//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Welcome little one 
// by DashieFan1 
//------------------------------//

"Hush now, quiet now, 
It's time to lay your sleepy head... 
Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to go to bed... "

Cloud Puff watched as the tiny ball of fur and feathers before her gave a tiny sigh and rolled over, burying her fragile face into their mother's side. Rainbow Dash smiled at her, silently thanking Cloud for her work in keeping the new-born foal asleep.  Rainbow could pull off a sonic rainboom, could fly with the best, and could clear a sky in ten seconds flat. But she couldn't sing a lullaby. For that, she needed her daughter, who was far quieter and calmer then her feather-brained mom.

Padding out of the room, Cloud Puff passed the two boys of the family, both staring at the new child. Holy feathers, she knew that her mom had only come back from hospital with White Whirl today, but babies weren't aliens. Grabbing her little brother, Cloud Puff dragged Sunrise Brisk out of the nursery to his favorite room in the house. Sitting him down in the kitchen, she grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. Aunty Applejack was always sending them fruit whenever Windfall came over, so the fruit bowl was always full, even with the amount her dad ate.

Soarin' came striding into the room after his daughter and son. Nabbing another apple for himself, he sat next to Sunrise and looked at his son.  The small colt had the same coat as his dad, and both his parent's manes, spikey dark blue mixed with streaks of wild rainbow. His daughter was always calm, but this was the first time in living memory that Sunrise had stopped talking for more than five minutes. 

"You okay Sunrise?"

Sunrise dodged the apple chunks his dad spewed with practiced ease. Even as a father, Soarin' had never learned to keep his mouth shut.

"Say it, don't spray it! And yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't' wanna wake Whirly"

"Gees, two seconds in this house and she's already been assigned her own nickname!" Cloud complained. Cloud hated her brother's habit of giving nicknames, especially after he had nicknamed her 'Puffy'.

But for all his annoying habits, Sunrise was a sweet kid. Enthusiastic, energetic, and happy to the point of being annoying, he brightened up anypony who met him. And also generally got the pony wet, covered in mud, or otherwise impeded. Rainbow's worst mistake, to date, was introducing Sunrise to the wonders of pranking.

Leaving her dad to get apple flecks everywhere, she trotted to her bedroom. When they'd been building the house, her parents had let her decide what her room was going to be like. So far, Cloud had never regretted her decisions. Her room was big enough to fly in, light, airy and peaceful. One of its best features was that it had a bathroom off to the side, and that was where she was headed.

Standing in front of her mirror, Cloud brushed her mane with the patience that dictated all her actions. Although she had inherited her mom's rainbow hair, her mane was a darker, smoother creature, with a streak of white that was also present in her tail. She plaited the white streak, as usual, and tied up her tail. Her reflection stared at her, making sure that Cloud was presentable. She was pretty, really. A dark blue coat, the exact colour of her father's mane. Her rainbow hair. And her white flecked hooves and face. Cloud nodded. She was neat, tidy, and ready to see her mom's guests. Because this was her first day at home, rather than at hospital, all of the family's closest friends were coming over to see White Whirl.

The guests! They should be here soon! She imagined them coming in to the family home, just to be met by her father covered in apple chunks and her brother covered in mud! (Cloud wasn't really sure how you could get mud into a cloud-home, but Sunrise did it, and did it well) Sure, her aunts would be kind about it, but they wouldn't want to come back...

Cloud puff hurried toward the kitchen, desperately hoping that Sunrise hadn't set up another of his 'hilarious' pranks on the front door again.