You follow Flurry Heart up the steps. It is her first day of school. She’s wearing her hoodie (autumn’s chill has already started into the Crystal Empire) and a saddlebag two sizes too big for her.
She knows where to go. She’s been talking non-stop about this day for a month now. After the first time she came for Meet The Teachers day at Crystal Academy, she had the directions down.
Through the front doors, turn right, all the way to the end of the hall. Fullengarten is the last door on the right. Hang up your coat and bag when you go in and say hello to Miss Sunflower and Miss Willowtree.
She follows them, driven. Then she turns around and looks at you.
“You all right, Daddy?”
-blink-
Cadance has handed you a small gift box after a wonderful dinner, just as you’ve finished dessert. There’s something going on, but you’re not sure what - it’s not your anniversary, her birthday, your birthday, her coronation anniversary. You’re still trying to figure out what it is while you open folded tissue paper.
It’s a piece of cloth that says Daddy’s Little Princess. You pick it up and unfold it. It’s an infant foal onesie.
“Are you-?” you ask.
Cadence nods, a grin growing on her face. And on yours.
And then she gives you a long and passionate kiss, as her horn touches yours.
-blink-
Cadance is lying on the couch, trying to read with a scroll in her magic and a hoof rubbing her gigantic belly. You raise your head from the floor. She sees you, and you waggle your eyebrows.
“You do that and she’s gonna kick you again.”
You put your lips to her belly and blow a gentle raspberry. Something within stirs and moves. Cadence grunts.
“Aaaand now she’s kicking me. Good job, Daddy.” She rolls her eyes. You can’t help but laugh as you give her another kiss, your hoof joining hers atop an eagerly awaited life.
-blink-
You’re holding your daughter for the first time. You look over at Cadance, lying on her side, spent from an entire day of labor, but perfectly content. “That’s your Daddy,” she says, in a gentle, singsong lullaby voice.
The foal yawns. Her eyes open, first one, then the other, big and wide with something between wonderment and slumber. She’s got your crystalline-blue eyes, and a streak of blue in her mane and tail. The rest of her is all Cadance, the horn and wings that set her apart as the first natural-born alicorn in recorded history.
A true Princess by birth.
You stroke her infant face. “Hi there,” you say. “Hi, baby.”
The foal stirs, yawns again, makes a slight noise, stretches her wings, closes her eyes, and nestles deeper against you.
And then you realize this foal, somehow, knows you, and always has.
-blink-
“Cadance, darling, aren't we gonna name the poor little dear, or are we gonna spend our entire visit just calling her ‘the baby’?” You chuckle under your breath; your mom has a point.
Cadance is quick to reply. “We were thinking... Flurry Heart.”
You embrace both of them, Flurry squealing happily in between you, oblivious to the colossal storm she was able to call down with her weeks-old magic.
“You know, to remember the occasion,” you comment.
She’s going to be trouble, you think. Of the special kind.
-blink-
The chains come off your muzzle, and you are freed. Twilight and her friends deal with the returned “King” Sombra.
You turn and see Flurry, with a look of determination in her eyes, firing a blast of magic at a group of approaching mind-controlled guards, breaking them out of the dark spell and forcing them back.
Damn, you think, that girl’s not even talking and already she’s got magical power to spare.
You make a mental note that you probably need to start training her how to use that magic, and soon.
-blink-
Flurry flies over to Auntie Twilight, the new Princess of Equestria. The coronation day has been a disaster, but the combination of Best Aunt Ever and Best Niece Ever will restore anyone’s spirits. You see Flurry give your sister a big, sloppy, kiss and to heck with royal protocol. It brings a smile to all around.
-blink-
It’s well past midnight and you’re just coming home from two weeks away of hard training. Cadence is asleep, but you stop in to check on Flurry.
You creep into her room and you notice she has placed all of her stuffed bears around the room. She’s put them in block-fort castles, stationed them on bookshelves. You’re surrounded.
There is only one option left, a last stand. You charge forward and give your daughter a kiss. “Hi baby bear,” you whisper.
Her eyes open. “HAKAA!” She leaps out from under bedsheets and gives you a giant hug, and you fall backwards to the floor, defeated.
“Oh no, you got me, I surrender,” you giggle, and she gives you a giant kiss.
“I gotcha ‘addee! I gotcha!”
