I smiled at my daughter as I flew down to meet my friends. They were surprised to find out about mine and Scootaloo's relation to each other, but afterwards they happily accepted the fact. Right now we were going to have a pet play-date, and Tank was following steadily behind us. Scootaloo had asked if she could have a pet too, and I decided to ask Fluttershy about the matter today.
"A pet?" Fluttershy asked excitedly...if you could call that 'excitement', "really?"
"Yeah" I nodded, "Scootaloo wanted to bring one on the play-date today. I said she could bring Tank but she said that she didn't want to steal my pet."
"Hmm, well I'm guessing you'd prefer to have one that flies and is easy to take care of, right?" Fluttershy wondered.
"Yep, that'd be great" I grinned.
"I'll see what I can do" Fluttershy smiled back.
"Great! Thanks!" I waved, flying over to where Twilight was sitting.
"What was that about?" Twilight wondered.
"Scootaloo wants a pet" I explained.
"Oh, alright" Twilight nodded, "hey, did you know that Applejack is lending Scootaloo ancient books she found in the castle of the two sisters?"
"Really?" I pretended to be shocked, "huh, I wonder why she didn't say anything to me."
"Maybe Scootaloo's ashamed to be reading books!" Twilight gasped, standing up, "oh, I'll go talk to her."
"Ah! There's no need for that!" I exclaimed, pulling Twilight back down.
"Huh?" Twilight blinked.
"Ah, uh...um...I'll talk to her later" I rubbed my neck, embarrassed at the fact that I shouted so loudly, "she might not listen to you...you're not exactly her mother..."
"True" Twilight agreed, "maybe you could show her your collection of the Daring Do series."
I tried not to tell Twilight about the fact that Scootaloo had not only seen my collection, but read it all too.
"Yeah, heh heh...maybe..." I laughed nervously, Twilight remained oblivious.
"Speaking of which, I'm rereading the entire series and you bought the only copy of book eight that I had" Twilight said, "could I borrow yours?"
"Yeah, sure" I managed to keep calm this time.
"Great! I can go with you to your place and pick it up right after this!" Twilight smiled.
"What?!" I squeaked, remembering the stacks upon stacks of my ancient books that I had left out.
"I said-" I cut Twilight off.
"No, uh...I know what you said, but my house is...uh...kind of a mess" I tried to find a good excuse that could keep Twilight out.
"Oh Rainbow, I'm sure I wont mind" Twilight reassured.
"Uh, yeah, but...uh...I'd rather that you didn't come in" I was running out of ideas fast, "no guest should see anything like that huge mess."
"Rainbow, I'm your friend" Twilight laughed, "not a guest. I really wont mind the mess."
"Uh" I looked around, "uh..."
"Rainbow?" Twilight became worried, "are you alright?"
"I gotta go talk to Scoots, bye!" I said quickly, I swear I nearly did a sonic rainboom when I hurried over to my daughter.
"Hi mom!" Scootaloo waved, looking up from playing with Applejack's dog.
"Twilight is coming over right after this, I need you to hurry home and clean up the 'mess'" I instructed.
"Alright!" Scootaloo nodded, waving to Applejack and taking off, her wings now allowed her to go up, but she became very exhausted if she flew up to our place herself. I had to give her time to take a break as well as get to cleaning up the books.
"Where's Scootaloo off to?" Twilight wondered, teleporting behind me and scaring me.
"Um, she wanted to go get something to eat" I lied, "she said she'll wait for us at my place."
I tried to stall for as long as possible, but I found myself following behind an all-too excited Twilight, wanting to tare my brain out.
Twilight jumped ahead and opened the front door as if she lived with us, I really hoped that Scootaloo had managed to put all the books away.
"They're in your basement, right?" Twilight asked, "oh, what am I saying. It's the entire series, and there are so many books you'd have to keep them in a place like that. I'll just go get them."
I couldn't even land, my wings were flapping so quickly that it was impossible.
"Scootaloo" I called.
"I'm...sorry...mom" Scootaloo breathed, "I-I tried to put everything away, but I nearly broke some from carrying too much at once and I decided to only take two at a time and-"
"Don't worry about it Scootaloo" I sighed, dropping out of the air, giving up, "I'm sorry I had to make you do all that for nothing."
"She found them?" Scootaloo sighed too.
We both visibly sagged when we heard Twilight's excited and shocked squeal.
"We didn't even get to read them all" Scootaloo mumbled.
"I was in the middle of a climax in one of them...now I don't know what'll happen" I groaned.
"And you never will" Scootaloo added, rolling onto her back.
"This is amazing!" Twilight squealed, galloping up to Rainbow Dash as she levitated some books, "Rainbow! Rainbow! Did you know this was here?!"
"Yes, I did" I sighed, rolling onto my stomach...until I noticed one of the books Twilight was waving around.
"This is so co-" I cut Twilight off by leaping for the book that I had seen.
"Careful! This is one of the rarest books I own!" I scolded.
"...You own these? All of them?" Twilight gasped.
"Yes, and they're all really old and rare" I said, taking the other three books that she was levitating out of the air, "you have to be careful with them!"
Twilight blinked in shock and sat down.
"I've been collecting these since I gave Scootaloo up, and I've only decided to start reading them when you suggested the Daring Do series. I haven't finished reading them all yet" I sighed, relieved that the books were now out of the air.
"Mom is an old book hoarder" Scootaloo added.
"Collector" I corrected, "big difference."
"Do you mind if I take a few off your hooves?" Twilight asked, "I'd love to get a chance to read them."
"Yes, I DO mind" I growled.
"...Allllllright...can I come over and read them then?" Twilight wondered.
"...I...guess so..." I struggled, Twilight really did want to read them, but I also really didn't want to lend them to a pony who randomly drops books out of the air when she sees something shiny.
"Great!" Twilight grinned, "I'll drop by again tomorrow! In the meantime, I'll read that Daring Do book I came here for."
There are more words in this chapter than I thought there were going to be...I expected it to be in the four hundreds...above a thousand is shocking, considering the minor case of writer's block I had.