The Golden Spine, a small bookstore on the streets of Canterlot had very few visitors. It wasn’t very large, tucked away in a small corner with a cafe across the street that seemed to bustle with traffic everyday. The hanging sign out front had been moving softly in the breeze, and it’s curtains pulled wide to let the sunlight come through to a small circle of chairs that were currently empty.
The only one within the building that day was Ginger Spine, a red maned colt with a grey coat that sat behind the counter. His own eyes scanning the pages of one of the large leather bound books splayed around him. His hoof travelling down the center as he read before a sound jolted him from his personal study.
Ginger Spine looked up and saw a small filly, looking around at the tall bookshelves and tables piled high with books. She seemed to be amazed by how many books were there, as well as how high the shelves went, going to a second story with a stairway to the second floor to reach the high tomes.
“How can I help you today little filly?” Ginger Spine asked with a smile as the Filly jumped, jolted out of her own daydreams.
“O-oh!” She started to trot toward the counter and get on her hind legs to look up at Ginger, “I was wondering, if you maybe had any books by Blue Horn The Bashful, or maybe about him?”
Blue Horn The Bashful, that was a name he hadn’t heard or read in a while. Ginger raised a brow looking down at the little filly, her coat a shade of purple with a darker shade for her mane in an almost navy tone. He looked around the shop and started to step around the counter to look down one of the rows and nodded.
“I think I may have one his old journals someone made copies of, most of it in the old days when he started to chase wild theories and old mares tales.” Ginger admitted and smiled looking down at the Filly, “Why would you want something like that, aren’t you a little young to be reading something like that? Some of these ponies were not nice, not a bit.”
“My teacher, she wants me to find someone’s own personal words to help explain to me how to take a good record of things. She said I should keep a diary, to help me remember what I did.” The Filly explained as she looked at the clerk with a smile.
“Well, that’s a good reason.” Ginger said with a smile as he walked down one of the rows and looked around. His hooves moving quickly as they pulled out books at seemingly random points, causing him to shake his head and slide it back into place before he stopped near the center and pulled a small blue book from in between two massive red tomes. “Here it is, this one is about his journey to find out how the ‘Mare in the Moon’ story began.”
“Mare in the Moon?” The filly asked as she looked at the weather worn book, clearly it was older than she was as Ginger smiled.
“Yes, he believed that there used to be another princess that controlled the moon, one that did something that caused her to be banished and imprisoned on the moon.” Ginger said and offered the book which the young filly grabbed with her own magic, “You see every story, even old legends like this, have some kernel of truth.”
“Oh, so is that why Blue Horn looked for this Mare in the Moon?” She asked as Ginger nodded.
“Seems as he got older the stallion got the worse he got, it’s recorded in one of the books about his life how he was trying to tell those caring for him that there was another Princess, one who wanted to be let free.” Ginger said with a sad smile, “One that just wanted to be appreciated.”
“Oh wow...that’s really sad...” The Filly said looking at the book, then up at Ginger. “Oh how much do I owe you for the book?”
“Let’s just say, you tell a few more of your friends and your teacher to come by the store? I need more business and I’m sure it’d do be better for business than to have me putting up fliers.” The Stallion said ruffling the little fillies mane causing her to giggle.
“Thank you so much! I’ll tell the Princess when I get back to the castle!” The little filly said as she rushed to the door, causing the stallion to shake his head on the way back to the counter.
“Fillies sure have a wild imagination.” Ginger said looking out the window seeing a pair of guards standing nearby and started to walk with the filly. Ginger shrugged then looked back down at his book and saw a faint glare from something on the floor, not wanting something that could possibly make a pony fall he got up and picked up what turned out to be a photo that had gotten dusty from the floor.
With a wipe from his hoof he cleaned the dust off and saw the filly, clearly a bit younger than she was currently, with Princess Celestia standing next to her. Giving one of the most honest smiles that he had ever seen on the ruler, which made him shake his head and put on his book.
“Seems like things will be getting a bit more interesting in Canterlot.” Said Ginger with a light chuckle as he went back to his own book, “Now where was I-” He started before he heard the light ringing of the bell and a pair of dark clad ponies come in.
“We come here for a book that you bought last week, from a stallion who took nearly nothing for it.” The shorter of the pair said, clearly a mare from the sounds of it.
“Of course, I think I remember the one.” The Stallion said as he reached under the table and pulled out a small bound book. “I assume you two are friends of his?”
“Former.” Said the larger of the two, his voice causing Ginger to have a shiver down his spine.
“He stole the book from us you see, it is very important for our organization.” The Mare said, putting her hoof up to block the stallion.
“Oh, I’m very sorry. Here, let me just put this in a bag for you.” Ginger said smiling as he put it inside a small bag and put it on the counter, “I read through it, not a bad read. I never thought someone would put so much through into the particulars of the legend to connect it so much with the past. You could make a pretty penny in the Historical Fiction market.”
The two ponies were standing stiff, both their heads were covered with inky black cloaks and Ginger could only see their hooves. The feeling of them both staring at him started to take him off ease, it went on for many minutes. The only sound was the breathing of them all.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” The Mare said finally as she walked up and picked up the bag and put it in her saddle bag. The stallion blew a bit of air out of his noise as he nodded.
“I hope to see you again soon Mister Spine, I’m sure some within our circle this store will be quite the Hot topic.” The Mare said as she started to exit the store, the stallion staying in for another moment, his eyes burning a hole into Ginger’s head before snorted and walking out.
Ginger let out a long sigh of relief after they were well out of sight and rested his head on his counter.As he rested it down, the last few nights of reading the book that was just taken by it’s rightful owners’ were starting to take its toil. As he rested his head, he started to fall into a light sleep, a long nap that he only started to stir from when his head rolled from the large book and nearly off onto the ground if he hadn't caught himself.
“I really shouldn't read so much during the night...” He muttered rubbing his neck, looking out and seeing ponies heading home from the cafe. His sign having been blown so it read closed was well and good. He smiled as he started to head up toward the door picking up the key from it’s place on the counter he heard somepony start to shout.
As he turned to look, he saw a bottle break through his window and into the center of the reading circle. Where the sun had been absent, a new light erupted. Ginger looked with fear as a bottle broke on the middle of the carpet and fire erupted from it. He looked out and saw another pair flying toward his windows causing him to rush toward the door when he saw flames start to light at it.
The flames moved quickly, over the old rug and hardwood flooring and onto the old oak shelves. All long dry from their years of being indoors, with the books on their selves as a perfect additional fuel to help burn the fire brighter. The reflection of the fires danced along the broken glass on the floor as he heard shouting from across the road and screaming.
As the smoke started to pour from the burning burning and out onto the streets, fires licking toward the buildings next to it with unicorns and all sorts of ponies working to start to help put out the blaze with Ginger inside, he looked out of the broken window and saw a familiar pair of figures. Both seemingly staring at him as the fire raged as the voice of the mare sounded in his head.
“Seems you sure are a Hot topic like I said.”
Author's Note
Something that seems fun to write, hopefully folks like this enough to continue it.
