//------------------------------// // Chaos in Ponyville; Why Does Everypony Want to Bother Me? // Story: The Struggles of Running a Book Store // by arcanica_scripta //------------------------------// It had been several days since the events of the Summer Sun Celebration and Twilight moving to town. Since then, much like she had expected, things quickly returned to some manner of normalcy. Twilight had stopped by at one point to check out her shop, which only served to remind Page Turner of how while the library was filled with books on any number of subjects, she was still the primary supplier of fiction in Ponyville. She had to admit, it was pretty amusing to see Twilight purchase a literal book on the history of checklists while Spike, her assistant and a LITERAL dragon, picked one of the few comic books she kept in stock for the colts who liked to check out her store after school. After that particular visit, Page's business continued on as it tended to. That is to say, the occasional customer who always bought two or more books. Currently, she was waiting on the local mail mare to show up to see if her publisher had written back to her about her book. She had submitted it the day after the Summer Sun Celebration, and was eager to see if it had been printed yet. Sure, it usually took much longer for her books to get printed and produced, but her publisher and agent often told her they were able to get a book on the shelf within a day of getting a draft. Although, to be entirely honest, part of her wanting to hear back was out of wanting to put her new book on the shelf. Sure, some ponies might say it isn't right to sell your own book while using an alias to run a book store. In response, she would pointed out that book stores exist to sell books, regardless of who wrote them. Knock knock knock As she polished the counter top, there was a loud pounding on her shop's door. "Mail delivery, Miss Turner!" called a cheerful voice. Smiling with a shake of the head, Page opened the door to find a pale grey Pegasus with yellow eyes looking in different directions. "Good afternoon, Miss Turner! Got some mail for ya." Digging around in her mail bag, she withdrew a decent stack of envelopes which she proceeded to hand over to the unicorn. "Thank you, Derpy," she told the mare as she pulled the envelopes into her store interior. "Have a nice day." As she closed the door, she could hear Derpy returning the well wishes before flying off. There was a brief moment of panic when she heard a loud crash from outside, but hearing Derpy yell out that she was fine caused Page Turner to shake her head in amusement. Walking back to the sales counter, she carefully sorted through the mail she had been given. True to what usually happened with the wall-eyed mare delivering her mail, almost half of the stack was for somepony other than her. By her count, only four of the ten letters belonged to other ponies. Although, she prayed none of the mis-delivered mail was further correspondence from her publisher or her agent. Setting the wrongly delivered letters on her counter for when somepony came by for them, she flicked to one of the two letters in the stack from her editor/agent. I hope there wasn't a problem with the manuscript, she fretted. The last thing I need is for there to be a problem with my book. Before she could open the envelope, the door slammed open and closed. "EEEK!" she shrieked, dropping all six of her letters in shock. She quickly breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a familiar white Unicorn with two toned blue hair. She was holding the door shut in terror, with her sunglasses strangely being absent. "Hello, Vinyl." The DJ waved nervously before quickly peeking out one of her windows in fear before ducking down. "Hiding from Octavia again?" She received a quick nod. Shaking her head, Page gathered up the letters she had dropped before moving back to her sales counter, making sure to stash the letters from her publisher in the middle of the pile. "Let me guess, either that dishwasher of yours broke something she cared about, or you wasted your food money on equipment." She raised an eyebrow at the nervous Unicorn. "So? What was it?" "The Grand Galloping Gala," she quietly replied, as if afraid her voice would attract the cellist. "I accidentally ruined Octy's ticket when I knocked over a flower pot practicing my new set. I lost my shades when she threw her cello at me, and I'm pretty sure she's out for my head." Page Turner Rolled her eyes at the dysfunction of the two musicians being roommates. "Well you better think of a way to make it up to her. I'm supposed to be open right now and I can't hide you here while I'm doing my job." Much to her mild annoyance, the DJ didn't seem to be paying her any attention. Rather, she was back to peeking out the window in case Octavia came near the store. The white mare was so transfixed that she didn't notice an envelope wrapped in a red aura floating behind her until it tapped her shoulder. "AAAAAHHHH! I'M SO SORRY OCTAVIA! DON'T KILL ME!" She curled in on herself in terror, hiding her head behind her forelegs. When she instead got nothing but laughter, she opened a magenta eye to see the envelope floating there for her. She glared at the laughing mare as she took it in her magenta magic. "Not cool, Page. Not. Cool." Seeing her name on it, she opened it up before gasping at the golden glow inside. "No way..." She quickly yanked the door open. "Sorry Page, but