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Will You Keep My Secret?

by xCobaltRainx

Chapter 3: The Sleep-Over

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Chapter Three
The Sleep-Over

A blood-red sky streaked with small, distant wisps of cloud hung over the land. One the edge of a field, next to a path, two pegasi held each other in a tight embrace. Rainbow Dash looked up from burying her face in Scootaloo's purple mane and saw Celestia's sun beginning to set. She let loose a deep yawn and stared at the horizon. The filly in her arms had long since stopped crying and was now breathing softly, albeit shakily. Dash gave one more stroke on the purple mane and spoke.

"Feel a little better?" she asked. After a moment the mare felt Scootaloo nod under her chin. "Well kiddo, it's gettin' pretty late, I'm gonna call it a day. We'll pick this up where we left off tomorrow when you've had a chance to sleep on it, okay?" The cyan mare mussed the filly's purple mane again.

The two retracted their limbs from their hug, and the filly began to depart. "Alright, I'll think about it tonight." She paused for a moment to sniff. "Thanks for the flight lesson Rainbow Dash. See ya." Scootaloo then grabbed her helmet, donned it, and hopped onto her scooter. She was about to start going when Dash placed a hoof on the front end of it. It was obvious with the way she held there that she was not about to make the mistake again.

"Hey before you go, I have a question," started Dash. Scootaloo looked up with tacit inquiry. "I was just wondering, do you have to ask for permission from one of the matrons to have a sleep-over or something at somepony else's house?" asked Dash, having a little fun with her proposition.

"Uh…normally, yeah, but they sort of make an exception with me. I have sleepovers with the other Crusaders like every other day, so I guess they kinda just got used to me not showing up for curfew." Scootaloo pondered Dash's motives for her question. "Why do you ask?"

The smile on Dash's face only grew larger, hurting a bit as it went. "Well in that case, why don't you come and stay with me tonight?" asked Dash. "That way you can decide and tell me what it is you want to do as soon as possible. If you pick flight, I'd need to put a training regimen together. It's been a while since I've made one, so I might need some time."

"R-Really? A s-sleep-over at…at y-your house!?" asked Scootaloo. She supposed she should just get used to Rainbow Dash doing this sort of thing; she would only be continually amazed by this willingness to get closer.

"Sure, it'd be fun! All I have is Tank to keep me company, so it'd be a nice to have somepony else in my house for a change." Dash smiled as she thought of another way to test the young pegasus. "Why don't we race there? It's just a straight shot that way." She raised a hoof and pointed in the direction of her house.

Scootaloo put on a challenging smile and got into her starting position. Dash got into hers, then gave a quick look at the primed pegasus next to her. All vestiges of her sadness had been shed and replaced with playful determination. On the count of three, the two were off. Again, Dash severely underestimated the filly's wing power, and was soon literally left in the dust. The gush of wind from the filly's starting beats had knocked Dash onto the ground. That was definitely something Scootaloo needs to learn to control. Dash promptly got up and took off after her.

Scootaloo might be fast, but Rainbow Dash was much faster, rapidly closing the distance between the two. She could see her floating house in the distance, and quickened the pace. Scootaloo saw it too, and did the same.

Dash closed in on the speeding orange bullet, but made sure not to pass her too quickly; she didn't want to show her up. But then again, Dash didn't want to lose. As the two racing pegasi were almost to the cloud home, Dash tackled Scootaloo off of her scooter, forcing the two to land in a pile with the blue scooter off to the side.

They were both completely out of breath, so it was a mystery as to how they were both laughing and giggling the way they were. They got up off of each other and dusted themselves off. The two walked to a nearby tree, set the scooter up against it, and hung the purple helmet on the handlebars. As they were re-approaching the house, the mare grabbed her companion and shot up to her front porch.

Dash was about to set the filly down when she latched onto the cyan mare's neck. "Wait, Rainbow Dash! I can't fly!" exclaimed Scootaloo, hooves wrapped around and held together on the mare's nape. Rainbow Dash pried her off and set her down. To Scootaloo's surprise, she stayed on the cloud. It was a strange feeling, something she'd never felt before. The cloud underneath her hooves gave a little, but stayed firm. She tested the cloud a bit and found that it was a bit springy.

"Just because you can't fly doesn't mean you aren't a pegasus. Do you think newborn pegasi that can't fly need to be held all the time?" joked Dash, taking Scootaloo's concern lightly. The younger filly giggled and smiled as she took her first actual step forward on a cloud.

"This is amazing! It's like walking on a super bouncy bed!" exclaimed Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash giggled at her friend's elation as she passed by.

"Yeah, I've kinda gotten used to it, so I don't really notice how awesome clouds are to live on anymore," said Dash, walking to the front door and opening it. She looked back to find that Scootaloo was absentmindedly bouncing on the cloud beneath her, a distant look in her eye. Dash whistled sharply, which snapped the filly out of her trance. Scootaloo giggled sheepishly and followed the mare through the door.

The two entered the house to find what looked like the site of an explosion.

