Rumble loved Saturday mornings. There was no school, he got to eat his favorite breakfast, and it was the beginning of a day where he could do nothing but play. Best of all, it meant he could sleep longer, something he was taking advantage of at the moment. He didn’t understand why so many other foals liked to get up as early as possible. Trying to drift back to sleep after just waking up was relaxing to him and it gave him a moment alone with his thoughts and to reflect back on the dreams he had. Rumble just wanted to enjoy a peaceful and quiet slumber until his brother finally decided to wake him up.
However, it was not his brother that woke him up, but some noise coming from the kitchen. Both of his parents were out of town for the week and his brother had volunteered to come over and watch him while they were gone, so he thought it was his brother making noise in the kitchen.
The pegasus colt then got a mischievous idea. Sometimes, Thunderlane thought it was funny to pull a prank on his brother while he was sleeping. One time, he dangled a plastic spider over him and then screamed “Rumble there’s a spider on your face!” Then there was another time where his older brother tucked a doll underneath his hooves while he was sleeping and then took a picture of it. Now it was Rumble’s turn to get back at his brother for all those pranks, and the idea of vengeance was enough to get the young colt to crawl out of bed.
As he quietly made his way towards the kitchen, Rumble started to think of how to prank his brother. However, as he got closer to the kitchen he heard something odd. He heard somepony humming, but he could tell that the pony in question was a female, and definitely not his brother. Was this an intruder? The colt considered going back to his room to find a bat or some other blunt object he could use against the intruder but he had enough courage to keep moving forward and see who this mysterious pony was.
Once he finally took a peek inside his kitchen, he was only slightly less confused. His brother’s girlfriend, Rainbow Dash, was pouring herself a cup of coffee. Thunderlane and Rainbow Dash had been dating for a few months and Rumble had always thought she was a cool mare, but he still wanted to know why she was in his home.
“Hello,” Rumble greeted his brother’s girlfriend, alerting her of his presence. The spoon Rainbow Dash was about to use to stir some sugar in her coffee suddenly dropped as it made a splashing noise. The cyan mare slowly turned around to face the young colt and he noticed a nervousness in her eyes, and even a hint of fear, as she shifted them back and forth.
“Um......hi,” she said with an obviously fake smile as she waved her hoof. Rumble wasn’t sure how he should feel about this. Should he be worried? Should he be scared?
“What are you doing here and where’s my brother?”
“Your brother’s resting right now. He invited me over here last night after you were asleep so we could....have a sleepover.” Rainbow wasn’t prepared for this, she had hoped to have left before Rumble woke up. The sleepover thing was the only excuse she could think of, besides it was technically true. Thankfully, Rumble seemed to buy it as his face lit up with awe and admiration.
“That sounds cool! What did you two do for your sleepover?” Rumble asked with genuine curiosity and interest. Rainbow thought about just giving him a vague answer and then making up some excuse to go back to her boyfriend’s old room, it was certainly what she wanted to do. However, she realized that she never really spent any time with any members of Thunderlane’s family since she started dating him. Sure she’d see them every once in awhile, but she barely talked to them or got to know them. Dash knew how much his little brother meant to her boyfriend, so she decided that now was as good a time as any to get to know him.
“...Oh you know, the usual stuff. We told some scary stories, played some games,” Rainbow Dash finally responded, opening up the cabinet and grabbing a small bowl.
“What games did you play?”
“Battle Cloud, Tornado, and we had a few races,” Rainbow answered as she searched the pantry for some cereal.
“Who won?” Rumble asked, causing Rainbow to quickly turn her head and stare at him with a cocked eyebrow.
“What kind of question is that? I won, of course!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a smug smile and closed eyes, as she patted herself on the chest..
“Yeah I guess that’s true. Whenever me and my brother race or do some kind of sport, he always makes some kind of stupid mistake and I end up winning. Like this one time where we were racing and he was about to cross the finish line but he actually crashed into one of the clouds and missed it, so I won that race.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but smile at the young colt’s words. She had raced Thunderlane several times since they started dating and some of their races included cloud obstacles. During those races, the pegasus stallion was always able to avoid them with great guile and agility. She really had to admire that Thunderlane’s pride never stopped him from letting his little brother beat him in a race. She’d like to say that she would do the same for Scootaloo if they ever raced, but she questioned if her competitive spirit would get in the way of that.
