Lectern’s New and Used Books: Summer Break

by Dave Bryant


Starlight Glimmer’s visit

Lectern’s New and Used Books might seem an unlikely tourist destination, but Starlight Glimmer trailed her hosts and guides willingly enough through the front door, heralded by a jingle of the old-fashioned bell mounted on the jamb. No sooner had the double leaves closed quietly behind her than she halted, shut her eyes, and drew in, along with a deep breath, the distinctive scents of paper, ink, and varnished wood so dear to a bibliophile’s heart. It took a few moments for the others, still strolling across the entry, to notice, but after a few steps they turned and smiled, delighted by their guest’s reaction.
“Well now. Who do we have here, girls?” The store’s owner greeted them all from his usual post behind the retired bar that had found new life as a checkout counter.
“Hi, Mister Lectern!” If the rest grinned, Twilight Sparkle beamed. “This is Starlight Glimmer. She’s a friend of a friend, visiting from out of town. We’re showing her around the city.”
Lectern’s bushy white brows rose and he peered at the lot of them over his small round reading glasses. “I’m pleased to be featured on anyone’s tour itinerary, my dears, but surely there’s nothing about my humble shop that merits such special attention.”
Sunset Shimmer chuckled. “It’s been a little overwhelming running all over town the last few days, so we decided it would be nice to slow down, let everyone catch their breath, and just shop and chat for a while.”
“Oh my yes,” Rarity chipped in, holding aloft a double armload of brightly colored, stylish shopping bags. “This isn’t our first stop today in the neighborhood. It’s such a lovely area.”
An elfin twinkle greeted this explanation. “I see. Well, Ms. Glimmer, I’m very pleased to meet you, and I hope your visit has been a pleasant adventure.”
Starlight shuffled forward a few steps, hemming and hawing a bit. “Pleased to meet you too, Mister, um, Lectern. It’s been great, thank you, but Sunset’s right—and this looks like a wonderful place to spend some time. It reminds me of . . . someplace that’s gotten to be pretty important to me.”
Lectern smiled at the compliment. “I’ve done my best to make it just that. You girls enjoy yourselves, and don’t run yourselves ragged.”
The eight young women murmured pleasantries in return for the polite but clear dismissal before dispersing into the depths of the store, there to wander among the bookshelves on both floors.


“We can talk out here,” Applejack assured the dubious-looking Starlight. “Mister Lectern says we get more use outa the patio than just about anyone else.”
The weather was fine and warm, but a mute testament to Applejack’s observation was the presence of big new umbrellas, each rising through a small hole for just that purpose in the center of a weathered redwood outdoor table. The unwieldy sunshades made shifting the furniture less convenient—but warding off the sunburn that once or twice had afflicted the patio’s habituées made the hassle more than acceptable. After a reflexive glance around for possible eavesdroppers, AJ reached up to the small pendant at her throat and closed her eyes briefly. Magic flashed amber around her fingers, and a moment later she one-armed an umbrella, lifting it a few inches and carrying it while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie wrangled the table surrounding its shaft.
“I still can’t get over that,” a fascinated Starlight commented in a bemused tone as she watched. “It reminds me of Spike’s favorite comics about the Power Ponies.”
“The . . . other Spike, right? The baby dragon.” Sci-Twi grimaced. “You don’t want to know what my Spike prefers to do with comic books.”
Amidst the resulting snickers and giggles, Dash piped up, “I guess we are kinda like superheroes. That’s pretty awesome, if you ask me.”
“Which nobody did,” Applejack put in with blunt good humor as she lowered the umbrella, weighted stand and all. “There we go.” Dash’s answering rude gesture she disregarded with the ease of long practice.
Everyone pulled up chairs around the pair of tables arranged as closely as the overhead canopies allowed and settled in to look over their purchases and chat, just as they’d said they would.
“You’re not gonna get any books?” Pinkie asked Starlight as they all sat.
“I thought about it,” Starlight replied thoughtfully. “But . . . what would I buy?” She waved a hand a bit awkwardly, still not fully accustomed to her human limbs. “Don’t get me wrong, the books here are amazing—especially the art and photography books. I mean, perfect full-color printing on every page? Wow.”
She shook her head. “But what would I do with them? I couldn’t give them as gifts; everypony would want to know where they came from, and just like that guy Cook said, we don’t want everyone and his brother knowing about the portal. I could get some for myself, but I’d have to hide them—or get books just like the ones back home, and why bother doing that?”
With a sheepish shrug she concluded, “Besides, what would I buy them with? I don’t think Mister Lectern would let me pay with bits.”
Pinkie pouted in disappointment, but accepted these cogent arguments bolstered by nods and murmurs of agreement from most of the others. A moment later she perked up and asked, “So you like the books here! What else do you like about this world?”
Instantly the tourist was bombarded with a cacophany of suggestions and questions. After a few moments Starlight held up her hands and laughed. “All those things! It’s hard to believe all the inventions and discoveries, especially if you’re right about this world being less than a century and a half ahead of Equestria. But I guess, without magic, they’d have to do things that way here, wouldn’t they?”
Sunset grinned. “You don’t know the half of it. I’ve taken history classes at CHS and watched television documentaries. Some of it’s pretty nasty, but we could say the same about our world, couldn’t we?”
A rueful nod granted the justice of this verdict. “Most people here seem to be pretty decent, though, just like people back home.”
Twilight, practically vibrating, broke in eagerly. “So what’s the biggest difference, Starlight?”
Starlight blinked and sat back. “That’s a pretty tough question, Twi.” Her brow furrowed, and for once there was relative quiet as the rest let her think. After a long moment she ventured hesitantly, “I think . . . I think it’s not so much how advanced everything is as how much of everything there is. And how easy it is to get. I guess this is a pretty well-off city, like Manehattan, so maybe it isn’t the same everywhere. But—even Sunset, who’s on a tight budget, has one of those smartphone things. And, um, a computer, right?”
Encouraged by the attentive faces around her, she went on with more certainty. “It’s not just ‘miracles of technology’ like that, or the great big mall full of stores, or the motor cars everywhere. It’s the little things people take for granted.”
“Like shampoo?” Sunset asked archly. Starlight colored and made a face at her.
“Shampoo? Seriously?” Dash looked askance at the two not-mares, who nodded back, Sunset in amusement and Starlight with mild embarrassment. “What, you don’t have shampoo in ponyland?”
“Of course we do!” A trace of indignation colored Starlight’s tone.
“But it’s pretty expensive, and it’s sold in bars or cakes, like soap,” Sunset put in. “You shave some off and mix it with hot—well, warm—water to use it. Kind of a pain. Mass-produced liquid shampoo in plastic squeeze bottles is a heck of a lot more convenient, not to mention cheaper.” Teasingly she added, “The first time I showed it to Starlight I thought she was going to faint dead away from joy.”
“Oh, the lather!” Starlight’s expression was beatific. “So luxuuuurious, as Aloe and Lotus would say.”
“Didn’t you notice any of the toiletries ads in the newspapers, Dash?” Sunset favored her friend with a skeptical look. “I’ve got to wonder about your schoolwork.”
Dash mumbled something under her breath everyone charitably chose to ignore. Twilight, peering at her phone, piped up, “I knew plastic was something you probably don’t have there, but I didn’t realize liquid shampoo’s only about a century old. And bar shampoos didn’t have lathering agents.”
Applejack grinned at her. “Even you learn somethin’ new every day, sugar cube.”
Sci-Twi shrugged, but her eyes danced. “If you stop learning, you stop growing, right?”
“Can’t argue with that.” AJ tipped her hat back with a thumb.
Starlight, eyeing her countrywoman and sleepover hostess with an air of challenge, riposted, “I saw the trademark on that bottle, Miss Runaway Unicorn.”
Several of the others laughed and Sunset rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know. I found it in the supermarket on the bulk-pack aisle, and yeah, sometimes I get homesick. Everyone knows that. Besides, in those big quart bottles, it’s a good deal, and it lasts a long time.”
Rarity told Starlight in a voice of gentle understanding, “It’s a perfectly good brand, darling. If I understand correctly, it really did start out as a product to use on show horses. It worked so well the horses’ owners started using it themselves, and the rest is history.”
“Yep.” Applejack nodded solemn corroboration. “But we sure did tease Sunset about it when we found out. All in good fun, o’ course.” Fluttershy too nodded and giggled behind a hand.


