"Alright, my little ponies, we only have a few minutes before you have to leave so please pay attention." Cheerilee clapped her hooves to bring the fillies and colts that had started chatting to attention At her words though, they settled back down. "Remember, next Monday is Take Your Foal to Work day. Each of you is to select a parent to follow around their job for the day."
"So we get the day off school for that?" Apple Bloom grinned.
Cheerilee gave her a knowing look and shook her head. "In the strictest sense, you won't attend class, but it is not a day off. I want you to write a report on what your parent does for their work, what you saw with them, and what you learned. You'll be expected to bring them with you to class Tuesday, so write them Monday evening when the experience is fresh in your mind." At that moment the bell rang to dismiss the class, and Cheerilee nodded towards the stack of papers on her desk. "Take one of the permission sheets as you leave, the parent you'll be following has to fill it out for you to bring tomorrow."
The colts and fillies filed up to the desk one by one, taking the sheets until there was one pony left in the room with Cheerilee, who had sat at her desk and was marking the day's assignments. Scootaloo took one of the sheets in her mouth and slipped it into the bag around her neck. Looking at it for a moment, she wrinkled her mouth. "Um, Miss Cheerilee?"
"Hm?" Cheerilee looked up from her marking and let go of her marker. "Yes, Scootaloo?"
"Uh, for this assignment…" Scootaloo shuffled her hooves. "Do we have to follow a parent?"
"Is your father is too busy, Scootaloo?"
"He is." Scootaloo answered quickly, nodding. "He's very busy, always working, doesn't really have time to show me around."
"I see. Well, I don't mind, provided you can find another adult pony with an appropriate career to shadow them on. If you need help finding somepony-"
"What about Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo cut in, grinning.
Cheerilee chuckled; she had already suspected as much. "That'd be perfectly acceptable."
"Awesome, thanks Miss Cheerilee!" Scootaloo dashed out of the classroom, Cheerilee watching her.
The wind rushed through Scootaloo's tail as she propelled her scooter down the streets of Ponyville, eyes trained on the sky overhead. She heard other ponies crying out as she came near but steered around them without diverting her eyes; Rainbow Dash had taught her how to make full use of her eyes including peripheral vision, and she could see what was ahead of her even as her eyes darted between clouds. Finally she saw a familiar mane of rainbow hair poking down from one and skidded to a halt. She cleared her throat and tilted her head back.
"Rainbow Daaaaaaaaaaaash!"
Scootaloo heard a passing couple grumble about the volume as she finished her call. The rainbow mane pulled up into the cloud and was replaced by the cyan head it streamed from.
"Hey Scoots!" Rainbow Dash dropped from the cloud and flew to the ground, dropping down in front of her. She smiled and held out a hoof. "What's up?"
Scootaloo returned the smile and bumped her hoof against Rainbow's. "Hi Rainbow. Slow day?"
"I'm supposed to clear the clouds for stargazing tonight. So I figured that means I've got a few hours to kill. If I forget to stretch, might take me two minutes. Maybe." Rainbow puffed up at her own bravado. Scootaloo giggled, then remembered why she was here.
"There's a thing we're doing at school next week, on Monday. Take Your Foal To Work Day."
Rainbow made a face. "Oh yeah, I remember back when I had to do that. My dad was a moving pony. Not exactly a thrilling day."
"Right. Well, I was wondering if, maybe, I could come with you to the weather factory?" Scootaloo grinned. Rainbow Dash rubbed her head and thought.
"I dunno, aren't you supposed to go with a parent? What about your dad?"
"He's busy, working really hard, doesn't have time," Scootaloo replied.
"What's he do?"
"Do? Uh… um…" Scootaloo looked away. "He works in, um… the weather factory."
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash leaned down.
"The weather factory." Scootaloo spoke just a bit louder this time, but Rainbow heard her.
"Oh. What's his name?"
"… Tailspin."
"Hm, never heard of him. What's he doing there that he's too busy to take you?"
