Keeping Secrets: Chapter 2

Soarin' was sore, tired, and not in the best of moods ever. Yet he was still conscious enough to figure out that his wife was hiding something from him. Whenever Soarin' tried to bring up the visit to the doctor's office to Rainbow Dash, she would interrupt him by talking about today's practice. She was obviously hiding something and Soarin' was going to find out. …As soon as every movement doesn't cause him pain.

He got a quick rest and then set out to scour the Wonderbolt H.Q to find Rainbow Dash, even though he wasn't even sure she was still here. She is fast enough to go wherever she wants whenever she wants so she could be taking refuge in Ponyville. But Soarin' was hoping that she was somewhere here so that he could confront her before tonight.

Soarin' first went to find Spitfire in her office, because Rainbow Dash did say she was going to see her. As Soarin' sort of expected, Spitfire was alone in her office. "Hey Spitfire," Soarin' said, "have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere?"

"Well she burst in here a few minutes ago to tell me she was back before she suddenly left," Spitfire said. "Why?"

"Just wondering," Soarin' said as he went to leave. "Thanks for telling me."

Soarin' left and sighed. Well Rainbow Dash at least went to Spitfire, he thought. So she isn't technically lying. Maybe I'm wrong about her. She could have just been more concerned about me and only interrupted me just to make sure I'm fine. But then why did she suddenly run out? Well, I'll just keep looking for her and see for myself.

So Soarin' looked around the headquarters a bit more. He made it through at least half of the headquarters before actually finding her. When she saw her he immediately proceeded to ask her if something is wrong. But as soon as he called for Rainbow Dash she proceeded to non-stealthily head out of the room.

Soarin' was shocked at that, but he gave her one last benefit of the doubt. There might have been a reason why she suddenly ran out of the room like that. Soarin' was probably thinking too positive to himself, but he figured after knowing Rainbow Dash all these years there must have been some reason for that.

So after a bit more searching he once again caught up to Rainbow Dash, and this time because he snuck up to her, she didn't run away. So he actually got to talk to her. "Rainbow Dash, is there something wrong?" Soarin' asked.

"Uhh…no," Rainbow Dash said nervously. "Nothing is wrong at all."

"Rainbow Dash, what are you hiding from me?" Soarin' asked, trying to be somewhat confrontational.

"I'm not hiding anything," Rainbow Dash said. "Nothing at all." Rainbow Dash's eyes darted everywhere instead of at Soarin'. "Uhh…I got to go Soarin'. See ya later." Rainbow Dash proceeded to dash out of there once again leaving Soarin' alone.

Ok so she is avoiding me, Soarin' thought, coming to the inevitable conclusion. But why is she avoiding me? Is there something I did to cause her to want to avoid me? I did snap at her, but I apologized afterwards. But maybe she took it badly. She might be afraid to tell me about what happened at the doctor's office. But what could have happened there?

Soarin' stopped cold at a thought that crossed his mind. Could Rainbow Dash have gotten some illness that prevents her from being in the Wonderbolts. Or something else bad happened at the doctor's office that she doesn't want me to know about. I don't know. But maybe Scootaloo heard something. I'll try asking her about it.

So instead of following Rainbow Dash, Soarin' decided to look for Scootaloo. It wasn't really that hard to find her, he just looked for the place where the most noise was coming from. In this case, the mess hall.

"Hey Scoots," Soarin' said to Scootaloo. Because Rainbow Dash won the custody case for Scootaloo and Soarin' married Rainbow Dash, Soarin' is technically one of Scootaloo's legal guardians. But while Scootaloo idolizes Rainbow Dash, she hasn't really had time to bond with Soarin'. Soarin' blames himself for the lack of time to bond with her.

"Hey Soarin'," Scootaloo said. "So did you hear the good news?"

"Good news?" Soarin' asked.

Scootaloo was surprised. "Wait she hasn…I mean, you weren't told yet?" Scootaloo asked.

"Told what?" Soarin' asked.

Scootaloo looked down for a few seconds, thinking. Soarin' heard some mumbling from her mouth, but it wasn't loud enough for Soarin to make anything from it. After she decided what she was going to say she lifted her head up and started talking.

"Well…uhh…I have to go," Scootaloo said. "I have a mess I need to clean up."

"Wait," Soarin' called out to Scootaloo before she left. "Before you go, is anything off with Rainbow Dash today? Has she told you anything? She's been avoiding me all day. "

"I'm going to figure that out myself," Scootaloo said. "See ya around Soarin'."

Soarin' watched as Scootaloo walked away, more confused than ever. What is going on around here? First Rainbow Dash starts avoiding me and now Scootaloo knows about something that I don't. I don't get it. Well I guess if it's anything, at least Scootaloo said there is good news. If it's possible for any news to make this day any better. I'm starting to doubt there is.

Soarin' sat down in a chair in the mess hall, wondering why today just keeps getting worse and worse.

~

Scootaloo was across the cloud layered floors of the Wonderbolt H.Q. Scootaloo couldn't understand why Rainbow Dash was avoiding telling Soarin' about her foal since she was really happy about it when Scootaloo last saw her. And since asking her about it probably wouldn't go very far, Scootaloo needed to find somepony else to ask about it. So she was heading for the only other pony in this place that she trusts.

