Pageturner
Pageturner
By
bottlecap
She had been jumping for five minutes at least. Each leap towards the window fell short no matter how wildly she flailed her little blue hooves. After a particular high leap she landed off balance and yelped when fell backwards, leaving her hooves kicking the air. Her glasses fell off and became tangled in the long, yellow mane flowing from her filly head. A pale yellow head poked out to look at her, surprised.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there!”
“It’s fine!” Pageturner said, crawling to her hooves again. She batted at her glassed.
“Here, let me help,” the unicorn mare behind the window said and a lime green aura soon untangled the glasses from her hair.
“Thank you!”
“Now, where’s your mother? Is she being interviewed?”
“Nope! I have an appointment for myself.”
The yellow head disappeared. “Name?”
“Pageturner.”
“I see. You’re right. It looks like you’ll be called in a few minutes. I believe you’ll be interviewing with Glasseye... that can’t be right... Oh.” The head appeared again. “ You don’t sing, do you?”
“Nope! I read! I read lots of lots of lots of books! My cutie mark is a book, see?”
“That’s a relief,” she said with a warm smile as a set of hooves approached and stopped behind Pageturner. “Well, I’ll have someone come and lead you to his office.”
“Thank you!” Pageturner said with a chirp, jumping into the air. FInally! She was going to be able to join the Filly Scouts! They would have cookies and go to Nightmare Night celebrations and cookies and books and the library in Ponyville! Whoo hoo!
“Are you Pageturner?” barked a grumpy-looking unicorn stallion who towered over her, his Handlebar mustache almost bushy enough to tickle the top of her horn as she looked up at him.
“Yep! I am!”
“At least you’re not another alicorn...” he sighed, giving a hard glare to the window where a black and white alicorn narrowed his eyes angrily at the window.
“But I’m white and black.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“But, you looked at me with judgement!”
“Name?”
“Come on. This will get ugly anyway,” the stallion grumbled as he led the bouncing filly into the hall lined with office doors.
“Thank you so much for interviewing me!”
“Will you stop that bouncing?”
Pageturner landed, started at the glare the stallion gave her.
“Sorry...” she whispered, holding her head down and following him as quietly as possible. He led her to his office and she hopped onto the chair with a small “yeep!”
“You’re not a... singer are you?”
“Nope. Just a filly.”
He grunted and crossed something off a pad of paper in front of him.
“Where are your parents?”
“I can take care of myself!” she chirped.
“We cannot allow that. You will either need to bring suitable parents or sign up to be adopted by a willing pony”
“Oh... Can’t I just live in the library?”
He reached for a much-abused stamp sitting next to him.
“I wouldn’t mind adoption!” she piped. The hoof retreated grudgingly.
“If you make it through this interview or decide to re-apply the forms will be available at the front window.” He crossed something else off.
“Thank you!” She almost bounced again but his stern glance froze her.
“So, why do you want to enter Equestria?”
“I was thinking of taking over the library in Ponyville—”
“Ponyville is overpopulated as is and has been set aside for Official Character use only.”
“Oh... What about Canterlot?”
“No.”
“But—”
“I said no! Canterlot is also set aside for Official Characters only.”
“Manehattan?”
“You can’t run the Manehattan library by yourself.” His hoof reached for the stamp again.
“But, what about when I grow up? I don’t mind just working there.”
His mustache twitched as he grunted but no reply came. He looked down at his pad of paper and crossed something else off. Pageturner breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. She had a hoof in the door now and she was going to do all she could to keep it there or advance farther into Equestria.
“So do you plan to write books, too?”
“No, just read and organize.”
Another grunt to accompany the item crossed off his list. He dropped the pen from his mouth. “Your mane is too long.”
“What?” she yipped before covering her muzzle with her hooves. He gave her another sour look.
“Your mane. It is three inches too long for someone of your size. It will need to be cut to fit regulation size.”
“Oh... ok! Not a problem!” She bobbed up and down on her seat.
“So, what do you plan to achieve until you can work at the library?”
“Achieve?”
“Why should Equestria allow you to become a citizen?”
“I... uh.”
“That’s all I needed to know.” He reached for the stamp.
“Wait! I can contribute! I was hoping to join the filly scouts and—”
“You need to convince me that you’re actually a benefit to Equestria, not just an annoyance.”
“But the filly scouts—“
“Sell cookies and help little old mares across the street. My dog could do the same and he doesn’t need to file for adoption.”
Pageturner’s bottom lip stuck out and quivered as her eyes grew larger. She sniffed, attracting the scrutiny of Glasseye. He sighed gruffly and crossed another item off his list. That must be a list of things he could use as excuses to say she shouldn’t be allowed into Equestria! She tried to peek to see the end of it, but it continued under his foreleg.
“All right. I guess I can let it slide. But the next thing funny about you and you’re out of here. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Stop shifting and squirming around.”
“Sorry!”
He grunted again. “What is your greatest weakness?”
“Books!”
“What is your greatest strength?”
“Or-ga-ni-za-TION!” she enunciated. He groaned.
“I guess it could be worse... worst flaw?”
“I’m not that bad.” She saw him reach for his stamp. “I get distracted easily.”
“How can that be the case if you like reading so much?”
