Home Sweet Home

by ACTASAP

First Day

Rainbow Dash leaned her head forward as she flew closer to Ponyville, checking to see how far she was from her destination. She could see the small town from this distance so she estimated that it would take her a few more minutes to arrive home.

She had actually gotten a decent nights’ sleep last night, something that had not been as common for her as she’d like. However, she also didn’t get up until 10 in the morning, which was 3 hours later than she had planned on waking up, so she was in a hurry to leave. She had another carrot for a quick breakfast and then did some last-minute packing of food and other little trinkets around her suite. After a half hour she had finally left her suite and headed back home.

Once she had flown into Ponyville it didn’t take her long to spot her family’s house. She remembered how hesitant she was to move into Thunderlane’s house on the ground. He ended up convincing her by reminding her that if they lived on the ground then Scootaloo could come visit them, since she had recently found out that her wings would never be strong enough for flight. Visiting her idol had really helped the heartbroken mare come to terms with her handicap, and to Rainbow, that was more than worth moving to a home on the ground.

She dove down and landed just a few inches away from the front door, but found herself frozen in place. She was ordering herself to knock on the door but her hoof just wouldn’t obey. She was beginning to question if making her trip home a surprise was such a good idea. They might not be home right now, they might be doing something important at the moment, they could even be on their own trip. It seemed to her that the best solution was to leave a note on the door and come back later to see if the note was gone, then she’d know they’re fine with her coming home.

Rainbow was about to take off to see her friends instead but she came to a halt once she realized what she was doing. She was letting her nervousness get the best of her, something she told herself she wouldn’t do last night. She turned herself around and marched back to that door, but froze in place again as she approached, staring blankly into space. Finally, she raised her hoof in the air, took a deep breath, and then counted to three.

1….

‘You’ve got to do this’.

2….

‘You can’t keep letting your worries get the best of you’.

3.

‘Time to stop running’.

Her hoof made contact with the wooden door three times and then waited patiently for an answer. After a few seconds she could hear hoofsteps approaching the door, each one felt like its own earthquake that was about to swallow her up. The door slowly creaked open and a dark gray stallion stuck his head out. His yellow eyes went wide with shock once he saw who was at the door and the blank expression on his face quickly turned into a warm smile, one she happily returned.

“Hey,” he greeted her with a voice barely above a whisper, as he opened the door wider.

“Hey,” she greeted back.

Rainbow couldn’t hold it in anymore, she rushed forward and wrapped her hooves around her husband, pulling him into a passionate kiss. Thunderlane wasted no time returning his wife’s kiss, as if he was just seconds away from doing the same thing. He gently caressed her back as she ran her hoof along his mane, also lightly pushing his head forward to make the kiss deeper. They broke the kiss a few seconds later but they still held each other in a tight embrace with affectionate smiles on their faces.

“Daddy, you said you were going to-” Another voice said but quickly cut himself off. Thunderlane released his grip on his wife and she diverted her attention to the three-year-old colt who was now staring at her with his mouth slightly agape. He had a light gray coat, almost like silver, magenta eyes and a rainbow mane just like his mother’s.

“MOMMY!” The colt ran to her as fast as he could and then leapt in the air, tackling her. Rainbow fell backwards on the ground out of surprise, while Silverwing stood on her chest like a dog might do. She held the little colt in her hooves and gave him an affectionate rub on his head.

“Hey there squirt, did you miss me?” She playfully asked.

“Yeah I missed you a lot. I missed you like this much,” The little colt said as he stretched his fore hoofs apart by a foot, something both of his parents silently chuckled at.

“Is that so, we’ll I’ve missed you this much,” Rainbow imitated her son but she was able to stretch her hooves out further apart due to being bigger.

“Oh yeah, well I really meant to say that I missed you this much,” Silverwing tried spreading his hooves further apart but he shortly reached his limit and started to lose his balance. Thankfully Rainbow was quick enough to catch him in her hooves before he fell off her.

“Don’t hurt yourself kid, let’s just both agree that the amount we missed each other is indefinable,” Rainbow’s response made the colt’s head tilt in confusion.

“It means we missed each other a lot.” Rainbow could help but be amused by her son’s naivety. This must be how Twilight felt whenever she used big words around her and the rest of their friends that they didn’t understand.

“Oh, OK. So what are we going to do today mommy?” Silverwing eagerly asked with excitement in his voice. “Go to the lake? Play some games? Tell me stories?”

“Maybe a little later mommy could show us some of her tricks for her upcoming show,” Thunderlane suggested as Silverwing nodded in approval.

“I would, but I actually don’t have a show coming up so I don’t have any new tricks to show you.” Thunderlane jerked his head back and cocked an eyebrow at her response, but he quickly replaced his surprised expression with a smile.

.”Well it’s nice to hear that you have a break after your big summer tour, but I could’ve sworn I saw a Wonderbolts show scheduled for next month. Did they cancel it?”