"Uh… top secret… weather… stuff." Scootaloo fidgeted. "He can't talk about it, and definitely can't show me around, so… can you help?" She looked up again, and Rainbow Dash pulled her head back up.
"Sure, I guess."
"AWESOME!" Scootaloo perked up again and poked her muzzle into her school bag to pull out the permission sheet. She dropped it on the ground, her wings flapping excitedly. "You gotta fill this out for Cheerilee, and on Monday when school would start, I'll meet up with you and we go to the factory together!"
"Sounds great." Rainbow knelt to look over the sheet as Scootaloo bounced in place a bit.
"This is gonna be awesome, Rainbow! You can show me the snowflake workshop, and the cloud plant, and the rainbow ponds! … is it true what they say about those?"
"Huh? Oh, no, no way." Rainbow Dash faked a yawn. "I'm still a little tired, I'll take care of this later, okay Scoots?"
"Sure, no problem!" Scootaloo hugged Rainbow Dash tightly. "Thanks so much! I'll come see you tomorrow for the sheet!" Scootaloo pulled back and hopped on her scooter, waving to Rainbow before taking off down the street. Rainbow Dash watched her go and looked down at the permission sheet.
Rainbow Dash walked into the entrance hall of the Cloudsdale weather factory, looking down the entrance platform at the factory floor stretching below. Thinking over her goal, she turned and tapped a hoof on the manager's desk.
"Hey, Dewdrop."
Behind the desk, the light-blue pegasus looked up from his paperwork. "Oh, morning Rainbow Dash. I didn't see you scheduled for today."
"I'm not, but I'm here to visit someone. Can ya tell me where Tailspin's working?" Rainbow waited as Dewdrop picked up a clipboard and flipped through the employee listings.
"He's down in the storm cloud shop today."
"Awesome, thanks." Rainbow took off flying, navigating her way through the hallways and open-air spots of the factory towards the smaller building where they prepared storm clouds. The building was more closed-in than the other parts of the factory, for safety. Rainbow dropped down at the entrance and pulled a hard hat and coat from bins of them by the entrance. She walked through the archway and looked around.
The storm cloud shop was full of pegasi hard at work. Trios of them were bringing in newly formed clouds fresh, while other workers were infusing them with lightning or rain as demanded. The clouds were then carried to machines to have their water content, conductivity and size measured before being taken to another part of the factory for transportation. The machines were overseen by a unicorn pony, a cloud-walking spell keeping them safe while their magic did the finer work of manipulating the measurements that pegasi couldn't handle as easily.
Rainbow looked over the area. She should have asked for a physical description, because there were dozens of ponies here, and she had no idea what Tailspin looked like. She flew up to the unicorn and landed on the clouds behind him.
"EXCUSE ME!" The machines were loud this close to them, and Rainbow Dash had to yell over them. The unicorn turned, blinking behind thick goggles. "Could you tell me where Tailspin is?" The unicorn looked over the area and pointed a hoof, then turned back to his work. Rainbow looked where he had pointed and flew down. Around her two ponies were working on a rain cloud, a third was pushing a storm cloud overhead, another had their head and front hooves buried in a cloud pillar, and one was carrying buckets of water in a harness.
Rainbow cautiously approached one of the pegasi working on the rain cloud. "Uh, Tailspin?" The pegasi looked at Rainbow in confusion and went back to his work. Behind her, Rainbow Dash heard movement and turned. The pale red pegasus with his head and hooves in a cloud pillar pulled it out, cloud fluff sticking to him. He shook his head vigorously, revealing a short light-purple mane. A damp cloth was in his right hoof, and a cutie mark of three clouds in varying shades of grey was on his flank.
"Yes?"
Rainbow looked back at the two ponies working on the rain cloud, then at the pegasus that had just spoken. "You're Tailspin?"
"Yes ma'am." Tailspin put the cloth on the floor next to a pail half-full of water and picked up a hard hat. "And you're Rainbow Dash. Pleasure to finally meet you." Tailspin put on the hat and held out a hoof, which Rainbow shook after hesitating for a moment.
