After leaving Sweetie Belle, Ditzy started on her way home. The newly created young pegasus enthusiastically bounced at her side, giving her best impression of a large, orange ping-pong ball. Watching her, Ditzy found herself reflecting on the strange events of the previous day.

She'd intended nothing more than basking in the sun for a while while Dinky was away. Then she had gotten sucked into the game Sweetie Belle had been playing. She had clearly been bored and lonely, and Ditzy had been glad to oblige.

And, of all things, Sweetie Belle had burst into singing "Ease On Down The Road", a song she was intimately familiar with.

It's been a long time since I thought about that musical, Ditzy reflected. I'd actually auditioned for the position of Dorothy, in fact. They just stuck me with the role of the Scarecrow because they figured that the way my eyes looked and my clumsiness meant I was dumb.

Of course, she thought wryly, they had completely missed that the Scarecrow was the most intelligent of them all, all along, and just didn't have a diploma.

Ditzy let out a sigh, thinking about it in retrospect.

Not unlike myself. Maybe it had been appropriate casting, after all.

Not that she hadn't done foolish things in the past, of course. The events that had led to her being a single mother had been very foolish indeed, not that she regretted having Dinky. And now Dinky's father was even finally acknowledging her existence. A bit too late, in her opinion, but she certainly wasn't going to stand between them getting to know each other.

And she'd taken in Sparkler, too, for a few years, when she'd found out she'd been stuck alone in an orphanage. She'd moved back out on her own now, after graduating, but they were still very close.

And now she'd taken on a new one. She glanced over at the orange filly bouncing up and down beside her with amusement. No, I don't think I'll regret this one, either.

It did mean that right as her budget loosened up, another filly would depend on her. She could live with it, though. She pictured the young pegasus next to her living in a cardboard box on the streets, or over in some cold, heartless orphanage, and shivered.

She was sure there'd be a lot of things to work out with taking her in, starting with any issues related to her origin. She certainly acted like a normal filly, and Ditzy would give her the benefit of the doubt on that one. She had just appeared in a burst of accidental magic, though. Would she disappear the same way after a while? She didn't think so, but she wasn't an expert. She wasn't even a unicorn.

Still, first things first. She needed to get her home, and into a bath, which wasn't an easy task with anypony her age. They also needed to pick out a name. It was awkward not having something to refer to her by. She'd seemed agreeable to 'Scoots' as a nickname for the moment, though.

Afterwards, maybe they'd make a quick trip to Sparkler's. Having just gotten out of school, she wouldn't necessarily know that much about magic. Ditzy knew she could trust her, though. It's not like there were many unicorns knowledgeable about magic in town, and with the library closed until Jotted Note gets replaced, she wasn't left with many options.

"Ditzy?" A voice asked hesitantly. She looked up in surprise, almost stumbling over her own hooves.

Seeing big purple eyes looking up at her, she realised she'd spaced out. It wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten so wrapped up in thought as to forget the world around her. She'd even walked straight into a lamppost one time, both eyes wide open, and even pointed in the same direction for once. It certainly hadn't helped her reputation any.

"I'm sorry, my mind must have been wandering." She shook her head, as if to clear it. "What's on your mind?"

"Where's your home at?"

"Well, m– our home isn't that far from here, actually. If we keep going straight, this street will take us most of the way there."

"Okay," she said, then lapsed back into silence.

"After we stop there and get a bath, I was thinking we could head over to Sparkler's and introduce you."

"Sparkler?"

"My older daughter. She moved out a few months ago, leaving me with just Dinky."  Ditzy took a deep breath. "Dinky's visiting her father right now, though, so you won't meet her till tomorrow."

"Dinky... I think I've seen her once or twice when playing with Sweetie Belle.  I think she's a unicorn with a light purple coat, and a year younger than us." She looked down. "Well, younger than Sweetie Belle, anyways."

"She is a bit younger, and generally different age groups don't mingle much in school, so I doubt you would know much about her."

"I don't think I... I know much about anything."

Ditzy patted her side reassuringly, avoiding spots of tree sap as best she could. "Don't worry. You'll learn more as time goes on."

"I... Guess so." The orange filly seemed lost in thought.

"Earlier, as part of the game we were playing, I claimed to have the evil eye. Obviously, I don't, but I do have a vision problem you should know about." Since it was one of the first things most ponies noticed about her, Ditzy felt she should broach the subject.

"Oh, yeah, that sounded like it must suck. How bad is it?"

"Well, my condition would be technically classified as strabismus." She launched into lecture mode. "Basically, one of my eyes doesn't focus right, and I occasionally get double vision, and don't have very good depth perception."

"Depth perception. That'd be a problem flying, wouldn't it?"

Ditzy mouth scrunched up for a moment. "Yes, though less so in areas I know well. It is part of why I've got a reputation for crashing a lot, though."

