The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood happily watching their campers leave the Cutie Mark Day Camp with their respective parents/guardians. They eyed the flanks that were once blank, but were now adorned by the symbols of the young ponies' special interests, and feeling very accomplished. Although, they do have some regret from seeing some that were still blank.
One such flank was that of a familiar gray colt, a young pegasus colt named Rumble. Although what alleviates their disappointment is knowing they at least help him find a new hobby in the culinary arts, which he highly excels at and many of the campers can attest to that.
"Sorry that we couldn't help you find your special talent, Rumble." Said Scootaloo to her fellow kind.
"Heh, no worries there, Crusaders," Rumble replies. "I'm not really in a hurry. Although, it's nice to know that I'm really good at cooking."
Seeing all the campers smile in delight after just one taste of his cooking brought a lot of joy for the young colt.
Rumble then nervously rubs his left hoof with his right. "Speaking of which, I never got to apologize for what I did," he said with a sheepish smile.
"Don't ya worry nothing, ya pretty much made up for it all by cooking for everypony and your cooking sure is might tasty," Apple Bloom assures him. "That apple pie ya baked yesterday for lunch can give mah sis a run for her money."
"Don't forget about the breakfast casserole he made this morning," Scootaloo adds. She had a second helping on that.
"Those mini sandwiches you made for lunch were especially delicious." Sweetie Belle said while scrunching her cheeks with her hoofs, still reminiscing those tasty little sandwiches.
The three then started rambling on all of the food the colt had cooked for the entire camp.
Rumble sheepishly chuckles, "Yeah, I definitely cook a lot of food in just a couple of days. Speaking of which, if I didn't see it myself, I wouldn't believe you three help almost all of the blank flanks in Ponyville get their cutie marks in just a couple of days. But you girls... just did it like that."
"Shows that we live up to our marks," Sweetie Belle said before she and her friends show off their flanks for emphasis on that statement before doing a three-way hoof bump.
Rumble then frowns as he points out, "But now there are not that many blank flanks left in Ponyville, which means there's not that much need for a Cutie Mark Day Camp now."
The three fillies see his point.
"True, but at least now the waiting time at our clubhouse will be a lot less." Sweetie Belle said, trying optimistic. She is sad that they have to close the camp down now that the number of campers is low, but at least she had a lot of fun for the past couple of days.
"You're not worried that ponies will start calling you a blank flank, are you?" Scootaloo asks after noticing the frown on the colt.
"Not really, I'm just sad now that I don't have a reason to cook a lot of food."
"That's what you're sad about?" Apple Bloom questions. "You must really love cooking."
The young apple farmer finds it hard to believe the gray colt does not have a cutie mark in the culinary arts yet if he such a passion for it.
"Not just cooking," Rumble said with a smile. "It felt really nice to cook for everypony in camp and seeing them smile after just taking one bite. I want to keep enjoying that feeling, you know."
Apple Bloom blinks. She has seen that smile before. The same kind whenever she sees one of her siblings or her grandmother cook for the entire family. Now she can see why the colt was feeling down.
An idea came to mind.
"Well, there's still plenty of blank flanks in Ponyville coming to us, in fact, there's a couple of them who already made appointments with us for tomorrow. If y'all like, y'all can use mah family's kitchen and cook for the blank flank who will be waiting outside our clubhouse."
That brightened up the gray colt.
"Really? Sure, I can help with that."
"Course, Ah'd have to talk to mah family about it first, but Ah'm sure they'll be okay with it." Apple Bloom assures him, "and Ah'm sure they will be impressed with your apple pies."
"Don't forget to give us some."
"Scootaloo," Sweetie Belle chastises her pegasus friend for being a bit pushy. "Although, we'd appreciate it if you made some food for us as well."
Rumble chuckles, "Hey, no problem there."
Then a new voice chimed in
"Hello girls, Rumble."
The Crusaders and the lone colt turned to the voice of a familiar mare walking towards them.
"Twilight!"
Although the three fillies cried out in delight to see the Princess of Friendship, the lone colt was caught off guard from her sudden appearance.
"Miss Twil- I mean!" Rumble cuts himself up, jumbling up his words. He did the common courtesy when in the presence of loyalty, he bowed his head down, "Princess Twilight!"
