“Something I have learned since my banishment is that love must be earned,” Luna said. “It takes effort and hard work and does not always come easily.”

“And how do you plan to win the heart of Equestria?”

Luna smiled and looked at the floor. “If I knew that, I would not have been banished in the first place.”

Rainbow Dash had a reputation for finding creative ways to enter buildings, but today, she decided to just use the front door. The library’s interior was strewn with books, as usual, and its keeper was sitting in the center, looking over four at once.

“Hey, Twi,” Dash said, stepping around a large stack of notes.

“Huh?” Twilight blinked and looked around. The books fell to the floor. “Oh, hello, Rainbow. What can I do for you?”

Dash managed to squeeze between two stacks of books without knocking any over. “I was wondering if I could borrow your copy of ‘Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone,’” she said.

“Oh, of course.” Twilight’s horn glowed purple, and a green-covered book floated off one of the shelves. “Re-reading the series again?”

“Actually, I wanted to let Scoots read it,” Dash explained as the book tucked itself into her saddle bag. “She seems like the kind of pony that would like a good adventure book.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” said Twilight.

“Yeah, well, she is my number one fan,” Dash said. To be honest, she was pretty proud of the progress Scootaloo had made over the last few months. Rainbow Dash was confident that if the filly ever found herself hanging over the edge of another cliff, she’d at least be able to glide herself to safety. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. How come you called it ‘The Quest for the Sapphire Statue’ that night I broke into the hospital?”

“Oh, that!” Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Well, if you get a copy from the first printing, like mine, you’ll see the cover says ‘Sapphire Stone,’ but the title page says ‘Sapphire Statue.’ Apparently, there was a miscommunication between the cover designer and the printers, so the title got messed up. But here’s the really interesting part,” she continued, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “A few months ago, A. K. Yearling said both titles are wrong, and the real title was supposed to be—”

“Yeah, okay,” Dash said with a wave of her hoof. She’d hoped the explanation would be more interesting than a printing error, but then again, this was Twilight she was talking to.

Twilight scowled, but she dropped the subject. “Anyway, I think Scootaloo will really enjoy it, too. She’s quite the reader, actually. Just the other day, she was in here with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle asking for science books.”

“Must be for their project,” Dash mused.

Twilight nodded as her schedule floated through the air. “Their presentation is this evening,” she confirmed with a glance at the schedule. “Rarity and Applejack will be there, of course, and since I’m their project mentor, I’ll be helping Cheerilee determine their grade.”

“Sounds great,” said Rainbow as she adjusted the straps on her saddle bags. “Tell me all about it, ‘kay?”

“You’re not going?”

Dash stopped near the doorway. “Well, science isn’t really my thing, and I have some stuff to do with the weather team.”

“But this is Scootaloo’s project,” Twilight said, frowning. “She’s worked really hard on it, and it would mean a lot to her if you came to the presentation.”

Rainbow Dash tapped her hoof against the floor. “Well, maybe, but I can’t just bail on the weather team. Besides, I’ll totally make it up to her when we dominate at the Sisterhooves Social this weekend.”

“I’m sure they can get along without you for one evening,” Twilight said, but Dash had already pushed open the door and launched herself into the air. She did a couple lazy loops as the wind whipped her mane across her eyes. One more stop, and then she could catch a quick nap before meeting Scoots for flying practice.

The bell above the boutique’s door jingled when Dash entered. “Hey, Rarity! You in here?”

“One moment!” Rarity’s voice echoed from the back room. A moment later, the unicorn walked into the showroom. “Hello, Rainbow Dash. I assume you’re here to pick up the…” Her voice dropped several decibels. “You-know-what?”

“Um, yeah.” Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure why she was being so secretive, but she decided to let it slide. “So, how’d your date with Flutter—I mean, your secret admirer go?”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Rarity said with a roll of her eyes. “If you must know, it went perfectly well. He’s every bit the gentlecolt I imagined he would be.”

“Really?” Dash wanted to gag at the very mention of mushy love notes, but she knew Rarity totally ate that kind of thing up. “So, when do I get to meet him?”

“After the way you teased me, I’m not sure you really deserve to meet him,” Rarity replied, turning away from Dash toward her mannequins.

“What? Come on, Rarity, I was just kidding!” She bounded forward to confront the unicorn directly only to find a smirk on her friend’s face. Dash rolled her eyes. “All right, I deserved that.”

“You most certainly did,” Rarity giggled. Her horn glowed blue, and a filly-sized mannequin moved out from behind a curtain. “What do you think?”

