With Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo finally out of the apartment you decide it would be best to start preparing for the night. You begin with getting all the items you purchased earlier this morning, except for the book, surely you couldn’t cook that. Setting the ingredients on the counter, you begin reading the cook book you purchased at Sugar Corner bakery a couple months back. Luckily that you purchased straight from Mrs. Cake and not Pinkie Pie, who terrified you with her hyper ness.

You begin mixing together the ingredients into the large bowl, adding the apples and sugar into it near the end. Pouring the mixed ingredients into the pan, you decide to save some of the mix in case Scootaloo wanted to have some later.

“That should take about an hour” you proudly say to yourself as you place the pan into the already preheated oven. You had to admit it took you a few tries to perfect this but you wanted this dessert to be at its peak when it was done.

With an hour to spare you begin to clean up the mess you created in the kitchen, afterwards you pull out the nice tablecloth you kept for special occasions along with a candle.

“I wonder how Scootaloo is doing with her flight lessons.” You think to yourself.

Dash had to admit it. The Squirt was a quick learner.

She admired her teaching skills as she watched Scootaloo soaring through the air. They’ve only been practicing for a couple hours now and it seemed that Scootaloo already gotten a grip of the basics.

“That’s pretty impressive kid, did you have some previous practice before?”

Scootaloo landed next to her, almost crashing into her. Her eyes were gleaming with joy as she felt like she was being praised by her idol.

“My dad actually taught me how to glide in the air. Always told me that controlling your wings was a key in flight.”

“Well I do agree with controlling your wings is key” rubbing Scootaloo’s mane “but he probably should have taught you about taking off and landing. Really can’t fly without learning those first.”

Something pops into Rainbow Dash’s head, a thought that she should have probably asked earlier to the squirt’s mom.

“Say squirt, who is your dad anyways?”

Scootaloo slightly jumps under Rainbow’s hoof, causing her mane to get messed up a little. She looks down at the ground and begins drawing small circles in the dirt with her hoof.

“What should I tell her? I can’t tell her his name!”

Scootaloo tried her best to think of a answer before it got too awkward.

“Just. Some. Pony…”

She called herself stupid for not being able to come up with a better answer. She felt like she should have been more prepared for an answer, but nothing came to mind.

“Well, alright.” Rainbow decided to just leave it at that. It seemed like the kid didn’t want to talk about it, so she felt best just to ask her mom later about it.

“Let’s get a few more lessons in before we head to my place, sound cool squirt?”

Scootaloo nods happily as she listens to Rainbow explain the next few lessons to her. She was happy, she was being taught by her idol, which was in every way a pony she wanted to be.

With the kitchen clean, the table set and the dessert ready. You begin your process of waiting. Which was boring, but you were excited at the same time so you felt it was alright to be patient. You decided against making actual dinner since you knew the dessert would probably fill you up.

You look at the dim the lights and light the candle, watching it’s flame become the only source of light in the room.

“This will definitely be the year, I know it will!”

“Well, here we are squirt”

Dash pointed at her own house as she landed near the front door. She looked on her back that laid a very tired Pegasus. She had to admit that maybe she overworked the little one just a little, but it did show the determination the squirt had.

Scootaloo slowly got off Rainbow Dashes back, her legs have became wobbly against the cloud surface. She admired how much bigger the house looked like up close, she had to admit that it was a pretty big different then seeing it from the ground.

“It’s so cool!”

Rainbow smiled as she unlocked the door and began to enter, alongside with Scootaloo. She cringed at the sight that her house wasn’t the cleanest. Clothes, trash, dirty dishes, along with a couple of food pieces seemed to have covered the place.

“Sorry about this, let me clean up a little while you get ready for bed. Bathroom is on the left down the hall.”

Scootaloo nodded and headed down the hall, looking at the mess she passed. She had to admit this was pretty dirty compared to how she lived. But did have to admit that it must have been cool not having to clean up when you didn’t want to. She didn’t understand why her mom always cleaned up the house everyday; it wouldn’t have been bad to miss a day of cleaning every now and then.

Rainbow dash couldn’t have been more embarrassed. She completely forgot about her place being such a mess, she didn’t have time to do a perfect cleaning job but she was able to throw out all the trash and move all the dishes to the sink along with making a pile of clothes in the corner. She still felt terrible though, she should have known that she should clean up every now and then but felt it wasn’t really important compared to her practicing and…napping.

She knew work sometimes got in the way but she had to admit that being a weather pony wasn’t really hard for her. Since she was one of the fastest there was she usually got her job done within the first hour of work.

“I really need to get a maid or something so I can just leave it to them to clean up the mess.”

She pictured a maid cleaning her house in one of those French maid outfits. With the duster in her mouth as she wiped the dust off the shelves. She had to admit the maid uniform looked really cute on her. That flank of hers wasn’t half bad as well. She felt she could totally go for a mare like that. But something felt familiar about this maid of hers she was imagining. Like this wasn’t some made up mare, it was as if she knew this one. The maid turned to look at Dash and asked her if she needed anything else. Before she opened her mouth she realized just who she was picturing as the maid.

Scootaloo’s mother.

“Dash?”

Rainbow jumped in surprise nearly hitting the roof. She looked down to Scootaloo back and in pajamas. Flying back down next to her she saw the quizzical look Scootaloo had.

“Wha-what’s up squirt?”

“You alright, Dash? Your face seems to be red like an apple.”

Dash nodded her head furiously as she turned away and headed to the kitchen quickly.

“Do you want anything to eat? I got a cheese pizza that I can throw in the oven.”

She tried her best to avoid the weird looks Scootaloo was giving her. Pulling out the pizza and throwing it into the oven.

