Not All Secrets are Worth Keeping

by Coyote Mustang

Sleepover Story Time

The young ponies raced around the house, going from one room to another in search of something to do. They eventually settled down in the living room, their sleeping bags littering the ground, as there wasn’t enough space in Stovebolt’s room to fit them all. The four of them spend the next couple hours talking about the others in the town, the things they have done, and even asked Stovebolt to talk about his cutie mark.

“Well, when we still lived in Neighbraska, I woke up super early one day and my Brother wasn’t awake yet. It was his birthday, and he had the day off so I decided to make him breakfast. However I was still very young and the toaster wasn’t having anything to do with cooking that day,” Stovebolt said as he began to reminisce about that day.

Stovebolt awoke at a time not suitable for a colt of his age to be up. He looked around his room, and after a while noticed the clock on the wall.

“5:32, I wonder if Cobra is up” Stovebolt said as he pushed the covers back on his bed and climbed out. He moved over to his bedroom door, and slowly pushed it open. The creak from the hinges of his door, to him, sounded like the crypt door from a monster movie opening, but in actuality the creak wasn’t that loud.

Stovebolt looked around the hall, and upon seeing no one out in it, he fully pushed the door open. He made his way down the hall, to the kitchen. As he rounded the corner, the smell of last night’s dishes hit his nose. The smell of poorly cooked spaghetti hung in the air, and the fridge offered no better smells as he opened it. Milk, weeks past its expiration date sat opened, causing the colt’s nose to wrinkle.

”Boy, we really need to clean this out,” Stovebolt said as he looked around the fridge, and upon seeing nothing worth eating closed the door and sighed. “We need groceries,” he said as he rounded the corner to another hall, this one leading to the front door.

In the hall, he found the bag of bits his brother always carried sitting on the hutch. He smiled to himself and thought, “I’ll go buy groceries, and then I’ll cook breakfast for us both.” This he thought would be the best birthday present a brother could ask for, breakfast in bed with his brother making it. Smiling, Stovebolt grabbed his satchel and his winter coat, and after securing them both tightly, grabbed the bag of bits and exited the house headed towards town.

The wind blow, causing the already cold and snow covered grounds and air to become just that bit colder. It was still early in the day, so many of the shops were still closed. But a couple of vendors were setting up for their days of business so he had some selection. After a short walk, he came upon the vendors and picked up the food items on his list; milk, eggs, fresh bread, cheese, brussel sprouts, and a laundry list of more items, to numerable to count. Stovebolt looked back at his list and noticed he had one thing left, and the amount of times it was circle noted that it was the most important item he had to get that day. He walked up to the bakery, looked at the selection of cakes, and then entered the store. The air in the bakery was warm and smelled of pies and cake, causing the colt’s stomach to growl. Nevertheless, he rang the bell on the counter and waited. After a while, a large blue pony walked out to the ring of the bell, and was immediately confused.

“Must have been my mind playing tricks on me,” he spoke out loud, as he turned around and walked back into his kitchen. Stovebolt, rang the bell again, and when the baker walked out again, he placed his hooves up on the counter, so as to not be over looked again.

“Excuse me sir but I would like to get a cake made for my brother. Today is his birthday,” he spoke as the baker noticed his tiny customer.

“Well, aren’t we an early riser,” The Baker said as he looked over the counter. “What kind of cake do you want, little guy?”

Stovebolt dictated to the baker the flavor of the cake, the frosting type, and what he wanted written on it. He waited for the baker to return with the cake, paid for it and after getting a string to hold the cake in its box; he grabbed it in his teeth and set off for home.

He arrived home just in time for the clock in the hall to ring, telling him it was 7 in the morning. Stove walked into the kitchen and placed all of the groceries he had bought onto the counter.

Stovebolt looked over the bags of groceries he had brought in then at the bag of bits he had used, “I think I spent too much today, Cobra isn’t going to be happy with all the money that has gone missing” he said thinking of his brother’s reaction. It wasn’t pretty, and would most likely involve a dictionary, but Stovebolt quickly threw that to the back of his mind as he set off to make his brother breakfast. He thought that if he made a great breakfast his brother wouldn’t be so harsh with him, only having to do a single letter of definitions. It took him a while to find the utensils in the mess of a kitchen, but after a few minutes he had a pan out and was cooking the eggs.

