"That one looks like a carrot." A familiar blue pegasus pointed with her front left hoof to the clouds above.

I responded with a chuckle and teased her. "I see one that looks like a cute girl."

Her magenta eyes began to scan the sky in search of what I was referring to. "I don't see one like that..."

I rolled over and pecked her on the cheek. "Right here."

She laughed and nudged my shoulder playfully. "Oh stop it, Romeo. I'm not even in the clouds."

Grinning I gave her wing a gentle touch. "I wouldn't mind seeing you up there though."

Rolling her eyes she stood up and allowed her summer dress to drape her figure. It was simple and white, but I always thought it was nice to see her looking feminine and not her usual tomboyish self. She had a great body when she was willing to show it off.

"We should probably go meet with your mother so we can get ready for this party tonight. After all, she is the one supplying all the culinary supplies." The mare spoke as she took my hoof.

Pulling myself up with her help, I nodded. "I suppose so, though I was kind of enjoying our time together here..." I admitted as I bit my lip a little.

It was obvious she knew what was on my mind. She leaned in and planted a soft kiss on my cheek as she smiles. "Awww, come on Bear, that can wait until tonight can't it?"

Bear, her little pet name for me. Somehow it felt... Fitting. "Well, we promised we'd wait until our one year... And that's today after all..."

The girl just giggled and gave me an eskimo kiss as she pet my cheek. "And it'll be so much more special after we've had the celebration. After all, your mother went through a lot to set this up. I'm surprised really, most couples don't exactly get a party for their anniversary..."

"This is my mother we're talking about, remember." I chuckled.

She nodded and gave a familiar sugary smile. I returned it as I brushed a strand of her prism mane out of her face. It was always so unkempt, yet so elegant at the same time. "You look more beautiful every day, Rainbow." I complimented.

She placed her hoof atop of mine as she locked eyes with me. "You're too sweet, you know that? I can't figure out how a roughneck like me managed to find such a charming stallion."

"A girl like you deserves only the best there is to offer." I smiled as she pet my hoof gently.

"We may never get a chance to always be together, but I want to make the time we do have count. I want my life to have you in it..." She was speaking very quietly as if she was telling me a secret. Her eyes became very solid and serious.

"We'll be together as long as time will permit." I replied with a kiss to her forehead.

My mother had been spending all day making preparations. Seldom did she skimp out when a party was involved. Working as a party confectioner had given her too much pride in her work to just allow a job to be done half assed. She was always one to make sure every event she planned outdid the last one.

With her pink silky mane getting in the way of her vision, she brushed it behind her ear and tucked it under the frame of her glasses as she worked on unraveling some lights. Holding up her completed work she gives me a glance. "What do you think, Flare? Are these the appropriate colors. I figured I'd go with multi colored to match Rainbow."

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, it's not necessary to go this all out."

"See that, Rainbow, he's embarrassed." She giggled, Dash leg out a few of her own to accompany her.

"I like them, Pinkamena. They're pretty cool." Dash lit up and turned around to speak. She had been hanging some streamers from the ceiling. Having wings often meant she would handle the jobs that required elevation.

My mother shook her head. "You know, you can call me mom..."

Rainbow chuckled. "I want to reserve that for when it's actually true." She shot a smile in my direction as she said it. It was obvious she was hinting at when we decided to make that final step.

Rainbow took a while to warm up to ideas. Ordinarily she was quite daring, but in romance she liked to take her time. I recall it took ten dates before she even was willing to kiss me, then another two before she actually did it.

It was always a graduated plan with her. First you had to make step one, then if she liked that, you allowed her to adjust before going to step two. The plan was as followed: first we'd date a bit, see if we like each other. Then when she got comfortable, we'd kiss for the first time. From there on I slowly work my way up to snuggling. After that when we hit our year mark she felt she was comfortable enough to make love for the first time. That was the step we were currently on.

After we had been together a little longer after that, the plan was to move in together, then eventually ask the big question. Like I said, very graduated, and much like clockwork.

"Well, if my little Flare decides he is ready to be a husband anytime soon..." My mother glanced over at me as well.

I rolled my eyes and tried to focus on hanging decorations.

"It was pretty cool that Vinyl let us use her dance hall to throw this thing." Rainbow changed the subject.

