Lightning illuminated the night sky in quick flashes, each bolt lasting for only the briefest of moments. In their wake, a resounding explosion of thunder shattered the peaceful night atmosphere, leaving a distinct anticipation for a downpour. Any pony in their right mind was inside, enjoying a book by the warm fire with their dragon friend, spending time with their younger sister in a family farmhouse, or at the very least, staying home for the night with their pet alligator. The outside world was a less than desirable place during a pegasus-scheduled thunderstorm, especially at night.

Unfortunately, not all ponies had a home, or even a family to take refuge with during such storms.

Another crack of lightning severed the sky like a pair of heavenly scissors, and in the deserted farmland of Sweet Apple Acres, a single pony huddled herself against the storm. Settled in a rickety old clubhouse located in the low branches of one particular tree, this young filly swallowed her pride and gripped her single, aged blanket tightly in her hooves. No one would ever have imagined that the brave, determined and adventure-seeking Scootaloo was petrified of being outside during storms. One would also forget that fears afflicted even the most mature of ponies, let alone fillies.

Scootaloo pressed her back against a cold corner of the old, wooden clubhouse floor. Her hooves were sweaty, having clung to her blanket for over fifteen minutes now. Ears flattened against her head, wings following the same suit against her body, Scootaloo shot her terrified gaze from window to window, awaiting each flash of light with dread. She ought to be used to these silly storms by now, but they freaked her out just as they always had. And things were about to become even worse, when a single drop of water struck the slanted roof with silence. A silence that would soon build into an unbearable assault of pounding rain.

“I…hate this.” The small pony whispered to the desolate room, the rain starting off as a pleasant tapping. Ten seconds later, the tapping conjugated into a loud, monotonous drone. After thirty seconds, it was as if half the ponies in Cloudsdale had all flown down, and were now stomping their hooves on the roof.

With every passing minute, the storm seemed to press down against the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ Clubhouse; lightning, thunder and rain all converging on the land with unbelievable force. Scootaloo could feel her heartbeat pounding against her chest.

“C-Come on, Scoot, this is no time for cowering…!” The orange filly said aloud, trying to force out the confident attitude she was known for. She bucked off her blanket with her lower hooves and got to her feet, albeit with a shake. The rain was a wearisome pattering that teased her ears, which kept her guessing at when the next lightning bolt would blind her for a brief second, and when the next thunderclap would cause her heart to skip a beat.

“…We really need to install those new windows…” She muttered, walking slowly towards the center of the room and holding her ground. She gulped and put on the calmest, most serious face she could muster, thinking of the only thing that got her to smile.

What would Rainbow Dash do in such a situation? Would she curl up in a corner and whimper? No. Rainbow Dash wasn’t afraid of anything. She was the greatest, coolest, most awesome pony in all of Equestria. If Scootaloo was to overcome this fear, she’d need to face it head-on, and overcome it on her own. That was the sort of thing she knew Rainbow Dash would tell her to do, if she was here.

Patter. Crash. Bang. Another flash of light.

Standing as solid and still as a statue in the Canterlot Gardens, Scootaloo looked around at the windows again. The raindrops that came flooding down from the sky were easily visible in their torrential volume, even during the visibility-reducing night. The filly took a deep breath and maintained her ground, resisting the urge to close her eyes. The rain, darkness and lightning continued to attack her senses and prod at her mind.

Any moment now. Any moment now and she’d succumb. She could feel it, and she bit her lip just thinking about it.

But then, something bizarre happened. The predictability of rain beating down accompanied by the occasional thunderclap was interrupted. Another noise approached Scootaloo’s ears, and they perked as the noise became louder and louder. It was as if something was approaching the clubhouse.

What the…what is that? She thought to herself, all previous thoughts of determination and confidence fluttering away. She backed up to her corner again and stared at the closed front door, while there was a wrenching splash just outside. It was the sort of sound that occurred when a hoof stomped down in a puddle.

Someone was here. In the dead of night.

“Who…who's there?” Scoot asked, not as loud as she had planned to be. She remained quiet and listened for a response. At first, there were no sounds at all but the rain. Then, the sound of someone trotting up the wooden ramp that lead to the front door became loud and obvious. Scootaloo’s purple eyes widened.