"What about reading?"

"That I can manage, though I get headaches if I stare at a book for too long." Ditzy said. "Though many ponies seem to assume I'm next to illiterate."

Looking at the street ahead, she realized they were almost home.

"Ok, let's make a left here."

They turned down a series of side streets, and arrived at a series of houses that all looked fairly similar. Ditzy stopped at one with familiar brown curtains and turned to the filly next to her, who seemed to have calmed down somewhat from her earlier enthusiasm.

"And this is our home." She pointed at one of several decorative rocks. "If you ever get locked out for some reason, there is a spare key under there, though it's really only meant for emergencies."

Ditzy fumbled through her saddlebags, and pulled a brass key out. She unlocked the door, then dropped the key back in. Wiping her hooves on the welcome mat, she opened the door and stepped in.

Ditzy gestured at her young companion. "Wipe the mud off your hooves before coming inside. It can be pretty difficult to get out of the carpet."

Grumbling, the orange filly carefully wiped off all four of her hooves before entering. She started to head towards one of the cushions there, but a stern glance from Ditzy warned her off.

"First things first. You've got mud and tree sap all over you, and I'm not in much better shape at this point. It's time for a nice, hot bath for both of us." She pointed towards the bathroom door.

"Awwww..." The pegasus complained before she begrudgingly headed in, more than ready to do something about her matted, sticky fur, which even had twigs and leaves sticking out of it in places.

Ditzy headed over to a large bathtub to one side of the bathroom. She'd heard of ponies washing foals in as little as a large wooden bucket before, but that, she felt, would take all the fun out of it. She turned the handles, starting the water flowing.

She ran one hoof under the flow of water, then adjusted the temperature. Once it felt about the right warmth, she put a plug in the drain, and started the tub filling. Then she grabbed a few bottles and containers from the cabinet. The pegasus at her side watched in fascination and she mixed various soaps and bath salts into the bath water.

"I've... I've never seen any of that when Sweetie Belle takes a bath..." She said, as bubbles started floating up from the bathtub.

Ditzy sighed. "That's a shame. I bet some of this would look familiar to Rarity, though."

Rarity would in fact, be surprised if she saw them, but not because she was unfamiliar with the bubble baths and salts in question. Rather, what would have caused her eyebrows to rise would have been seeing large containers filled with bubble bath mixtures you could usually only get in small expensive bottles from the spa or specialized shops.

This was simply because Ditzy made them herself, and she was the shops and spa's supplier, though most ponies in town would have been surprised to hear it. It was one of the facets of her cutie mark talent. As far as she was concerned, it wasn't the most important aspect.

Far too many people assumed that the superficial aspects to a cutie mark were all there was to it. Silly, really. Why would a mark symbolizing what you were good at only have one meaning? She'd been set to write her thesis on it a long time ago before... Life got in the way.

Seeing the water just starting to rise higher than it should, she quickly turned it off. She tossed in her favorite rubber duck. After all, one's never alone with a rubber duck. Testing the water with one hoof, she nodded to herself.

"All right, kid, in you go."

The young filly eyed the foamy, bubbling water for a moment, grinned mischievously, and jumped in, splashing soapy water all over Ditzy.

"Why, you..." She gratefully immersed herself in the bubbles herself, and then splashed a large wave at the filly, leaving water and foam dripping from her mane. The two engaged in an all out splash war that only ended when they were both sopping wet from head to tail.

Then Ditzy grabbed the scrub brush, and thoroughly scrubbed her down. 'Scoots', as Ditzy had dubbed her earlier, giggled and tried to squirm away. After giving the giggly young filly a vigorous scrubbing, Ditzy started on herself as well, getting out some of the spots of mud and tree sap that had mysteriously stuck to her fur during the course of the day.

Once she had most of the gunk out, she playfully blew a few bubbles at the pony next to her, prompting the second war of the tub; a bubble war. Afterwards, she shampooed up her magenta mane, being careful to avoid the eyes, then rinsed it out, washing her own afterwards.

Ditzy then batted the rubber duck floating in the oversized bathtub towards her companion playfully. She looked down at it.

"It's just a rubber duck."

Ditzy frowned. "Now, none of that. You'll hurt Mr. Flibble's feelings."

She emphasized her words by pressing the squeaker on the duck.

"Fine. But it's still just a duck."

Ditzy, seeing that this was going nowhere, sighed. "All right. The water's starting to get cold, anyways. Time to dry off."

She heaved herself out of the tub, and grabbed a green towel from a nearby rack. After patting herself down with it until she was no longer dripping all over the floor, she lay a second towel out. Grabbing a suddenly protesting young filly from the water, she wrapped her in the towel and started rubbing vigorously.

A muffled voice came from within the towel, but was totally unintelligible. Ignoring it, she finished drying the filly off, then removed the towel to reveal a large ball of orange and magenta fur and feathers sticking out in all directions. Her mouth quirked as she did her best not to laugh.