She stopped outside of the office and knocked on the door. From beyond the door a voice said "Come in."

Scootaloo walked into Spitfire's office and saw her looking at who just walked in. "Ahh…hey Scootaloo," Spitfire said. "What do you need?"

"Well I have a problem," Scootaloo said. Ok Scootaloo, you just need to ask Spitfire without telling her what is happening to Rainbow Dash. You can do this. "Rainbow Dash has some news for Soarin' but for some reason she is avoiding him. And I think Soarin' is hurt because of it. What should I do to help them?"

"What news does Rainbow Dash have for him?" Spitfire asked.

"I…can't tell you," Scootaloo said. "Rainbow Dash told me to keep it a secret."

Spitfire looked at Scootaloo for a few moments. She had a pondering face on her as she looked at Scootaloo. "Hmm…ok then. Do you think you can get those two to somehow talk?"

"I don't know," Scootaloo said. "Rainbow Dash has been avoiding Soarin' and I don't think she is going to talk easily."

"Well trust me Scootaloo, you don't want the two not to talk about it," Spitfire said. "So even though I am probably going to regret telling you this, you should find any way possible of getting the two of them to talk. Do whatever it takes Scootaloo."

"I'll do my best!" Scootaloo said before exiting the office.

As soon as Scootaloo left Spitfire got back to doing her usual duties. Yet while doing them, she said to herself, "I really hope you succeed Scootaloo. I would hate to see Rainbow Dash and Soarin' make the same mistakes I made when I was pregnant with you."

~

Outside of the office Scootaloo was planning exactly how she was going to get Rainbow Dash and Soarin' together. While she was plotting, it sort of reminded her of back when Applebloom, Sweetie Bell and her tried to get Cheerlie and Big Macintosh together. While it didn't exactly work to get them together as a couple, they did manage to get them in the same place. So all Scootaloo thought she needed to do was get the two together.

But of course, Scootaloo also knew that Rainbow Dash would probably try and get away if she's been avoiding Soarin'. And that was something Scootaloo had no clue how to stop. Scootaloo herself wasn't strong enough to stop Rainbow Dash from flying away and she wasn't sure who she could get to help her.

She was thinking about what exactly she was going to do until she suddenly ran into somepony. Before she got a look at who she ran into she heard a voice saying "Watch where you're going will you?"

"Well sorry," Scootaloo said. "I have a lot to think about right now."

"Wait that voice. Scootaloo?" the voice asked. Scootaloo finally looked up to see a white colt with a grey mane.

"Rumble? What are you doing here?" Scootaloo asked. "Shouldn't you be in Ponyville?" Scootaloo knows Rumble from back there. Rumble was the first colt to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders and they both got to be pretty good friends. But after Scootaloo got her cutie mark just a little while after Rumble joined they didn't manage to talk much as much as they used to. It also didn't help that they have different classes at school.

"Well normally yeah, but ever since my brother made it into the Wonderbolts I've wanted him to show me around the place," Rumble explained. "He finally decided to do that today."

"Your brother…wait that's it!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Rumble I need your help. Can you get your brother for me?"

"Well…I guess I can," Rumble said. "But why?"

"I'm making a plan and I need some help with it," Scootaloo said. "I'll explain on the way."

Rumble was still confused, but he decided to show Scootaloo where Thunderlane was anyways. "Ok, follow me," Rumble said as they both started walking. "Last I saw my brother was in the mess hall."

"Ok, that's where Soarin' is, so we're going to need to be careful while talking to your brother," Scootaloo explained. "He can't know what we are planning."

"What you are planning," Rumble corrected. "I don't even know what is going on."

"Rainbow Dash is avoiding Soarin' for some reason," Scootaloo said. "So I'm going to get them together to talk about it. But even if I get them together, Rainbow Dash will try and run away instead of talking to him. So I need you to get your brother to block Rainbow Dash from leaving, forcing her to talk."

"Well it looks like your plans are still as crazy as they were before," Rumble said. "You know you owe me one for this right?"

"Yeah yeah, we'll worry about that later," Scootaloo said. "Let's get Thunderlane now."

So Scootaloo and Rumble made their way to the mess hall. Once they got there, they both made a beeline for Thunderlane while trying to avoid getting spotted by Soarin'. They both ducked under tables and behind chairs even though Soarin' wasn't really paying attention to them and probably wouldn't have noticed what they were doing anyways. They eventually reached Thunderlane who was trying and failing at chatting up with one of the Wonderbolt Mares.

Rumble used his hoof to poke Thunderlane and get his attention. "Excuse me for a moment," Thunderlane said to the mare he was talking with before he went down to Rumble and asked, "What do you need Rumble? I'm trying to talk to a mare here."

"We need your help," Rumble told Thunderlane.

"Can this wait?" Thunderlane asked as he poked his head back above the table to see what the mare he was talking to was doing. But when he poked his head up, she was already gone. Thunderlane groaned and poked his head back down. "Fine, what do you need?"

Scootaloo explained to Thunderlane exactly what was happening with Rainbow Dash and Soarin'.

"So you need me to block her from running away huh?" Thunderlane asked. "Well, since Rainbow Dash did help me get into the Wonderbolts in the first place, I think I can do that for her.  So sure, I'll help you."