“Who's there!?” She yelled this time, crouching to the ground, the eeriness of the cold night and and the unknown identity of this visitor making her shudder. Her heartbeat counted off the seconds that passed until there was a knock on the door, immediately followed by the opening of the door. Her flank was up against the wooden planks now, and she gazed at the dark figure like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Geez squirt, jumpy much?”

Altogether, the angst, fear and anxiety plaguing Scootaloo’s mind melted into oblivion when she heard that playfully sarcastic voice. She made several surprised blinks, and then let loose a wild grin as the bright blue body and multicolored mane of Rainbow Dash walked into the clubhouse. Though a bit melodramatic, it was as if the sun had come out and banished the storm to the moon.

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo exclaimed happily, resisting the urge to run up and hug the older pony. She would, if she didn’t already know that Rainbow was hardly the sentimental type.

“The one and only.” Dash said with a wink and a pose, using one of her back hooves to close the door behind her with a bit of excess force. She trotted into the room and shook her wet mane, a casual smile on her face. “Looks like I got here before you had a total meltdown, huh? Better late than never, at least.”

Scootaloo cocked an eyebrow and walked a little closer to the pony.

“What are you talking about?” She asked curiously. “What are you doing here? It’s late; you’re usually asleep or helping the other weather pegasi, right?”

Dash had made herself preoccupied with eyeing the state of the clubhouse around her, and was in the midst of floating about the mid-way point from floor to ceiling, peering out the windows and getting an idea for what it looked like from inside. She hadn’t actually been inside the clubhouse, before.

“What am I doing here? I think the bigger question is what are you doing here?” The blue pegasus said matter-of-factly, dropping down on her hooves again and eyeing the filly with a little reprehension. “I had no idea you slept out here by yourself every night, pipsqueak. I know now thanks to Fluttershy noticing you last night when she was out caring for her animal friends. I mean what’s up with that? Don’t you have a family that you can-”

Rainbow stopped herself mid-sentence, when a grim, wounded look came over Scootaloo’s face. The young pony looked down at her hooves and seemed to fall into an emotion-filled trance. Her lip was still, but her eyes were on the brink of shedding tears, and Rainbow bit her lip in reproach for bringing the subject up.

“W-well the bottom line is kid, you can’t sleep out here by yourself every night, ya know? You shouldn’t have to, plus it’s not that safe.” Dash explained, piling on explanation after explanation as she thought of them in her head. Scoot’s eyes slowly lifted back up, and the blue pegasus smiled warmly again. Her minimal effort was more than enough for her number one admirer.

“Alright but, why are you here then? Just to tell me that?” Scoot asked, sniffling a little, but recovering swiftly. “I wish I had somewhere else to go Rainbow Dash, but I just don’t-”

“Well, I can fix that.” Dash interrupted, her two large, feathered wings unfolding in unison and majestically stretching in the open air. Giving another simple, yet meaningful wink to the young filly, who gazed on in amazement of the display, she made a gesture towards the door. “Although it’s not something I’d normally offer, Fluttershy was a bit more than persuasive in convincing me…”

Scootaloo stood rooted to the spot. All the outside rain and thunder lost to her senses, she now stared unblinkingly at Rainbow Dash. The young filly’s big, adorable eyes were full of fragile and innocent hopefulness, whilst the blue pony went on.

“You can uh, you know, for the time being…”

“…”

“Until we find you another place you can live and all…”

“…”

“Come and…stay with me up at my place. Sound good to you?”

Rainbow had ruffled her feathers, rubbed her mane and looked around aimlessly while she made out what she had to say. This was so not her thing. Taking in a rambunctious filly in order to give her a place to sleep at night, just for a little while was great and all…but…it just had to be Scootaloo, didn’t it? It had to be the pipsqueak, Dash thought to herself. But even as she pondered her fate, she couldn’t help but warm up to the dream-come-true look on the little pony’s face. Heh, maybe she was kinda cute. Just a little bit.

