//------------------------------//
// I - Being Watched 
// Story: Mare Magnet 
// by Revenant Wings 
//------------------------------//

	“Rumble!” the dark grey Pegasus called down the hallway.  “Rumble!  What are you doing?”
A voice came from the back of the house, through a door cracked slightly open on one side.  “I’m trying to do my homework!  Miss Cheerilee wants this book report done by tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Thunderlane called back.  “Can you come out for one minute so I can tell you something?”
A light-grey head with a darker mane and violet eyes popped out from the door and stared quizzically at Thunderlane.  “What is it?”
“I’ve been called in for weather duty at Ponyville,” Thunderlane said, quieting down from the shouting.  “I don’t know how long this storm will last, but I need to be there to help get clouds into position for the rain and to help disperse them when the storm’s over.  Since I wasn’t given a time frame, I’ve asked Flitter and Cloudchaser to come over and watch you and the house.  If you have any troubles with your homework, both are really smart and should be able to help you out.”
“Okay.  What about dinner?”
“Cloudchaser said she’s stopping by the sandwich shop and Sugarcube Corner for dinner for the three of you.  I gave her your usual order of a daffodil and daisy sandwich, add carrots and mustard.”
“Thanks, brother.”
“You’re welcome.  They’ll be coming in five minutes.  I’ve told them to call inside to let you know they’re here.  Be in bed by ten, okay!”
“Okay.  Bye, Thunderlane!”
“See you later, Rumble.”  And the dark grey pegasus left the house, leaving Rumble to himself.
Rumble didn’t mind.  The pegasus colt hadn’t been stalling on the book report, but he did want the time to add a few more things he thought he missed.  Then there was the math homework he needed to do, as well.  Rumble went back to his desk and grabbed the pencil in his mouth again before setting himself back to work as the sounds of a Canterlot symphony came from the CD player in his room.
A few minutes later, there was a few knocks on the door.  Rumble, remembering his brother’s instructions, kept quiet and continued working.  The knocks returned, and still Rumble didn’t get up.  After a few moments of silence, there came a voice from outside the house.
“Rumble!  It’s Flitter and Cloudchaser!”
At last, Rumble got up and left the room.  He trotted down the hall and over to the door, opening it to see two faintly-lavender pegasi mares standing just outside.  One had a lighter teal mane that fell down around her neck and shoulders, while the other had a lighter blue mane that was wild and went out in all directions.  The light teal mare was holding two bags in her mouth, while the light blue mare had two videotapes in hers.
“Hey, Flitter.  Hey, Cloudchaser,” Rumble said as he let the two pegasi in.
Flitter set the two bags on the counter and began shuffling through them.  “Hey, Rumble!  Thunderlane already left for weather patrol?”
“Yeah,” Rumble said as Cloudchaser went into the living room and started messing with the TV.
“I’m guessing he didn’t have time to fix dinner,” Flitter said, “since he called us to get dinner for all three of us on the way here.”
“You really think Thunderlane can cook?” Cloudchaser said as she found a program on Equestrian wildlife.  “He can hardly make a proper salad to save his life.  Didn’t he burn it once?”
Rumble giggled and nodded.  The giggling soon extended to Flitter, who Rumble noticed had a slight blush in her cheeks.  It soon disappeared and Rumble just figured that it was due to Cloudchaser’s comment about Thunderlane, who she had started dating a few weeks ago.  Rumble didn’t mind; he liked Flitter and was happy when Thunderlane had broken up with a brash pegasus mare a few months earlier.
“Well, you hungry?” Flitter asked, pulling out a few sandwiches and passing one to Rumble, who immediately inspected the contents.  It was a standard daffodil and daisy sandwich, with a few carrots added in and a small amount of mustard spread over the bread.  Flitter put the sandwich on a plate and gave Rumble a few of the potato chips she had picked up to go with it.
Cloudchaser walked over to the counter as Rumble took his plate to a cloud table nearby.  “Hey, squirt!” she said to Rumble.  “You got any homework?”
“Yeah,” Rumble said.  “There’s a book report and a math assignment due tomorrow.  I’m almost done with the book report, though.”
“Ah,” Cloudchaser said.  “Here’s some more incentive to finish: Flitter and I brought over two of the Daring Do films, including the adaptation of ‘Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue’!  Ever seen it yet?”
