The happy feelings from visiting Limoncello had worn off as Lavender got closer and closer to her home. She opened the door to the apartment and sighed. It was three now, but the house was still empty. Her dad should be returning soon, unless he had to stay late—which would be odd at this time of year since he didn’t start staying after school until springtime in order to coach track and field, and it was still nearing the end of summer.
Even though Lavender was happy to be home, she couldn’t help but feel irritated at her dad; she had been gone for only a week and already the place was filthy. There was a thin layer of dust on the table and cabinets in the living room, a pile of used dishes lay in the sink, and small trails of dirt littered the floor.
Groaning in disgust, Lavender went to the closet, put on some rubber gloves and pulled out the cleaners. She dusted the tables and cabinets, washed the dishes and began to sweep and mop the floor; the cleaners left a fresh flowery scent as she went.
The apartment was decorated with tons of Wonderbolt memorabilia. Much like Colonel Spitfire’s office, several posters were plastered to the walls—including one to an event at the Fillidelphia Aerodrome where Lavender’s parents, Cool Breeze and Cinnamon had first met. That was back when he was in the reserves. The life of service in the Wonderbolts had been engrained into Cool Breeze’s head by his father, and his father before him—all of whom served in the Wonderbolts either as flyers or the support staff.
Now Lavender was expected to do the same thing, but she just couldn’t. It was not the life she wanted to live. Sure, she may have been a great flyer, but that’s not all that’s necessary to join the elite team. She didn’t have the will or desire. She was weighed down by all of these expectations, chaining her to a certain course of destiny. Lavender hated that, but couldn’t stand to disappoint her father after he had to give up some of his own dreams.
Lavender paused by the one picture in the house that wasn’t specifically related to the Wonderbolts. In it were three ponies: a blue-maned, purple pegasus filly being held up by a scarlet earth-pony mare with a maroon mane and a steel-blue pegasus stallion with a navy-blue mane. All of them were smiling.
Lavender focused on the bright-eyed filly in the picture. ‘Why is she so happy?’ she thought. ‘How does she not realize that her whole world will be turned upside down just a few months later?’
Sighing, Lavender looked away from the picture and returned to cleaning the floor. Many had often made fun of her obsession for cleanliness, and Lavender admitted that it could be a problem at times—especially when interacting with others—but it was the one thing that she loved doing. She felt calm and could eliminate her stress and frustrations in a physical way and actually accomplish something in the process.
Unfortunately, cleaning wasn’t helping her calm down today. With every passing minute, her anxiety grew. Sweat dripped down her face from both hard work and worry.
“What am I going to tell him?” She moaned as she finished scrubbing the floor. “I’m just going to crush his dreams…again.”
She could feel tears collecting in her eyes when the front door opened. In walked a steel-blue stallion wearing a grey gym shirt, whistle and red ball cap over his receding navy-blue mane. His flank bore four curvy lines that were essentially parallel to each other and looped at one end—signifying a breeze. Dad was finally home.
“Lavender, I thought you’d be back today,” Cool Breeze joyously exclaimed. “How was…uh oh.”
He finally realized that Lavender was cleaning the floor and looked down. Sure enough, there were some soggy hoof prints left on the damp floor behind him.
“Dad, I just cleaned that!” Lavender glared at him, momentarily forgetting the past week and the news for her dad.
“Sorry,” Cool Breeze said sheepishly as he backed out the front door to wipe his hooves on the doormat while Lavender hovered over the blemishes in the clean floor and scrubbed them spotless again. Once she was done, he spread his own wings and flew over to the couch, careful not to drop anything on the forbidden floor below.
‘Wings are so useful for cleaning,’ Lavender thought, smiling at how she could not only clean the entire floor without standing on it, but also fly over to high places and wipe down dust and cobwebs from ceilings, high cabinets and fans.
“So,” Cool Breeze called from his position on the couch. “How did the Wonderbolt training go?”
Lavender froze, and subsequently fell flat on the ground. She quickly got back on her hooves and brushed herself off—her dad waiting expectantly.
“W-well,” she stammered. “It was pretty rough.”
“Heh, I don’t doubt that,” Cool Breeze chuckled. “I remember the drill sergeant having us a thousand of everything when I was there: wing-ups, jumping jacks, laps…you name it, we did it. Do they still throw you off the cliff?”
“What?”
“Huh, they got rid of that machine?” Cool Breeze frowned. “Well good riddance! I hated that thing. I’m still dizzy from it.”
Lavender smacked her forehead. “Oh, you mean the Dizzitron. Yeah, that’s still there.”
“Oh, I see,” Cool Breezed said with a grin. “Well, I’m sure that my best student from the Junior Flyers blew everypony out of the sky on that.”
Lavender twiddled her hooves on the floor. “Actually, I was rather average on the Dizzitron.”
“Well that’s okay; it’s a pretty difficult thing to get the hang of, if you ever do. What matters is that you straighten up as soon as you can. But that’s only part of everything you need to do. How did the evaluation go?”
Lavender’s chest tightened. This was it, the moment of truth. ‘What was it Scootaloo said? Meet him halfway. Well here we go.’ Lavender took a deep breath to prepare for the worst. “Well…I passed and eeeep!”
Suddenly, she felt her father’s hooves around her, having flown from the couch in surprising speed.
“That’s wonderful!” Cool Breeze exclaimed. “I can’t tell you just how proud I am of you. I guess you need to go back in three days?”
Lavender’s heart began racing. She knew she needed to tell him. She had to. But one look into her father’s grey eyes caused her words to falter. She hadn’t seen him this happy in a long time; not since…that terrible day.
“Uh, yeah,” Lavender finally lied. “Pretty much.”
“All right,” Cool Breeze stated. “Then we get to spend some time together. I have to work tomorrow, but after that is the weekend and I can see you off. How about we go out for dinner tonight and you can tell me all about it?”
“Sounds great Dad,” Lavender smiled weakly.
“Great, why don’t we get cleaned up? It’s been a long day for both of us.”
“Okay.”
With that, Cool Breeze walked down the hallway to the master bedroom. Soon Lavender could hear the faint hissing of the showerhead. She just sat there listening, her conscious gnawing at her.
‘Now what?’