More questions and answers flew back and forth. Some of Starlight’s impressions, delivered with drily straightforward phrases, cracked up her audience, even if they weren’t always politic. Eventually the discussion turned to developing an itinerary for the rest of her visit, which wouldn’t last much longer before she had to return home.
That prospect made everyone a little melancholy, but they resolutely kept the tone light as they planned. Pinkie, of course, demanded to put on a party the last evening. Nobody was prepared to gainsay her—it did, after all, seem a good way to round out Starlight’s trip.
“I’m going to be as big as a house after it’s all over. This Pinkie will fill me up with cake during the going-away party. Then the other Pinkie will fill me up with cake during the welcome-back party.” Starlight sighed, but didn’t seem terribly put out by the notion, and a chorus of giggles answered. “You know it’ll happen.”
“Pace yourself,” Twilight advised her mock-soberly in a stage whisper behind a hand. “Just keep a slice of cake on your plate at all times and nibble on a bite every now and then. Neither one of them will ever notice.”
Pinkie stuck out her tongue at both of them, but couldn’t keep up the severity and collapsed in more snickers. “It’s been really, really fun, Starlight! And we all made another friend. I promise we’ll check on Juniper, too.”
Sunset nodded. “Cook told me we should keep an eye on her. He thinks she’s still kind of in shock, and he’s not sure what’ll happen when it wears off. I’m gonna try to get permission for her to see the counselor at CHS even though she isn’t a student there. I mean, who else could she talk to about it, right?”
“That’s a good idea. I didn’t have anypony to talk to after Sunburst went away. Or at least nopony who’d listen.” Starlight gazed into the middle distance. “I don’t think Juniper could do as much damage as I did—or you two did—but that’s not the point. What does matter is she needs the help, and we, or you at least, can get it for her. And be there for her.”
“And there’s always Princess Twi, now that ya got the new journal, Sunset.” AJ nodded at the bookbag that accompanied Sunset almost everywhere. “Starlight, since you’re living in Twi’s castle, you’ll be there too, right?”
“Yep.” Starlight couldn’t help a small, fond smile. “It really has grown on me. And so have the other group of fillies—girls.”
After a moment’s reflection all around, Fluttershy put in softly, “It’s getting late, girls. Shouldn’t we go get some dinner?”
This proposal was moved and seconded, and a unanimous vote in favor was followed by a raucous debate over just where to go. Starlight grinned and joined in just as enthusiastically as the rest, content and feeling completely at ease.