The eggs scrambled nicely, and after feeling that he did a good job on them, he set off to make the toast. The Bread went into the toaster, and after setting the dial to make it toasted but not black, he went to go grab a tray from the pantry. He wandered around the kitchen setting everything on the tray, from the plate of eggs, to a glass of milk and orange juice, and finally he went to go get the toast. As he approached the kitchen, the toaster that had been working previously had popped up, revealing uncooked bread.

“I guess I didn’t set it right” Stove thought as he looked at the dial. The dial was set to the correct temperature to toast the bread and after seeing this he pressed the toaster’s plunger down again, reseating the bread in between the coils.

Satisfied he’d fixed the problem he turned around, and began to place the food he had cookedonto a plate and that plate onto a tray. “Oh, I’m missing the apple juice” Stovebolt said as he walked across the kitchen to the fridge. He retrieved the bottle and was walking back then something caught his attention, the smell of smoke. StoveBolt looked up at the smoke trail, following it back and saw the toaster begin to spark and shoot flames from its openings.

“Oh Celestia” he said as he ran up to the toaster. He quickly grabbed it and unplugged it from the wall. The sparks stopped but the fire that had resulted continued to burn. StoveBolt had to act fast, “what was it you are supposed to do when this happens” he thought as the flames continued to grow.

He looked around the house and upon seeing the snow on the porch he had an idea. Stovebolt quickly ran to the door and after it was open, tossed the toaster into the snow bank.

The fire was put out, but the sound from the smoke alarm had already begun to blare. The loud siren screamed at him, and he knew that this would wake up him brother. Sure enough, CobraJet ran down the hall, fire Extinguisher in hoof. But as he entered the kitchen, he stopped shouting and looked at the situation in front of him. Stovebolt had his hooves under the water flowing from the sink faucet, having burned his hooves in the rescue attempt.

CobraJet walked up behind him and spoke, “StoveBolt, why are you up?” The colt looked back at his brother, tears beginning to form, and he soon was talking faster than his brother could keep up with. He explained the happenings of the morning, from the groceries, to the breakfast prep and ended with the toaster catching on fire.

“And then you woke up, because I did something stupid” he cried as he continued to sob.

CobraJet quickly grabbed his brother and pulled him into a big hug. StoveBolt was clearly thrown off guard, but before he could pull away, CobraJet spoke.

“I’m so surprised you would do all of that for me. That is by far the best present I have ever received. Thank you” He said as he slowly released his grip on his brother.

StoveBolt looked up at him through tear soaked eyes, and weakly smiled. ”You mean, you’re not mad?”

“Why would I ever be mad at you” his brother said as he turned to the toaster lying out in the snow.

“Now, I need to take this and we need to go downstairs into the basement so we can look at this.”

The two ponies walked through the kitchen stopped in front of the door to the basement. StoveBolt had never been down there, he was never allowed to. But his brother smiled at him and opened the door. They headed down the stairs, and came upon a large table with tools upon it. CobraJet placed the toaster on the table and grabbed a screwdriver.

“Cobra, why are you taking it apart? It’s broken, why don’t we buy a new one” StoveBolt asked as his brother began to unscrew the cover to the toaster.

After taking it off, he turned his attention to the insides, and spoke “that takes all the fun out of discovering the faults in its design.” And with that he diverted all of his attention to the broken appliance. Fourty five minutes passed, and Cobrajet grew evermore frustrated. “Confound this machine, where is the broken part” he said as he looked it over again.

StoveBolt sat at on the stool next to his brother spinning on its axis and after a while he saw his brother’s frustration. “Brother, why don’t you take a break, go get showered and dressed and comeback to it in an hour” he said as he looked at the contraption.

CobraJet looked at his brother and smiled, “You’re right, I’ll be back in a few.” Cobrajet ascended the stairs, leaving StoveBolt alone with the toaster.

“Stupid Toaster” he said as he eyed the internals, “nearly got me in trouble.” But slowly curiosity got the better of him, and he began to look at the parts in front of it.

He scanned the toasters parts, until he noticed something out of place. A small metal shaving was fused on the left side of the toaster’s heating coils and it was almost touching where the metal cover of the toaster used to be. He looked at it over and over again, and after seeing no other faults in the design, focused on this little piece of metal.

“Whatcha looking at” a voice said from in back of the young colt. StoveBolt swiveled in his chair to see his brother standing there, his mane still damp.

