The Cider Factory Cronicles
'It's a beautiful morning' Bookmark thought as he woke up from Celestia's sun shining though his open window warming his grey and black spotted face. He rolled out of bed, magicked on his glasses, and watched as the sun lit up the horizon.
'A good start to a hopefully great weekend' he thought.
First though he had to open shop for a few hours , so he trotted into his bathroom to get ready. His parents always had the family bookstore open every Saturday till early afternoon and he was certainly not going to stop that just because he was the only one running the store now. Bookmark looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. His bright red mane with dark red tips was everywhere. He looked much like his father with his grey with black spots coat but his mane and grey-red eyes were all his mother's. He missed them of course, but that was something to think about after a shower and this bedmane wasn't going to fix itself.
With his shower done, mane and tail tamed he slid on his dark red vest. Bookmark then picked up his father's silver pocket watch; flipping it open to see the family photo on the inside of the cover. He smiled softly at the old picture and after checking the time, he slipped the watch into its pocket. "Well mom, dad, its time to open shop." the stallion said to himself.
With the morning tasks done and a blueberry muffin floating in his magic, Bookmark trotted down the back stairs from his apartment above his bookstore to the front door where he opened shop. He stood in the doorway looking out into the sky thinking about his store. His own bookstore ran, stocked, and actually quite profitable all because of him. His success at running the shop alone made him feel like he was doing his parents proud.
"Hey! Ya gonna let us in or just stare into space!?" yelled an amused voice.
Bookmark looked down to see a orange Pegasus filly with a deep purple mane standing in the doorway with one of Bookmark's best friends, a white Pegasus with a red-yellow tipped mane, and goggles on his head, Summer Scorch was his name. His friend just grinned at him and shook his head at Scootaloo's enthusiasm.
"Didn't know you loved reading so much Scoots." Bookmark replied smirking at the filly. She hadn't liked reading much till she saw Rainbow Dash reading a Daring Do novel. Now she was in his bookstore quite a lot looking for books to read.
"Of course I do! Rainbow Dash says its cool to read, so I'm going to read all of the Daring Do novels and stuff because they're almost as awesome as Rainbow Dash!" she replied with smile. "So you got the new one?"
"Of course! I have all the Daring Do novels in stock, they are some of my favorites." Bookmark replied, leading the group to the action/adventure section. Spotting the newest book in the series, "Daring Do and the Lunar Regalia" Bookmark pulled it out with his magic. He held it out for the little filly and asked, "Is this it Scoots?"
"Yeah! This is gonna be so awesome!" she said, her tiny wings fluttering with excitement.
They migrated to the front counter of the store where Bookmark looked up the novel in his ledger, wrote out the purchase and turned to Scorch and said,
"Okay then that will be 10 bits."
"What?! Why are you asking me for the bits?" Scorch asked incredulously.
"Hey bro you are the one with the job and well Scoots sorry to say, she left you with the bill." Bookmark said laughing.
"Wha-"
Scorch looked at the now empty counter and turned to the front door to see Scootaloo rocket by on her scooter yelling "ThanksforthebookScorchloveyou!"
Scorch sighed and reached under a wing for his bit pouch and mumbled to himself, "Love you too kid." Smiling at his words he counted out the bits and Bookmark grabbed them with his magic.
"You are so good for her Scorch. You're like the big brother she never had." Bookmark said smiling wide at his friend's generosity towards the little filly.
"Yeah, well with her dad gone she needs somepony to be a father figure to her ya know?" Scorch replied a faraway look in his eyes. "Her mom works hard for her so she doesn't have to worry, but she can't do it all."
"Well it's a good thing you're there for her then, Scorch." Bookmark said walking around the counter to put his hoof on his friend's shoulder.
Scorch shook his head slightly saying quietly "I hope it's enough."
Bookmark smacked Scorch on the back of the head with a hoof. "Of course it is you dolt! That little filly loves you and obviously you love her. She might not be blood but she is still your little sister, so to speak."
Scorch rubbed the back of his head but smiled and said "You're right I'm just being dumb." he walked towards the front door adjusting his skewed goggles.
"I know, you tend to do that." Bookmark said poking Scorch in the side.
"HA HA very funny Marky-Mark." Scorch said frowning,"You going to The Factory tonight?"
"Does Celestia raise the sun in the morning?"
Scorch laughed putting on his goggles and readying himself for takeoff. "Okay bro see you there. I might be a bit later than usual, Scoots mom is going to be late coming home."
"Okay sir, see you there!" Bookmark said as Scorch shot off after Scootaloo flying low and dodging everything in his way.
"You're a good big brother Scorch, though you might want to get over your fear of heights if you want to teach Scootaloo to fly." Bookmark said to himself smiling as he trotted back inside.
