As it usually did, Celestia’s sun rose gently over the horizon, painting Ponyville in it’s warm, welcoming light, the moon sinking away. As the small town bid goodbye to the Mare in the Moon, the radiant light slowly moved across the town, forcing the tired ponies inside to greet the day. In the distance, one of the Apple family’s roosters called out into the morning.
Close to the town center, sat a lovely little bookstore. Cover to Cover, it was called, though most ponies simply called it “the book store” and only went when the local library was unoccupied, which was most of the time. It was a simple building, with the first floor being the main store with a wooden sign out front advertising the name. The second floor on the other hand, housed its owner. And its with her, that our tale can begin.
As a gentle sunbeam passed through the window, it landed on the homey room’s occupant and her very comfortable bed. With a grunt, she rolled over in an effort to get away from the sun’s light. Content that the light wouldn’t hit her anymore, she let out a content sigh, eager to get a little more sleep in. At least until the birds started singing, that is. She growled, trying to shut out the feathered pests, when a loud pounding was added to the early morning cacophony.
Sitting upright, the now thoroughly annoyed mare glared at her open window. “What in Equestria is making this much noise?!” she snapped angrily. Pulling her blankets aside with her magic, the Unicorn stomped over to the window and glared out into the small town. At this particular time of day, it should have been easy given how few ponies were usually out this early in the morning. Instead, it seemed like everypony and their aunt was out and about this morning.
“Morning, Page Turner!” called a brown Earth Pony who noticed her. She turned her magenta gaze to him as he continued hammering away at a large stage. As she looked over what he was building she quickly reminded herself of the occasion. Of course, with the large sun motifs and the elongated semi-circle facing the horizon, she would have to live under a rock to not realize what was going on that day.
Right, the Summer Sun Festival is today, she thought as she shook her bedhead out of her face. For some reason, Princess Celestia wanted to host it here of all places. Shaking her head, she closed her window and turned her attention to the bed. Quickly fixing it up with her magic, she quickly ran a brush through her mane. Content her black and grey mane was properly brushed and her crimson coat in order, she left her room, ready to face the day; or at least as ready as somepony like her could be.
After getting herself a cup of coffee to start her day, she took a moment to glare at the thick stack of paper on her dining table, simple string binding the pages together. “Stupid writing career,” she muttered as she levitated it to a smaller table. “Keeping me up late to work. I should have been sleeping but no, creative geniuses don’t get to sleep.” Her small rant was cut off when a polite knocking came from downstairs.
“Page, darling, its me~!” sang a mature voice. Rolling her eyes at the pony in question, the mare grabbed her coffee before heading downstairs to her store. Once in the store proper, she trotted over to the door and opened it with a red glow. “Page! How lovely to see you!” greeted the white unicorn.
“Good morning, Rarity,” Page said back, taking a long sip of her coffee. “How can I help you today?” At one time, it was annoying and rather difficult for her to be used to being called “Page Turner”, but after a couple years of using the alias it was now even more familiar to her than her actual name.
“Well, darling, I’m hoping your store has exactly what I’m looking for.” Without asking, let alone being invited, the fashionista walked into the store. As much as Page Turner wanted it to bother her, the book salespony couldn’t be mad considering it was Rarity she was dealing with. Not only was it par for the course with the designer, but she was one of the few ponies in town Page would consider some manner of friend. “I was hoping to find a book at the library on Canterlot fashion and style for some last-minute inspiration for tonight’s decorations, but unfortunately it was all locked up! Can you imagine that?” she asked in shock.
“Maybe Mayor Mare got sick of foals trashing the place?” Honestly, there were a number of reasons why Golden Oaks should be locked up, her profits being a very big one to her personally. Other than that, though, there were all sorts of problems, from ponies having to volunteer to be librarian for fixed periods, foals hanging out in there when they shouldn’t be, and a certain cyan Pegasus liked to avoid reporting any times she crashed into it doing her stunts.
“Perhaps,” replied Rarity, as she was already browsing the few fashion books Cover to Cover stocked. “Anyways I was hoping you had such a book within your store’s collections.” She looked over to her fellow Unicorn with a raised eyebrow. “Do you?”