Twilight giggled as she finally approached the young ponies
She lifts up Rumble's head with a hoof, "Please, no need for that, Rumble." She gently said.
The little colt blushes slightly from her touch, which he tried to hide with his hoof. It was quite embarrassing to have a princess say your name so forwardly like that. Including how ridiculous he might be acting around the fillies.
"Pardon mah manners, but whatcha doing here Twilight?" Apple Bloom spoke up.
"I heard about your Cutie Mark Day Camp, and I thought I should check it out," Twilight answered. "From all of the smiles I saw on those foals on my way here, I say it must have been a success."
"For the most part," Scootaloo replies.
"There are still some blank flanks walking around," Sweetie Belle said dejectedly. The other two crusaders shared her sentiment while Rumble stood to the side, frowning as well.
Twilight leaned down to match eye level with the three fillies.
"But from the number of cutie marks I saw, I don't need to do the math to know that you three helped a huge majority of the foals in Ponyville to get their cutie mark," Twilight points out, which lightened up the crusaders. "I don't think anypony else can say they did the same thing."
Twilight then heard some ponies were approaching the camp. She heard the familiar sound of a speedy pegasus and familiar heavy hoof steps that she was certain belonged to a certain orange earth pony. In less than a minute, a rainbow-maned pegasus mare appeared from above, followed by her shortly afterward was the earth pony farmer Applejack and behind her was the fashionista unicorn, Rarity.
The purple alicorn then looks up into the sky, colored orange from the setting of Celestia's star.
"Too bad I only came to your camp when it was getting late, girls," Twilight said nervously. "However, it's time for you girls to go home."
The three fillies did not need to be told twice as they excitedly ran up to their sister and honorary sister.
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Applejack!"
Sweetie Belle was the only one to hold her excitement as she trotted up to her sister before the two sisters hugged one another as greetings. The older sisters started a chat with their younger siblings, just how their camp was and whatnot.
To the side, Twilight turned to the lone colt left in camp.
"It's been a while, Rumble," Twilight started.
"Uh yeah, it has been, miss-I mean uh, Princess Twilight," he fumbled again.
The last time the young colt even talked with the bibliophile was their last tutoring session on mathematics. How was Twilight Rumble's tutor you ask? It actually began during tornado duty, where Twilight got to know and met a lot of pegasi residing in Ponyville. Well, pegasi who live in Ponyville and over it on cloud houses. Anyway, the once unicorn mare was approached by one of his foalsitters, Cloudchaser. Although she and her sister, Flitter, did rather well with mathematics when they still attended school, they do not exactly have the patience with tutoring, and so they enlisted Princess Celestia's prized student, whom the pegasus mares can tell was book crazy-level smart when she went into great detail about the anemometer.
FLASHBACK
"So the foal you're helping to look after for your friend needs a tutor?" Twilight asks after the older mare made her request.
Although the pale lavender pegasus and her sister completely disregarded Twilight's detailed explanation regarding the tool that measured wing power, she did not hold any animosity towards the two. Actually, she earned some respect from the purple unicorn due to being a foalsitter as Twilight was also watched over by a foalsitter when she was younger.
Cloudchaser nodded before pointing towards the colt in question, who was doing wing exercises with his older brother and her twin sister, Flitter.
"The kid's good at listening to his teacher, Miss Cheerilee, and he's doing pretty okay with the other subjects, but he has trouble with math," Cloudchaser explains.
"No need to say more," Twilight tells her with a smile and a nod. "I'll happily do it." She always wanted to try teaching some young minds to achieve academically.
Turning in the direction of the young colt that was going to be teaching, she saw the older brother looking in her direction, which she figured that he was looking back at his friend. Seeing Cloudchaser nodding affirmatively to the dark-furred stallion proves her theory. He must have asked the pale lavender pegasus to ask her while he watches over his little brother, she thought.
FLASHBACK END
Twilight giggled, "Oh, Rumble. We knew each other before I became a princess, you can drop the princess part."
The blush on the colt's stayed, only from being laughed at by the princess, even if it was whole-heartedly.
"Didn't think ah'd see ya here, Twilight," Applejack cuts in.
"Yeah, usually you're cooped up in your castle with your princess duties," Rainbow Dash continues.
"I agree with them, darling," Rarity starts with a worried tone. "I hardly see you outside of the castle lately."
Twilight put on a sheepish look.
