Revelations.
The foals ravened through the dinner and sighed very relieved, as Gentle levitated their plates with just left over crumbles from the table.
“I hope you liked the meal.
If you want to, please go to Slights room
and I'll bring you juice or lemonade in a little while.”
Gentle faced every foal once, Scootaloo looked back with an illegible expression on her face, Lilly smiled back with a subtle blush on her face and started to twist her pigtails as she noticed the look and finally Slight cocked his head inquiring. Gentle smiled back to Lilly and stepped closer to the table. He turned over to Scootaloo and smiled gently, but the filly didn't notice and pushed a crumb with her hooves back and fourth. As Slight bumped against the table, she snapped out of her thoughts and startled up with a suppressed yelp.
“I should help you, shouldn't I?
That's my chores this week, isn't...”
The colt looked to the sink, but Daddy Gentle smiled and shook his head. He laid a hoof around his neck, nuzzled his face gently and whispered to the squeaking foal.
“Just go with your friends. I'll handle this.
Show your friends your room and play a game as long as they want to stay.”
The colt pushed himself away from the tickling nose, giggled and turned over to the other fillies. Lilly smiled gently and stood up. Scootaloo on the other hoof appeared to be distracted or better irritated and was looking around in kitchen.
“I...I should go...”
Before Scootaloo was able to say something else, Slight had pulled her on the hooves and out of the kitchen with a wide smile. Lilly was helping him with one hoof and snickered a little, so Scootaloo simply couldn't resist both foals and sighed bugged. Gentle looked after the two giggling and one sighing foals and saw a real strange expression on the face of the last one. Scootaloo looked to the stallion and bit her lips, as she had to suppress a question and looked away quickly after their eyes met. Slight didn't catch it, because he pulled her with the unnoticed help of Lilly further out of the kitchen. His excitement grew more and more and he even danced on the spot as he arrived his door.
The foals entered and ran almost into Dad Star. The stallion just levitated the last toys out of the last box and turned over to the foals. He smiled to Slight, looked then to Scootaloo, who faced him with a mixed expression, halfway irritated and halfway guarded. The stallion cocked her head and smiled gently to her, but Scootaloo turned her head away and drew nervously circles on the ground with one hoof. Shining faced Lilly at last, nodded and put the toys away in the closest closet. The closet wasn't completely filled with toys, the three highest shelves were full with books instead. This was very practical for a unicorn, because of the easy access for the books, but for a pegasus, who couldn't fly just now, was it a rather silly arrangement in the first place. The other closets in the room were arranged in the same manner and on all three shelves were books over the closed doors. The solution for this kind of problem stood on the last closet, a wheeled ladder. Shining closed the door, came closer to the fillies and raised a hoof to lay it down on Scootaloos side.
The filly ducked and jumped away, bumped into the closet so hard, that she lost her breath and the books on the shelves slipped and started to fall down on the foals. Scootaloo tried to jump out of the way of the bookslide, but wasn't fast enough to avoid it totally. Slight stood still very afraid and couldn't react in time, but Lilly could and did indeed. She jumped to both, pulled Scootaloo at her side, knocked Sllight over and shielded both smaller foals with her own body. She was even able to protect her head with the hooves, so no book would hit it. But not one book actually hit her, because Shining was almost as fast as her. He caught the whole bookslide with his magic, levitated it over the foals and let the books hit the floor with a bang, struggling with the weight of them.
“What do you do in the name of Celestia.”
He breathed heavily and sounded very angrily. He glared at the half shielded pegasusfilly and stamped his hoof on the ground once. Scootaloo ducked her head, tried to get out of Lillys protecting body to flee, but couldn't move the earthpony with ease, so she just laid under her very stranded. Shining took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead with one hoof. He stroke drops of sweat away and helped then to untie the struggling foals. He put a hoof gently on Lillys side and the cowering filly blushed a little bit. She let loose of both foals and crawled slowly and gently away from them.
