Rainbow-Fueled Book Juice
Scootaloo sat on her bed, a book in held in her hooves as she tried again and again to read the words printed on its pages, but every single time, her thoughts were far too astray to take any of them in. She knew it shouldn’t be so difficult, but the weight of the book she felt in her hooves and the odd dry scent she smelled from it kept reminding her of how some specific other pony would eagerly grip such books close to their chest and smile as they cracked a new one open. She could tell that pony enjoyed books far more than any other creature in the world, and how they cherished each tome as if they were their child, taking hours out of each and every day to dust and sort them in their proper places amidst the thousands that must’ve sat in that Library alongside the pony themselves.
Of course, that wasn’t to say they were overprotective and stingy of the books--quite the contrary, as Scootaloo remembered vividly the rather giddy expression on the pony’s face as she checked out the book she was holding at that moment, seeming very excited that somepony else had actually wanted a book instead of just viewing them as the decoration for their Library that so many others did. That big, bright smile, so full of almost foal-like happiness and innocence despite being several years older that Scootaloo herself, and with far, far more public pressure on them to act a certain way, but that they managed to shrug off with ease.
That pony also bucked any sort of societal norm about how they should look, instead consuming whatever sugary pastry or beverage they had stocked, and getting practically no exercise which only further pushed their body away from the image of typical beauty. However, Scootaloo still found them quite beautiful in their own way, with their societal naïveté and exaggerated inquisitive expressions making them quite adorable, and their rather unhealthy figure having some lovely chub on the barrel as well as a quite plump plot that jiggled and wobbled with each of their prancing steps.
Scoot bit her lip as her thoughts fully got pulled away from the book in her hooves and towards that fat rump that she’s seen quite a few times, imagining how nice it would feel to have her face buried in between those cheeks, almost suffocating her from just how thick they were as their owner moved their weight to sit down on her...
Trailing a forehoof down her barrel, Scootaloo was starting to breath a bit heavier as her thoughts slowly went deeper into her infatuation, and she closed her eyes and sighed out, “Twilight...”
*SLAM* “I’M HOME!!”
“GAH!” Scootaloo shouted as a the sound of a wooden door getting slammed open blasted through the thin walls of cloud house, and the voice of Rainbow Dash shouting loudly came soon after, abruptly jerking her attention away from her lewd mental meandering and towards the door to her room, past where those noises had just erupted from. She took a moment to realize she accidentally tossed her book up into the air from the shock, leaving it to eventually land hard with a pomf on the cloud floor below.
Scrambling down off her bed, Scoot dove for the book so that she could hide it away before her adoptive sister came in, but she only managed to wrap her forelegs around it and sit back up with her back facing the bedroom door before a firm knock came at that door, as well as another shout from beyond it.
“Yo, Scoot!” Dash called out, and didn’t hesitate before opening the door, forcing Scootaloo to tense up to keep the book against her barrel and out of sight while she looked back over her shoulder to see her sister entering her room. “What’s up, sis?”
“Eh, nothin’ really,” Scootaloo replied, trying not sound strained.
“Nothin’?” Dash asked back in a somewhat teasing tone, not seeming to buy it.
Nodding in response as she saw Dash’s eyes narrow slightly at her, Scoot mumbled, “Mm-hm.”
That hardly seemed to help, though, as Rainbow Dash only squinted further while moving deeper into the bedroom, and then questioning, “You sure you ain’t hidin’ something..?”
“N-nope,” Scootaloo responded as she tightened her grip on the book in her forelegs.
Dash only continued to get closer to her, and when she was less than a meter away, she stopped to lean forward and squint even harder, uttering an absurdly elongated, “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...”
Scootaloo felt sweat begin to bead on her brow as her sister kept leering at her, and she leaned a faint bit over the book she was holding to better cover it, but that hardly helped when Dash decided to jump forward and wrap her forelegs around her to try and grab it herself.
