Footnotes
1 This is a lie, but in Shining's defense: a.) The existence of the human world is lavender-level ultra-classified and eleven-year-old fillies aren't known for their discretion. b.) Shining and Cadence are worried that if Flurry found out the human world existed she'd sneak away to Twilight's palace basement with her stuffed snail and Warrior Humans books tied in a bundle on the end of a stick.
2 The pony game of harmomo is nearly identical to the Terran game of chess, and so that is how I have translated it from Shining's memoirs. Similarly, the griffin game of takestones resembles the Terran game of Go. A certain convergent evolution of games seems to exist, given that similar games have evolved independently in human cultures as well.
In any event: Equestrian rooks are called owls, knights are wonderbolts, bishops are chancellors, pawns are farmers, the queen is the princess, and the king is harmony. The only significant rules difference is that harmony cannot capture.
3 It is unlikely that even Celestia at the height of her magical power could react quickly enough to stop a cannonball in mid-flight, but even with her father in a hospital bed Flurry Heart has not yet grasped that the ponies she admires have any limitations.
4 Shining is omitting the main reason alicorns don’t participate in conventional warfare, which is that while Equus’ other nations tolerate Equestria and the Crystal Empire's alicorns as anti-monster weapons, they none the less think of them as monsters in their own right. Other creatures are bewildered that alicorns allowed their liberty — let alone assigned supreme political authority — and view every one of them as a Nightmare Moon waiting to happen. There is an understanding — tacit in some cases, made explicit by treaty in others — that if the pony nations began using their alicorns for military purposes then the other nations would show them that they have anti-monster weapons of their own.
Shining and Cadence have agreed that Flurry is not yet ready to understand how she is viewed outside of the bubble of safety and love she lives in.
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Cady Sense usually triggers off of impending couples, but there are always exceptions. (I do love the idea that precognition is a rare but recognized part of earth pony magic.)
Warrior Humans.
No one tell Sunset. I'm not sure if she'd facepalm or laugh for the better part of an hour.
This was a lovely father-daughter moment. The character of both Shining and Flurry shines through brilliantly, especially in how they're both very clearly related to Twilight. Whole dang family of nerdhorses. Thank you for this.
aww sounds sweet
This would make for some interesting moments. For example, I thought under these rules this would be checkmate:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/776639903643467776/841386786122629130/unknown.png
but FoME pointed out to me that the white harmony can't capture either, so black harmony is free to go to g3.
10809701
Oh, neat! I looked forward to it.
10809707
I did not, I repeat, NOT play test this variant. It might in fact have some very catastrophic effects. It would make some mates easier and others harder, so it might be balanced? Maybe?
10809391
I'm kind of an earth pony fanboy; I think Luna's oneiromancy comes from the earth pony branch, too. It's to the point that in my one Fallout Equestria, the earth ponies are the most common tribe because the nature of their powers makes them adept at survival. Unicorns are such pansies that thestrals are more common.
This is something I wished more stories would touch on. Shining Armor's wife is an immortal alicorn who rules over an entire nation-state, his sister is also an immortal alicorn—not to mention the most famous, successful, and storied mare on the planet—and now ruler of the entire nation, his daughter is also an immortal alicorn with nigh immeasurable potential, and he... is a consort. At least at one time he was the commander of Equestria's military, but even that has been taken away from him.
Being wholly outclassed by the mares you love, including the little sister you used to protect, has to weigh heavy on the heart, even for one as caring as Shining, who likely is delighted at how much his family has accomplished. His cutie mark, his name, even his once chosen profession, all centered around being a protector for the ones he loves, but now? In that regard he is... well, useless. Would it spark depression? Jealousy? Anger? Or perhaps the taking of unnecessary risks in order to prove to
yourselfeverypony that you're still of value.Wow, that got away from me there...
Seriously, though, I really dig this story. Not nearly enough "Shining Armor and Flurry Heart bonding" fics out there. Plus, I'm a sucker for dad's doing their best and positive male role models. Great job, my dude. Best of luck in the nontest!
This was spectacular and very touching. Big thanks for it!
10810020
Heh. Yeah. I think this is his central conflict. I'm not even sure he was in charge of the EUP. Just the royal guard AKA 'Celestia's Speed Bumps'.
I will try to give him as many heroic moments as I can, and also his history books will do well and he will donate all the money to charity.
10810044
Thank you!
10810742
10810278
Covered my ass in the footnotes. Love that fanfics are always editable.
10810747
Wouldn't want any misadventures in the Human world, now would we? Depending on how you see the future of EqG, Sunset's got enough to worry about, and Auntie Twilight's probably got that mirror locked up in a vault in Canterlot castle that only she or Spike can access anyway.
10810805
That would make a terrible story which I will never write.
10810827
Oh really now?
Well, I'll keep an eye out anyway
10810991
It would certainly not involve her meeting Sunset, and would not be perfect for the Unusual Pairings contest.
I am not exploring this idea as we speak.
10811053
Thought I'd say it case you were being sarcastic.
