Colonel Douglas Rooks had been given a particularly difficult assignment to deal with, but it was one he was more than happy to receive, even if he had doubts about whether or not he had the skills necessary to complete the task.

Having been on leave for less than a month, he felt that he was still getting reacquainted with Annabelle, his daughter, and today he was taking care of her on his own while his wife went on a 'girls day out' with some of her friends. Annabelle was four and a half, the point where small children grow at a seemingly impossible rate and start getting into trouble in new and creative ways.

So far today Annabelle had been remarkably well behaved, though part of that might have come from the fact that she had only just finished breakfast and gone up to her room to get dressed. His wife had left clothes out for Annabelle so all he had to do was tell her to go to her room and put them on. It had seemed simple enough, and while waiting for her to come back to the living room he decided to sit down on the couch and read the newspaper.

As expected, the aftermath of the Manhattan outbreak was still being talked about, mostly by idiot politicians and pundits who had no idea what had really happened. It was frustrating, but it was also good for a laugh if you found that sort of rampant idiocy amusing.

Looking up from the paper he checked the time and noted that Annabelle had been taking suspiciously long getting dressed.

"You need help in there?"

"Nope!" she called back happily.

A moment later she tromped into the room, wearing not just her play clothes, but the wings, tiara and magic wand from last Halloween's Tinkerbell costume. She pointedly ignored him and went across the living room to an armchair, which she began to climb. Making it all the way up to the top of the chair, she tried to stand up on it, only to fall off the side. Landing flat on her backside, she crossed her arms over her chest and took a deep breath in preparation to cry. Her expression was one Rooks was already familiar with in his short time home, the one she used when she wanted something from her mother. There was no way he was going to fall for it though.

"You're not hurt, walk it off," but even as he said this, he was getting up just in case he had misjudged how hard she had landed.

Annabelle frowned, threw down the wand, and nodded before standing up, "Okay."

Relieved, Rooks sat back down and went back to his paper, hoping to at least finish the sports section before beginning the day in earnest.

A moment later he could hear her climbing the chair again.

"Don't do – " he started, only to have the wind knocked out of him as Annabelle landed on his stomach after taking a flying leap off the chair.

"Ffff…" he caught himself before swearing, at his wife's insistence he was now making an effort to watch his language, "Let's get the wings off, get your hair brushed and do something with all that energy you've got."

Getting the wings off was easy enough. Brushing out her hair was another matter entirely. As soon as the brush touched Annabelle's hair she jerked her head away.

"Ouch! Don't pull the tangles."

Rooks frowned. He had thought that he had managed to avoid any knots in her hair. Taking great care he tried again.

"That hurts!"

And again.

"Don't pull!"

And again.

"Ouch!"

Before long he realized that that the pattern was rather suspicious. Turning the brush around, he ran the back over Annabelle's hair and…

"Ouch!"

"Nice try kiddo," he laughed, "I wasn't brushing your hair there."

This time it was Annabelle's turn to frown.

She sat still long enough for him to get half of her hair brushed out, then she ducked away and ran out of the room. How did his wife manage this every morning? He was sure that there was usually far less drama involved.

"You've got to catch me!

Catching a small child was no problem. Before she even made it to the living room he had grabbed her and scooped her up under one arm to bring her back to the chair and finish with her hair. His wife disapproved of it when he carried Annabelle around the house like, but Annabelle loved it, if the way she was giggling was anything to go by.

The only problem was that by the time he got her sitting down again her hair was as much of a mess as been before he started brushing it. She had also elevated her game to the next level, shaking her head wildly every time he brought the brush near her.

Scolding would only get him so far at a time like this. It was time to bring out the big guns.

"Sit still and don't make a sound while I brush your hair and you'll get a Little Pony doll."

It worked like a charm, not that Rooks had doubted it would. The moment he had arrived home she had insisted that he watch the show with her every time it came on and she had too many of the garishly colored little toys for anyone to keep track of.

The toy in question, for Rooks was not one to say anything he was unable back up, had been purchased at the very start of his leave. Now, after having been taught by Annabelle the names of all the ponies, he knew that it was a cheap knockoff, but a toy was a toy and he was sure she would love it. As soon as her hair was brushed he made Annabelle close her eyes to keep her from finding out that he had hidden the toy on the top shelf of the hall closet, which was where all gifts went until it was time to give them.

One look at the bright orange and pink toy and Annabelle's eyes lit up.

"Wow! A new pony!" she turned it over, looking at it from every angle, "What's this one called?"

She then looked at him expectantly.

Rooks knew right away that this was a test. He had to know what the damned pony was called or else some new drama was going to start.

"Let me check," he took the toy back and looked it over, wincing when he realized that he knew far too much about the stupid show. This toy, like all of the ponies on the show, had a distinctive marking on its backside and many episodes of the show had focused on the importance of those markings. 'Cutie Marks' as they were called represented the pony's purpose in life. Things like cupcakes meant that the pony baked, apples meant that the pony was a farmer, and this one had a cluster of little stars on it. That was something he could work with.

"This one has stars. That would make him a General…" he wracked his brain, trying to come up with a name without having to resort to naming it after one of his commanding officers, though there were several who it would probably be fitting to name the toy after. Annabelle was looking at him expectantly, waiting with the faith that he would know the answer to her question. In turn he looked at the toy and muttered, "What am I going to call you, you little sparkle-ass piece of…"

He had been talking to himself, but apparently he had said the last part just a little too loud. Annabelle's eyes lit up once again and she jumped up to try and take the pony from him.

