//------------------------------// // Chapter 32 // Story: "Just Kiss Already!" And Other Rumbaloo Tales // by Candy-Sweets_12 //------------------------------// "Hey Scoots." Rumble said, coming up behind her. She looked away from her friends and smiled at him. "Hey Rumble." she said. "Anything you need?" "I wanted to invite you to dinner again." Rumble said. Scootaloo looked unsure. "I don't know. You have a wonderful and kind family and all, but, last time didn't turn out so well." "Yeah, it's because Thunderlane and Blossom Forth wanted to announce something, and Mom suggested that you'd come, since you're basically like family over there. She made Dad and Thunderlane promise that they would go light on the teasing this time." "I'm kind of used to it by now. I've blushed enough to put a tomato to shame." Scootaloo replied. "Alright then, so I'll see you tomorrow night at six?" "It's a date." "See ya then." "Again?" Scootaloo's mother asked, looking up from the dinner she was making. "Yes, Rumble's family invited me over for dinner at their house. Can I go please?" Scootaloo asked, leaning her weight on the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Sure, I don't have a problem with it, but you'll need to ask your father too." she said. "Thanks Mom," Scootaloo said. Scootaloo glided out of the kitchen. "Dad?" "I'm here, what is it sweetheart?" he asked, stepping out from the hall. "I wanted to ask you if I could go to Rumble's house tomorrow for dinner." she said. He furrowed his brow. "How come?" "Blossom Forth and Thunderlane are going to have an announcement, and she wanted me to be there." Scootaloo explained. "I'm fine with that, it's just," "You don't want me going over to his house." Scootaloo said expectantly. "Not that," he said to her surprise. "I just don't get to see you around that often anymore. You're either with your friends, or him." he said the word as though it was venomous. "the only times I see you are when you're heading to school, or coming home in the evening for dinner. I don't think I can handle that." "Handle what exactly Dad?" "Hardly seeing my daughter. I know that as soon as you graduate, you'll be headed off to the Academy, and I won't be able to spend so much time with my little girl anymore. It's like something's missing." he wiped a tear from his eye. "I want to spend whatever time there is left with you while I can." "It's just for one night Dad, no more than a couple of hours, I promise." Scootaloo said. Her father huffed. "Fine. But I want you here no later than eleven. Get it?" "Got it." Scootaloo quickly replied without thought. "Good." her father said. "Hello Scootaloo," Rumble's mother said, greeting her with a motherly smile. "Hello Mrs.-" "You don't worry about all that, you can just call me Storm from now on." she insisted. "Okay, Storm." Scootaloo said awkwardly. The mare giggled and led the two to the dinner table. Blossom Forth looked up from setting the plates down and gasped happily. "You came!" she said. "You didn't tell her?" Scootaloo asked, looking to Rumble. "Never got the chance to." Rumble shrugged. Thunderlane walked into the room, smirking once he looked over to Scootaloo. "Hey lovebirds." he greeted. Storm shot him a look. He walked over to Blossom Forth and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Dinner'll be ready in a second." Storm said, she went into the kitchen while everyone else sat down. Thunderlane and Blossom Forth sat across Scootaloo and Rumble. "How's it going for you two?" Thunderlane asked, leaning into his chair. "Pretty good, school's going pretty well." Scootaloo answered. "What about you little bro?" "Fine." Rumble answered. Thunderlane smiled. "Anything noteworthy?" "Not really, unless you think practicing for the Academy's noteworthy." Scootaloo asked. "What about you guys?" "Well, the wedding's quite a hassle, it's only a couple of weeks away and there's so much to do, so much to plan, but it'll be worth it, if it means marrying this guy." Blossom Forth looked over to Thunderlane and smiled. He responded by wrapping a wing around her. "And I can't wait to see you in that wedding dress." he said. "It's not so fancy, but I hope that you'll like it." Blossom Forth said. "Can I get a hint?" Thunderlane begged. "Nope." Blossom responded, "not breaking tradition." "Don't tell me you believe in that type of stuff." Thunderlane said. "You know very well that I do. And you're not getting a word out of me mister." Blossom teased. "Fine." Thunderlane said. Scootaloo couldn't help but giggle at the two. Just then, Rumble's mother came in holding a serving dish, and everyone sat up. "Okay, everyone, here it is." she set the dish on the table, where she revealed a ton of baked potatoes. Everyone oohed and awed at it before digging in. "This looks amazing Mrs.