“Lemme see what you got there, Scoots!” Dash teased as she kept trying to reach for the book, but never managed to get a hold on it due to Scootaloo’s frantic turning away from her attempts and moving the book up and down as she tightly gripped it to keep it out of her sister’s prying hooves.
“N-nope!” Scoot stuttered back, keeping up her movements while trying to flare open her wings to push her and Dash apart, but the grasp around her was too strong to pop them open. Dash’s wings, though, were fully exposed and able to be opened and curved around so the main feathers at the end would press into and tickle her sister’s sides, which the older pegasus took advantage of to further try and obtain what was hidden from her.
Sucking in a breath through her teeth and trying not to laugh at the tickling sensation, Scootaloo sputtered out, “T-that’s not f-fair!” Unfortunately, though, the exertion from trying not to break out into laughter while shifting her book and her body to keep the former hidden proved too much for her to maintain, and Dash eventually managed to get her hooves on the top and bottom of the book so she could pull it right out of her sister’s grasp.
“Ha-hah!” Dash cheered as she hopped a bit backward with the book in hoof, then held it up while Scootaloo quickly turned back to follow her and swiftly jump back at her, forcing Dash to flap her wings to rise up high enough above the floor her sister couldn’t catch immediately her. “Aww dang, it’s just a book?” She asked disappointedly as she raised the book up before her so she could see it, but then traced her eyes over the title on the front of the book, and started to laugh, hard.
“I-you,” Dash sputtered as she struggled through her laughter, Scoot having given up and sat on the floor, pouting in annoyance and embarrassment as she looked away, “Y-you have a book on romance?!” She gave back into her laughing fit as she kept herself floating above the floor, though hardly as stable as she was previously.
Rolling her eyes and slumping in shame, Scootaloo muttered under her breath, “Yeah, yeah... yuck it up...”
Scootaloo swore she could see tears in Dash’s eyes as she tried to calm down her laughing, her continuous streak of it slowing into mere bursts, and she managed to ask through them, “W-why? Y-” Getting interrupted by a particularly loud fit of laughter, her hovering faltered a bit, and it quickly shocked her out of her humour to utter a ‘whoa’ as she righted herself, then decided to descend to the floor below, only to more calmly ask, “You’re not, like, interested in somepony, are ya?”
Scootaloo didn’t say anything as she stared--practically glared with irritation--back at Dash, who responded by grinning and teasing, “You are!” Giggling a bit more, Dash watched as her sister turned away and got up to hop onto her bed, laying face down in it and not moving, all of which told the other mare that this had aggravated her beyond just normal teasing.
Her mood quickly falling down into guilt, Dash moved to the edge of her sister’s bed and said to her, “Uh, sorry... I didn’t mean to...” Failing to figure out what to say, she looked down the book she still had held in a foreleg, and then looked back up to add, “I can probably give you some advice on this stuff to try and make it up to you...”
Muffled through the blanket in her face, Scootaloo bit back, “I don’t think your advice would help, given how shit you were in all your relationship, Dash.”
Dash sucked in a breath through her teeth as she pulled back from that, recalling how her recklessness often clashed poorly with her previous partners, and she realized that she may have been a bit more of a dweeb than she anticipated... “Sorry,” She muttered, mostly on reflex, and tossed the book onto a corner of the bed. After a moment of though, though, she still decided to add, “I mean... whatever advice I could give you’s still got to be better than the really, generic stuff you’d get out of a book...”
The other mare didn’t respond to that for a while, instead opting to continue laying face-down for multiple minutes as Dash slowly moved backward from the bed and toward the still-open door, but just before she went back through it, Scootaloo pushed her face up off the bed and muttered somewhat sarcastically, “Sure, why not?” Under her breath, she also added to herself with a bit of shame, “Not like it was helping a whole lot...”
“Oh!” Dash yelped in surprise, but quickly shook it off and trotted back towards her sister’s bed as Scootaloo pushed herself up into a sitting position, then around to face the other pony as she hopped up onto the bed herself. “Alright, well,” Dash started, sitting down and pausing to gather her bearings before beginning, “First off, ya gotta act confident. No-one likes a--well, most ponies, at least--don’t like fumbling dorks, alright?”