"You know me?"
"Sure do. A filly puts a poster of a strange pony on her bedroom wall, a father asks questions." Tailspin smiled and winked, and Rainbow chuckled awkwardly. "What can I do for you?"
"You got a few minutes to talk? It's about Scootaloo," Rainbow said. Tailspins stopped smiling and his left wing twitched.
"Is she alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine, just, can we talk?"
"Sure, of course." Tailspin looked around and approached another pony transporting water. Rainbow didn't hear what they said, but after a few seconds the pony nodded, and Tailspin walked back. "Over here."
Tailspin led Rainbow Dash to an adjacent break room. Benches and tables filled the room along with rows of lockers, but most ponies were out on the floor. Tailspin sat down at a table and gestured for Rainbow to do the same.
"So, what's going on?"
Rainbow sat down opposite Tailspin. "Have you talked to her recently?"
"Last night, she was up late so she was just heading to bed when she got home. I asked if she'd done all her homework, got herself some dinner, she said she had." Tailspin shrugged.
"Didn't mention anything about school?"
"No, just that she got a good mark on a book report she had to do. I offered to take her out for dinner Sunday to celebrate, but she said she had plans with her friends." Tailspin narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure everything is alright with her? If you don't mind my observation, you're being a bit nosey."
"Well, uh…" Rainbow struggled to think of a way to explain it. She wasn't sure she understood it herself, in fact she knew she didn't. "Thing is, next Monday… she asked to come to the weather factory with me."
"After school? That's fine with me, I know you'll keep her safe. I've heard the stories about what you and your friends have done."
"No, for school. It's Take Your Foal to Work day."
Rainbow Dash saw understanding flit over Tailspin's face. He looked down at the bench.
"I… see…" Tailspin fell silent for several seconds, and Rainbow wondered if she should say something, looking around the room. Tailspin saved her the trouble. "Well, if her teacher is alright with you taking up the role, I don't mind."
"Really? Wouldn't you rather show her around yourself?" Rainbow asked. Tailspin made a face and looked over his shoulder, his left wing twitching.
"Ms. Dash, tell me, what did you think I was doing out there with my head buried in a cloud pillar?"
There was an odd tone in Tailspin's voice, and Rainbow thought back to before she called him. "Uh… trying to take a discreet nap?" She made a joke of it, but Tailspin didn't laugh. "What?"
"I'm a condensation cleaner."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "Oh. Right… well, that's a very important job you know, it can get pretty humid this high up, the water could ruin the machines, taint the clouds. Quality control is big, but I don't need to tell you, right?" She laughed nervously.
"You can stop with that, we both know better." Tailspin shook his head. "I don't think my daughter is up to writing a report about how she followed daddy around all day watching him shove his head into clouds and wipe down the water droplets."
Rainbow Dash looked away. Condensation cleaning was about the bottom of the barrel at the weather factory. In fact, their job was wiping down the rest of the barrel. Condensation cleaners went around their designated areas with rags and pails, sopping up excess water from the architecture and sending it off for sanitization and then usage in storm clouds. It was part of quality control, too much moisture in the environment could affect the state of the weather they produced, but it was not a job a pegasus bragged about. They were little more than janitors.
"That's… um…" Rainbow thought about what to say. "How long have you been at it?"
"Twelve years. Feels longer sometimes."
Rainbow's eyes widened. "You're long overdue for a promotion then! Did you make an enemy out of a manager?"
"No. In fact it was a friend of mine on management that got me the job." Tailspin sighed and stretched his wings out. Rainbow Dash looked up and noticed immediately. Tailspin's right wing looked good and healthy, but the left wasn't extended to its full length, and it looked smaller than the right.
"What happened?"