“R-Really? Are you being serious Rainbow Dash!?” Scoot asked in a dumbfounded tone.

“Squirt, this pegasus never lies.” Dash said firmly. She turned around and walked to the door frame of the small shack, looking over her shoulder and giving an impatient snort. “Now come on already, I’m starting to feel gloomy out here. Get on and let’s get goin’. We both need some sleep if I’m gonna be doing any weather patrolling tomorrow, and you’re gonna be doing any Cutie Mark Adventuring-”

“Cutie Mark Crusadering.” Scootaloo corrected.

“Yeah yeah, that's what I said. Just get on!”

The orange filly grabbed her strewn blanket in her mouth, the only real possession of hers that didn’t collectively belong to her and the other two Crusaders, and hugged Dash’s neck for safety. Dash shot her head down towards the floor, and used her wings and rear to buck the smaller pony up into the air. Scootaloo landed with a thud on the rainbow pegasi’s back.

“Heh, hold on tight, kid.” The rainbow pony said, smirking cockily and scuffing her hoof against the wood. Like the starting line for a race, the element of loyalty looked out into the stormy apple orchard with excitement and adrenaline in her eyes.

“You’re about to feel speeds that you’ve never even come close to on that scooter of yours!”

If it wasn’t so dark, Scootaloo could have looked back to check just how quickly they flew from the clubhouse. One thing was for sure, Scootaloo heard the hinges on the doors break loose from the impact of the wind.

The clubhouse, wind, rain, thunder and lightning…all of it was pulled from Scootaloo’s consciousness in the space of a few brief moments. Whipping up into the dark sky on the back of her hero, rain coming down and dancing among the two of them, she couldn’t help but laugh in delight, cheering Dash on as she got the best possible seat in the house to witness Dash’s awesomeness.

The initial burst of speed to get up and into the open sky came to an end, and the blue pegasus took on a horizontal flight shape. She stuck her hooves out in front of her, and, mane blowing in the wind, squinted ahead to try and seek out her cloudy home.

“You holding up alright back there, squirt!?” Dash yelled through the wind and rain, feeling Scootaloo clinging around her neck, face pressed to her mane. There was a chuckle and a laugh.

“Y-yeah! Rainbow Dash, this is so amazing! Haha! You’re so awesome!”

“I know, I know,” Dash smirked. “Please hold all applause till the end of the flight. Thank you for taking Dash Airways. We ask you to keep a firm grasp of the pegasus at all times. Have an awesome day, err, night I mean!”

Scootaloo couldn’t remember the last time she laughed so much.

--

Princess Luna’s glorious night was approaching its peak. The moon was now high in the sky and barely visible through minor holes in the dense rain clouds overhead. The torrential rain had begun to die down, but the thunderstorm was still looming over Ponyville quite intensely. Only two minutes after having taken off from Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings rapidly in front of her, and descended onto her own personal cloud home. With a slide, Scootaloo plopped down onto the plush white cloud cover, appearing dark grey in the lack of light.

“W-Whoa…I’ve never actually been on a cloud like this before!” She said, excitedly poking her hoof against the puffiness, then gaining some confidence and trotting around a bit.

“The inside is made of clouds too, ya know,” Dash chuckled, opening the front door and ushering the filly inside. She was soaked, mane to tail, but didn’t seem very bothered by it. “You know, out of the storm and rain?”

Scootaloo scampered inside, immediately overwhelmed by the sight before her. Everything from walls to furniture was constructed out of cloud material. There were plenty of material things too, but at its base, the entire house was one big cloud. Giggling madly, Scoot peered around like a little filly in a candy store, the largest possible grin on her face, and the most shimmery of twinkles in her eyes. Spotting Dash's overly-comfortable looking bed in the corner, the orange pegasus leapt over to it, and assaulted it with a Cutie Mark Crusader pounce of which both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would both be proud of.

“Hey, mess up my bed and you’ll be in for a world of hurt, kid.” Dash warned playfully, her light spectrum mane dripping beads of sparkling water. In a fury of dog-reminiscent shakes, the rain flew from her in a misty spray and scattered about the floor. Rarity would have an absolute fit, followed by a faint on her drama couch if she had been there. Dash chortled at the thought.

