Apostle

by EquestrianKnight97


Chapter 3

"You must be trying to sabotage her!" JollyJoy yelled at Inkwell. "I just know it! What is the matter with you and your assistants?"

Maple Flower placed a hoof on the mare's shoulder. "Jolly, please. Don't say that. They're just trying to give me some advice is all. Nopony's my enemy in here."

Unconvinced, the blue earth pony shook Maple away and pointed her own hoof at Inkwell behind his desk. "He's trying to cheapen the quality of your work, Maple! Why do I have to keep telling you this? Your work is fine the way it is and he just can't see it!"

The blue unicorn stallion had both of his front hooves pressed against the bridge of his nose -- with fatigue and frustration painted all over his face. With the little mental strength still reserved within him, he let out a sigh and brought his head up to the two mares seated before him, his eyelids barely able to stay open.

"Mrs. JollyJoy," Inkwell said with soft, tired voice. "For the last time, neither my assistants nor I are trying to cheapen the value of The Honeywood Sisterhood series. It has remained within our top ten list of young adult fiction books for over six years, and BarnOwl has no intention of ever letting that change for the time being."

JollyJoy remained unconvinced, her stern, suspicious eyes scanning the weaken posture of the editor. "And yet you want to take out the entertainment from this third installment that has been present for all the other books."

Seeking some form of solace from the mare's continuous accusations, Inkwell rubbed a hoof in small circles on the right side of his temple and closed his eyes for a short moment. When he opened them again, he looked over at his two editorial assistants who sat on the right side of the room in chairs against the wall. Lavender Dazzle was slowly rocking back and forth in her chair, trying her best not to seem distressed over the situation. Sonnet Philosophy, on the other hoof, barely paid attention, as his stoic focus was directed to the windows near the front door.

Ever since the conversation over the edits for A Summer Night of Fireworks and Candy Apples had started nearly less than an hour ago, the air was filled with tension as Inkwell and the others were fully aware of how JollyJoy could turn an atmosphere from pleasant to terrible. Sadly, as with previous encounters concerning Maple's third book for the past few months, this evening had become a miserable experience, as the calm conversation devolved into an argument over half an hour ago -- with JollyJoy being the most vocal speaker.

"We're not trying to make this book less enjoyable for the readers," Inkwell said, still looking at Sonnet and Lavender. "But from what I've read, as well as with what my assistants have seen, it appears that the main characters in this book perform actions that contradict their overall personality from the previous novels -- without any real indication as for why these sudden changes have taken place."

JollyJoy cocked her head to the side, her blue beehive hairdo swaying under the pressure of gravity and her earrings jangling in the air.

"I really don't understand," she said. "What's so wrong with the decisions Maple made with her characters? I didn't see anything far from the ordinary concerning their behavior."

Inkwell sighed once more. It was hard for him to believe that this mare had disregarded the criticism that he had made just minutes ago, which he was sure he had pronounced in a clear manner. Nonetheless, he spoke about the issue once more.

"Well, as I have mentioned before," Inkwell addressed, stopping mid sentence to retrieve a few sheets of notebook paper on his desk to read. "The first big issue is Clover deciding to lie to her parent about leading a church youth session in order to go on a date with Happy Hour on chapter 13. This action completely contradicts her previous established character trait of being committed to her family and friendship obligations, and there's no further indication in the manuscript that Clover feels guilty about this or suffers any repercussions that would warrant guilt or regret."

Finished with his analysis, Inkwell looked up at JollyJoy, hoping for the slightest of chances that he had gotten through to her with at least one criticism. Instead, the literary agent's grimace remained glued and unchanged, weakening Inkwell's already damaged inner peace.

Nonetheless, the editor continued, shuffling the order of his papers. "And onto the main event of chapter 21. Flower Pond's main strength throughout the series her been her ability to resolve conflict or defend her viewpoint through her words, usually in a manner that is firm and assertive but not threatening or demeaning. Which is why Lavender and I were very bothered with how Flower's choice of confronting the bullies who teased her about her poor singing at the school concert was to throw a garbage can at one of them, and then hit another with a lunch tray full of somepony's food."