“Well, you’ll be happy to know that your brother put up a good fight and he came close to winning in every race we had, but I always came out on top.” Rainbow had found the cereal and was now going through the fridge for some milk.
“Really? Huh, maybe I’ll have to try racing him at night then,” Rumble thought out loud while Rainbow poured some cereal and milk into the bowl.
“Well if you still win then maybe that just means you’re a great racer,” Rainbow said as she took a seat at the table after placing the bowl of cereal in front of the colt, who stared blankly at her.
“What?”
“It’s Saturday, I normally have scrambled eggs and hay bacon for breakfast on Saturday.”
“Well then you’re going to have to wait for your brother to make that for you, I’m not a very good cook.”
An unsettling silence reigned over the two ponies as both tried to think of something to say to the other. Rainbow Dash’s gaze shifted all over the room as she tried to think of a topic to talk about, while Rumble just stared down at the cereal Rainbow had given him. After about three minutes of silence and watching the colt stare at his cereal, the cyan pegasus finally came up with something to say.
“Are you going to eat that?” Rainbow asked and Rumble responded by sliding the bowl over to her.
The silence returned, but this time it didn’t feel awkward to Rainbow since she was too busy eating her breakfast. Rumble, however, was still feeling uncomfortable with the silence that hung over them, so he decided to ask the pegasus mare a question that has been on his mind for quite some time.
“Are you and my brother going to get married?”
Rainbow’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates when she heard the little colt ask her that. The spoon she was holding in her hoof fell to the table and she started to choke on the cereal that she was chewing on at the time. Rumble was concerned about her and wanted to help, but the mare quickly rushed to the sink and got herself a glass of water. After she gulped down the glass of water and recovered from choking, Dash took a moment to catch her breath while thinking of how to answer a question like that.
“It’s....it’s a little early to be thinking about something like that,” she said as she sat back down at the table.
“When will it not be too early?” the colt innocently asked.
“I don’t know, we still need to figure some things out. We haven’t even said ‘I love you’ to each other yet.” As soon as Rainbow made that confession, Rumble stared at her like she had just grown a second head.
“Why haven’t you two said ‘I love you yet’?”
“Because.....it’s just not that easy to say.” That was the best way Rainbow could think of to describe it to a child.
“Yes it is. Me and Thunderlane say it to each other all the time.”
“Well that’s different, you two are siblings.”
“But you’re his very special somepony.”
“Yes, but that just means it’s even more difficult to say. An ‘I love you’ is a very powerful thing to say. It means that you care for this pony more than almost any other pony in your life and that you’d do anything for them. It means you’d want to spend the rest of your life with them, that you’d consider them family. As siblings you’re supposed to feel that way the moment you’re born, but with boyfriends and girlfriends that takes some time to develop.” Rainbow Dash did her best to try and explain this to the foal but judging from the confused look in his eyes, he didn’t understand.
“Don’t you love my brother? Are you going to break up with him?” Rumble asked, sounding like he was about to have a panic attack.
“No, I’m not going to break up with him. I’m just not ready to say those words to him.” There were a few times where she came close to saying it but she always got too nervous and said the first thing that would come to her mind.
“But why aren’t you ready to say it?” Rumble’s latest question made Rainbow realize that this conversation was just going in circles and it was causing her to reach her boiling point, so much so that she glared at the colt.
“Do you want to know why I’m not ready? Well then let me set the scene for you. Say you had a long-time crush on another pony who has finally seemed to have recognized you and asks you out on a few dates. While dating him, you realize that this pony is even better than you imagined him, you believe that he’s the perfect stallion for you and you’re even considering marrying him. Then out of the blue, he breaks up with you because he’s decided that he’s in love with your best friend and he feels that your feelings for him are just a fangirl crush!” Rainbow’s voice rose enough to intimidate the young colt, but not enough to be heard outside of the kitchen.
“But I-”
“-No, I don’t want to hear another word about this from you right now. Stop being so nosy. My relationship with your brother is none of your business! So stop worrying about when we’re gonna.....if we’re gonna get married or if we say ‘I love you’ to each other!”
Rainbow’s words were enough to bring tears to Rumble’s eyes, but he held them back, he didn’t want to cry in front of his brother’s girlfriend.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you mad, I just thought you’d make a cool big sister,” Rumble softly said with a morose tone. Rainbow’s glare softened until it was replaced with an apologetic expression, while giving the back of her head an uneasy rub.