"Rainbow Dash! Thanks again. I…I can't believe I'm actually up here right now with you!" Scootaloo exclaimed happily, jumping up and down on the bed. Whilst she felt butterflies in her tummy at the weightless points in her jumps, thoughts began to probe at her of the dark, cold night she could still be having right now, down in the CMC Clubhouse.

Dash watched the orange filly bounce up and down on her bed as if it were a trampoline, and gave a less than enthusiastic raise of her eyebrow. She trotted over to her bedside table and began to place the miscellaneous items atop it into the lower drawers, filly-proofing the general area.

“And again, no problem, squirt.” The azure pony said. “Though, thank Fluttershy more than me. She’s the one that convinced me to this whole idea in the first place, and the one who first saw you out there.”

Dash grabbed her brand new copy of the latest Daring Do book in her mouth, and placed it with its prequels into the lowest drawer. After nudging it shut with her head, she turned to face the lively filly and gave her a firm look of confusion and slight reproach. Scootaloo immediately met her gaze, and fell with a thud on her side. She now sat in the middle of the blue pegasi’s bed.

“But you know, even though I already agreed to do this, there is one thing that’s been bugging me, kid. If you’ve been on Sweet Apple Acres, sleeping in the clubhouse every night for who knows how long…why did you never take the five minutes it'd take to go knock on AJ’s front door, and ask if you could sleep there?”

Scootaloo’s little ears lost their strength and fell down to her head, and so too did her eyes. Not out of sadness, but of embarrassment, did she look away from the older pony’s gaze. Rainbow went on.

“I mean…AJ ruffles my feathers sometimes, but her, Apple Bloom, Big Mac and Granny Smith are all really nice ponies. I’m sure if you just asked them if they could spare some room somewhere for you to sleep, they wouldn’t mind at all-”

“I can’t.” Scoot said suddenly. Rainbow’s look immediately soured into a ‘why not?’ face. “I…don’t want to burden them, it’s not their problem. I can manage just fine in our Clubhouse…plus…”

The orange filly fought back the urge to look Rainbow in the eye. She sure could look intimidating when she was confused and not understanding why something she thought was so simple, actually wasn’t.

“Plus…it’s not what you would do. You would make do with what you had, wouldn’t you? You’d build your own home or find some way to brave it out. So, I gotta do the same. I don’t have a home, so I make do.”

Rainbow gave a great big roll of her violet eyes at the filly’s sentiment, and could feel a lecture coming on about how accepting when you’re cornered and need help from friends was a good thing, and not something to be shaken off. But before the pegasus could even open her mouth, she noticed the solid look of determination on Scoot’s face - in her large, oval eyes. She wasn’t going to budge from her stance, and that was apparent. Rainbow passed off the lecture and smiled. Now that was something she admired.

“Alright, fine. I guess the point is moot now anyway, since now I’m stuck with you, and not the clubhouse.” She winked. Scootaloo’s go-lucky, happy exterior came back with a vengeance and burned like a fire. She sprang up again and got low to the bed in a stalking position, grinning at the older pony with exhilaration.

“Hah, I guess you are! And you better look out, Rainbow Dash, cause the Scootornado is gonna run a muck of this place if you’re not careful!”

Dash’s never-ending supply of energy was being provoked with a sharp stick. She cocked both her eyebrows and then furrowed them into a glaring smirk, all in the same moment. Sitting back on all hooves and flexing her wings, she chuckled and, with a small voice crack, challenged the younger pegasus head-on.

“Is that so? Well, the ‘Scootornado’ is gonna be in for a big surprise, when Rainbow Dash, Greatest Flyer in the Sky, catches it with her bare hooves!”

Like two sparks in a pile of wood, the two energetic pegasi smirked and glared at each other, a mighty inferno about to burst. Rainbow took on the same position as Scoot, and pretty soon the two of them were in a face-off, right there on Dash’s bed.

