Shining Armor stared with his chin in his hoof as he watched the filly, slight frown settled firmly onto his face.

It just wasn’t fair.

Just because his parents couldn’t find a foalsitter, that meant that he had to stay inside on a weekend. The sun was out and shining, the weather was pleasant, the birds were chirping. He had friends to see and things to do, and none of that would be happening because his little sister couldn’t take care of herself.

“What’cha thinking about, Shiny?” Twilight bumped his nose with her own, curiously standing before him. He furrowed his brows a little, easing backward.

“Only missed opportunity and wasted time,” he sighed with a little groan, shoulders sagging. “I thought you were reading?”

“I ran out of picture books again,” the violet filly pushed the stack of brightly colored cardboard books to the couch, using them as a makeshift stepstool to hop up next to him. “Will you read to me?”

“Don’t you want to take a nice nap instead? I thought you just said that you already read those?” Shining frowned even more deeply at the little stack of books as it slowly toppled. He imagined a miniature explosion sound as they landed.

At least it was something to make such a boring day a little less dull.

“I want another one!” Twilight shifted, and watched as her elder brother closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He let out another long sigh, slowly massaging his head as he thought.

He only had to keep her entertained for a few more hours. Maybe there were some old books in a box somewhere?

He was lost in thought when he finally realized that Twilight was poking him in the face.

Her hooves mashed against his cheeks, squishing his face up and down.

“Twilight, what are you doing.”

Actually, it came out “Fwah wha, wha foo dpffft,” but that’s unimportant.

“You look all grumpy,” Twilight grinned, pulling his lips up so that he was baring his gums in an odd grimace. “Frumpy and grumpy and dumpy! Dumpy Shiny!”

“That sounds like you’re talking about poop,” he carefully pulled her hooves away from him, and her face fell in disappointment.

“But-but I don’t want a poo brother,” she whined. “I’m just bored…”

Shining Armor started to convince her to try reading her books again, hoping that she would bore herself into a nap. Instead, something else crossed his mind.

“Why don’t we play a game?”

Twilight cheered in excitement, bouncing back and forth on her hooves and stomping all over the couch cushion.

“Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!” she pranced in anticipation, eagerly going around in a couple of circles to show him just how much she wanted to play. “A game, a game! What are we going to play, Shiny? Do you want to play tag? I know how to play tag! Can we play Ponopoly? I won’t eat any of the pieces this time, swearsies! Ooh! We can play both at the same time! I’ll –”

Shining quickly cut off the flow of words, still utterly amazed that any filly could spout so much gibberish in such a short amount of time.

“Okay, okay!” he waved his hoof in front of her face, trying to capture the overexcited filly’s attention once again. “Hang on, Twily. Hang on. Uh, how about hide and –”

He didn’t even get to finish before the filly bounded off of the sofa, stumbling over her forelegs in the process before leaping right back up and tripping through the house.

“I can play hide and go seek!” she screeched, giggling as she ran.

Shining Armor stared after her for a moment, miniscule grin unexpectedly creeping onto his features.

“Okay,” he called out shortly afterwards. “I’m gonna count to ten, and then I’m going to come and find you! Alright? One-”

“You have to put your hoofies over your eyes!” he heard the muffled voice from somewhere in the back of the house, and Shining grinned.

“Oh, yeah, I totally forgot,” he lied loudly, resuming his counting. “One-”

“You’re still not doing it!”

“No, seriously, I am!” Shining snickered, peering around the corner and down the darkened hallway. “I really can’t see any~thing right now. Two…!”

He heard nothing afterwards, even though he perked his ears up as high as he could manage.

“Three, four, five, six, seven eight nine ten!” he rushed out swiftly, galloping down the hallway and straight to his little sister’s bedroom. She couldn’t have hidden far, and he’d win in no time. Bursting in through the door, he let out a shout of victory-

Only to discover that the little room was empty.

“… I know where you’re hi~ding,” Shining said in a singsong tone, creeping over the carpeted floor and peering beneath her bed. “Ah-ha!”

All he found under the little bed was another worn (and slightly chewed) picture book and a solitary dust bunny.

“… Huh.”

Twilight even giggled to herself, straining not to make a noise from her hiding place. Surely she was sneaky and clever enough to evade him once again.

Shining Armor stretched back up, slipping over to the closet. He could have sworn that he heard her shuffling somewhere, and she must have been nearby. His grin growing again, Shining yanked open the closet, making himself as big as possible.

“Found ya!” he growled, trying not to laugh. His laughter quickly died down when he realized that she wasn’t in the closet, either.

“… Okay, I know you ran in here,” he mused aloud, searching beneath the bed again before creeping toward his parent’s bedroom. “In this direction, anyway. I mean, I know where you are now!”

His proclamation went utterly unheard.

Shining Armor searched the entire room from top to bottom. Under the bed and behind the bedroom window curtains, inside the closet and behind the door in the bathroom.

Where did she go?

Shining actually began to grow a little listless, wiping a nervous bead of sweat from his brow before marching back in the other direction, toward the main area of their home.

The front door was standing wide open.

“Oh, crap!” he yelped in terror, darting to the door and sticking his head out, eyes wide with fear as he scrambled to find the filly. “Twilight? Please tell me you didn’t run off outside!”

No sooner had he stepped out the door than he heard a high pitched squeak from inside the house. Furrowing his brows and ever so slowly closing the door, Shining honed in slowly on the source of the noise. Ever so quietly creeping toward the couch, he leaned downward and peeked beneath it…

Only for Twilight to squeal in surprise as his face came into view, causing her to quickly wriggle out from beneath the sofa.

“Ah-HA!” Shining cackled as she tackled him, and Twilight giggled hysterically as she rubbed his nose against her own.

“Found you, I found you!” Twilight kicked in midair as he held her up between his hooves effortlessly, running on nothing as he snickered.

“I don’t think that’s quite how it works, Twilight,” Shining explained seriously as she continued to gallop through the air, pumping her little legs faster in attempt to get momentum before finally giving up in exhaustion. She flopped onto his chest tiredly, yawning as she did so.

“I think I’m ready for that nap now, Shiny,” Twilight’s weary voice was muffled as she finally closed her heavy eyes, snuggling against his warm chest.

“Sounds good,” he resisted the powerful urge to yawn as well, making no move to rise.

“G’night. I love you, Shiny.”

“I love you too, Twily.”

And as Shining Armor fell asleep with the lightly snoring filly on his chest, he realized that perhaps his time had been rather well spent after all.