At this time they all heard four galloping hooves and Gentle rushed into the room. He looked at Shining, who put Lilly on her hooves with his magic right now, then to the shivering ball of fear, who was his own colt. Slight cuddled against the next filly, who tried to push him away and at the same time tried to put on an apologetic expression. But she couldn't do either the one, nor the other. Slight pressed himself so close to her, that she sighed finally and laid a gentle hoof on his mane. She opened her mouth, but as Slight gripped her tighter, he accidentally touched the spot she had hit the closet with and Scootaloo squeaked and flinched away. This suppressed scream snapped Slight back into reality and he opened his eyes again. He felt a big hoof on his side and saw Daddy Gentle on his side and a giant mess of books behind him. Scootaloo jumped on her hooves and tried to gallop out of the room quickly, but Gentle caught her with his magic on the threshold of the room.
“Wait, please.”
“Let me go...I...it...”
The filly screamed and struggled in the magic, fought it and tried to get away. Shining sighed and looked to a confused looking Gentle. The other foals were even more confused and Slight opened his mouth to whisper a question, but Gentles calm voice sounded first.
“Hey, we mean no harm.
We just want to see if you are hurt.”
Scootaloo stopped struggling against the magic and gave the stallion a wide eyed look of shock or surprise. She chewed on her lips and turned her head away from him, struggling for words but finally just nodded after a few incomprehensible mutters. She took a deep breath and tried to speak again.
“I'm fine, okay. Let me go!”
This sounded a little bit harsh, but Gentle smiled any way and nodded too.
“Alright, I will.
But don't run away. Please.
I must make sure your injuries aren't worse than you think.”
Scootaloo pouted and sighed, but nodded again. Gentle levitated her slowly to Slight's bed and laid her gently dowen on it. As he let the magic fade away, the filly trembled a little bit, but stayed there. Slight snapped out of his confusion, stepped hesitantly or snoopy closer and laid a hoof on Scootaloos trembling ones. His eyes stared into hers and he nuzzled her encouraging with his nose. Scootaloo tried to turn away her head first, but as she saw his worried face, she stopped and closed her eyes as he nuzzled her. Lilly twisted her pigtails again and mumbled a quick thank you in Shinings direction. The stallion responded with a friendly smile and levitated the books back to the shelves one by one. Gentle approached the bed slowly and let his eye wander over the little filly. Before he was able to raise a hoof to touch her, Shining laid a hoof on his shoulder and stopped him. He whispered, but everpony reacted.
“She doesn't like, to be...”
Gentle nodded, Scootaloo buried her blushing face in the pillow, Lilly turned her head away with a light blush too and Slight looked confused from one pony to another to understand what just happened. Gentle thought about it and nodded again. He smiled and cleared his throat.
“Alright, it doesn't look like, that you are severely injured.
Do you want to stand up and show me if you can walk without any problems and who you are...
What did you do in the first place?”
Scootaloo raised her head and stared confused to the smiling stallion beside the bed.
As he ended his speech, she blushed again and turned her head away. Shining took a deep breath and pulled Gentle a little bit closer to him. He drooped his head and sighed.
“It was...”
Scootaloo started slowly, but was soon interrupted by a male voice.
“It was my fault actually.
I didn't watch out and have frightened her.
I'm sorry.”
The drawing of the circles and the avoiding look were so sudden, that Scootaloo blushed even further and started to draw circles on her own and made a mess of the blanket under her. Slight wanted to disagree with it, first, but Dad Star shook his head and he closed his mouth again. Gentle looked over every foal and shooed Shining out of the room. The stallion smiled around and went out. As the stallion had finally left, Scootaloo crawled from the bed and stood up. Gentle beheld her walking and jumping around in the room and smiled, as she become more confident and grinned at him. It was a pretended grin, but after all a nice step into the right direction. Before the filly was too confident and hurt herself in the process, Gentle stopped her with one sentence.
“Wait you're getting a real big bruise there.”
Scootaloo followed his pointing and spotted the bruise. She even sensed the pain as she eyed it up. The filly strengthened herself, put on a smile and waved aside the concerns.
“Pf, that's nothing. I get worse bruises every time I ouch...”
Slight had approached her unnoticed, laid a hoof carefully on the bruise and was jerking away, as Scootaloo jumped away from him. The filly jumped against Gentles legs, tried to flinch away, but couldn't find another spot, so she ducked down besides the stallion. Gentle looked over her darting eyes and her nervous prancing with a worried expression on his face and sighed finally. He took a few steps back and laid down on the floor, as far away from her as possible. The filly eased off a little bit, but stayed in an alarming pose, ready to flee if needed.
