[Fillydelphia] An Uncommon Collection (Open to all!)

[RarityDash]

Gray Lexis sat as his desk inside his untidy, overstuffed bookshop, a bored look on his face. For all the countless books around him in his vast collection, nothing was really grabbing his interest just yet. In all the thousands of books he had, there wasn't one he hadn't yet read, and he was running low on ones that would be particularly compelling to read again. This troubling situation called for extreme measures for the part time author, part time adventurer and full time eccentric.

He needed to plot a new adventure. It had been quite some time since the last. A good spell in the field would do wonders to cure the old stallion's boredom. Perhaps he would find some new books? Or maybe he'd be inspired to write another himself? Maybe he'd find a nice younger mare or a general good time? Maybe he'd just find something great he'd never seen before? That alone could be worth it. Regardless, whatever he did find in going, it was about time he went somewhere. But where would he go? Another trip to Las Pegasus, though fun, would hardly be called an adventure at this point. To the far north maybe, to see the Badlands and what was beyond them? Down to the south to explore the wilds of Unyasi where the zebra roam? There were so many options, it would take a while to plan. He'd need something to do in the meantime...

"Spirit Flame!" he called out, back into the shop. The sleepy eyed filly, almost ghost-like in appearance with hew wispy white mane, stepped forward from between tall stacks of books. Gray had found Spirit on an earlier adventure; she was a filly brought up in the wilds of the Everfree Forest, away from pony society. Since finding her, Gray had been focused on teaching her all he could. As the years passed, the filly learned well and he grew fond of her, coming to think of her almost as a daughter. She also served him well as his most trusted (and only) assistant.

"Yes, Mr. Gray?" Spirit started, as she moved toward her beloved teacher, tilting her head.

"Open up the shop! Let the customers in!" Gray said in an excited voice. Customers were what he needed to fill the time until he had a plan drawn up for the next adventure. Who knows, maybe the exact sort of book he was looking to read would arrive right on his doorstop without him having to go anywhere.

"Customers?" Spirit spoke, shaking her head. "But there never are any... whenever you open the shop, nopony ever comes..."

"Ah, but my dear Spirit! Just because the number of customer's we've served in the past is so very small it can hardly be measured does not mean today won't be the day that fate guides just the right pony through my door!" Gray said. It was a rarity they let customers in. Though his collection was more or less setup as a bookshop, Gray loathed to part with his books, all of which were quite rare and valuable, so the shop generally stayed closed off except in a rare case like now where the old stallion actually wanted to deal with customers. "But that will never happen if the shop remains closed!"

"Okay, Mr. Gray." Spirit said with a nod. She opened the door and flipped the sign for the shop to the open side, glancing it over as she did:

Gray Lexis' Wondrous Archive of Recherché Tomes:

We BUY and on very rare occasion, if we feel like it and you have a lot of money to spend SELL books of:

rarity, worth, significance, obscurity, exiguity, oddity, unconventionality, exoticness and intrigue.

Please do not waste our time or yours with common, ordinary, everyday books you could find anywhere, we have zero use for them here.

Now Open

Gray nodded as the filly returned. Customers would surely respond better to this sign then the last, which had said similar things but had been twice as long and a single consistent font. Gray hoped so, at the very least.

[Thrylos]

Ink Soul was always interested in books, because they gave him inspiration, and Ink never gave up the opportunity to find new ones. On the occasion, he would be in a city for reasons and would go out. Intrigued by the bookstore he had once looked at, but had always been closed no matter what time he came, the black stallion, on his last try to visit the store, he saw the open sign, and happiness almost choked him!

His strange, orange eyes gazed inside, and paused as he looked at one of the books. This no time for window shopping, Inky! Putting his hoof down, the unicorn stepped slowly into the store, not seeing the small text in between 'We BUY and' and 'SELL books'.

[RarityDash]

"Aha! A customer!" Gray started at the sight of the silver-maned, black unicorn stallion, so surprised to get a customer so quickly that he almost fell over backwards.

Spirit Flame reacted more naturally, seemingly unfazed. The filly approached the stallion quietly and offered a nod, before starting to deliver her rehearsed lines in a dull monotone, "Hello and welcome. Thank you for choosing to visit Mr. Gray's Wondrous Archive of Recherché Tomes on this fine morning/day/evening. My name is Spirit Flame. Is there something in particular I can help you with, my good sir/miss?"

"Haha!" Gray laughed, jumping suddenly from behind his desk and landing right in front of the much younger stallion. He didn't take the time to even acknowledge his assistant's stiff, quirky introduction. Instead he jumped in immediately with his own question, "Did you come here with a book to sell, my boy? We pay quite well for books of interest!"