“No that’s still going on but I’m not going to be a part of it. I’m on vacation,” Rainbow informed her family. Thunderlane stared at her with a skeptical, yet playful expression.

“You took a vacation? Don’t get me wrong, both Silver and I would be more than happy to have you home for two weeks but that seems-”

“Three months,” Rainbow interrupted, causing her husband’s joking demeanor to quickly disappear.

“W-What did you say?” He meekly asked.

“I had enough vacation time saved up for three months, so you’re stuck with me for awhile.” She looked to the three-year-old colt in her hooves, who wore an expression that she’d describe as pure joy and adoration. Thunderlane, on the other hoof, looked to be in a state of shock as he just stood there frozen in place. It almost seemed like he was about to faint at any moment. Just as Rainbow was beginning to grow concerned about her husband, his lips started to quiver as a small smile started to form on his face and it was growing bigger with each passing second.

“That’s wonderful. How did you ever get Skinflint to agree to that?”

“Thank Spitfire for that, she pulled some strings to get me this three month vacation.”

Thunderlane gently lowered himself to the ground, laying next to his wife and child. Before they could ask him what he was doing, the dark gray colt threw his hooves around them and pulled them into a group hug. Rainbow leaned her head forward and nuzzled her husband, letting out a content sigh. She started to close her eyes to enjoy this moment even more, but then they suddenly shot open once she had finally noticed something, her husband’s girth.

Whenever she got to see her family again she had noticed that her husband would occasionally put on a few pounds. She never really thought much of it back then, but now she would actually consider him pudgy. It was disappointing to see him gain this much weight, especially when she thought back to his more athletic, muscular build back when they were both Wonderbolts. She continued to stare at his gut until Thunderlane finally pulled away from the hug and lifted himself up.

“I was about to make some lunch before you got here, I better get back to that. I’ll leave you two alone to catch up some more.” Thunderlane’s happy expression quickly became one of concern when he noticed his wife staring blankly at him.

“Is something wrong Rainbow?” He asked, offering her his hoof. A slight smile returned to Rainbow’s face as she took his hoof and lifted herself up.

“No, everything’s fine. I guess my mind just wandered off for a moment,” her excuse was technically true. Thunderlane retained his concerned look but he quickly switched back to a happy expression. He then gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then headed back inside.

‘Everything is fine’ she told herself. Sure, Thunderlane might have gained some weight but he was still the pony she loved and she still considered him attractive, so there was no problem. Still, it wouldn’t hurt him to lose a few pounds, she’d have to come up with some kind of exercise program for him.

Rainbow’s thoughts were interrupted when she felt something tugging at her right foreleg. She looked down and saw Silverwing struggling to pull her towards the house.

“Come on mommy, I want to show you my room.” He said, grunting as he tried pulling on her hoof. As cute as it was to watch the little colt try to move his mother, Rainbow knew he could hurt himself doing this, so she walked with him into the house. She still let him hold her hoof though so he could feel like he was actually pulling her upstairs to his room.

As soon as the cyan pegasus stepped into her son’s bedroom, her jaw hit the floor and her eyes darted all around the room. The walls were decorated with several Rainbow Dash posters. His bed was covered with the Rainbow Dash bedsheets and a little plush toy of her was tucked under the covers. Next to the bed was a dresser where a Rainbow Dash alarm clock and Rainbow Dash lamp sat on top of. It seemed everywhere she looked there was some piece of merchandise of her in this room. To say this was intimidating was quite the understatement.

“Isn’t all this stuff awesome?” she heard her son say.

“Yeah, it’s really something,” Rainbow Dash said, doing her best not to sound timid or cowed.

“There’s another thing I wanna show you that’s just as cool.” Silverwing flew over to a small bookcase in his room. Rainbow recognized the book her son pulled out from the lower shelf, it was a scrapbook that Thunderlane had begun making when they first started performing for the Wonderbolts. With the book in his hooves, the silver colt flew to his bed and gently plopped down. He patted the spot next to him on the bed and his mother sat on her haunches in that spot.

“This is a scrapbook of newspaper stories and pictures about you that I made,” Silverwing happily told her.

“Really? You made this all by yourself?” Rainbow asked as she playfully cocked an eyebrow at her son, causing him to slink back a little.

“Well, daddy helped a little,” The three-year-old colt shyly admitted. Rainbow Dash silently chuckled to herself before finally looking through the scrapbook. Even if she didn’t know her husband was the one who originally made this scrapbook, it would have been obvious just from looking at the first few pages. Those were the pages that contained newspaper articles and pictures about the time her and Thunderlane used to perform together, there was even an article about her pregnancy and his resignation after their son was born.

She continued to flip through the book until she got to the articles and photos from when she starting performing by herself. When she returned to the Wonderbolts after her maternity leave, Thunderlane had asked her if she could mail them the local newspaper from whatever town her show was in so they could make this scrapbook. As she looked through the scrapbook there was one review from a Manehattan show that caught her eye, with the headline “Rainbow Dash adds an extra splash of color to Wonderbolts show”. This one was especially great since it featured a picture of her signature move, the sonic rainboom.