*************************************************************
Bookmark looked up from the book he was reading when he heard the bell over the door. Walking in was a purple dragon with green spikes. "Hi Spike!" He said enthusiastically looking back at the door to see if a purple unicorn was with the young dragon.
"Hey Bookmark, and before you ask Twilight was too busy researching some magic thing to come down. I'm here to put in the order for Twi'." the young dragon said giving Bookmark a knowing smirk.
"I can't be that obvious can I?" Bookmark said, ears dropping and a slight blush on his face. He knew he was pretty enamored with the mare, but he dared to hope a baby dragon couldn't see the obvious feelings he had for the bookish unicorn.
"To everyone but Twi'? Yeah you are!" Spike said laughing.
"Ugh. Okay whatever. Its fine, but I just wish I could get Twilight to look at me. I mean as more than a friend. I just don't want to ruin our friendship." Bookmark said, downtrodden. He liked Twilight since he had first met her. She was different from other mares to him. Even the town beauty Rarity known to be fashionable and attractive, had nothing on Twilight in his mind. She was beautiful, smart, funny, and her mannerisms were so cute. Bookmark wondered if it had something to do with her enthusiasm for knowledge and books in general that had attracted him in the first place. He remembered the first time she entered his store.
The bell rang above the front door like it always did when a customer entered.
"Hello and welcome to Bookmark's Bookfort!" Bookmark said enthusiastically glad to have a customer, it would take his mind off why the store felt so empty.
A lavender mare with a dark purple mane with a pink streak smiled at the greeting and trotted over to the front counter. He thought she was beautiful the moment he saw her. His thoughts were just as surprising as the mare before him - he had never felt this way about anypony before, let alone at first sight. Bookmark wasn't immune to a mare's charms, as he had been hit on before, but there was something about this one that made him hope she was single and interested - something he had never worried about.
"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle." she said introducing herself.
"Um Hi....I mean hello, my name is Bookmark and this is my bookstore!" he said mentally hitting himself for screwing up his introduction.
"It's quite impressive that somepony my age runs his own store." she said smiling.
Bookmark's face fell a bit, but he smiled still trying to be polite. "Actually it is the family store, just well, I am the only family left. My parents died recently and I took over running it by myself."
"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"
Twilight started to say with a stricken look on her face, but Bookmark interrupted her with a soft smile, "It's okay, don't worry about it, they're in a better place, at least I like to think they are."
"That is a good way to look at it Bookmark." Twilight said softly.
"Well anyways, enough morbid talk. What can I help you with?" Bookmark said with a grin.
"Well I need a supplier of books for the library, the mail service that was in place before was so inefficient. Can you help me?"
"If that's all you need Twilight, you came to the right colt. I didn't get my book cutiemark for construction." Bookmark said glancing back at his cutiemark, an open book with his namesake in the pages.
"Excellent! I was hoping you could help me." Twilight said. She opened her saddle bag and pulled out her list of new books she would like to order. Bookmark's eyes lit up at the long list Twilight had with her and thought 'I swear to Celestia, this mare is after my heart.'
Spike felt sorry for the stallion. The one mare that catches Bookmark's eye just happened to be Twilight Sparkle, one of the most gifted unicorns of the age and apprentice of Princess Celestia herself. It was all well and good and made her quite the catch, but Twilight was a bit of an eccentric and not the most socially graceful of ponies. Her idiosyncrasies were certainly not the most endearing qualities, but something about this mare caught Bookmark's eye. Spike had no clue why, but who was he to judge even if it was Twilight.
'I mean she had to be told by Princess Celestia as homework to make friends.' Spike thought shaking his head at his oldest friend's craziness.
Bookmark's feelings were obvious to Spike and anyone paying attention, but Twilight couldn't see what was right in front of her face.
Spike sighed.
"Listen Mark I,uh... think Twilight might like you." Spike said looking around nervously.
"Really?" Bookmark replied skeptically. He would love to have heard this, but he was also realistic and saw no sign from Twilight that she felt anyway more about him but as a friend.
"Well yeah, she was really upset about not being able to come down to put in the order for the new releases. Then again, being Twilight, that might just be her wanting to make sure all the books she wants are getting ordered." Spike said shrugging.
"Yeah that does sound like Twilight." Bookmark said, a bit disappointed that her feelings weren't clearer... but it was his own fault. He could just ask her and know for sure if she liked him as more than a friend, but he was afraid of being rejected by the first mare that made him feel this way. He also didn't want to screw up their friendship.