“I’m sorry too kid, I shouldn’t have talked to you like that. To be honest, I eventually realized my ex was right about my feelings for him being just a fangirl crush. In fact, I’m happy for him and his relationship with AJ, they certainly seem happier than when we were in a relationship. It still hurt when he broke up with me because I had convinced myself that I was in love with him, so I guess I’m scared I’ll get hurt again. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t pressure me about this, but I will tell you that I care deeply for your brother,” Rainbow confessed to the little colt. Her apology was enough to make Rumble shed the dejected look on his face and replace it with a more sympathetic and understanding expression.
“I wasn’t trying to pressure you, I was just surprised you two didn’t say it since I know my brother’s loved you ever since he was a foal,” Rumble admitted to Rainbow, who raised an eyebrow at him.
“How would you know that?” Rainbow curiously asked since Rumble was born when Thunderlane was a teenager.
“I read it in some of his old diary entries from when he was a foal. He said that even though you used to bully him, he knew there was more to you than that since you always protected both him and Fluttershy from other bullies. He knew you were special,” Rumble informed her. Rainbow had a guilty look on her face. She grabbed her tail and held it in her hooves just so she had something she could fidget with and distract her.
A flood of memories came rushing back to her. It was true, she had bullied Thunderlane quite a bit when they first met as foals at flight camp, but she also had a bit of a crush on him and it was distracting her from her stunts and causing her to crash. She thought picking on him would help rid her of these unwanted emotions but she never did anything too cruel to him, just simple teasing or name calling.
Then one day, Rainbow spotted two dim-witted bullies picking on her friend, Fluttershy, and she rushed to her defense. She challenged them to a race and not only did she win, but she was able to perform a legendary sonic rainboom and earn her cutie mark. Most of the fellow campers saw the sonic rainboom, but none of them saw her create it, so no pony would believe her when she tried to take credit for it. No pony except Thunderlane, who claimed to have seen the whole thing, including who caused the sonic rainboom. However, that did not convince the other ponies that she was telling the truth, in fact, it just made the two bullies pick on him too but she came to his aid when they did, claiming only she could pick on him.
After that, Thunderlane started to hang out with her a lot more. She still teased him but he didn’t seem to mind, in fact, he even teased her a bit too. To Rainbow’s surprise, she found that she enjoyed the dark gray pegasus’s company and they became friends. She still had a crush on him but she was comfortable with her friendship with him and she thought romance would just needlessly complicate things.
“It was pretty obvious he had a crush on you when he was younger. In his entry about his cutie mark, he claimed that the best thing about it was that it looked similar to yours. He thought that meant you two were destined to be together,” Rumble told Rainbow Dash, causing her to snap out of her flashback.
“Is that so? That’s actually kinda sweet. Incredibly dorky and cheesy, but still kinda sweet,” Rainbow admitted as she chuckled.
“Yeah, his entries from when he was a foal are my favorite, but I don’t really like the ones from when he was a teenager,” Rumble sadly sighed. Rainbow’s smile faded from her face, remembering that Thunderlane was a bit testy when he was a teenager.
“I think I know what you’re talking about, but it’s natural for teenagers to act emotional and moody a lot of times. I can guarantee that you’ll be like that too when you get older, it’s just part of growing up.”
“Well I still didn’t enjoy reading them since they were mostly either angry or sad. He didn’t even speak too fondly of you in them either.”
“....What did he say?” Rainbow was almost afraid to ask.
“In one entry he called you a typical teenage filly with a crush on a celebrity and that you were being stupid if you thought you two would actually end up together.” Rainbow Dash let out a sigh once Rumble confessed that to her. She had hoped it wasn’t this, but she knew exactly what he was talking about.
When she was fifteen, she heard about the Wonderbolts recruiting a new stallion named Soarin’, who was only a year older than she was, making him the youngest pony ever to be a Wonderbolt. This stallion was living her dream and she couldn’t help but feel attracted to him, making her instantly forget about her crush on her foalhood friend. Around that time, she started to notice that Thunderlane was getting more temperamental with her until they eventually grew distant to the point where they didn’t even consider each other friends anymore. Thankfully they did get better once they became adults and worked on the weather patrol together but they still rarely socialized with each other. Rainbow felt really guilty for not realizing that her crush on Soarin’ was making him feel that way, and that Thunderlane had a crush on her too. Although he was wrong about one thing; she did date Soarin’ for a while, even if he did break up with her.