"You're telling me," she heartedly agreed with the fashionista. "I heard that the girls finally started their Cutie Mark Day Camp, and since I was in my castle all day doing paperwork, I thought I'd go see it to get myself out of the castle."
Rainbow Dash snorted, "No pony can blame you there."
If the rainbow-maned pegasus was in her friend's own hooves, she would have taken any excuse just to get out of doing paperwork. Even if it meant to go out and basically do nothing, but go sightseeing, anything is better than doing paperwork.
While the grownup ponies were talking, the young ones continued where they left off.
"Okay Rumble, remember to come over to Sweet Apple Acres by noon tomorrow." Apple Bloom told the colt.
"Got it." Rumble nodded. "See you girls tomorrow then."
With the agreement between the colt and fillies over with, the pegasus colt preceded to leave but was stopped by one of the mares.
"Now hold on, Rumble." Twilight calls out, stopping him in his tracks as the other mares went to stand next to their respective younger sibling/honorary sibling. "Why don't you join us on the way back to Ponyville?"
Since they were all heading in the same direction anyway, it was hard for the little colt to argue with the older mares to let him go ahead by himself. Although he kept a small distance away from the mares and fillies. He is hardly a part of their social circle, so it felt a little awkward for him.
It has been quite a while for Twilight to see her friends outside of her princess duties, so she savored the time to travel back to Ponyville to catch up with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity. The first conversation was obviously about the young fillies' Cutie Mark Day Camp.
"You girls have done a marvelous job," Rarity complimented with pride in her voice. Secretly though, it was aimed mostly towards her own sister. Sweetie Belle noticed it though but just smiled at her sister in appreciation.
However, Rainbow Dash was not scared to congratulate only one.
"Yeah, but that's only because Scootaloo was there," she boasted, which made the younger pegasus feel bashful.
"Oh for Land's sake, RD," Applejack says in frustration. "It was a group effort, and you know it. Although, if one of us is going honest-"
Rainbow Dash and Rarity roll their eyes. Twilight just put on a small smirk at this.
"-my little sis did all the work."
There was a small moment of silence before everypony burst out in laughter. Rumble looked at the laughing female ponies, wondering what was so funny. The lone colt was completely out of the loop. As he watches them continue to chat with one another, a small realization came to him. He was the only pony there without their sibling beside them.
He shakes his head in a vain attempt to get that thought out of his head before continuing to trot ahead. A subtle increase in his speed, which went off unnoticed.
Well, almost unnoticed.
"Here."
Rumble jerked his head up a bit when he heard a voice behind him. He then felt a warm wing wrapping itself around his small frame. From the voice and purple feathers, he can tell who was warming him up.
"What's going on, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asks when she noticed the princess of friendship getting awfully close to the young colt. The other mares were looking curious as well.
"Oh, nothing," Twilight replies. "I just noticed Rumble was shivering so I thought I'd help him warm up."
Just then, a chilling gust of wind suddenly came by which made everypony present shiver from the unwelcoming icy cold wind. Instinctively, the older sisters went to their own sisters' aid to protect them from the cold. Rainbow wrapped a wing around Scootaloo before bringing her closer. The nonwinged ponies simply brought their sister closer to them and shield them as best they could. Thankfully, they just made it to the outskirt of Ponyville.
"Woah nelly," Applejack shivers as she and Apple Blooom held each other closer. "Ah don't know about the rest of y'all, but it's best we all head on home before it gets anymore chilly."
"No need to tell me twice," Rainbow says before the wind finally died down. She then scoops up Scootaloo before placing the small filly on her back. "Come on, Scoots, we don't want you getting a cold. Gotta jet, later!"
"Woohoo!" Scootaloo whooped as Rainbow flew at high speed towards Scootaloo's house.
"As much I want to enjoy a nice night-walk with you, we can't do so in these conditions, and the last thing I want you to get is a cold, Sweetie Belle." Said Rarity with a worried tone. "Come, dear, let's hurry along."
Sweetie Belle nods in agreement while shivering a bit before the unicorn sisters quickly galloped off towards Ponyville with the earth pony sisters also galloping away in a different direction towards their farm.
"Uh," Rumble grabs Twilight's attention before pulling himself out of her winged embrace, despite how comforting and warm it felt. He spread his own wings to prepare to fly. "Thanks, Miss Twilight. I'll see you around Ponyville."