- I mean, Storm." Scootaloo said. She earned a giggle in response. "Oh it's nothing at all. You should see how well Rumble's father can cook, he's the better chef if you ask me." she said. "It's thill prethe gud though." Thunderlane said with a mouth full of cheese. "Aw, gross," Blossom laughed, leaning away from Thunderlane, who teasingly moved in closer with a full mouth. "So how are things going for you two?" Rumble's father asked. "Who are you referring to?" Rumble asked. "All four of you, you can start off first if you want to." "Things are going fine Dad," "What about you Scootaloo?" he asked, turning towards her. "Things couldn't have been better, now that I've got a few things worked out." Scootaloo said. "Oh? Were you having a bit of trouble with something before?" "I guess you could say that," Scootaloo shrugged, sneaking a wink in Rumble's direction. Who smiled back. "And you two, how are things in your new home?" Storm asked. "Well, we've been talking a lot, and, " Blossom looked to Thunderlane and silently whispered to him, while he just gestured his head with a smile towards everyone else. "Hold on, don't tell me." Storm asked. "you're pregnant, aren't you?" she asked. Thunderlane dropped his fork and started coughing, while everyone else looked to a now blushing Blossom Forth. "No!" She answered quickly, trying to calm Thunderlane, who was frantically drinking his water. "Thunderlane and I talked it over, and we thought about going back to Cloudsdale." she corrected. Now it was Rumble's turn to drop something, he nearly spilt all of his water on the floor from the sudden shock. "What?" he asked in disbelief. "We're moving little bro." Thunderlane managed to say, recovering from the earlier outburst. "That's...nice." Rumble said dully. "That's wonderful," his father said. "you two are moving to a great city ya know, there's going to be tons of opportunity's for you two." "Thanks Dad, though, we're gonna miss Ponyville a lot." Thunderlane said. Scootaloo turned away from everyone, who had their attention mainly on the other couple, and looked to Rumble, who was now picking away at his half eaten meal. He shifted his gaze to her without turning his head, in which she shot him a look that spelled, 'Are you alright?' he just turned his gaze back to the potato he was poking at. It seemed to have cooled down pretty quickly. "We're going to be moving at the beginning of the Summer, so right now, we're focusing on getting the wedding, while moving is just something we think about in our spare time." Thunderlane explained. "Of course, we'll come and visit when we get the chance to," Blossom assured everyone. "maybe one day, we'll bring someone else with us." she said dreamily. Thunderlane blushed and smiled, rubbing the back of his head. The ordeal caused his parents to laugh, though he didn't notice how Rumble didn't seem to be chuckling very much. Everyone continued with the conversation, no one but Scootaloo noticed Rumble's unusual silence. "Thank you for coming," Storm said, picking up the dishes. "Thank you for inviting me, Ma'am. Scootaloo said. "I better take her home now, see you when we get back." Rumble said. "See you later Scootaloo, feel free to stop by anytime." Storm called out. As soon as they were out of hearing distance, Scootaloo finally asked her question. "What. was. that?" "What are you talking about?" Rumble said. "You know exactly what I mean. You were pretty quiet tonight." "I just didn't feel like talking, I was too busy eating." "That half eaten meal says otherwise." Scootaloo replied. "Okay, you caught me, I wasn't in the best mood." "That's what I want to know, why?" "That seems to be your favorite question this month, you know that?" "Why Rumble?" Scootaloo repeated. "Why are you so concerned?" "Because you've helped me out with every problem I've come across since we started dating, and I've done zilch. I think it's about time you receive help for once." "Like payback?" "No, out of the kindness of my heart." "You don't have to do that Scootaloo." "But I want to. You've done so much for me, and I haven't done enough for you." "You were the only pony in town who would talk