“That one’s my favorite,” Silverwing excitedly stated as his wings fluttered.

“Yeah, I like that one too.”

She still remembered the first time she performed the sonic rainboom for her son during his first birthday. She remembered how far his jaw had fallen and how his eyes were fixated on the colors in the sky and he had the same reaction when she performed it on his 2nd and 3rd birthdays too. No matter how many Wonderbolt shows Rainbow had done, she never felt as much pride in what she did as when she performed for Silverwing.

“Your sonic rainbooms are so awesome. Now that you’re here you can do them everyday!” Silverwing wings fluttered even faster, lifting him an inch off of his bed. The cyan mare gave her son an uneasy grin.

“Maybe I could do a few of them for you, but I don’t know about everyday.” It felt like somepony had just stabbed her in the heart as soon as she saw her son’s smile start to droop.

“Why not?”

“Because that’s something special I do for your birthday and if I do it too often then it won’t be special anymore and you’ll get tired of it,” Rainbow explained, but her son frantically shook his head at this.

“No I won’t, I could never get tired of the sonic rainboom.”

“You say that now but trust me, it will happen. It reminds me of when I was a foal in flight school and how there was this one student who had this awesome, jaw dropping trick she would do, but that was the only trick she knew. She would constantly perform it and we enjoyed it the first few times but after a while it just became boring. Eventually we realized that she was just doing this to try and be cool, but repeating the same move over and over again was actually making her uncool. So if I did the sonic rainboom every day not only would you get bored of it, but you’d also get bored of me too.”

Silverwing listened intensly to every word his mother spoke and by the end of it he was trembling. “No, I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to get bored of you mommy!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let that happen. Like I said, I see no harm in doing a few, but I’ll space them out. That way you won’t get bored of them, or me,” Rainbow assured him as wrapped her wing around him. The gray colt breathed a sigh of relief and hugged his mother.

“Thanks, you’re the best mommy ever.” A small blush found its way onto Rainbow’s face along with a hearty smile.

“You’re a pretty awesome son too.” The three-year-old colt quickly lifted his head and stared at his mother with a twinkle in his eyes, as if the princesses themselves had praised him.

“Rainbow, Silver, lunch is ready. I made grilled cheese sandwiches.” The two pegasi’s ears perked up as they heard Thunderlane’s voice calling them. Silverwing immediately separated from his mother and hopped off his bed, rushing out of the room.

Rainbow took her time getting off of the bed as she grabbed the scrapbook and put it back on the shelf where it had been earlier. Before heading downstairs, she took one last look at all the merchandise of her that decorated the toddler’s room and sighed. Her son’s words from earlier about how she was the best mother ever echoed in her mind, she only hoped she could live up to his expectations.

--------

When Rainbow made her way to the kitchen and took a seat at the table, she saw that Silverwing was already wolfing down his sandwich, much to Thunderlane’s dismay.

“Slow down son, this isn’t a race,” he advised him, but it mostly went ignored as the young colt only slowed down slightly. Thunderlane sighed and shook his head before turning to his wife and placed her sandwich in front of her.

“Before I forget, there’s someone else who wants to say hello to you.” She gave her husband a curious glance before he dashed off. Her eyes were fixated on the kitchen doorway, eagerly awaiting this surprise guest. After a few seconds, she finally saw a dark gray hoof gently pushing a tortoise into the kitchen. Rainbow’s face lit up when she saw her beloved pet and she bent down to give him eskimo kisses just like she used to.

“Hey there Tank. How’s the most awesomest pet in all of Equestria?” Tank replied by giving one of his trademark slow smiles.

It still felt weird for Rainbow to see her pet without the propeller attached to his shell. Unfortunately, the tortoise had a habit of crashing into things when he wore that propeller, which was quite hazardous when you had a young child around the house. So when Silverwing was born they removed it, another reason she was glad they owned a home on the ground. Although, Thunderlane had once mentioned to her that he would occasionally take Tank out for walks around town and put the propeller back on his shell.

Rainbow was so focused on Tank that she didn’t notice her son had finished eating his lunch until he hopped off his chair and started pulling her hoof again. “Wait till you see how fast I can fly,.”

“Hold on Silver, your mom hasn’t even finished eating lunch yet,” Thunderlane said.

“But I want mommy to see me fly. Can’t she just bring her lunch outside? Silverwing aked.

“No, you’re just going to have be patient. Mommy is going to be here for three months, so you can wait just a few more minutes,” Thunderlane firmly told his son, who responded by pouting.

“It’s OK, I don’t mind skipping lunch to see my son fly if he finished his lunch and did his stretching exercises. You have done your stretching exercises right?” Rainbow asked with a cocked eyebrow in an intimidating manner.

“.....Y-yes,” Silverwing answered with a cracked voice.

