It was like a trail of ants in the sky. They crawled between the naked fingers of the trees. The long dotted line morphed slowly into a checkmark against a field of patchy blue and gray and suddenly she could hear the faintest sound of honking. Why did they do that? She understood the need to migrate, weird as it was. One day they just wake up and decide that it's time to leave and they fly away… But why did they honk like that? Maybe it was a call to the rest of their kind to tell them it was time to get up and fly before it's too late… Or maybe they were just saying ‘Goodbye, see you next year.’

"Are you watching, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow's eyes returned to earth, resting on Scootaloo who stood expectantly in a helmet and kneepads at the end of the boardwalk ramp.

"Yeah, I'm watching."

"I'm gonna do it this time," she boasted, lunging back and forth on her little stick-like legs.

"Okay, let's see it," laughed Rainbow.

"Yeah, just go," added Apple Bloom impatiently.

Scootaloo looked down the runway to where her skateboard waited and steeled her nerves. She broke into a gallop, thundering down the planks. When she reached her staged skateboard, she hopped up, planting her hind hooves on the grip tape. Her momentum whisked her into the quarter pipe ramp and she crouched to coil up. The roar of wheels on wood was suddenly silent. Scootaloo threw her weight backward and grabbed the board with one hoof. The world became a vertical carousel. Land and sky inverted in a dizzying sequence before she saw Rainbow and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom and then the sky again.

Autumn leaves exploded around her with a soft rustle. She landed on her back and raised her forelegs in triumph.

"You did it," marveled Sweetie Belle. "That was more than a complete backflip."

"That was awesome," agreed Rainbow.

"Tucking in the air made the difference I think," panted Scootaloo euphorically. She rolled out of the makeshift crash pad and then began digging for her lost skateboard in the golden leaves.

"You gotta show that to Rumble," Rainbow smirked knowingly. "He'll be super impressed."

"I'm gonna get my timing down until I can do it at the skatepark," boasted Scootaloo, getting her saddlebag on. She slipped her board into the strap on her back. "I'm gonna get so good at vert. Shrimpy wings are perfect for it, all of the extra mobility without the awkwardness." She tapped a hoof proudly on her chest. "Eventually I'll be doing expos and competitions in Manehattan."

"Well, ya got yer whole life planned out, doncha," teased Apple Bloom.

"You'll see; I'll be one of those niche freaks, the ones that didn't feel like they belonged anywhere till they found their true calling."

"I believe you," laughed Rainbow. "Make me your plus one when you get to Manehattan."

Scootaloo smiled at the ground as she thought about that day. "Yeah," she breathed.

The four of them made for the edge of the woods and got back on the cracked asphalt of the old fairgrounds where workers were setting up for the Nightmare Fair. Most of the stalls and rides stayed up year round but were only opened and operated for specific events.

"What is everyone gonna be for Nightmare Night?" Rainbow asked the group as they traipsed down a row of game booths in limbo.

"I'm Super Scootaloo," answered Scootaloo quickly even though she'd already told her. It was a costume of her own invention consisting mostly of a cape and her skateboard.

"Detective," added Sweetie Belle.

"Ah's gonna be somepony who got murdered with a scythe," explained Apple Bloom, matter-of-factly. "One a the little ones. It was already broken. Mah brother's gonna dull the blade and connect the two pieces with wire so Ah can wear it on mah head like it went through mah skull. Then Ah'm just gonna have fake blood."

Rainbow looked back at her with a crooked smile. "That's cool." She always liked scary. costumes over professions and cute animals; that was one thing she shared with Apple Bloom over Scootaloo. "Did you think about being undead too?"

"Ya mean like a zombie? Don't zombies die when ya stab 'em in the brain?"

Rainbow scratched her chin in wonder. "Yeah I guess you're right… But don't ponies die when you stab them in the brain? You're already going as a walking corpse, right?"

"Hmm… Ya make a good point; Ah should be a zombie too."

Rainbow's eyes followed the profile of the in progress fair. "Hey, that rollercoaster's new," she gasped, pointing at the incomplete scaffolding. "It looks big too."

Over her time living in Ponyville, she'd watched as her favorite holiday celebration had exploded in scale. The Nightmare Fair was now the single biggest annual event in the county and it only got bigger and better every year.

