Return to Equestria

by David Silver

39 - Den of Books

He had his shoes back on. No hooves, shoes required. Sure, he had run through the streets on bare feet before, but shoes were more comfortable. Perhaps more surprising was that the ponies had socks and he could jam his feet into them without too much agony.

They did not shape them for a foot and had no heel really. It was like he was wearing a tube, but that was good enough to cover his foot and away he strode with determined steps. Sure, Joypad had kicked him out for a few hours, but he was moving like he had somewhere to be, which he did.

"Comfy Corner," read the sign above the window. Books! New books were arranged temptingly, but others that he could only assume were classics were also in view. Pony classics. He had no idea what qualified for that. Earth pony specific classics? He pushed through the door with a jingle of a bell above it.

"Welcome to Comfy Corner," greeted a male voice. "How..." He paused, actually seeing David. "Woah. Joy's human!"

"That's me." David didn't see much point in arguing that. "And I'm..." He was going to say hungry, but thought better of it. "Do you have game books? Roleplaying?"

"Roleplaying? Roleplaying, hum..." The stallion rubbed at his chin softly, one eye on David even as the other wandered about in a display of the equine ability to look in two directions at once. "Oh!" He broke into a spirited trot up to a bookshelf. "The imagining books."

Imagining books? "Maybe." He reached for a book, but a hoof blocked the way. The stallion was smiling at him, but keeping his hoof right in that path. "Not a library?"

"Got it in one." He drew his hoof back. "You can check them out, but be gentle. We do want to sell these eventually."

"Sure." He took the book without further objection. "Just a matter of which one..." Turned out, ponies did not, as a rule, thirst for adventure. They liked it safe. They liked it comfortable. Their books reflected this with a lot of their RPGs being more about relationships and chasing dreams and most of it avoiding violence, against living things of any kind, including the player having to run through traps. Violence wasn't the pony way, at least not by default.

"Well..." Writing classic adventures felt right out.

"Woah." David jumped at the sudden familiar voice. "Hi, Mister!" It was Pipster, waving excitedly. "What're you doing here? I thought you lived with Miss Joypad?"

"Still do." He waved the latest book he had picked up. "But I'm exploring 'imagining' books. What are you here for?"

Pipster reached up to push the book away from David. "Ew, not that one. That's all girly and stuff!" He ducked down to the first shelf and grabbed a book, thrusting it up at David. "Try this one!"

David set the first book back where he had found it and accepted Pipster's suggestion. Trotting into Peril, it read boldly. The cover was a set of ponies in combat attire, armored vests and helmets and what not. No guns though, despite a lot of modern equipment on them. Their weapons seemed to be old school, along the lines of swords and knives. It was a strange combination. "Huh..."

"Way better, right?" Pipster bounced up and down. "I'm actually not huge into it, but I know some friends who are."

David considered. Honesty had worked more often than not. "Where I come from, I used to write books like this." He tapped at the adventure manual. "The sort of thing you had to be a brave adventurer for."

"You're a writer?!" More surprising than what he wrote, apparently. "Cool. Now you're a writer that's good at racing games." David was not sure he'd rate himself as 'good'. "Gonna write books now? I'll have to read it."

Aw. "That's nice of you, but you just said you weren't very into this kind of thing."

"This kind of thing isn't usually written by a friend, so the rules change." Pipster made a motion as if adjusting lanes in a car. "So why would you look at books if you're just gonna make one yourself?"

David kneeled down, far closer to Pip's level. "That's a real good question. Before you make something, anything, having an example, or a few, is a big help. It tells you what works, and what doesn't. It gives you a framework to start from, and tells you what's expected."

"Huh..." He reached right past David and plucked out another book. "Then you want this one, and that one." Another book joined the first with another following it. "These are the older ones they switched from."

"That's legit a good tip." David tucked them all under an arm. "If your friends are up to being pestered about their game, let me know."

"Pestered? They love rambling about it. If you want to hear it, they will talk your ears off!" Pipster laughed at the mental image. "You sure?"

David tapped a book with a fingertip. "Let me buy these, but, yes. I would love to talk to them."

Pipster suddenly bounced into the air. "Awesome! I get to show off my human friend." And off he went, galloping free of the store with an excited whee.

The shopkeep nodded at David. "You wanted to buy those?"

Ah! "Right..." He dug out a mess of coins of different denominations. "How much are they? And do they have digital wallets around here?"

"Only recently." The shopkeeping stallion pointed to a little device that was, after being pointed out, a place to put a phone or a touchless card to make a payment. "Did you want to use it? You have bits."

David set the coins down in a jangle before they could end up everywhere. "If I have enough."

The shopkeep scanned the three books David also had, causing a price to appear. "And now... we count." And he got to counting the coins, placing them in neat piles by denomination. "Did you count this?"

"I was handed a pile." David shrugged helplessly. "If it's not enough, lemme know." He scratched behind his neck to tend an idle itch.