Scoot rolled her eyes, knowing being competent was a rather obvious key, but still nodded and let Dash continue, “Next thing, ya gotta impress ‘em. Not really sure how; that depends on who you’re going for, but still. Another thing;” She kept going, grinning slightly as she seemed to remember something, “You gotta look cool! You’re pretty good right now, ‘cuz of exercise ‘n stuff,” She pointed at the somewhat toned musculature across Scootaloo’s body, mostly made due to Dash pushing her to work out more in the past, “But, y’know, basically just don’t really stupid when you talk to ‘em, ‘cuz that certainly ain’t any better than acting really dorky.”
“Says the pony rambling like a dork,” Scootaloo cut her off, grinning with how unusual this topic seemed to have made her sister speak.
“I--you--shut up!” Dash sputtered as she pulled back, her face burning with embarrassment while she pointed at her sister and tried to reply, “L-look, I’m not a fricking dork, okay?! I’m just trying to-” Cutting herself off, she looked to the side and huffed, seemingly trying to wrestle with her rambling dorkiness.
After a short while of nearly pouting in shame, Dash eventually tried to shake it off and looked back to her sister to say, “I-it doesn’t matter, okay? So lemme just, say what I gotta say, alright?”
“Sure,” Scootaloo replied with a roll of her eyes, still grinning while Dash tried not to make a further fool of herself.
“Good,” Dash then spoke, cleared her throat, and continued, “I, uh, think that pick-up lines are a pretty good idea, ‘cuz of how reliable they are, y’know? Something like...” Pausing and looking up to think, she took several seconds before saying in a more confident, suave tone, “‘Hey girl, are you a wing? ‘Cuz you’re lookin’ pretty fly~‘“
Scootaloo sat stock still, only able to look back in bewilderment at that, raising an eyebrow as she pondered how any creature could find such a phrase anything less than painful to listen to.
Unfortunately, though, Dash didn’t take the hint so clear on her face and kept going, “Or maybe, you could say, ‘Do ya like clouds? Guarantee they ain’t as cool as me...‘” Scootaloo’s face fell, literally lowering her head down to look at the bed under her, a painful mix of despair, shame, disappointment, and dread filling her as those stupid, stupid words went through her mind.
Dash still wasn’t done, and went to add, “Of course, there’s also--”
“Can you, not, dude?” Scootaloo cut her off in an annoyed and deadpan tone, raising her head just enough to look Dash in the eyes and convey the pain she was in.
The other mare opened her mouth in surprise, taking a moment to process that maybe continuing to say incredibly cringy pick-up lines wasn’t the best idea, and then smiled guiltily and confessed, “Okay, maybe not the greatest idea, but, y’know, it’s not like ya need them or anything...”
Shaking her head in further disappointment, Scootaloo laid down with her face pressed into the bed again and muttered into it, “This is not helping.”
Sighing and seemingly attempting to gather her thoughts, Dash laid down as well and said, “Okay, look--all that stuff doesn’t matter, you just gotta go for it at some point. I know you can do it, alright?” She patted her sister on the shoulder and added, “I’ve you do a lot crazier stuff than talk to somepony, so this ain’t gonna be an issue for you. I don’t even know it is you got your eye on, but I don’t care about that. Whoever it is, I’m sure they’re pretty cool in some way, ‘cuz I know you’d never kick it with somepony who ain’t.”
Scoot actually pulled her face up off the bed a bit from that, and looked back at Dash, who gave her an encouraging grin. “Thanks,” She said simply, though certainly more genuinely than her previous statements.
“Cool!” Dash replied, seemingly thankful that her more earnest words actually got a positive reaction, but quickly glance behind her out of open door to the room, apparently having just remembered something. “Well, uh, I’m gonna get out of your mane; got stuff to do, y’know,” She said as she looked back at Scootaloo, backing out of the room with a suddenly much more hesitant tone in her voice.