He loved spending time with Twilight. Having her come in to place orders for new books was something they did together every week. Twilight would bring her long list and Bookmark would make suggestions of other books to go with the ones she wanted. She never had enough fiction or any books for children, he would always convince her to add some so the library got even more patrons.They would also talk about Twilight's research into magic and friendship, as well as any new books they had read and what they thought of them.Bookmark loved works of fiction, more so than Twilight, even though she did enjoy immersing herself in such literature from time to time. Her favorite books involved magical theory and other non-fiction. She had recommended many good articles and journals on magic and other interesting topics that Bookmark really enjoyed that he never would have found if it wasn't for her. They would talk for hours - much longer then it would normally take to put an order in for some books. If a customer came in, Twilight would even help Bookmark around the store. She was a great friend to him and he had fallen hard for her.
"Listen, Twilight talks about you quite a bit at home and to me it seems like she could be interested, it's just Twi' is not the most socially adapt pony ya know? So you might just have to tell her how you feel because she may not see it." Spike said hoping he could help the poor lovesick stallion.
"Yeah you're probably right Spike, it's just... I don't want to ruin what we already have."
"Well you do what you have to. Here is the list," Spike said holding out the rolled up scroll with a faraway look on his face. "I'm gonna go see if Rarity wants to hang out."
Bookmark pulled open the list and said, "Okay, sounds good. I'll order these and deliver them sometime this week."
"Thanks! I'll let Twilight know. See you later Bookmark." Spike waved goodbye as he walked out the door.
"Yeah see ya." Bookmark replied, his thoughts still on Twilight. He wanted to ask her out on a date, but he wasn't sure if a mare like her would care for a lowly bookseller like himself. The stallion shook his head, getting his head out of the dumps. He had to get working if this list was going to be taken care of for next week and he wanted an excuse to go see Twilight!
'Celestia I got it bad,' he thought to himself as he got to work.
******************************************************************
"Okay all done!" Bookmark declared a few hours later just in time for closing. He had finally completed the paperwork and order forms for Twilight's new books and a few new releases for the store and himself. It would not have taken as long if he didn't have to help customers all day, but he wasn't complaining. It was what he lived for - helping other ponies find the perfect book just for them. The fact that he had read most of the books on the shelves of his shop really helped in that regard. Reading was Bookmark's first passion in life, and while it might have come from growing up running a bookstore with his parents, he had no complaints. He could have done anything he wanted. His parents would have supported him but he just loved books and sharing their secrets. So running the store was enough for him.
He remembered earning his cutiemark - the first time he recommended a great book to a new customer.
Bookmark had just finished reading a new series at the time and just wanted someone to talk to about it. Daring Do was just too cool of a character to keep to himself. He spotted a young colt like himself browsing the store's fiction section. Right then, Bookmark felt he had discovered the perfect opportunity to strike up friendly conversation/break the ice with somepony his age and talk up his new favorite book.
"Hey I'm Bookmark and if you are looking for a book you should read this!" he had said holding out the book in his magic.
"Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone." the other colt read aloud and seeing the cool jungle action scene on the cover, the colt was intrigued.
The white Pegasus looked back at Bookmark's smiling face and asked, "Alright, what is it about?"
Bookmark grinned wider and started describing the first book in the then, new series of novels about Daring Do, he rambled aimlessly jumping all over the place and sounding half insane. At least that was what the young colt thought as Bookmark talked his mane off.
Bookmark loved talking about books with his parents, but this was the first time he had talked with anypony else about them. He mostly kept to himself in school and didn't have any friends at the time. That didn't bother young Bookmark though he had his books and his parents. He didn't need anything else or so he thought.
"-It's just a really great and fun book!" Bookmark had finished describing and was now beaming still running off the high of finishing a great book and then sharing it.
The Pegasus colt just shook his head, laughing at Bookmark's crazy ramblings.
"Okay, this sounds like a cool book. Thanks a lot Mark! I'm Summer Scorch by the way. We should hang out sometime, you're crazy!" Scorch shook hooves with his new friend Bookmark, grabbed the book in his mouth and trotted to the counter where a Pegasus mare, Scorch's mother, was waiting.
Bookmark smiled, happy that he could share such a good book with his new friend. He never noticed his new cutie mark till his father walked over and congratulated him.
"Good job son! We will have to celebrate!" his father said.
"Celebrate what Dad?"
"Your Cutie mark son, heh heh you didn't notice?"
Bookmark looked at his flank and saw his mark, an open book with a bookmark in its pages.
"Oh my gosh! This is just the best day ever!" Bookmark just danced around shouting how "Awesome!" this day was.
The proud smile his father gave him just topped off one of Bookmark's happiest moments in life. He made a new friend, found his special talent, and discovered a great new series of books.
Life was good.
Bookmark shook himself out of the past.
'Wow, I've been reminiscing a lot today' he thought to himself.
He looked up at the clock. "Whelp, time to close up shop," he said to nopony in particular.
Bookmark packed away the paperwork, grabbing it in his magic to drop it off at the post office on his way to meet up with his friends at their regular weekend meeting place - The Cider Factory.
