1. Changes

"Come on, Scoots," Rainbow Dash said as she nudged her new little sister. "It's time to get up."

Scootaloo stirred breifly. "It's too early..." she mumbled, burying her head under the pillows, not really awake or even fully aware of her surroundings.

Rainbow Dash smiled. She remembered she had been like this about mornings once, to. She remembered how her folks had dealt with it. Leaning in to where Scoot's ear was under the pillow, she whispered, "I made pancakes."

"Pancakes!" Scootaloo shouted happily, leaping into the air...promptly burying her head in the cloud ceiling.

Laughing, Rainbow Dash pulled Scootaloo out of the ceiling and hugging her. "Can't do pancakes every morning, but figured I'd do something special for your first day living here."

Scootaloo smiled huge, her wings buzzing happily. "Thanks, sis!" Scootaloo still wasn't used to calling Rainbow Dash that...but she was sure she'd get used to it before too long.

The pancakes proved to be delicious, and Scootaloo devoured them eagerly. Rainbow Dash, watching, seemed lost in thought. As she finished, she looked up at Rainbow Dash. "So what's on the schedule for today?" she asked happily.

Dash reached out to touch Scoot's mane, brushing a bit of syrup out. "First a bath, messy pony." Scootaloo giggled. "Then, school."

"Aww!" Scoot moaned.

"Don't you 'Aww' me, little lady," Rainbow Dash said firmly. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to raise you right, and that means school, among other things."

Dash leaned back, a little shocked, when this resulted in a tackle hug from Scootaloo. "You're the best, Dash!" After a bit, she took off. "Race you to the bathroom!" she took off up the stairs. Laughing, Dash took off after her.

The bathroom was a marvel of pegasi engineering. A captured rain cloud had been stretched out so that the water was constantly flowing from top to bottom and then evaporating back into the top.Soap and dirt fell out of the bottom of the cloud into a basin that was regularly dumped along with the night soil. Rainbow Dash carefully washed the syrup out of Scootaloo's mane and coat, trying her best to be gentle...a new experience for her, to be sure. Scootaloo didn't so much as flinch.

Once Scootaloo was completely cleaned, she stepped out and into a warm and fluffy cloud towel, which pulled the excess moisture off her body, leaving her completely dry. As Dash then started combing her mane to settle it, she grinned. "You don't even take this much attention with your appearance, Dash!" she said happily. "What gives?"

Dash grinned. "Well, that's me. This is you." She leaned back. "Close enough," she said, then gave Scootaloo a tight hug. "Come on." They headed outside...and blinked at what they saw. "Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy...what's all this?"

Applejack and Big Macintosh were constructing what looked like a rather large ramp, while Fluttershy had gathered a large amount of clouds and were stretching them out into what looked like a runway attatched to the side of her house, lined up with the ramp. Twilight was working on a strange contraption. Since she seemed to be in charge, Rainbow flew down to her, carrying Scootaloo and her scooter. "What's all this about?" she asked.

"Just a moment, Rainbow." Twilight looked at Scootaloo, then promtply placed her, her scooter, and her helmet on a scale. As Scootaloo squealed a breif protest, Twilight ran a few more calculations on a chalkboard before casting some magic on the device she had constructed, which seemed to be a rather springy length of...something attatched to a base. There was a wide triangle sticking up from the base with red marks on it, and the springy part was designed to wave freely in front of it. "There, perfect."

"Twilight," Rainbow Dash asked a bit angrily, "what the hay is all this?"

"A way for Scoots to get back up to your house on her own," she said as though this were obvious. "She can run her scooter right up the ramp once it's finished - it'll be done before she gets out of school today, by the way - and land on that cloud runway Fluttershy's setting up." She held up the device she'd constructed. "This will measure the amount of head or tail wind there is at the point she gets ready to make the jump. Having taken her weight into account, this part will swing with the wind. As long as it's between these two red marks, she can land safely. If it's beyond the red marks, she should either wait under the ramp until the wind calms or you get there, or she can come get one of us."

As Scootaloo hopped up and down, thinking of the tricks she'd do off this ramp, Rainbow Dash smiled at Twilight. "Thanks, Twilight. I really appreciate it." She picked up Scootaloo. "Come on, squirt. I'm seeing you to school, then I need to get to work."

At the school, Rainbow Dash set Scootaloo down. "Well, have fun squirt!" She ruffled her mane. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

Scootaloo looked up at her, grinning impishly. "That doesn't rule out much!"