Draining the tub, Ditzy grabbed a brush and comb, and worked on turning the giant ball of orange fluff in front of her back into a young filly. Afterwards, she worked on taming her own mane and fur as well.

They exited the bathroom, both slightly damp. This time when the young pegasus hopped on a pillow the same color as her coat, Ditzy gave no objection, and set herself down on the couch next to her.

"So what do we do next?" she asked, a bit of bounce coming back into her.

"Well, I was thinking we could visit Sparkler, and there were also some things we needed to discuss," Ditzy said.

"Why were we going to see Sparkler again?"

"Well, among other things, I wanted to tell her about you," Ditzy replied matter-of-factly.

"That I'm living with you now?"

"That's part of it. You'll be living in her old room, after all," Ditzy said. "Also, I wanted to see if she knew enough about magic to be able to tell us a bit about what happened."

"Um... Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked, sounding rather skeptical.

"I trust her, and not getting advice would be a bad idea. I'd like to know if you're liable to suddenly find yourself sucked back in Sweetie Belle's mind," Ditzy commented, trying to get across the potential problems.

Her eyes widened, and she suddenly looked rather frightened. "That can't happen... Can it?"

"I hope not. I don't think so, but I'd rather find out ahead of time," Ditzy said, then changed the subject. "I also think we should pick out a name."

"Yeah," she said, half to herself. "I don't even have that."

Then something occurred to Ditzy. "How long have you been friends with Sweetie Belle, anyways?"

Scootaloo shrugged. "A few months?"

"And she never came up with a name for you?" Ditzy asked.

"Oh, a few, but they were always different names depending on the adventure we were on," Scootaloo said. "None of them would work for a permanent name, though."

"Alright," Ditzy said. "That makes more sense. So, any ideas?"

"Well, we talked about Scoots, but that really would just be a nickname." She looked up at Ditzy. "What type of names do ponies usually have? Dinky, Ditzy, Sparkler..."

"That's technically Amethyst 'Sparkling' Star, Dinky Doo, and Ditzy Doo. A lot of ponies call me by the nickname 'Derpy', though. It's kind of a mean-spirited one, but they don't mean anything bad by it." She frowned. "Well, some of them don't."

"So, Scoots Doo, then?" The filly asked, then shook her head before Ditzy could respond. "Nah, that doesn't sound right. Scoot Doo. Scoota Doo?" She played around with the different combinations of sounds.

"Well, keep in mind the Doo doesn't necessarily have to be in there. For adoption papers, it might be easier if that was added later, actually." Ditzy frowned. She was going to have to think about how to deal with those, given no record of the filly in question being on file anywhere.

"Yeah, I suppose. Hmm... Scooty Doo?" She ran the names together. "Scootadoo. Scootaloo? That might not be bad."

"That would work. It'd let you keep the nickname, too," Ditzy said.

Something then occurred to her. "Would it be Scootaloo Doo, then? Because that's kinda silly."

"Well, Sparkler never added Doo to her name, and many ponies rarely use their full names, anyways," Ditzy said, smiling.

"So, only the cool ponies like Rainbow Dash use their full name?" She asked, a clear trace of idol worship in her voice.

Well, Ditzy knew how to handle this one. "Rainbow Mariam Dash certainly does not use her full name. She hates it if anypony mentions it, in fact."

"Oh." She said, nonplussed. "I hadn't thought about a middle name. Scootaloo... Awesomesauce Doo?"

"Now you're just being silly." Ditzy ruffled her mane. "We seem to have settled on Scootaloo, at least."

"It's growing on me."

"All right. Let's go pay Sparkler a visit, then, Scootaloo," Ditzy said, deliberately using her new name. Scootaloo didn't notice.

"More walking?" Scootaloo hopped off the cushion. "Well, alright, I suppose."

"Actually, let's try a different route." Ditzy got down from the couch, and led her into the hallway. Then they cut through her workshop quickly and went out the back door into her backyard.

Alongside the house was a garden, with neat patches of various herbs and vegetables. There was a large area of nothing but grass. A fence bordered the yard, and a tree was growing high near one section of the fence. Looking up, Ditzy didn't see a pegasus in the sky - at least, not nearby. Perfect.

"Ok, Scoots, you seemed tired of walking," Ditzy said. "Climb on up."

"Huh?" Scootaloo said, looking confused.

Ditzy grabbed ahold of the orange filly and pulled her on her back. 

"Now hold on to my neck." She trotted over to the far end of the yard. Once she felt Scootaloo's forelegs wrapped around her, she started running and leapt into the air, spreading her wings. Then, as she got up to a decent altitude, Ditzy started slowly gliding towards her destination.

