“Good morning,” I say to the pony in the mirror, carefully straightening her bowtie. “First day?” She nods. “Well good luck. Be sure to make a good impression.” I lift my name tag off the nightstand and pin it on. “You ready?”
Well, am I?
I stand up straight as I can and examine my mirror-self. The uniform is crisp and new and the red velvet jacket fits me very well for being a generic size “medium.” Though surely that unicorn in the mirror can’t be me--not some third tier assistant librarian from Manehattan’s research branch. No, no, the unicorn in the mirror is a rising star: Page Turner, First Page of the Royal Canterlot Archive!
I begin to giggle hysterically. “Page Turner, First Page.” I repeat. Lovely. My dream job makes me sound like a Daring Do character. Perhaps I have Celestia’s infinite humor to thank for this opportunity.
I take a step back. In her red jacket and bow tie, the pony in the mirror looks every bit the professional. Like she belongs running the most prestigious library in Canterlot. I keep scanning her face, trying to find myself in there somewhere. Maybe the Page Turner who once misfiled all the biographies under biology had gotten on a different train, and this young promising go-getter ended up in Canterlot instead. I guess the clothes really do make the mare.
“You are going to be fine Page.” I tell the unicorn in the mirror. “You are good at this. You’ve always been good at helping people find what they need. And that’s your job. Helping people. You are going to be fine.”
Actually, yeah. I am going to be fine. Old Sans Serif will eat her words faster than those stupid alfalfa chips she always keeps at the desk. I am going to do a great job. And then I will get transferred out of her tiny department and I will never reshelve books again.
I toss my mane, and cough sternly into my hoof. Every inch a proper librarian.
I’m the boss now.
And I am so going to ace this.
So.
Turns out I am the only Page of the Royal Canterlot Archive.
I’m not sure what I expected.
Glory? Prestige? Something impressive to put on my resume? I mean this is the Canterlot Archive! Repository of the rarest magical texts in all of Equestria! And this is me--running it--for at least a week!
...By myself. That’s impressive right?
Okay, the letter was a tad vague. But an “Emergency Relief Position” “Managing the Archive” does seem to imply.... Well, that there was someone to be managed. Or something.
I look up from the desk. The soft silence of dust and books hangs in the air, forbidding sound with the quiet magic of libraries. Not just a few books. Thousands. Millions. The main archive is almost three times the size of the Manehatten Public Library, I remember--and that doesn’t even include the specialty wings.
Well look on the bright side, if there’s no one else here, then I can’t get stuck in some back room reshelving the cookbooks to reflect the most trendy Manehatten taste palette.
Yeah. Right. I got this. I absently shuffle the papers on the desk as I turn back to the neat, typed instructions left by Bound Volume, whose empty shoes suddenly feel impossibly big.
...While I must attend to my Aunt’s unfortunate resizing, this absence comes at a most inconvenient time, I am afraid, in that I was in the middle of the archive’s bicentennial re-alphabetization. I have already completed the first one hundred and twenty seven shelves--that is Aaaah: Spells for a Fearful Heart by Aaaalabaster Boo through Gnostic Theory of Subtropical Changling Magic by Hatty Pinboard. You will need to continue this task between helping patrons. The shelves need to be back in order and accurately alphabetized by the end of next week when the court unicorns are coming to renew the indexing spells.
Attached you will find the official protocol to follow when reshelving the remaining two hundred and twenty three stacks to reflect the modern Equestrian linguistic shifts...
I blink.
...reshelving the remaining two hundred and twenty three stacks…
I blink again.
...reshelving...
... two hundred and twenty three...
Quite suddenly it feels as though a great deal of fluid has drained out of my head. I look up again at the miles of shelving. Not just a few books. Thousands. Millions. Almost three times the size of the Manehatten Public Library. And I have to reshelve them. In a week. Well actually, says some detached part of my brain, technically, you only have to reshelve two-thirds of them.
...I think I’m going to go faint. Or puke. Maybe both.
I shouldn’t do that at the front desk. That wouldn’t be very professional. I feel myself spin around with some notion of finding a trash can, but my legs tangle together and instead I fall flat on my face. The cold marble pulls me back to the world, brain letter soup resolving into a single solid thought:
My dream job is just my old job, but harder. A lot harder.
A distant chiming of bells drifts in through a high window marking the hour: 8 o'clock. With a sudden swell of magic, lights throughout the archive flicker on. With calm precise unison doors on all sides open up. Like clockwork, in a beautiful moment, the Canterlot Archive comes alive.
