Alphabittle found Misty sitting in front of the Zephyr Heights Together Tree later that day.

“I thought you would be here,” he said solemnly. He walked over to her as carefully as he could. She seemed to notice him coming as she turned her head to look at him, revealing tears in her eyes. His heart broke at the sight, and he sat next to her, hoping to comfort her in any way he could.

“I’m sorry everything went wrong today. You know they had your best interests at heart. They just…” He was flailing for the right word to say that would not demean how she was feeling. “…they just got caught up in the moment is all.”

Misty sniffled, blinking back a tear that was coming down one of her eyes. “They always do. Every time they want to do something nice for me, something always has to go wrong in the process…I thought this would be the perfect day for us to just…relax and bond after everything that’s happened over the past year. But they couldn’t even let me do that.”

Alphabittle nodded in understanding. “You just wanted something in your life to feel like it’s going right for once, that finally, you wouldn’t feel like you’re the reason that things constantly spiral out of control.”

Misty didn’t give any answer, but the silence from her was all he needed to know he hit the nail right on the head. His heart broke for her. All she wanted was a stable life after all of the trauma she had endured over the years. Yet instead, it felt like the world around her was constantly changing and not in a good way. In just a few weeks, she had learned that she would eventually be joining a new expanded family, meaning that her entire life would at some point be uprooted, and then when she had brought up the idea of going on a camping trip as a family, things had gone horribly wrong each time. Even if they had fun and it turned out to be okay in the end, it still did not change the fact that she felt responsible for everything, and she did not deserve to have that burden placed upon her.

He searched his mind for anything to say, something that would cheer his baby filly up. But he had nothing. It was at that point he realized that he needed to be honest with her. He couldn’t sugarcoat the truth or try to make things seem less terrible than they already were. She deserved to have something that she could look back on fondly, a day of bonding that would go right for once. It made him angry inside that her friends could not put their egos aside just to make her feel better.

“It’s not easy,” he finally said. “And I know how you feel.” He sighed deeply, tears of his own glistening in his eyes. “When I lost you, it was the worst feeling that I ever felt, like I would never see you again. It turned me off from the world, made me angry at it.. I tried to move on, but you can’t suppress your emotions that easily. Even as ponies tried to tell me it was okay, I knew it wasn’t. I felt responsible for the fact that I wasn’t there to stop you from disappearing. I just wanted something in my life to feel like it was going right…anything. And finally…something did.”

Misty finally looked up from the ground, turning her head to look back at him.

“It doesn’t get any easier,” he finished. “So I understand how you feel…about everything going wrong, like your life doesn’t make sense anymore. I’ve been there, kid. And I don’t want to pretend like you don’t have the right to be upset at your friends right now because you clearly do. They should have known better. They put this burden on themselves of making your special day the best it could possibly be, and as such, they should have acted more responsible.”

That was when Misty finally spoke again, and her voice still carried that sense of bitterness. It wasn’t like her to be this angry on normal occasions, but he completely understood why she was

“It doesn’t matter…” she spoke bitterly. “The day is ruined anyway. We didn’t get to do anything fun without something messing it all up. It was a complete disaster, both for you and me…”

Alphabittle chuckled. “Oh, I wouldn’t call this day a disaster by any means.”

Misty blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I had a ton of fun,” he explained. “I mean, sure. Did things go horribly wrong at every corner? Absolutely, and you have every right to be upset about that. But I didn’t need the day to go perfectly to enjoy it. I like experiencing things on the fly, going with the flow, anticipating where my crazy life takes me next! After all…it led me back to you.” He smiled warmly.

Misty smiled back, though it was a half-smile as she was not fully convinced yet. “So…you’re saying-“

“Sure,” Alphabittle told her. “It’s good when things go absolutely perfectly, no issues whatsoever. But it’s also just as exhilarating when things do go wrong. Things spiral out of control, you spill your tea, you forget a line or two at Slam Poetry. That’s all normal. What matters is that you’re making long-lasting memories with your family, and spending quality time with them. I didn’t need a well-thought out mystery game to enjoy my day out with you. I just needed you to be with me the whole way through. Even so, I learned a ton about what being a detective is all about. I don’t envy Zipp at all!”