Embarrassed, Maple Flower scratched the back of her head with a downward stare in shame. "Oh goodness," the light brown earth pony said. "I didn't see anything wrong with that at first. I guess that does seem a bit out of character. Perhaps that could have been handled a bit differently."

The mare's admittance of error drew a sympathetic frown from the editor. Inkwell enjoyed working with Maple Flower ever since he helped her with her first novel. Though the writer's talent was obvious from the start, the noticeable errors in her work were ones that had to be taken care of, a task which was done successfully for the first two books by Inkwell, his previous assistants, and Maple's first literary agent, who tragically passed away while the second book was in editing.

From that incident, JollyJoy replaced the spot. At first, Inkwell was able to deal with the replacement's minor complaints of his editing, but over time the two began to constantly struggle over what should have been left in or taken out of the manuscript -- a struggle that delayed the publication by nearly a month. And now with the third book, it appears that this situation might happen again.

"Well," JollyJoy began to say, "these characters are all teenagers. And as we know, teens don't always act with the best sense of judgement, and can often do irrational things out of the blue. And besides, flawed teen characters are very relatable to our teen audience, which makes the story more intriguing to get into."

"Yes," Inkwell said. "Flawed characters can be relatable, and these characters should not be perfect. However, the problem is that these mistakes and actions are not only out of character, but there's no previous indicator or hint as for why they started acting like this. Many of the characters' choices I mentioned today, and also talked about for the previous weeks, are completely done out of no where, without any exposition that establishes how they got to such a point in their decision-making. The previous novels always made it clear what was on the POV characters' minds before they did anything, and that pattern isn't present for most of this manuscript."

"Hmm," Maple Flower chimed in, thinking hard of what Inkwell had said. "I don't know how I couldn't have seen it. At first, Jolly made me feel more confident in some of the things I thought were mistakes. But now, I guess you do have a point."

JollyJoy spun her head at her client.

"No, he doesn't!" the mare shouted, causing Maple's pupils to shrink in surprise. "Nothing he says makes sense! I'm telling you right now that none of these criticism are going to help your book. They're just tiny, unimportant complaints about actions that do nothing to cheapen the meanings behind your characters. If anything, he and his workers are trying to make them bland instead of interesting!"

"But Jolly---"

"NO, Maple! No filly wants to read about a character that never messes up and is always true to their ethics, especially a filly that's still trying to figure herself out! You've already made enough edits of the first chapters due to him, most of which weren't necessary, so you don't have to make any more changes!"

As JollyJoy went on with her rant, Inkwell took notice of the activity occurring outside of his office. Beyond the unclosed blinds and the glass of his windows, multiple BarnOwl employees hovered around the front door, trying their best to observe the loud scene. While some ponies went on with their business once they had their peek, others lingered around just a bit longer, staring at the five ponies in the room. When Maple and Lavender saw the crowd, they blushed out of embarrassment just like Inkwell, while Sonnet merely kept his composed posture with a blank face.

I'd give anything to have his lack of care right now. Inkwell thought.

Without warning, JollyJoy shot an ugly glare at Lavender at the other side of the room. Inkwell looked at her, too, and the poor purple unicorn seemed like a helpless prey caught by its ferocious predator -- eyes wide, shaking uncontrollably, sweat beading down her forehead, and her braced teeth clattering in fear.

"Let's start with you," JollyJoy said in a threatening manner. "Since you helped him with chapter 21, I must ask why you want to turn Flower Pond into a pathetic weakling who doesn't have the spine to give those bullies what they have coming to them. I mean really, if you read the other novels, you'd know that somepony needed to give those girls a good smack of reality. Is that how you saw yourself as a filly? Did you just kowtow to schoolyard punks every time they wanted to walk over you, or do you just like being a doormat?"

Maple gasped in shock. With a sudden shift in tone not heard before, her demeanor turned from timid to angry.

"JollyJoy!" she shouted. "You have no right to say that to her!"

An audible gulp sounded throughout the room, originating straight from Lavender. The sweating mess of an unicorn opened up the neck of her pink and blue sweater to ease her stress. In a hurried panic, she mumbled incoherently for a few seconds until she could stutter out the words she had searched for.

