Sometimes a tale may not begin as one might commonly expect it to. The book cover flipping over to lay on its face, the first page lightly flapping as a breeze held it for only a moment before one might stop it, holding it down to gaze upon the words of intrigue and wonder on the pages face. With its bold printed chapter, the words neatly written and the title of the book fitting neatly and nicely on the top of the page as well as the cover.
This just seemed like one of those times.
"Spike, have you gotten the books sorted out yet?" A voice called from high up along the stairs, one rather familiar princess would call out, a certain lavender mare who would just be making her way down the stairs to the main room. "Spike! I thought I told you to reorganize the shelves before I left for Canterlot!"
"Already done Twilight." He said simply, looking over the book in his hands, the leather bound cover and its odd buckle that seemed to hold it clasped shut.
"But...But what about the pile over there? They're clearly not in their proper places!" Twilight pointed out, looking around what she presumed to be a disheveled library.
He kept turning the book over in his hands, as if something about it was off or missing. Something deeper than its appearance. "You took those books out to research royalty to better acquaint yourself with how to be a better princess."
"Oh, right... Well what about this one? Simple meals for the...traveling...pony. Oh, this one is for me, isnt it?" She asked a little sheepishly.
Spike sighed softly as he placed the book down and making his way over toward Twilight. "Relaaax Twilight, everything is just fine." He gently placed a clawed hand on her side, patting her as if to further reassure her of the truth.
She leaned down and hugged him for a moment. "I know, I know, I just worry about you sometimes, that's all. And I just...Are you sure you can watch the library all on your own?" She started pacing around slowly, looking for every nook and cranny of the place as if trying to find some excuse to stay in the no longer dusty tomes and filled pages.
Spike simply rolled his eyes, tucking the book away into a special little area of the main room. "Hey, relax Twilight, everything will be O-K..." He said, hands already shoving her toward the door. She scooted along the floor as the young dragon pushed her, forehooves scraping along the wood as she was pushed out.
"But...The shelves..."
"Already restocked and organized."
"A-And the dusting?"
"Taken care of." He said in his most innocent and disarming smile.
She looked toward the chariot that awaited her majesty as she looked one final time over his shoulder, peering into the library turned home. "Well...if you're sure..."
He nodded, behind his back was a hand that clenched over the other, squeezing it as if just eagerly awaiting her departure.
She huffed, nodding gently. "Alright, alright, I'm going."
He waved her away as the chariot rode away, and when finally she disappeared out of sight...He slumped, shutting the door and crashing onto the throw pillow of the reading room. "Finally, I can take a nap..."
Knock knock knock
He groaned, flexing his toes and pushing off with his knuckles off of the pillow, stretching for a moment as he put on a decent smile and took a few breaths to awaken himself further. After the years they have been here, still he never understood why others might knock instead of just simply entering.
As he opened the door, he had to admit he was fairly surprised by the sight of Apple Bloom waiting for him. "Heya Spike! Twilight around?" She asked, not yet moving from the front door.
"Sorry, you just missed her. Didn't you see the chariot?" He raised an eyebrow, leaning against the door frame and crossing his arms.
"Oh, is that what that was? Well, ah can tell ya that we need your help if she ain't here." She sounded pretty eager for some odd reason, but it seemed off...
"This isn't because you're after a new cutie mark, is it?" He was a little annoyed to see her nod her head. "Right. So, what do you need?"
"Whucha think ah need! I need you!" She grasped his hand in her hoof and quickly ran off in some odd direction, rushing away from the library.
Meanwhile...
Two voices whispered as a black coated pony pegasus was lowered into the room on a rope. "Cutie mark crusaders secret spy's...!" Scootaloo had said, Sweetie belle working a pully on the ceiling as she lowered scoots further and further.
"Quiet, what if someone enters?" She asked, trying to make sure nopony was caught.
"Well, we wont have to worry about that if you're quiet, right?"
"Hey, what does that mean?!"
The rope jerked.
"Sweetie Belle, watch it!"