"Yay! General Sparkle-Ass!" she giggled, dancing around him, "He can meet the other ponies and have a big adventure!"

"Wait, I…," Rooks started to try and correct his mistake, only to realize it was far too late for that. Annabelle was waiting for him to give her the toy so the fun could begin, "Never mind. Just remember not to make too big a mess."

He handed her 'General Sparkle-Ass' and she started to dash away to her room, only to stop abruptly. She turned to look at him with a very concerned expression.

"How special is a General? Like a Princess?"

Yes, Annabelle was very much his daughter and he was so proud of her. Moments like this were what kept him going out in the field, "Much more important than a princess."

Annabelle stared at the toy in awe, it never having occurred to her that anything could be more important than a princess "Wow!"

0o0o0o0

Less than half an hour later every single one of Annabelle's toy ponies was scattered across the living room. As her little adventure got more and more elaborate other toys got involved as well. A good number of her stuffed animals had been brought in to play the parts of assorted 'bad guys' and they had the Annabelle's ponies backed into a corner. Twilight Sparkle was missing, possibly having been eaten by a particularly menacing stuffed lion, Fluttershy had been captured by teddy bears and Rooks was more than a little ashamed to have discovered that he knew just about all of the characters in the show by name.

"Look, Fluttershy's back, she must have escaped from the monsters!" Annabelle giggled, running across the room with the little yellow winged pony held high above her head, "But something's wrong."

"Oh no, what?" he tried to keep serious as he played along with her.

Annabelle's expression grew grave and she leaned in to whisper in his ear, "The ponies don't know it, but Queen Chrysalis is back and she's the one who brought all the giant monsters."

"Shit," the expletive, stemming from a combination at chagrin that he understood what Annabelle was talking about and dislike of the direction things were going in, slipped out before he could stop himself. Luckily Annabelle was too caught up in her little game to notice.

"Hurray! Fluttershy's back," Annabelle cheered, picking up a very pink Pony, "We should have a party to celebrate!"

When he failed to respond Annabelle handed him 'General Sparkle-Ass' and waited patiently.

Catching on to what he was supposed to do he tried to manage what he hoped was an appropriate pony voice, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

He must have gotten it right because Annabelle giggled and put down the ponies she was holding to pick up another pair and started up a conversation between the two of them, "'Why not? A party will be a lot of fun!' 'We should listen to him Rarity. He's a General and that makes him super important'."

Annabelle stopped and looked at him again, waiting for him to join in.

Smiling, he obliged, "We need to find out how she got away first and what she saw while captured. Maybe it can help us figure out where all the giant monsters came from."

Things took a turn for the worse at that point with Annabelle rushing to get three stuffed dogs to attack 'General Sparkle-Ass' as well as Princess Celestia, who Annabelle handed to him to handle while she played the part of the attacking stuffed animals.

The battle that followed was something far more intense than anything he recalled his G.I. Joes getting into back when he had been Annabelle's age, which either said something about what kids picked up on these days, or the imaginations of little girls.

When the dust cleared, the dogs had been driven off, but Fluttershy was nowhere to be found, prompting a search all across Equestria and Rooks was not at all enjoying the direction Annabelle's little game of pretend was going.

"Maybe we should just put your toys away and go to the park?" he offered, hoping to nip things in the bud.

Annabelle shook her head and picked up 'General Sparkle-Ass' and Princess Celestia, "No, we can't stop yet. Queen Chrysalis might eat up all the ponies if we do. General Sparkle-Ass is going to save everyone. He needs to."

There was nothing he could say to that, especially when Annabelle sounded so desperate. It made him wonder how much she picked up on despite their efforts to keep her in the dark about some of the stuff that happened out in the world. It was hard enough raising a little girl to begin with, and having her find out that monsters were real was not something he wanted to face for a long time. Yet here he was, confronting it on his own, without his wife to guide the conversation in the right, safe directions.

The problem was, no matter what they did at home, there was always the chance she would see a picture in the paper, hear something on the news by accident or overhear a conversation between her friend's parents when she was having a play-date. It was a scary place out there, and though he did his part to protect her from the worst of it on all fronts, there was only so long he could keep the reality of things hidden from her. Someday there would come a time when she would ask questions, hard ones, and not just the kind parents usually got from their little girls. Maybe that was part of the reason games of pretend were so important.

In Annabelle's hands 'General Sparkle-Ass became some sort of pony D-Code, finding Queen Chrysalis's minions and taking them on single handedly, winning every time. Before long, and with minimal prompting from him, they had Queen Chrysalis' forces on the run.

For the last big strike Rainbow Dash assembled all of the flying ponies and he was expected to help with this since there were too many of them for her to hold at once. For whatever it was that she was planning, Annabelle had run to her room one last time and brought back a jar full of marbles.

Rooks could see exactly where that was going and spoke up just as his wife came in the door, "What are you doing with those?"

Mistaking the question for part of the game, Annabelle stood up and held Rainbow Dash above her head, speaking in what was nothing remotely near an indoor voice, "We're going to bomb those fuckers to hell!"

The look his wife gave him made it clear that there was no way he was going to convince her that he had nothing to do with that outburst.

Well, since there was no point in trying to argue, "Alright! Bombs away!"

If he was going to catch hell, he might as well make it worth it, and the way Annabelle laughed as she dropped the marbles all over the living room definitely made it worth it. Moments like that made all of it worth it.