The Album

by Peregrine Caged

Davenport -- Taking Inventory

Written by: Garbo802
Rated Everyone

Apparently, it was a beautiful Equestrian morning. The sun was only just starting on its way to wherever Celestia stashed it after it set. The birds were whistling some tune because they weren’t smart enough to remember the words. There were flowers everywhere because nopony bothered to eat them until lunch. As you can tell, I didn’t give a crap.

It wasn’t that I hated nature, more that I’ve always had more important things to care about. There’s food, mares, friends, mares, the bills, mares, and most importantly, my business.

In fact, that’s where I was walking, just like I’ve done every day since I opened up the store. It’s the culmination of my morning routine that start with me dragging my way down the stairs to my coffeepot. Then I dunk my head in a sink full of cold water to help the caffeine along. Finally, I get dressed and head out to work. I’ve gotten so good at this by now that it only takes me five minutes.

Not to brag, of course. I’m not the bragging type.

I looked up to see that I was nearly at the store. Next, I turned at the end of Stirrup Street and onto Market Lane, where most of the stores in Ponyville were located. Back when I started the store, I’d made sure to get a building right in the middle of it to maximize business. It was only one of the many genius business decisions I’ve made over the years.

I looked up at the sign admiringly as I approached the store. After pulling the keys out of my saddlebags and unlocking the door, I checked to see if anything has been stolen overnight. This hadn’t happened in years, but you never know when somepony would rather steal a couple dozen quills than pay for them. I checked the register as well before heading into the back room to go over last month’s sales records once again. I knew it would be a least a few hours before anypony came to get quills, which left me with some time to use.

I wasn’t quite awake yet, and I accidentally ran into the door to the back room. Grumbling, I opened the door to find that the records were still sitting out on the desk from yesterday morning, which had been my second check of the records, making this a triple-check. I yawned loudly as I sat down, quickly absorbing myself in the all-important papers. As important as they were, I started daydreaming somewhere along the way. Even though the store was everything to me, some of the things I had to do to keep it running were monotonous to say the least.

Other ponies never understood this, marefriends in particular. They all thought that I spent too much time on by business and not enough on them. If they had actually wanted to be with me in the first place, they would have let me pursue my life’s dream in peace. Everypony else thought that the store would be fine if I relaxed my hold, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance for fear that disaster would strike, or an opportunity for profit would present itself and I would miss it.

And opportunities had presented themselves many times over my career, like when a huge rainstorm hit Ponyville two years ago. A week before the storm, I was at the bar talking to a friend of mine who worked at the weather factory. We had a few drinks, and I asked him what the weather was going to be like over the next few weeks. Normally, he wouldn’t tell me that sort of information, since it was confidential and all. But alcohol tends to make ponies more liable to spill information, and I made sure he got plenty of that. By the time I left, I had learned that there would be huge storm coming in the next week. I took this knowledge to my advantage and ordered three times my usual stock.

When the storm hit, nearly half of the houses in Ponyville were flooded, and the furniture within was ruined. After the cleanup was done, I opened up my store and sold all of the sofas. I also dropped the price to 75%, which was great for my reputation but still allowed me to profit in the end. I had made sure to read up on the economic laws associated with natural disasters that same night the week before, and I had discovered two things. Firstly, if I dropped my prices by 25% or more after a disaster, then the government would give me more than enough to offset that. Secondly, if my store was damaged enough, I could qualify for money to fix it. Conveniently, enough damage happened to my quills before I was able to activate the shielding spell around the house, so I was able to collect even more money.

By the end of it all, I’d made enough money to pay for a vacation to the Marebbean Islands. My mind started to wander to the memory of those Marebbean mares when the door opened, which brought me out of my pleasant daydreams.

“It’s always when I’m thinking about mares, isn’t it?” I mumbled. I shoved the papers back in the folder messily and slapped a quick smile on my face to hide my annoyance. I walked out into the store and saw that there was indeed somepony in the shop, and of all ponies, a fellow business owner.

… A fellow business owner who was also the hardest catch in all of Ponyville, and probably all of Equestria.

“Good morning, Davenport. I see the shop is running smoothly, no?”

I tried to keep from staring at her, or at least tried to keep her from noticing that I was staring at her. I took a second to collect myself before speaking, and as usual, my delivery was excellent. “Hey Rarity, what brings you around? Quills? Sofas? Anything else?”

At first, Rarity didn’t get what I was hinting at. “I thought you only sold Quills and Sofas.”

“I do. The third item isn’t for sale.”

She was clueless for a while, but eventually got it, as I knew she would. She chuckled lightly, apparently finding the hidden meaning in my words funny. “I’m sorry Mr. Davenport, but the answer is no. We are not going out again.”