"Rumble." Twilight calls out to him, which made him stop in his tracks again. "What's going on? You were never this distant with me. I used to tutor you, remember?"
FLASHBACK
"That's it, Rumble!" Twilight said in delight when the young colt, who she was tutoring, correctly answered a math question. "Now, let's see if you can answer the rest on your own."
The two were doing their session in the library's balcony, where Twilight felt the young colt would feel most comfortable instead of being cooped up inside.
Even though it was her first time tutoring somepony, everything was going pretty smoothly. Actually, the tutoring session was doing better than great. After giving the young colt a worksheet, which was basic math such as multiplication, division, and fractions, and had him answer every question to the best of his abilities to see his strong and weak points. After that, all Twilight had to do was to show him how to properly answer the problems, and she was met with fantastic results after giving him another worksheet. Of course, taking her tutoring job seriously, she did not stop with just a couple of worksheets, she gave him a really long one to push his limits.
She offered to help him if he gets stuck in any of the problems. Even though he acknowledged her help, he stuck to answering all of the questions by himself, which Twilight understands why as she watched him continue on working with some pride starting to swell inside her. She wondered if this is how her mentor, Princess Celestia, felt when she was still attending her school as she chose to do a lot of the course materials by herself even when some of the materials were recommended to have a partner.
It took Rumble almost an hour to finish the lengthy worksheet, and Twilight only found a couple of problems that were answered incorrectly. She noticed these errors were emerging near the end, so she concluded the errors were only done from mental fatigue, so appropriately she told him to take a break before requesting Spike to bring them lunch
Before Spike went to the kitchen, the young pegasus colt made a request for Twilight to teach him new math problems after their lunch break, much to the purple unicorn's delight. This thrilled Twilight as she honestly did not expect the younger brother of an athlete to want to learn more. Her experience with Rainbow Dash being the reason for her doubt.
"Why ask for more work?" Spike asked. "If you're done with what the work you have now, you could just kick back and relax. I don't get it."
"Spike," Twilight started with a scolding tone, "if he wants to further succeed in his academics, then don't get in his way."
Rumble gave his tutor a sheepish look.
"Actually, Miss Twilight," Rumble starts as he fiddles with his pencil, Twilight turning to him, "the reason I want to learn more because if Miss Cheerilee starts teaching it to my class it'll be easier for me to get any homework done early which will give me more time to practice with my flying."
A selfish reason, which he believes the purple mare will think is a waste of potential.
"Oh? Is that all?" Twilight said before patting Rumble on the head, "I don't have a problem with that, you're just like me."
That caught Rumble off guard, "Really?"
"Oh yes," Twilight nods, "when I was stilling attending under Princess Celestia's classes at her school, I didn't just study the materials she assigned to my classes, but also I study any academic books I could get my hooves on to better prepare myself in the future and also give myself some free time."
"I give you three guesses as to how she used those free time." Spike interrupts the two with a sly smirk. "I'll give you a hint, it involves books."
"Spike." The purple dragon raised his claws up before leaving the balcony. The purple mare turns back to her first tutee. "Okay, so maybe we both have a different reason behind wanting to further our education, but at least you're using your time productively and not sitting on your flank doing nothing."
"Yeah," Rumble nods. "t-thanks for understanding, Miss Twilight."
The purple just gives him a warm smile, "I think you've been sitting around long enough, why don't you take the time to stretch your wings before Spikes comes back with lunch."
The young colt's face lit up as if Hearth's Warming Eve came early this year. His wings buzzing rapidly in excitement.
"Really!?"
A nod from the purple mare was all he needed before flying off the balcony before zipping around the library. His eagerness created a gust of wind that blew the papers all over the place, creating a mess. However, Twilight did not mind it one bit as she easily cleaned it up with a levitation spell.
Not bad for a first tutoring session the purple mare thought.
FLASHBACK ENDS
"You shouldn't be distant with me, Rumble," Twilight said a knowing tone before wrapping a hoof around his neck, motioning him to fly, "come on, let's take you home."
"...Ok."
"Hmmm..." Twilight hummed as she looks over the living room area of Thunderlane's cloud house. "I know it has been a while since I've been here, but I know for sure it did not look like this."
