Chapter 6
Open!
Bon Bon had to suppress a laugh at her friend's unabashed enthusiasm. At Bon Bon's urging, Lyra had immediately dashed out the front door with a grin on her face and the banner in tow. She had come back inside just as quickly to retrieve the hammer and nails she forgot to take with her on her first trip out the door, but eventually she did manage to hang the banner and officially open up shop.
What she lacks in sense, she makes up for with spirit, Bon Bon thought with a smile.
In a way, the mint unicorn reminded her of Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's resident party animal. Like Pinkie, Lyra often did things that were a bit mind boggling and, like Pinkie, one couldn't help but overlook her silliness for the simple fact that she was just so likeable. Both ponies rarely seemed to let bad news get the better of them, and would instead either look on the bright side of things, or create a bright side in the absence of one.
Actually, given both ponies's penchant for the strange, it shouldn't have come as any surprise to Bon Bon to see Pinkie Pie bouncing behind Lyra when she came back inside the shop. She couldn't help but think that perhaps Pinkie was like one of the ghosts you might hear about in those stories that young adult ponies like to tell scared young fillies and colts. The kind of ghost who would suddenly appear behind you if you spoke its name three times in a dimly lit room.
Pinkie stopped bouncing just inside the front door and took a quick look around. Her eyes fell upon a random piece of junk and she quickly moved in close to inspect it.
"Ooooh, you have one of those!" she exclaimed before zipping towards another display. "Ooh ooh ooh, a thing-a-ma-bob! And what's this?" Pinkie stopped in front of an old rusted spring. "A doohickey!" she breathed in awe. "How much for the doohickey?"
Bon Bon was about to speak, but she was interrupted by an almost-desperate shout.
"Wait!" Lyra pleaded. Her eyes were wide and panicked as she looked between Bon Bon and Pinkie, who stopped squeezing the spring between her hooves and looked up quizzically. Lyra walked over to Pinkie and looked her in the eyes. "I haven't properly greeted you yet," she revealed.
Bon Bon shook her head in embarrassment, but Pinkie just giggled and nodded. "Alrighty, be right back!" Before anypony could question her, she zoomed out the door and, a moment later, walked back inside and grinned at Lyra expectantly.
"Um," Lyra stumbled. "Oh, right. Welcome to Lyra's Ultimate Item Emporium. How can I help you today?" She stole a quick glance towards Bon Bon as if to ask if she had done it properly, then looked back at Pinkie with a smile.
Pinkie bounced back over to the spring and picked it up in both her front hooves, holding it before her as if it were some grand artifact of times long forgotten.
"I wish to purchase this amazing specimen of a doohickey," she announced. "How much?" She placed the spring back on the display and began to hum quietly.
Lyra turned to Bon Bon and raised an eyebrow. "Um, how much should I charge for it?" she whispered.
Bon Bon trotted over to her and leaned in close so that Pinkie couldn't hear. "Well, most shops have a sort of median price for items," she whispered in return. "A base price, if you will. The shop owner then knows to buy that item at any price below the base price, and to sell it for any reasonable amount above it. That's how you make a profit, but we got this stuff from the trash, so there is no base price! It's all profit, so just name a price you think is reasonable and go from there."
Pure profit! Lyra thought. She couldn't help but to hop gently in place. "How about five bits?" she asked nervously.
"Five bits? Are you crazy!?" Pinkie exclaimed. Her wide eyes shifted back and forth between Lyra and Bon Bon. The two friends glanced nervously at one another, then hung their heads in shame.
"I'm sorry," Lyra mumbled, kicking a hoof at the floor. "I guess I shouldn't be charging that much..."
Pinkie frowned. "I'll say." She then picked the spring up in her mouth and tossed it onto the checkout counter. "But there's no way I'm letting you take it back." She shook her head and crossed her forehooves. "Nuh uh, no way! You might be crazy for selling a premium doohickey like this for so cheap, but I'm the one who would be crazy if I let you mark the price up after offering it for only five bits! I mean duh! Who doesn't love a bargain?"
Insanity is a funny thing, really. It can sneak up on what would otherwise be completely normal ponies and cause them to do some pretty weird things. The kinds of things that might cause a bystander to quickly look the other way as if they hadn't witnessed what had just occurred.
Then there were the ponies like Pinkie. Well, nopony else was quite like Pinkie, but there were a few who shared some common traits with her. These were the sort of ponies who had not only been struck with insanity, but had apologized to it for being in its way and then embraced it as if it were a new friend. In Pinkie's case, it probably was.
Bon Bon, who was an honest sort, addressed her pink friend. "Look, Pinkie, we can't charge you five bits for that. It's just an old rusty spring."
Pinkie's eyes narrowed. "Oh no you don't!" She took the spring into both forehooves and held it close to her chest. "You're not gonna fool me. No way, no how! This here is not only a doohickey, it's an S-model doohickey from a modified whatchamacallit! I know it, you know it, and I'm not taking no for an answer." With that said, Pinkie placed the old spring back onto the checkout counter and produced a coin purse from out of nowhere and began digging bits out.
"Look," she continued. "The highest I'll go for it is ten bits, and that's only because you're my friends and should have just named a ginormous price in the first place." She tossed the coins onto the counter. "Do we have a deal?"
Lyra looked at Bon Bon, whose jaw had dropped, then back to Pinkie. She shrugged. "I guess?"
Pinkie jumped over the counter and scooped both Lyra and Bon Bon up in a warm hug. "Wheee! Thanks girls! I've been looking all over for one of these things!" She set them down and picked up the spring. "Keep up the hard work, you two. I might come back later to see if you have any new stock. Bye bye!" With that said, she disappeared out the front door in a blur.
Two minutes is not a very long time, but it can feel that way when the shop you're standing in is completely and utterly silent for the duration of said minutes. When she finally recovered, Lyra turned to Bon Bon and beamed.
"I sold something!" she shrieked. She caught Bon Bon off guard with a hug. "I sold something, I sold something, I sold something..."
A fair distance away from Lyra's shop, Pinkie pranced through the lanes of Ponyville, her newly-acquired spring in her mouth. She was humming a cheerful tune around it, and occasionally stopped to wave at a friend or three. After many greetings and distractions along the way, she finally arrived at the trash heap on the outskirts of town.
Upon hurling the old spring into the trash heap, Pinkie thought back to the cheer and jubilation she had witnessed as she had secretly peered through the window of Lyra's Ultimate Item Emporium. Lyra had looked absolutely ecstatic over her sale.
Totally worth it, she thought to herself as she cheerfully made her way back home.