StoveBolt showed his brother the piece of metal, and after congratulating him on his help, he got up and began to climb the stairs again.

He stopped halfway and turned to his brother and spoke, “Well, aren’t you coming?”

The young colt was up the stairs faster than normal, but that was more out of needing to move than anything else. They walked up to the front door of the house and placed their coats on, and after they were both clothed, walked outside to talk to the pony that had sold them the bread.

It had turned out that the pony’s mixer was broken and some metal shavings had made their way into the bread he baked. “Oh Celestia, I am so sorry” the baker said as he scrambled to turn all of his machines off. He had asked to help pay for the toaster, but CobraJet had a better idea. “Actually, we both know that the toaster was just fine after we had taken the metal part off of the coil, but you need a new mixer to stay in business. I have a proposition for you, but only if you’re willing to do it” CobraJet said as he looked over the shop.

After they arrived home from their little foray into the world; they both sat down to eat a cold breakfast, happily this time without sparks flying from the toast. The two ponies laughed at the whole experience, but especially at the face of the bread maker when they asked to help him in purchasing a new industrial mixer as well as renovate the shop so it ran better. They continued to eat, until StoveBolt remembered the second part of his gift. He ran into the kitchen and retrieved the cake he had bought earlier and asked Cobra to close his eyes. Placing the cake in front of him with his magic and applying a liberal amount of lit candles to it, he told his brother to open his eyes and yelled happy birthday. CobraJet looked at the gift and smiled, and after another hug, they both sat down and spent the time they both had off talking and eating cake.

The CMC looked at the young pony, completely mesmerized by the story, so much in fact that they had neglected the hot chocolate that had been placed in front of them.

“That’s a cool story and all, but what does that have to do with your cutie mark?” Scootaloo finally said as she sipped her coco, and upon realizing it was cold, swallowed but never drank from the glass again.

“Pretty much nothing, but it’s a cool story to tell” StoveBolt said as he laughed. StoveBolt, AppleBloom, and Sweetie Belle all laughed, but Scootaloo wasn’t, she was rather confused.

“But I wanted to know about your cutie mark” she said as she looked at her new friend indignantly.

As if on cue, CobraJet walked into the room and smiled. “You told them the toaster story didn’t you” he asked as he picked up the cold mugs of hot chocolate. StoveBolt smiled and nodded his head.

“I always loved that story. You didn’t happen to tell them what happened next, did you?” Cobra said as he looked the 4 of them over and smiled deviously.

StoveBolt’s cheeks turned red, and wanting to change the subject, began to talk about the time, and how they needed to sleep.

Cobra wouldn’t let him off that easily. “You see, despite what StoveBolt says, it did help him get his cutie mark, but that didn’t happen until a little bit after this incident” he said as he sat down next to the 4 of them and began to finish the story.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Two brothers looked over the mess in the kitchen that had been left behind from the morning’s celebration, not to mention the fire damage that had also been done. CobraJet got up and began to place the dishes into the sink, but as he moved some of them to make room, he nearly doubled over from the smell. Days of dishes still sat in the sink, and some of them had started to mold.

“We really need to clean these” Cobrajet said as he looked over at Stovebolt and frowned.

The Two ponies washed the dishes off in the sink, or at least attempted to, as the hay spaghetti from last night was more like cement then actual food stuffs. By the time they had finished, the clock on the wall told them that it was 3 PM, and they had missed lunch.

“It’s too late for lunch, but it’s also too early for dinner” Cobrajet spoke, thinking out loud for the most part, but also was thinking of the items he wanted for dinner as well.

“Well, we could go out and see if we can find dinner tonight” Stove said as he moved closer to the front hallway. Cobrajet thought for a second, and after seeing no other option, walked out to the coat closet, placed on his winter duster and after Stovebolt followed suit, they walked out to the market in search for dinner.

They walked around the town for several hours, unable to find a place they could both agree on. Finally they settled on a small pizzeria, Golden Crusts, and walked inside for a table. They were seated, and after the waiter took their orders, they began to talk as they waited for their food. The conversation ranged from birthday wishes, the local weather and its erratic sense of timing, to a topic Cobrajet wanted to stop coming up.

“Cobra, why did Mom and Dad leave us” Stovebolt asked as he took a drink from his cup. Cobrajet looked at his brother and frowned.