“Well that’s good to hear, because if you tried flying without stretching out your muscles you could hurt your wings and then you wouldn’t be able to fly for a long time.” Rainbow could hear her son let out a gulp when she mentioned that last part.

“Well maybe I could do a little more stretching, just so I don’t hurt myself.”

“While you’re doing that, I’m going to finish my sandwich and by the time I’m done you should be done too.” The young colt nodded at his mother’s words and then rushed outside.

“Remember, stay close to the house, don’t wander off,” Thunderlane added before Silverwing could run out the door

Rainbow gave a her husband a victorious smirk and sat back down at the table, finally taking a bite out of her grilled cheese sandwich.

“Interesting method,” Thunderlane said.

“I guesh I have a way wif kidsh,” Rainbow said after taking another bite.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, you don’t want to set a bad example.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at Thunderlane’s teasing but she didn’t respond, focusing on her lunch instead.

After finishing her lunch, Rainbow went to go join her son outside but she stopped once she felt her husband’s hoof tapping her back. He stared at her in silence for a few seconds, as if he was trying to think of what to say to her.

“.....Keep a close eye on him, he tends to think he’s better than he actually is. Make sure he sticks to the basics, nothing advanced,” Thunderlane advised, but Rainbow cocked her eyebrow at this.

“Of course I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything too advanced. Don’t worry, I got this.” Sure, she didn’t have as much parental experience as him but she thought he’d have a little more faith in her than that.

“I know you do, but when he’s flying he seems to forget just how young he is and with you here he might try to do something to impress you. That kid really looks up to you,” Thunderlane said with an apologetic tone, causing Rainbow’s expression to soften.

“I-I noticed he has a lot of my merchandise in his room.” Rainbow did her best not to sound meek or nervous when saying that.

“Yeah, whenever some company makes a new product of you they always send us one for free, so we have all of your merchandise. Although I must admit that we didn’t have room for everything so we have to keep some your stuff in boxes in the attic.” Rainbow felt like her jaw was about to hit the floor. She made a mental note to remember to read through her merchandise contracts a little more carefully for now on.

“Well, I probably shouldn’t keep Silverwing waiting much longer,” As eager as she was to end this conversation, she also didn’t want her son tiring himself out just from stretching.

“Let me take care of these dishes and then I’ll join you two outside.” Thunderlane collected the three plates from the table and placed them in the sink, while Rainbow exited the kitchen.

Before she headed outside, Rainbow made a quick stop to the bathroom to wash her hooves and face. After washing away any remaining traces of her lunch, the cyan mare opened up a nearby cabinet to get a small towel. However, she saw something in there that would have made her do a spit take if she had drank some water.

With shaky hooves she reached up and grabbed a small box labeled ‘The Rainbow Dash home pregnancy test’. The slogan said ‘Guaranteed to be 20% more accurate’ but in the corner of the box, in small text, it read ‘Not an actual guarantee’. She had only said ‘20% cooler’ once during the Wonderbolts show, so she was surprised that this was something her fans kept referencing.

‘I REALLY need to read my merchandise contracts more carefully,’ Rainbow thought to herself with a shudder.

--------

Rainbow found her son just a few feet away from the front stoop, stretching his forelegs out as far as he could. His head shot up as soon as he heard the door opening and closing. “Am I done stretching mommy?”

“Yeah, I’d say you’re done but let’s wait for daddy. I’m sure he’d love to watch you fly too,” Rainbow suggested.

“OK,” Silverwing said with a disappointed sigh.

An awkward silence filled the air while they waited for Thunderlane to join them outside. Eventually Rainbow Dash grew uncomfortable with the silence and tried to start a conversation.

“So, how are you enjoying learning to fly with daddy?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

“It’s fine, but it would be so much cooler if you were teaching me.”

“You may be right, but your dad’s still pretty cool.”

“But he always stops me before I can do any cool moves.”

“Well maybe you’re not ready to do those cool moves yet.” Before Silverwing could respond, the front door opened up again and Thunderlane stepped out, gently nudging Tank out too.

“I’m surprised to see you’re not in the air yet Silver. Unless, you’re so fast that you already finished flying. Aw, that means I missed it,” Thunderlane let out a disappointed groan, but Rainbow could see that he was trying hard not to crack a smile.

“Naw, we didn’t even start yet, we were waiting for you,” Silverwing corrected him, clearly not understanding his dad’s sarcasm.

“Well now that daddy’s here, why don’t you show us how great of a flyer you are.” Rainbow took a seat next to Thunderlane, wrapping a wing around him and pulling him closer to her.

With an eager grin, Silverwing bent down for a few seconds before flapping his wings and pushing himself up, taking flight. Once he was in the air the young colt zipped forward, flying as fast as he could, stopping when he reached the third house on the right and then he turned around and flew in the opposite direction. Once again, he stopped after he passed three more houses and flew back in the direction he was previously flying towards, repeating his process. Every now and then he would perform a loop or dip down and fly at a lower angle before flying upwards again, but most of the time it was like watching a ping pong ball be bounced back and forward. His moves were not original or exciting in the slightest and his speed would be considered average for a foal his age, but nevertheless, his parents cheered for him and clapped their hooves.

