The Dawn of Loyalty

Dash zipped through the air to land beside her mother on the roof of their cloud house. "Mom? What's dirt?"

Dew Drop laughed. "Dirt, well, dirt is…" She suddenly found out how hard it was to explain things like this to an inquisitive two year old filly. "Dirt is normally brown and crumbly. It makes up the ground below." She gestured down towards the unseen world. "Plants grow in dirt."

Dash tilted her head to one side. "Then could you explain why Lily used the word dirty as an insult?"

Drop turned her head slightly so that she could get a better look at her daughter. "Who was she insulting?"

"There's a new filly at day care that can't fly well. Lily said that she was 'as dirty as those other ponies below.'"

Drop bit her tongue in consideration before answering her young filly. "Lily shouldn't have insulted that other filly or other ponies on a whole. As for why she used it as an insult that would require a history lesson."

Rainbow looked at her mother expectantly.

Her mother laughed. "Okay, okay. But let's go inside first. I'm sure somepony wants to have their snack."

"I'm fine Mom!" Dash tried to protest, but her growling stomach gave her away.

"Come on young filly, I made cookies today."

"Really?" The filly got air born in her excitement.

"Really. Now come on, or you won't get any."

"Yes, Ma'am!" The rainbow maned filly hurried after her mother into the house.

"Now, remind me what you wanted me to explain?" Drop gently teased her daughter, who was currently sitting at the kitchen table, eating cookies and drinking milk.

"You were gonna tell me why dirty is used as an insult." Dash reminded her mother.

"Oh, yes, that. Well, you see… A long, long time ago the three types of ponies had a sort of truce. The earth ponies would farm the land and give portions of their food to the pegasi for changing the weather, and the unicorns for bringing day and night. The hard work that growing food involved often left the earth ponies covered in dirt, and because they had the worst part of the deal, they were considered the lowest. Unicorns rarely got dirty because they stayed in their houses casting spells and pegasi got dirty even less, often because they rarely even touched the ground. Thus dirt became characteristic of earth ponies and, as the unicorns and pegasi of that time thought that they were better than the earth ponies, they began using dirty as an insult and I guess it's stuck around ever since."

Seeing the confused look on her filly's face Drop asked, "You get that?"

"No." Dash was rather blunt, but that was to be expected from a filly her age.

"Don't worry, you will one day."

"Will you stop bullying her!" A cyan filly shouted at another filly of about the same age. "You've done this since we were two! It's getting a little pointless."

Behind the two, a yellow filly with a long pink mane was cowering. It was hard to tell whether she was doing that because she had been bullied or because she was scared of all the yelling. Surrounding the arguing fillies a crowd of young foals had began to gather, either standing on the cloud or hovering in the air for a better view. Some of them had even begun chanting for the fillies to fight.

"But she's worthless. Surely you can see that?" The other filly's voice was surprisingly sweet, and she was quite pretty for a filly her age, what with her long wavy mane and purple coat. Her eyes gazed at Dash, happy and cheerful upon first glance, but if you looked again you could see the steely hardness of her eyes.

"What I see is that you're harming a defenseless pony. Every pony is worth something to somepony Lily."

"Harming? I haven't touched her."

"Harming emotionally!"

"Dash. Dash." Lily shook her head as if Rainbow didn't understand something. "What makes a pegasus a pegasus?"

Surprised by the question, Rainbow took a moment to answer. "Their ability to fly I guess, and their-"

She got interrupted by Lily. "Exactly. This filly can't fly. She's useless as a pegasus."

"She is not! There are plenty of other things she's good at. She doesn't have to be a good flyer!"

"What about the flight tests every pegasus has to take?" Lily said slyly.

Dash hesitated before answering. "Those are over a decade away! She doesn't have to know how to fly now." Then something clicked in Rainbow's mind.

"You have this mind set because your father is one of the judges for the tests! Don't you?"

"Of course. It's the right way to think, unlike how your parents have brought you up."

"My parents have brought me up just fine!"

