Chapter Thirteen
The Kindling
In the living room of a massive cloud mansion on a cold Saturday night sat a lone purple unicorn who busied herself with going over what used to be a rather messy stack of documents. However, the papers were messy and scattered no more; they had long since been sorted. A candle sat atop the coffee table, illuminating the pages and the unicorn's face. Her her eyes constantly performed erratic twitches, taking in all of the information on the documents. The unicorn the eyes belonged to had her purple magic wrapped around a pencil that seemed to be moving on its own, jotting down several calculations per second on a scratch piece of paper.
After pausing for a moment and looking over the papers, the unicorn breathed a sigh, and put the pencil with smoke rising from the tip down onto the table.
"Okay then," Twilight Sparkle said alongside her exhausted sigh as she collected her cyan friend's documents into one neat stack. She now shouted so the two pegasi in the neighboring room could hear her. "That should be all of it! After going through what few bills you have I can see that you'll just barely be making enough with your current weather job to support a filly and yourself."
Rainbow Dash strode out into the living room of her cloud home with her yellow coated friend in tow. Both pegasi were covered in small tufts of cloud.
Dash grinned at the good news. "Well that's a relief, there's no way I'd able to take a second job with my super busy schedule."
Twilight chuckled. "Oh, you mean your daily twelve hour shift at the Dream Factory?"
"Exactly. Pretty lucky that I get to keep it."
Dash stood staring at the manila folder. She snapped out of her stare and turned back to the hall she had previously entered from. "Well, Fluttershy and I just finished the new room, would you like to see?"
"Of course!" replied Twilight as she set the folder down. The three ponies walked back to the newly created bedroom; its door opposite that of Rainbow Dash's.
Fluttershy placed a yellow hoof on the grayish purple door and pushed it open to reveal a bright spectacle of a very lucky filly's new sanctuary. Not unlike Dash's room, Wonderbolt posters adorned the walls; catching and holding firmly onto the eyes of the viewer. Vibrant purple wallpaper covered every inch of the room that wasn't already occupied by a poster. A small dresser made of compacted-cloud sat against the wall next to a walk-in closet, and opposite the dresser sat Scootaloo's new bed. Nothing was out of the ordinary for this bed, save for the wonderful material the mattress, bedspread, blanket, and comforter were made of.
Flanking the bed on both sides stood two nightstands of the same material as the dresser. Atop one nightstand sat a lamp surrounded by framed pictures of the new family. On the other sat a clock that read "1:26 a.m.", and it was accompanied by yet more pictures.
"WELCOME HOME SCOOTALOO!" was written on a banner hung over the wall just above the bed, and it dazzled the room with its glitter and sequin-composed font.
An extremely large window with dark purple drapes nearly took up one entire wall. Dash opened the curtains to reveal the Princess of the Night's moon shining brilliantly in the midnight sky.
Though she wouldn't admit it, tears were nearly brought to Rainbow Dash's eyes at the sight of her special little filly's new room.
The three ponies heaved a sigh, then stood in silence as they imagined the new life laid out for Scootaloo.
"Well Rainbow Dash," piped up Fluttershy after several moments of silence, "this was truly a feat. I think that if you've made it this far, you'll surely make a great parent."
"I agree," corroborated Twilight. "Normally if something proved to be difficult, you'd shy away and quit." Rainbow Dash scoffed at the statement. Twilight continued unfazed. "But you've stuck through this, and are seeing it to the end."
"I think little Scootaloo is going to have a great life here with you," commented Fluttershy. "Where is she by the way?"
Dash scrunched her face in thought. "Well, she's probably in her old room at the orphanage. I just gotta show the officers in charge this room, then she can come home!"
Twilight looked at the clock and yawned. "Well, you know what they say. Early to bed, early to rise. Don't want to keep her waiting while you sleep in, do you Rainbow?"
The blue mare let out her own yawn and nodded her head. "Thanks again, guys," said Dash. Her two friends gathered close to give a group hug that Dash believed was unneeded. Dash stood with wings of yellow and hooves of purple wrapped about her body for longer than she thought was necessary. Dash finally resigned, and wrapped her own wings around her friends.
As her two friends nuzzled into Dash, she stared out the window and gazed upon the moon. After looking at the ball of light for a few minutes, she noticed something strange. The moon was starting to get covered by clouds eerily quickly. The clouds seemed to behave like…smoke, from a fire.
"Somepony out camping somewhere?" asked Dash, causing her friends to look out the window.
"Who would be having a campfire in the middle of Ponyville?" countered Twilight.
Fluttershy cowered away. "I-Is that d-d-dragon ba-ack?"
"No, it's not coming from a mountain," assured Dash.
The three ponies' gaze followed the plume of smoke from where it was covering part of Luna's moon down to the surface where its source would be found. Walking up close to the window, the three followed further to find that a building on the edge of Ponyville was alight. Even from across town, and being up in the air, the three ponies could make out individual licks of flame from the intense house fire.
"Oh no," gasped Fluttershy, "somepony's house is on fire!"
"Ooh, I do hope the weather team puts it out before somepony is hurt!" said Twilight.
As if in a trance, Dash began walking forward towards the window, mouth agape.
Twilight called to Rainbow, but the sounds seemed to bounce off of the mare's ears. She continued walking until her snout touched the glass. Another, softer call came from Dash's left side; Fluttershy. Again, Dash didn't pay attention. All of her focus was being put into recognizing the building ablaze.
"What the... No…" whispered Dash before jumping away from the window, "No! No! No!"
Dash bolted out the room leaving her two befuddled friends behind.
"Wait, Rainbow Dash!" called Twilight, but it was too late. Dash was already rocketing out the front door, quickly closing the distance between herself and the burning building.
Panic was setting in for the supposed unshakable pony. Tightening the muscles of her body and fiercely flapping her wings, Dash began to descend even faster than before. She had to get there. She just had to. The closer she got to the building, the more her suspicions were confirmed.
Dash landed roughly in front of the burning building; her hooves fell out from under her from the panic and the force of the drop. She quickly rolled back to a stand and lifted her head. Without committing anything she saw to hard memory, she took in the scene splayed out around her.
Weather ponies dotted the sky as they kicked water from gray, rainwater-filled clouds onto the large wooden home. Several fillies and colts were sitting on the grass a great distance from the fire with a multitude of mares shielding them from seeing their home burn to the ground.
Out of the windows licked angry fire, with only a few being doused by cold water. Smoldering pieces of wood were scattered about around the building, forever scarring the cobble paths and foundation where they had landed.
Dash bolted to the large crowd and looked upon the ash-covered faces of the fillies. The infinitely small ponies were gathered in a tight circle, and Dash inspected them all. She could hardly make out any colors due to the soot covering each from ear tip to tail. She looked at them all at least ten times each. Although it was difficult to differentiate between individuals, she knew the one she was looking for wasn't in the group.
One thought occupied Dash's mind and tore her gut to shreds: Ponyville's Oakside Orphanage was on fire, and Scootaloo was nowhere to be found.