"Ah can't believe they're settin' all this up just ta put it all away after a week," marveled Apple Bloom.

"Yeah but then it all comes back in a different form for Hearth's Warming or Summer vacation. They'll close the rollercoaster but they're not going to take it down."

"Looks scary," groaned Sweetie Belle.

"You can go on that," argued Scootaloo. "I don't think it'll have loops. Uh…" She quickened her pace to catch up with Rainbow. "Speaking of the fair, I was gonna go with Rumble on opening night but he said Thunderlane was busy in Cloudsdale that night and we can't do a… double date."

"Yeah, don't worry about it," grumbled Rainbow dismissively. "I can still go alone as your chaperone or whatever."

"Oh, thanks," she replied tepidly.

Rumble and Scootaloo weren't allowed to go on a date night unsupervised and Scootaloo really wanted their supervision to be in the form of a double date rather than the clunky third wheel of a lone chaperone. It would have lent their relationship an air of legitimacy and made them equals with Rainbow and Thunderlane. At least that's how she envisioned it feeling. Two couples doing something together instead of two kids being watched. This wasn't optimal but at least they could still go. Rainbow would be an okay third wheel.

"So is he a good kisser like his brother?" asked Rainbow, abruptly derailing her train of thought.

Sweetie and Apple Bloom sniggered behind their hooves.

"Rainbow," gasped Scootaloo, her face solid red.

"Sorry," she laughed. "None of my business. Don't worry; it'll be fun. I'm the coolest chaperone." - - -

---

Rainbow's tail swished as she stood, busying herself between Thunderlane's legs. The stallion sat on the edge of his bed with her muzzle clamped tight all the way down on his base of his stallionhood. He was as far down her throat as he could get.

Rainbow pulled back until just his flare was in her mouth, lodged snugly behind her pursed lips. He shivered as she caressed the tip with her tongue while sucking on his end like a straw. Then she slid all the way back to the base where she bobbed her head aggressively in a push to finish him off.

Thunderlane let out a guttural sigh and placed a hoof on Rainbow's head.

She felt a big rolling throb from his length on her tongue, a dry run for his fast approaching climax.

His breaths became shallow and shaky. "Ugh, shit," he panted as his ecstasy reached new heights. Suddenly there came the click of the lock on the front door down the hall. Thunderlane's eyes shot open. "Oh, shit. He's already back," he whispered.

Rainbow pulled off of him at once with an obscenely loud slurp and wiped the drool from her mouth. "Told you we shoulda gone to my place."

Thunderlane scrambled off of the bed and quickly made for the bathroom, his needy erection still aching at full mast beneath him. "You should have just been faster," he grumbled.

"No, you should have just been faster," Rainbow retorted indignantly, before he closed the door behind him.

She suspected he probably preferred rutting or whatever in the academy locker room to her grody apartment down near the train tracks with its thin walls and weird smells.

Thunderlane went to great lengths to hide all evidence, or even implications, of their adult time activities from his little brother, now even going so far as forgoing an orgasm in his fillyfriend's mouth that was surely just seconds away. They could have locked the door and carried on quietly for a few moments more till she swallowed the glut of his anxious tension but Rumble would suspect they were doing something and Thunderlane would rather he learn how to behave from what he said and not what he did. Rainbow didn't even sleep over at their house; their relationship around the kid was more or less a wholesome PG.

Rainbow licked the salty meat flavor from her lips as she walked to the door. She exited the bedroom nonchalantly to see Rumble turned around and tossing his saddlebag on the kitchen table.

"Thunderlane," he called.

Rainbow smirked and fluttered up silently behind him. "BOO!"

Rumble winced, nearly knocking his bag to the floor. He whirled around. "Oh, hey, Rainbow," A smile quickly spread across his face.

"Hey, squirt." She reached out a forehoof and tousled his mane into a mess.

"Ugh. Where's Thunderlane?" he asked, trying to smooth his hair back into the cool position.

"Bathroom." Rainbow crossed her forelegs in the air. "So, you think you're good enough to take my Scootaloo on a date?" she prodded in mock haughtiness.

"What?"

She landed and pointed a hoof at him. "I'm gonna be watching you… literally."

Rumble blinked. "Oh, you're going to the fair with us?"

"Yeah… is that okay?" she asked slowly, trying to decipher his surprised reaction.

