This story began like many others like it. With a knock.

“Is anybody in there?”

A knock at the most unusual time.

“Hellooooo!?”

Although were this door at any other place, the time wouldn’t be that unusual. But since this door, and by extension the house the door was connected to, was in the residence of Hollow Shades, a small, dark town, in the central part of, by itself unusual, Equestria, the time of day, which was eight o’clock in the afternoon, was quite unusual. Most residence of the small town would say it was quite early, most residence of course being nocturnal bat ponies.

“Helloooo!!??”

And so the banging and yelling continued. Until the door violently opened, causing the yellowish mare to almost fall face first. She looked up and, to her surprise, before her stood a pony, unlike those frequently found in Hollow Shades - a unicorn, grayish-purple in color, with an unkempt mane resembling a beehive and bags under his eyes, swollen enough that one could keep a bit in it.

“What do you want?” the unicorn grumbled, his voice still rough from sleep.

The mare jumped back to her feet in an instant letting out a toothy grin, with an obviously missing fang.

“I would like to buy a book!” she lisped slightly.

“Store’s closed.” The stallion replied pointing to the sign on the window.

“Pleeeeaaaseeee…”

“No.” . He tried closing the door, but the mare put her foot in it.

“Come ooonnn, neighbor…” the mare persisted. “We are neighbors, you know?”

The stallion opened the door slightly.

“Ain’t got no neighbors.” He answered, still face and voice conveying no emotion whatsoever.

“Kekeke…sure you do! I live on the floor above you…”

He looked up. There was a floor above his store, but there were no doors around the building to suggest that one could live there. He scratched his chin.

“I guess it will be an early day…night…whatever.” He said and opened the door, letting the mare in.

She squirmed in delight and jumped inside. Her expression of joy slowly soured as she looked around the shop – a dusty place, completely unorganized with books viciously crammed on the shelves and piled on the floor and under tables.

She turned around to speak to the stallion, who had just switched the sign on his window and was walking to his desk.

“It’s…it’s a bit messy here…” she murmured, trying her best not to insult to shopkeeper.

“Just moved in here. Haven’t got the time to fix it up.” He sat on his desk and took a drink from his coffee.

“Weren’t you gonna open later tonight?”

“Mhm…I figured I would be done by then.”

“I don’t think you would have been done by then…” the mare’s voice drifted off as her eyes were caught by one of the shelves, ready to burst and spew its content out, like a literary gazer.

“Probably.” The stallion replied, taking out a book of his own from underneath the desk.

The mare stepped towards the shelve and inspected the names of the books. “Hyper advanced meta-biology for the uninformed”, “Dreams and you: Where to go and what to do?”, “Woodblowing and glasscarving”. It was dawning on her that this shelve most likely didn’t have what she wanted

“Umm…Excuse me?” the mare turned to stallion. His eyes peeked over his book, “Ten thousand knock-knock jokes revolving around the themes of lead and glass” and levitated his coffee mug to his lips.

“Yes?” the unicorn finally asked, tired of waiting for the bat pony, who seemed quite mesmerized by his levitation trick.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just…I haven’t seen magic before…” she blushed, while tucking some of her long, dark hairs behind her ear. “I am looking for a book…”

“We have many.” The stallion cut her off.

“Yes…I see that…” she spoke with what she believed to an annoyed tone, but her lisp prevented her from sounding any more threatening than a squeaking toy. “I’m looking for a specific book.”

There was a moment of silence, as the bookkeeper read his book and his client waited for his reaction. He lifted his eye once more over the pages of his tome.

“Which…is…?” he prolonged the words as he motioned her to continue with his hoof.

“Oh, um…yes…the book is “The wings on which you carry me”. It’s a romantic book, written by a friend of mine, about a lonely bat mare, who…”

The shopkeeper had stood up and allowed the bat pony to continue on, giving the resume of the work. He looked through some of the shelves, sliding his hoof across the dusty books until he found what he was looking for. With the use of his magic, he eviscerated a giant book from the shelve, almost causing the entire thing to collapse. He levitated it towards his desk, the bat unable to turn away from the simple display of magic.

“Try this.” He spoke, his voice as measured as ever.

The pony peered over the book, which took up the entire desk. Finely detailed lavender flowers were carved into the cover, which seemed to be made out of oak and on it, with golden writing were the words: “Erocracy: sexual psychology and how it affects the everyday life, social structure and political order of bat pony society”.

“This…this isn’t the book I wanted…”

“It’s more or less the same, minus the purple prose, really.”

“I don’t think it is…” the mare scratched her neck.

“Sure it is.” The salespony said with as much confidence as he could muster, without actually having read “The wings on which you carry me” nor “Erocracy”. “I’ll give you good price for it.”

The bat pony slid her hoof across the cover. She gently opened the tome, revealing what seemed to be an ancient manuscript, with the font being almost unreadably small, while at the same time having drawings with so much detail, it boggled the mind how it could actually fit on a two dimensional plane.

“How much?” the bat pony asked, flipping the pages, unable to break away from the book.

The stallion rummaged around his drawer, pulling out a card, which he placed on the desk with the words “Bit payment only”, and a black worn out notebook. He flipped the pages, dragging his hoof at the appropriate one.

“Twenty four Canadian deutschmarken.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

The keeper took another look at the notebook. He squinted his eyes and licked his lips in between quiet, unintelligible high-pitched drones.

“37 bits, please. Sorry about that.”

The bat looked at the card on the desk and back to the unblinking, tired eyes of the unicorn.

“Only bits, eh?”

He nodded. The mare shrugged and took out a velvet purse, undoing its ties with her mouth and pouring the money on what little free space was left on the desk.

“Your business was most welcome here.” The shopkeeper said, his voice unwavering as he opened one of his drawers and pushed the money into it.

“I’m glad it was. I plan on coming again later on tonight.”

“Mhm…” the stallion wasn’t listening anymore and was back to reading his book.

“I’m Noschtiana Cloud.”

“Sorry?”

“My name. It’s Noschtiana Cloud. You can call me Noscht for short.” Noscht spoke with a friendlier voice.

“Oh, um, Nebulous. Nebulous Haze. Pleasure.”

“Likewise.” She answered not moving away from his book.

Noschtiana let out a small, gentle smile. She grabbed her book and immediately dropped it on the floor, a loud thump echoing through the store.

“The hell? What’s this book made off?”

“Twenty kilograms of paper and forty kilograms of woods I believe.” Nebulous answered, without missing a beat.

“I think I might have some trouble carrying it back home…”

“Shush…” he cut her off, waving his hoof. “Listen.”

Noscht perked her ears. There was a squeaking sound coming from one of the back rooms.

“The raccoons are back. Take the book and get out. Change the sign as well. I think I might open up a bit late today…tonight…whatever.”

For the first time tonight, Nebulous’s voice conveyed some sort of emotion. And that scared her. Noschtiana quickly grabbed the book and with all the strength she could muster she pulled the book out of the store, switching the sign on her way out.

She looked up at her window and then down at the book. She clicked her tongue to the distant sounds of cursing librarians and squeaking raccoons.