“Well it seems like your brother was a bit jealous back then, but I don’t blame him. I guess I talked about my crush around him a bit too much,” Rainbow theorized with an uneasy voice.
“That’s what I thought at first, but in that same entry he mentioned that he was giving up on the idea of a relationship between you and him. He mentioned that even though he knew you’d never hook up with that Wonderbolt, he still felt you deserved a stallion like him. Somepony who was your coolness and athletic equal, and then he said ‘and I’m just Thunderlane’. What do you think he meant by that?” Rumble asked. He always thought his brother was a cool guy and he didn’t understand what was wrong with being just Thunderlane.
“It means your brother didn’t know how special he was back then, and I guess I didn’t either,” Rainbow Dash sighed.
“Well I think he learned how special he really is, since a few years ago his diary entries started to get more cheerful. He even went back to saying nice things about you again. He mentioned your flank a lot too.” Rumble delightedly stated, completely oblivious to the huge blush that had formed on Rainbow’s face. Her mind was racing a mile a minute to think of something to say before the foal started asking questions about his brother’s interest in her flank.
“So did he mention anything about the time we spent at the Wonderbolt academy?” Rainbow asked the first thing that came into her mind that moment.
“Yeah, he said all of the other cadets hated you and that Lightning girl because they thought neither of you cared for their safety and that your recklessness and your ego was going to cause trouble for them. But my brother knew you weren’t like that at all and he kept telling the others that in the end you would do the right thing and show your true colors, and he was never happier to be right.” The heat from Rainbow’s face never drained after listening to Rumble’s story, but this time her blush wasn’t out of embarrassment.
“Sometimes I wonder if your brother knows me better than I do.” Even though Rainbow Dash said it jokingly, her words were genuine. Hearing about Thunderlane’s faith in her while they were at the Wonderbolt Academy reminded her of another time he demonstrated how well he knew her.
After Soarin’ had left her for AJ, Rainbow tried not to let it get to her and tried to maintain her friendship with the farm pony, but deep down she was depressed. That depression started to affect her work with the weather patrol to the point where she was close to being fired. Most of her coworkers tried their best to raise her spirits and get her to focus on her work, but in the end it was Thunderlane who proved most effective. She still remembered his exact words to her “Well I guess I’m going to have to take over your work for you since it’s clear you can’t do it anymore”. The dark coated pegasus knew exactly what to do, he attacked her pride and it angered her, but it also motivated her to work harder at clearing the skies than ever before, just so she could prove him wrong.
“The only thing I thought was weird in his recent entries was when you were dating that Wonderbolt. He said he was very sad about it but he was also very happy to see you finally get the stallion you’ve dreamed of. I don’t understand how a pony can feel sad and happy at the same time.” Rumble stated as he scratched his head in confusion.
“It sounds like your brother really does care for me. Thank you for telling me about these diary entries but I need you to do me a favor, never read them or any future entries again,” Rainbow requested, earning her a puzzled look from Rumble.
“But why, I thought you liked hearing about them?” Rumble almost sounded crushed by Rainbow’s request.
“I did, they actually helped me with some things. But if Thunderlane found out that you read his diary then he’d probably be angry with you. I’d hate to see him angry at such an awesome little brother like you.”
“OK I’ll stop but I really enjoyed reading the stuff he wrote about you,” Rumble huffed.
“Why do you care about that so much anyway? Aren’t fillies supposed to be disgusting and have cooties?” Rainbow playfully asked, but there was a tiny bit of genuine curiosity there too.
“Not all fillies are disgusting, some are pretty cool like you....and Scootaloo” Rumble whispered that last part, but Rainbow still heard it. A small smirk started to appear on the face of the cyan pegasus, she was going to have fun with this.
“You have a crush on Scootaloo don’t you?” Rainbow ask in a sing song voice.
“What?! No! I just think she’s a cool filly and a fun pony to hang out with!” Rainbow could see a blush on the colt’s face as he denied any feelings for her surrogate sister.
“That’s a shame, because she talks about you a lot,” Rainbow Dash said, feigning a loving tone of voice.
“Really? I mean.....uh......that’s cool.” Rumble’s attempt to sound disinterested was failing as Rainbow Dash started laughing.
“Rumble and Scootaloo sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” She had to admit that this was very juvenile, but Dash was enjoying her revenge. She enjoyed seeing Rumble as uncomfortable as she was when he was asking her questions about her relationship. However, the foal was offered some relief when both he and Rainbow heard a familiar voice.