"Yeah," Rumble agrees with her observation.
When his brother first bought this cloud house, Thunderlane only had enough bits in his budget to pay for their food, cleaning supplies to maintain their home, and other necessities they needed, and as such their home was lacking in furniture. They did not have any traditional beds, but that was easily fixed by making some softs clouds to sleep on. They only had a coffee table, which also doubled as their dinner table and a couple of chairs.
However, ever since Thunderlane was officially made a Wonderbolt, he could finally afford to buy new furniture. He replaced the old coffee table, bought two couches and a lounge chair for the living room, and got an actual dinner table for the dining room complete with chairs. Twilight also noticed the new shelves attached to the walls of the living room displaying trophies.
And of course, a new fridge, which Twilight started to rummage through, which made Rumble raise an eyebrow
"You hungry, Rumble?" Twilight asks.
Ah. So the princess was just being considerate for her tutee and wanted to cook dinner for him.
"Yeah, but you don't have to worry about cooking dinner, miss Twilight."
"Twilight. You don't need to add 'miss', 'princess' or anything to my name, Rumble." The Princess of Friendship insisted before continuing to look inside the fridge and saw some precooked food on plates wrapped in plastic wrap. She levitated them out of the fridge with her magic while also removing the wrapping. "Did your brother, Flitter, or Cloudchaser made this?"
"I think it was Cloudchaser," Rumble says as he looks over the food. "I forgot she cooked this the morning my bro took me to the CMC's camp." He took a couple of sniffs of it. "Is it still good?"
"From my understanding, food can remain edible in the fridge for around three to four days if you store them properly, and you were only at the camp for three days, so it should still be good," Twilight concludes before taking a whiff of the food herself. After just one sniff, her face scrunched up in disgust and she quickly levitated the repulsive plate away from her nose as far as possible. "Although, I wouldn't risk it."
Rumble watches the purple alicorn levitated the plate over the trash bin before dumping its content into it. Although it was best to safely assume the food was gone bad, he still thought it was a waste of perfectly cooked food. Although, this does give him an excuse to cook.
"Why don't you wait in the living room, Rumble?" Twilight said to the young colt as she started evaluating the available ingredients in the fridge and figuring out what she could cook. "I should be able to whip up something for you."
"I said don't worry miss Twi-"
His once tutor gave him a look that almost made him choke on his own words.
Rumble gulped before continuing, "I mean, I can cook for myself, Twilight."
That took Twilight by surprise, "Since when can you cook?"
It must have been quite a while since she last saw her young tutee. The last time she was at his house, he still relied on his foal sitters to make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
"Since the Cutie Mark Day camp!" Rumble said rather excitedly, his wings buzzing. "Although I haven't gotten my cutie mark yet, I learned that I'm really great at cooking, and it's so much fun!"
"Oh? How good are you?"
"Just ask the CMCs and everypony who came to the camp," Rumble said confidently, knowing for sure everypony will only say positive reviews about his cooking.
Twilight giggled, happy to see her tutee was still improving himself, having learned from her days as his tutor that the young colt was quite talented with many skills, apparently taught by his brother and foalsitters to keep him busy. Too bad teaching Rumble in academics was not one of them; however, she would not be close to Thunderlane, his brother, and the twin pegasus mares if it were not for that.
If memory serves, the young colt was also getting a stubborn attitude. Oh, how time flies. He used to be such a shy little colt. She really wanted to cook for her once tutee after not seeing him for so long. An idea popped into her head. If she remembers correctly, Rumble was also competitive, even when he was still shy.
"Oh? That's good." She tried her hardest to sound condescending while nonchalantly looking back inside the fridge
Rumble was very convinced.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rumble tried his hardest not to blatantly glare at the princess. His pride might have been attacked, but he does not want to put his life on the line.
When she was still just a unicorn, albeit a unicorn who was highly gifted with magic, Twilight has shown she could be very terrifying. Now that she is a princess, he can only imagine what an angry alicorn Twilight is like
"Oh, nothing," Twilight replies. "I mean, with all the activities the girls must have put every camper through, you must have done a good job filling up everypony's stomachs."
Was she insinuating that every camper only ate his food because they were hungry? That they did not bother to taste his food and to just fill up their empty stomachs before resuming camp activities? Because that was how Rumble was interpreting it. How insulting to his chef pride (even though he only realized his passion for cooking a couple of days ago).
