Pinkie Pie's delivery run was almost over, just a few more orders from Sugarcube Corner and then she gets paid for the week. She would usually just buy a bunch of sweets and party supplies, but this time she had another thing on the list: A toy shop.
It was a mystery how the toy shop appeared in the first place. It had only popped up about a week ago. Pinkie was excited to buy some toys and meeting a new resident of Ponyville! Sure, Pinkie was too old for toys, but she didn't care; 'Never too old to have fun!' as Pinkie always says.
Pinkie finally arrived at the last stop on her run. She knocked on the door. Thunderlane opened it up, greeting Pinkie. He looked left, then right, and then left again, then held out some bits.
"Hurry, I don't want anypony to see me." Thunderlane declared. Pinkie Pie exchanged a bag of cookies for the bits, and then he quickly shut the door. Pinkie was okay with it, it was the same thing every week.
"You’re welcome!" Pinkie yelled. With that, Pinkie was done with her deliveries. She then headed back to Sugarcube Corner.
An hour later, Pinkie was standing in front of the toy shop. With bits jangling in her saddlebag on her waste, she trotted inside.
The shop looked very old, with layers of dust covering everything. Even though it was bright outside, the room was dimly lit, except for the light shining through the windows, which made the floating dust visible. The room was filled with shelves of pony figurines. Looking at them, Pinkie realized that each one of them incredibly detailed, almost looked realistic! Pinkie was so dumbstruck by the dolls she didn't notice the shopkeeper had walked into the room. He was an old stallion who was fairly tall, and his coat was a dark grey. His mane and tail were white and very messy. His left eye was pure white and his right one was a dark blue.
He watched her for a couple of seconds and then faintly smiled. "Interested in my dolls are you?" he asked. His voice was deep and rough, but had a benign tone to it.
"Oh! Yes! They are so detailed! Did you make them yourself?" Pinkie asked, turning to the old stallion.
"You can say that.” He replied, and then chuckled to himself.
Pinkie turned back to the dolls on the shelves. It was then she noticed there were labels of towns on each section of the shelves. There were many she recognized; Trottingham, Canterlot, Manehattan, Appleloosa, Hoofington, Phillydelfia, Las Pegasus, and many others she didn't know. Everyone one of them was filled with figurines. She then spotted a shelf labeled "Ponyville" but it was completely empty.
"I collect them you see. I've been all over Equestria collecting these dolls." The stallion replied. With that Pinkie assumed that the shop doesn't actually sell dolls, but buys them.
"Collect them? I thought you made them?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, you can say I collect them and create them, at the same time.” A smirk came across his face. “Next on my list is this little town.” He gestured to the empty shelf labeled Ponyville. “That's why the shelf is empty."
Pinkie was confused, but curious. "Well, um okay then. It was nice meeting you, um..."
"You can just call me Dust." Dust declared, quickly turning his head to her.
"Okie Dokie Lokie!" Pinkie replied. "Well I better get going. Thanks for showing me your collection!" She turned around to the door, but stopped, turning back to the dollmaker. "Oh and my name's Pinkie Pie."
"It was a pleasure meeting you Pinkie." The old stallion replied. "You should drop by tomorrow, you can watch me ‘create’ my dolls.”
She wasn’t too sure about it, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Alrighty! I'll be sure to!” She replied. “See you tomorrow!" Then she trotted out the door.
“Perfect.” Dust said, smiling.