Nodding, she set her now drained coffee cup on the counter top. “I may not have a book on fashion, but I do have something more useful.” Grabbing a particular volume from the architecture section, she showed it to the mare. “Canterlot Through the Modern Era,” she recited. Opening it up to a section labeled “Ceremony”, she presented it back to her friend. “This should tell you everything on how the Summer Sun Celebration is set up in Canterlot.”
“This is perfect!” cried the white mare as she seized the book. Eagerly devouring the information before her, Page Turner was able to hear the designer muttering about color palates under her breath. Looking up with a large smile, Rarity’s eyes were filled with an excitement the crimson Unicorn was quite familiar with. “Thank you darling, this is exactly what I needed. How much is this one?”
“6 Bits,” Page told her as she walked behind the counter. “Since I’m running a business,
I can’t exactly let you just borrow it. Sorry, Rarity.”
The other mare waved a dismissive hoof at her. “Don’t fret, dearie. I know all too well about needing to ensure your business stays afloat.” A small coin bag floated out of her saddlebags, with the unicorn extracting the right amount. “Don’t you worry, I have a feeling I’ll be needing this book quite a bit if the Summer Sun Festival goes over well.”
As the store keeper rang up the purchase, Rarity slid the book into her saddlebags. “Have a nice day, Rarity. See you tonight.”
“Same to you, Page. Tata!” With that, the unicorn made her exit, allowing Page Turner to change the sign on the door to “Open”. Not that anypony would notice considering everypony was getting ready for the Raising of the Sun ceremony.
From there, her morning continued on as she expected it to. Business, while not non-existent, was slow enough that she was able to not only return her coffee cup to her kitchen, but also retrieve her book and a bagel on her way back before her next customer, a strange stallion who called himself “Doctor” came by. As usual with his visits to her store, he never failed to have one random book mixed in with his usual four books on advanced mathematics and science. Although, him wanting a copy of The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide was more out of left field than usual. (1)
It wasn’t until it was getting close to lunch time, and after another couple customers, that she got another strange visit in the form of Pinkie Pie. “HIYA PAGE TURNER!” she screamed as she slammed the door open. The walls themselves shuddered from the force of her opening the door with her arrival eliciting a surprised yelp and almost ruining the page she was writing with her quill.
“Hello, Pinkie Pie,” she replied cautiously. Not only was she dreading her door finally breaking because of the local Party Pony, but said pony had a crazier look in her eye than usual. She looked more excited than usual, and that was saying something. “How can I help you?” She really hoped Pinkie wasn’t doing something bizarre today. The last thing she wanted was Pinkie Pie spreading her unique form of joyful mayhem the day before the Princess arrived.
“You’ll never believe it!” she exclaimed as she ran over to the sales counter. “I was just walking around Ponyville, and then I saw this purple Unicorn looking lost. So she said ‘Hi!’ and I was all like ‘huuuuuh!’” She took such a loud gasp, the Unicorn was almost convinced Pinkie was just breathing for the first time in an hour. “So then I thought to myself, ‘NEW PONY IN TOWN!’ because I didn’t know her and I know everypony so then I ran off to start planning a party to welcome her to Ponyville and then I started inviting everypony in town so now I’m here telling you there’s gonna be a party in the library tonight before the Summer Sun Festival!” She was yelling by the end and looked extremely proud of herself for the long sentence.
Page Turner smiled at her friend (not that she had a choice in befriending Pinkie) and nodded. “Okay, Pinkie. I’ll be there. Wouldn’t miss one of your parties if I can help it.” Not that I have a choice, she thought sarcastically. She once tried refusing a major party invitation from Pinkie Pie back when she moved to Ponyville. The pink pony had gone berserk and gone so far as to relocate the birthday party in question so that she would have no choice but to be at said party.
“Great! Now then…” With that, the pink Earth Pony sped out as a pink blur, slamming the door behind her yet again. Shaking her head at Pinkie Pie’s antics, Page Turner pulled out the loosely bound book from where she had quickly hidden it lest Pinkie see her real name on the cover. Humming to herself, she put up her break sign before heading out for a quick lunch, making sure to put a spare cover over the book so nopony could see the name on it.
