When we arrived at the CMC's club house, Scootaloo asked us to wait outside while she was inside talking to her friends, leaving Twilight and I alone. For some reason this fact bothered me, and I started feeling nervous.
"Rainbow?" Twilight blinked, looking at me, "are you alright?"
Shoot, she noticed. I rubbed my neck, "u-uh...um...yeah, I-I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?"
"You were starting to get really fidgety. I know you're used to being up and moving about a lot, but this is different for you; you're rarely ever this nervous."
"Who said I was nervous" I twitched a little.
"...is something wrong? Is it about Scootaloo?" Twilight wondered.
"Uh...no, I don't think it is...it comes and goes really" I half-lied, yes, it comes and goes, but only around Twilight. Anypony else and I'm A-OK.
"...Alright" Twilight gave in, "but please try to tell me if you find out what it is. I think keeping that secret from Scootaloo was enough pressure to last a lifetime."
"Yeah Twi, I promise" I made the gesture of a Pinkie promise and tried to relax a little.
The next day, Scootaloo finished moving in with me and I signed the official guardian papers.
"So, what do you want to do now?" I wondered, sitting down on the stairs that lead to the second floor.
"I wanna practice flying!" Scootaloo grinned.
"Scoot, Twilight said you'd be able to fly in a couple of MONTHS, not days" I laughed.
"I know, I know, but I can't wait!" Scootaloo jumped up and down impatiently.
"Come on, I've got something that might take your mind off of it" I smiled, "just...don't go telling Twilight about this, alright?"
"About what?" Scootaloo wondered as I lead her down to the basement.
"This" I replied, nudging a box to the side and revealing a well lit secret room full of books.
"Whoa!" Scootaloo exclaimed, managing to get a few centimeters off the ground as she buzzed into the room.
"Be careful with these books, alright? They're all rare and limited edition" I worried, "I've been flying all around Equestria collecting these."
"For how long?" Scootaloo wondered.
"Ever since I gave you up" I sighed, "afterwards I just didn't have the spirit to join any races or anything, so I decided to get a different hobby; book hoarding. I never read any of the books when I was collecting them, but two years ago when Twilight got me into the Daring Do series I decided to give it a shot."
"Cool!" Scootaloo grinned.
With that, Scootaloo and I poured ourselves into the books for the next three months. Scootaloo had managed to perfect the art of reading while trying to fly, which had lead to my collection being almost discovered by Twilight on more than one occasion, luckily Scootaloo had managed to convince her she was getting all these books from Applejack. When Twilight questioned Applejack about this...well...her lying wasn't so efficient, saying she found them at the castle of the two sisters.
"Why hadn't I thought of that?!" I gawked when Scootaloo had reported this information to me.
"Huh?" Scootaloo blinked.
"The castle of the two sisters is REALLY old! And the library there would have so many books worthy of my collection!" I grinned, rubbing my hooves together...okay, so maybe I was a little obsessed with book hoarding.
"Well Twilight's going there right now to see if she can find some rare books too!" Scootaloo exclaimed, "when she's done there wont be any left for you!" I'm glad Scootaloo was on my side.
"Hop on, kid" I bent down so my daughter could climb onto my back, "I'm gonna need you to distract Twilight while I get all the good books."
Scootaloo nodded and I dropped her off a little ways ahead from Twilight.
"Scootaloo?" Twilight blinked.
"Twilight! Thank Celestia you're here!" Scootaloo sounded relieved, maybe she'd get a cutie mark in acting, "I'm lost!"
"Ah! Don't worry Scootaloo!" Twilight ran to the filly, "I'll walk you back to Ponyville."
This is great! I'd have tons of time too get the books! I smirked and flew up to the clouds.
At the castle of the two sisters, I was expertly reading the spines of the books along each row. The books that looked cool went on a cloud I brought along with me, the books that didn't look cool or the books that I already had stayed on the shelf. I tried to leave some cool ones behind for Twilight, but it was a little hard not to grab every book off the shelf.
I heard a creaking sound and then a slam of the doors, notifying me of Twilight's presence in the castle. I grabbed a couple more books at random, stored them on my cloud, and then flew out of a whole in the roof with the cloud tied to my waist.
I picked Scootaloo up from the park where Twilight had left her and sped all the way back to my place. Scootaloo was sitting on the cloud watching over the books just in case one fell off.
"These are awesome, mom!" Scootaloo grinned, looking over the newest additions to my collection, one in particular caught her interest; pegasi magic. "Hey! Can I read this one first?!"
"Sure, just be careful with it, that book is over a thousand years old" I warned.
"Don't worry, I will!" Scootaloo yipped, fluttering out of the room with her slightly larger wings.
Here it is folks! A 'nice' chapter! Nothing too sad about it like the others, but don't worry! I'm gonna try and make this story as depressing as possible!