"And you think you can cook better than me?"
Twilight put on a convincing smirk, "You know me, Rumble. I don't just think, I know."
"I do know you, Twilight," Rumble missed the hidden smile that Twilight quickly hid. "And I know you always relied on Spike to cook for you, and I've tasted his food before." He put on a confident smirk, "and I know I can cook better than him, and since Spike always cooked for you...well, you can figure out what I mean."
Twilight frowned a bit. She has also taught the young colt on using logic with facts, observations, and reasoning when she brought mystery novels to one of their tutoring sessions, which she thought Rumble would find interesting and he did after some convincing. Is she that smug when she uses logic?
She filed that question to the back of her mind.
"Let's test your hypothesis, are you up for a little competition?" Twilight challenged with a smirk.
"You're so on!"
"Rumble! I'm home!"
The young colt dropped whatever he was doing and zipped out of the kitchen with Twilight following behind him after making sure to turn off the stovetop.
When Rumble made it to the living room, he saw his older brother hanging up his goggles on a coat rack in the living room.
"Big bro, you're home!" The little brother gave his older brother a hug, happy to see him again after being in camp for the past couple of days.
The dark pegasus chuckles as he returned the hug, "Good to see you again, little brother." The two broke the brotherly embrace, "It was quiet around, I missed you, although how was your time at camp?"
"Oh, it was awesome. I'm really glad you convinced me to give the camp a second chance."
"I see you still don't have your cutie mark, though." Thunderlane pointed out after glancing at his brother's flank.
Rumble shrugs, "Eh, it's not like I was in any hurry to get mine. I'm just glad to know I can still learn other new stuff once I get mine. In fact, I learned that I'm really good at cooking!"
"Oh? How good are you now?" Thunderlane has tasted his little brother's cooking, albeit he did help guide his brother when the young first started cooking a couple of days ago, he wonders how much he improved during his time at camp.
"Better than Twilight, that's for sure."
Thunderlane blinked, "Twilight? As in Princess Twilight?"
"Oh, don't you dare start too, Thunderlane." Twilight lectured him when she entered the living room. "We're friends, so you should just call me Twilight."
Thunderlane smirked, "Friends? Twilight, I'm hurt. I thought we had something special."
Twilight's response was to roll her eyes.
Mirrioring his once tutor, Rumble rolls his eyes. Why does this sound familiar? Oh right, his older brother would sometimes flirt with the once-unicorn mare whenever their tutoring session takes place at the pegasus brothers' cloud home. From what he can recall, his tutor actually went on a date with Thunderlane once. Keyword: once. According to his brother, there was never a second date, and that would the third and last time Thunderlane scored a date.
Contrary to the rumors Rumble has heard around Ponyville and at his school, his brother is not, as the mares of Ponyville have mentioned in their gossip talk before, a playcolt; although, Thunderlane can be quite the flirt. Thunderlane was only ever to get a date with three separate mares and nothing more came out of those nor did he get to go a date with any other mares after his date with Twilight. Rumble reasoned it was because his brother has been busy being a Wonderbolt reserve, before officially becoming an actual member of the Wonderbolts and his job at the Ponyville weather team, to date other mares.
Do ponies know that Thunderlane once dated the Princess of Friendship before she earned her wings? No. In fact, his brother seemed a bit heartbroken when he came back home from his date with Twilight and the young colt noticed that he hardly saw his brother around the house for a good month after that, during which Twilight and Rumble had their tutoring sessions at the former's home on Twilight's insistence, with the dark pegasus claiming that he wanted to be alone. According to his foalsitters and tutor, it was natural that his brother was in such a state, so they told Rumble to give his brother some space. It was after Thunderlane returned from the Wonderbolts Academy did Rumble noticed his brother started to become social again.
Has the young colt ever told anypony that his brother once dated the Princess of Friend? No. His foalsitters and his tutor, Twilight, had told him plenty of times before that it was bad to spread rumors or even listen to them, so Rumble kept his mouth shut about it.
"So what brings you to our humble adobe?" Asked Thunderlane.
"Oh, I was just out to check the Crusaders' cutie mark camp and see how it was. When I got there, I found Rumble going home by himself." She gave him a look, which he jokingly took a few hoof steps back.