I gotta go see Octavia!" After the door slammed shut, there was a sudden peaceful silence in the book store. Taking the moment of peace, she pulled out the stack of letters again. "Now that Vinyl's gone, I can finally- *SLAM* not open my mail..." she muttered. Looking up, she checked to see who her newest guest was. Much to her mild amusement, the pony in the door was struggling to get through on account of how large his body was. Fortunately, he was able to squeeze through with a very proud (if not slightly angry) look on his face. "YEAH!" he yelled. The force of his being great enough that it blew the mare's mane back and left her slightly disheveled and blinking in a slight daze. Shaking her head to fix her mane, she smiled cautiously at the Pegasus who was standing in her shop. "You know, Bulk Biceps, you don't need to slam the door like that. Simply opening it will suffice." "SORRY!" he yelled to her. "How can I help you today?" she asked, wincing as the ringing in her ears started to subside again. He raised up a letter in his right hoof. "THIS ARRIVED AT MY HOUSE! IT BELONGS TO YOU!" "Oh, thank you, Bulk Biceps." Accepting the letter from the Pegasus, she placed it on the counter as he turned to leave. "NO PROBLEM!" After working his way back through the door and another "YEAH", the Pegasus gently closed her door before going on his way. As she grabbed her mail again, she briefly paused before trying to open it again. Quickly running over to the door, she took a quick look back and forth to make sure nopony was coming to interrupt her again. Content that she was going to be able to do this in peace, she closed the door and walked away with letter in front of her. "Alright, time to-" "Hi Page Turner!" "Oh come on!" she yelled in frustration as she slammed her mail onto the counter. Turning around with an annoyed look, she saw Pinkie Pie casually bouncing in her store. With a deep breath and a twitching eyebrow, she gave the pink pony a strained smile. "How can I help you Pinkie?" she almost growled. "We~ll..." she dragged out with an oblivious smile, "I'm throwing a little party to show Twilight why I'm her absolute bestest friend, and I was hoping you would come along to help me prove it!" Her bright blue eyes were wide and sparkling with excitement at the idea of throwing Twilight Sparkle a party. Page let out a heavy sigh before picking up the pink Earth Pony with her magic. "Sorry, but I can't. I need to be here to run my store, and I can't go to every time you arbitrarily decide to throw somepony a party around here. Good bye." She sat the pony down on the ground outside her store and let her go. Pinkie stared at her for a long moment before brightening up. "Okay! Bye Pagey!" Getting up, she bounced away humming to herself. Shaking her head, Page closed the door before noticing the clock on the wall. Seeing the time, she quickly opened her door again to put up a small sign saying she was at lunch. Grabbing her mail off the counter, she quickly went to the back of her shop and headed up the stairs to get back to the house part of her shop. Once in her home, she quickly made her way to the kitchen to make herself lunch. Ten minutes later, she had a lovely grilled cheese and tomato sandwich ready to be eaten. Taking a seat at the table and a well-deserved bite out of her sandwich, she picked up the envelope from her editor and finally managed to open it. Ok, let's see here... "Page", I reviewed your newest book, and gotta say, some good stuff kiddo! The guys in the editing department tried to change up some of the language, but the senior members who know your work threatened to get them blacklisted if they did. Gotta admit, it will never not be funny watching these guys freak out over somepony trying to change your text. Page snorted in amusement at the image of the editing board being threatened by the higher ups for doing their jobs. Of course, she knew all too well how passionate some of those ponies were about authors like her after the few times she's had to personally visit the editor's office. Done imagining the chaos described in the letter, she kept reading. The book went all the way through the approval process, and we sent it to the printing office. There was a small argument over the cover design, but it's all settled now even if everypony involved got their tails in a twist. We'll have the first batch of paperbacks out by next week, and I've arranged for ten to be sent to your store in Ponyville. Hard covers won't be printed out for another two weeks, but I'm certain they'll cause a spike in sales. On another note, the publishers are asking whether you can write and submit your books faster. Flashing Lights and I have been stalling and telling them no, but they're getting a little annoyed with you and how long you can take sometimes to get your books out. Let's just hope the next Yearling book can distract them enough to drop it. You just work at your pace and let us handle them. Celestia knows you can't rush your books. Good luck on the next book and with sales! -Type Set Smiling at the fond words of her editor, she finished her sandwich while setting the letter to the side. "That was thoughtful of her," she mused. "I'll have to see if I can help get her a raise." Moving her plate to the sink, she picked up the second letter from her personal life. Considering the name "Flashing Lights" was in the return address, it was clearly from her agent. As soon as she opened up the envelope, there