Rainbow Dash laughed, giving her a friendly cuff on her shoulder. "Rascal." She then took off for work.

Scootaloo headed into school, meeting up with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. They laughed happily for a time socializing. She hadn't told them yet about being an orphan, or about Rainbow Dash adopting her. She wanted to tell them - more than anything - but she wasn't sure how. They both already knew about her staying with Rainbow Dash now, but they weren't sure why. As they went into class, ignoring Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's casual comments about blank flanks, they took their seats.

Cheerilee came into the classroom to teach. "Now class, while I normally announce assignments at the end of class, I have a special assignment for all of you that I want you all to think carefully about. Next week, I want you all to turn in a written report on the happiest moment of your lives, the happiest you can remember. You will also read your report in front of the class, in an order I will determine after grading the written portion of the project."

As Cheerilee moved on with teaching, ignoring the groans of most of the class, Scootaloo perked up. Inside her mind, a lightbulb clicked on as an idea formed.

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Rainbow Dash got her work finished as quickly as usual that day, pushing ehrself the same amount as she always did. She would have pushed harder, but she had a lot to think about. When Twilight had weighed Scootaloo, Rainbow had noticed she was dangerously underweight. She'd have to work on getting Scootaloo back to a healthy weight, as well as taking her to a doctor to check if she was suffering from any vitamin deficiencies. She ran through the figures she'd talked with Twilight and the others about in her mind. While it looked good on paper, the doctor's bills were going to put a huge dent in her finances.

Coming up to her supervisor - while she was in charge of all weather in Ponyville, she still reported to Cloudsdale weather department, which handled wheather dispatch for the entire country - she settled down. "Say, is there any extra work i can handle?" she asked, trying to make the queery casual.

He looked up at her, somewhat surprised. "What brought this on? I thought you used most of your spare time for friends and training?"

Dash smiled, trying to make it casual. "Got some new expenses to deal with. Every bit helps."

Before the supervisor could respond, one of the other area supervisors spoke up. "Hey Rainbow! I heard you adopted the dodo from the freak barn!" Several of the others guffawed with him. Rainbow Dash clenched her body, trying not to let the quiet fury building in her show.

A sudden thunder burst caused her to turn around. The pegasus who thought he was funny was upside down against the far wall, badly singed with his eyes spinning. Sitting on a nearby small thundercloud, Derpy rolled her eyes, a trifel singed herself, though not as bad as the other pegasus. "I'm sorry," Derpy said, her voice her usual slow but happy speech. "I just don't know what went wrong." To Rainbow, however, it seemed that the mail pegasus pony's smile was slightly larger than normal.

The manager smirked at Rainbow. "Well, Fancy Feet will be recovering from that lightning strike for a few weeks," he said, glaring at the singed pegasus, "think you can handle Canterlot as well as Ponyville? They're pretty close together."

Rainbow Dash saluted. "I won't let you down, sir!" She then left to go pick Scootaloo up from school, but since she had plenty of time, she flew leisurely, accompanying Derpy on her way home. "That was some nice aimed lightning, Derpy."

"Now, Rainbow Dash," Derpy said, her eyes pointing away from her, "you know a pony as clumsy as me could NEVER manage to aim lightning."

Rainbow laughed. "Right. Gotcha!"

As they flew, Derpy looked towards Rainbow, and for a brief moment, her gaze was locked on her. "Did you really take Scootaloo outta that awful place?"

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said. "She's my little sister now." Rainbow paused. "Derpy...were you..."

"That place is awful," Derpy said quietly, coming in to land on a cloud. "Especially that stallion they got running it."

Rainbow Dash stared. Derpy was 24. Her daughter, Dinky Doo, was nine. The youngest an orphan could leave an orphanage to live on their own was 16. Derpy never talked about her parents, which meant... "Derpy, is Dinky..."

"She thinks Blazer was her father," Derpy interrupted. Blazer was Derpy's late husband, who had died in a terrible accident a year before Twilight moved to Ponyville...and had been a close friend to Rainbow Dash. "I don't want her to know otherwise."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "I gotcha, Derpy." She eased a wing over Derpy, hugging her gently. "Blazer was a good pony. A good father for Dinky."

Derpy nodded. "Uhuh. I need to get going. Need every paycheck to take good care of my little muffin!" Smiling, she flew off to continue delivering the mail.

Rainbow watched her go. One thing stuck with her, though. She would need every bit she could scrounge to take care of Scootaloo.

Derpy had her little muffin. Rainbow had her little squirt. Both of them would do whatever it took.