The sound of hard plastic wheels grinding against asphalt echoed over the pavement as Scootaloo grew closer to her destination. After that text from earlier, all she could do to pass the time was practice her skills on the rails . . . all by herself.

It wasn't that she minded much. She understood how much a sore foot could screw them over in their chosen hobby. She'd had similar incidents herself in the past. And it must have been twice as hard without the handlebars. Still though, it wasn't as fun with no one else there. But at least she'd figured out some ways to completely wreck the old goof next time around.

At about 6:30, she turned off the rails and onto the street. Rumble lived on the other side of town, so it was quite a trek to get there. On the way, she passed the mall. And further still, the school. Along the way, Scootaloo reveled the feel of the warm breeze of May whipping through here hair. The birds were chirping. The flowers were blooming. And the crickets started to chirp as the day came to a close and the world went to sleep.

The sun was just beginning to set as she whisked past the many trees and gardens of Rumble's apartment complex. Row after row of identical, one story residences disappeared behind her in a blur. Then, finally, Scootaloo ground to a halt just outside of Rumble's door.

Locking her scooter's wheels, she propped it against the little fence which separated the patios. She took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell.

She waited. And waited. And waited. She tried to listen through the door, seeing if she could figure out what was going on.

Nothing. She heard nothing.

So she waited some more. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.
Now she was getting impatient. She rang the doorbell a second time.

An instant later, the door flew open violently in front of her. in a mildly shocking display, she found a somewhat disheveled looking Rumble slouched against the door frame in front of her, panting heavily and clearly out of breath. "Hey, how's it goin?" he said with a cheesy, blatantly forced grin and a wild look in his eye.

Scootaloo, taken aback, could only manage to say "uuhhhhhhhhhhh, good?"

"Great to hear it!" rumble cheered much louder than he should have. Then, perhaps to save face having noticed his error, he continued on in a much quieter yet still shaky tone "So, uh . . . sorry I didn't come to the park today."

"Oh, don't apologize. I get it. Those two get under my skin so much, you don't even wanna know what I'd do to them if I could" she fumed. "But, you know, jail's a thing. Hope your leg's feelin better though."

"Um, yeah. Totally" rumble replied feebly. And Scootaloo could have taken that answer at face value. But she knew how to read between the lines with him. Something wasn't right. She could tell, Rumble was tense. His fingers were fiddling with the bottom of his shirt. He was nibbling on his lower lip. His left eye had a little twitch to it. And the way his eyes darted around all over the place, seeming to look everywhere except directly at her . . . she knew something was up.

"Okay, what's going on?" she asked bluntly

"What?! What do you mean?" he deflected, defensively

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "I know you Rumble. And I've seen that look before. You're hiding something. What is it?" She wasn't about to let him beat around the bush.

"Me? Hide anything from you? Never!" Rumble exclaimed, placing a hand over his heart and making a big show of trying to appear innocent.

Scootaloo wasn't buying it. This time, standing stone still and giving him a cold glare, she demanded again "What. is it. Rumble?"

That did it. Rumble stopped pretending. His shoulders slumped forward as he let out a heavy sigh. Turning, he walked in with small, uncertain steps, his head bowed low to the ground. "Come in" he feebly remarked. "I'll show you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rumble couldn't believe she'd seen through him like that. There was no prelude to it. No warning. It just hit him out of nowhere, as though a piano had just dropped from the sky and knocked him on his head. He was hoping he could just outright ignore the suit's existence for rest of the night, or at least wait to bring it up until later. But now, he had to at least let her know about it. There was no avoiding that now.

But what would happen afterward? That was anyone's guess.

Hesitantly, he stopped by the couch and glanced back and Scootaloo. Her arms were crossed. Her lips were twisted into a slight scowl. With trembling hands, he bent down and grabbed the metal case, in a death grip.

He looked back again, Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. Waiting.

No. He couldn't do it. What the hell could he even say to explain this whole situation?

So instead, he handed the whole case to Scootaloo, practically throwing it at her. "Here," he whimpered deflectively "Open this!"

Scootaloo gave a skeptical squint. Then shrugged her shoulders, cautiously strolling closer. As she took the metal box for herself, she read "Fantasy Suit" clearly emblazoned on it's face. She shot Rumble a questioning look.

Rumble was slowly backing away; an instinctive impulse, deep in his chest, to escape the situation. Yet, there was nowhere to run and no one to fight . . . no one except Scootaloo at least. But he could never hurt her. Could he?

Thankfully, however, he at least had enough foresight to mentally check the suit, to make sure it stayed in it's "slightly less freaky but not really" state.

With bated breath, he watched in dread as, in one swift movement, Scootaloo flipped the lid open, yanked out the suit by one of the heels, and discarded the box to the side, throwing it on the floor. The thump of metal against hardwood reverberated throughout the tiny apartment.

