The stars blanketed the night’s sky, and with the absence of light pollution, the night sky didn’t have the familiar black color but looked dark blue. Twilight was lying on the ground and just looked at the sky. “So is that why it’s called the Milky Way, Mommy?” came a voice from a young girl, about 5 years old. The girl had purple eyes like her and had two streaks in her hair, one of them being pink, also like Twilight, but her hair was blue, and the other streak was light blue. Another difference between her and Twilight was her skin tone. Her’s was yellow-orange in contrast to Twilight. The two turned to face each other. Twilight nodded in silence and kissed the girl’s forehead. The girl giggled, happy with herself, as did Twilight. The two stopped after a second and they both took a relaxing breath. After a while, the girl started to frown as she was in thought. She then looked to Twilight, “Mommy, when will daddy be coming home?” she asked.
Twilight could only sigh at first as she thought on the absence of her daughter’s father, “I don’t know, Starburst.” Twilight wanted to say more, but how does one explain the life of an active duty soldier to a child that understands only that their parent, in Starburst's case, her father, is not there? Ultimately, she elected to say what she knew, “Your father’s unit was scheduled to return the day after tomorrow, but there was some unforeseen issue.” Twilight stopped as she noticed a tear starting to form in the corner of Starburst's eye. She placed her hands, palm up, under Starburst's chin and used her thumbs to wipe the tear away, “But your father will do whatever it takes to be here for your birthday.”
Starburst smiled at that and hugged her mother. After a second, Starburst ended the hug and looked up to Twilight, “And after it, daddy will be staying home and you’ll marry him?” Starburst asked innocently.
Twilight was taken aback at what Starburst just asked, not that the father would no longer be active duty, his conscription was up already, but that Starburst thought her parents weren’t married, “Why would you think that Flash and I aren't married?” Twilight asked as she tried to fathom what Starburst was thinking and how.
Starburst looked away from her mother and to the ground, “All the other kids with two parents have both living with them and those that don't, their mommies and daddies aren't married, and Daddy doesn't live with us…” she trailed off and started to present a sad frown.
Twilight shook her head and pulled Starburst into another hug and rubbed the top of Starburst’s head. “Oh my precious little one, that's not how that particular reasoning works. Here's an example of how it does work, ‘All rabbits have fur, Angel Bunny is a rabbit, therefore he has fur.’”
The two looked up to the sky again looked at the stars and to the full moon that shone brightly. “Thanks, mommy,” Starburst whispered as she nuzzled her head into her mother’s chest as she yielded to sleep.
Twilight could only smile at her daughter and held her tightly, “At least, I’ll have something to remember his face,” Twilight whispered to herself.
“As long as you love me.” came a tenor voice from behind Twilight, likely two to three meters away. Twilight got to her feet and turned, with Starburst’s head resting on her shoulder to see Flash, but he was not in his military uniform but in his civilian wear, his signature leather jacket and denim jeans. Next to his feet were his duffle bags for his last tour of duty. Twilight and Flash shared a smile as Flash walked up to Twilight and Starburst. Twilight was about to wake Starburst, but Flash shook his head as he held his hands out. Twilight then placed Starburst into Flash’s arms.
Flash smiled and kiss Starburst’s cheek after he accepted his daughter into his arms. He held her to his chest with left arm as he reached out towards Twilight and cupped her chin in the palm of his right hand, he hummed a soft tone before he started to sing softly, “Although loneliness has always been a friend of mine
I'm leavin' my life in your hands” Flash nodded towards the sleeping Starburst as he sang the word ‘life’ and he stopped singing.
Twilight laughed a little and teared up, “Must you always use those old songs.”
Flash winked and chuckled as he stepped closer to Twilight, “People say I'm crazy and that I am blind
Risking it all in a glance
And how you got me blind is still a mystery
I can't get you out of my head
Don't care what is written in your history
As long as you're here with me” he sang as he fully embraced Twilight. After a few seconds of silent embrace, “I know I am early, I got honorably discharged and I wanted to surprise you both.”
Twilight shook her head with a smile on her lips. “You could have just waited until Starburst and I got home.” Flash could only laugh as he returned Starburst to Twilight, as he picked up his bags. “Let’s go home,” Twilight said as she rolled her eyes/
Flash smirked as he placed his left hand on Twilight’s chest aligned with her heart, “I never left, my heart is right where I left it.” Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head before they left the field towards their cars, or so Twilight thought until she saw that her car was the only one there. “You asked someone to drop you off here.” Twilight didn’t ask but stated as she opened the car’s trunk and Flash had a small laugh as he put his bags into the trunk as Twilight put Starburst into her car seat. The drive home was silent. Even though Twilight had so many questions, so much she wanted to know, she saw the dark circles under Flash’s eyes; he clearly had not slept well or at all for the last couple of nights at least, and Twilight wanted Starburst to be awake and interact with her father. After about a half hour drive back into Canterlot or rather the outskirts, they arrived at their home, a shockingly conservative house from the exterior, but everyone that lived there knew of the lab that was twice as big as the rest of the house, located in the basement. Attached to the house was tree shaped building, ‘The Golden Oak Private Library’. However, given the hour, the couple took their things and their daughter into their house.
About half an hour later, Starburst was tucked into her bed, and Twilight had also gone to bed. Flash, however, could not sleep, this didn’t go unnoticed by Twilight as she woke and found him pacing in their home. “Flash, you need to rest,” Twilight said as she walked up to and hugged Flash.
Flash sighed, “Yeah,” he said as he hugged Twilight. “You go on, I’ll be there shortly,” he said. Twilight could tell Flash was not being fully open with her, but she knew that tonight was not the time to question it. Reluctantly, she left and returned to bed.
About an hour later she steered from her sleep and noticed Flash was not in their bed. She groaned and left, she was going to chew that idiot’s ear off and throw him out. However, as she exited her room, she noticed that the door to Starburst’s room was ajar. She opened it and saw Flash sound asleep in a seated position at the side of Starburst’s bed, next to the head of it. His left arm out and holding his daughter’s hand tenderly in his hand.
Twilight smiled as she started to tear up with joy, “As long as you love me.” she whispered sang to herself as she walked up to her slumbering husband, “I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you did, as long as you love me.” She kissed his head and left the room.
Author's Note
A short little one short for FlashLight 2018.
Open to actually making a full story around this, depending on the reception.
Foxhelm, out