“Nice job kid! I’d say that’s enough for today, so you can come down now,” Rainbow called out.

“In a minute,” Silverwing responded when he flew past them.

“Silverwing listen to your mother and get down here,” Thunderlane said with a strict voice.

“I will then daddy, I just want to do one more trick.” The three year old colt flew upwards until his parents could barely see him.

“Silverwing, get down here now! You know you’re not supposed to fly that high!” Thunderlane raised his voice but when he got no response his parents sat up, ready to go after their son. However, before they could take flight they finally saw their son coming down, but he was doing so at an alarming speed. Both parent’s eyes went wide with fear as they realized what he was doing.

“He’s trying to do a sonic rainboom!” Rainbow shouted as her and Thunderlane dashed into the air and blocked his path.

Silverwing tried to stop when he saw that his parents were in his way, but he had enough momentum that he crashed into his mother’s chest. Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed him before he could fall and then slowly lowered herself to the ground, carefully setting her son down. The silver colt stared at the ground, but from what Rainbow could see of his face it contained a mixture of embarrassment and soreness.

“What were you thinking trying to do that sonic rainboom?!” Rainbow exclaimed, sounding and looking angrier than she’d have liked to.

“You told me that if you did the sonic rainboom too often then I’d get bored of it. So I thought that if I did it then I wouldn’t get bored of it,” Silverwing responded with a few tears forming in his eyes.

Rainbow’s expression softened into on of guilt as she looked over to her husband. She expected him to be angry but his cocked eyebrow seemed to be out of confusion rather than indignation.

“Silver we’ve been over this, you have to learn the basics before you can do the kind of moves your mother does,” Thunderlane said with a sigh.

“I could’ve done it,” Silverwing mumbled.

“No, you could’ve hurt yourself. You’ve only just learned how to do loops two weeks ago, you’re not ready to do something like the sonic rainboom,” Thunderlane told him but the colt rolled his eyes at this.

“Your father’s right, you’re not ready to do a sonic rainboom.” Rainbow Dash knelt down so that she could be at eye level with her son while she spoke to him. “Give it some time and some more practice, then I’m sure you’ll be able to do it when you’re older.”

“But you were able to do a sonic rainboom at a young age,” Silverwing pointed out.

“Yeah, but I was still older than you when I first did it so I had a lot more flight practice. Remember how you weren’t able to stop yourself from falling when me and daddy got in your way? If you had trouble with coming to sudden stop, don’t you think you’d also have trouble making that sudden turn upwards to perform the sonic Rainboom?”

Silverwing’s ears drooped down and he looked away from his mother, refusing to answer her. Rainbow placed a forehoof under her son’s chin and gently lifted his head up so he could see the sympathetic expression on her face.

“I know how you feel, you made a mistake by trying to do something you weren’t ready for and you’re so embarrassed by it that you actually feel angry. Trust me, I’ve known that feeling plenty of times, especially when I was around your age,” Rainbow told him in a calm, gentle tone.

“Really?” Silverwing asked with disbelief.

“Sure, I’ve messed up so many of my stunts when I was younger that some of the other foals actually called me Rainbow Crash,” Rainbow admitted with a chuckle. She remembered how irritated she felt whenever somepony called her that, but now that she had accomplished so much she couldn’t help but laugh at those memories.

“We’ve all been through things like that. I can’t even begin to tell you about all my stupid mistakes and most of them were done trying to impress your mother. I remember this one time where we went on a camping trip and I tried to act all tough and macho because I didn’t want to look weak around her. However, acting tough like that only caused me to make even more stupid and embarrassing mistakes. Thankfully your mother didn’t think any less of me and accepted and loved me for who I was, not what I thought I could do,” Thunderlane said to his son as he gave him a comforting pat on the back..

“And he’s not the only one who did something stupid to try and impress me, your aunt Scootaloo did a similar thing on another camping trip. She tried so hard to prove to me how brave she was that she actually tried to stay awake all night so she wouldn’t have nightmares about the scary stories we told around the campfire. Being without sleep for that long caused her to do some stupid things, at one point she even fell down a waterfall, but thankfully yours truly saved her before she could fall to the bottom and hurt herself. After I rescued her, she confessed to me that she was trying to impress me so I’d take her under my wing, is that what you were trying to do too,” Rainbow asked.

“....Maybe a little,” Silverwing shyly admitted. Rainbow used her wing to pull her son closer to her so she could hold him in a small hug.

“You don’t have to do big, fancy tricks to impress me, you’re already an awesome son and I love you,” Rainbow Dash said as she nuzzled the little colt.

“Thanks mommy, I love you too.” Rainbow looked over at her husband who was giving her a proud smile. She knew he probably would have killed to have a camera right now to take a picture of this moment.

