11. Fallen books.

A few years ago...

There she was: Nightmare M-...Princess Luna. She seemed a tad frightened by the many gazes that followed her, like one would shout her alias aloud and charge her with intent of harm. Sadly one of the pairs of eyes that followed the princess where my own. I couldn't help myself; a princess had walked into my store! Now had I know that a few years from this point she'd wind up in my bedroom I might have been a bit more casual about my first encounter with her.

She nervously browsed the history section and tried to keep her head down. A tired looking stallion is browsing the same isle with her but trying to keep his distance. As Luna pulls a book down from the upper shelf, a few loosely placed books come down with it. The books fall and Luna yelps, jumping out of the way the stallion nearby is pounded with large history books. He takes each book with a straight face then sighs and turns to see the scared looking princess of the night. Then he bursts: "You idiot!" He shouts.

From my position forty feet away, I see her shrink back and a tear come to her eye. I block out the shouts of the angry stallion and quickly walk out and around the counter. As I walk I feel a slight sense of purpose in my step, I don't even bother to think of what I'm going to say. As I come into range I call out: "Is there some problem here!?" I use an unusually authoritative voice.

The stallion stops his scolding and simply says. "None of your business. I'm just a little angry because Nightmare Moon here just tried to kill me."

I move to a point between him and the half-crying princess. "Well you see it actually is my business. Your shouting to one of my costumers, on my property too. So how about this...either you chill out right now and leave, never to return of course, or I eject you from the store and have you fined for causing a disturbance in my place of business."

The stallion huffs and charges out of my store at the speed of light. I smile as he storms off then turn to Princess Luna. She's wiping a few tears from her eyes with her hooves. "Follow me, I'll keep a few tissues behind the counter." she smiles slightly at my kindness and follows me back to the counter. I stand behind it and she walks up like any other customer, I raise an eyebrow and gesture for her to come around to the other side of the counter. As she comes about I reach in the cabinets beneath the counter and find my tissues after a minute. As she wipes her eyes off I simply sit back and wait for her to walk away with a nod. She doesn't, though. She stays and smiles at me.

"Thank you. What is your name?" She asks.

"My name is Black Stripe, I'm sorry about that run in you had with that fellow. I hope that doesn't discourage you from returning here." I say apologetically.

"No, no, no, there was nothing you could have done to prevent it." She says gently. "We umm....just....." she leans in and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Black Stripe." She then looks a bit uncomfortable as she looks to the door. "We hate to ask but could you......walk me back to the castle?"

I look to the door "Of course. Do you think you could hang around for about twenty minutes? I close in twenty."

She smiles and looks to the place where the books fell. "Shall I clean those up?"

"I'll clean those up, you just go grab whatever books you wanted." I say with a smile.

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Twenty minutes later...

As I locked the front door and hid the key in my favorite way, Luna waited with a uneasy expression. The eyes of all who passed by followed her. That whole...'Nightmare Moon has returned!' fiasco had ended just days ago, so I can't fault the average pony for being a bit uneasy. Me? I saw what was there now, a scared princess who knew she had done something bad and simply wanted to now live in peace.

"Alrighty, I have to stop off at the bank before they close but I can walk you most of the way to the castle." I say with a smile as we start to walk.

Luna nods then brings up another subject. "You own the bookstore, correct?"

"Well...its called Black Books and I'm Black Stripe, so if I don't own the store, then the owner is a lazy fellow who doesn't check in on his businesses." I say with a slight chuckle.

Luna gives a half-laugh and then continues. "It is quite a nice store."

"I try to keep it clean of filth of all kinds." I say with a wink and a chuckle.

"Indeed." she agrees with a nod.

Back in these first days of our friendship, Luna was a small alicorn. Smaller than Celestia at least, still taller than me though. She had a different shade of blue-purple for her mane at the time, it was also kept a tad shorter. I never got a good explanation for the stunning change in appearance after one year. I never really theorized, just sort of...went along with it. As she grew in size and shape, she grew in personality. Instead of being like a humbly genius teen with a slight fear of anger and hatred for abandonment, she became a slightly older-looking humble genius with a microscopic fear of the anger of others and slightly larger hatred for abandonment.

As we neared the bank, which would close in about ten minutes, I said goodbye: "Well...enjoy your night." I say as I stop in my walk, a few meters from the entrance of the bank.

"Oh umm......good bye. We will be at your store tomorrow for more books." She says starting to walk away.

I smile as she walks off then shrug off the notion of taking her out to dinner after a few weeks of being friendly.