Of Quill And Ink [Ink Script]

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Quill walked around her shop, rather bored with a severe lack of customers. It wasn't an unusual occurrence, since her little store was quite out of the way. Still, her days were quite dull. She straightened a few crooked feathers and rearranged one of her ink displays. Things were quiet and she didn't like it, so she began humming.

Finally, she heaved a big sigh and made her way back to the counter. Pulling herself onto her stool, she looked around the room once more. Not surprisingly, it was empty. Quill but her lip and, at length, decided to get some writing done. She usually avoided doing so because it put her in a trance and made her liable to snap should a customer demand her attention. But I did seem like today would be a bust, so she might as well.

Reaching under the counter, she pulled out a stack of paper and her own ink and quill. It was the story she was currently working on, a thrilling chronicles of a young earth mare named Trinket. Immediately, she dipped her quill in the navy blue ink and began writing.

Trinket crept carefully through the dank halls, acutely aware of every sound. Her senses were heightened and adrenaline coursed through her. Her heart was beating at a million miles a minute, and she could see her breath cloud the frigid air before her. She felt a tremor run down her spine as she felt eyes on her back. She was beginning to wonder if she was truly alone in this dead place.

"H-hello? Is anypony there?" Out of nowh- Quill jumped sharply as the bell on the front door rang, signalling a customer. Quickly, she attempted to calm her racing heart (she had rather often into the character of Trinket) and put a welcoming smile on her face.

"Hi, welcome to Quill's Quills! I'm Quill, how may I help you?"

[leontrifera97]

Ink had just gotten into town, and he still didn't have a job. So, his father was probably going to make him sleep outside. Apparently, unless he got a job, his father believed he shouldn't get the privilege of sleeping in his own bed.

But, while he was in town, he may as well pick up some ink and quills. He was deciding whether or not to continue The Lost Chronicles of Garnet Dreams. So, he was gonna write a few trial chapters, and see how it went. Ink Script slowly pushed open the door, hearing a bell ring out.

The mare behind the counter seemed to snap to attention from something she was writing. Then, she smiled.

"Hi, welcome to Quill's Quills! I'm Quill, how may I help you?"

He slowly blinked, biting his lip. Oh come on! You're just buying quills and ink! That's... Heh. Ironic. She's Quill, you're Ink, you're here to buy quills and ink... Hehe... Ink coughed a bit, masking the chuckle.

"U-Uh, I need to, um, buy some quills and ink. Preferably, uh, raven quills or bluejay quills." He didn't know what it was about those specific types of quill, but they just wrote better than the others.

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Quill studied the pony who had entered her shop. She had never seen him before, but she supposed that wasn't unusual. She didn't know most of the ponies in this town. He was young, perhaps even her own age, which was unusual. He had a blueish gray coat and pitch-black hair. His eyes were a deep green color. The colt who was now standing in the doorway looked a bit nervous, and coughed before speaking.

"U-Uh, I need to, um, buy some quills and ink. Preferably, uh, raven quills or bluejay quills." He was definitely not a normal colt. Not only was he here alone, but he actually seemed to know what he was looking for, outside of "Um...quills...I guess...". It pleased Quill that she wouldn't have to worry (too much) about losing her patience. She hopped down from her stool and walked over to a shelf close to the counter, pulling down a box that contained a bright blue feather. Next, she trotted across the store and pulled down another box, this time containing a black, purple-sheened feather.

"Well, here's a bluejay quill and a raven quill, but you'll have to a bit more specific about the ink. You can see some samples over there," She pointed to a paper hanging near the door with lines of various colors on it, "And the bottles are right there next to it. If you're looking for a specific color, I can check in the back for you." She smiled at him and placed the quills on the counter for him to look at before settling herself back on her stool and reviewing what she'd written so far.

[leontrifera97]

(Didn't notice until now, but I was using Neon Lights' color speech ^^

"Uh, I use Midnight Void black ink. It has a blue label on it with golden lettering. Blackest eye popping ink I've ever come across. Oh, and do you have any parchment as well? Not the kind that cracks around the edges, the kind that you can just smell is fresh."

Ink Script grew silent afterwards, hoping he didn't sound too picky. He just, didn't like his parchment falling apart, or his ink looking drained or bland. And, this mare didn't seem too bad... What was she looking at? Hm... Whenever she left to get his ink and parchment, he could take a peek... Wouldn't hurt...

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Needless to say, Quill was shocked when the strange colt replied almost immediately, asking for a shade she herself was partial to. She smiled at him and stood once more, making her way to the (very small) back room of the store. It wasn't hard to locate the bottles, since they were perhaps the sharpest color in the tiny space. That and they were in a box right next to the door. Yeah, that probably had more to do with it than the color.

She grabbed two of the bottles and set them down to search for the parchment. Of course she had some, quIte a lot In fact--she was a writer, and thIs was a writing shop. She stared around her at the boxes for a moment before picking on at random and pulling the flap open. Finding only a ridiculous amount of bright red ink (why had she bought so much?!), she closed the box and turned to another.