"A-A-Actually, it's alr-r-right. Really, i-i-t is." With a sudden laugh, Lavender starting waving her hooves around madly as she thought of what to say next. "It's p-p-possible that I made a m-m-mistake. Maybe I made h-h-her a bit t-too timid, is all. T-those bullies have b-been at her for a w-while. So it makes s-s-sense that she s-should have c-c-c-confront-t-ted them in a more assertive m-m-manner."

"No, sweetie, that's not true," Maple said in good faith, however it seemed that such reassurance only made Lavender less confident.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. She's right. I g-guess. I was just c-c-clueless with how to ex-x-xecute that p-p-properly. M-maybe Flower Pond c-could h-h-have j-just threatened t-to hurt them o-or c-c-called them n-names too. But I m-must have not have b-been b-b-bright enough t-too see t-that. S-S-Sorry."

Inkwell saw that the confession of doubt from Lavender seemed to have pleased JollyJoy, as the literary agent seemed to have a more confident, looming posture when his hurt assistant was done speaking. The silent message of victorious boasting was enough to earn a scowl from him, but the old mare spoke once more before he could respond with anything.

"As for Clover and Happy Hour, you two don't have any reason to change that." She pointed an angry hoof at both Sonnet and Lavender. "Teenagers eventually lie to their parents at one moment or another about where they're going and what they intend to do. Clover's love for her family shouldn't dissuade her from being close to this boy. If anything, after all she's done for her loved ones, she might feel that she's entitled to something for herself for once."

"W-well, w-w-well," Lavender stuttered. "T-that t-t-thing about t-teens is m-m-mostly true. B-But still, Clover's p-parents take their f-farm life really serious, a-and Clover p-plays a b-b-big r-role in k-keeping the f-farm s-stable. I-I-If she n-neglects h-her--"

JollyJoy stretched her neck out.

"The farm is not going anywhere! It's just one time that Clover is going against her family obiligations! And besides, it's fict-ion! If the farm doesn't get hurt due to her neglect, then that fact shouldn't bother anypony -- because it's not real!"

Lavender shrank back in her chair, like a foal getting lectured by their parents. Sonnet on the other hand had not shifted his body nor his attitude in any way, having kept his gaze on the window for the entirety of the present ordeal. From Inkwell's perspective, his lack of a response annoyed JollyJoy, as her eyes prepped themselves to shoot dangers at the grey earth pony.

"And you, young man! I don't know how you got this job, because it seems to me that you lack any understanding of how a good story needs a conflict. You want to completely write out the trouble Flower Pond and her friends have to face with Bittertooth holding that secret over their heads? He's been a enemy of the group since the first book -- which I hope you read, for Celestia's sake -- and you want to downplay the role he has in this book? Are you trying to let our readers down, and give your publishing house a bad name?"

Due to the distance Sonnet was from Inkwell, being closer to the front door then anypony else, Inkwell was certain at first that his assistant had ignored her comments. But on further inspection, the editor could spot a slight scowl on the stallion's face, though his gaze was still towards the window. Before Inkwell was aware if JollyJoy had notice as well, Sonnet's face quickly changed back to being dull.

When silence had overcome the room, Inkwell decided to speak.

"Ms. JollyJoy, I've told you before, Bittertooth's actions in this story make no sense. He threatens Flower Pond and Silver Eclipse that he'll tell the police about the secret treehouse unless they pay him with money, food, and other favors."

JollyJoy squinted her eyes at him in irritation. "Yes. I'm aware. I helped her with that"

"Well, I hope you remember that the events of the second book would not allow this to happen. In the last book, before Bittertooth could cause harm to Flower and her friends, his boss Street Smarts steps in and stops him, because of the favor Silver Eclipse did. We've seen that Bittertooth shows great respect for his boss -- near the point of almost revering him like a father -- so it makes no sense for him to extort Flower after she and her friends were placed under Street Smarts' protection."