“Hah, you couldn’t catch me if you tried, Rainbow Dash! You’re really fast, but I bet I’m too agile for you!” Scootaloo bragged, bouncing up and out of reach of the blue pony. She ran across the room and blew a raspberry at Dash from her living room, still chuckling. Dash gave a snort of impatience and narrowed her eyes on the little filly, crouching and jumping after her.

“Oh yeah, pipsqueak? Well let’s just see about that!”

Giggling happily that her provoking worked so flawlessly, Scootaloo sprinted from the pursuing pegasus as fast as she could. Rainbow, flying after her at a matching speed, was forced to halt and work-around the tables, chairs and other objects the small filly jumped underneath with no effort at all.

“Where’d you-” Dash began, lifting up a chair only to find the floor. Her gaze shifted when a blur of orange ran by her from behind.

"Hey! Get back here you little…”

The chase continued right upstairs, and though Scoot had absolutely no idea where she was going, she continued to slip through Dash’s hooves at every turn. Dash only got more and more determined to catch her, flying faster and turning corners more sharply than before. Her aggravation was rising, but so was her sense of fun.

“Man, when I get a hold of you squirt, you are so toast!” Dash said aloud, fluttering in place above the stairwell and peering down her hallway, listening and watching for anything that might give her an inkling of the fillies’ location. At the end of the hall there was a flickering shadow that dodged out of sight. Rainbow smirked wide, already formulating her punishment for trying to run away from her.

“There!” She yelled, cracking her tail and flashing down the hall at an absurd speed. She rounded the corner, ready to cling tight to the orange filly, but gasped when she met empty air. Crashing into the adjacent wall with a smack, the blue pony growled in a low tone, and pushed her snout out of the cloud. The movement had been from a stray window curtain, fluttering in the wind. Why the heck was that open during a thunderstorm, anyway? She closed it, and silently made her way back downstairs.

“Alright, you win…I’m all done now Scoot, so come on down. It’s time for all fillies to go to bed…” Rainbow called out, hiding her plain as day smirk behind her mouth and hiding in a darkened corner of the room, behind her sofa. Like a cheetah stalking a gazelle fawn, the blue pegasus waited and watched for the orange filly to reveal herself out in the open.

After half a minute, there was a slow, cautious trotting down the stairs. The orange body and purple mane of Scoot emerged down the staircase, and she looked around the entire lower room, trying to catch sight of Dash. Not seeing her only made the young filly all the more cautious. She descended into the room and made her way towards Dash’s large bed, still looking around.

Dash dug her hooves into the ground and wiggled her flank like a cat would before a pounce. That opportune moment where Scootaloo was looking away was within her grasp. With nothing but the sound of her wings flapping softly, the mare bounded from her hiding spot. Scootaloo turned around just in time to yell in surprise and shock, before she was tackled onto the bed by her idol. Flat on her back, hooves curled up in front of her, Rainbow Dash standing over her, Scooatloo frowned.

“T-That’s not fair! You cheated!” Scootaloo exclaimed, laying there and staring up into those eyes with a straight, confident face. But Dash was unforgiving; she cocked an eyebrow and smiled deviously at the younger pony.

“Huh? What’s that? ‘Cheated’? I didn’t cheat pipsqueak, cause there weren’t any rules!” She corrected, digging one of her front hooves into the fillies’ soft tummy and tickling her. While Scootaloo’s purple eyes widened and she burst into a fit of giggling, squirming there under Rainbow, the blue pony smiled right along with her. “And so, thusly, as the winner, I take my prize.”

“Aaaahahahaha!-Q-Quit it! R-Rainbow Da-Dash s-stoooopp I’m t-ticklish!” The orange filly protested, grabbing the blue hoof that was tickling her with her own two hooves and trying to push it off, but it was no use. Dash was twice her size and far stronger.

“You want it to stop?” Dash asked, stalling while she continued to rub her hoof along the fillies’ belly. “Then, tell me, who’s the greatest, coolest, most awesome pegasus in all of Ponyville?”

“Y-Y-You are!” Scootaloo squeaked.

“And who’s the pony who caught you fair and square?” Rainbow went on, sticking her tongue out to the side of her lips and rubbing her hoof even faster. Little Scoot looked on the verge of tears.