"Joy's good for it, but this is enough." He pushed a small portion of the coins back at David. "Change! Do you have dice?"

Dice! Right! David snapped his fingers. "Shoot. How do you do this without dice?"

"With difficulty," agreed the shopkeep. "Lucky for you, we have a few sets." He pointed back to the imagining shelf. Dice were low to the ground near the front of it. "I'll keep the amount, you just pick a set." He took back some of the change to cover the cost of the dice. "Have fun."

"You too." Wait. "I mean, have a good day, right?" David claimed his change and headed over to where the dice were hiding. So many colors... it was dazzling to look at them all, but that was not unusual for any random allotment of RPG dice. "This one." He picked a purple and gold set and flipped it in the air, catching it on the way back down. "Thanks for the help!"

David walked with purpose back towards Joy's shop. "Hey." At least until a pony called him, female. Sunny. "We didn't get a chance to talk before."

He slowed to a stop, facing her. "Hey Sunny. Things alright?"

"For me, yes." She looked him over. "For you... maybe? I asked Hitch about you. You had two feet, then two hooves, and now two feet again. You do have feet in there, right?" She poked at his shoes with a hoof. "Not very hoof shaped."

That and he knew she had seen him without any shoes. "Feet. Human feet."

"You are committed to that... I heard about..." She trailed off, eyeing his books. "And now you're reading up about things like that! Is that just what you like? Nevermind that. I'm more worried about you having a bad reaction to magic being wonky. It's fixed now, I think, but if it hurt you, let us know."

"It swapped hooves for feet and I got the best waxing they could have managed. But it didn't hurt and I feel better than I did a few weeks ago, so yay?" He waggled his hands in a Jazz Hands display. "Though thanks, really. It's nice to have someone I barely know caring." That world seemed full of caring folk.

"No problem." She offered a hoof, meeting David's fist in a bump. "We're neighbors. Looking out is a thing we do. Seriously though, you're alright? If I'm being a pest, tell me."

"You're not." It was embarrassing, but the good kind, that she refused to let it go and insisted on checking on him. "Today's project is one of learning. Who says 'grey manes' can't learn a thing or two?"

She considered the books tucked under his arm. "Related to that? The books, I mean."

He flipped one book to where he could see it. "Right, this is one of the older ones. I'm learning what works, what doesn't work anymore, and what the difference is. If it goes well, I can get to writing my own."

"Oh, nice!" She clapped her hooves with a smile. "So you're a writer? I want to see, when you get to that part. Me, you know my job. I sell smoothies. Tasty smoothies! But not really artistic if we think about it. Jelly!"

Someone was jealous of him? "I bet you could write a book if you wanted to."

"Me? No! Not my thing." She laughed as she waved it off. "Doesn't stop me from being jealous though. Ponies, like, hmm, Izzy who can do art just whenever? Jealous, but in a good way. I'll do my part by appreciating what you artistic ponies make."

"I'll..." He trailed off, instead fishing out his phone. "I think..." He found the right app. "Here we go." He held out the device.

Sunny knew what he meant without direct prompting. She got out her own phone. When they touched, both chimed with the exchange of contact. "Perfect! Enjoy your reading, and if you feel funny, tell somepony."

Why was she that interested, even as a nice pony? "Did you talk to Joy?"

Sunny glanced around nervously. "What? As a friend, sure. We talk all the time." She laughed nervously.

Too nervously. "Did she ask you to keep an eye on me."

"No!" she said way too firmly. "Why would she do that? That's silly! Get out!" She waved David away. "I'm just checking in on our local human. Oh!" She suddenly refocused. "Pipster. Thanks for being there for him. I was busy... dealing with all that and all the other ponies. He said you were the only one really there for him while the town was going crazy... So if that isn't a reason to keep a friendly eye on you, I don't know what is."

"He's a good foal." He shook his collection of books. "He helped me find these, and he already wants to do more. We're already even."

"Glad to hear! That's adorable." She clapped her cheeks in her hooves. "Hope it works out."

"It will... And I'm alright. I'll tell Joypad you were looking out, as she asked for."

"Tha-- Hey wait!" She glared at David, but it turned into laughter. "Clever human. You got me. I better get going." She pointed to the sparkling light house. "I live over there if you somehow missed that. You're welcome to stop by. Pretty sure Pipp wants to get you on camera more often. If you want that, come on over."

"My face is already owned." When would they send his first assignment? "But other than that, thanks. Tell Hitch he did a good job finding a place for me. I really appreciate it."

"I'll let him know." She lifted on her spectral wings. "Bye!" And she was gone in a streak.

Author's Note:

In this chapter, we get books! And also chat with a canon pony. Who does that?!

Did you know the Silver Verse is an open verse to be written in?

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

:TwiBook:BOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKSSSSSSS:TwiBook:

[howard035]

Cute, he's doing research with Pip and he clearly has his first playtester. It's sweet Joypad is worried about him.