Inkwell could see that the words he said might have gotten through to JollyJoy, as her eyes stared up in the air as if they were trying to see the thoughts conjured up in her head. At that moment, the editor hoped that perhaps this stubborn book agent might finally begin to agree with him on such a reasonable point.

"Perhaps..." JollyJoy had trouble finding the next words to say, either due to stubbornness or a genuine attempt to rationalize what he said. "Perhaps, you have a point. Still, there's no reason for that stallion over there to have written the conflict out of the manuscript. You all could have tweaked it if need be. But I guess that any thrill that comes from this story is seen as irrelevant to you all."

Another silence returned to the room as JollyJoy looked around at the ponies present. Inkwell and Maple were both staring at her with either cold, disgruntled glares, Lavender was still huddled in her chair trying not to appear active, and Sonnet still looked out of the window. When it came to her how tense things were, JollyJoy sighed as an act of acknowledgement.

"Look, my complaints don't appear to be that dramatic to me. I just want to ensure that Maple Flower's story contains the same charm that the previous Honeywood Sisterhood books had. These books are present in nearly every school library in Equestria, and I just know that she's a big hit with fillies in middle and high school -- girls that need somepony that they see themselves in."

The blue mare fixed her beehive up and straightened up the nature of her grey suit. "If anything, all of my ranting is simply for the sake of the fans who need these books. You all know how the fandom feels about this series -- all the hopes and expectations they have for this third installment. If those promises of excitement and suspense don't come true, then you'll be doing Maple and the audience an absolute disservice."

"I don't believe that."

The sudden appearance of a stallion's voice drew the attention of JollyJoy, Maple, Inkwell, and Lavender to Sonnet. The grey earth pony, who had been looking at the window for some time, slowly turned his head to look at the book agent. The stallion's almond brown eyes showed no signs of anger or frustration, yet JollyJoy was unnerved by the way they gazed at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her tone shifting between defensive and confused.

Sonnet let out a calm sigh before speaking. "What I mean is that I don't believe your complaints are truly for the sake of Ms. Maple Flower or her fans. I think they're for your own interests."

"My own interests?"

He nodded. "Yes. Anypony with a sense of reason can see that all this yelling has been about what you can milk out of her writing mistakes. If anything, you're sabotaging the potential of this story for your own gain -- which makes you Maple's handicap."

Gasps other than Sonnet's sounded through of the air. Inkwell and Maple looked at each other with stunned and astonished faces, Lavender hid her face in her puffy orange mane, and a shocked JollyJoy stared at the young stallion with a wordless, opened mouth, until her expression gradually transformed from shocked, to appalled, to angry. The old blue earth pony began to shake in her seat, her flustering cheeks giving her face a purple blush as she stuttered -- attempting to find words to say against her accusation.

"I can see that you want to talk," Sonnet said. "But I need to get my words out."

Untranslatable murmurs arose from JollyJoy's lips, their threatening mystery like that of a stalker waiting in the shadows. Nonetheless, Sonnet seemed unmoved by this.

"Now, ma'am, if you're going to prove your point against something you don't like, I would advise, for the sake of yours and everypony's else's time, that your arguments aren't filled with lies -- with the most obvious one being that all this trouble you've made if for the fans."

Jollyjoy flashed her white teeth at Sonnet. "Now wait here a minute! You can't just---"

Sonnet held up his hoof and raised his voice, sounding more irritated than angry. "Ma'am. Please stop." Sonnet placed his hoof on his forehead, rubbing it in slow and lengthy manner as he closed his eyes temporarily. Inkwell could see that he was under a bit tension, but unlike the others Sonnet had done a good enough task of hiding his stress until now. It seemed to Inkwell that this flimsy meeting had reached its breaking point at last.

Sonnet continued after his break. "Okay. So, from what I could gather from previous meetings, many of your complaints have been centered around our edits that you claim would make the story less interesting for fans due to certain details being removed. Many of these story events are centered around answering or fulfilling topics that are prevalent inthe fandom -- like shippings, theories, and anticipation of fanservice.