“Rainbow, are you still here? I know you said you had to go to work soon but I thought you wanted to go another round before....” Thunderlane paused when he entered the kitchen and saw his girlfriend and his little brother sitting at the table together. Rumble was staring at him with confusion while Rainbow had an amused look on her face.
“...cards. Yeah that’s it. How about another game of cards? Oh, hey Rumble, I didn’t expect to see you up this early.” Thunderlane spoke with a shaky voice as he gave his brother a sheepish smile.
“You didn’t tell me you two played cards,” Rumble whined to Rainbow Dash.
“Wait, what have you two been doing?” Thunderlane asked, his smile fading from his face.
“We’ve been talking about the sleepover you had last night,” Rumble’s answer immediately invoked a blush on his brother’s face as he looked at the ground nervously.
“Y-you were?” Thunderlane stuttered. As much as Rainbow enjoyed watching her boyfriend squirm, she felt it was best to give him some assistance.
“But mostly we’ve been talking about how great of a brother, and a boyfriend, you are.” Rainbow wrapped a wing around her special somepony and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Thunderlane gave her a grateful smile and the two nuzzled for a brief moment.
“Well I guess I wouldn’t be a great brother and boyfriend if I didn’t offer you two some breakfast. Normally Rumble has scrambled eggs and hay bacon for breakfast on Saturdays. Should I make you that too, Rainbow, or would you like something different?” Thunderlane asked as he took out a frying pan.
“As much as I’d love some breakfast, I’m going to be late for work if I don’t leave soon, so I’ll have to take a rain check,” Rainbow said after looking at a nearby clock.
“Are you still coming over after work so we can train some more?”
“You bet, in fact I was thinking about staying over for the rest of the week so I could help you watch Rumble. I was even thinking about bringing Scootaloo over one of these days so the two of them can play together.” Rainbow said the last part playfully while looking directly at Rumble with a smirk. Rumble was about to say something but Thunderlane spoke before he could.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea, you like playing with Scootaloo don’t ya, buddy?” Thunderlane asked, giving his brother a playful nudge, but the only response he gave was a groan.
“I’ll bring a few things over here after work, including Tank. So I’ll see you later and then we can play cards some more,” she said in a sultry, yet jokingly, manner that made Thunderlane blush in embarrassment. Rainbow gave her boyfriend another kiss on the check and then headed for the door. However, once she was in front of the door, the athletic mare was surprised to see that she couldn’t bring herself to open it and leave. After a few seconds of just staring at the door, Dash realized she had something important to say and she wouldn’t be able to leave until she said it.
Thunderlane had just gotten the eggs out of the fridge when his girlfriend suddenly rushed over to him and wrapped her front hooves around him. The pegasus stallion was caught off guard by this but he still wrapped his own fore hooves around his special somepony.
“I love you.”
Thunderlane quickly pulled back from Rainbow and stared at her with his mouth agape. She had said it, she finally said the three words he had been anxiously waiting to hear ever since he was a foal. The shock on his face had left and was replaced with a small grin that grew bigger each second. This moment was too important, too special, for something as cliched as ‘I love you too’.
“Now you know how I feel about you, my love.” He then spun Rainbow around, dipped her a little and the two kissed each other with great passion.
“Eeewww,” Rumble said,as he turned his head away in disgust. He was proud of his brother and his girlfriend but he still didn’t want to see all that gross mushy stuff.
Once the kiss was broken and they had separated from each others hooves, Rainbow was about to leave for work again but then she remembered another small detail from Thunderlane’s recent diary entries. After making sure Rumble wasn’t watching her, the cyan mare started to leave but with each step she took she made sure to sway her hips from left to right, causing her flank to move hypnotically. As she did this, she looked behind her to see her boyfriend gawking at her, with his eyes fixated on her behind and his wings popped open, giving her a great sense of accomplishment before she finally left the house.
Now that all that mushiness was over, Rumble finally looked over at his brother and saw that he was just standing there, motionless, without any readable expression on his face. Rumble was about to say something but he saw his brother’s mouth open before he could.
“She loves me,” Thunderlane said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“That's great, but do you think you could-”
“-Did you hear that Rumble? Rainbow Dash loves me! YAHOO!” Thunderlane shouted as he flew around the house as fast as he could, repeating “she loves me”.
“I’m never gonna get breakfast,” Rumble said as he hung his head low in defeat.