“Stuff?” Scoot asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion, though having a decent idea in the back of her mind as to what her sister wanted to do.
Nodding in confirmation, Dash kept shuffling backward and redundantly added, “Yep, stuff.” The hint of embarrassment on her face only made Scootaloo more sure of that idea in her mind, but when the other mare finally got to the threshold of the room, she quickly darted out of it. Judging by the swift sounds of opening and closing the front door that echoed through the house, Scoot’s idea of her heading to date with her abnormally stubborn marefriend seemed to be correct, leaving the younger pony laughing faintly at how bad her sister was at hiding that stuff.
Rolling her eyes, Scootaloo took a moment to parse the amount of confidence her older sister had in her, and how that might’ve changed if she knew who Scoot was interested in... Dash’s ideas seemed in conflict with Twilight’s personality and body shape, and while she most likely only imply Twi’s romantic inferiority unintentionally, it still left a sour taste in the young mare’s mouth. Even worse was the age difference between them, with herself being in her late teens and her crush in mid-twenties, things would be undeniably awkward between them, even if they did manage to get together...
Despite that, though, Scootaloo knew that any confidence boost that Dash had given her wouldn’t last all that long, and she bit her lip as her attention returned to the room around her, and she caught a glimpse of the book that was tossed onto the corner of her bed within her peripheral vision.
Taking a deep breath, Scoot stood up and moved forward to hop off her bed, grabbed the book and then headed out of her room as she resolved to head to the Library and ask that cute purple mare out today.
Knocking on the door to the Library, then waiting for a moment before opening it and heading inside as dictated by the manners lodged deeply somewhere in a random part of her mind, Scootaloo soon heard the voice of the passionate and pretty mare that had dominated her thoughts as of late call out, “I’ll be with you in a minute!”
Scootaloo felt her mind drift a bit as she heard that voice, making her worries fade slightly amidst the dreamy sensation of that lovely voice that had so little worries of its own seeping into her ears, and she looked up to where she heard it coming from while moving deeper into the large open room of the Library, only to stop dead in her tracks when she noticed her.
Twilight Sparkle, obsessively loyal librarian, personal protégé of Princess Celestia herself, and savior of this town more times than one could count, stood at the top of a ladder on the opposite wall, holding some books in her rose-coloured magic as she seemed to be rearranging the books at the top couple shelves before her. However, what really made Scoot screech to a halt was her pose; her front and hind hooves a couple rungs apart on the ladder, keeping a leisurely, yet assured hold on it, and having the rest of her body pushed slightly back to get a better view of the shelf, which made her rump pushed out the farthest back of all of it, partially covered though it was by her simple indigo tail.
That thick, quite plump plot reminded Scootaloo of what she had nearly done earlier that day, and her face flushed with embarrassment, yet her eyes remained firmly locked on those large cheeks that wobbled and jiggled as their owner shifted her position slightly every now and then. Scoot took long, deep, heady breaths as fantasies filled her mind once more, the sounds of smacking, slurping, sniffing, and clapping echoed around within her head, making her subconsciously lick her lips as she began moving again, this time in slow, plodding steps as her enraptured eyes kept focus on what they so desired...
“Alright!” Twilight called out, her voice shocking Scootaloo out of her trance to focus her attention on the whole mare as she moved to climb down the ladder, with the newfound awareness of her surroundings making her recall the reason she was there. Slightly unfolding a wing, Scoot reached under it and pulled out the book she almost forgot was there and held in visibly in a foreleg, waiting as the librarian came down the rest of the ladder and turned around.
“Oh, hi Scootaloo!” Twilight chirped, energetic and peppy as usual, “What are you here for?”
“Uh-” Scoot mentally stumbled as that voice washed over her, taking away her thoughts and filling her mind again with that boundless optimism, the returning silence let her hastily present the book in her foreleg and reply, “J-just here to return this.”