was a loud pounding on the door downstairs. She looked at the clock, and decided to let it go since she was still on break. When the pounding resumed, she did her best to ignore it while pulling out the letter, until the yelling started. "Delivery for Page Turner!" came a stallion's voice from the street. Sighing, she walked to her lounge room and opened the window to look down at the entrance to her shop. Standing there, with a medium-sized box wrapped with string, was a well-built Pegasus stallion dressed in a uniform from the intercity mail delivery service. "I'm up here," she called down. When he looked up, she waved him over to the second floor window. Picking up the package by the string loop on top of it, he flew up to her window. Lighting up her horn, she took the parcel from the stallion before setting it down on the floor. "Do I need to sign for this?" she asked him. "Yup, let me just grab the board." Reaching behind him, he presented a clip board with the top held in his mouth and a pencil connected to it by a string. Quickly signing on the page, she used her magic to place the clip board on his back for him. He tipped his hat to her. "Thank you. Have a nice day, ma'am." "You too, sir." Business done, she closed the window and let him go on his way. "Now what in the name of Celestia even is this thing?" Untying the string and breaking the seal on the box, she slowly opened up the box. If one of her fans had found out where she lived this time, it wouldn't be the first time one of them tried mailing themselves to her. Although, the box was too small and light for a pony to be inside, so that probably wasn't it. When the box was finally open and nothing came out, she took a look inside. Her hoof promptly met her forehead when she was met with a box full of letters. "Seriously? Flashing Lights needs to stop saving up this much fan mail before forwarding it to me." With a reserved sigh, she carried the box into the kitchen to sort through later. As much as she hated getting the large boxes of fan mail, it still made her happy to know how ponies enjoy her books. With the box in place on her table, she picked up the letter from her agent. Page, Type Set told me you submitted your newest book. Honestly, I wish you would start telling me about these things before you come up with the titles for them since it would give me more time to promote them. Not saying Calls of a Darkened Village is a bad name, but it would be nice if I could see how well they can be promoted without just having a little over a week to do all this marketing and get excellent publicity. Speaking of publicity, I've been getting hounded my the Manehatten Times to let them do an interview with the actual you for your next book and about your career as a whole. I've told them your policy on interviews and similar events, but those headstrong horses don't know when to call it quits. It doesn't help that after the last time your identity got out, a couple of sources got very minor details about who you are. So far it seems they only know you're a mare and that you were born in Seaward Shoals. Hopefully we can prevent that from getting any worse. "He better hope so," she growled. It was bad enough that those two pieces of information got out. "I swear, if I ever find the stallion who decided to tell the press he vaguely remembered me from elementary school, I will make him wish he was in Tartarus." Speaking of your identity, there's the matter of a rather big, high-profile event coming up. I've included the letter in the next box of your fan mail, but you've been invited to the Grand Galloping Gala by Princess Celestia herself. Apparently she's a fan of your works and wants to meet you in person. I was half tempted to reply in your stead, but I figured it wouldn't be fair to reply to the Princess without letting you reply to it. I know your stance on public appearances, but I can tell this is a decision only you can make. She took a moment to dig through the box and find the aforementioned letter. Sure enough, it was an invitational letter complete with a ticket that had her actual name on it. She also took note of the letter being written and signed by Princess Celestia and couldn't help but sigh. She was all too aware of the Princess being one of her fans since she had written one or two letters in the past. But this? Going to the Gala was a big step up from one of the personal letters she usually sent to the press. She went back to Flashing Light's letter, but quickly realized the rest of it was him going on about the pros and cons of finally making a personal appearance. The only highlight was him complaining about her choice of pseudonym for day-to-day life, but that was a common trait of his letters. After putting the two professional letters and her invitation in her bedroom, she returned to the first floor to reopen her store. Who knows? Maybe after a day of work she'd be able to make a decision about the Gala. "I don't know where she found them, but I really need to thank Type Set for finding this artist." The first order of her newest book had come in the night before, so she was currently finishing up the display rack she used for when new books first came out. Of course, she usually had to buy said new titles out of her savings, but this was the one benefit she had when it came to being a published author herself while running a bookstore. At the moment, however, she was admiring the art that Type Set had chosen for her newest