Entire chunks of cloud were missing from nearly every wall. One of the drapes was half chewed away, and the other was completely gone. What looked like a couch cut in half was on its side against the wall, with another clump of cloud in the form of the missing half stuck to the ceiling. The countertops were mushed to the floor, and a lame excuse for a coffee table looked like it was close to collapsing. An innocent-looking, lone green rock lied in the corner, completely oblivious to the world.

"TAAAANK!" yelled Dash, her eyes ablaze "What did you do?! I just barely fixed all of this last week when you tore it up!" The cyan mare walked over to the green rock that now had a head poking out one of the holes and picked it up. "Ugh, what am I going to do with you?"

Scootaloo snickered, barely able to contain a fit of the giggles.

"What's so funny?" asked Dash, eyeing the filly with a challenging gaze.

"Nothing it's just…" started Scootaloo, barely able to enunciate her words. "It's just that you're talking to a turtle that messed up your house!"

"He's a tortoise," grumbled Dash. However, she couldn't keep her passiveness up forever. The mare soon fell victim to the contagious laughter. After a few minutes of the two cackling uncontrollably, the mare finally straightened up enough to form a few sentences.

"Just shut up and help me clean up this mess, okay?" said Dash. Scootaloo straightened up with a salute. The two chortled for a few seconds more before beginning their clean-up of the ransacked living room.

After a few minutes of "Where does this go?", "Where did that go?", and "What did that used to be?" the two were finished. Dash jocularly shot Tank a death glare that set the two pegasi off again. The tortoise simply blinked; seemingly unaware of anything that happened around him as usual.

"Alright, now that we have my house sorted, how about I go grab some pizza? You okay with keeping Tank company for a few minutes?" asked Dash, walking to her front door.

"I want extra cheese on my pizza!" replied Scootaloo who had climbed up on top of Tank's shell and was riding him around.

Dash giggled again at the sight, and bid farewell. She closed the front door, leaving the pony and the tortoise alone. Scootaloo decided to go for her own tour of her idol's house. She knew she shouldn't be snooping around, but she was curious and bored.

She returned to the living room after wandering about for a few minutes to find Tank in exactly the same position he was in when she left. He blinked his eyes at her, and she rolled her eyes at him. She went back to sitting on the newly formed couch and put together a mental map of Rainbow Dash's house.

After surveying the home, she was surprised to find that, while the outside of Rainbow Dash's house was quite extravagant, the inside was simple, and looked as though it was nothing more than an ordinary one bedroom apartment.

At that moment the smell of freshly baked pizza wafted in from seemingly all directions. Rainbow Dash burst through the door and struck one of her signature poses.

"Dinner is served!" proclaimed Dash, setting the single cardboard box of pizza on the coffee table and opening it "Hope Tank wasn't too much trouble," she joked, plopping down on the couch next to Scootaloo.

"Not really, in fact he barely moved," said Scootaloo with a chuckle, grabbing a slice of pizza. The two chewed in silence for the next few minutes. After almost finishing the crust of her slice, Scootaloo turned to Dash who was finishing up her second.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash?" asked Scootaloo.

"Hrmm?" responded Dash, her mouth filled with the last bit of her second slice. She chewed a few more times before she swallowed. "What is it?"

"Uhmm, I just wanted to say…" now it was time for Scootaloo to be touchy-feely. "I just wanted to say…thank you. Thank you for being like my big sister"

Rainbow Dash's eyes perked as she was perplexed by the "tough" filly's affection. Before this moment, Dash was feeling a slight pang of dread as she kept reminding herself that she'd have to foalsit this pony. But after Scootaloo's words of gratitude, Dash's outlook on the rest of the night seemed to shift from regret to anticipation. If you told her that a simple orange filly she only really knew for a week and a half could impact her mood like that, she might have laughed like you had told the funniest joke she'd ever hear. But now she looked upon the little ball of orange fur she could call a sister and smiled.

She reached over with her wing and pulled Scootaloo in close. "Don't mention it, Squirt." Scootaloo leaned in and wrapped her arms around the mare's waist, sighing softly. Dash returned the gesture by curling her wing around the filly. They held this embrace for a few moments before releasing each other. Once they pulled apart, Scootaloo popped the last bite of her pizza in her mouth.

Dash yawned as she reached over and closed the box. She then scooped it up, carried it over to her cloud-powered refrigerator, and stuffed it inside. "Well, Scoot, Whaddya wanna do? We have another couple of hours before bed-time," said Dash as she strolled back to the filly.

"I dunno, what is there to do?" she replied.

"Well, I have a few board games if you're interested."

"Sure, I like board games. What do you have?"

"Okay, let's see. I have Sugarland, Scraddle, Monopony..."

"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna play Monopony!" said Scootaloo as she jumped up and down with her wings buzzing.

"You sure? I mean Sugarland might be better for a filly your age. Monopony is hard to get a hoof on."

"Blech..." said Scootaloo as she stuck her tongue out, "Sugarland is for babies. Besides, I love playing Monopony!"

"Alright then..." Dash said as she turned to her closet in the hallway. She rummaged around inside before pulling out the correct box. A top-hatted and mustachioed pony was sticking out of the "O" in the middle of the "Monopony" title with his hooves outstretched. Dash chuckled to herself as she thought about how badly she was going to beat Scootaloo at this game. A pony Scootaloo's age has no chance at winning against a pony of Dash's age...right?