"No you watch it, I can leave you here if I want to..." She crossed her hooves, forgetting to wedge the rope down and gasping as suddenly Scootaloo was sent to the floor, giving a groan as she landed and an oof as sweetie followed, reaching and failing to clasp onto the rope.
As the duo worked on getting themselves back onto their hooves and up and standing they watched through the still open door that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara walked by, giving them a strange offended look before walking off with upturned noses. "Blank flanks."
Back with Spike and Applebloom, she ended up leading him around the town in various areas. From Sugar Cube Corner to Carousel boutique Spike was slowly losing his patients for the filly. "Hang on, hang on!" He shouted, trying to slow her down as he felt his feet getting sore from the consistent running.
"Cant do, Spike. Still need your help!"
"Help with what?!" He shouted, yanking his hand out of her hoof and standing there with his arms crossed.
"Err, I erm..." She was losing it and they both knew it, her ruse starting to fall apart.
"Listen, I dont know whats going on, but I really have to get back to the library." He said, shaking his head and wandering off. Applebloom was quick in to follow after him, his foot prints filled with hoof prints before she was suddenly standing infront of him, trying to walk backward and derail him from continuing onward with his path.
"N-Now hey, Spike, whucha say we go get somethin' ta eat at Sugar Cube Corner?"
"Nope"
"E-Erm I meant help me at the farm?" She said, sounding unsure of herself.
"Nuh uh."
"Try on suits?"
"Mailbox."
"Huh?-Oof!" She felt her rear hit the pole of the mailbox, her hooves loosing their footing and causing her to fall onto her face. He simply sidestepped her continued onto his path toward the library.
"Come on, Scootaloo, we don't have much time!" Sweetie Belle said, trying to untangle herself from the various ropes that managed to snag the duo someway or another.
She made a shout and started gnawing on the ropes. "Remin me wua wea oin is ayain..."
Sweetie Belle rose a brow, "Huh?" She asked in confusion.
Scoots just rolled her eyes and spit out the rope. "I said remind me why we are doing this again." She started to fiddle with the rope and pulling a hoof or two free.
"We're trying to be spies! And what kind of spy doesn't know how to get information?" She said, smiling widely and becoming rather proud of herself.
"Well, what are we getting? Did you think that through?"
She blinked. "I-I um..."
"You forgot didn't you..."
"Yeah..."
"C'mon Spike, you don't really need to watch some dusty dirty old library, do you?" She was at this point holding her hooves out on his shoulders, trying to do anything to distract him, they were now standing outside of the library's main doorway. The purple and green dragon long ago having made his way outside, now just stopped at the door by a filly who seemed all to encouraged to keep him from going inside.
"For the last time, Apple Bloom, I have to stay home today!" He shouted, trying to be kind and move her out of the way.
From indoors, the two CMC members heard the shouting of Spike, quickly realizing their time was limited and they have very little space to run to. "W-Well just get one and lets go, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said, standing at the window and looking at Spike and AB arguing.
"W-What? Me?! Why do I have to grab it, it was your idea!" She said, looking around for anything that they could take, something that would go unnoticed and or just something they could get away with.
"J-Just come on, they're outside!" She said, pushing the window on the other side of the room open, showing the bushes below and their only way out. She didn't wait as she quickly dove out and into the bushes.
"S-Sweetie Belle!" She looked around frantically, just grabbing a book and rushing out the window after her, and not a moment too soon.
The door to the library opened up just seconds afterward showing a very annoyed dragon and a rather anxious filly. She sighed suddenly at the sight of, or lack thereof, her friends. "R-Right, I'll uh...See ya later Spike!" She said, disappearing without a trace.
He just rubbed his hand against his head, claws scratching idly behind his ear as he looked around. Everything seemed fine, accept for the oddly open window. Perhaps the owl had come and gone again. He went to go back to the book he had left off at, gasping as he notices its seemed to disappear, he started looking around the library, beginning a search for the nameless book that he would soon, very soon, learn was no longer there.
The Broken Buckle (Edited)
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.