"Of, course they have." Lily's tone betrayed that she was being sarcastic. "Well, your father has…"

"Don't you dare insult my mother! At least I have one."

That hit Lily hard. "Well…" She just glared at Rainbow with tears in her eyes before simply turning and walking away. Gradually the crowd began to disperse, after realizing that no fight was to take place after all.

Rainbow then turned to the filly she had been defending. "Sorry about Lily, she has her good days. This just happened to be one of her bad ones."

The filly just cowered, maybe a little less than she had been, maybe not.

"You okay?" Rainbow was genuinely concerned for the other filly.

The other filly emitted a sound that could either be taken as a squeal of fear or an incomprehensible response.

"Look, I'm not gonna hurt you." Dash tried to reassure the yellow filly.

"I-I know." She finally managed to let out a mumble.

The cyan filly decided to try another route. "I'm Rainbow Dash. What's your name?"

"Fluttershy." The filly spoke louder than before but she was still hard to hear.

"Nice to meet ya, Fluttershy. You new to Cloudsdale?"

"Oh, no. I just… Transferred schools…" She trailed off, hiding behind her pink mane.

"Oh, well welcome. Lily's actually not all that mean. She and I are friends on and off. Don't take anything she says seriously. She's just moody is all."

"O-okay."

"Come on. You don't have to be shy. I'll show you around." Just then the bell rang to let all the fillies and colts know that school was to be in session soon.

"Scratch that. You can come along with me and I'll show you around later." With that Dash took off towards the building. Fluttershy following along the clouds beside her.

"Really? Really and truly?" Rainbow Dash was hopping up and down in front of her parents, occasionally hovering in midair for a second before plummeting back to the cloud below her.

"Yes, Rainie. You're going to have a baby brother or sister." Her mom answered her excited questioning.

"I can't believe it! Can I tell all my friends at school? Huh? Can I?"

"I don't see why not." Rainbow's father glanced at Dew Drop for confirmation. She slightly nodded her head to let him know that it was fine with her.

"Yes! Fluttershy will be shocked!"

"Well then, go shock her. What's stopping you?" Her father said.

"Yipee!" Dash sped out of the window like a bullet.

"Well, she's happy." Wishcast commented.

"Mm hmm." Drop smiled after her daughter, glad for all the joy that was in her life.

"Hey! Shy!" Rainbow stuck her head through Fluttershy's window, startling the poor filly into falling off her bed. Luckily cloud floors are soft.

"Guess what! Guess what!" Dash flew entirely into the room, ignoring how she had made her friend fall. "I'm gonna have a baby brother or sister!"

"Oh! Really?" Fluttershy exclaimed very quietly. "How exciting."

"I know! I can't wait! I'm so excited I could fly around Cloudsdale five times and still have energy to burn off!" Rainbow flew crazily around Fluttershy's room as a demonstration, luckily not knocking over anything.

"I'm sure you could." Fluttershy sounded completely honest, without a hint of sarcasm in her tone, but Dash still looked at her inquisitively.

She landed on the floor next to Fluttershy before asking in a concerned tone, "Something up, Flutters?"

"Wha? Oh, no. Nothing…"

"Uh, It doesn't sound like it's nothing." That was true, and Dash was able to tell that there was something bothering her friend. The upside is that she was concerned enough to stop destroying Fluttershy's room with her excitement.

"Well, um, it's just, well…"

"Well?"

"I wish I could have a sibling!" Fluttershy blurted it out so fast Rainbow almost hadn't caught what she had said.

"Oh, Flutters." Dash sat down beside her friend before continuing. "Let's see… We could be honorary sisters. And then when my baby brother or sister comes they'd kinda be yours too."

"Really?" Fluttershy looked at her friend gratefully.

"Really. We'd have tons of fun together! What do you say we go to my house and raid the cookie jar?"

"Okay. But," Fluttershy looked slightly concerned now. "Shouldn't we ask your mother first?"

"No, silly! That would take all the fun out of it. Come on!" With that Rainbow Dash sped out the window, leaving a much slower Fluttershy struggling to keep up with her.