I nodded. "Yeah, your sister is kind of strange though, so is it really surprising that she does stuff like that?"

"Oh Vinyl's not that bad. She's just ecstatic." My marefriend defended her rebellious sister to me.

"Ecstatically gay." I winked to my mother who just tried to ignore my rude joke.

My mare just sighed. "One time we caught her making out with another mare..."

"One time and numerous discoveries of playcolt magazines." I teased. So many times had we gone to see her younger sister and stumbled across them in her room.

"She's a little sensitive about the issue, but we can't pressure her to come out. Now I expect you to not tease her about it tonight. She was nice enough to not only give us this location, but perform as well." She floated down next to me and gave me a smile.

How could I say no to that smile? "Alright, I promise. But if she starts coming onto my sister, I'm stepping in." I joked.

Rainbow ruffled my mane playfully. "Oh stop it, you."

"You two are so adorable together. You remind me of me, and Flare's father when we were kids." My mother begins to ramble. "He'd take me to the theater, buy me probably every candy at the concession stand..."

My father walked in at that moment and finished the story. "And we would seldom even watch the movie, if you know what I mean." He gave a wink to us as my mother giggled.

I gagged in mocking disgust. "Gross." I commented.

Rainbow however was trying to contain her giggles as she saw how uncomfortable my parents were making me. The last thing I wanted to think about today was my parents making out though.

"Say, Flare there was a reminder you left for yourself upstairs. Something about a box?" My father said.

My eyes bulged. He almost ruined the surprise. Fortunately Rainbow didn't seem to hear anything. Nodding I made a quick excuse to leave. "I gotta go talk to Fluttershy for a bit. I'll be back in time for the party."

Dash nodded and gave a small frown. "Awww, alright. I'll see you then, bear." She gave a kiss to my nose and returned to her decorating. I lingered for another few seconds watching her. Absolutely stunning, it was hard to believe she was for real.

Fluttershy had managed to keep this whole surprise under wraps, which was amazing considering she was terrible at keeping secrets. You really couldn't trust her with anything too confidential, simply because she'd get so excited she'd eventually blab about it to somepony. This however was different, I had made it very clear that this was a very special event.

"You think Rainbow will like it?" I questioned as I looked at the contents of the box.

Fluttershy giggled and nodded. "Absolutely, diamonds are her favorite, she isn't much for jewelry, but she has a weak spot for them."

I nodded and took another look before I closed the box.

"So, how are you going to give it to her?" Fluttershy leaned in with genuine interest. I got the impression she was all over this lovey dovey stuff.

"Well, I wanted to wait until tonight. Then when we have a moment alone I want to put it around her neck when she closes her eyes." I had pictured it in my head so many times at this point. I wanted this whole thing to go so smoothly, that my expectations were so high there was no way reality would have been as good as the picture in my head.

Fluttershy was a already making annoying noises and squeeing. "Ooooooh that's so cute! I know she'll love it!"

I chuckled. "Dash doesn't like to admit it, but she has a soft spot for that romantic crap, she just doesn't like to show it in public. She's always trying to put on that tough girl act."

"Do you prefer tough girls, Flare?" She inquired as she sat down.

"I guess so... I mean I always found myself attracted to the more... Brutish mares." I blushed as I admitted it.

The truth was that I did enjoy a girl who had a little fire in her. One that could throw down with the stallions if need be, and one that could hold her own. My mother certainly was a big influence on that. The woman never really needed my father's help on anything. She just let him help to be sweet to him, but it was clear those two were very independent.

"You can't always be together forever, but it's important to enjoy today. For all we know, this fleeting dream could come to an end tomorrow." Fluttershy's words became very cold.

Something about what she said really stuck, I wasn't sure why.

I had showed up to the party a few minutes into the festivities. I was usually late to almost every occasion, but this was actually pretty good for me; I had only gotten there 20 minutes in.

Fixing my tie, I could already see my mother along with a familiar Vinyl Scratch approaching. Composing myself, I smiled in their direction as they drew nearer.

"Lookin' sharp there, Flare." Vinyl praised as she admired my suit.

"Heh, thanks, I just hope I am not overdressed is all..." I rubbed my neck as I admitted that. Dash was not one for formal occasions, so she would often show up semi-casual. However judging by the fact that even Vinyl had a tuxedo on told me I might be safe regardless if Dash showed up in a wife beater. However it once again pointed to the idea that Vinyl was very butch.

