Even as she approached the library, Scootaloo could hear its residents causing some commotion within. A loud, heavy scrapping noise made it sound like one of the bookshelves was being moved. With caution, Scootaloo held a hoof to the door and waited for a gap in the noise. When it came, she knocked the door.
“I’ll get it Spike, stay there.” Twilight said from within the library.
“Like I have much of a choice.” Spike grumbled.
The door to the library swung inward, and Scootaloo looked up at Twilight. Currently, Twilight’s horn glowed as above her head, a feather duster and a dustpan spun around.
“Oh, good morning Scootaloo. How can I help you?” Twilight asked, a welcoming smile on her face.
“I need to talk to you about something.” Scootaloo replied.
“I see, well, come on in.” Twilight stated, standing aside to let Scootaloo in.
Walking into the main floor of the library, Scootaloo’s eyes went wide at the sight. The bookshelves, which were normally against the walls, had been moved a short distance from where they had been. And currently hanging on the light in the middle of the room, looking down at her with a blank expression, was Spike.
“Uh…” Scootaloo tried to say something.
“Trust me,” Spike butted in, “you don’t want to know, you really don’t.”
“So, Scootaloo, what was it you wanted to talk about?” Twilight asked, as she lifted Spike off the light and to the top of a bookshelf, handing him the feather duster.
“Well, you see, on my way home, there’s an orphanage,” Scootaloo had turned her gaze to the floor, “and last night, as I looked in, I saw they had ruined decorations for Hearth’s Warming Eve.”
“Oh my, I didn’t know there was an orphanage here in Ponyville. That sounds so sad.” Twilight said, her attention focused on Spike more than Scootaloo.
“Yeah, anyway, I couldn’t sleep last night. Seeing them all smiling despite the fact they were clearly sad, it made me think. What if I could raise the bits to buy them new decorations?” Scootaloo smiled, and hopped on the spot.
“Wow, Scootaloo, I didn’t take you for the kind of pony who’d think of others. By the way, how many orphans are there in this orphanage?” Twilight questioned, looking at Scootaloo.
“Six,” Scootaloo answered quickly. As Twilight blinked and took the information in, Scootaloo cringed a little, now fearful she had made a mistake that would give her away as one of these six orphans, “I… I think anyway. It was cold, I couldn’t stay long to count how many I could see.”
Scootaloo looked up at Twilight with a nervous look, as Twilight looked at her confused. This went on for ten seconds, and Scootaloo begun to shift, uncomfortable with the silence in the room. Even Spike had stopped walking around and dusting the top of the bookshelf to look down at her.
“I see… well, how do you want to raise the bits? Did you have anything in mind?” Twilight questioned, turning her attention back to Spike, who begun to dust once more.
“I figured the best way would be to do little jobs here and there and see how much I raise. As boring as that would be, it’d be better than sitting in the cold with a piece of paper and a box and wait for handouts.” Scootaloo answered honestly.
“Well, I’ll be happy to give you three bits and a bag to keep any you raise today if you help Spike dust behind the bookshelves.” Twilight stated, smiling.
“Twilight, why do we have to do this now, wouldn’t it be better to wait for Winter Wrap Up to dust behind the bookshelves?” Spike moaned.
“Nonsense Spike. I’m amazed that the amount of dust behind the bookshelves hasn’t grown a new kind of species yet.” Twilight brushed him off.
“Oh come on Twilight, I swear something shouted ‘shut the door’ when we moved the first bookshelf!” Spike protested.
“You were half asleep Spike, your argument is invalid.” Twilight replied, using her magic to hand Scootaloo a second feather duster.
“Now, try to have fun you two, I’m going to check the basement and see if it needs dusting.”
With the feather duster clamped between her teeth, Scootaloo looked up at Spike. Spike in turn looked down at Scootaloo unimpressed. Choosing to ignore him, since Spike was clearly in a bad mood at being woken up early, Scootaloo walked behind one of the moved bookshelves.
The floor behind the bookshelf, where it had stood before it was moved, was pitch black under the thick layer of dust that had built up. Clearly, the library hadn’t been cleaned behind the shelves since long before Twilight had arrived. Why Twilight was only now getting to it confused Scootaloo, but she thought better than to ask.
--
Twilight was currently in the library basement, checking through piles of old books. The titles on them had long faded, and as such, she had to check inside each book to find its title to sort it into alphabetical order. They weren’t books typically of interest to anypony, most were simply old records of number of ponies in the town, births and deaths.
She was glad Scootaloo had come along and offered help. While it had been unusual, and the quick answer to the number of orphans she had seen still puzzled her, Twilight was happy she could just work on sorting the books in the library basement. She planned to later cast a spell and put the titles back on the books.
A loud crash from above startled her, and she dropped her magic and the current book fell to the floor. Looking at the ceiling, Twilight trotted quickly back into the library.
“Why are you yelling at me for?” Scootaloo shouted from the floor above.
“Because you made this mess! Twilight’s gonna kill me.” Spike shouted back.
“Kill you? What for-” Twilight spoke up as she trotted up the stairs, and froze.
For a moment, Twilight wondered if it was snowing inside the library. Turning her attention to the white objects falling, she quickly noted that it was not snow falling inside, but rather pages. As many as a hundred book pages floated gently around the library, and scattered around the floor, mostly covered by fallen pages, were the empty covers of the books the pages had come from. In among the mess stood Spike and Scootaloo, their heads turned towards the other, but their eyes focused on Twilight.
“Spike… Scootaloo…. what happened?” Twilight asked.