"Hey, my little brother can take care of himself. His foalsitters hardly watch after him nowadays."
"That's only because Cloudchaser and Flitter are now too busy with the work they have to do to make up for you and Rainbow Dash leaving the Ponyville Weather Team."
Rumble blinked as he raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know that, Twilight?" He asked, "If I'm not mistaken, you don't actually help coordinate with the weather team. CC and Flitter would have told me if you were."
The Princess of Friendship coordinating with the Ponyville Weather Team? That does not exactly sound like one of Twilight's duties, even if she resided in Ponyville. Even so, Cloudchaser and Flitter would have certainly told the young colt about it if it was true, especially since they used to personally know the princess when she was still just a unicorn, such a topic would have come up.
For a moment, Twilight's eyes widened, and looked nervous, but she quickly regained her composure before the young colt noticed.
"Well, your brother and Rainbow Dash were the best weather ponies on the weather team, so of course the other weather ponies would have to make up for the workload now that they are down two of their best." She answered, chuckling nervously. "Right? Thunderlane?"
The dark pegasus chuckled.
"She's right, bro. Don't you remember the times when I had to work overtime after Rainbow Dash officially became a Wonderbolt?"
Rumble stared into space for a moment as he recalled those memories. He nodded, missing the purple alicorn's sigh of relief.
Twilight then went back to giving Thunderlane a look, but she decided to let that issue go.
"Anyway, since I couldn't just let your little brother go home by himself, I brought him home myself." Twilight continued, "and when the issue with dinner came up and Rumble bringing up his newfound passion for cooking, we decided to have a little competition."
Thunderlane was intrigued by this, "So who won?"
"Actually, it just started, we were just waiting for our judge," Twilight answered.
"And he just came home," Rumble finished while hovering next to Twilight, both of them having similar stares at Thunderlane.
The dark pegasus realized where this was going. He gave a hearty chuckle.
"You two are really putting me on the spot here. I have to choose between my own brother and the cute Princess of Friendship?"
Twilight gave him a stern look before holding her head up regally.
"As a princess of Equestria, I expect you to take your role as a judge seriously. Be fair, unbiased, and factual."
Thunderlane chuckles, "Right, right. So where's the food I'm supposed to taste and judge?"
"We actually got done with our cooking, we just have to wait for the food to cool down for a bit," Twilight answered.
Thunderlane nods, "Okay then, Rumble go set up the table."
The young colt's eyes widened.
"What!? Why do I have to do it?"
Like any young ponies his age, he finds setting up the table to be quite a boring chore.
"I just got home, bro, and we can't have Twilight do it. Not only she's a princess, but she's also our guest."
"Except she wasn't invited," Rumble grumbles under his breath as he heads to the dining table, but was blocked by Twilight's hoof.
"Your brother and I will set up the table," She said while giving Thunderlane yet another look, which he returned with a sheepish look. "In the meantime, why do you get your latest report card? I would like to see how you've been doing since our last session."
Rumble smirked victoriously at his brother before flying off to his room. While flying there, he got a scene of nostalgia. Why was that, he wondered. Right, the purple mare used to come over to the two brothers' cloud home around when report cards were given to Cheerilee's class, which Twilight would know since she did inform the teacher of the local school about being his tutor. And being his tutor, Twilight would want to know how he has been doing with his academics.
The young colt smiled softly before shaking his head. He will have to walk down memory lane later. He did not want to keep the princess waiting.
"Anyway, Twilight, thanks for bringing Rumble ho-!"
When the purple mare was sure the young colt was out of hearing range, Twilight encased Thunderlane with her magic aura, cutting him off, before pulling him closer to her and wrapping her hooves around him in a tight embrace. After the princess's magical hold on him dissipated, Thunderlane returned the hug and looking back at her with a knowing smirk and a raised eyebrow.
"Woah, you mis-mmmh!" Before Thunderlane could even finish his sentence, Twilight slammed her lips onto his.
Author's Note
The plot of this fanfic is basically Steel Soul's story The Unusual Pairing of Twilight and Thunderlane
If you had not read it yet, I recommend reading Steel Soul's TwiLane fanfic first to get the idea.
This story basically follows Steel Soul's TwiLane fanfic, except in this one, Twilight was too late to reveal her relationship with Thunderlane to her friends and family when she became an alicorn
