Rainbow Dash's heart ached as she peered into the room that was shamefully hidden away in her house. Even a decade later, no one could ever know about this room or the the truth about the one who lived here. Well, a few already did, but they weren't saying anything. The rest of the house was simple and plain, just how she wanted - she needed - to be seen by the outside world. The blank, gray basement was in stark contrast to the lavish room it held in secret. A large bedroom with brightly colored wallpaper and all the fixings of a real bedroom. Well, a bedroom that was on the first or second floor of a given house, this was still a real bedroom. This room was full of life. Toys lining the walls, a small library of children's books, a closet full of the latest foal-wear and carefully set by the window, a simple but deeply beloved scooter with a helmet sitting on the bars. Propped up against the wall, near the that scooter was a bed with one occupant sleeping under the purple covers.
Scootaloo.
Rainbow Dash pushed back the tears when they started to distort her sight. In truth her vision was perfect, not that anyone had to know that. All part of the ruse. A ruse that Rainbow Dash was sick of playing; pretending to be blind, acting like a complete idiot, inserting her name into everything she said like a blasted smurf? It was all very taxing, but what honestly left her heartbroken was how she was forced to treat her own filly. But it all had to be done. If she could keep up the hapless, blind moron act, if she could convince Twilight that she was nothing more than a depth-less one-denominational character, she knew that murder-happy unicorn would let them be.
Everyone else might have been brave enough to walk on eggshells around Twilight, but Rainbow couldn't risk it. Her deeply religious parents had disowned her and kicked her out when she'd announced herself pregnant with an illegitimate foal, calling her a faithless disgrace and embarrassment to them. She had no siblings, no other relatives, she couldn't lose Scootaloo, they were all each other had left. Her parents knew and cared nothing about her or Scootaloo and Dash planned to keep it that way. Scootaloo thought they were dead.
Rainbow Dash couldn't even remember his name, Dan or Stan maybe, but Scootaloo's father had been a solder alongside Applejack and Rarity. In fact, Rainbow thought he might have been a cousin of Applejacks or something, because he was visiting for a family reunion just after the war. Rainbow had just finished helping Applejack with a project that was absolutely top secret when they'd met. They had spent about two weeks together practically joined at the flank. It had only been a small crush on both of their parts, but they went to the ending-of-the-war-con together and must have gotten drunk at some point. The next thing Rainbow Dash knew, a few days later the stallion was gone, never to be seen or heard from again. Rainbow got over him quickly and painlessly years ago. Even so, it was still rather award when they'd met up again about a year ago, when he'd returned for another reunion, this time with a wife and two fouls in hoof. He seemed very happy, though she was a little annoyed when he introduced her as just Applejack's friend. He never knew about their daughter.
So far, Scootaloo hadn't asked about her father. But Rainbow knew that eventually, she would get curious and ask about him. Rainbow Dash dreaded that day, she was already lying about her own parents, she didn't know what to do about Scootaloo's father. She would probably expect to hear that her parents were married and loved each other and were together until something bigger took daddy away but that he would come home soon and the would live happily ever after. Not that it had just been a mutual crush and she was the product of a drunken one-night-stand with a stallion who was now married and had another family. How depressing would that be?
Scootaloo was in on the act. At home, Rainbow adored the filly and showered her with love and attention, but out in public, they both knew that Rainbow couldn't knowledge her. Scootaloo thought it was a game. Some day more than others, Rainbow felt that she knew how important it was, but she never fully understood why they had to do it. It was never odd to her that during the day she was made to pretend she lived alone in a tree house, or why her mother always chastised her when they got home for repeating her fake speech-pattern. Rainbow Dash thought it was funny how precious a child's innocence is, and she planned to allow her girl to be innocent and happy for as long as she could; there was no telling when - if ever - Twilight would leave. Rainbow Dash knew if she could keep Twilight thinking that she was a harmless idiot, she probably wouldn't go after them. And she had to protect her little Scootie.
Only Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie knew about Rainbow's not being completely stupid, as she knew all about all of their secrets. If ponies knew about Fluttershy's half-dragon blood, she'd be treated no different than a full-blooded dragon. Applejack's reputation as a remorseless assassin would be destroyed if anyone found out that her so-called sister was really a surviving baby from the war that she took pity on and brought home to raise herself, that had been the top secret thing they were doing when Rainbow had met Scoots' father. Pinkie's portal would probably get her jailed or maybe even killed and Rarity would be heartbroken if Sweetie Belle's - well, they just called it a condition - came into public attention and she was taken away. It was basically a Five-way agreement of "I won't tell if you won't."
Rainbow was yanked from her thoughts by a giggle. Scootaloo was smiling in her sleep. Dash smiled and her heart lifted in joy as she shut the door gently and went upstairs to bed. Keeping with the idiotic motif of her house, her only bed was the couch in her living room. Luckily Twilight was too trusting (or was she just careless?) to install cameras in their houses. Wasn't she?