Tailspin folded his wings in. "I was a member of the Ponyville weather team. You would have been a filly around that time. Wasn't the best, but I was good. Good enough to keep the bosses happy anyway." The pegasus smiled at the memory. "I didn't dream big like you, Rainbow. I just wanted enough to keep my new little filly at home happy, and I had it. Ponies liked working with me, I liked my work, and I always made sure the clouds got where they belonged on-time, positioned within a hoof's width. Had one of the keenest eyes for detail on the team."
"Then…" Rainbow prompted. Tailspin's smile faded.
"I don't know if you would have been old enough then to remember it. Freak lightning storm out of the Everfree one night, one of the biggest we've ever seen anywhere. The order came down straight from the Cloudsdale council, emergency protocols. Had to evacuate Ponyville, and we got sent out to try to stop it, keep it away from the town and disperse it before it did too much damage." Tailspin looked at his left wing, the feathers shuffling as he moved it slightly.
"Got too close. My own fault, should have known better. Wind picked me right out of formation, sloshed me around like a drink of water, then spit me back out. Saw the tree coming, but at that speed, spinning around so fast you can't tell which way is up, I doubt even you'd have enough time to do something about it. All I had time to do was brace myself. Didn't help much. The last thing I remember of that night was hitting the grass. When I woke up, I was in Ponyville hospital. Doctors said I was lucky I still had it, normally when a pegasus comes in with a wing looking like mine, they need to amputate it. The bones healed, feathers grew back, but it didn't matter. Nerve damage, muscle damage, severed tendons. They said I'd probably never regain full usage, and they were right. I can hover, for a bit at least, but flying is out of the question."
"But…" Rainbow said softly, "there's physical therapy, surgeries…"
Tailspin shook his head. "I was a single dad with a newborn filly at home with a foalsitter, Rainbow. I didn't have time to go through all that. Oh, I got enough time to get healed up, like I said, I had friends in management. But giving a pony months off work, maybe a year, with pay? Nopony in their right mind would agree to that, and I don't blame them for it. I took my time off until it healed well enough I could move it without reliving the impact, and then I met with my boss to discuss my future here. Condensation cleaner is a job that doesn't need a lot of flying, and when it does there are others stationed in the area. So, I agreed. And I've been here ever since."
Tailspin finished his story and fell silent. Rainbow Dash stared at him, blinking slowly.
"That… that sucks." Rainbow immediately felt like slamming her hoof into her eye for saying something so stupid.
Tailspin chuckled. "Yup. I've thought that many times, especially in the early years."
"So… Scootaloo… when she says you're busy all the time…"
"It's because I am. Condensation cleaner doesn't pay much, any pegasus that can carry a pail and cloth can do it. I pick up extra shifts, work overtime. Get home late, leave early. Have to, I need to take the balloon up here from Ponyville, and with their schedule I either arrive an hour early or an hour late."
"But, she was making all these excuses. Don't you want her to come see the factory with you?"
"Rainbow, if Scoots shows up with me, we're gonna need to walk around the factory because I can't fly her. And my job is to take a cloth to over-hydrated clouds and wring it into a pail. I don't think even A. K. Yearling could make a good school report out of that." Tailspin smiled. "You, on the other hoof, could show her all around the factory, introduce her to everypony, answer any questions she has. And she gets to go home and write about how she spent the day with her idol and one of Equestria's greatest modern heroes. What more could a filly ask for?"
"Their dad."
Rainbow's response was instantaneous, and Tailspin's demeanor dropped again.
"Look, Rainbow…" Tailspin stopped and looked down at his hooves. His wing twitched. "Be honest about it. I am. When kids brag about what their fathers do for a living, condensation cleaner is not a job title you're going to hear mentioned. Especially one that can barely hover in place without straining himself. If anyone asks her, she can say what she usually does; I was too busy to take her to my work so she went with you. It's not a lie, not really."
"Maybe, but… this doesn't feel right." Rainbow Dash gave Tailspin a pleading look. He had to understand, didn't he?