He scratched his head "Ye- yeah. Why wouldn't it be okay?"

She leaned in uncomfortably close to him and squinted into him. "I don't know."

Rumble's face began to heat up and he looked at the floor. "Well, great. Should be fun."

Rainbow laughed weakly and gave him back his space. He was like his brother but without the drama and overconfidence. The best thing was how flustered he got when she teased him.

"So, did you come over to help me with my math homework?" he quipped.

Rainbow blew a raspberry and they shared a good-natured laugh at the absurd notion.

Just then, Thunderlane appeared at the bedroom door.

"Hey, Thunderlane. We have to go to the school thing."

"Oh yeah," he sighed, joining them in the kitchen.

Rainbow surreptitiously glanced under him to find that his erection had vanished as expected. She wondered if he'd taken care of it himself in the bathroom or if it simply died of natural causes.

"Uh, you can come too, if you want," posed Rumble.

Rainbow paused awkwardly before pointing quizzically at herself. Her heart fluttered at the gesture of him wanting to include her. It almost felt like she'd graduated to a new status in their family.

"Aw, I'm sorry. I really want to but I have to be at the Castle of Friendship pretty soon. Next time though."

"Oh, okay," he sighed. "Don't worry about it."

"Should probably eat something before I go," she muttered. Didn't get my protein shake today." She bumped flanks with her coltfriend.

Thunderlane rolled his eyes. - - -

---

A cold, damp blanket ruffled over Rainbow's fur as she coasted out of the patchy clouds and into view of the castle. The ground below was checkered with rugs and booths and piles of donated books. She spotted an important looking purple blob and launched into a divebomb, splaying her wings at the last moment to come to a perfect four point stop on the surface.

"Alright, let's get this over with," she grumbled.

Twilight looked up at the pegasus with a smirk. "Good news, Rainbow. You're off the hook. Pinkie got off early so she's able to show the diplomat around town."

Rainbow screwed her eyes shut and gave a triumphant pump of her foreleg. "Yesssss…"

That was always Pinkie Pie's thing. Rainbow should never have been on the short list. She only agreed to do a tour for some important Saddle Arabian pony because Twilight had delegated to her. She'd been dreading this moment for a week.

The alicorn scratched her cheek absently, checking her floating clipboard. "Since you're here though, can you help Applejack and I sort for the literacy fair?"

"Yeah," she sighed, still regretting missing Rumble's thing.

Having predicted this turn of events, Applejack beckoned her over to the big donation pile where sat boxes and stacks of unsorted books on a tarp. The literature had been generously given by the citizens of Ponyville but half of the books were probably from Twilight's personal library. It was all her program and no one was more excited about it than her.

Applejack swept a hoof across the in progress fair layout. "Ah got 'bout a dozen different genres, each one at a different table. Just put 'em at the right tables fer now and then we'll sort 'em into subgenres after."

Rainbow sighed and popped open a cardboard box. This was only marginally more enjoyable than her previously assigned job and that was mostly due to her interest in reading, at least reading some things. Scanning over the titles, she picked out the obvious books on academia which had drab looking spines. Those were the kinds of books she wouldn't be caught dead with. She cradled them between her wings on her back and dumped them off at the designated boring table.

"What are you even doing here, AJ? I thought you really needed to do farm stuff."

Applejack dropped the book from her mouth. "Ah do. That's why I gotta duck out soon. Twilight roped me into this when Ah made the mistake a sayin' hi on the way back from town. But yer here now so we're good."

Rainbow grumbled indignantly.

Applejack took the opportunity to remind her that she'd promised to help on the farm too but had yet to give her the time of day. "With everyone sick on the farm, we're still late on the harvest and settin' up the pumpkin patch. Yer the only one with time; ya gonna help us with that?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes as she ripped open another box. "Yeah, I got time… eventually. My schedule's not just immediately clear."

"I saw ya sleepin' on a cloud yesterday afternoon," she chided.

"Ugh," I finally get thirty minutes to myself and it's a felony," Rainbow glowered angrily.

Wonderbolt duties, element duties, being on call for the Princess of Friendship, maintaining her rickety relationship with Thunderlane and trying to inspire and nurture her adopted little sister. Life had never been so hard to juggle and she was not naturally motivated by many things.