“I went to see it with Thunderlane in the theater, but I wanna see it again!”
Cloudchaser took her plate and sat down next to Rumble, tousling his mane with one of her hooves.  “Make sure you finish your homework, then!  And don’t forget either me or Flitter can come and help you if you need it.”
Flitter got her plate ready and the three ate their sandwiches while Flitter and Cloudchaser started talking about weather patrol, every once in a while adding a note to Rumble about something Thunderlane had done that he would find particularly cool, such as getting new personal records in cloud-kicking and leading teams in kicking thunder clouds to fight off enemies from the Everfree Forest that strayed too close to Cloudsdale or Ponyville.  Rumble found the stories cool, but he found it funny when Cloudchaser and Flitter started playfully arguing about who would tell him about what event.  Dinner ended before the arguments got too heated, and Rumble thanked Flitter and Cloudchaser for the meal before heading back to his room to continue his homework.
Back at his desk, Rumble added a few sentences to the book report and pushed it aside, glad to have gotten the major assignment out of the way.  Rumble went over to his saddlebag backpack and pulled out a book, a calculator, and a few pieces of paper before heading over to his desk to begin his math assignment.
Rumble hated math.  He liked almost every subject in school, but he didn’t like math.  It wasn’t that Miss Cheerilee was a bad teacher; it was just boring sitting around in class listening to his teacher describe how to add fractions or how to do long division.  His grades weren’t suffering, but only because he often got his brother to tutor him a few days before the test.  Rumble managed to make his way through four of the twenty problems on his math assignment before he felt his brain fry and became unsure of what to do.
“Flitter!” Rumble called.  “Cloudchaser!  Can one of you help me with my math assignment?”
There was a bit of silence as Rumble attempted to continue the problem, ignoring the shuffling, then scuffling, that was going on in the living room.  Eventually, Cloudchaser walked in, hair more messed up than it usually was and a small red mark on one of her shoulders.
“Math assignment, huh?” Cloudchaser said, looking over Rumble’s shoulder at the book and paper.  “Let’s see what you got… well, it looks like you’re going in the right direction, so what’s your problem?”
Rumble showed Cloudchaser the problem, and the mare began guiding the young colt through the next three problems, showing him how to do two of them and watching as he did the third on his own.  Rumble smiled and flapped his wings happily.
“Thank you, Cloudchaser!”
“You’re welcome, squirt,” Cloudchaser said, offering a smile back; her cheeks were redder than her sister’s were earlier at the dinner table.  “I was never that good at math either.  Keep it up and you’ll be smarter than your brother.”  Cloudchaser winked, then turned around and left the room.
Rumble’s smile changed into a confused stare as Cloudchaser left the room, unsure of what happened.  He shrugged after a minute and continued with his math homework, taking note of the clock on his dresser blinking to 7:30.  He continued on with the work as best as he could, remembering the steps Cloudchaser had shown him as he worked through each problem individually.
“Rumble!” the colt heard Flitter call.  “You’ve been in there for nearly two hours.  Are you done yet?”
Rumble looked at the clock and saw 7:45.  “I finished the book report,” Rumble called back, “but I’m still working on the math assignment.  I got half the problems done, now.”  And he started on the eleventh problem, wishing Thunderlane was there to help him.
There were a few moments of silence before a soft knocking came at his door.  Rumble turned around to see Flitter standing there.  “Me and Cloudchaser were gonna put in ‘Daring Do’ now.  Do you want to come out and relax a little before continuing?  We got some cookies from Sugarcube Corner for desert.”
Since he wasn’t the best at math already, Rumble normally would have declined and asked to save it for a little later when he was done.  However, no one could pass up one of the sweet treats from Sugarcube Corner, especially those made by Pinkie Pie, the expert in sweet-tasting goodies.  At that moment, Rumble heard Cloudchaser opening up the second bag and the smell of warm, fresh-baked cookies soon reached Rumble’s nose, the colt taking a deep sniff of the smell.
“I suppose a short break wouldn’t hurt.”