[Thrylos]

Ink Soul looked at the little filly, who didn't seem quite as happy as at his appearance as the suspected owner of the store. The sudden appearance of Gray made Ink Soul jump.

"Oh...the only books I have are my own! I was wondering about purchasing something...rare?" Ink looked directly At Gray, intent and excited. "I've read almost everything I can get at the library, and I really want to read something more..."

[RarityDash]

Gray's enthusiasm instantly faded. When they did get customers it was usually this sort. People thinking they could waltz into the place and walk away with one of his prized books. The nerve of it all! Though, that said, if the price was right he'd part with a book. He did need money to help finance his adventuring after all.

"Every book before your eyes could be called rare. Not a one of them is the sort of thing you would find in your common, everyday library!" Gray boasted proudly. "Spirit, my dear, show this good stallion the 'choice selections'!"

"Okay, Mr. Gray," Spirit replied in her usual completely even monotone, giving a small nod.

She looked at Ink Soul, "Follow me," she said, moving toward a shelf in the corner. The so called "choice selections" were all books that Gray didn't really care about. They all had rarity of some manner, but they we're all either on subjects so bizarre or obscure that not even Gray could take an interest in them or they were just kind of poorly written or flat out wrong.

"Might I suggest one of these?" Spirit added, as she pulled two random books from the shelf: an illustrated guide to hat fashions in Equestria over 1000 years ago and a spell book containing over 200 spells all of which could turn various things various shades of purple. Almost immediately after pulling them, her weak magic gave out and she dropped them on the floor.

[Thrylos]

Ink Soul could see the light fade in Gray's eyes. Sighing, he followed Spirit and looked at the books. Both he had never seen, but they weren't...intriguing...that was when the unicorn dropped the books, and Ink Soul bent down and picked them up with his own magic, then helped Spirit of the ground. Putting the books away, Ink smiled a little at the filly.

"Are you okay?" He inquired, while peeking at the books on the shelf of "choice selections". Though rare, some Ink Soul had read, and others didn't make any sense to read for his wishes. There was one, though...pulling it out, he dusted it of and looked at the first page. Deciding this was the one, Ink Soul pulled it out and placed it in his book bag.

[RarityDash]

Spirit tilted her head at the question asked to her. Was she okay? What an odd thing to ask? Her life signs were perfectly normal and there was no signs of any outward stress being directed at her. She had merely dropped some books because of her innate inconsistent when it came to magic that wasn't offensive in nature. Oh... she supposed this pony didn't know about that. That was probably the reason for the question.

"Yes. I am perfectly well," Spirit replied in a low voice. "I just do not have the best control when it comes to many forms of magic, that includes tactile telekinesis."

Nearby, Gray was watching the two with interest. He noticed the stallion select a book for himself and stow it away. Curious, he approached.

"What's that you've chosen there, colt?" Gray asked, hoping the book was something he could bear to part with.

[Thrylos]

Ink Soul listened as Spirit spoke to her, then turned quickly to Gray. "Oh, this?" Slowly, Ink levitated it out. "I would love to read it..." As Ink watched Gray, he had a bad feeling for why the light had faded in his eyes, and started to count the few bits he had.

[RarityDash]

Gray sighed, not even looking at the book levitated toward him and instead focusing in on the paltry number of bits the pony seemed to possess.

"Every book in this shop is in itself a valuable artifact. A mere hoofful of bits like that simply won't cut it," Gray said with finality. "The very cheapest book in this shop I price at no less than 50 bits!"

He gave a reluctant sigh before shaking his head. "However, that said, I have no qualms about ponies reading the books in my shop if they'd so like. That choice is yours."

[Thrylos]

Ink Soul's eyes widened at this, but sighed. "Then...I can read it in the shop?" Ink hoped dearly that this was fine, and looked intently at Gray.

[RarityDash]

"Yes, that's perfectly fine," Gray started with a nod to the stallion's question.

Spirit looked at her teacher curiously, head tilted to the side. "If you never sell books, why isn't the store a library instead, Mr. Gray?"

"Ah, Spirit, you have so much to learn! People don't come to a library to sell books! That's the important part!" Gray said with a hearty laugh. "Besides, then we'd have ponies in the shop all the time! It'd be a mess!"

"Oh, I see," Spirit said with a steady nod to the old stallion. The shop was already entirely disorganized though, so she couldn't really imagine it being much worse.

Gray gave a small yawn and nodded to the customer. "If you need anything else, Spirit will help you," he said before walking back over to his desk.