Uncharted Books

by DawnBreeze

the night life (revised)

Six months later….

It’s that time of year again, the holidays… I hate the holidays. I trotted down the stairs from my apartment on the third story of the apartment building. I began thinking about how cozy I was in my brand new hoodie. I finally reached the second flight of stairs. I turned around to go to the beginning of the stairs and ran into a hooded pony that was carrying luggage bags which went sliding across the floor.

I got up quickly and proceeded to explain myself while trying to collect the bags from the corners of the room. “I’m sorry… I-I didn’t see you.” I stuttered out quickly. I looked over to see how they were fairing and noticed that I had in fact ran into a mare with a blue mane and purple glasses. I offered to take her bags to her room for her which she quickly declined and took the bags from my hooves and quickly trotted up the stairs which lead to my story, or at least it felt that way, the other apartment had been vacant since I had moved in.

I shrugged the encounter off and continued down on my way out of the building. When I trotted out of the building a young orange pegasus sped past me on a small scooter followed by two fillies in a red wagon. I was going to have one of those days when I was going to collide or come close to colliding with everything. I looked up and down the recently paved road.

The area I lived in has been turned around dramatically, crackdowns on dope dens have left many of the areas undesirables in jail or six feet under. It’s almost as if the charge of the whole operation had been smiled upon by Princess Celestia, the gang graffiti was covered up by white paint, and the drug dealer on the corner was replaced by a pony selling the world’s worst tofu dogs at a incredibly high price. It’s almost as if somepony had flipped the light switch on this neighborhood.

I crossed the street right after a cart carrying a few barrels of cider being pulled by a tall red earth pony crossed the path I was compelled to take. I walked up to the door of Uncharted Books and pushed it open nearly smacking my boss in the head with the brass plate that showed you could push in or out.

I walked to my usual spot behind the counter and sat in my usual spot, and the only thing I can expect today is to fall asleep from boredom, but not yet.

Before my plot even hit the cushion the bell above the door rang signifying someone coming into the store, I looked up and standing at the counter was Ditzy Doo. “Hello Ditzy!” I called from behind the counter. “Hello Cheerwine!” She called back putting her front hooves on the counter. “You got that book I ordered last Tuesday?” She asked knowing I definitely had it. “Yes I do Mrs. Doo, lemme just look for it really quick.” I said looking for the special order underneath the piles of special orders for that one day of the year. I triumphantly pulled the giant book wrapped in brown paper from its trap under the even bigger special order books.

“Ok, that’s one copy of The Algebraic Solutions of Finding the Perfect Muffin Bake Time.” I mumbled under my breath as I tallied up the purchase on the cash register. It came up to thirteen bits which was steep for a book, but this one was based off of Starswirl the Bearded’s personal recipes, and he was surprisingly a huge fan of muffins.

“Oh, thank you Cheerwine, I’ve been looking for this book for so long!” She half-squeaked after flapping her wings in joy. “It’s my pleasure Ditzy, promise to bring me a muffin as soon as you decode that will you?” I asked half-jokingly while writing down the ingredients I was going to need from the farmer’s market later on to make pirogis, I love pirogis.

The rest of the day consisted of telling Rainbow Dash that the latest Daring Do book was in Twilight’s hands and shooing off parasprites from the dumpster behind the shop with a broom. Until a particular customer came into the bookstore.

I was reading the latest book from Maximum Books about protecting your library from the zombie pony horde, and then the bell above the door rang; I bookmarked my page and set the book down with a sigh, it was just getting good too. I looked up and it was the mare that I had run into in the hall of my apartment building, as soon as she entered she used her magic to pull back the hood on her jacket to reveal a light blue mane and a white coat.

“Good afternoon, and welcome to Uncharted Books pick out a book and discover a new land!” I said our catch phrase with about as much glee as a mall cop on black Friday. She nodded and disappeared into the sea of books; I didn’t pay much mind and went back to my book. I don’t know why but something compelled me to ignore this girl and try to act as cool as possible.

I got to read quietly for a few minutes until she returned to the counter. “Um… Excuse me.” She said shyly, I put down my book and leaned on the counter. “Yes? How may I help you?” She couldn’t have been older than me, even possibly a little younger. “Well I need a book on how to cook.” She said almost embarrassed. I leaned forward a little bit. “Like a cookbook?” I asked trying to sound as neutral as possible. “Yeah, one of those!” She said with a spark of excitement. I trotted from behind the counter and down to the third aisle from the door and walked down two sections.

“We have all sorts of cookbooks. Ones about Zebra food, Stalliongrad cuisine, and even some maneami spicy food cookbooks.” I said browsing the food section myself, mouth watering at all the tasty food on the covers. She grabbed a book off the top shelf and brought it to eye level.