“It still would’ve been cool if I could’ve done the sonic rainboom. I really wanted to see it again,” Silverwing sighed but he didn’t sound too disappointed as he was a few minutes ago. Rainbow Dash released the gray colt from her hug and started stretching her legs.

“Yeah it would be cool to see the sonic rainboom over Ponyville, and I did say that it wouldn't’ hurt to do one every once and while…..Keep your eye on the sky.”

Before Silverwing or Thunderlane could say anything, Rainbow Dash was gone in a flash. She flew around several of the neighboring houses as if they were part of some obstacle course. This added a little extra flair and style to her flight but it also served as a bit of a warm-up for her stunt. After that she flew higher in the sky until her husband and son were barely visible and then she made a sharp downward turn.

Rainbow Dash loved the feeling of the wind rushing in her face as she plummeted down towards the ground. This was easily her favorite part of the trick because no matter how many times she did it it always felt exhilarating; it was quite the adrenaline rush. She could already feel herself breaking the sound barrier as a mach cone formed around her and soon enough an explosion of colors filled the sky and a rainbow trail followed her as she flew around the neighborhood.Out the corner of her eye, she could see a look of wonder and astonishment on her son’s face.

Rainbow’s eyes went wide when she suddenly felt this pain in her wings. She tried to ignore it but the pain in her wings only got worse with each flap.

“No, not again, not now,” Rainbow whispered to herself.

She hadn’t been entirely honest with her son about why she was hesitant to do the sonic rainboom when he asked her earlier. Sure, she was concerned that he would tire of it if she did it too frequently, but that wasn’t her only reason. During one of the Wonderbolt’s Summer Tour shows last month, Rainbow’s wings would ache when she finished her routines. She found this odd but she ignored it, figuring that she might have just pulled a muscle and that she just needed to rest. However, this continued to occur whenever she performed one of her signature stunts and the pain grew worse each time it happened.

If she had told Spitfire or Skinflint about it, they probably would have made her take a leave of absence from the team until she got better, so Rainbow kept it to herself. Now that she was forced to take a vacation anyway, maybe she’d have to see a doctor about this.

Her wings started to feel like they were cramping, she had to land now or else she’d crash. Her landing wasn’t as graceful as she’d like, but she still managed to slow herself down just enough to prevent skidding across the ground. Still, it wasn’t entirely easy for her and her legs felt a little sore afterwards, at least she hoped they were sore due to the landing.

Before she had time to muse over this any longer, Rainbow saw her son leaping towards her. He threw his small hooves around her neck, using his wings to keep him afloat.

“That was so awesome!!!” The three-year-old colt shouted. Her son’s admiration made it even easier for Rainbow to ignore her pain.

“Of course it was, I’d never disappoint my greatest fan,” Rainbow said with a smug smile. She looked over to her husband, expecting similar praise from him, but instead she noticed his face portrayed a look of concern.

“Are you feeling all right?” He asked her, but Rainbow quirked her eyebrow, feigning confusion.

“Yeah, why do you ask?”

“Well your landing was kinda sloppy, plus I noticed you weren’t flapping your wings as fast or as strong as you normally do.”

“Don’t worry about that, I guess I’m just a little more tired than I thought. Don’t forget, I did just fly all the way here from the Wonderbolt headquarters.” Rainbow realized just how flimsy her excuse sounded when she saw her husband’s puzzled expression.

The cyan coated mare bit her lip nervously as her mind raced trying to think of a more believable excuse. However, she was offered some relief when she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

“Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash.” The voice grew louder with each call. All three pegasi shifted their heads in the direction of the voice and soon enough, a pink furred and maned mare came bouncing along. Attached to her chest was a baby carrier with a white coated, brown haired filly, happily giggling as his mother bounced towards her friends. Rainbow thought the baby attached to her chest was the only reason her hyperactive friend didn’t pull her into a bone-crushing hug.

“Aunt Pinkie!” Silverwing cheered, letting go of his mother’s neck as he rushed to the pink mare, hugging her legs. Pinkie smiled down at the little colt and gave him a pat on the back. If it had been any other pony that her son had shown this much admiration and excitement for than Rainbow might have felt jealous, but Pinkie was considered a friend to all children.

“Aunt Pinkie, mommy’s back!

“I saw, it’s so exciting! As soon as I saw the sonic rainboom I knew one of the coolest mares in all of Equestria was back in Ponyville,” Pinkie said with great enthusiasm, with Rainbow slightly blushing at her friend’s praise.

“Hey Pinkie Pie! I’m happy to see you again too, and this must be Confetti. Your mom told me a lot about you in her letters.” Rainbow gently rubbed the baby’s chin, causing her to gurgle. “How old is she?”