My mother and Vinyl both snickered. "Oh, I don't think you will have to worry about that."

Clearly they knew something. "What do you mean?" I inquired as my brow rose.

Vinyl gestured behind herself. "Why not see for yourself."

I peeked around her corner and my jaw fell open and just hung there. I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. Dash was in a proper dress, and not just a dress, but an exceptionally formal one. Hell it might have even been the fanciest dress at this entire party.

Black in color it was decorated with a few emblems that resembled her cutie mark, and nice matching earrings. Her mane was done up with an interesting tiara holding it in place. The dress covered her entire form, which I imagined made it difficult for her to walk with. She had to have been very uncomfortable with just the dress, but she even had on some black horseshoes to go with it.

Vinyl only laughed more as she saw my reaction. However she just nudged my shoulder instead of sitting there picking on me over it. "Go get her, lover boy."

I nodded and turned to my mother bowing my head a bit. "Mom, there's something I need to..."

She shook her head and waved for me to leave. "Go see your marefriend, Flare."

With a grin I raced over to her. She turned around the moment she sensed my presence. I paused as I stuttered trying to say something. My mouth hung open but all that came out was more stuttering noises. Rainbow just stood there patiently with that same innocent look on her face, waiting for me to finally get it out.

After a few more seconds of struggling, I got some words to escape my mouth. "You look... Amazing..."

A blush crossed her cheeks as she offered her hoof to me which I took and kissed. She only responded with a giggle.

"You look pretty nice yourself. You clean up great." She complimented.

"Oh so I look bad any other time?" I added a sarcastic tone, and she caught the joke as I saw her laughing.

She leaned in and placed her front hooves around my neck. "You look fantastic any other time."

The night was spent with dinner, dancing and a little bit of wine. There were going to be so many photos tomorrow, no doubt. I'd probably be embarrassed by some and have a story to tell for others, but all and all it didn't go as I had imagined it... It went far better. To be fair though after seeing the love of my life in that dress, the rest of the night could have been a disaster and I would have been alright with that.

The big surprise had come though.

Dash and I were outside on the balcony overlooking the city. The view from there was amazing to be honest. It sat up on the hill, you could see quite an amazing vista from where we stood. The whole city lit up and ready for its night life to begin. It was true what they said: cities never sleep.

"It's pretty cool to see the city at night, huh?" Rainbow spoke as she gazed at the sight.

I nodded and placed a hoof around her backside as we let ourselves sit down. "It's spectacular."

We sat in silence for another brief moment before I looked over to her biting my lip. Noticing me, she turned with a "hm?" Expression.

"Close your eyes." I instructed.

To my surprise she did so without arguing. Her magenta eyes vanished behind her eyelids. I reached into my pocket and retrieved the box that I had kept secret up to this point. Retrieving the necklace from it, I began to place it around her neck and fasten it. I struggled a bit, but was able to get it on without embarrassing myself. I took a moment to observe it before giving her the okay to open her eyes.

Her eyes came open slowly as she looked down. She gasped as she saw all the diamonds sparkle in the moonlight. "Flare..." She couldn't even finish that sentence she was in so much shock.

I pressed my hoof to her lips. "Shhhhh." I hushed. When I had removed my hoof, she nearly leapt at me wrapping her hooves around me as she forcefully pushed her lips against mine.

It was a very powerful kiss, but when she finally released me, she grinned as she took my hoof in hers'. "Let's get out of here." She spoke rather seductively.

"Wha- I thought you wanted to wait until everypony left?" I blinked in surprise.

Tugging at my hoof, she grinned and giggled. "I'm ready now."

She didn't have to tell me twice. "Yes, ma'am." I obediently responded.

She guided us out through the back way where nopony would see us leave, giggling and nearly skipping as she did so. It didn't take her long for us to get back to her apartment where she quickly closed the door behind us and grabbed me for another fierce kiss. I was even less prepared for this one.

"I love you, Flare..." She spoke between lips smacking.

"I love you too." I managed to get out.

"Let's hurry before this moment ends..." She nearly growled as she pushed me onto the couch with her quickly landing on top of me.

"We have plenty of time." I reminded.

"Not as much as you'd think..." She said as she brought her lips to my neck.