I pretended to be taken aback, despite the fact that I’d already known she would reject me. “Mr. Davenport?” I asked. “I thought we were on more friendly terms than that, at least.”

Rarity stopped fiddling with a box of quills long enough to look at me. “Well if you think that, then you are sorely mistaken.”

I knew I only had one more shot, so I had to make it count. “Aw, come on. Don’t tell me it wasn’t fun. And you’re looking very pretty today, I might add.”

“We only went on one date,” she said forcefully. “Now if you don’t stop flirting with me, I’ll take my business elsewhere.”

Knowing I’d already gone too far, I decided to drop the subject. “I see. So what are you here for? A sofa?”

“Indeed I am. Sweetie Belle set my last one on fire yesterday.”

“Let me guess, trying to teach her magic again, right?”

Rarity sighed loudly. “Yes, I was. Do you by any chance have the same brand I bought last time?”

Quickly, I brought up the memory of her last visit. She’d come because her cat had practically scratched a hole in the couch, and she’d been unable to salvage it, despite her skills as a seamstress. It took me a little longer to remember what brand she’d bought.

“You got … a rose-colored Carousellia special … with rose trim … and a hickory frame, if I remember correctly.”

Rarity was taken aback by my perfect recollection. “Why, yes, that’s exactly what I got. How did you remember?”

“Photographic memory.”

“Ah, I see. So, do you have any more of those?”

“I have that style of couch, but I don’t have that color. The only two I have in stock are myrtle green and navy blue.”

“That’s a shame. The rose color matched the drapes perfectly. Oh well, I guess I’ll be going then. Ta ta.”

I ran from behind the counter and right up beside her, putting a leg around her and leading her back into the store. “Now, Rarity, let’s not be so hasty. I have plenty of sofas that are rose-colored, and I can get them to you at a better price than those Canterlot stores.”

She shrugged me off with a smile. “How about this: If you can get that same one in stock for me, I’ll come buy it from you next week, okay?”

Inside, I felt like I was going to explode at the task, but I kept it contained, smiling painfully. “I’ll see what I can do.”

With her own smile, Rarity walked up the street, calling back, “Thank you ever so much, Davenport. I’ll be sure to pick that up.”

She turned around and continued strolling along. As she walked, every stallion’s eyes were riveted on her gem-emblazoned flank. A few seconds later, a chorus of slapping noises could be heard as their marefriends gave them each a slap in the face. Fortunately for me, I was single at the moment, so there was nopony there to hit me.

When she turned out of sight, I walked back into the store, once again getting back to matters of greater importance. Although it had been well worth the smile and leaving her with a good impression, tracking down the sofa Rarity wanted would not be easy. Carousellia had only made a hundred or so of that particular sofa, and it had been hard enough for me to get the first one. The only way I could possibly get another would be to buy it out of somepony’s house. After doing that, I would lose bits if I sold it at regular price. I would have to charge her extra just to break even. I made a mental note to do just that and also to move her up to the front of the list. After all, it was Rarity.

“Well, at least she’s coming back,” I said with a sigh.

I waited out the rest of the day behind the counter. A hoofful of ponies came to get quills, but none of them were worth remembering. Before I knew it, it was time to close shop. Some of the quills were undoubtedly uncategorized by this point, but I decided to leave that until morning. Taking the keys in my mouth, I walked outside the shop, locked it up, and threw them into my saddlebags with expert precision. I walked out the door with a smile on my face, heading out to the bar for a well-deserved drink.

Comments

[reader of the night]

Nice story, it really fits the person you just created.

[FlimFlamBros.]

Marebbean is now canon. It's about time y'all got this done garrby! And a great porytrayal of an otherwised underrated pony.
It was Wonderva!

[Themaskedferret]

Very cute.

[Garbo]

1821040
No, it's fanon. But yes, now it's been done. At some point, I should write a fic where Davenport goes there. That would be fun. Actually, if anyone ever wrote a fic about the Marrebian, that would be pretty sweet. DID YOU HEAR THAT EVERYPONY? SOMEPONY WRITE THAT!!
1820738
Thanks. I've always loved his character, even though he only gets 5 seconds of screen time. So many possibilities.
1821693
not as cute as this:
encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSDZkneGMzB0zZzQwIxu1z_0WO3YRgHM5_Plm8qiL2Dd6flmFWB

[reader of the night]

1822385
Well there is this story about Vinyl and Octavia being trapped on a stereotype tropical island (1 palmtree with a circulair sand island) and they eventually meet pirates so it could be around those parts. I don't recall the name at the moment but the writer was psp7master.

The characters with so little story but just enough to splat all your imagination on those little parts of story mostly are the best. Take Vinyl and Octavia for instance.

I can beat that, but i feel sleepy so you won for now.