Scootaloo stared in puzzled bewilderment as she took in the sight before her. She looked at the upside down, latex suit. Then to Rumble. Then to the suit. Then back to Rumble.

And then it clicked.

She dropped the suit to the floor, appalled. "What the Hell?!" she accused. "Why do you even have this thing?"

"Okay, I know it looks bad, but I can explain"

"Oh, you'd better have a damn good explanation buster! I'd sure like to hear it. Did it magically fall from the sky with rainbow glitter and unikittens prancing around it?"

"Ummmmm . . . No?! Just calm down and I promise it will all make sense."

"Oh, you want me to calm down?! I'll show you calm!" Scootaloo snatched the suit off the floor and started stomping toward the front door.

Rumble knew where this was going. She was going to show it off to the world, just to embarrass him. He could picture it vividly. She'd storm out that door and hold the suit up high above her head and scream at the top of her lungs "Look everyone! Look at the marvelous gift my so called boyfriend got for me. Isn't it Fantastic! Oh, I love it so, so much. NOT!!! As if! How the hell did I ever end up with a looser boyfriend like him?" And then she'd laugh in his face.

He couldn't allow that.

So instead, he straight up lunged at her, tackled her. He pinned her to the floor.

"What the hell? Get off of me!" She screamed

"Not until you just calm down so we can talk about this"

"I AM CALM!!!"

"No, you're not. Just breathe Scoot. Breathe."

"Get off!"

"Breathe"

Scootaloo was writing and squirming on the hardwood floor. He knew, if he let her, she would have just stormed out of his apartment then and there. And never come back.

But she couldn't. Rumble was too heavy. So instead, she followed his advice. She took one shaky breath. Then another. Then another. Until eventually, after a few minutes, her internal inferno had cooled to just a few smoldering embers. She was still pissed at him, but at least now she was willing to entertain the possibility that Rumble might have a good reason to have such a thing.

Oh boy. Rumble sure was glad it didn't look like a freaky pony fursuit thingy or he'd really have been in for it. Slowly, he pushed himself off the ground and stood up, letting Scootaloo go free.

"Okay" she grilled him, doing a circle gesture with her hand. "Pleeeease explain to why you have this thing."

"Well, I was at the mall"

"Yes"

"And I went to this store"

"A store?"

"Yeah, a sex shop. It was right between the Macy's and the Hot Topic"

"Bull shit! I've been to that mall countless times and I've never seen a freaking sex shop!"

"Well, it kind of appeared out of nowhere! And there was this sort of creepy guy there, a real Willy Wonka type, and he said I could have it for free."

"For free?" she asked skeptically

"Yeah, I know right?! He said my money was no good to him or something? I don't really get it. But I just kind of panicked and went along with it."

"And you took the thing anyway?"

"Yeah, but I didn't look to see what it was till I got home"

"You didn't even Look? Rumble, that's the first rule of buying anything at any store ever! Always check before you buy."

"But it was free! Does it really even matter what it was?

"YES!!! Rumble winced as she screeched like a banshee directly in his face. "Besides," Scootaloo continued "Why would you trust a mysterious 'whatever' from a store that appears out of nowhere that you get from a guy you yourself just described as 'creepy' anyway? Huh?"

Rumble was speechless. He honestly didn't know how to respond to that. So instead, he simply said "Um, I guess I didn't think it through?"

"Obviously!"

There was a long, awkward pause. As the seconds ticked by, the room went dead quiet, to the point you could hear an ant scuttling along the wall if you listened closely.

Eventually, Rumble continued "Buuuuuuuuuut . . ."

"Oh goddess, where are you going with this?"

"I've been looking at that suit. And it seems pretty harmless"

"Rumble, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking"

"And let's be real, we've gone at it a few times already"

"You are"

"So I just thought, maybe we could . . . try it out?"

Scootaloo fumed crossing her arms and tapping her foot. "No way! Not gonna happen"

"Oh, come on. It'll be fun"

"Read my lips. N. O. No!"

"Okay, I get where you're coming from, but hear me out" She paused and listened just the slightest amount. Just enough for him to get through to her. "it has the separate segments to it. There's nothing but some zippers holding them together."

"And your point is?"

"Why don't you just try the shirt on first? If you don't like the way that feels, you could always back out

"Rumble, I really don't . . ."

"Please?"

"Rumble"

Then he put on his really big puppy dog eyes, pouted out his lip and got down on his knees, begging her to reconsider. "Pweeeeeeeeeeze" he cooed in the most heartmeltingly adorable way he could muster. And dammit! It worked. She couldn't say 'no' to that.

"Okay, fine" she conceded. "Just this once. Just know that I still don't trust this thing"

"Yay!" Rumble squealed

Author's Note

Yes, I know there still isn't any clop.

I promise there will be plenty in the next chapter.

But for now, take this little comedic bit of character building instead.