//------------------------------// // What's A Sleepover? // Story: The Sibling Guardian // by Night-Shade //------------------------------// As Scootaloo and her friends left the school house they saw some of their classmate’s parents or siblings waiting for them which included Rarity and Applejack standing under the shade of a nearby tree exchanging gossip. Rainbow Dash was also hovering next to them but not looking very interested in what was being discussed. Scootaloo rushed over and jumped as high as she could with her wings buzzing and glomped Rainbow Dash’s fuzzy chest. She always loved it when she hugged Rainbow or when Rainbow hugged her. Rainbow's fur was always so soft, the only other pony she knew such soft fur was Vinyl Scratch. Vinyl was technically her mom by adoption, but she had always been more of a big sister. “Hi Rainbow!” she exclaimed, hugging her as tightly as she could. Rainbow Dash merely chuckled and squeezed the filly in a loving embrace. “Hey squirt. How was school?” she asked. Scootaloo wrinkled her nose, stuck out her tongue in distaste and said, “It was so boring. It was only the first day of the new year, we never do much the first few days. But we always seem to do math first.” Rainbow just started laughing. Her friends had trotted over in the meantime and gave their respective sisters a greeting and a hug. The twins were standing a bit to the side with identical expressions of awe on their faces. They probably didn’t expect to see even one Element Bearer but now there were three just standing there casually outside their school. Even more jaw-dropping was that their new friends seemed to be their sisters. Scootaloo wanted to burst out with laughter but her attention was drawn back to Rainbow Dash as she put her down on her own hooves. She looked up at Rainbow Dash with a pout. Rainbow only smirked and gave her a quick wink. She understood this for what it was, Rainbow didn’t have a problem carrying her but she wanted to maintain her image of coolness in front of everypony. She knew that if they were alone Rainbow would have put her on her back and gone for a quick flight. The twins were still standing a bit off to the side, they looked as if they wanted to come over and talk but were still a bit shy. Clear Breeze looked a little like Fluttershy did when she tried to hide in her mane. Scootaloo stifled another laugh at that and waved them over. They hesitantly came closer and waited with bated breath as the three mares looked them over. Applejack smiled at them while Rainbow Dash looked at them critically with an experienced flyers eye, probably trying to determine how well they could fly. Rarity on the other hoof gasped and exclaimed. “O darlings! You must allow me to design you both a dress.” The two young fillies both backed up a step and glanced at each other as this strange mare walked around them talking to herself about cut and colors. Rarity was off in her own world as she walked around the twins and continued to mutter. She was broken out of train of thought when Rainbow Dash laughed loudly holding her stomach. Applejack was holding a hoof to her mouth trying to keep from laughing at the look on the twins faces. “Don’t mind my sister you two,” said Sweetie Belle. “She does this kind of thing a lot.” The twins both had expressions of relief on their faces. “O my gosh darlings! I am so terribly sorry, but I had an idea!” Rarity sang the last word. She looked at their light purple coats, two tone light green manes and tails again and said, “Please forgive me for my outburst, but I really want to fit you both for a dress. Your mane, tail and coat colors will work perfectly with my latest design.” “Now just hold on a minute sugercube,” said Applejack. “Ah know ya get mighty excited about them ideas for new designs and stuff, but ya don’t even know their names yet.” “O my gosh Applejack you're right. How could I be so thoughtless,” Rarity exclaimed. “What are your names darlings?” The twins glanced at each other and looked back at Rarity. “I’m Windy Skies!” The filly on the left loudly proclaimed with confidence. “My name is Clear Breeze,” the filly on the right said with a soft tone. Rarity almost had to strain her ears to hear the quiet tone of Clear. All of them were reminded of Fluttershy when she spoke. Scootaloo jumped between the twins and put a wing over both of their backs. “They are new ponies in school this year and they are already our new friends. We also made them Cutie Mark Crusaders and we will help them find their cutie marks!” exclaimed Scootaloo. Applejack and Rarity smiled with a bit of trepidation as visions of the disasters of numerous crusades flashed through their minds. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof belted out her rough laugh again and had to wipe a tear from her eye. “This is gonna be so awesome!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “They are gonna wreck so much stuff again.” Rainbow was chortling while the Crusaders looked embarrassed as they thought back on all the bad things they had done accidentally over the years. They didn't mean to break things or get a few ponies hurt, it just happened. Rarity raised her nose a bit at Rainbow’s cavalier attitude, sniffed and said, “I hope you girls have learned your lesson after all the things you had done to the ponies and town.” Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle all looked at the ground and sheepishly scuffed their hooves along the ground. They spoke in unison, “Yes Rarity.” “Hmm…” Rarity said with narrowed eyes. Light hoof-steps drew their attention towards the path leading towards town as a dark grey colored pegasus colt walked towards them. The twin’s eyes lit up and they rushed at him. Clear jumped onto his back and settled down there nuzzling and hiding her head in his black mane. Windy simply glomped his chest and hugged him with her forelegs reaching around his neck as far as they could go. Shadow simply smiled and gave windy a neck hug. He then lifted his head and turned it slightly towards his back while lifting a shoulder and giving Clear a light hug as she was still on his back. The three grown mares gave a gentle smile at this touching scene while the Crusaders lightly giggled. The twins heard the giggling and immediately jumped off and away from Shadow with identical blushes on their faces. “And who might this handsome young colt be?” Rarity asked the twins. “This is our brother, Shadow,” replied Windy. O crap! Three Element Bearers! What happened? “How was your first day of school?” asked Shadow. His tone was soft but they could all hear his voice clearly. He was extremely nervous and even afraid, but he hid it well. Considering that there were three Element Bearers currently looking at him and his sisters he felt it was a reasonable reaction. “It was okay, I guess. We didn’t do much, just a bit of math. That was easy enough though.” said Clear Breeze. Shadow nodded and stroked his sister's mane with his muzzle with a hum. He looked up and saw the cute orange pegasus filly he had seen with the twins that morning standing next to the one and only Rainbow Dash. So, I was right about her. But now there are two others as well. Looks like all three of them are sisters of the Bearers. Damn! This is getting complicated fast. I hope I can stave their curiosity and attention off for long enough. But if not, no big loss, it seems that Windy and Clear will be fine if everything were to come out right now. Whatever comes, I sure as Tartarus will try to stay with them for as long as possible. As his attention was drawn back to the orange filly, he could see her giving him a curious look every few seconds. He saw that Rainbow Dash had seen this and was smirking at the little filly. He suddenly realized that it was not curiosity but attraction. She likes me? How? We had only seen each once before. Wait a minute. It’s probably only a crush. Hmm… interesting, but could cause even more problems in the near future. However, I’m going to go along with whatever happens and let the chips fall where they may. I know my sisters berate me for not having any friends. They will probably tease me everyday for this but l don’t care. I am already so alone. Maybe, just maybe something good can come from this. As he was talking to himself Scootaloo was looking at him every few seconds. She was trying not to stare at him and make it obvious to the others that she had a crush on him. Rainbow Dash saw this easily as she knew the filly very well and snickered softly so that only Scootaloo heard her. Mortified and blushing she looked up her hovering idol and big sister. Rainbow Dash lost her composure at the look of horror on Scootaloo’s face and dropped to the ground, landing on her back and laughing boisterously with her legs and hooves kicking in the air. “What’s so funny Rainbow?” asked Applejack. Rainbow Dash righted herself after a few more laughs and was about to reply but looked down at her little sister to see her begging her not to say anything. Scootaloo was giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes she had ever seen, her lip was even quivering. “Ugh, fine… please just stop with those eyes.” she whispered to Scootaloo. Scootaloo perked up again and gave Rainbow Dash a loving nuzzle. “It was nothing Applejack,” said Rainbow Dash. Applejack raised an eyebrow but let it go. Everypony was looking on in confusion as Scootaloo glanced at Shadow with embarrassment again. He was looking at her, her eyes went wide as she saw the look in his eyes. He knew! He knew she was looking at him before. He gave her a slow exaggerated wink. Her mouth fell open and the brightest blush she had ever had erupted on her face and even her ears and neck turned red, it made her look more like a tomato than a pony. All of the ponies in their little group saw this and broke out in loud laughter. The only two who were not laughing were Scootaloo and Shadow. Her blush was slowly fading as anger took over in her heart. She then saw him give her a small genuine smile. She realized he was not being malicious and really meant that wink. Her blush broke out in full again as the rising anger was replaced by a warm fuzzy feeling in her chest. She was a bit confused as to what this feeling was. She looked up at Rainbow and