and she can’t just…I don’t want her to have the same experience I had. I was too young, I got Aurora pregnant and we rushed into things, thinking that marriage would solve everything.”

Goldie gave him a long, hard look, he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but for a moment he was reminded of the time when he was a boy and he had said something stupid in her presence. Goldie would give him a look very similar to this one, waiting for him to catch up on the stupidity of his statement.

“I’m sure she will be careful, I raised her to be more sensible than that,” Goldie said slowly. “And if their relationship doesn’t last…well, that’s just life. As for Aurora, she wouldn’t have married you if she didn’t love you, pregnant or not.”

His breath hitched and he closed his eyes for a moment, powerless against the avalanche of memories of his late wife, a woman who been so fiercely independent that he wondered how he ever even caught her eye, much less convince her to give him a chance. He tried not to think about the happy times, of the moment she held Starlight in her arms after fourteen excruciating hours of labor, of her smile, of her little jokes and flippant attitude towards anything that didn’t interest her. For as much as he had loved her, there had been times she had driven him up the wall with her impulsiveness and her selfishness, many were the fights they had when Starlight was a baby. They had been so young when they married and started their family, way over their heads, and yet when the time came and she died, he wished they had had more time to figure things out.

“Do you think she would have been okay with this?” Firelight said, staring at the apple, trying to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand.

They were here to talk about Starlight, not about his dead wife. A part of him felt guilty for thinking about her with so much longing when he had a new wife waiting at home, who was endearing and beautiful and special in her own ways, who shared his tastes in many things and whose companionship meant the world to him.

Goldie sighed. “I think she would just want for you two to be happy.”

Her words gave him a pause. It was obvious that she talking about him and Starlight, but part of him wondered if her words could apply for him and Stellar.

“I should go,” he said but made no move to do so. He pocketed the apple and looked at his mother, her green eyes full of understanding. “Mom, I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

“It’s fine son, I know that Starlight can be a handful sometimes.” She chuckled. “I’m sorry for calling you all the way here, but it was important that we talk about this in person.”

“It was the right call…are you busy? I feel we haven’t talked like this in a long time.”

“Don’t you have work?”

“It can wait," he offered his arm and his mother took it, walking leisurely towards a café not far from where they were sitting. "I think I’ve neglected my family enough as it is.”

Sunburst was miserable. He wanted to scoff at that, wanted to bask in his irritation and tell him to get over it and stay away from his daughter. He wished he could say that his misery was fake, but his stepson was never one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, and this time was no different. But sometimes he would catch him staring sadly ahead, his eyes painfully expressive, and it made him feel pity for the lad.

Firelight gave him as much space as he could, and Sunburst took to locking himself in his room as much as possible. Sunset was the only one who could coax him out of his den, but she wasn’t always successful.

He and his wife had talked this over, discussed their options—from keeping them apart indefinitely to letting them just be. And after some time, he had to agree that he couldn’t keep them separate forever. Their feelings for each other seemed genuine, and not something born out of stupidity and hormones. He was shocked to find out how long they been together, how long they kept this a secret, and it made him question if he truly failed as a father if his daughter refused to confide in him.

It made him realized just how much things had changed; how much Starlight had changed. She was no longer the shy, demure little girl he once knew. She had grown, she had transformed, found someone who loved and respected her, and here he was, being the evil patriarch wreaking havoc in her life. He wished Starlight had told him about her relationship with Sunburst. Just like his wife had said, perhaps things would have turned out differently, they could have figured something out, made appropriate arrangements, and what not…

He sighed.

As a parent, he wanted what was best for his child, but he hadn’t spared too much thought for her happiness, assuming that those things went hand in hand. He still wanted the best for her, but overall, he wanted her to be happy, and if Starlight’s happiness was with Sunburst, then he would learn to tolerate it. He still thought she was too young to tie herself to one boy, he still feared that all would be for nothing in the long run, but now he knew it had to be her choice. If those two broke apart or stayed together it would be on their terms.

But for now, this was about his daughter, and her happiness was of the utmost importance. He knew he made a lot of mistakes in his lifetime, and now he would do the right thing and put Starlight first.

He pulled out his phone and tapped a few numbers. He had a lot of apologizing to do.

Starlight stayed with her grandmother for a week, and it was the longest week of Sunburst’s life. It took every ounce of his control not to rush over when he saw her standing at the doorway, and to her credit, she did not fall into his arms when she stepped into the house, instead, she went and embraced her father tightly.

“I’m sorry for keeping this a secret, dad,” Starlight said, holding back a sob as her dad rubbed her back soothingly.

“I’m the one who’s sorry, I overreacted and pushed you away. But next time, if it’s something this important, just tell me and we’ll work on a solution together, okay?” They pulled back at the same time and shared a teary smile before Firelight let her go.

Starlight turned to him and smiled softly. “Hey,” she said, her eyes slightly puffy, her hair down and so beautiful that he couldn’t stand it as he smiled back. She looked back, giving her dad an uncertain look, but he merely shrugged and patted Starlight on the head. It was all the permission she needed, and she threw herself at Sunburst, nearly choking him in the process with the strength of her embrace. He eventually managed to return it, and she giggled, her arms tight around his neck.

He looked at his stepfather over Starlight’s shoulder, his mouth was curved into a small smile—a resigned and yet happy smile. The relief he felt was so immediate that he felt his knees go weak, he didn’t fall fortunately and he simply closed his eyes, basking in Starlight’s presence, elated that he didn’t have to hide anything anymore, happy that his parents were okay with this. In the future though, he thought of maybe sparing their parents the awkwardness and not be so affectionate in their presence, he wasn’t sure though and just grinned. He had plenty of time to decide, they had all the time they needed to make good on their promises and the missed opportunities, once they were in college and a thousand miles away from this awkward household.

Sunset smiled, patting her mom on the shoulder before walking away from the tender scene. Now that the drama had settled, she didn’t have to worry about being driven to the border of alcoholism or being forced to watch more of Princess Sofia. It would be awkward for a while, for sure, but she could live with it and get used to it with time.

She was a sucker for happily ever after’s, and what better way to celebrate it than to kick back with a Caffe macchiato and bag of her favorite cookies? She went to her room and booted up her laptop, thinking about what she should watch as she munched her dessert thoughtfully.

Now that she thought about it, the last episode of Princess Sofia might have ended on a cliffhanger…Okay, she’ll watch this episode and be done with it.

Author's Note

And this concludes my most controversial story on this site. As always, comments are greatly appreciated.