The book got swiftly pulled out of her grasp by Twilight’s magic, hovering over in front of her face so she could read the information on the cover. “Oh! I remember this one!” Tilting her head to see around the book and look back at Scootaloo, the adorably inquisitive mare added, “You rented it out a couple days ago; are you sure you’ve learned everything you need from it?”
Feeling her confidence waver slightly under the image of that pretty face with such a cute expression, Scoot made herself respond with a quick nod and grunting in confirmation, “Mm-hm.”
“Okay! I’ll just go ahead with that!” Twilight chirped again as she turned back around and pranced over to the ladder, picking it up in her magic with a short grunt before she trotted over to another, seemingly random section of the wall and set it back down on the wall. “You know, so few other ponies come in here, I sometimes wonder why I organize the selection here at all--apart from myself, of course,” She said as she climbed up the ladder, her voice hardly matching the disappointment that would generally come with the words she spoke, “I find that pretty surprising as well; books are so useful! ...And yet, so few read them that I’m beginning to think a decent proportion of them might be illiterate!” Looking back over her shoulder to the other mare as she stopped midway up the shelf, she added guiltily, “Er--don’t tell them that, especially Cheerilee. I’m sure she’d be pretty peeved if she knew somepony implied any of her students might not be able to read.”
Scootaloo was hardly able to respond as Twilight turned back around, letting her out-pushed rump draped in her indigo tail take the other pony’s attention once more, but her current fixation was weak enough to let Twilight’s voice flood into her ears, echoing throughout her mind with each word spoken with her usual passion or care. The mare herself, though, was looking across one of the shelves before her and analyzed the spines of all the books there one-by-one, and then pushed apart them at a specific point so that she may put the book already held in her magic back into presumably its proper place.
Climbing back down the ladder again, Twilight didn’t notice the continuing staring at her while she herself kept talking, the substance of her words lost on Scootaloo’s ears, with only the emotion and voice they were spoken with penetrating her mind. When Twilight reached the floor, she then trotted over to a desk on the far side of the room that had a notebook and inkwell sitting atop it, which the mare opened with her magic and picked up the nearby quill to mark down something in it.
“Alright, that should do it!” Twilight called out as she set down her quill and closed the notebook, then turned around and saw her visitor still standing there and asked, “Is there anything else you need?”
“Uh-” Scootaloo faltered as she blinked multiple times, coming slowly back into awareness from her rapture. Processing what was asked, she took a moment to recall the main reason she was there, and then took a deep breath to prepare herself to say, “D-do you... want to maybe go out sometime? ...For, like, d-dinner or something?”
Tilting her head and pursing her lips in confusion, Twilight responded innocently, “Um, maybe? Can I ask why you’d want to do that?” Pulling back, seemingly realizing how her words sounded, she added, “Er, not that I’m not thankful, of course! Just... did you want to, like, catch up, or something?”
Scootaloo had to force herself not to facehoof as she got abruptly reminded of Twilight’s social inexperience, with any romantic implications flying over her head. “No, I...” Sighing as she tried to figure out what to say, with both the surprise of the response and the quite cute face made alongside it making her need some time to think. “I meant, I wanted to... go out with you, to some place... you know?” She eventually managed to hesitantly ask, trying to stress the important parts.
However, her words only served to make Twilight even more confused, an eyebrow shifting up on her face as the lack of understanding in her eyes deepened. “No, I... don’t think I do...” She said, and slowly trotted towards her visitor so she could more clearly request, “Erm, could you please explain what you mean..?”
Sighing more deeply and clenching her eyes closed, Scootaloo took a moment to brace herself as she realized that trying to imply what she wanted was never going to work; no, she needed to state it. “I-” She tried to say, but her embarrassment made it far more difficult than it ever needed to be, with the subtle doubts of possible rejection, especially due to how much more accomplished Twilight was than her, and thus would have little reason to be close with her, on top of the age difference... “I--” She tried again, but didn’t get any further, which only made her more self-conscious with her cheeks beginning to heat up and her body starting to shake ever-so-slightly.