“They didn’t leave us” he said as he looked his glass of soda over, “they just went away for a while.”

“When will they be getting back” Stovebolt asked as he looked his brother.

“Soon, I hope” Cobra answered back as he saw the pizza arrive.

Night had crept in as the two sat and talked for a while. The staff of the restaurant sang happy birthday to Cobrajet, and after being thoroughly embarrassed, they finished their meal, paid their check and began the long trek home.

“It was nice of them to sing for you” Stovebolt said as he walked alongside his brother, smiling.

“Yes, but they didn’t have to announce my name to the entire restaurant” he said as he walked with his head hung. Stovebolt was about to say something in response but was suddenly ran headlong into an older pony.

“Hey” Stovebolt said as he interrupted the story, “I didn’t run into him, he ran into me.”

Cobrajet looked at his brother and stared long into his eyes, the anger beginning to show.

“Sorry” Stove said as he realized that he had cut his brother off during his story.

Cobra continued to stare and began his story again, “Anyways, So he ran into this older pony…”

Stovebolt fell to the ground, clutching his nose as it began to bleed.

“Oh dear, are you ok” Cobrajet said as he walked up to the two of them.

“My nose is bleeding…” Stove began to say when he looked up and noticed that his brother wasn’t talking to him.

The older pony composed himself, and swiftly began to apologize.

“Oh dear, it’s completely my fault, I wasn’t looking where I was going” The older stallion said as he went to look at Stovebolt.

The two ponies looked over the young colt, and upon seeing that his nose was the only problem he had, the older stallion took out a handkerchief, and wiped Stovebolt’s nose.

“There” he said as he finished, “That’s not so bad.” Stovebolt looked at the stallion then at the ground, unable to reply to the stallion’s comments.

As his eyes shifted on the ground, Stovebolt’s eyes came to rest on a rather odd contraption that lay on the older pony’s pocket.

“Excuse me mister, but what is that” Stovebolt asked as he looked up to meet his eyes.

A warm smile came over the stallions face, and he retrieved the item in question from his pocket. The device had a small screen on it, and it displayed a range of graphs on its face. The thing Stove noticed quickly was that the graphs were moving, and some of them seemed to be dropping as the time went on. “This is a…” He began to say but was interrupted by Cobrajet.

“A Pedometer, with heart monitor and temperature gauge” Cobrajet said as he walked forwards towards the older stallion. The older pony’s eyes looked up in a state of shock as it was relatively new technology he held onto.

“Why yes, it is” he said rather shocked at the knowledge Cobrajet had, “But how did you know that?”

The two ponies discussed the device in detail and after 15 minutes, they were all walking towards the older stallion’s destination. They came to a stop in front of the doors of the building, and after the end to their conversation came, the older stallion turned to the others.

“Well, this is my stop” He spoke as they both looked up at the building. Midlands Hospital was written across the top of it in large lights. They looked back at the stallion and smiled,

“Well, it was nice to meet you, …” Cobrajet spoke as he looked at him.

“Doctor Achey Breaky.” A earth pony yelled as he ran up to the group. ”A large group of ponies is on their way, apparently it was a mass food poisoning incident” he said as he looked at the group, his eyes stopping on CobraJet.

“Thank you, I’ll be there in a second” the stallion said as he extended a hoof to Cobrajet, and as they shook hooves Cobra turned to Stovebolt.

“Well, we need to get going” Cobrajet said as he turned his brother around, “it was great meeting you, maybe we will see you later?”

“Hopefully, but never under the circumstances that my job entails” the good doctor laughed as he waved goodbye.

The intern stood as he watched them leave, and after a few seconds, he turned to the Doctor, “Hey doc, I think I know that pony” he said, his mind deep in thought, he knew he had seen them before somewhere.

“Intern, that’s not important right now, we need to get ready for the rush that’s on its way” The doctor said as he rushed into the hospital. The earth pony gave one last look and walked back in as well.

Arriving home, Stovebolt was still fascinated by the device he had seen, and remembering his brother’s workshop, he asked his brother how a device like that was built. Cobrajet explained that the device he had seen was complicated, and couldn’t be fully understood by him at this point in his life. “Besides, you don’t need to worry about that right now, you need to sleep, it is well past your bed time” Cobrajet finished as he looked at the clock in the hall.