“Dammit why did I think about her like that? I mean sure she is pretty cute. Also cares about others and their problems from what I seen. She does kind of remind me of Fluttershy, except more scared to be around ponies.”

She decided to forget about it for and spend the rest of the night eating pizza and playing games with Scootaloo. She had to admit she had fun with the little squirt. She never really hung out with her like this, she always just let her follow her when she practiced and admire her when she performed some cool stunts.

As the night went by they were both getting a little tired and knew it was soon time to call it a night. She let Scootaloo take her bed while she took the couch, she had to admit that having a cloud for a couch was pretty comfy.

Dash stared at the wall, remembering Scootaloo’s mom in that maid outfit. As she closed her eyes she had one last thought.

She wondered if she had a shot with the squirt’s mom.

You watch the lit candle slowly melt as the time passes by. What felt like hours become reality once you see the candle burnt out on its own. You realize that it’s gotten dark and that you should probably just eat.

But you feel too weak to even move. Laying your head on the table you begin to wonder where the time went. You assumed the dessert was cold but you honestly don’t care anymore. You felt kind of numb.

Tears begin rolling down your eyes and staining the table cloth. You don’t know why you were crying, you did, but you felt like this should have been natural for you by now. But there you were, crying, again, just like for the past 3 years.

You knew that his job took him away from you. You knew that he was gone for long periods of time. You knew that he didn’t really get a say when he could have breaks from work.

But maybe, just one year, you hoped he would be here for once. Just like the old days.

“Happy… Anniversary” You mumble to yourself.

The team celebrated in the bar. It was quite a show they pulled for Manehatten and they were proud of it. It was rare for the whole team to be performing in a show, but this was a big event for them every year and they pulled out all the stunts. They were all having such a great time, all but one that is.

He sat in the corner slowly drinking his cider. He looked at the empty glass and sighed to himself.

“I messed up again.” Telling no one in particular.

“That time of the year again?”

He looked up to see his teammate and the captain of the group looking at him.

“Hey captain, and yeah, that time of the year again.”

She sat down next to him and finished off her cider. “Sorry to hear that, you know the manager is with this event of his.”

“Yeah I know. I just wish… that it didn’t have to be around this time of the year you know. I’m sure my wife hates it.”

“I’m sure she misses you, but understands. It’s usually like that with all of our families you know. We really don’t get a choice in when we can see them.”

“Except for the manager” he mumbles.

“Well he does make the schedules so I guess there is a benefit for that” the captain chuckles.

“Oh!”

The captain gets up and grins at him “Speaking of schedules! You know where we’re performing next right?”

“You know I don’t really look at the schedule, since it usually changes at the last minute and I don’t want to get my hopes up.” He mumbles.

“Well time to get your hopes up for this one, next place we’re performing is at Cloudsdale. And that’s only a thirty minute flight from Ponyville.”

He lifts his head up from the bar and looks at her.

“Are you serious? Does that mean I can visit my family?”

“Well it means that you’ll have to miss some practices but I’m sure we’ll live without you for a couple days. If you leave now you’ll have-”

And just like that he bolted out of the bar and took flight. It felt like ages that he took flight for anything other than work.

He may be a few hours late but he felt content that this could be the closest chance he had in years to tell his wife a happy anniversary and really mean it.

He would get to see his kid again and teach her some moves that he learned on his trips around Equestria.

Giggling like a little school girl he glided along with the wind that blew towards Ponyville. It felt like the wind itself was helping him get to his destination faster.

“I’ll be there soon”

You were able to drag yourself to bed somehow, but you couldn’t sleep no matter how hard you tried. Looking at the clock you realize it’s nearly two in the morning. You wondered if this was the same as last year before, you really couldn’t remember sleeping well that time either.

Crash!

The sudden noise made you jump and fall out of your bed. Looking around you begin to panic. Wondering where that noise originated from. You slowly move to your bedroom door and look out down the hall.

You can see a shape of some pony moving along your living room.

“OH CELESTIA IT’S A ROBBER!”

You begin to panic as you shake terribly. Many negative thoughts enter your mind and you feel too shaken up to be able to move.

You hear the hooves along the floor begin to move closer and closer to where you are. But stop before he gets near your door.

You look out and see him in front of the Scootaloo’s door. You become enraged with thoughts of any harm of you daughter and lose all sense of fear you once had. Running at full speed you tackle the pony to the floor, landing on top of him.

“KEEP YOUR HOOVES OFF MY DAUGHTER!” you scream as you throw out a punch at him.

The pony barely dodges the hoof to his face as you both hear a loud crack when the hoof connects to the floor.

“Whoa hunny! It’s me!”

You stop your next hoof in the air before it connects to his face, recognizing the voice right away. You both landed near the light switch which you flick on now showing the pony you almost beat to a pulp.

He has a nervous smile on that stupid face of his with sweat rolling down it. Guess that was normal considering you just almost broke it.

You spend a minute in silence as you guys just stare at each other.

“It…it really is you, isn’t it?” you say in disbelief, moving closer to his face to examine it closer.

He smiles and brings a hoof through your mane.

“Yeah, it really is me.”

You feel tears pouring out of your eyes as he moves your hair away from your face. You didn’t care though, you were happy. You wrap your hooves around him and just let it all out. You sobbed into his shoulder, holding him tightly and never wanting to let go.

He wraps his hooves around you and pats your back. He allowed a couple tears to escape from his eyes, but he knew that being apart for long was usually harder on you.

“I know I’m a couple hours late on it… but…Happy anniversary, hunny.”

You remove your head off your shoulder and look at him, with the biggest smile you give him a kiss.

“Happy anniversary to you too, Soarin.”