"Now, while all of these topics are interesting to look at from an outside perspective, an author shouldn't let them influence their work. An author's story should be built upon sound, reasonable material that adheres to real life logic and consequences. A story meant to be taken serious should not be a lovely fantasy land where the readers' wishes of only happy outcomes is made true. And that's what you're doing with Honeywood Sisterhood -- pressuring Maple Flower to create a story that focuses on appeasing the fanbase instead of providing a collection of realistic characters making realistic choices. That's what these fans truly deserve -- to be treated with respectable content, regardless of them being young readers."

"I do care about what fans want!" JollyJoy exclaimed, pointing a defensive hoof at herself. "I'm Maple's book agent. Any, and I mean any, advice that I give to her is meant to ensure that her work gains more recognition in the literary world. I always make sure that she's aware that everything that I do is for her benefit."

Sonnet cocked his head to side -- the motion of which betrayed an air of skepticism that his blank gaze did not reveal. "Is that so? Then, would you mind telling me why you're having Maple Flower agree to allowing her series be adapted into a television show, even though Maple has stated before that she didn't want that?"

Inkwell looked at the two mares in front of him with surprise on his face. "Maple, you agreed to a television deal? You told us you wanted to wait until your series was over."

The author refused to answer Inkwell, looking down at the ground with a sad face. JollyJoy, on the other hand, was taken aback by Sonnet's comment, not at all expecting the stallion to know about such information.

"How did you know about that?" she asked Sonnet.

"Well, I keep up with the any news concerning Maple Flower since I help with editing her book. I don't think it really contributes to my work, but I feel safer knowing the events surrounding my boss' client. And in one article I found, you and Maple Flower had an interview with NovaStar Network over adapting The Honeywood Sisterhood series into a TV show by next year. Although Maple Flower states in the article that she wanted to wait until the series was over so that the adaptation could remain true to the source material, you had convinced her to accept the deal anyway -- saying how it would introduce more attention to her work."

"Okay, what's wrong's wrong with that?" JollyJoy asked, her shock gradually turning back into defensive anger.

"The point is," Sonnet continued, "that your client made it clear in this interview, and in other meetings with us, that if her work was to be replicated as either a play or a show, that she would want the individuals behind the adaptation to respect her books enough as to refrain from making unnecessary edits for the sake of sensation. Many of us have seen adaptations that have botched the originality of their sources, and Maple said she would be heartbroken if the same happened to her work, especially if the show or play ran ahead of the books. But nonetheless you pressured her to accept the deal -- completely disregarding her own interests."

"Well, of course I might have persuaded her a bit," JollyJoy exclaimed, "but I never forced her to do so!" She turned around to her client, looking at her with eyes requesting for a defense. "Maple, this is all for your benefit. I know you had your doubts, but by the time you finished your last book, your audience may have died down. This show could save it!"

"Or it could have helped you out instead," Sonnet stated. "What I mean by that is that, being her agent, you get a certain percentage of the earnings that she receives for when her material is used by other ponies. Therefore, this television deal would be in your benefit. Even if you didn't get as much as Maple would, you would still help yourself to a lot of bits."

JollyJoy looked back at him with a glare again -- a glare, Inkwell believed, that she hoped would deliver the message to the young stallion to not test her any further. The grey earth pony raised an quizzical eyebrow at the agent, appearing unsure as to whether it was worth the effort to react to her threat in any way. If anything, Inkwell believed that the daggers she had been shooting at Sonnet since he had spoken must have felt like minuscule bug-bites to him this whole time."

Sonnet continued with his criticisms, his face remaining as stoic as before, though Inkwell could sense a strange mix of satisfaction and resentment in his voice. "Of course, I could just be speculating. Who am I to say what your motives are? But then again, with all the constant bickering, nitpicking, and shouting you've given us the past few months over us simply doing our jobs, I can't help but think you only care about selling mediocre material to a mostly young, easily impressionable audience for a quick fortune at the sacrifice of quality plot and writing. Given how Maple's previous two books were well crafted, it appears you've brought out the worst in her writing -- which is counterproductive of an actual good book agent."