Dash couldn’t help but grin as she examined her friend’s work. “It’s perfect!” Dash reached into her saddle bag and pulled out a bag of bits. “Here, I think this should cover it.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” said Rarity, holding up a hoof as she used her magic to put the flight suit in Dash’s bag. “I know you mean the world to that filly, and getting such a fine gift from you will be worth more to her than all the bits in Equestria.”

“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t help you.” Dash held the bag out to her. “C’mon, you’ve given me more than enough freebies.”

Rarity smiled and enveloped the bag in a magical blue aura. “Well, if you insist.” Rarity placed the bag in a nearby chest. “I don’t mean to cut your visit short, but I simply must get back to work. I have a lot to do before the presentation this evening. I presume I’ll see you there?”

“I, uh, wasn’t planning on going.”

“What?” Rarity froze halfway across the room and stared at Dash with wide eyes. “But Rainbow Dash, you simply must go.”

“Look, I have a lot to do, okay?”

“And I don’t?” Rarity gestured around the showroom with a hoof. “It may look neat out here, but I have four major orders due by the end of the week, and most of them are still lying in pieces in my workroom. Even Applejack is taking time away from the harvest to—”

“Well, I’m not you or AJ, am I?” Dash snapped. Rarity took a couple steps back. “I gotta go take care of some stuff. See you later.”

One restless nap later, Dash found herself gliding over Sweet Apple Acres, scanning the ground for a little orange pegasus with a purple mane. To Dash’s surprise, she found her not on the ground but on a cloud a good fifty feet in the air. “Hey, Scoots!” she said as she landed beside the filly. “Did you get up here yourself?”

“Yep.” Scootaloo lay on the cloud, staring down at the ground.

“Wow, that’s awesome!” said Dash. “I think that’s a new record!” Dash waited a moment for Scootaloo to leap to her hooves, beaming, but the filly merely shrugged. “So, how was your day?” Dash asked after a moment.

“Fine.”

Dash’s head cocked to the side. “Is something wrong?”

Shrug.

“You didn’t strain a wing on your way up, did you?”

“No.”

Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Well, what’s up?”

Scootaloo got to her hooves and looked up at Rainbow Dash with sad eyes. “I heard what you said to Rarity,” she said. “We were working on our project upstairs when you came by.”

“Oh.” That explained why Rarity was being so secretive about the flight suit. “Look, squirt, it’s not that I don’t want to be there—”

“You just have more important things to do,” Scootaloo finished, vaporizing a bit of the cloud with a dismissive kick.

“I wouldn’t say more important,” Dash started again.

“Then why don’t you come?” Scootaloo asked. “Everypony else is going to have somepony there to cheer them on, and you’re the closest thing to a big sister I have.”

Dash vaguely recalled approving a few time-off requests over the last week. “Look, I’m team leader. I can’t just take time off whenever I want.”

Scootaloo sighed. “I guess I just kinda hoped I’d get to see somepony there for me for once.” Rainbow Dash didn’t know what to say to the filly’s downturned gaze. “I don’t really feel like practicing today. I’ll see you later." Before Dash could reply, Scootaloo spread her wings and leapt off the cloud, glided somewhat unsteadily to the ground, and walked away.

Ponyville had some cloud cover scheduled for that evening, so Dash spent most of the afternoon with her weather team, getting all the clouds into position. What should have been a simple job was made more difficult by several conflicting crosswinds, and as the day wore on, Rainbow Dash found the task growing more and more frustrating.

“Flitter, Silver Speed, get that bank back into position,” Dash barked. The two pegasi took off after the clouds she’d indicated. “That’s the third time they’ve drifted too far south,” she muttered.

“I bet if we set up a few cumulus over there, it’d keep them from drifting so much,” suggested Cloudchaser.

Rainbow Dash looked where she was pointing and nodded. “Get somepony to set it up.”

“You seem a little distracted,” Cloudchaser observed. Rainbow Dash didn’t answer as the two circled around Ponyville, checking the team’s work. “Is something on your mind?”

“It’s… nothing.”

Cloudchaser shrugged. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask for time off. I thought for sure you’d want to be there for Scootaloo’s presentation.”

“Why does everypony keep bringing that up?” Dash didn’t realize she’d shouted until she saw Cloudchaser raise an eyebrow at her. “I mean… I can’t just leave the weather team, especially with all these crazy cross-breezes messing everything up.”

“We can survive an afternoon without our team leader,” said Cloudchaser, flaring her wings to kill her speed. “Besides, you’re not much good to us if you’re not focused.”

Rainbow Dash wanted to snap at her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “I know,” she muttered as she landed on a cloud and stuck her face in it, hoping the cloud’s coolness would clear her mind. It didn’t. “I just don’t want to leave anypony hanging.”