"Scootaloo, I'll need you to keep a lookout." Ditzy said. "Say something, or tug on my mane if there's anything in my flight path. I'll probably notice it anyways, but I'd prefer not to crash with you on my back."

"Like that pegasus in front of you?"

Ditzy swerved left, seeing Blossomforth ahead of her. Blossomforth waved at her as she went by.

"Exactly. It'll only be a few minutes, though."

She set course for Sparkler's new place, and arrived in the general vicinity without any issues. Alright, now let's lower myself into that patch of grass gently, carefully...

Thud. Not the most graceful of landings.

"You okay back there?"

"Yeah. A little shook up." She loosened her grip.  "Um... Is that a normal landing?"

Ditzy sighed. "For me it's not that uncommon, unfortunately. Bad depth perception, remember?"

"Right." She hopped off Ditzy's back. "So, this is where Sparkler lives? It looks like a jewelry store."

They were, in fact, a short distance from a store with a new sign above it proclaiming it to be "Amethyst Star's Fine Jewelers". Ditzy nodded.

"Yes, this is actually her new store. She got a business loan from Filthy Rich to open it, but still has to watch costs, so she's just living in the back room of the store for now. I was willing to let her keep living with me until she could afford something, but..." She shrugged.

"So we should just head right into the store, then? Looks like she's there right now." Scootaloo said, glancing through the window.

"I think it's right near her closing time, so that shouldn't be an issue. Let me go first, and go behind me, though."

"Why?" Scootaloo asked, puzzled.

"That way I can introduce you, and she knows you're with me," Ditzy explained patiently.

"Oh! Ok."

Ditzy headed through the door, making sure to leave it open enough that Scootaloo could get through as well.

The store was laid out with display cases all through the store, with jewelry of all types on display. There were necklaces, gemstones, a tiara or two, horn rings, and earrings, ranging from extremely pricy to cheap enough for a young filly to buy from her allowance. The cases were sparsely populated, though, presumably due to the store having only recently opened.

By the back wall was a counter and cash register, and behind it, a unicorn with a light magenta coat and a violet and purple mane looked up, hearing the bells ringing on the door. Her eyes lit up upon seeing Ditzy enter.

"Ditzy!" she exclaimed, running over and enveloping her in a big hug. "I didn't expect to see you until at least tomor-"

She looked over Ditzy's shoulder questioningly at Scootaloo. "Wait just a moment."

She disengaged from the hug and walked over to the orange filly.

"Hello, welcome to Amethyst Star's Fine Jewelers. I'm Amethyst Star, but you can call me Sparkler." She smiled. "Is there something I can help you with? I could show you some bracelets or necklaces that might be in your price range-"

As she took in Scootaloo's lack of any sort of saddle bags or anything to carry any sort of money, Ditzy cut in. "She's with me, actually."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She eyed the new arrival speculatively. "I don't think we've met. What's your name?"

"I'm Scootaloo!" she said, hopping around enthusiastically. "Though we were talking about making it Scootaloo Something Doo, but I haven't really made up my mind yet, so..." Ditzy's foreleg quickly met her forehead.

"You're taking in another one? Really?" Sparkler raised one eyebrow. "I remember how tight it was with me and Dinky. Are you sure you'll be able to afford it? I know how generous you are, but you have to know your limits. You can't can't just go taking in anypony that looks up at you with big sad eyes..."

As she continued to speak, Scootaloo stopped hopping around, and her ears and mane drooped. She slumped down on the ground. Seeing this, Ditzy went to her side, and put one hoof on her shoulder to reassure her.

"Amethyst Sparkling Star," Ditzy said firmly. "How many times have I talked to you about jumping to conclusions before you have all the facts? Or about considering other ponies feelings?"

She tilted her head in Scootaloo's direction, and seeing her reaction, Sparkler immediately stopped her diatribe. She headed back over to the filly, and tousled her mane. "I'm sorry, squirt. Let me finish closing up shop, and then the three of us can talk, all right?"

"Yeah..." Scootaloo said slowly, getting back up. "Sure."

Sparkler walked over to the door, and flipped the sign to closed. She then grabbed a clipboard, and walked around, checking what she had on display against a piece of paper. Satisfied, she quickly tallied up her register, and then invited them in back.

"Excuse the mess. I have more stashed away in here then I really should." She tried to inconspicuously shove a few empty takeout boxes in the trash. "I'm not totally done with unpacking, and I think I may have forgotten a few things back home in my rush to get moved."

That was really a bit of an understatement. There were a few cushions scattered around, a bed in one corner with a stack of books by it, a record player and some records in another corner, and plenty of boxes, some of which were open.

Ditzy entered the room and cleared out some space in the middle of the floor. She grabbed a few cushions, and set them up where the three of them could easily sit together and talk. Sitting on one of them, she started to tell her story.

"I was sunbathing out by the pond today, when a young unicorn by the name of Sweetie Belle approached me..."