“Y-You are! You are Rainbow Dash! Yo-ahahahahaha!”

At last, Dash retracted her hoof and let the small pony breathe. Sitting there in front of her, Rainbow stretched her wings one final time, before they withdrew to her sides. Now content and satisfied, not to mention beginning to feel a bit tired herself, the blue pony now gave off a clear aurora of mellowness. As Scootaloo caught her breath, she noticed this and smiled sheepishly.

“Alright. Playtime's over, kid. Time for bed.” Dash said parentally, lowering her head and nudging the little pony towards the other end of the bed, where all the pillows were. “You can sleep on my bed with me since there’s more than enough room.”

“Sleep? Why do we need to go to sleep so early for? I just got here…” Scootaloo began, flopping over onto her side after Rainbow continued to nudge her. The blue pony gave her a slightly exasperated look, and shook her mane out of her eyes.

“Kid, it’s past midnight; I gotta be up in six hours to help the other pegasi with the morning weather schedule. I don’t have time to play around with you all night. Plus, the reason you’re up here with me is to have a proper place to sleep at night…not to keep me up till dawn, playing. I mean, no offense kiddo, but I got stuff to do.”

A disappointed look came over the young filly, and Dash sighed. Win against the filly in one way, open up a whole new problem at the same time. She just couldn’t stay one step ahead, could she? Taking a hoof to the face, the pegasus began contemplating a new plan of action.

“Look. Tomorrow after my weather patrolling, maybe you and I can hang out for a little while. But that’s all I can promise, okay, a little while. That work for you?”

“Sure thing Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo exclaimed, bouncing up and down again, as if she had never fallen into a slump in the first place. “Oh! Oh! Oh! You gotta come to my school tomorrow as my guest speaker for show and tell!”

“Whatever you say, squirt.” Dash said, only half listening as she grabbed the filly by the scruff of her neck and dropped her amidst all the fluffy pillows at the head of the bed.

“And then you could personally teach me how to fly! I bet I’d learn how to for sure if you were my teacher!” Scoot continued, eyes and smile wide with eagerness, lying between two large pillows that resembled Rainbow’s cutie mark.

“Heh, I’ll see what I can do.” Dash responded again, walking around to the other side of Scoot, grabbing a pillow with her mouth, and dropping it a foot or so away. She kneaded it with her hoof a few times and then curled up, laying her head against it. She closed her eyes, but the zestful filly was still going on and on.

“And then, sometime, you could take me to a Wonderbolts show! Awww man that’d be sweet!”

“Yeah yeah, maybe-listen pipsqueak, it’s really, really time to go to sleep. I mean it. You wouldn’t want this to happen again, would you?” Dash said, lifting up the hoof she used to tickle the filly with and waving it around a bit threateningly. Scootaloo blushed and chuckled, curling up a little on her own, and taking in the feathery texture of the pillows by her wings with content.

“Goodnight Rainbow Dash.” She said pleasantly, closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, and trying to let the silence and comfort lull her to sleep.

--

Nearing the half-way point of the hour, the night was approaching its absolute silence. The thunderstorm had dissipated for the most part, allowing the twinkling stars and luminescent moon to shine down through the black sky, and bring a little light to the world below. However, though the rain, thunder and lightning had departed, a powerful, chilling wind from the northwest swept over the valley of Ponyville. For a cloud house in the middle of the open air, this meant freezing chills shooting down a pony’s spine while they tried to sleep. Even with closed windows, the cradling wind currents made the house exceedingly cold.

Scootaloo shook to an abrupt awakening only twenty minutes after having fallen asleep. She picked her head up and rubbed her eyes with her hoof, noticing that Dash had curled up and seemingly fallen asleep on her own pillow. The orange pony found her hooves and lower body shaking from the cold, and she clenched her teeth in a similar fashion, looking around for any other form of cover she could use. She had forgotten where she put her blanket, and it didn’t appear Rainbow had anything besides pillows.

“Pillows don’t make very good blankets.” The filly said to herself, the frigid temperature causing her body to twinge and shake even more the longer she searched in and around the bed. With no success and now a popsicle filly, Scoot got back up onto the bed, and eyed Rainbow Dash again. How did she sleep through this? Was she used to it?

