Census Maximus Ultimatum

Chapter 5

Scootaloo stared at Rainbow Dash. “Huh?”

“Who are your parents?” Dash looked stoically upon the filly.

Scootaloo stared downward.

Silence.

“Scootaloo?”

Nothing. No noise. No words. Only the wind.

“Hey, kid...”

“I don't know.”

“What?”

“I don't know who my parents are.” the orange filly looked up and gazed straight into Dash's eyes. “I have never known. All I know is growing up in Cloudsdale. I had an aunt who took care of me. But she died. Now, I live on my own.”

“But....nobody takes care of you?”

“No.”

“Well...” Rainbow Dash sat quizzically staring at Scootaloo. “How do you support yourself? Where do you live?”

“No where. I don't live in any particular place.” A tear rolled down her cheek, touched the cloud she rested on, and continued falling. Down. Down. All the way to the dirt, hundreds of feet below.

Rainbow Dash did some fast thinking. “Remember when we went on that camping trip?”

Scootaloo nodded.

“Remember how you said you wanted somepony to take you under their wing?”

“...yeah.”

“And you know how I honestly didn't do too much, other than support you and just compliment you through the days, but rarely helped you?”

“Uh....yeah...” Dash felt a tight clenching feeling in her chest. This was extremely difficult for her to admit.

“That's gonna change. I'm gonna care for you. You can live with me. I'll bring you home to my house in Cloudsdale. I'll help

you fly. I'll make sure you get to school. You'll be my little sister, for real.”

“But, I'm not your sister. Don't you have to sign a bunch of papers and government stuff?”

“Whatever, I'll talk to Twilight about that later. For now, let's go home. You can tell your friends later.”

“But I want to find your family, Scootaloo.” Dash thought to herself.

Scootaloo smiled, her eyes shining. “Dash, you're the best sister ever!”

Rainbow Dash smiled as the filly climbed onto her back, in the same position as before.

“I'm going to help you, kid. I'm going to find your family.”

Twilight Sparkle stretched her wings out on the ground. The grass was cool underneath those that touched it, and the sky was beginning to deepen with the red hue that marked sunset. Red surrounded the sun, and then thinned into a deep orange, that lightened as it spread across the sky. A few clouds rolled lazily off the mountain that supported Canterlot, escapees of the work of the Pegasi.

She loved the sunset. It reminded her of her old home in Canterlot. One side of the house had been one large window that overlooked the city, and every evening it cast a beautiful array of colors onto the floor and the walls.

Twilight let all the thoughts of being a princess slip from her mind. All the diplomatic stuff, government policies, taxation, the census, all of it. She used magic to pull a book from her saddlebags, and she opened it up to where she had her bookmark.

Reading was her getaway. She loved to read. But who didn't know that? Books were an essential piece of her existence. Without books... it would be as if she didn't have a soul. It would hurt, not being able to read for pleasure.

Equestria could wait.

Right now, her world was in the pages of the volume that sat on the grass in front of her.