This process repeated itself for a good five minutes. Disappointingly, she had only found an array of unusual ink colors and a box of feathers she had yet to make into quills. She was becoming frustrated, and could only hope the colt had not gotten bored and left. Blowing a bit of hair out of her eye--or trying to; it didn't do much good--she returned to her search. I really need to put this in order, She thought. Finally, she found her parchment in several boxes, which had hidden themselves in the corner. They must have gotten there on their own, because Quill knew she didn't put them there.

Victorious in her search for the elusive paper, she gathered the requested items and returned to the main room of the store.

[leontrifera97]

As soon as she went to go look in the back, he walked around, and began reading. Wait... this is good... This is really good... She's a writer? That's awesome! Ink began to delve into the story, reading as fast as he could, as was his norm. This is great!

He had no idea how long he had been reading, but then he heard hoofsteps coming into the room. It snapped him out of his reading phase. Ink turned around, giving a smile. "This is really good."

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Quill's face dropped as soon as the words sunk in. The strange colt was hovering over the papers on the counter--her papers. Her story. He was reading her story. In that moment, a look of pure rage crossed her face. She was gritting her teeth and glaring as hard as she possibly could at this nosy stranger as she spoke again.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you normally look at private papers without permission? Or are you just feeling particularly snoopy today?" Quill was absolutely seething. She hated it when others read her unfinished work. And while she wasn't an expert on manners, she was absolutely certain that this was not considered polite by any standards. He had come into her shop, interrupted her writing, sent her into the back room to fetch his order, and then immediately violated her privacy by reading her incomplete story! All she could think as she waited for an answer to her sarcasm was, "How dare he?!"

[leontrifera97]

Ink wasn't expecting that... The venom in her voice told him to back off. He inched away from the papers, trying to find some mixture of words that could ease, n-no, fix, no, help, no, no, no, no-Oh, Celestia, you're hyperventilating! Ink grabbed a bag, and began breathing in and out, trying to calm himself down.

As soon as his breathing returned to normal, he looked up at her. "I-I'm sorry... I-I j-just, I-I mean, I-I, um, I-" He grabbed the bag again, repeating the process from before. "Y-You see, I-I'm a writer too, a-and I was just... I mean, I should've asked you if it was, um, o-okay, a-and, I-I-I'm really sorry..." Ink slowly gulped, trying to get himself under control. He was freaking out!

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If there was one thing Quill wasn't expecting Ink to do, it was freak out. She did not foresee him pulling out a paper back and hyperventilating into it. She just didn't see it coming.

So, it was understandable for her to be a bit take aback. Obviously, she was still angry, very much so, but at the moment all she could give him was a quizzical look as the colt attempted to stammer an apology, with little success. However, somewhere in his sputtering, one phrase stood out to her and suddenly her anger was taking a backseat.

"You're a writer?" Her head was cocked to the side curiously now. "Are you published? What book did you write?"

[leontrifera97]

Ink calmed himself down, enough to where he was sure he didn't need the bag. He set it aside, swallowing slowly. "You're a writer? Are you published? What book did you write?" That was... definitely unexpected.

"Uh... Y-Yes... I-I wrote, "The Lost Chronicles of Garnet Dreams"... I-It's not my best work. It's just something I actually managed to finish." His mind had always been bursting with ideas, so he strayed from stories quite often. Since he didn't have to put a lot of effort into the character, he managed to finish it pretty easily.

[Deleted]

Quill felt a bit of disappointment at hearing the name of the book. The Lost Chronicles of Garnet Dreams had been a decent enough book, if you didn't really care about character depth. Unfortunately, the pegasus cared quite a lot about it.

To Quill, the most important part of a book was a realistic, relateable character. She wanted to read stories where she could believe that the ponies involved actually existed. She wanted the author to fool her into thinking the events of the novel were real, no matter how silly it may seem. When she was reading Garnet Dreams, she thought the characters rather flat. Their were a few surface personality traits, but none of the random little details she enjoyed. Nothing to hint at any sort of a deeper character. The whole thing was pretty two-dimensional. She had finished the book feeling incredibly unsatisfied. What baffled her the most about it was that the book was popular. Nopony else seemed to notice how very shallow it was.

Still, she understood what it was like to be struck with inspiration while in the middle of a totally different project. It was frustrating, because she knew it meant she might never finish the original story. Still, she followed her Mistress Muse wherever she went, as if lovestruck. Her Mistress was quite fickle, but sometimes managed to stick it out for a whole story. Even though she liked to jump around, Quill would never dream of leaving her.

"I know what you mean." She nodded slowly as she spoke. "Sometimes it's hard to stay with a story. It's not really something you can help." Then she remembered that she was mad at this colt. "B-but that doesn't mean you can just read my stuff without asking! Who do you think you are?!"