"You don't have to do it if you don't feel comfortable. You've been good for her, with me stuck here most of the time Scootaloo has needed somepony she can look up to, somepony she can turn to. Whenever we spend time together she's always talking about you. Being with you makes her happy, so I don't mind at all."
"That's not…" Rainbow thought. An idea came to her after several seconds. "Hey, do you work Mondays?"
"I work every day I can, unless I'm so sick I can't walk." Tailspin smiled wryly.
"Cool. Alright then, I'll take care of her."
"Great. Thanks Rainbow." Tailspin gave her a more genuine smile and stood up. "If there's nothing else, I'd like to get back out there if you don't mind. It isn't glamorous but I believe a pony should work hard no matter the job."
"Yeah, I'm good. See ya." Rainbow lifted a hoof in a wave, and Tailspin headed out the doorway. Rainbow kept staring at the archway long after he was gone.
"This is gonna be so awesome!"
Scootaloo grinned brightly and tilted her head to look up at the weather factory towering over her. Rainbow Dash smiled and extended a wing to drape it over her neck.
"It's even more awesome inside. Shall we?" Rainbow nudged Scootaloo forward with her wing, breaking her from her awed stupor and prompting a nod. The two headed into the factory, already bustling and hard at work. Once inside Scootaloo ran to the edge of the platform to look over the factory, wings flapping in excitement. Behind her, Rainbow Dash spoke to Dewdrop, who handed her a pair of hard hats and white coats.
"Here Scoots, gotta wear these if we're gonna be moving around the factory." Scootaloo turned at Rainbow Dash's voice and took the coat offered. She slipped it on while Rainbow put the hard hat over her mane, then picked up Scootaloo and put her on her back to glide down to the factory floor. Scootaloo hopped down and looked between the rows of pegasi going about their duties, including lanes of pegasi flying overhead. They were transporting various types of clouds, buckets of water, and other weather-producing supplies between the areas of the factory, ducking and weaving around each other without a word.
Rainbow cleared her throat and thought back to the 'tour guide' speech she had rehearsed. "The main facility here is mostly for administration. Up above are the offices for the higher-ups, including the head of the factory, Chief Contrail." Scootaloo looked up and saw holes in the cloud ceiling, a handful of pegasi in formal wear flying between them in the hallways beyond. "From here pegasi go around the factory wherever we're needed. The snowflake works, the storm cloud shop, the fog and mist manufactory, the rainbow ponds-"
"I wanna see the rainbow ponds!" Scootaloo spun around and grinned up at Rainbow. She smirked in response and nodded.
"I figured you would. Hop on." Rainbow lowered down for Scootaloo to climb back on her back, and she took off in a streak of rainbow light. Scootaloo's mane and tail whipped out behind her, wind streaking over her face, her wings flapping excitedly. The two pegasi soared out of the entrance building, curving to the left and diving down to a smaller building. Rainbow Dash landed on the cloud floor and skidded to a halt, puffs of vapor rising in the wake of her hooves.
Scootaloo stared in awe. Tiered cloud fountains poured cascades of liquid rainbow from holes set into the cloud walls overhead, workers stirring the mixture and taking samples as the fountains poured into each other and split up again, collecting in large pools on the floor. Scootaloo ran towards one of them and stared at her multi-hued reflection over the edge. She ran a hoof through it and watched the colors ripple and blend together.
"So cool…"
"Yeah, it's pretty complicated though." Rainbow Dash came up behind her. "Pegasi work in another area refining each individual color stream. It takes a specific mix of water and sunlight to get the hues just right, and then they send them here where we combine them into a rainbow."
Scootaloo looked at the end of her hoof still covered in liquid rainbow and sniffed it. "Smells… lemony."
"I'd stick to just smelling. We don't make them for ponies to eat them," Rainbow replied. As Scootaloo wiped her hoof off on the clouds, Rainbow looked around the area and spied what he was looking for. "C'mere Scoots." Rainbow tapped a hoof on Scootaloo's back and gestured with her head when she turned. "This pond ships to Canterlot, Appleloosa, and Ponyville." Scootaloo followed Rainbow Dash over to another pond flowing with rainbows, a worker swirling a paddle through it. Scootaloo looked up at the rainbows falling from one fountain to the next, each higher one set on cloud pillars until they reached the source of the flow.