to me about anything other than a relationship before we started dating, and you said yes when I first asked you, I think that's enough." "Not for me. Now are you going to let me help you and stop avoiding my questions, or are you going to try and deal with it yourself?" Rumble paused. He really wanted to get some things off his chest, and Scootaloo seemed pretty intent on listening. You'd be a fool not to take this golden opportunity. "It's just that, since Thunderlane's moving away, I won't exactly have the older brother that's always been there for me, around anymore. He teases me a lot, and I ignore him a lot, we don't even see each other every day anymore. But, Ponyville wouldn't feel the same without him here. Ya know? I guess that it's because he always defended me when I was younger, and he's always pushing me to pursue my goals, he was the reason I even sat down on that bench when we first started talking again." Scootaloo was taken back by surprise, but she continued listening. "He'd always take me places, and come to my games for sports, even helped teach me to fly. But, since he's going away now, I guess that I'll feel...what's the word?" "Like something's missing." Scootaloo said softly. "Yeah. Exactly." Rumble said. They walked in silence for another minute or two before Scootaloo spoke up. "You know," she said, Rumble turned and looked to her. "You and my Dad are exactly alike. " "How?" Rumble questioned, taken back by what she said. "You both care about other ponies, other ponies you don't want to let go, even if you don't see them very often, or even acknowledge all the time. You're still going to miss him," "Actually, yeah, that's exactly how I feel." Rumble said. "It's all apart of life Rumble, you want Thunderlane to be happy right?" "Of course I do." "Then it's better to just accept it and move on, if he ends up living happily in the end, whether you're there or not, then you should be happy too." "Wow." "Wow, what?" "Hearing somepony else say that, actually makes a lot more sense to me. You're right. I should be happy." "Good." They stopped talking for another minute or two before continuing. "You know, I would've expected some sort of grudge against Blossom, and plans to trash her big day, from some cliché sitcom." She stopped and put a hoof to Rumble's mouth before he could protest. "But I know you never would." she smiled, already back to her old jokes. And not to his surprise, Rumble smiled back. "You're home early." Scootaloo's Dad huffed, looking up from the recliner. "Yeah, well, I felt like talking with you about something." Scootaloo said. She came in and sat on the sofa to the left of him. "What is it?" "I thought about what you said the other night, when you said I could eat at Rumble's, and, you're right." "I am?" her father asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, I spend more time out of my home than inside it, I should be sharing whatever time I have before graduating with you guys, and I'm clearly not on too much of a good start." "That would certainly be nice." her father agreed. "though, I wouldn't want to get in the way of you spending time with your friends or that 'coltfriend' of yours." he said 'coltfriend' as though it was foreign. "I know that, and I just wanted to thank you." "For what exactly Scootaloo?" "For putting my happiness before yours. I know you miss your little filly, and that I don't spend that much time with you anymore, but even then, you still let me live my life out happily, you have no rejections for me to live out my dream of being a Wonderbolt, and I'm thankful." she walked over and wrapped her arms around the surprised stallion. "Of course I'd do all of that sweetheart, but why the sudden change of heart?" "Let's just say that it took another point of view for me to understand how you a bit more." she said. "Well, I'm glad that I can support you in the ways I do." "It means a lot to me Dad." she then smiled and stood herself back up. "who knows, maybe Rumble and I can live that way." "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here," the stallion said. Scootaloo giggled. "Goodnight." she kissed him on the cheek before heading upstairs. "Daddy." she said, just loud enough for him to hear, and to bring a tear to his eye. 'Daddy,' he thought, shaking his head with a smile. 'it's been a long time since I was called that.' He looked back to the stairs, where Scootaloo had long disappeared into her room. 'Night my little filly.' he thought.