Luster Dawn loved when her Papa and Daddy told her stories. They always took her to faraway lands filled with knights and princesses and happily ever afters, adventures beyond her wildest dreams! She was old enough now that she could read some of those stories on her own, but she always liked how Papa and Daddy told them a lot better.
 
The little filly was itching for a story now as she bounded around her Papa’s hooves.
 
“Papa! Papa! Read me a story!”
 
Sunburst had to admit he was tired from a long day of research, so his daughter’s glee was a welcome change from the dreariness of textbooks and academic jargon. So he made his way over to her bookshelf so she could choose something fun.
 
“Alright, I give in! Which one do you want? You’ve read all of them already, haven’t you?”
 
“Yeah, but I wanna read them again! I want…”
 
She scanned the shelf before setting her sights on a blue one perched at the top.
 
“That one!”
 
“Of course, your favorite!”
 
Sunburst used his magic to bring it down, settling down next to Luster.
 
“Story time!”
 
He called out loud enough for his husband to hear.
 
The moment he heard his husband call for him Flash flew down in…well a flash! He was almost more excited than their baby daughter.
 
Spending time with his family was his favorite part of the day, story time especially. It was the chance to show off to his husband and daughter.
 
Tell them all about how radical their Flash Sentry was.
 
Not to mention it gave him a warm fuzzy feeling in his face when he was able to make Sunburst laugh and in his heart when he could make Luster smile.
 
“What’s it today? Oooh I see, good ol’ reliable!”
 
He sat behind his daughter, both of them beaming the same childish goofy smile up at Sunburst.
 
With a flash of his horn Sunburst opened the book, his expression as animated as ever as he read:
 
“Once upon a time there lived a great magician named Starry Eyes, the greatest in the land. Everypony from the littlest foals to the mightiest monarchs revered her, for she had a spell for just about anything. Until…”
 
“Until what, Papa?”
 
Luster piped up eagerly.
 
Flash took the place of his husband faster than a pony could say “arson,” wanting to put his own trademark twist on the little filly’s tale.
 
The moment he began speaking Luster looked up at him with gleeful anticipation.
 
“Until somepony threw a Molotov cocktail at the unicorn king’s guard! The firey blast was like a dragon’s breath, hot enough to melt gold! It was as bright as your sunny mane, Kitten!”
 
He grabbed his daughter from behind and flapped his wings like a hummingbird, hovering her in the air carefully.
 
“Like Celestia’s sun, Daddy!”
 
She kicked her legs around, loving the feeling of her hooves off the ground.
 
Sunburst couldn’t help but chuckle at his husband’s improvisation, he was so adorable when he got excited like this. His eyes lit right up in a way that never failed to make him smile. Even better, it made their little girl happy too. So he played along.
 
“Which left Starry Eyes with a new problem: putting out the fire! You see, this was before they had firefighters, and the nearest river was miles away. It was up to her to find a spell, and fast!”
 
He looked to his husband who was practically bursting with another action-packed idea.
 
“So what did she do?”
 
Resisting the urge to say “started an even bigger fire,” Flash turned Luster around in his arms and began flying up higher.
 
Then he began dancing with her in the air, spinning a tangled web of adventure with his words almost as exciting as the adrenaline rush a pony got from being higher than she was supposed to.
 
“She used her magic to remove all the guards’ armor as they rushed to safety, using the intense heat from the fire to melt it down to liquid silver!”
 
Luster clung to her father for dear life, trusting him to keep her safe but still very nervous.
 
“L-like Starry’s eyes!”
 
“Exactly!”
 
He began lowering them both down as he was keen to his foal’s well being.
 
“Then she used her magic to cool it down as fast as she could. That’s possible, right Sunburst?”
 
“It’s impossible for most unicorns today, especially given the stakes, but it was nothing Starry couldn’t handle! It turned out the cooling spell was enough to put out the fire before anypony got hurt. Once again, the day was saved!”
 
Sunburst closed the book with a satisfied grin.
 
“Whoa!”
 
Luster’s eyes widened with awe. Her parents always knew how to make these stories super exciting and they never failed up with something even cooler! Her imaginative little mind wanted more.
 
“Tell me another story!”
 
Her Papa ruffled her hair.
 
“We can’t have all the fun in one night! No doubt we’ll have another story for you tomorrow.”
 
He winked at Flash.
 
“We never run out of ideas.”