Text doesnt really show tone all that well, and emojis can only take you so far.
10811067
Sorry, I got carried away. Yes, I can't promise I'll actually finish it but I finally have some inspiration for that contest.
10811099
Quite alright
10810776
Makes sense now. I kinda thought this might be the case.
10810020
Shining Armor being prince-consort is pure speculation, though fruitful speculation as your post and this story demonstrate. He could just as easily be the William of Orange to Cadance's Mary Stuart (William and Mary having been Queen and King Regnant rather than Queen and Prince-Consort of England). MLPwiki names him as such, though as far as I can tell this is unsourced and thus also pure speculation.
10812199
I've never liked hospitals. It comes with being the son of a RN (Registered Nurse). Happy patients don't stick around.
I've never liked war either. My grandparents were war refugees and my parents were draftees against the Red Menace, but to them it was home. I'm the lucky one being born away from it all but I was a 9/11 high school graduate. I pussyed out the 'great adventure' and heard about the shitshow we're supposedly leaving now(?) from my friends. I was also in Newtown when "method actors" entered the lexicon.
I'm not naive about how slowly it takes for organizational changes to be identified, planned and executed on either. For the past year I've been dealing with businesses trying to avoid bankruptcy cause the tax man wants his cut so I'm an "essential worker". Working from home? Whats that?
The story is fine. It just doesn't move me the way you intended but I won't fault the story for that.
Howdy, hi!
I loved this fic. Dad Shining is the best thing, and I love to see it. His interactions with Flurry are heartfelt and I love that Flurry does feel like a child in this. She loves her dad and she doesn't know how to process her feelings towards whom she thought was invincible. Despite being off-screen Cadance also felt really great.
I just love me some good Shining Armour fic and for a character bogged down by a lot of garbage on the site, I just love to see such a wholesome piece with one of my favourite characters in it.
Thank you for the read~!
10813198
I think I'm a but late here but I'm curious if you interpreted the story to be pro-war?
love the classification scheme! and yes, very wise of them both
love this bit of xenofiction. i may absolutely have to steal this! the name harmomo itself reminds me of both "harmony" and "Houyhnhnm", the latter of which i only now realize is extremely relevant to MLP fiction... oh, and the very Anglic "takestones" is also great, really makes sense given how Germanic griffon names are
beautiful and perfect worldbuilding! this is a story that makes me quake with envy that i am not the one who has written it or come up with these ideas. taking seriously the very odd mixture of power, divinity, and mundanity that is the alicorn's place in Equestria is something i love to explore and see explored, and you've done it maresterfully here. who better to explore this concept with than Shining Armor, the mortal who is somehow a husband, brother, and father to three different Alicorn Princesses? those roles would be something that i would find very difficult to synthesize into a Shining Armor that holds his own, carving out a place and a will for himself in such rarefied company (even himself recognizing this as an arbitrary game divorced from the channels of real power, but that is what you do!), but you make it seem so natural, wrapping it all into what is on the outside a very light and wholesome slice-of-life. absolument magnifique!
11005963
Insomnia providing comment replies!
LOL I went back and read these footnotes to see what you were talking about and damn did I write that? Heh I feel arrogant when I think that but these were good.
There's a whole story based on footnote 1. that I need to finish. One of those 'I started it for a contest then got distracted and blew past the deadline' ones. It's good, though. I has Sunset and Wally in it. Hold on, opening Scrivener file so I'll remember it exists next time my puppy is taking a nap.
11005945
I appreciate the 'Victorian' comment. I like Victoriana. I get that stuff off Gutenberg sometimes. Frederick Douglas, George MacDonald, and partial re-read of Anna Sewell in the past year or so.
I really like these comments thank yooou!
11354338
I mean Warrior Cats.
xD
This was very good! Both as a character piece looking at Shining, but also as a rare and precious story where he and Flurry are just dad and daughter.
Speaking of which, Flurry Heart was adorable in this. She's clearly a smart kid -- with an "agile and easily distracted" mind, as Shining puts it -- but still a kid. She loves her dad, and thinks the world of her mom, and retains the childish innocence even in the face of bad things, like her father getting his leg rebuilt after a close call with a cannonball.
And yes, those footnotes were cool!
This was a really lovely story. I like your use of footnotes and I like the reasons behind each footnote, to explain both the convention of the ponyworld and just how things work, like their version of chess. I also do like that
It was really neat to see this tackled from a first-person perspective and the way you give such a sense of how Shining feels, why he wanted to participate, that slight whisper of almost defensiveness as to the decisions he's made and why. He's very alive and real and noble, but not without a bit of obstinance. That just makes him more alive, though, and his decisions more understandable.
I also get told "I told you so" a lot.
I like that there's consequence, too. Like, even in this magic world of magic ponies, where he gets his leg magically reattached, it still sucks. It's not instant and immediate and it compliments the rest of the story well in that hint about the limitations of the alicorns. And Shining makes a good teacher in the way he works with his daughter.
Really good work. You have really lovely range in your writing.
An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!