book. The title, Calls of a Darkened Village was written in a gothic script she had chosen ages ago that was colored red. The cover itself was largely adorned by an interesting painting of a blighted village with a dark overcast sky. Done admiring the cover, she placed the book she had been holding into its place on the display rack. As she did, the door opened behind her. She turned around and saw that it was simply Twilight Sparkle. "Oh, hello Twilight. How can I help you?" "Hi Page Turner. I was just stopping by since I heard you got a new shipment of books in." She was barely containing her excitement and to be entirely honest, it was mildly humorous to see Princess Celestia's prized student acting so giddy over new books. "So?" "So?" she asked back, choosing to try feigning ignorance. "I don't know what you're asking me Twilight." "Did you get anything good in?" she asked in slight exasperation. "Well that depends on your definition of good," she shot back. She turned and went to lead the other unicorn to the "New Arrivals" section. "All of the books we either just got in or restocked after a while are put over here for the first couple weeks until we get our next shipment." "What's this table?" She turned around and saw Twilight investigating the table she had been setting up. "Calls of a Darkened Village?" "Oh, those. That's the newest book from one of the most highly acclaimed authors in Equestria right now. They've received very high praises from the Manehatten Times for their writings," she explained, doing her very best trying to not get too proud explaining the success of her actual income. "She writes a lot of gothic horror with a lot of detail into cosmic horror. I happen to be rather fond of her their writings and try to sell the books as they come out." "Hoofcraft, huh? I've heard that name get thrown around, I've just never read any of their work," she said almost to herself. "And you said she's pretty acclaimed?" "She's been named author of the year several times." Largely because they kept trying to get me to show up in person, she thought to herself. Twilight thought about it a bit more. "Alright, I'll give it a shot. And you said you had all of her books?" Twilight sounded pretty hopeful about the number of books in the overall set. Page chuckled at the possibility of getting a new fan. "Yes, I make sure to stock all of her books. I think to get started on the books you'd be better off starting with this new book and maybe the first one that got published." Turning, she lead Twilight to the section that was specifically set aside to stock all of the books she had written; all eight of them not counting her new one. Quickly looking along the shelf, she pulled the 1st one off the shelf and presented it to the purple mare. "Here we are, The Cries of the Ether. The first published book in the overall set, even though there's no real order to it." "Wait, the first book isn't technically first?!" she yelled. "What kind of madness is that?" "Well, Hoofcraft didn't write them in the form of a large continuous narrative," she explained, trying to do everything in her power to not reveal herself or too much information. "The whole series consists mostly of separate stories in a large, expansive universe. Continuity is mostly for the shared concepts between each different narrative." "Wow." Twilight looked amazed at the concept, but the way she was looking at the shelf made her suddenly regret explaining the continuity of the books. "You know what, I think I'll take one of each book!" With a wide smile, she pulled one of each of the assembled books and looked proudly at the collection of nine books. "I'm going to have so much fun reading these!" I'm sure you will, Twilight, thought the author as she watched Twilight deliberate an order for reading the books. Just don't turn into one of the worse members of my fanbase. "Alright, I'll ring you right up. Just remember to not waste your life away picking them apart." "Don't worry, even if I only read them each once, I doubt I'll have too much trouble with them." Her confidence made Page smirk. She clearly had no idea what she was getting into. "Well, for that whole set, it all comes up to 100 Bits." She expected Twilight to put a couple of the books back, not the laugh she got instead. "100 Bits? That's nothing compared to my usual book budgeting!" Pulling her coin purse out of her saddle bags, she quickly had the requested amount neatly piled up on the counter with an excited smile as she began packing away the books. "Alright, have a nice day and enjoy the books, Twilight." When she looked back to the other mare, she frowned to see Twilight already had her nose buried in her first book as she left the store. She sighed heavily at the mare's behavior. "Geez, it's okay to like books and all, but that pony has a one-track mind." As she went to resume setting up her new display table, she had to abruptly stop, as a sharp pain worked its way through her head. "Damn, not again..." she grunted. Straining from the pain, she pulled her emergency pain killers out from under the counter before taking a couple. As the headache slowly faded away, she took a deep breath. Why now? Why get one of those headaches now? she thought. Sure, the headache killed her, but for some reason she never understood, they usually preceded her getting a substantial amount of ideas for her next book. She just hoped there wouldn't be anymore headaches for a while after this one for a while.