Misty definitely felt better upon hearing that as she began to relax. “Thanks, Dad.” Her smile faded though as the reality of the day came back to her. “But I’m pretty sure we can’t salvage the rest of the day, even if we wanted to.”

“Oh, I think your friends would beg to differ.”

Both ponies turned around to see Queen Haven standing in front of Zipp and the others. They were slowly walking towards them and all wore expressions of genuine concern on their faces. It was obvious that they had talked things out inside, and had now come to some form of agreement. Though Misty wasn’t sure if she could completely forgive them just yet after everything that had happened throughout the day.

Sunny stopped in front of the two ponies and hung her head low in shame. “We’re sorry, Misty. This was supposed to be your perfect day, and yet we couldn’t agree on anything. I’m supposed to set the example here. But instead, I let everything get out of control. I gave into my own perfect fantasy on how I would enjoy the day, when I should’ve thought of you. I should’ve listened to Zipp.”

“We all should have,” Pipp added. “This whole time, we’ve been thinking about how we wanted the day to go, instead of thinking about how you probably wanted the day to go. It was our responsibility to come up with something together, and we just ruined it all.”

“Yeah,” Izzy agreed. “You deserve better, Misty. And we want to make it up to you.”

“There might still be time to salvage this day yet,” Zipp said kindly, reaching a hoof out towards Misty in order to help her up. “But only if you’ll let us fix it…together. What do you say, sis?”

Misty thought about it. She thought about it long and hard. It was at that moment that the Sun broke through the clouds and cast a heavenly golden light upon her. The rays warmed her to the core, and she could feel her broken heart mending. They meant well. All they wanted was to do what they thought was best for her, even if they ended up getting too carried away with it. It was only fair that she let them try again and demonstrate that they had truly learned their lesson.

So she grasped Zipp’s hoof in a display of acceptance…and smiled.

The duel for the fate of Zephyr Heights officially began that evening. Misty and Alphabittle stood in the throne room of the palace, swords aimed high and at the ready. A crowd of royal guards were watching with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. Whoever won this battle would be the undisputed ruler of the kingdom, and lead the pegasi for all time. There was no time for questions, no room for negotiation. It was the noble Knights of Bridlewood vs the fiendish Maniac (who was actually just Izzy in a cheap Nightmare Night villain costume). A legendary brawl for the ages that history would never forget.

The “Maniac” charged at once, letting out a playful growl and tried to catch the two off guard. Alphabittle quickly reacted, blocking her strike with one of his own. Misty joined in as well, holding her sword above her forehead and catching the next strike. With a loud battle cry, she was on the offensive, parrying and sparring as hard as she could. Strikes and blows went by in quick succession, almost looking like a blur to those in the audience. Another swing and Alphabittle was knocked back, but Misty anticipated this move. She wasn’t going to let her father be taken down so easily. She would avenge him. She got into a defensive stance for a solid moment, before outright lunging at the Maniac, surprising her and catching her off guard.

Misty laughed and whooped for joy, as she successfully countered an attack from the fiendish unicorn. The battle was intense and she could feel the adrenaline flow through her. This was exhilarating. It was a feeling that she had barely ever felt in her entire life. The feeling of going with the flow, and having a blast in the process. She swung again and repelled an attempt to cut her off at her hooves. She had never felt so alive before in her life. It was a feeling that she wished could go on forever. She didn’t want it to ever end. She was truly living the moment and having the best day of her life. The sound of thunder could be heard outside as Pipp commanded the special effects and lighting department to create a truly ambient battle scene.

As the Maniac swung again, Misty was about to swing her sword to block it when there was the sound of a CLANG and at once, her father was by her side again. He had faked getting injured in order to create a distraction! The Maniac roared with unbridled fury. Her plan was falling apart at the seams, and there was nothing she could do about it!