“Um... are you alright?” Twilight asked, looking somewhat concerned as the other mare was unable to finish her statement.
Scootaloo was left puffing up her cheeks in embarrassment as she stared at Twilight’s horn, incapable of looking back into her eyes without her state getting even worse. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and forced herself to shout out, “I want to go out on a date with you!!”
Her eyes still closed, only able to see blackness, Scootaloo felt herself shaking in place with burning shame and worry, when she eventually managed to her a faint ‘O-oh...’. It didn’t sound broken, or disappointed, or sad, or even any sort of deadpan; it seemed more... flustered and confused, if anything.
Slowly peeking her eyes open, Scoot saw Twilight standing a short ways away, blushing slightly as she looked back with confusion still present in her eyes, though it was a different type this time. Whereas before she looked baffled and concerned, now her eyes held more denial and internal conflict, as if she couldn’t decide within herself what to make of what was said.
“I...” Twilight soon muttered, though it was rather dry and forced her to clear her throat to try again, “W... why..?” Looking around in a semi-frantic manner, as if searching for something, she added, “I-I mean... I d-don’t really know why you’d want to... d-date me... I’m m-multiple years older than you, a-and I still don’t really know anything a-about... this, and there’s a-a lot of other ponies that are... m-more attractive...”
“That doesn’t matter..” Scootaloo replied, more assured in her tone as she heard how little confidence Twilight had in herself, and wanted to help her though it, with her words pulling the other pony’s gaze back to her as she continued, “Even if you don’t know anything about dating, and you’re a decent bit older than me; that doesn’t matter to me. And... I hardly find you u-unattractive either,” Looking down at Twilight’s atypical physique, some of her own shame returned as she added, “Whatever others may say about you, I still believe that you look... b-beautiful...”
Twilight flushed and looked down to avoid her courter’s gaze, but her embarrassment only grew further as Scootaloo continued, “I-I also like how... passionate you can be, and still be really careful...” Her own orange face was becoming redder and hotter as well, but for the sake of her love, she kept at it, “That all can make you rather.. c-cute, sometimes... But, I think, what I like the most about you,” Scoot gulped as she looked at the painfully cute burning face of her crush, and couldn’t hold back the awe in her voice as she said, “Is how... strong you can be. Not magically, and not physically, of course, but, with how you’re able to deal with pressure. Sometimes it’s bad, but others, you barely even seem to notice all the pressure everypony puts on you; from Princess Celestia, to all the stuff your friends do, to how everypony else in this town treats you... I... I’d probably be having a mental breakdown all the time ‘cuz of that...”
Her face smeared and practically glowing with the strength of her blush, Twilight’s voice was only able to be a squeaky whimper as she tried to reply, “I-I just get focused on other things, a-and try to ignore it all..”
Scootaloo nodded in comprehension, even if she knew it wouldn’t be seen, and took several seconds to just breathe and try to calm her furious flush. Eventually, she managed to hesitantly ask, “So, um... d-do you want to go out for that dinner..?”
Slowly moving her head up to look back at her guest with her face only marginally less glowing than before, Twilight whispered out in response, “L-like, today..?”
“Uh-... I guess, yeah,” Scoot affirmed, shuffling her hooves a bit, “M-maybe around... say, six?”
Twilight glanced out a window near the main entrance, and paused for a second before asking, “Eh, it’s a-around two right now, right?” Getting a somewhat unsure nod in response, she said, “A-alright, I-I’ll go put it on my schedule. I-it’s a d-date!” Flashing a massively embarrassed smile, she quickly turned around and scurried over to and up the stairs built into the main wall of the central room, presumably to her room so that she may calm down.
Laughing both at how cute Twilight looked then, and from her own elation at finally having asked out the mare of her dreams, Scootaloo needed a moment to let her euphoric laughter fade. Turning around and taking a deep sigh, she headed for the main door to the Library and let herself out, more eager than ever to have closure on that long-lasting crush.