It was a Stalliongrad recipe book with pirogis on the cover. “I want this one!” She visually bounced up and down slightly. “I take it you like pirogis?” I said in my trademark sleep tone, it must be getting late. ”Oh! I love pirogis!” She squeaked excitedly. “I’m going to make some tonight if you just want me to teach you. Save you a few bits.” I said with my dying batteries voice. “Oh that’d be great! Don’t we live in the same apartment building?” She asked cocking her head just a little. “We live on the same floor I think.” Cocking my head to mimic hers. In turn she tilted her head to a slightly more off angle, which in turn made me cock my head twice as much, this went on for more than a few minutes until I lost my balance and falling face first into the floor.

She giggled and held out a hoof. “My name’s Vinyl Scratch.” She said offering to help me up. I graciously accepted her hoof and pushed myself off the ground without much help. “My name is Cheerwine.” I replied with my monotony sleep voice. She bowed slightly. “pleasant to meet you sir.” She remarked in a rather interestingly formal tone. I, being the uncouth idiot I am, held out my hoof for a hoof bump and she instantly turned her manner around to match mine, hoof bumping my outstretched leg.
I heard the knock on the door while I was stirring the pirogis with a wooden spoon; using my wing I put the wooden spoon on the counter. I turned and walked into the hallway towards the front door looking over the brand new poster which had Celestia on it and under the portrait it had a simple word ‘hope’. This is where I hid my safe. Inside the safe was a small amount of clover, a three fifty-seven magnum, and a bag containing two hundred thirty-one bits exactly.

Walking passed the picture I arrived at the door. Twisting the knob I pulled the door inward to reveal a very couthly dressed Vinyl Scratch. I looked down at my own self, I was wearing the jacket I had been wearing all day and a black beanie. Nothing like the gorgeous pony before me.

“A little overdressed are we?” I asked almost immediately after noticing her long flowing dress. “Well you said it was a date!” She snapped back. “I meant it was a scheduled get-together.” I said in my defense. “Oh chill out Cheerwine! I was only yanking your leg.” She chimed walking past me into the foyer of the small apartment. “So this is where you live?” She asked amazed at all the clover leaf pictures around my apartment. “Yeah, it’s the place where I sleep, and eat, and go to during the night.” I said making my way back into the kitchen, I brought out my huge bowl and placed it next to the sink area opposite my pipes which were submerged in my own cleaning mixture.

I poured the pirogis from the basket of the deep fryer into the bowl next to the sink sliding the basket next to the deep fryer. I used the wooden spoon to scoop a few pirogis onto the two plates that sat next to the bowl.
I used my wings to carry the two plates to the small table which usually only sat myself, but tonight the second chair and the other end of the table was actually being used. I put the two plates in their respectful places in front of the chairs. I motioned for Vinyl to take a seat and sat in my usual spot. She may have looked sophisticated and high class but how she ate really drove the point home.

“So Vinyl, how long have you been in PonyVille?” I asked casually scooping a pirogis with my fork and slurping it up and swallowing it whole while she gingerly cut the pastry with her knife and ate the small pieces more sophisticated like than I would have. “Not long, just a few days.” She said never taking her eyes off the meal in front of her. Did I meet this pony in the bookstore that was jumping up and down like an insane bouncy ball? I stopped eating and just focused on having a conversation. “So you met anypony new since you got here?” I asked trying to find out a little bit about my new neighbor.

“No, just you.” She said calmly, she finished her last pirogis and stood up. “Thank you for the food, we should really hang out sometime, and tell me it isn’t a formal occasion next time please.” She said walking toward the door. I ran ahead of her and opened the door for her; as soon as she walked through I closed the door behind her. Oh this is going to be an interesting friend I’ve made.

As I was cleaning the neck of my favorite pipe my home phone rang. I set the pipe down and walked over the answering machine. “Hey Cheerwine, its Tea Leaf. I could use someone with a certain set of ‘skills’ you know what I mean. Meet me at my place in twenty minutes.” I sighed and picked up the bag I kept next to my desk. It was going to be a long night.
Twenty minutes later I was yelling for the other three ponies in the room to hold down the pony spread out on the whiskey covered table. They all descended on the pony like a pack of wolves trying to keep their grip on the injured colt. “Take me to a real doctor! I swear I won’t tell the cops a thing!” He kept yelling until Tea Leaf held a chloroform soaked rag over his mouth and after a final kick with the last of his energy the pony went limp as though he had died, Celestia I hoped he hadn’t. I took the tweezers out of my bag and stood over the pony, he had at least one bullet wound which I was going to have to route around in to find the lead pellet.

Half an hour later, a lot of blood, and twenty thousand bits later I was flying back to my small apartment on the Eastern edge of town to start my exceptionally boring life over again the next day.

Author's Note:

Finally figured out where I want to take this story, just a general direction but definitely a direction.