The rush of blood-heated anger and hate that JollyJoy's vessels brought to her face ironically brought an chilling atmosphere to the room that everypony, probably including the calm Sonnet, felt as goosebumps arose on their skin. The book agent huffed and puffed away, like an annoyed dragon awakened from its long slumber by a careless intruder, and everypony was on edge as they awaited for what would transpire next. From out the office, Inkwell could see more BarnOwl employees creeping by the windows, their faces both in awe and confusion of the scene falling out.

Even with the suspense building up to an obvious explosion, Sonnet could not help but continue with his tirade.

"Look. At the end of the day, getting Maple Flower to create this poorly stitched together story is just going to cause more harm for you. Critics are going to be your main enemy here -- not us. Once they see the plot flaws and poor character decisions, all of their reviews about the book are going to be negative and will strongly advise potential buyers from reading it. And considering that the series' audience consist of fillies still unaware of how complicated life really is, I'm pretty sure overly-concerned parents will prevent their daughters from getting the book once the criticism is released in the news. After all, who would want their child to emulate ponies who are stupid, violent, and manip---"

"Sonnet, that is enough," Inkwell interjected with an exclaimed voice.

Sonnet turned his head to the editor, his opened mouth ready to perhaps give a defense for continuing on with his words, but before anything was said the young stallion looked around at his environment. Lavender to his left was shaking in her seat, with her mane still covering the entirety of her face; Inkwell and Maple in front of him were calm, but Sonnet could tell from the tension on their faces that they were still on edge; and a flustered JollyJoy stared angerly at him with shrunken pupils, her heavy breathing audible from how far he was from her.

He looked back at Inkwell again for a quick second, and with a bite of a his bottom lip he returned to gazing outside of the office window -- with an noticeable scowl now present on his face.

Inkwell, seeing that peace was returning back into the room -- or at least a tense version of peace -- brought his attention back to the two mares in front of him.

"Ms. Maple Flower," Inkwell said, "I still believe that you should revise your manuscript concerning our suggested edits of chapters 13 and 21. It simply is out of character for Flower Pond and Clover to act in such manners. As the author, I believe you know best how these characters should behave, and should at least give exposition for the thoughts behind their actions."

"That seems understandable," Maple agreed. The light brown mare was able to bring out a smile despite recent events, until she heard a disgruntled sigh from next to her. JollyJoy's face had cleansed itself of its purple blush and creases, but the mare was still in an irate mood as she kept her front hooves crossed against her chest and had her eyes focused on the ceiling.

"But," Inkwell said with a sigh, "I do think that the edit of chapter 24 concerning Bittertooth and the bribe to keep the treehouse a secret is something that could be removed. It can work as long as you made it explicit as for why he would go behind Street Smarts' back, or if needed you could make another character the antagonist of the treehouse plot. I can definitely see how it's an exciting conflict in the story, but things must remain coherent."

JollyJoy's harsh eyes returned to look at Inkwell, and then finally at her client. "It seems to make sense," she said. "I guess the other edits can stay, as long as the treehouse plot is kept in. I know you were banking on it to conclude your story in an epic way. Are you okay with that?"

Maple nodded politely. "Yes. Like I just told him, I'm fine with everything. Thank you for asking."

Though her mannerisms showed no signs of hostility, Inkwell could tell by the lack of usual warmth that accompanied her tone that the author was was truly done with her agent's antics. It was a bit suprising, considering that Maple had always try to quell or somewhat defend JollyJoy's annoyance as acts of concern, but Inkwell saw that maybe today was the day all of that ended.

Inkwell looked up at the clock behind the two mares. "It's getting close to 5pm soon. It's best that we end things today and meet back again next week at the same day and time."

Without hesitation, JollyJoy quickly got out of her chair, picked up her purse from the floor, and placed it over her head and around her neck. "Of course. We'll see you there," she said as she headed towards the door.

Maple Flower followed her lead, glaring at her agent's backside. "Thank you for meeting us, Inkwell. I'll message you, in case there's any important details I need to inform you of."

When the door closed behind them, Inkwell watched the two mares walk through the area of the floor, passing by lingering coworkers. Before they were out of sight, Inkwell spotted JollyJoy shooting a quick scowl at Sonnet through the glass window dividing them, with little reaction being drawn out of the grey earth pony as a result. When JollyJoy and Maple Flower were no longer visible, the distraught Lavender took her face out of her mane and spat out several locks of orange hair.