"Rainbow Dash…" Scootaloo turned around. "Thanks so much for doing this." She rose up on her hind hooves and hugged Rainbow tightly.
"No problem." Rainbow looked up at the sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. Tailspin emerged from behind the pond, wringing a cloth damp with condensation into an empty pail. "Hey Tailspin."
Scootaloo's eyes widened, and she turned her head. Tailspin looked over and raised a hoof to wave, smiling widely.
"Hi Rainbow!" He stepped around the pond, Scootaloo dropping back to her hooves and looking at the ground. "Hey, Scootaloo. How's my girl?"
"Great. Hi Dad." Her voice was soft, her eyes darting over the clouds under her hooves.
Tailspin nodded towards the fountains behind him. "I was just cleaning the support pillars. Especially here, can't let the rainbows get watered down, throws the color off."
"Gotcha." Rainbow Dash nodded and looked down at Scootaloo. "Hey Scoots, how about we get your dad to show us where they make the individual colors?"
Scootaloo rubbed one of her front hooves against the other. "Um… I dunno, Rainbow…"
Tailspin shook his head. "I'd love to, but I really have a lot of work to do here."
"I checked the schedule, you're supposed to work that section later today. So why not head over there now with us and come back to finish this area later?" Rainbow tilted her head and smiled.
Tailspin made a face and rubbed his muzzle. "Well… I guess that makes sense…"
Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow Dash, glaring. "Rainbow, he's busy, he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to."
"Well I want him to."
"You do?"
"Yeah, I do."
"He's busy, show me yourself."
"He knows the factory better than me."
"I do?"
"Yes, you do."
"No he doesn't."
"I don't think I do."
Several workers that had been doing their duties a minute ago were now watching the spectacle at the foot of the rainbow fountains. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were glaring at each other, while Tailspin was looking between them, bewildered.
"Did I miss something here?"
"Yeah, a clue, get one."
"Knock it off, Rainbow!"
"Really, what's going on?"
"You're not helping, Dad!"
"I'm trying to get her to spend time with you!"
"I don't want to spend time with him!"
"Um, Scootaloo?"
"What's the problem with spending time with your dad?"
Shaking, Scootaloo thrust her muzzle up so high she almost hit it against Rainbow Dash's.
"Because I don't want to have to talk to my friends about how my dad is a bucking condensation cleaner!"
The argument stopped immediately. Rainbow raised her eyes from Scootaloo to see Tailspin give her a knowing look and slowly shake his head. Rainbow glared in response and then turned it back to Scootaloo. She looked away from her to glance at her father, then turned and ran towards the footpath out of the area
"Scootaloo!" Tailspin called after her but she didn't stop. He sighed heavily, lowering his eyes. Rainbow Dash took notice of the other worker ponies staring at them and stomped a hoof.
"Hey, does this look like a show to you!?" The workers jumped to life and quickly flew or trotted away, returning to their duties.
"Somepony needs to have a talk with her," Tailspin said.
"Yup, somepony does."
"I really am pretty busy, but if-" Tailspin turned to see the clouds beside him empty, and looked around to see a streak of rainbow color fading into the sky.
"…right."
Scootaloo sat at the edge of a cloud walkway running over an area below filled with large tanks of water. She hadn't gotten far from the rainbow ponds before she realized she had no idea how to move about the factory, and with her inability to fly trying to navigate was dangerous. She hadn't been able to help it though, she had to run and get away from the two of them, immediately.
"Scootaloo?"
She closed her eyes and groaned. She knew they would find her easily, but had hoped for more than a few seconds alone before they did. She felt movement beside her and didn't need to look to see.
Tailspin looked down at the water tanks under them and took a breath. "Look, sweetheart…"
"I'm sorry."