As she walked through the streets of Ponyville, she took in the decorations around town with a smile on her face. Sure, Ponyville was nowhere near as big as Hoofington or Manehatten, but it was nice to see that the whole town was decorated for the occasion whereas most cities she had lived in only decorated a small section for the celebration.
It was around this time that she got a glimpse of the pony she assumed Pinkie Pie had informed her of earlier. The unicorn in question had a light purple coat with her mane and tail laying straight colored primarily in a dark violet with a single stripe of a lighter purple and pink. Her cutie mark was a pink and white bursting star with five smaller stars around it. What she found truly remarkable was the fact that the mare had a small dragon following her around holding a scroll.
How in the name of Celestia did she get a dragon to not only carry that scroll but also work with her? She couldn’t think of something that wouldn’t be socially unacceptable, but that might have something to do with her writing style. The dragon aside, Page couldn’t help but shake the feeling that there was something… odd about the unicorn. Not exactly in her personality, but that there was more to the unicorn than meets the eye. Again, she suspected that had something to do with the horror stories she wrote where she would use such a concept quite frequently.
Shaking off the feeling, she realized the unicorn was approaching her. “Greetings,” she awkwardly said to the author. “I don’t suppose you could direct me to where the head of the weather team spends their time? I need to speak with her and I’m afraid I don’t know where the office is.”
Page Turner raised an eyebrow at the forward statement. “I’m sorry, but that’s not exactly how somepony introduces themselves where you’re from, now is it?” She suppressed a chuckle at the scowl the purple unicorn gave her. “See, I would like to help, but I prefer knowing who I’m helping with situations like this.”
Her nostrils flared in frustration as she sighed and rubbed her eyes. The dragon at her side snickered and nudged her flank with a muttered comment about being friendly. “Fine. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m here to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Festival. And you are?”
The red unicorn smiled and offered a hoof. “I’m Page Turner, I own the local book store here in Ponyville. It’s nice to meet you, Twilight.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Page,” she said while shaking her hoof. “Now can you tell me where I can find the pony in charge of the weather?” The dragon jabbed her in the side again. “Please?”
She nodded before gesturing to the clouds. “Rainbow Dash is probably sleeping on one of the clouds lying around. Just look for a cyan pegasus or a rainbow-colored tail hanging off a cloud. If she’s not sleeping, she’ll be practicing her stunts.”
“Either sleeping or messing around…” muttered the dragon as he jotted it down on their scroll.
“Thank you, Page Turner. Have a nice day.”
“You too, Twilight.” She started walking again to go get lunch. “Feel free to stop by my store some time if you ever need somepony to talk to or you need a book. Celestia knows my shop needs the visitors.”
Page had to admit. As anti-social as she tended to be in order to keep her real identity a secret, there was nothing quite like a Pinkie Pie party. The music was varied enough, everypony was friendly and sociable, and there were plenty of sweets to go around. She felt a little bad when Twilight ran off to hide in her bedroom. After all, Pinkie could be a little… much for somepony who didn’t know what they were getting into.
Not wanting to dwell on it, however, she quickly occupied herself by finding her friend Rarity and catching up with her after their conversation earlier that morning. The white unicorn was over the moon with excitement over Twilight moving to Ponyville since she was a Canterlot native. Fortunately, Rarity had the decency to still be embarrassed when Page pointed out how a similar eagerness was the start of their particular friendship when she moved to Ponyville herself. After a couple hours of chatting and dancing with the other townsponies Pinkie Pie had invited, the moon was high overhead as night had fallen over Ponyville.
Eventually at somepony’s recommendation, the party began to wind down as they realized the sunrise was in a couple hours. The townsponies gathered at Town Hall to watch the sun rise. Page herself found a nice spot closer to the front of the crowd to get an excellent view of the balcony where Celestia would make her appearance. While it wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before, Page found herself excited for this. After all, Princess Celestia was going to raise the sun in their town!
With the sunrise at hand, Mayor Mare began the opening ceremonies as a chorus of songbirds began to play the national anthem. As the curtains began to move for Celestia’s entrance, Page was extremely excited to see the Princess raise the sun for all of Ponyville. Except the balcony where she would be standing was empty.