Rumble followed Flitter out to the kitchen where Cloudchaser was preparing napkins and a few glasses of milk.  Rumble took one of the napkins and a glass of milk Cloudchaser gave him and walked over to the living room, taking a seat on the couch as Flitter set up the video.  It wasn’t long before Rumble forgot about his math homework as he sat on the couch eating the cookies and drinking the milk, Flitter on one side and Cloudchaser on the other as he watched the tale of Daring Do play out before him.  A little bit later, Rumble got up during a quiet part to go use the restroom and took a short stop in the kitchen for a drink of water before returning.  As he left he glanced at the clock.
“Nine thirty!?” Rumble exclaimed.  “It’s nearly time for bed and I—”
“Rumble!” Flitter called.  “Are you okay?”
“I lost track of time!” Rumble said, wings flapping in panic so fast he started to float off the cloud floor.  “I need to finish my math homework, but it’s nine thirty and big brother wants me to be in bed by ten!”
“Oh, come on!” Cloudchaser said as she paused the Daring Do film.  “You do most of your other assignments, don’t you?”
“I do all of the assignments!” Rumble protested.
“Don’t worry about it,” Cloudchaser said.  “Homework is for making sure that you know how to do the stuff, and you were able to figure it out.  Besides, a few points loss isn’t going to hurt your grades too much.”
“But I only know because you showed me!” Rumble protested again.
“Oh, lighten up!” Flitter said, coming into the kitchen and pushing Rumble back into the living room.  “Cloudchaser’s right; a few points off one assignment isn’t going to put you in jeopardy.”
Rumble started flapping his wings as fast as he could and before Flitter could catch him the pegasus colt had turned into a grey blur that bolted back down the hall and into the bedroom before closing the door.  Rumble frantically picked up the pencil in his mouth and started working on the homework again.  He managed to get through three more problems before the knocks came again.
“Rumble!” he heard Cloudchaser call from outside the door.
Rumble tried to ignore Cloudchaser.  La la la… I can’t hear you… I need to do my homework…
“Rumble!” Cloudchaser called again.  “It’s ten fifteen.”
Rumble looked at the clock on his dresser and jumped in surprise when he noticed that Cloudchaser was right.  It was fifteen minutes past his bedtime, and who knew when Thunderlane would come home.  Rumble started picking up his homework and put it away in his pack, but before he could get his math put away Cloudchaser called again.
“I know your bro said bedtime was ten, but he’d understand if you were still up if we were helping you with your homework, wouldn’t he?”
Rumble paused.
“So, I’ll cut you a deal: you can stay up and finish your homework, but you have to come out with me and Flitter while we watch the other ‘Daring Do’ movie.  Think of it as having a little background noise while we finish and you get to finish your work.  You up for it?”
Rumble stopped.  Thunderlane would get mad at him for staying up much later, especially with school the next day.  However, being out in the living room with Flitter and Cloudchaser meant the two mares would be able to help him whenever he needed it and he might actually be able to finish his homework.
“…okay.  Give me a minute.”
Rumble gathered up his supplies as Cloudchaser opened the door, and the two made their way out to the living room.  Rumble set his paper down on the living room table and started to work, going through the problems as the next Daring Do movie played, having the slightest feeling that Flitter and Cloudchaser were watching him more than the movie.
After a short while, Rumble still had four problems left on the assignment, and one wasn’t even finished, but he could feel his head drop as it became later and later.  There was even one point where he sort of slumped over and laid his head down in the book, but propped himself back up and shook his head to stay awake.  Eventually, he felt a soft tapping on his back.
“You tired?” Flitter asked.
Rumble nodded.
“Here,” Flitter arranged herself on the couch until she was sitting with her back legs dangling off the couch; Rumble remembered Lyra sitting like that once on a bench down in Ponyville and getting a few amused stares.  “You can lay down here for a minute if you want.”
Rumble decided that sounded like a good idea and climbed up on the couch between Flitter and Cloudchaser, lying down in Flitter’s lap and closing his eyes as he felt Cloudchaser gently pet his grey coat.
“He’s so cute!” he heard Cloudchaser whisper excitedly above him.
“And his coat’s soft!” Flitter said.
“He’s probably cuter than Thunderlane,” Cloudchaser said teasingly.
“I’ll admit, it’s a close call,” Flitter said.
Rumble fidgeted a little in Flitter’s lap, trying to convince himself to stay up if only for a minute longer to finish his homework.  Laziness prevailed.  As did Cloudchaser singing.
Hush now, quiet now,
It’s time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now,
It’s time to go to bed…