Applejack's face fell, sensing her words were hitting personally. "Ah'm just raggin' on ya," she murmured. "Ah'm sorry… Ya don't have ta come if it's too hard."

"I can be there this evening," sighed Rainbow, walking away with another stack of books. It would be disloyal to flake out on her after promising.

Applejack couldn't tell her that evenings didn't work great with their schedule. Rainbow felt she just needed to make good and squeeze it in ASAP. They'd just concede to the mutually inconvenient and guilt-ridden engagement without further discourse.

Rainbow opened another box. Her eyes fell on a row of half a dozen pulpy looking adventure novels. Judging by the art direction, they were from a previous generation of literature. The covers were adorned with flames, untamed jungles, demonic looking idols and an overpowering sense of doom and danger. It looked like the precursor to the Daring Doo novels but she'd never heard of them.

"Rock Slide," she mumbled, noticing the name appearing standardized on every spine, likely the hero that the series was named after. She pulled out one book with a sultry looking femme fatale earth pony looming over a treacherous snow capped mountain range. She was wind whipped, dressed in arctic gear and had a knife in her teeth.

"Rock Slide and the Peak of Terror… These are amazing," she smirked to herself. She put the hooful of books in a smaller empty box and scrawled her name on the top. It was always a nice surprise when good deeds didn't completely blow up her face. - - -

---

Rainbow kept the weak bedside lamp on later than she should have. She had practice in the morning. She was so tired from farmwork on top of everything else. But night was an oasis of time that no one could take from her and she had to drink from it or die.

She couldn't figure out what order the Rock Slide books went in, so she simply picked one at random and dove in. Despite its age, it was so far as relevant as any Daring Doo title and just as effective as an escapism drug. Again, Rainbow was amazed that she'd never even heard the name of these books. Maybe Twilight knew about them.

A ghostly train wail emanated from somewhere and suddenly she was back in her dingy apartment and she knew exactly what time it was. Rainbow sighed, reached for her bookmark and clicked off the light.

---

Thunderlane adjusted the last sleeve of his flight suit and checked alertly over his shoulder to make sure the locker room was empty. He looked back and teased his locker open with a wingtip and slid the capped needle into his grip.

"BOO!"

Thunderlane flinched and fumbled the little auto injector to the floor. He looked to see Rainbow in her flight suit grinning stupidity back at him. Her face fell when she realized what he'd dropped.

"Rainbow, seriously?" he growled.

"Thunderlane, Crash," came a stern voice.

Thunderlane winced again and spun around to face Captain Spitfire, trying to block her view of the dose he'd abandoned on the floor behind him.

Rainbow reflexively kicked the needle under the lockers where it would likely be lost forever and bit her lip in fear that he'd already been busted and she'd just made herself culpable. They'd both be tested immediately. He'd get kicked out for sure. She'd pass but it was uncertain what would happen to her if they suspected she knew anything about Thunderlane's juicing or that she was covering for him.

"Grabass on your own time," lambasted Spitfire. "Get on the tarmac."

"Ma'am," they replied attentively.

Without even making eye contact, she marched past the two of them and headed out the door.

Thunderlane exhaled in relief and looked to the floor to secure his contraband.

"What are you doing still taking that shit?" Rainbow hissed angrily. "You won't pass your physical. It's gonna show up in your labs and you'll be out the door before you can say protein shake."

"Calm down," he grunted in annoyance, bending down to peer under the lockers. "I have time to do the next show and then get clean before physicals; I have it all figured out. It's fine." The little syringe was back there nestled amongst little piles of accumulated filth. He laid down on the floor to slip his wingtip into the gap in hopes of flicking it out.

Rainbow cocked a skeptical eye at him. "And then you're done taking it?"

"Ehh, well…" He mumbled an unintelligible non answer."

"Thunderlane?" she demanded impatiently.

He shot to his hooves to snarl at her. "I'm not a little kid, Rainbow! Let me make my own fucking decisions."

Despite how often it happened and her tough facade, it always felt like getting kicked in the heart when he blew up at her. She scoffed in disappointed disgust and turned away to leave. "Well, pardon me for giving a shit," she muttered.

Thunderlane spared a desperate glance back at the gap under the lockers. It was too late now; he'd have to get it later somehow.

"Okay, fine, Rainbow-" He looked back to his fillyfriend but she'd already stormed out into the hall.

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