“Well...it’s like this. I read a book and it tells me about something I can do. I’ll try to do that thing and forget to keep reading. Then after I’m done I’ll pick the book up again until something else distracts me. Then I’ll go and—“
“Wait... what sort of... literature do you often read?”
“All kinds! All kinds of subjects fascinate me! Cooking, building, crafting, history, math, science, music, languages—“
“What about anarchist literature?”
“I’m not familiar with that word but I would love to research it!”
“And then have a ‘distraction’ and overthrow the Princesses?”
“What! No!”
“No, I’m afraid the risk is too great. You try everything a book tells you to do and you’ll find yourself in trouble. Well, I can tell you that trouble will not happen on my watch!” He picked up the stamp in his mouth.
“Wait! I would never—“
The stamp slammed down onto the paper. Tears filled her vision again and this time she let them burst in geysers from her eyes as she wailed from beneath her non-regulation mane.
Another pony entered the office.
“What is that noise? Oh... Glasseye, she’s just a filly...”
“When she learns discernment with her reading and some self-control then I’ll consider it. Now she’s just a threat.”
“You can’t be serious...”
“Get her out of here. She can apply again next year.”
“That’s not the poli— Oh, fine!”
A green aura lifted the crying filly onto the yellow back of the unicorn receptionist. The receptionist poked her head into the front office and said something to the other mare sitting there before carrying Pageturner into an empty room known as “Filly Cry Room 18” to wail it out until she was ready to try again; with adoption forms, regulation haircut, and less threat of anarchy.
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Hey Glasseye (son of a changeling), do you like bananas?
Pfffbwahaha. All of my yes! I love the idea that they would even allow a filly to apply by herself XD
pageturner:WHY
*Alondro smirks from inside Ponyville* You know, there's always illegal immigration. (works great in the ol' USA!)
2403644 I'm so sorry I upset you. I didn't realize having another filly chapter would be a problem for you.
2403644
Hey there, PC here, Admin and Owner of the Collab Cage, which this was run through. Type's not only a Collab Organizer through my group, but a friend.
I get why you're upset. The situation has been described to me, and I can't say I agree with everything that's been done, but that was Type's choice and I back it. I also fully understand that time gets away from people, work and school and life can make writing impossible.
So I get the frustration you must've felt, with your character idea held in developmental hell for a while. But then she asked you to do it, and you accepted.
Now, as a fellow writer, I've had my fair share of ideas that I thought were original and unique, and then I stumble upon them already done. Sometimes well, sometimes poorly, but the point being it's very frustrating to think your idea is not original or creative.
The problem is, neither of those things are true. No idea is truly original. But every author is unique. And we all have our own way of executing stories and ideas.
So please, calm down, don't worry so much. Just because the idea is the same or similar doesn't mean you can't make the execution of said idea different. The timing here seems like it was bad all around, but that's life. Sometimes you just have to deal.
I get why you're upset, but please don't get upset at Type. Things happen, most of which was not under her control. Do yourself and the project a favor--take this one disheartening event and turn it into drive to do something even better.
I wish you the best of luck. And gently remind you that we're a fandom of friends, a community of peers. Be respectful, because it all comes back to you in the end.
2404107
No, not justified. Just understandable. Mate, these things happen. You can either let them keep you down, or get back on the bike and ride.
Go back to your story, think about it a little longer. Figure out how to twist what's been done before into something more interesting, or come up with a new story. Don't be discouraged--you can succeed if you work at it, mate.
Good luck, keep going at it. You'll get it if you just try.
I don't know about any of you, but I for one would really appreciate the irony if it turns out that Glasseye is an OC immigrant that falsified his own documents, because he'd be rejected due to being a one-dimensional bully character. And Lord knows Equestria has enough of those already.
MY NAME IS PAGE TURNER!
2615862 I actually have only written two chapters. The rest are written by other users on this site. If you'd like to write a chapter you can type it out and submit it to me on a google doc.
And yes...it's incredibly ironic that your username is already an OC character. You could still keep the name and perhaps build off of that. lol.
I just finished reading this story, so I'm just gonna put anything I have to say into one big list:
1. This doesn't look like it's been updated for a while. Is it still going?
2. As I was reading this, I was thinking about doing a characters that was a filly, then I got to this story and noticed how it would play out similarly. Would it be fine to have similar ones? If not, could I make a variation of the OC where she's older?
3. This is an awesome idea. Good job on it!
2763624 Yes, it is still open.
I just want to make sure you understand that these chapters are written by other authors. You are welcome to write a chapter with an OC and submit it. I'm glad your enjoying it and want to participate!
As for your other concern, I would like it if you made the character have as different a flaw as possible from what has already been presented so far. A filly character is not a problem unless the only reason she can't enter Equestria is because she is a filly.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with :)
2763663 Thanks for the quick reply. I'll probably have to PM it to you because I can't use Google Docs. And I know it's written by multiple authors, I was referring to the idea
2763691 Ok awesome :D I just always type that to make sure that is understood. lol
I am so so so so so sorry about how long my chapter is taking, I lust moved across the country, my mom re married, and my sister moved in with me so I suddenly had a whole lot of junk piled up onto my plate and haven't been able to find time to write, I am sure you can understand
2766352 oh my, go ahead and take your time there is no time limit for this. lol