Stovebolt was about to argue, but a yawn stifled his attempts and he soon conceded, and walked to his room. A few minutes later, Cobrajet walked into Stove’s room and tried to stifle a laugh when he looked at the sight in front of him.

Stovebolt hadn’t even gotten to his bed when he fell asleep. His head was lying of a toy that had been left on the floor and his legs were splayed in such a way that it couldn’t be comfortable for him to be in. but something else caught his attention as well, StoveBolt’s flank now had markings on it.

The wrench and gear stood out and he must have been so excited that he passed out. “Finally, he gets his cutie mark, and here I was thinking, he would have the same experience in gaining it as mel” CobraJet said as he walked up to the sleeping form. Cobrajet picked up his brother, brought him over to his bed, tucked him in and kissed him goodnight.

“And that’s how he got his cutie mark, his mind for the mechanical lead him to question the workings of everything. It led him down the path of being the Mr. Fix-it of the house. It had probably been there for a little while at that time, and we simply weren’t paying it any attention. I mean who looks at their hindquarters anyways.” Cobrajet said as he ruffled his brother’s hair. StoveBolt smiled softly and the CMC laughed awkwardly at his final comment, none of them capable of looking each other in the eyes.

They sat there for a few seconds, the silence overtaking them all, but as always Scootaloo had a question. “So you got it because you lit a toaster on fire, and then you ran over a doctor” Scootaloo asked, eliciting laughs from everyone but StoveBolt.

“No” he quickly replied in an attempt to defend himself.

“He totally did” Cobrajet said teasingly.

StoveBolt was about to respond, when Gold Comet made his way in. “Sir, there is a call for you” he spoke to Cobrajet, and with a small goodbye he left the group. “Well I better get that, no need to keep some pony waiting” Cobra said as he got up and walked out the door Cobrajet, leaving the kids to their own devices.

As Cobra approached the phone, he noticed that it was on its hook. “Comet, I thought you said I had a call?”

A smile crept onto Comet’s face and he replied. “I’m sorry to lie to you, but you were embarrassing the young master too much so I decided to intervene.”

Cobrajet frowned at the older pony, “I’ve told you before, if StoveBolt isn’t around you don’t have to be so formal” he said as he walked over to Comet.

“I know, but sometimes I wonder if it’s for the best that you treat him like that, you can be quite harsh to him” Gold Comet answered back, placing his hoof on Cobra’s shoulder.

CobraJet smiled and with a small kiss on the cheek of Gold, he spoke, “Maybe I am, but you needn’t lie to me.”

“Forgive me hun, it was improper of me. By the way, you never finished the story” he said as Cobra made his way to their bedroom.

“They don’t need to, it doesn’t hold relevance to their talk” Cobra replied.

“It does to me” Gold said as he followed him up the stairs.

“I know it does, would you like me to finish it when we settle in” Cobrajet questioned.

“Yes, it’s always good to hear it again” Gold answered as the entered the bedroom and the door closed.

“I’ll be there in a second, I just need to wish them all a good night” Cobra said as he walked back to Stove’s room. As he entered, a pillow flew past him and quickly the laughter that had been happening ceased. The ponies looked up at Cobra with looks of sadness but, with a smile, Cobra returned the pillow and spoke, “Now I’m ok with this but I want you all to know, if anything breaks it’s all StoveBolt’s fault.”

“It is not” Stove yelled as he threw a pillow at his brother, impacting him straight in the face.

Cobra was about to return fire, but he thought better of it and let it go. “You get one Stove, only one. Now I’m going to bed, you all may stay up as long as you like I only as that you don’t walk into my room and don’t go near the basement. You all have a good night” Cobra said as he smiled at them.

They all gave him a nod as well as a good night, and with that Cobra turned and walked to his room.

Comet lay on the bed, the covers to which were pulled back on Cobra’s side inviting him to lay there. Cobra happily obliged and as the two of the got comfortable, Comet whispered into Cobra’s ear “Tell me the rest of the story.”

“As you wish” Cobra said back, and with a kiss on the head, finished the story.

CobraJet was walking down the stairs to the basement when a sudden knock came from the door. Looking at the clock Cobrajet wondered who it could be at this hour. He walked to the door cautiously, not knowing what to expect. As he opened the door, and looked out at his visitor, a familiar voice spoke to him. “It’s good to see you again, hun” The voice said.