“Rainbow Dash...?” She said quietly, not sure if she should wake her up or not. The pegasus didn’t move or bat an ear. Scootaloo took another deep breath, and repeated herself, a bit louder this time. Still no response.

Scootaloo turned around, about to head back to her spot. The plan now was to simply bury herself in every pillow on the bed, and hope to survive the night. Maybe Dash could defrost her in the morning. But as soon as she took two steps, a strong, albeit tired voice reached her ears from behind.

“The wind can make things pretty cold, cause clouds are susceptible to temperature.” Rainbow explained with a yawn, rolling over and shaking her head to wake herself up. “Sorry I didn’t mention that earlier. Most pegasi are used to it, because we live up in the clouds all our lives. Heh, I sorta forgot that you haven’t been up here before...”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense…” Scootaloo responded with a small smile. “I’m sorry for waking you up, Rainbow Dash. You can go back to sleep now, I was just going to use your pillows to keep warm.”

Rainbow gave the filly a strange look, and then laughed a bit. While Scoot looked on in confusion, the majestic pegasus trotted over to the head of the bed, and shifted around some of the pillows to make room for her to lay down. She did so, lying with her hooves crossed over each other. She curled her body only somewhat, allowing for a pocket of space to exist in the center. She winked to the little filly.

“Pillows? Pillows don’t make good blankets, pipsqueak.” She said flatly. Scootaloo blinked, and blushed as she realized Dash had been awake the entire time. “I’ll go ask Rarity to make you some blankets tomorrow during our hang out time. But for now, I gotta improvise. I mean, I can’t let you catch a cold or something, can I?”

Scootaloo stood there and gawked, blinking dumbly and staring at the blue pony, who had now stretched out her wing facing outwards. After a short bit, Dash’s lip flattened into a fine line.

“Let’s go kid, come here and lay down already. I’m not stretching my wing out for my health, ya know.”

Scoot felt a heat flow through her as she nodded happily, and trotted over to the weather pony. She turned around and gently pressed herself down into that empty space by Dash’s side, and curled up. As soon as she was still, the large, feathered wing came down over her, and procured her in a firm embrace. The pegasi’s tail curled around the two of them, and as Rainbow laid her head down against a pillow, Scootaloo could feel the chills being extracted right out of her body, and replaced by a pleasant, comforting warmth. A sincere, contented expression came over her, and she dug her nose into her idol’s side affectionately.

And so there they stayed. Though her proud honor would never admit it to any of her friends, the blue pegasus cuddled the young filly tightly, and would continue to throughout the cool night. Scootaloo had never felt so utterly comfortable. Between Rainbow’s own body, her wing and tail, and the soft bed beneath her, it was as if the cold night wasn’t there to nip at her at all.

“Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo finally said aloud, her voice wrapped with fatigue brought on by the comfort, and peaceful nightly silence.

“Yeah?” Dash responded, opening one eye to look at the young filly, rolled up in her wing.

“Thanks for being like a big sister to me, tonight.”

“…Umm…yeah sure, you’re welcome, kiddo.”

For Scootaloo, the simple acknowledgement was enough. She smiled happily and shut her eyes, resting her head into Dash’s side and quickly falling asleep. But Rainbow Dash sat there, head picked up, staring down at the snoozing filly with an expression full of sentimental affection. Those words were more powerful than Scootaloo would ever know.

“…A big sister, am I?” Rainbow repeated to herself, and to the silent room. She gazed out the window and towards the shimmering stars and moon, taking a breath of the cool, fresh air. “Well, how about that.”

She looked back down to the young Cutie Mark Crusader, snuggled to her side. The only Cutie Mark Crusader without a sister, or a family. The more Dash watched her sleep peacefully, the more she began to wonder if that was something that could be changed. She laid her head back down on the soft pillow, and joined the filly in sleep, allowing dreams to overtake her, and for the night to come to an official end.

I dunno how good I'd be at it kid, but I suppose being the greatest, coolest, most awesome sister ever wouldn't be too hard.