Misty smiled with determination, and Alphabittle grinned back at her. This was it. This was the quality time she always wanted to spend with him her whole life. It was truly the best day ever. They yelled with childish excitement and continued the battle, the two adding to the speed and intensity of it all. They had the advantage. They were winning. They would save the world, and they would defeat the forces of evil once and for all.

After a while, the Maniac was driven to her knees and put her hooves up in surrender. At that moment, the audience of guards erupted into thunderous applause, and the doors to the throne room burst open to reveal Queen Haven triumphantly walking towards her rightful place, led by Sunny and Hitch, the brave peasants who had joined the cause. She had been rescued from the dungeons and restored to the throne. The kingdom was saved, and all was at peace once more.

As the celebrations commenced inside, Zipp and Pipp both watched from the window. The detective smiled with pride. She had done it. She had given Misty the perfect day she always wanted, and she could not have asked for anything greater than that.

“I gotta say,” Pipp remarked. “Izzy makes a REALLY good Maniac. Why didn’t we think of this sooner?! She’s a natural!”

“She certainly is, isn’t she?” Zipp agreed. “Never underestimate the power of improv acting. When it comes to Izzy, there’s no beating her at that.”

“So I guess you were able to salvage the day after all…” Pipp said, smiling. “I’m sure Misty will thank you profusely after you managed to put this whole storyline together in just two hours, let alone getting Mom to go along with it.”

Zipp smiled back, glancing briefly at the parade of pegasi who were exiting the palace, carrying a clearly overjoyed Misty and Alphabittle on their backs, and hailing them as the brave knights they were. Fireworks went off in the sky as they did so. Something told her that the party would last long into the night, and she had no problem with that at all. They deserved to live every minute of it.

“What can I say?” she answered finally. “Like you said, we gotta look out for each other. We're family.”

Author's Note

FINALLY!! I am so relieved to have this story finally completed. I kid you not when I say that it’s been in development for about 10 months at this point. It might not be that long, I forgot when exactly Make Your Mark Chapter 5 came out. But it’s been in development hell ever since that fantastic chapter graced our Netflix screens. I said I planned to do it come Christmas time, then I went on hiatus, many months passed, I came back, and now I finally got this story completed. I’m a natural-born procrastinator, you know that? Anyways, it was actually the recent Tell Your Tale episode “A Swing and a Misty” (top-tier awesome episode by the way) that inspired me to finally complete this story. It started development purely as a sequel to “Father of the Bridlewood,” and now this episode entered the mix as well. So it’s a sequel story to both episodes and yes, ANOTHER Father’s Day story. I figured there was no better time to motivate myself to complete it than now, and I spent a whole day and a half putting it together. It’s another one of those episode-like stories as I’m treating these kinds of small narrative fics as what would happen if I was to write episodes for either show. Judging by how this story turned out, I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of the 23 minute slice of life format, but you guys be the judge. As such, this is sort of an amalgamation of both a MYM and TYT story. It’s both, but it’s also neither as it’s not specifically tied to one show’s timeline. Make that make sense in your heads, I’m not sure how to explain it. But yeah, you might be wondering why my stories are all of a sudden sequels to one another now, and trust me, I’ll be having an announcement about that coming soon on my Blog posts.

As for this story, feel free to let me know what you think of it in the comments below. Your feedback is always appreciated, and Happy Father’s Day! As for me, I need to go re-evaluate my life now that I’ve spent two sleepless nights writing two connected stories about the newly expanded Royal Family. At this point, I might as well start calling these stories the “Sisters Saga.”

Special thanks to the users in “The Writers’ Group” forum, who helped me decide a name for the ponified version of Father’s Day. Your contributions were invaluable in getting this story finally completed, thank you.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/50/the-writers-group/thread/540803/what-would-ponies-call-fathers-day

Until next time, this is Admiral Producer signing out. Hoof to heart. :)