The Scattered Pages

The book was definitely no longer in the library, the leather bound book with its buckle clasp and tight belt holding it shut was actually in the evidently all to capable hooves of, or mouth as the case may be, Scootaloo. The Cutie Mark Crusaders on their journey for the next cutie mark along their path hadn't bothered to think all the facts through. Sweetie Belle, for one, had forgotten the rope somewhere in the bushes outside the library.

"What do ya mean ya lost the rope?!" Apple Bloom shouted as she heard the news. She glared at Sweetie belle for a moment, looking at her with a rather annoyed look in her eye. Sweetie just stood there for a moment, sitting on her rear and lifting her forelimbs in a sort of 'what do you want from me' pose.

"I didn't mean to lose it, if you did a better job stalling Spike then I wouldn't have forgotten the ropes!" She squeaked out.

Scootaloo interrupted for just a moment, raising a single hoof. "Hang on, hang on. It's a simple fix. All we got to do is just stay cool about it and we can have it back before anypony even realizes we were there."

"Great!" The two fillies shouted in unison, looking over at Scoots with a wide smile.

"You can look for the rope while Apple Bloom and I try to figure out just what it is we took." Sweetie Belle said simply, as if it wasn't some complex deal or the fact they just stole a book.

"What?! Why me? Sweetie lost it!"

"Because you grabbed the wrong book." Apple Bloom was quick to respond.

"We didn't even have a book we were going to grab anyway!" Scoots shouted, throwing her hooves up.

"Exactly!" Apple Bloom nodded.

"Huh?" The two girls said close to each other, now both curious as to what it was Apple Bloom was referring to.

"Think about it. We didn't have any idea what we were getting, right? So what spy does know what kind of information they're looking for?" She crossed her forehooves, leaning back on her rear and smiling. "We would make great spies because we don't even know what it is we're looking for and we still got it!"

Clearly Apple Bloom was the only one that thought so as both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle simply placed a hoof on their faces.

"Alright, I'm going, but don't start reading it until I get back, got it?" Scootaloo said, reaching for a helmet that was left in the corner of the club house and snugly placing it on her head. She grabbed the scooter near it in her hooves, lifting it up and out the door. Once she managed to get it onto the ground floor, she took off. Wings buzzing with eager flaps as she propelled herself forward through the air and on the ground.

"...We're readin it, aren't we?"

"Oh yeah." Sweetie belle responded.

Meanwhile...

Spike continued to pace around the library for what had felt like hours on end, his feet becoming rather sore as he kept looking left and right, he must have reorganized the shelves...twice. As his claws would grace another books cover he would just as quickly toss it for another, only to do the same again and again with each book that met his clawed fingers and hands. "Come on, where is it, where is it?!" He shouted, becoming more and more frantic with times passage as he was starting to lose his mind over a simple misplacement.

Looking back, he tried to think of where one might have stashed their book before, where he had placed his and simply forgotten its whereabouts. Sadly, it didn't seem to work as looking back just quite literally broke his resolve further as he gazed upon the piles of books he would have to reorganize once more. "I'll just...find it later, yeah....Yeah..." he said rather glumly.

It didn't seem to take too long to break his resolve though as moments later he would be once again pacing around the library, taking books from the floor and placing them on the shelves only to loose motivation half way through. The loss of his book seemed to be hitting him hard as he couldn't focus on much else. His mind clearly elsewhere as he tried again and again to keep working, but the worry was quickly stacking up against him.

"I have to find that book." he realized as he continued to pace about. He decided to do the smart thing and shut the windows this time, being sure to lock them all but the second floor, wanting the owl to be able to come in and out at a moments notice. As he was making his preparations he couldn't help but hear the sound of a certain motor like buzzing, a orange blur coming into focus on the horizon.

Scootaloo turned her scooter, coming to a halt as she nearly drifted to the front door on the scooters wheels. She forgot for a moment that someone may be inside, but the sound of books hitting shelves and banging on the floor, a scratch noise here and there got her attention. Moving her scooter off to the side of the door, the filly unclasped her helmets buckle, sliding it off of her head and placing it on the handle bars of her scooter.

She slowly walked up to the door, the noises only getting louder as Spike was inside loosing his mind. Looking through the door, or trying to at least, she realized she wasn't going to be able to make out much of anything with the wood still in her way. She gently and carefully pried the door open, pushing it slowly to look inside as she watched the drake look around near frantically.

"I-I just had it, come on...." He muttered to himself, unaware of his current visitor. He was starting to get aggravated. Rather fast as it would seem to be. Just as he was about to start peeling books off their rightful place on the shelves once more, a certain orange pegasus lost her footing, falling into the doorway and into the open with an audible Oof.

"Scootaloo?" he asked, turning near too quickly like a child being caught doing something wrong. "What are you doing here?"

She looked around for a moment, trying to decipher a good excuse to use out of the thin air around her. "U-Um, just here for the sake of knowledge, you know!" She swung a hoof in an arching motion under herself, more so shuffling her hoof against the floor like a shy filly. "Just, trying to learn and all...Is that a problem?" The young filly asked, trying to get a feel for the dragons current attitude and demeanor.

He looked rather frazzled, something was obviously off, but it was a subtle tone to a more serious storm of emotions that may just rise out of the dragon later at a moments notice. "W-Well, erm... Have you seen a book, by chance? Not that there is anything important about it, just that, well its kinda...I mean it is but I just..."

"You just..."

"I just need it, ok? I have to take stock on all books, that's it! A-And I need to collect them as soon as possible, so if you have one, I need it, alright?" He said almost too quickly for the filly to catch wind of what he was trying to get at.

She raised a brow at him, "Right..." She said, getting the feeling he may have just been lying to her. She suddenly had an idea of realization. 'What if the book was his?!' She thought to herself. Suddenly she could feel her stomach sink. "S-So, what did you say this book looks like?"

Spike shuffled a foot along the ground for a moment, trying to be as vague and yet descriptive as possible. "Ehehe...its um...Brown..." He said.

Scootaloo just nodded as if telling him to continue with her simple head motion.

"Brown...It is leather...It has a buckle on it..."

The more descriptive the dragon got, the further the filly could feel her stomach sink. "O-Ooh, um, look at the time. Gotta go!" She said, rushing out toward her scooter and knocking the helmet off of the top by accident.

Spike was quick to follow, rushing out the door after her with questions suddenly risen to his conscious thought, "Wait, have you seen it?" He asked her, trying to get all he could know out into the open.

"N-Nope, cant say I have!" She lied, she didn't want Spike to keep her here for much longer, just quickly and near frantically getting onto her scooter and flapping her wings, taking off at a fast pace. As the dust would settle on the rather awkward situation, a helmet was left spinning in the wake of it all, forgotten by the filly in her time of fight or in this case, flight instincts.