Posted on 2024-02-16 09:25:58
Score: 1 (vote Up)

Story from artist:

*The book store was dim and dusty. Light filtered lazily into the subterranean space through a few high, street-level windows along one wall, giving a strange glow to the muted browns and blacks of long rows of shelves, all neatly stacked with strange tomes and stranger trinkets.*

*Officer Minty Chip stepped cautiously past the entrance, glancing up as a tarnished bell above the door announced her arrival. But no greeting came in reply; the store seemed as abandoned inside as it had looked outside.*

There was no clear way through the maze of oddly-angled shelves, so the O.M.C. pony picked a path at random and started forward, eyes scanning the inventory. By the second shelf she counted three minor violations and two majors, by the fourth she had seen at least two Class Cs. This place was practically radioactive with illegal magic.

*She walked deeper into the shelves.*

Minty wasnt here for a search-and-seize. She was here for him. Shifting Sands. The pony with the phantom shop, no sooner found than it was gone again, replaced by different architecture as if it had never been there at all. Not a phantom shop anymore though. Now she was in it. Now, he would be hers.

She walked deeper into the shelves.

*She hadnt filed anything on this. The Office would want a containment team on it, and by then the lead would be wasted, the phantom shop gone again. Sometimes, you had to seize opportunity quickly, before it slipped away.*

She walked deeper into the shelves.

Sometimes you had to be focused and determined. So focused that she didnt notice the shelves had already gone on far longer than they should have been able too. So focused that she didnt notice when the standard-issue Protection charm around her neck started to glow, then warm, then fall off entirely, disappearing as she rounded another corner.

She walked deeper into the shelves.

Focus was a lot like relaxation. Relaxation was a lot like floating. She felt like she was floating past the shelves now, and floating in her mind too, hooves barely feeling the floor, mind barely feeling her thoughts. She didnt need to walk much, she didnt need to think much. Just let the warm flow pull her forwards.

Deeper and deeper into the shelves.

When she realized she had stopped, she couldnt remember when she had stopped. When she realized someone was speaking, his words were already in her mind, warm and glowing and wonderful. When she realized who he was, Minty could remember what she had wanted to do, but she couldnt want it anymore. All those thoughts, all those feelings had drifted far, far away, leaving the warm, comfortable emptiness his words were now filling. It felt so good to be filled, to be pulled away on the warm current of his words. It felt so good, and the more he spoke the more she wished he would fill her in every way, with every part of himself. If only he would offer.

***

Office of Magical Contraband: Missing Persons Report

Officer Minty Chip did not report into work on [redacted]. Standard sweeps turned up negative, and her issued tracker was left at the office, possibly due to her investigating without Office approval. Her notes indicate research into noted contraband dealer Shifting Sands. The address circled in them was checked, but was discovered to be an abandoned coffee shop that had been closed for at least a decade.

As Office protocols were violated, no insurance will be issued.