“We have plenty of pegasi to manage the weather,” said Cloudchaser as she landed beside her leader. “Scootaloo only has one big sister.”

Dash sighed as she pulled her head out of the cloud and got to her hooves. “I’ll be back in a while to make sure everything’s in place,” she said. She quickly retrieved her saddle bags and flew toward the schoolhouse, hoping she wasn’t too late.

The evening was warm and clear, and Cheerilee had decided to take advantage of the weather while she could. Displays and props stood in a semicircle in the schoolhouse’s playground. Dozens of ponies drifted from one project to another, and every filly and colt was energetically explaining what they’d done to any adult who passed within earshot.

Every filly, that was, except Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash felt a stab of guilt between her ribs when she found the orange pegasus sitting to the side, head bowed, while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle presented to Cheerilee and Twilight. Dash took a deep breath and circled lower, trying to figure out what their project was about. To her surprise, she saw a few pictures of the Wonderbolts, a diagram that looked like the wind resistance models she’d learned about in flight camp, and a full-sized mannequin dressed in a flight suit. Dash landed at the back of the crowd without being noticed and listened.

“As you can see here, a pegasus’ coat, mane, and tail catches the wind, creating drag,” Sweetie Belle was saying, pointing to the wind resistance model. “While this isn’t a problem for everyday activities, it can be a big problem when you’re trying to do stunts and tricks.”

“Everypony knows the Wonderbolts are the best fliers in all of Equestria,” Apple Bloom continued while Dash pushed her way through the crowd, ending up just behind Rarity and Applejack. “Ah’ve never been to one o’ their shows, but Ah do know a lot o’ their tricks would be really hard with all that wind resistance.”

“That’s why they always wear these flight suits,” Sweetie Belle said, pointing to a picture of Spitfire in her Wonderbolts uniform. “Some ponies think they’re just for show, but they actually help them fly faster and more accurately.”

Dash didn’t understand all of the numbers and diagrams on display, but she did know from experience the effect a well-made flight suit could have. “How big of a difference does it make?” she asked.

Scootaloo let out a short gasp as her head shot up to find her hero smiling at her. “Sorry I’m late,” Dash added quickly when the rest of the ponies looked at her. “I… got a little sidetracked.”

Scootaloo beamed and leapt to her hooves. “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out,” she said, joining her partners in front of their display. “Obviously, the flight suits would be more effective if they also covered a pony’s mane and tail, but that would be uncomfortable and impractical. The next best option…”

Rainbow Dash’s smile widened as Scootaloo continued, though it had nothing to do with suddenly finding a love of science. A lot of the numbers went over her head, but Scootaloo’s enthusiasm more than made up for it. “Well, I must say I’m impressed,” Cheerilee said when the fillies had finished. “Are there any other questions?” There were none. “Well, if there’s nothing else—”

“Wait!” Scootaloo cried. “We still have one more thing to show you.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started pulling the flight suit off the mannequin. “We thought we’d give you a demonstration of how the aerodynamics of flight suits work in real life. For that, we’re going to ask for a volunteer.” Rainbow Dash’s heart beat a little faster as Scootaloo walked toward her. “And who better to volunteer than the best flier in all of Equestria?”

Dash’s smile turned sheepish as Scootaloo dragged her in front of the crowd. “You know, you could have asked me earlier,” she muttered. Dash let the fillies slip the flight suit over her body. It was a near-perfect fit. “I just have one condition.”

Scootaloo frowned. “What’s that?”

“I want a wingpony.” Dash reached into her saddle bag and pulled out the filly-sized flight suit. “You up for it, squirt?”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. “Is that… for me?”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle helped their friend into the flight suit, and Dash was glad to see it fit her almost perfectly. “Ready?”

“Ready!”

The two pegasi pushed off the ground and shot into the sky. Dash did several loops to keep pace with Scootaloo, whose tiny wings beat the air rapidly. The two reached a low-floating cloud and landed. “Wow!” Scootaloo gasped, looking over her suit. “That was amazing!”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Dash said with a smile. She pushed off the cloud and picked up speed, twisting and looping as she went. Her show lasted less than a minute, but when she returned to Scootaloo’s cloud, the filly was watching her with wide-eyed awe, as always.

“Well? How was that?” Dash asked, her breathing a little heavier than usual.

Scootaloo wrapped her forelegs around Dash’s neck. “I’m glad you came, Rainbow Dash.”

Dash returned the filly’s embrace and looked up just in time to see the last of her rainbow trail fade away. “Me too, Scoots. Me too.”