“She did it! It’s her fault!” Spike backed away from Scootaloo and pointed at her.
“Are you kidding me? Twilight, some dust got up my nose, I sneezed and Spike freaked, knocking the bookshelf and causing the books to fall.” Scootaloo stated.
“I wouldn’t have moved if you hadn’t made such a strange noise!” Spike shouted.
“Enough Spike,” Twilight climbed up to where her bed and dresser stood, removing a cloth from a drawer. Returning, she used her magic to put the cloth over Scootaloo’s mouth and nose so she wouldn't sneeze again, “now, Spike you pick up the books, set the torn pages aside for now, I’ll fix them later, Scootaloo, you can finish dusting.”
Spike and Scootaloo glared at each other, before getting on with their tasks.
--
Two hours had passed quickly for anypony other than Scootaloo and Spike, and the sun was slowly rising on the horizon. As Scootaloo left the library, a small bag holding three bits in her mouth, the wind made her shiver slightly. It hadn’t been easy doing what Twilight asked, and eventually Scootaloo had to leave because Spike simply wouldn’t drop mentioning how much trouble she caused by sneezing. She didn’t quite understand how it scared him, but she pushed it to the back of her mind as she walked around Ponyville.
She soon came to a stop in front of Carousel Boutique. The idea of helping Rarity was as appealing as eating insects as a dare, but it couldn’t hurt to try, and maybe it wouldn’t be modelling a new design as the unicorn worked on it. She sighed, and set the small bag in front of her on the ground.
Scootaloo knocked at the door, which was opened by Rarity. As usual, the white unicorn had make up on around her eyes, and her mane and tail were as well kept as they always were.
“Sweetie Belle isn’t here, Scootaloo, she’s with mother and father for the holidays.” Rarity said, preparing to close the door.
“I know, I came here about something else.” Scootaloo stated. The door came to a halt, almost closed by Rarity’s magic. It opened again, and Rarity looked down at Scootaloo confused.
“What did you come here for then?” Rarity asked.
“I’m raising money to buy the orphanage new decorations. So I came to see if there’s anything you needed help with,” to put emphasis on the point, Scootaloo picked back up the small bag with the bits inside, “I already helped Twilight dust the library.”
Rarity thought for a moment. Twenty seconds later, an idea came to her mind, and her eyes sparkled.
“IDEEEEEAAAA! Come on inside, would you like something to drink?” Rarity asked as she trotted back inside her shop.
Scootaloo looked nervously through the door, suddenly getting a bad feeling. She shook her head and walked in, after all, maybe Rarity would just ask her to fetch her drinks and food for a while as she worked.
--
Scootaloo tried to sit down, but was told off right away by Rarity. She sighed. Her hopes on something interesting to do had gone after the glass of water. Currently, Rarity was using her for a new design for young fillies, but standing around was boring.
“Now darling, you said you were raising money for the orphanage? How do you know they need new decorations for Hearth’s Warming Eve?” Rarity asked, using her magic to place a red ribbon on the cloth currently around Scootaloo’s body.
“Um, yeah,” Scootaloo shifted slightly, “I… I saw through a window last night, and the ones they have are badly damaged. I couldn’t sleep until I decided to get the bits to buy new ones for them.”
“Oh how thoughtful of you Scootaloo. Do your parents know of your plan?” Rarity asked again, focusing more on a ruby and sapphire in front of her, trying to decide which would work with the design.
Scootaloo bit her lip. She hadn’t actually expected anypony to ask what her parents thought, but now the question had been asked, she mentally kicked herself for not having a quick answer ready.
“They didn’t see any problem with it.” Scootaloo lied.
For a brief moment, Rarity looked at Scootaloo, having clearly noticed it had taken a while for her answer to arrive, and also how uncomfortable at having been asked was. Returning to the gems, Rarity set the sapphire aside and placed the ruby on.
“I see. And these orphans, how many are there and what were they wearing?” Rarity questioned, standing some distance back to see the dress in full.
“I think there were six,” Scootaloo lied convincingly, having been asked how many there were earlier by Twilight had prepared her to be asked again. The second part of the question was more like Rarity however, “and they didn’t wear anything, we’re ponies, we don’t wear clothes often.”
Rarity shook her head, before turning to her stash of cloths. From the pile she removed another light blue role and begun cutting it into the shape of a hat.
“Ponyville is a bit of an exception there. In bigger cities like Canterlot, they wear clothes,” she paused, “how old roughly would you say these six orphans were?”
“Oh, um,” another tricky question that Scootaloo hadn’t been expecting, it was as if everypony knew she was an orphan and were simply playing along to her game of hiding the fact, “well, I think one was my age, she was a filly too and a pegasus, then there was another filly pegasus that looked a few years older, the rest were older colts.” Scootaloo closed her eyes, hoping that Rarity would take it as her recalling what she saw, instead of trying to avoid eye contact after telling a lie as the newly made hat was placed on her head.
“I see,” Rarity paused thoughtfully, as she looked over the hat, “well, I think I’ll surprise them with some clothing, it wouldn’t take long to make. Now, I don’t need you to wear the hat for me to work on it, let me take those off, and I’ll go get some bits for you.”
With the clothing off, Scootaloo held her breath as Rarity walked out of the room, stopping to look at Scootaloo in the doorway. When the unicorn was out of sight, Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Rarity hadn’t worked out the truth.
As she walked back into Ponyville main square, she counted the bits mentally, the cold wind actually helping her think. She did make some progress, at least she could afford a new tree. It was a start. She smiled to herself. She just needed to work a bit more.