“She’s eight months old. Isn’t that right my sweet little cupcake? “ The baby cooed in response before Pinkie turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. ” I’m happy you finally get to meet her, I didn’t think you’d get to see her until our Hearth’s Warming Day party. Speaking of, when did you get back and why didn’t you tell me?” Pinkie asked.

“Well the Wonderbolts finally got back from their summer tour yesterday but they told me I had three months of vacation time saved up that I had to use. I just got back home about an hour ago,” Rainbow answered, bracing herself for Pinkie’s over the top reaction. The party mare’s eyes grew three times as big as she let out a long, drawn-out gasp, and after that she had a smile so big her face trembled.

“This will be the best three months ever, It’ll be just like old times! Come on, we’ve got to go tell the girls about this.”

“Sorry Pinkie, I’m anxious to see the girls again too, but I’m planning on spending today with my family.” Rainbow was expecting Pinkie’s mane to deflate and for her to go into another one of her depressed states. That’s why she was surprised to see that she had the same cheerful grin she almost always had.

“That’s all right, I understand, but we definitely have to get together sometime soon. Maybe the six of us could meet for breakfast tomorrow at Morrow’s diner.” Silverwing’s eye’s lit up and his tail started wagging, showing that he agreed with Pinkie Pie’s suggestion.

“That sounds nice, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that place,” Rainbow said.

“Really!? They have some of the best food ever!” Silverwing reacted the same way Rainbow might have if she heard that some pony didn’t know who the Wonderbolts were.

“It’s actually mine and Silverwing’s favorite place to eat. I could show you where it is,” Thunderlane said.

“Can we have breakfast there too, daddy?” Silverwing asked, his tail wagging in excitement.

“Sorry son, but this breakfast is just for your mom and her friends.” Thunderlane told him and he responded with a dejected groan and a drooped down head. Rainbow hated seeing her son feeling this down, but thankfully she thought of an idea.

“You guys could always sit at a different table if you really want to go,” Rainbow suggested, with Pinkie nodding in agreement.

“Can we daddy? Please,” Silverwing begged with doe eyes.

“Well if it’s all right with your mother than I don’t see why not,” After receiving his father’s approval, Silverwing let out a big “yes” as he hopped into the air fluttering his wings.

“How does 9 a.m. sound?” Pinkie asked.

“9 a.m. tomorrow sounds great. I can’t wait to see you all again,” Rainbow said.

“Can Aunt Pinkie stay and play ball with me and mommy?” Silverwing asked after coming back down to the ground.

“I’d love to little guy, but I really should go tell the rest of our friends about our breakfast tomorrow, then I gotta put Confetti down for her nap,” Pinkie gestured to her daughter who was already starting to doze off. “That does sound like fun though, we’ll have to do that some other time.”

The pegasi family waved goodbye to the pink mare until she was out of their sight. Rainbow could see that her son was trying hard not to look gloomy over his Aunt Pinkie leaving so soon.

“I’d still like to play ball with you, if that’s what you want.” Just as Rainbow expected, Silverwing’s face lit up at her invitation.

“My ball is in the backyard, race ya to it,” Silverwing said, kneeling down into a sprinting position.

“You’re on kid,” she replied with a competitive smirk, and with that the two pegasi were off. Of course, Rainbow knew she had to let her son win but that still didn’t ruin her fun, which came as a slight surprise to her.

“Hey, wait for me,” Thunderlane called out, joyfully chasing after his wife and son, leaving Tank behind. The tortoise barely lifted his right foreleg, in a typical slow tortoise fashion, before the dark gray pegasus came rushing back, scooping him up in his hooves and carrying him out to the backyard so he could be with the rest of the family.

--------

“So the mean grumpy bear turned into a nice happy bear and he shared all of his jars of honey with the rest of the animals in the forest. The end,” Rainbow Dash gently closed the storybook her son had asked her to read before going to bed. Silverwing was snuggled comfy in bed with a weary smile on his face.

“I love that story,” Silverwing yawned.

“It was no Daring Do, but it had it’s moments.” What Rainbow had found most humorous was that Thunderlane actually bought him a book where the main character was a bear. Her husband had a fear of bears ever since their camping trip a few years ago.

“I have a lot of other cool books, I have one book about this big dog and one about a fish that looks just like your mane. I even have one with a turtle that actually races a bunny. You should read those.”

“I think one story is enough for tonight, but don’t forget, I’m here for the next three months so there will be plenty of time to read you those stories.”

“Mommy, I’m really happy you’re home.” Silverwing finally shut his eyes, missing his mother’s hearty smile.

“Yeah, me too. Sleep tight.” Rainbow gave her son a quick kiss on the forehead and pulled his covers up. She turned off the light on her way out, but not before taking one last glance at her sleeping son.

Rainbow slowly opened up her bedroom door, just in case Thunderlane was already asleep. Instead, she found him wide awake laying under the covers, waiting for her with a seductive grin as he patted the empty half of the bed. The cyan mare put on her own seductive look to match her husband’s and she slowly trotted over to their bed, crawling under the covers.

