She looked on from the other side of the road as the carriage pulled away from her stop. Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest as she forced her trembling hoof to push the door open. Every hair of her pale orchid-gray coat stood on end. She could already feel tears welling up in her yellow eyes as she entered her home.
An army-green earth pony stallion with cornflower blue eyes and a wispy salt-and-pepper mustache greeted her at the door with his forelegs wide open. “How was school today, Puzzling?” Green Beret asked, bringing his teenage daughter in for a gentle hug. Feeling her tense up, he released her, concern etched into his wizened face. “Is everything okay, sweetie?”
Puzzling Insanity shook her head and wiped her snout with her hoof. “G-go get Mom,” she said. “I have something that I need to tell you both.”
Within minutes, a mauve-coated earth pony mare accompanied the worried stallion, her chestnut-brown eyes swimming with concern.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Heart Guardian asked. “Are you sick?”
Again, Puzzling shook her head no. “I have something that I need to get off my chest, but I’m… scared of how you’ll react.”
“Nopony ever benefits from keeping big secrets, Puzzling,” Green Beret said. “If somepony is hurting you…”
“No, it’s not that,” the teenager clarified hurriedly before taking a breath. “Mom, Dad, you might want to sit down for this.”
Heart Guardian and Green Beret sat on the living room couch. Puzzling took a shuddering breath and tried to calm her nerves, but her heart continued to pound violently. She could already see herself being thrown out into the streets of Ponyville, never to hear from her parents again. With her emotions at their torturous peak, the dam finally broke, and the tears began to fall.
“I’m… I’m bisexual!” Puzzling barked out as she began to sob openly. She expected to be frog-marched out of the house without a bit to her name, but to her surprise, she felt two sets of forelegs surround her in warmth.
“Shh… it’s okay, sweetie,” Heart Guardian said softly, squeezing her daughter tighter.
Puzzling simply cried her heart out, her lungs threatening to give out as her chest tightened. She felt as though she’d just confessed to a horrific crime. Her eyes hurt, and her nostrils were congested, but she continued to sob until she couldn’t anymore.
When he was sure that she had cried herself out, Green Beret let go of Puzzling and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Why are you so upset?”
The teenager sniffed and rasped, “Because I thought you were going to disown me or worse.”
“Disown you over liking colts and fillies?” the stallion asked, cocking his head. Receiving a nod in response, he let out a sad sigh. “Puzzling, honey, your nephew is openly gay. I don’t love him any less than before he told the family, and I’m not going to love you any less than before this.”
Heart Guardian broke her hug and kissed her daughter on the cheek. “Your father is right, sweetie,” she said. “We love you and we just want you to be happy and safe, whether you’re with a colt or a filly. We’d never kick you out over who you like.”
Green Beret nodded in agreement. “You’ll always be our daughter,” he said.
“You mean you’re not going to send me to a conversion camp?” Puzzling asked, her eyes red and swollen and the fur on her cheeks matted and streaked with tear tracks.
The stallion felt his chest tighten at the words coming out of his teenage daughter’s mouth. “You’re going to give me another heart attack if you keep talking like that,” he said. “I would never do anything to hurt you.”
Puzzling Insanity sniffed again and wiped her eyes. “Y-you promise?”
Green Beret nodded and crossed his hoof over his chest. “I swear on my life.”
“Thank you.”
SIX YEARS LATER…
Puzzling Insanity stood in front of the wooden box urn with her joyfriend, a nonbinary zebra named Xander, and her marefriend, Xander’s fiancée, a periwinkle-coated unicorn mare named Lunar Heart. “I’m sorry this is how you had to meet my dad,” she told her partners, tearing up and hanging her head. “I wish you could see in person how awesome he was.”
Xander gently placed their hoof on their marefriend’s back, rubbing gently. “I’m sure he’s smiling somewhere,” they said reassuringly. “From what you told us, your father was a good stallion.”
“And he will always be a hero,” Lunar Heart added, pointing to the military patches and other memorabilia from Green Beret’s time as a Sergeant in the Equestrian Army during the Southeast Neighsian War. She picked up an old photo of the stallion in uniform and smiled.
Puzzling looked at the box and gave a sad smile. “I hope you’re proud of me, wherever you are,” she said, her eyes glistening.
Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Green Beret sat with Princess Luna, both of them looking at the triad down on Equestria. The old stallion had a smile on his face, but he tried to blink back tears as he watched his youngest daughter and her partners. The alicorn took notice and gently draped a wing around him.
“I believe I know the answer,” Luna said softly, “but you miss her dearly, do you not?”
Green Beret nodded. “Of course, Your Majesty,” he said, looking down at the mare his little filly had become. “I miss her more than I miss serving in the army. I still can’t believe she was so scared of coming out to me.”
“Many creatures do not have the luck or privilege to be blessed with two unconditionally loving parents,” the alicorn explained, “as young Puzzling has had. I believe she may have been worried that your love was conditional because of other creatures’ experiences.”
The stallion’s eyes welled up again as he watched Puzzling talk to her partners. After a long moment of silence, he turned to Princess Luna and cleared his throat. “Princess Luna?”
“Yes?”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why is my daughter in a relationship with more than one partner?”
Luna scrunched her muzzle in thought before answering, “I believe Princess Cadance calls it ‘polyamory’. Your daughter has room in her heart for more than one partner, and all three of them care for one another. The specific relationship dynamic she is in is sometimes called a ‘triad’ or a ‘throuple’. Why do you ask?”
Green Beret smiled and chuckled, “I guess this old fart just got curious.”
“Why do you refer to yourself in such a manner?”
“Because it’s true,” the stallion said. “When Puzzling was a foal, ponies thought I was her grandpa.”
The alicorn suppressed a snicker before composing herself. “I apologize for laughing.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. I always had this big grin of pride on my face when I told them that I made her.”
“Like the grin you are wearing at this exact moment?”
Green Beret was indeed grinning from ear to ear as he watched his daughter and her partners talk to the little wooden box. His cornflower blue eyes filled with fresh liquid pride as he swallowed the lump in his throat and choked out, “I’m so proud of the young mare my little filly grew up to be.”