opened her mouth to ask but snapped her muzzle shut again as she realized that she had forgotten there were other ponies around. She knew she could not ask her sister about this here, she had to wait until they were alone. This was actually not that bad a thing as she remembered that they had had a flight training session scheduled after school. She resolved to ask Rainbow about it then. The tension was broken as Sweetie Belle gave a sharp gasp. “Rarity, can they come for the sleepover too? Please!” Sweetie Belle asked her sister as she gave her the biggest puppy dog eyes she could. Rarity sighed as she thought about the dreaded sleepover the Crusaders had been begging her to host for the past month. “O alright! If they get permission from their parents then it won’t be a problem,” Said Rarity. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Sleepover Yay!” the three Crusaders squealed in unison. The twins frowned at each other for a moment but none of the others noticed. “What’s a sleepover?” Clear asked her sister quietly. Windy just shrugged with a confused look on her face. But they seemed eager to spend more time with their new friends, so they would go along with whatever the hay a sleepover was. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at the twins with expressions of hope. They really wanted their new friends to come. They knew they could use this sleepover as a means to try and find the twin’s cutie marks. Rarity and Applejack glanced at each other and frowned as both of the twins turned to their brother and just stared at him with pleading eyes. Why would they ask their brother and not their parents for permission and how did a colt only a few years older then them have the right to decide that for them? The colt kept looking at them for a few more moments before he transferred his eyes to Rarity and narrowing them slightly as if he was appraising her. Rarity looked a bit affronted at the bold gaze of a colt looking at her like that, but kept her composure and lifted her head a little higher as if she was a true upper-class Canterlot mare. Applejack and Rarity could see the colt considering and Rarity sighed softly with relief as he looked back at the twins and gave a small nod of assent. The twins squealed and gave him a big hug, he merely smiled down at them lovingly and turned his gaze upon Rarity. “Will you be providing them with dinner Lady Rarity?” asked Shadow. They could all clearly hear him as he spoke in the same soft voice as before, even though there were still a few other parents with foals making noise in the background. “But of course, darling!” exclaimed Rarity. Shadow nodded and asked, “What time should I deliver them to the boutique Lady Rarity?” “My my, what manners. Anytime after six, darling,” replied Rarity with a bright smile. Shadow gave her a respectful bow of his head and a smile, then tilted his head back towards the town at his sisters and started walking. His sisters waved at the gathered ponies and followed their brother. After they were gone from sight Scootaloo realized that she had forgotten something. She had wanted to quietly tell Rainbow about her suspicions that his wings were broken. She wanted to see if she was right and try to figure out why he would walk around with that kind of pain every day. But it had completely gone out of her head as soon as she had seen him. She didn't even think Rainbow had noticed his wings at all. She had not even inspected his wings as she had with the twins. Why would she not do that? She does it with every other pegasus she sees. It's like she couldn't even see he had wings. “Did you see his cutie mark?” asked Sweetie Belle. Her two crusader friends looked at her then back at the path to town that Shadow and his sisters had taken. That’s two things I forgot. Scootaloo thought, her eyes widened as she realized that she had not even once so much as looked at what his cutie mark was. “It was just a plain old silver shield,” said Apple Bloom. “I know, but aren’t you curious how he got it?” asked Sweetie Belle. “Not really, but it could be an interesting story,” replied Apple Bloom. Scootaloo didn’t say anything to her friends but she knew she would like to know how he got his cutie mark. Two of the three Element Bearers walked away with their respective sisters. The third one flew. Scootaloo was riding on Rainbow Dash’s back as they flew to the park for their training session. She had quite a few questions to ask her big sister. Rarity and Sweetie Belle walked sedately to the boutique. Rarity had a few more dresses to modify for clients and Sweetie had homework. Applejack and Apple Bloom walked back to Sweet Apple Acres for their work and chores/homework respectively. Applejack had had a funny feeling about the colt and had kept her eyes on him as he and his sisters left. She had seen a flash of something in his eyes, when he had first looked at him. It only lasted for a brief moment before it was gone. But she knew she had seen something strange. She vowed to keep a very close eye on him as she felt that he was hiding something. She didn’t know what is was but she was going to find out.