I remember that I am on the floor.
I straighten up, feeling my mane flop about haphazardly. What if there are people here? Important people! This is the Canterlot Archive! The most important mages in Canterlot could be waiting outside with some vital question which could determine the fate of all Equestria! I swallow but nothing seems particularly interested in going down.
What if they were waiting at the desk right now? I peek out over the wood rim.
The silence is deafening. I pull myself up the desk, flattening my hair with a hoof. I catch my reflection in a polished brass plaque: hair’s a mess, glasses askew, coat rumpled. Every inch a pony way out of her depth. I blink.
The pony in the reflection frowns, straightening her bow tie, “First day?”
I nod.
I must say, the classy Mare in the Vest enjoys her word play? This feels....old. Like...-sighs- Like one of those mysteries from the old heyday of mystery writing. It might be a bit premature to say that but it just...feels that way. Also I mean that in the best possible way! It feels right.
Looks nice so far. We don't yet have a real hook yet other than your OC protagonist but she's appealing at first blush and I want to see more.
4478365
4478536
Thanks!
Indeed I was concerned by the lack of a real hook, but it's sort of an unfortunate symptom of the story structure I'm afraid. It's a bit of a slow burn.
I'm glad you like Page though, since we're going to be hanging out with her for 8/9 of the chapters. She's really interesting to write, since she's an outsider here and the rest of the people are familiar, but we're also on her level, since the other characters know something more than she, and thus we the audience, do. This chapter, as you might have gathered is very much about setting up her and her situation before we get into the meat of things. It actually turned out a lot more comedic than I expected too. (I don't consider this to be a really comedic story, but I mean leave me alone with a keyboard for too long... )
4478365
*Madly searches story for word play and other clever turns of phrase*
*Can't seem to remember writing any*
*Puts rug over it*
AH
YES
INDEED.
I DO ENJOY MY WORD PLAY.
4478656 I meant more of the fact that you manage to make it seem you pick your words very carefully. I don't know why but you do. -smiles and shakes head- I'm enjoying it though. I find the Book titles cute.
Something of a 'training day' for Page Turner. Poor thing!
Despite the lack of a serious hook, yet (as Skywriter said), this does look like it has a lot of promise. I'm looking forward to seeing more.
I keep complaining that half the genres are not accomodated by the tags and half the tags aren't even real genres.
Anyway, this chapter, as an intro, does not make me not want to read the story but it also actually encourages me to read less than the description does.
I'll keep this in Read Later for now since I do have enthusiasm for what the description and character tags promise, but I am kind of disappointed by the lack of content here.
You had me at "Librarian."
Seriously though, so far you've given out a sense of Page Turner, what makes her tick; aspirations, fears, small grudges nursed over a great deal of time. The mirror trick was a nice way to show an imaginative mind that tends just the tiniest bit towards the theatrical, and a neat literary flourish to boot. I look forward to seeing our new Head Page (temporary) solve a mystery.
But seriously though, you had me at "Librarian."
4479543 I am sorry you feel this way, though not, in retrospect terribly surprised. The story is structured to have a series of one-scene chapters and, well, this is one scene. We have basically covered the first paragraph of the description. (One of the reasons that I had such trouble tagging this story was that while there is definitely a mystery that develops, the initial chapters will come off as almost slice of life.) That said, thank you so much for sticking with it, I hope that it will eventually live up to your expectations. Though perhaps not in the way you expect.
Arcainum recommended you, and there's Mystery and Adventure to be had. I'm favoriting.
This is the third story I've found that shares a name with my OC!
A library-based mystery? Colour me intrigued. I don't see enough mystery stories around here.
Forgive the impertinence of asking, but what kind of update schedule are expecting to maintain? I'm looking forward to the continuation.
One teensy grammar nit-pick (because I can't help myself):
The first comma is missing and definitely required; the second comma replaces the period, as the dialogue is split into two sentences.
4482291 I am hoping to update once a week, since the remainder of the chapters will be as long as they are, and I don't have to worry about making them longer/shorter. This is a lot of finger crossing, but I am optimistic that I'll be able to handle some sort of update at that pace.
That or Fed will kill me.
All of my this it should be a simple system, but it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for improvisation does it?
A bit on the short side so far, but looks promising! Someone down in the comments said it feels "old", and I have to agree – the style seems straight out of a 19th century novel, but still with modern sensibilities. Let's see where you take it from here.