“Slight you shouldn't do such a thing.
And you know this.”
His rebuke was only whispered, but the colt blushed any way and drooped his head. He drew circles on the ground and mumbled an apology.
“I'm sorry, Scootaloo.
I mean no harm.
But I can't believe, that this doesn't hurt.
And I just wanted to help.”
Scootaloo sighed and looked to the only other filly in the room, who stayed silence and wrinkled her pigtails. Lillys look back wasn't quite as confused, but equally guarded instead. As Scootaloo looked at her, she smiled gently and twisted a pigtail in her hoof. She looked to Gentle and was able to ask a question finally .
“Are you...a doctor?”
The stallion looked at her just now and smiled friendly. He glanced shortly to his Cutie Mark, a smiling foal under a great yellow sun and nodded.
”Well, yes. I've been a filliatrist, a foal doctor in Canterlot.”
He frowned for a moment, but a smile returned quickly as he faced Scootaloo again. The filly sighed, looked to the other foals and stepped slowly closer to the lying stallion. She turned sideways and showed him the bruise. As the stallion leaned in and she felt his breath on her flank, she closed her eyes, as like as she had to prepare herself to being touched by him. A few moments later she felt his warm breath on her side, blushed and shivered. He didn't touched her, so she looked away and put on an other pretended grin.
“I think you're needing just an ice pack.”
Slight breathed out very relieved and ran out of the room with a loud cry.
“I'll get one Daddy Gentle.
Would you pleas help me, Lilly. I'm too small to reach the medicine chest on my own.”
Before the other filly was able to answer, the colt pulled her out of the room.
Gentle examined pensively the filly in front of him. Something was off with her and this started an alarm in his head. He had been a filliartrist way too long to not see this kind of warning signs. This kind of “on guard pose” from the filly was way to obviously a try to protect herself, that he could ignore it without any worrying. Her hooves on his side were tightened and shivered a little bit. The filly tried to suppress it indeed, but simply couldn't stop it. This couldn't be just a coincidence. These sort of hints weren't often seen in Canterlot and he could misinterpret them, but the filly was way to be anxious to not let a stallion touch her, that it...
Before he was able to ask the question, who lingered in his mind, he felt something around his neck. Scootaloo had laid both hooves around him and hugged him, This action let forgot him all his presumptions for a moment, since the filly wouldn't do such a thing if they were correct. Even the question vanished from his mind for a moment. Another feeling took over, a worried feeling. The filly trembled and looked at him with a strange expression. It was a halfway smile, mixed up with an odd kind of hope? A plea?
Gentle answered the hug only half hearted and laid his head nearby the twitching ears.
“Why are you so nervous, Scootaloo?”
The filly let him loose, flinched a few hooves away and stared at him very scared. Her eyes wandered away from his face, over the bed, over the ceiling and found finally the floor as the most interesting place in this room. She breathed in faster and faster and wiped over her body with both hooves in an attempt to calm herself down.
“Me and nervous, pff.
I'm just...uhm...”
Thankfully Lilly and Slight returned right now and the filly could easily avoid every question from the stallion, simply by staying by the foals. Gentle stayed for a while and watched her carefully, he took every little action, cool or not, every word and anything else in account. Scootaloo tried to compensate her earlier mistakes in this way, but the stallion didn't buy any of her diversions.
“No. No I just wanted to...uhm I thought, you know...”
She looked around, hounded and a little bit scared and looked finally back to him. The stallion smiled gently and nodded. He interrupted the stammering filly and stood up.
“Well.
Just pick up your game.
I'll get some lemonade and cookies and will return soon, okay?”
Slight cheered, as he heard, that Daddy Gentle wanted to bring some cookies and pulled both friends closer to the closets. He opened the first door and giggled. There were the games. Daddy Gentle stood up and left slowly the room meanwhile. He looked to Scootaloo as he closed the door, but the filly avoided his look. He left the door ajar and went into the kitchen. Slight put the first box in his hooves and read the title.
“Well, what do you want to play?
Uh, Maneopoly eventually?”
Lilly stammered an answer, but Scootaloos mind was way too far away to answer. She stared to the door instead. She snapped back to reality not till Slight put a hoof on her side. Scootaloo stammered an apology and put on a pretended smile again.