Tailspin turned his head.
"I know that… I know it isn't your fault." Scootaloo slowly opened her eyes and raised her head to look out over the rest of the factory's buildings stretching over the sky. "I didn't mean to snap like that."
"It's alright."
"No it isn't."
"Yes it is. Look at me." Tailspin leaned his head forward and waited. After a few more seconds of staring ahead, Scootaloo slowly turned to face him. "I get it, if my dad was working a job like this for most of my life, I wouldn't be bragging either."
"Yeah, but…" Scootaloo hesitated. "It just… it isn't fair."
Tailspin nodded. "I've thought that a lot over the years. It isn't fair I'm stuck working almost every waking hour. Not seeing you as much as I want. Being lucky to share a meal with you. And you home by yourself, going to sleep alone, waking up alone. I was so happy when you told me about this 'Cutie Mark Crusader' club you're in, and then Rainbow Dash on top of that."
"You could just… be home more often," Scootaloo replied. "Or maybe look for something else?"
"I have, Scootaloo, I've looked long and hard. But most pegasi jobs outside of Cloudsdale want flyers. Anything else either demands an earth pony's strength or a unicorn's magic, and if it's a job any pony can do they usually don't pay any better than this."
"That stinks."
"Yes, it does."
The two fell into silence, neither sure what further to say. Scootaloo looked back over the factory.
"… I don't feel any better."
"Me neither."
"I guess we're not that good as this 'talking' thing."
"Well, we're out of practice." Tailspin looked around the factory, thinking. Scootaloo cast a discreet glance at her father's left wing while he was looking away.
"You should have gotten it healed."
Tailspin turned back towards her and saw where she was looking. His wing twitched.
"I've thought about that too many times to count. But I just couldn't do it, sweetheart. Even if they gave me the time off to get it healed fully, I never could have afforded it."
"There must have been a way."
Tailspin slowly extended his wing, wincing slightly as he bent it, and draped it over Scootaloo. She leaned into him, lifting a hoof to wipe watery eyes.
"You're a good pony, Dad…" she said softly. "You deserve to be proud of yourself."
Tailspin frowned and looked down at her. "Pardon?"
Scootaloo lifted her head. "I just mean, you were a good weather pony once, and you try so hard. You should be able to be proud of it, not stuck here."
"You think I'm not?"
"Well… you're proud of being a condensation cleaner?" Scootaloo tilted her head.
"Very." Tailspin smiled. "I'm proud that despite all that's happened to me, I'm still able to work hard every day and make an honest bit from it, which isn't something everypony can say. I'm proud I do it well, even if it isn't something amazing." He leaned down and nuzzled Scootaloo. "And most of all, I'm proud I do it to take care of my little filly, so she can have a home and grow up to anything she wants."
"I don't know what I want to be yet." Scootaloo raised her hind hooves to show her flank. "That's kinda the point of the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
"Well, when you figure it out, it'll be out there for you. You've got your mother's spirit, she never let anypony tell her what she couldn't do, and if they tried she sent them away limping. And you've got your dad's…" Tailspin trailed off. "Your dad's… well, your mother's spirit is the most important thing. You don't need much from me."
Scootaloo smiled and stood up, wrapping her hooves around Tailspin's neck.
"I've got enough from you already."
Tailspin brought a hoof up to return the embrace, nuzzling her.
"I might be stuck wiping down clouds for the rest of my life. But trust me, I don't regret it. Not if it's for you."
The two stayed like that for some time, Scootaloo listening to her father's breathing. Tailspin looked around the factory over her.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash was gonna take you to where they make the rainbow colors. Wanna track her down and have a look?"
Scootaloo pulled back and Tainspin set her down. "Well… if you're not busy, think you could show me?"
Tailspin nodded. Taking her hoof in his, he led her down the cloud path, wings shuffled against his sides.
A short distance away, concealed inside a cloud bank, a rainbow-maned pegasus watched them go, and smiled.
