It had been a long day at work today, and I came home exhausted. Looking forward to a relaxing evening. I stepped in the door, and shut it behind me. “Dashie, I'm home!” I called, and she trotted out into the living room.

“Hi Daddy! How was your day?” She asked me, smiling.

“Exhausting, but I'm better for seeing you.” I picked her up and gave her a tight hug. She loved her hugs, and giggled. “Okay Dashie, I've got to make dinner now, do you want to help me?” I asked. She looked at me with a disappointed face.

“You want to colour, don't you?”

“Yes please!” She said.

“Alright then, you go colour me a lovely picture!” I put her back down on the floor, and watched her dart into the living room, and begin colouring in a new picture. I left her to it, while I made dinner. I prepared her a meal of lettuce and banana, so she could have something different, and just microwaved a ready meal for myself. I was too tired to cook properly.

“Come on Dashie, it's dinner time!” I called to her, as she kept on drawing. She smiled, and dropped the crayon she had been holding, and jumped up onto her chair.  I put the plate down in front of her, and she began to nibble quietly at her lettuce and banana.

“Did you have fun today, Dashie?” I asked her, as I ate my lasagne.

“Yes, thank you Daddy. I played some more of my racing game, and then coloured in lots of pictures of cars!” She giggled, and nibbled at some more of her lettuce. I noticed she wasn't eating as much as usual, so I thought she might be thirsty.

“Would you like a drink with your dinner?”  I asked her.

“Yes please! could I have an orange juice?” She said to me, as she picked up a piece of banana.

“Sure thing, I'll go get it, darling.” I put my dinner next to me, and went to get an orange juice out of the fridge. I came back and gave it to Dashie, putting the straw in for her. She had nearly finished her dinner now, and started supping on the straw, making cute little faces as she did so.  

After a few more minutes of nibbling, she'd had enough, and pushed the plate away. I took it from her, and washed up. I was a little concerned she didn't eat all of her food, but I let her be, maybe she just didn't fancy the lettuce tonight. It wasn't as fresh as it could have been.  As I was drying the plates, Dashie came over holding her empty juice box. She dropped it by my feet.

“Here you go Daddy! It's for the... the... recycwing people!” She said, struggling with her words. She'd made leaps and bounds on her vocabulary as of late, and I was so proud.

“Thank you Dashie.” I said, that's very kind of you. I washed up the rest of the plates, and went to empty the bins outside. I left Dashie to play in the living room, while I carried the bins out to the gate. By the time I was done, Dashie had disappeared from her drawing, so I went to check she was okay. She seemed in a funny mood tonight.

I went into her bedroom, and couldn't see her in there. I checked the bathroom, my own bedroom, and the living room again, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Dashie?” I called out. “Dashie, where are you?”

“In here Daddy!” I heard her voice cry back, and followed it into the hall. It sounded like it came from her bedroom. I stuck my head inside the door, but still couldn't see her.

“Dashie, are you in here?” I called out, and as I did so, she emerged from under the bed, grinning.

“There you Are! Come on, let's go play some more of your video game. I bet you want to show me your new skills!” She nodded and ran into the living room, turning the console on with her nose. She sat down at her steering wheel, and started a race. As she sat racing, I was interested by what she had been doing under her bed.

I looked back into the living room, and saw she was focused on the race, so I ducked into her room to take a look under her bed.

I hated the fact I was prying into her personal belongings, but something felt off when I came home. It felt like she was keeping a secret from me. I shut the bedroom door, and bent down to look under her bed. Hidden right at the back was a small shoe box, with the lid half off. I reached under and pulled it out.

As I removed the lid, I saw a huge amount of sweets and chocolate bars hidden inside, and even more empty wrappers littered inside the bottom of the box.

It looks like Dashie has been hiding sweets. This explains why she wasn't hungry, she's been filling up on sweets all day. I picked the box up, and took it out into the living room with me. Dashie sat cheering at the game as she won.

“Daddy, are you gonna come race me now?” She asked, looking round at me. As she did so, she saw me holding her shoe box. She started looking worried, as I put it down in front of her.

“Dashie, what's this?” I asked. She looked at it, and then looked up at me, sad faced. Her secret had been found out.

“Have you been taking sweets without permission?” I said, stern faced. I was annoyed she had been taking them when I was out at work, let alone hoarding them in her room.

“I haven't Daddy. I didn't know that box was there, honest! It was under my bed already!” She answered, starting to weep. She covered her eyes with her hooves, ashamed of herself.

“Rainbow Dash. You know better than to steal, and to fill up on sweets all day. You need to eat properly.  I'm very disappointed in you right now. As punishment, you are not getting any more sweets for two weeks.”

I bent down to pick the box up and put it away in the cupboard, when she leapt up, reached into the box and snatched an unwrapped chocolate bar, running into her bedroom again and kicking the door shut behind her. I heard her crying from inside her bedroom.

I would have chased her and taken it back, but I decided to leave her alone to think about what she had done for now. I took all the sweets out of the cupboard and hid them in my bedroom. I wasn't going to let her take any more without me knowing.  

After about an hour, I went and knocked on her door. “Can I come in please?” I asked, only there was no answer. I slowly opened the door and walked in, and found Dashie sat under her bed, licking the chocolate from the wrapper. She saw me looking in, and turned away, hiding her shamed face.

“Dashie. You should know that taking chocolate without asking isn't allowed, and eating chocolate instead of a proper meal isn't good for you. Now, lets put this behind us. Come on out so I can give you your bath, and put you to bed.”

I reached under the bed and picked her up. As I got out, and turned her over, she was crying.

“I'm sorry Daddy. I just wanted some more sweets. They were so tasty. I won't take any more, I promise.” She said, and covered her face again.

“That's all I wanted to hear, darling.” I lifted her to my face and kissed her on the end of her nose, and gently stroked her mane again, calming her down. “Come on, let's get you washed and to bed.”  

I put her in the sink and gave her a longer than usual bath, leaving her to soak and relax for a bit. I dried her off, and read her a bed time story on the sofa, to reassure her she was still safe with me. She fell asleep in my arms halfway through, so I carried her to bed and gently tucked her in. I hoped she would be in a better mood in the morning.

Next Chapter: Dashie's Scare Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes