Where I Belong

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. A thousand scenarios ran through Will’s head, each one worse than the last.

Rainbow was just… there in their house. Sure, it wasn’t the first time she’d let herself in while they were out. When she got breaks from the Wonderbolts, she’d fly back to Ponyville whenever the whim took her, be it early in the morning, late in the evening or even in the middle of the night. He had given her a key specifically so that she could get inside whenever she wanted.

But that was before Scootaloo got pregnant. Now all he could think about was how they’d have to tell her. No plan, no time to prepare himself in any way. They just had to do it. And all the confidence he’d felt only moments ago, which had largely been false bravado for Scootaloo’s sake to begin with, was gone. He was left with nothing but anxiety.

“Well, what’re you doing over there?” Rainbow barked, gesturing to the pizza and cider. “Get over here! We’re at the best part of the Rally in Baltimare last month!”

His legs moved on autopilot, his mind a thousand miles away as he took a seat by her. She barely even noticed as she happily pointed out the action on screen, giving him a detailed rundown of every trick and maneuver they performed. Her excitement was palpable, and every woosh!, zap! and fpow! nearly sent her flying out of her seat with her wild gesticulations. And for just a moment, her good mood almost made Will feel better about what was to come.

At some point, Scootaloo had joined them on the couch, squeezing herself in the middle until they made a delicious Scootaloo sandwich. She had instantly stuffed her mouth with a giant slice of pizza, which Will realized was a desperate attempt to not have to speak. Will followed her example.

It worked for all of ten minutes before the rally video was over and Rainbow hit the remote to turn it off. Then she rounded on them with a look that Will dreaded.

She wanted to catch up with them.

“So, how you guys been?” she asked. “Anything new happening?”

No sooner had the words left her lips did Will turn to look at Scootaloo, who did the exact same in return. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights, her eyes wide and fearful as she silently begged him to say something –anything– so that she wouldn’t have to. But he had no idea what to say any more than she did.

“Uh… w-well…” he mumbled, fishing for absolutely anything to say. “Oh! Carrot Top and I started planting a new batch in the east field! ‘Bout this time next week we’ll be harvesting the north. I’m thinking about asking her to let me take a couple of Friday shifts. Get some extra bits, you know?”

“Extra bits?” Rainbow asked. “Is something wrong? Do you guys need some help?”

Will winced as he felt a familiar… well, not argument but conversation at least, rear its ugly head once again. Between his and Scootaloo’s jobs, they made enough to make ends meet fairly well, but every now and then things got a little tight. It had never been a big deal and they’d always worked things out, but every time it happened, Rainbow offered to give them money to help out. Being a Wonderbolt, she had more than a little just lying around. She was always nonchalant about it –one of the only things she didn’t try to boast about was how wealthy she was– but every offer still got under Will’s skin. His pride wouldn’t let him accept the charity, especially when they always managed to get by.

“No, we’re good,” he said, perhaps more curtly than he’d intended. “Thanks anyway, Rainbow.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed. “’Cuz I really don’t mind helping out a little bit and—”

“We’re fine, Rainbow, thanks,” Will cut her off.

Rainbow frowned and for a moment it looked like she was about to argue before Scootaloo popped up between them.

“Actually, Will, can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked, furiously gesturing for him to follow. She jumped down from the couch and reluctantly he followed her to the kitchen, leaving behind a confused Rainbow.

Scootaloo paced back and forth in the middle of the floor, deep in thought. He watched her, wondering what she wanted until she suddenly stopped.

“Will, maybe… we should take her up on it.”

“What? No, Scoots, we talked about this—”

“That was before I was preg—” She cut off and threw a loaded glance in the direction of the living room. When she continued, her voice was barely above a whisper. “That was before circumstances changed. Money’s going to get a lot tighter soon. I’m going to have vitamins to take, doctor appointments, not to mention all the stuff we’ll need after. We could use the help, Will.”

“And that’s why I’ll take more shifts with Carrot Top,” Will countered. “Or maybe I could talk to Shutterbug about getting a job at her studio. It’s been a while since I first applied; maybe by now she’ll have reconsidered.”

“So you’d work two jobs?” Scootaloo snapped. She was starting to look pissed. “When are you going to have time to sleep? Or be with me? Or, I don’t know, help me with the baby?! Am I supposed to raise it all on my own?”

“Well maybe I could just work on the weekends! Then we’d have a bit more money and I could still be home in the evenings like I am now.”

“And never get a day off.”

“And I will do that to provide for my family!”

“Hey, whoa!” a voice called behind them.

Will spun around to see Rainbow standing in the doorway, staring down the both of them. She was halfway between bewildered and furious, and all the way disappointed. It was only then that Will realized how loud they’d gotten.

“What in the hay is going on here?” Rainbow asked.

Scootaloo sputtered, unable to get any words out. She looked around frantically. “Uh… i-it’s nothing. Excuse me,” she said before bolting past them. Will barely even had time to register that she was moving before he heard the bathroom door slam shut.

He had half a mind to follow before Rainbow’s hoof punched his shoulder. He turned to see her hovering in the air before him with a wicked scowl contorting her face.

“Ow!” he shouted as he rubbed the throbbing pain away.

“What in the hay is going on?!” Rainbow yelled as she punched him again.

“OW! Knock it off!”

“Tell me what the hay is going on! I’ve never, ever seen you two going on like that!”

“It’s… complicated!”

Will reeled back as Rainbow shoved her face into his. He had never in his life seen her so livid. “Then uncomplicate it.”

For a moment, he considered making up a lie. Or excusing himself so that he could go check on Scootaloo first. Anything to put off having to tell Rainbow about the baby on his own. But he couldn’t. He hadn’t kept a single secret from her since that mess that nearly ended their friendship. He wasn’t about to start again.

“Look, Rainbow… We got some big news today,” he said slowly. He gestured towards the table and reluctantly Rainbow parked herself on one of the cushions. Will helped himself to another. “Scoots has been waking up sick since last week and I finally convinced her to check with Nurse Redheart. She’s… Rainbow, she’s pregnant.”

Will braced himself for the explosion. He expected yelling, swearing, insults; anything. Instead, Rainbow acted like she hadn’t even heard him. She sat there across from him, speechless, her brow still furrowed but her mouth unmoving. The silence dragged on with Will’s discomfort growing by the second.

“Rainbow?”

She held up a hoof to silence him. Once again, the tirade he expected didn’t come. Instead, she wordlessly rose from the table and stalked away.

Will bolted upright to follow only to find her outside the bathroom door a second before she gently knocked.

“…yes?”

“Squirt, it’s me. Can I come in?”

A moment of silence followed. Finally the door cracked open and Rainbow slipped inside. Will made to follow when the door slammed in his face. He was left outside, waiting, wondering what they were talking about inside. However much he wanted to, he didn’t dare eavesdrop at the door.

Eventually he couldn’t wait anymore and knocked.

“Girls?”

“Come in,” Scootaloo’s voice called.

Trepidation was what filled Will as he stepped into the bathroom, a feeling that wasn’t assuaged when he saw Scootaloo slumped in the corner of the wall and the tub. She was pointedly looking at the floor with her wings folded around her like she was hugging herself. Rainbow sat just in front of her with a hoof on her shoulder comfortingly.

She glared at Will as he sat down next to them. He couldn’t quite read her expression. There was anger, certainly, but also apprehension and maybe… a little sadness? Regardless, she seemed just as unwilling to start the conversation as Will was.

“I’m sorry,” Will said instead. “For yelling. I shouldn’t have.”

“Me too,” Scootaloo mumbled.

Silence fell again. On a whim, Will reached out a hand, laying it palm-up on the floor. A moment later, Scootaloo put her hoof atop it. Finally she looked up, just barely, and smiled a small, sad smile.

“So…” Rainbow said slowly. “You’re pregnant. How in the hay did this happen?”

“Well,” Scootaloo said, her voice thicker than it had been in the kitchen. “When a mare and a stallion get really horny…”

“You know what I mean, smartass.”

Scootaloo gave a significant look to Will, who nodded. Together, they retold everything they’d learned, starting with the visits to Nurse Redheart and Dr. Pearl, as well as their conversation in the park. They swapped back and forth on details as they thought of them, though the entire time Scootaloo’s hoof never left Will’s hand.

By the end of it, Rainbow was rubbing her forehead with a wingtip. “I don’t even know what to say. This definitely isn’t what I was expecting to come home to on my break.”

“Are you mad?” Scootaloo asked quietly. She sounded exactly like a scared little filly worried she was in trouble.

Rainbow let out a long sigh as she leaned back to stare at the ceiling. Will wondered if she was looking for her answer there.

“No,” she finally said. “Can’t say I’m happy, but I’m not mad. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t think you two were going to be doing it eventually. I just really expected you two to be safer about it! Squirt, don’t you remember all those times we talked about how to deal with your heat?”

Scootaloo blushed wickedly and despite the seriousness of the moment, Will made a mental note to ask her about those talks later. “I wish I didn’t,” she grumbled.

“Well…” Rainbow said, casting about for some way to continue. “It’s too late to worry about that now. It’s already done; all we can do is decide how we’re going to move forward.”

“We?” Will asked.

“Damn right ‘we!’” She threw a hoof around Scootaloo’s shoulders, giving her a furious noogie. “I’m not about to let my little sister have a baby on her own!”

“Do you even know anything about having a baby?” Scootaloo grumbled as she extricated herself from the noogie.

“Not in the slightest!” she proclaimed happily. “But I do know Soarin’ and Applejack and my parents, and they all know a thing or two about it! We’ll bug them for advice. But if they can do it, how hard can it really be?”

Scootaloo actually managed to laugh at that. “I’m pretty sure somewhere in Cloudsdale, your mom just got really pissed at you and has no idea why.”

Rainbow coughed, looking uncomfortable. “Remind me to not go back home for a few weeks just in case.”

“Speaking of parents…” Scootaloo started ominously. Will caught her meaning right away, as did Rainbow, whose ears folded back on her head. “How are we going to tell everypony?”

“I say we just do it,” Rainbow said. “Rip off the bandage and get it out of the way. Once the shock wears off, I’m sure they’ll all be supportive. You know my parents adore you.”

“I just really don’t want to have this conversation two more times…”

“Well, what if we tell them all at once?” Will suggested. “We could invite everypony over, maybe for dinner or something, and just tell them together.”

“And have them all blow up at us at once? Yeah right! We won’t survive the night!” Scootaloo wailed, pulling at her ears with her hooves. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

“You got a better idea?” Rainbow asked.

Scootaloo thought for a moment, looking particularly manic as one of her eyes was twitching. “We go into hiding! We’ll buy one-way tickets to Zebrica and assume new identities. We’ll get new names and start completely different lives! It’s fool-proof!”

“Except for the whole ‘leaving behind everypony we know and love’ part,” Will said conversationally.

Scootaloo’s expression immediately soured and she shot a dirty look at him while sticking her tongue out. “Why you gotta be like that?”

Will couldn’t help but smile as he bodily lifted up his pouting marefriend and cradled her in his lap. He smiled down at her and gently rubbed her stomach, something he knew she liked, and only a few moments later her frown melted away. She lay on his lap with her eyes closed contentedly, and for just a moment he swore he could hear her purring.

“I know, serious old me always trying to take the fun out of everything,” he said quietly. “But really. However upset they might be, I think they’ll be happier to find out sooner rather than later. And they’ll all want to be involved.”

Scootaloo sighed discontentedly. “Maybe…”

Rainbow suddenly slugged Will on the shoulder, her hard hoof connecting rather painfully with the same spot she’d hit earlier. He gasped and nearly dumped Scootaloo off of his lap in his haste to rub his now aching arm. Rainbow ignored his pained gasp to make a confident gesture with her wing.

“Will’s right! My dad always said that if I did something wrong I should tell him, because I’d be in more trouble if I didn’t.” She tousled Scootaloo’s mane. “Just you watch, once we tell them they’ll be falling over themselves to help you out. You’ll probably be dying to get them out of your mane!”

As she spoke, she had positioned herself to look down upon Scootaloo, such that the tip of her mane brushed the younger mare’s cheek. Scootaloo frowned in the way she did when she didn’t want to admit that someone else had a point before her eyes focused in on something.

“Speaking of manes, did you cut yours?”

For the first time that day, Will looked at Rainbow without panicking and saw that she indeed had done something to her mane. The front came down a bit longer than it used to, such that the tip of her red and orange bangs almost reached her nose. Random tufts here and there stuck out in odd directions, though that was hardly unusual since Will was fairly certain Rainbow didn’t even know what a brush was, let alone owned one. But the real difference was in the back, which she had almost completely cut off. While it used to be long and free-flowing, it was now short and sort of spiked upward, so that it looked like her whole mane swept forward from the base of her skull towards her forehead. It gave her a sort of rebellious look that, while very different from what he remembered, he thought suited her well.

“Oh, this?” she said, batting the long forelock out of her eyes. “Just thought I should do something different. The longer your mane, the harder it is to stuff through the top of your Wonderbolt suit so I needed something shorter. You should see it when I fly; it looks awesome!”

She struck a confident pose, throwing out her chest and flaring her wings dramatically, no doubt expecting to impress the others. Scootaloo was too busy focusing on her mane to notice.

“It looks kinda like mine,” she said suddenly. “In the back there, the way it’s swooped up. Don’t you think?”

The question was directed at Will, who she tapped on the chest. He took a moment to consider it. “Yeah, you’re right, it does.”

“I-it does not!” Rainbow spluttered, clambering up to look at herself in the mirror. “You just wish you could look this awesome!”

Will could see the fur around her neck and chest fluffing up like a peacock’s as she perched precariously upon the lip of the bathroom counter, over which the mirror hung. For half a second he thought she looked like a hen struggling to lay an egg before she hopped down, landing nearly silently with a flutter of her wings, and stalked towards the bathroom door where she gestured for them to go first.

“Now that we’re done freaking out, can we get back to hanging out? I’ve got a copy of the last derby; and at one point Spitfire totally smokes Misty at a 300m sprint! Let’s go watch!”

Three hours later found Will, Scootaloo and Rainbow sprawled out lazily on the living room couch. Will lay with his head on one arm rest and a foot on the other. Rainbow had her chin resting on his knee and a wing draped like a blanket across Scootaloo, who was curled up in a ball between them. He nose was buried under the crook of Rainbow’s wing and she was fast asleep.

“She’s had a long day,” Will said as he gently brushed the space between Scootaloo’s wings.

“It sounds like you both have,” Rainbow said without looking away from the TV.

“Yeah, I guess,” Will said quietly. “You ready to be an aunt?”

For half a second, Will thought he saw the briefest flicker of something unpleasant cross her face, but before he could determine what it was, or if he’d even actually seen it, she was impassive again. “Honestly? No idea. You ready to be a dad?”

“Definitely not. Do you mind if I ask you something now that Scoots is asleep?”

“Shoot.”

“Are you mad at me?”

Rainbow was silent for a moment, the TV’s reflection in her eyes the only thing moving there. Finally she let out a long, deep breath. “Yes and no. She’s only eighteen and you got her pregnant. I think it’s in the big sister’s job description that I’m supposed to be mad. But then I’m kinda not too because I know you two didn't mean to and... I don't know. But then there’s another part of me that says it should have been me instead of her. And don’t say anything,” she said, cutting him off just as he opened his mouth. “because there’s nothing that needs to be said. We’re done, and I’m okay with that. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still kinda suck too.”

“I’m not going to apologize. At least not for what happened to us,” Will said tentatively.

“I’m not asking you to,” Rainbow said. To Will’s surprise, she sounded more tired instead of angry. But then she turned just enough so that she could look at him and put on a small smile. “We’re cool, Will. I just need to suck it up and get over it.”

Not knowing what to say, Will reached down to put his hand on her shoulder. A treacherous voice in his head said that he needed to get over it too, but he didn’t dare say it aloud.

“You’re going to be a good dad, Will,” Rainbow said.

“Thanks, Rainbow.”