After the mare set the whole game up, she began rummaging through the small bag full of silver pieces for her favorite one. Once she came up empty, Dash spoke up. "Hey, where's the horseshoe? I'm always the horseshoe."

"I uh uh." Scootaloo sounded. Dash looked up to find the horseshoe firmly clamped in Scootaloo's teeth. The filly dropped the silver piece into her hoof. "Not fast enough!"

Dash squinted her eyes at the smirking orange pony. Bubbling rage seethed out between her grinding teeth. "Are you kidding me? I set this game up that you picked to play and you cheat at getting my piece!? For the love of..." Dash cut herself off before she swore at the foal. She was definitely too young to hear such language. She looked down at the stupid greenish board and clenched her jaw for a moment to calm herself.

From the corner of Dash's vision she saw a glinting piece of silver held in a small orange hoof push its way through her aura of anger. Scootaloo was stretching the piece out to offer it to Dash. The cyan mare slowly put her hoof out to accept the game piece.

"Sorry," mumbled Scootaloo. The filly looked away after relinquishing the piece. Her stomach clenched as she feared getting kicked back out onto the porch. She regretted ever fooling this pony, for ever even asking about a possible sisterhood.

After a moment of the filly's sniffling, Dash gave up. "Damnit, Rainbow," she thought. Before she even realized it, Dash felt herself release the horseshoe, and subsequently heard the patting sound of the piece tumble across the board. The young pony looked back at her elder with a somber expression. "Here," started Dash, "you can use it. I'll just be the wheelbarrow." Dash admitted a soft smile that soon spread to her companion.

The feeling of relief washed over Scootaloo's mind and trickled down her body to calm the churning in her gut. "Thanks," she was finally able to say. "Sorry if I upset you." Scootaloo sheepishly rubbed her shoulder and turned away.

"You're fine," Dash dismissed. "I guess I'm just not used to having somepony else around." After a moment of thought, Dash scrunched her face into anger again. However, this time it was directed towards herself. "You okay?" she said to Scootaloo's cheek.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Scootaloo replied.

Dash humphed and continued. "Alright then, let the games begin!"

Though Scootaloo tried to not express herself, she was unable to resist the contagious cheer. A few giggles escaped her lips as she turned back towards the board.

The next few hours played out in friendly, heated battle with mock bitterness. Dash quickly gained the lead by frivolously purchasing every property she landed on, but as soon as she was out of money she had to resort to hoping that Scootaloo would land on one of her owned spaces. Eventually though, Dash was outplayed and bankrupt after she landed on a double-stabled Boardwalk for the second time. She was baffled at her loss, but she realized in hindsight that she should have seen this coming when Scootaloo was able to take on the role of the banker. She was about to erupt in anger when she handed over her last few plastic, multicolored bits, but after finding such joy on Scootaloo's face the mare's anger oddly dissipated and she fell prey to the filly's infections smile.

After settling down and putting the game away, the two sat down on the couch. Scootaloo seemed to gravitate towards Dash and leaned her head on the cyan shoulder. The mare actually started to like the pressure there. She could feel the filly's0 small heartbeat; it was slow and calm.

"Whelp, Scoots," she began, "it's gettin' even more late. You have a lot to think about tonight, and you have school tomorrow, so it'd be a good idea to get some shut-eye. D'ja get enough to eat?" The mare got back down onto her hooves.

Scootaloo nodded and followed Dash off the couch. After leading a short distance, Dash turned her head back to the filly. "Since I don't have a guest room or anything, you're gonna have to crash with me in my bed, that okay?"

Scootaloo nodded and followed the pegasus into the bedroom. Luckily the door was closed, so Tank wasn't able to tear it apart. Dash hopped up onto her bed and motioned for Scootaloo to join her. The young filly played it cool on the outside, but on the inside her mind exploded with elation. She was actually going to sleep in the Rainbow Dash's bed!

If a week and a half ago you would have told Scootaloo that she was going to have a sleep-over at her idol's house, she would have laughed like you had told her the funniest joke she'd ever hear. Yet there she was settling in under Dash's covers. Soon though, the rush subsided and she let herself sink into the pillowy bed. "Goodnight, Rainbow Dash," sighed Scootaloo, already asleep as the last few words floated out between her lips.

"Goodnight, Scootaloo," responded Dash who reached over and stroked Scootaloo's mane. Rainbow Dash silently hoped the filly would pick flight; she really wanted a flying buddy. The mare dug herself into the cloud mattress, then drifted off to sleep.

Author's Notes:

I know RD doesn't exactly have these parental instincts, but she's really just repeating what Rarity and Applejack taught her. Just be compassionate, understanding, and have a good laugh once in a while. And if you're wondering how Tank is staying on the cloud, please understand that Twilight knows a spell, AND has been improving her skill ever since the episode she used it. She can probably make it permanent for a creature as simple as a tortoise. Anyway, that's just my thinking. How else would RD be able to keep her pet? Leave him at Fluttershy's house? I don't think so. Magic.

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