"Oh, geez!" she gasped through watery eyes. "Oh, geez! That was really bad! Like really bad! I don't remember her being that mean before. Especially in such a personal way. Please tell me that isn't going to happen again."

Inkwell shook his head. "That was definitely wrong of her to do that. But I'm pretty sure Maple Flower is going to give her a stern talking once they leave the building. I'm sorry I didn't do much."

Lavender's heavy breaths began to quiet down as she tried her best to balance her thoughts and composure.

"It's okay, boss. I know you did your best. If anything, I think attacking her might have made things worst. Especially if it was coming from you."

The purple unicorn turned her head to Sonnet, who continued to stare out the window with his standard blank face.

"Sonnet, are you okay?" she asked with concern in her voice. "I know that must have been a bit scary."

"It wasn't that bad," Sonnet replied coolly.

"I don't know. I mean, I know you made that big speech and all against her, but I can still understand if you were still a bit startled with how angry she was."

Sonnet sighed. "It's alright, Lavender. That mare was just puffing out hot air."

"Lavender," Inkwell called out. "Would you mind stepping out? I need to talk with Sonnet for a bit. I don't have anything else for you to do, so you're free for the rest of the day."

Her ears perked up. "Oh!" she said with a small smile as she left her chair. "Well that's good to know. See you later, boss. See you later, too, Sonnet."

When his upbeat assistant left his office, Inkwell gave his attention to the less upbeat one.

"I understand where you were coming from with that... Well, a rant seems a bit too much, but I can get why you said what you said to her. Privately, I've been wanting to say the same thing to her for a while, though not in an offensive manner."

"Does offensive mean truthful?" Sonnet quipped.

"Sonnet, it's one thing to point out somepony's bad decisions. It's another to accuse them of doing things that can't be backed up with evidence. Regardless of personal thoughts, you don't know her true motive for compelling Maple Flower to make those decisions."

The young stallion gritted his teeth. "It just my intuition, is all. I see somepony trying to get a good author to sacrifice their talent and world building for the sake of sensation and appeasement. It has to be obvious to you with all the useless criticisms she's made of our edits for the past several months."

"Regardless of your intuition, BarnOwl employees must strive to engage with ponies in conversations that are full of candor but also with respect."

"Well, I felt I was being respectful to her by stating how she's ruining things, and that things will only get harder down the line if she keeps up with her nonsense. Showing disrespect would have been allowing her to get any with her actions."

"Sonnet..." Inkwell leaned up in his chair and placed both hooves on his face. "I can't have this happen again. Out of all the meetings we had with JollyJoy, this one was the worst -- and for all I know it could have been made worse if you continued with your words as you planned. Please. We need to be more cooperative with them, and that means letting them have their way every now and then."

The blue unicorn lifted his head. "With this lawsuit, it's best to get this book out as soon as possible. Hopefully the high sales might help out incase the worst is to come."

Sonnet's face turned from annoyance to that of slight concern. "When did you get the news?"

Inkwell frowned. "This morning. The statement you wrote last week didn't do anything. Despite our defense, the companies are still suing. These are big names involved in the lawsuit, and if the press has already gotten wind of it, the news may be talking about it either tommorrow or the day after."

Sonnet turned away from Inkwell and scowled at the ground. For a few seconds, Inkwell was unsure of how to reach out to him, but eventually decided that it was best to leave him alone. With all of the time he had spent with him, Inkwell was aware of how irritated Sonnet could be when it came to inconviences and hostilites, and that the best way for the stallion to get over his discomforts was to simply be left alone, even if he still had to work with others.

"Sonnet, it's getting late. If you want to you can go. Given how... tense things have been, you only need to do edits of chapters 28 and 29. Bring them to my desk as soon as you before afternoon."

The grey earth pony looked across the room at Inkwell, his shifting lips revealing that a thought was present in his mind that he must have been debating on speaking out about. But eventually, Sonnet nodded at the editor and walked out of the office to go home.