-blink-
You walk into Flurry’s room, the morning sun rising over the mountains.
“Good morning, babybear,” you say.
Flurry wakes up and yawns. Then she sits up, a smile on her face.
“No poop, daddy! No poop…”
She stops.
“Uh oh.”
There was poop.
-blink-
Flurry is running around at her third birthday party. You told her she could invite three friends for being three, and who does she want to invite?
She gave you five names. You told her that’s not three. Five is more than three.
And she got very mad at you, and stayed mad.
So you gave in.
And now Flurry’s flying around, joined by her Pegasususus friend (her word) Aurora, followed by a unicorn and an earth pony and a snow pony and a griffon named Galinda, all with cupcakes in hooves–and claws–and all giggling like mad.
-blink-
You hear a loud crack. Flurry was flying around and being silly, and she didn’t watch where she was going. And she smacked into a low tree branch.
She falls to the ground. There’s a deep gasp, and she’s howling in pain as your heart sinks.
You run over to her, scoop her up. She’s got a knot above her eyebrow, and she’s breathing heavily.
“Oh no, babybear! You OK?”
“N-no.” She huffs, breathing hard.
You touch her body, carefully, feeling for any other injuries. Thankfully, there aren’t any.
“You’re OK, you’re just fine. You just bonked your head, got the wind knocked out of you when you fell, that’s all. Here, I’ll take you inside.”
You place her on your back with your magic. She clings to you tightly. And you realize for a moment that one moment scared you more than any battle you ever fought.
-blink-
Flurry Heart lies next to you, on the top of Mount Kalisti, after a long trek up on a spring day not long after she turned four. You’ve found a bunch of wild blueberries on your daddy-daughter hike and you’re sitting under a tree. You’ve been talking with her for hours, about everything and nothing while picking berries with your magics, blue juice all over both your faces. You told her how she’s special, and that being a Princess isn’t all fun and games, and being a leader takes a lot of work. And she says she knows she’s special and unique, and she wants to make sure that she treats everyone fairly and defends them from all the bad creatures out there.
She says she wants to be Princess like Mommy and a Knight like Daddy.
And you let her talk all about what that means to her because you have nothing to say which wouldn’t involve a giant and embarrassing and somewhat blueberry-stained hug.
-blink-
You see your daughter, on the steps outside the door of Crystal Academy on her first day of school. Growing bigger and wiser every day. She’s strong and smart and caring and fierce and wears her heart on her sleeve and is just fine with being royalty and has many friends and wants to be a Princess Knight when she grows up and loves her mommy and daddy so much and it hurts to see her go. You wish you could grab on to this memory, to her, and hold her forever just as she is.
-blink-
She’s graduating from elementary school. She’s almost as tall as you now.
-blink-
You spend a summer night up in the mountains after a long day of “training.” It's really just her wanting to learn everything about sparring and combat and tactics and all the stories she can from you.
You end it just looking up at the stars together.
-blink-
She’s coming back to you, tears in her eyes. You fought, over something silly, and she says she’s sorry. And you say you understand and you forgive her and you embrace.
-blink-
You see her coming up the stairs to the palace, fresh from prom. She is tired, and looks a bit hung over, but there is a grand smile on her face.
-blink-
She is saluting you. She’s gotten into the Royal Guard Academy. Her dream since she was nine.
-blink-
She marches down the road, captain’s insignia gleaming in the sun, leading a hoof-picked company of friends and defenders of Equestria.
She passes, calls eyes right, and renders a sharp salute.
-blink-
She shows you a ring on her horn.
-blink-
You’re walking her down the aisle. She is resplendent in her wedding gown, looking so much like her mother.
-blink-
You walk up to her, quietly, careful not to disturb the sleeping foal in her hooves.
-blink-
-blink-
-blink-
There’s something in your eyes, welling up from deep inside.
Flurry somehow knows that you need her, just for a moment. She flashes away for a moment, and reappears, wings flapping by your ears.
“Can you come pick me up after school today Daddy?”
You give her a warm rub of her cheek. “Sure, babybear. I’ll be outside waiting for you.”
She gives you a quick peck. “Thanks Daddy.”
And then she flashes away, to the schoolhouse door. Her friends await.
Well... all of them except you.
You take a deep breath, blink one last time, and then it’s off for her first day of school. Autumn draws closer, and spring is never far behind.