The pegasi couple wasted no time throwing their hooves around each other and pressing their lips together for a passionate kiss. His hooves roamed along her back while hers were wrapped tightly around his neck. Thunderlane suddenly broke their kiss only to place several smaller kisses on her neck. Rainbow let out a soft moan as she lifted her head, giving her husband easier access.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Thunderlane said softly between kisses. He placed one more kiss on the nape of her neck before moving up to her ear. Rainbow was forced to hold in a loud squeal that might have gotten Silverwing’s attention when she felt her husband lightly nibbling on her ear.

“I love you Dashie,” he whispered in her ear. He was about to kiss her again but he was suddenly pushed away by his wife, who was giving him an annoyed glare.

“I told you not to call me that, you know how much I hate that nickname. The worst part is that I can’t even think of some cute nickname to give to you as payback,” Rainbow Dash pouted.

“I always liked it whenever you called me Thunder, it makes me feel strong and proud,” Thunderlane commented with a puffed out chest.

“I don’t think you understand the point of payback. If it makes you feel strong and proud then it isn’t embarrassing, and it certainly isn’t cute,”

“I don’t know I always thought it was cute when you said ‘Oh Thunder you’re so big, you always make me feel so good,” Thunderlane did his best to mimic his wife’s voice, which Rainbow playfully rolled her eyes at.

“Remind me again why I married somepony as immature as you?” Rainbow jokingly asked.

“Hey, I’m more mature than you and who else is going to take care of Silverwing,” Thunderlane chuckled, but he stopped immediately once he noticed his wife’s smile fading.

“That’s true isn’t it?” Rainbow asked with a somber voice. Thunderlane’s ears flopped down and he placed a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

“No, it’s not true at all. I was just trying to be funny, but I guess I just ended up being stupid,” he said as he gave the back of his head an uneasy rub.

“It is true, I don’t know the first thing about being a mom. Every time I visited home, including today, I kinda bluffed my way through it and look what happened. You warned me that he might try to do something dangerous that he wasn’t ready for, but I ignored it and because of that our son could have gotten hurt, maybe even killed.” Rainbow’s voice choked up a little from trying to hold back her tears. Thunderlane pulled his wife into a tight hug and softly caressed her face with his muzzle.

“That didn’t happen because you were smart enough to realize what he was doing and fast enough to stop him. I know you tend to second guess yourself whenever you feel intimidated, but you also seem to be forgetting that you don’t have to do this alone. You’ll always be able to look to me for help and guidance, we’ll be a team again just like when we were both Wonderbolts.” His words felt a little corny to her, but they still managed to bring her smile back.

“And just like when you were a Wonderbolt, there’s no pony I’d rather have on my team than you,” she said as she tucked her head underneath his neck, nuzzling him.

“I wouldn’t want any other pony but you either. You’ll feel better about this after a good night’s sleep.” Thunderlane released her from his embrace so he could turn off the lights. Rainbow decided to take her husband’s advice and laid her head down on a pillow, shutting her eyes.

“So what happened to you after you did the sonic rainboom earlier?” Rainbow’s mind went into panic mode as soon as he asked her that. She knew it was probably a good idea to tell him about the pain she had been feeling after doing her stunts, and he’d probably know what to say to make her feel better, but she just couldn’t bring herself to tell him, not yet at least. Instead she started snoring to make it look like she had already fallen asleep.

She felt a pair of hooves wrap around her again and pull her closer and then a warm, gentle kiss being placed on her forehead, followed by a soft voice whispering “I love you”. She really wanted to respond with an ‘I love you too’, but then he would know that she wasn’t really sleeping.

However, as she laid there in her husband’s arms, Rainbow Dash realized that she was far more comfortable now than she ever was in any of the hotel beds or her bed at the Wonderbolt’s suite. She could even feel herself dozing off, unlike how she would normally toss and turn throughout the night until she finally fell asleep. She began to wonder about this, but didn’t get far into this query before sleep finally claimed her.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

That was soo Sweet! Thanks for the update. I love it. I'm glad the love is on and Rainbow spent a day with her family. Thanks for a wonderful story. I can't wait for the next chapter.

[Evil_Gumbo27]

That was cirtainly interesting... Not what i expected, but i mean that in a good way. I hope that rainbow gets a little bit more comfortable with the whole "living with a family" thing.

Again you have succeded in coming out with another great chapter!

[moguera]

With shaky hooves she reached up and grabbed a small box labeled ‘The Rainbow Dash home pregnancy test’. The slogan said ‘Guaranteed to be 20% more accurate’ but in the corner of the box, in small text, it read ‘Not an actual guarantee’.

Why would Thunderlane have a home pregnancy test?
Is there something he's not telling anypony?

[ACTASAP]

6345709 Thunderlane mentions in this chapter that whenever new Rainbow Dash merchandise comes out the companies always send them a free one.

“Yeah, whenever some company makes a new product of you they always send us one for free, so we have all of your merchandise.