A Moment of Truth

The Answer

"And with his head held high, his tail lowered, and the hand at the end of it clenched, the noble Ahuizotl marched straight to his superior." Ahuizotl read, the fans of his very first book enthralled.

"What happened next, Mr. Loati?" a blue unicorn filly cocked her head, her pink mane falling over one shoulder. "Did that bossy bully named Chikoomba threaten to shiskabob Ahuizotl like before?"

Ahuizotl, who apparently went by the name of C.V. Loati, chuckled at the little girl's anxiety and curiosity.

"Easy, Child. You will see as I continue," he assured the filly, directing his attention back to the book afterwards and reading, "Stopping not very far from Chikoomba's desk, Ahuizotl looked his boss straight in the eye, the memory of once again failing to protect an artifact fresh on the front of his mind. And so, with a nervous deep breath, he-"

But just before he could finish reading finish reading the sentence, a chime struck. Ahuizotl directed his attention to the round clock on the wall, his captive audience swiveling their heads to follow his gaze.

To the dismay of both him and his readers, the clock said it was 7 o'clock at night. Closing time for the bookstore.

Ahuizotl sighed at this contemplation.

"I'm so sorry, my friends," he said to his audience, who turned their attention back to him, "But, it appears that our time is up."

Knowing that he was correct about this, but saddened that he didn't get to finish the story, the audience awww'd in response. Many of them even looked down at the ground in sadness.

"Please, Mr. Loati. Don't stop yet." The same filly said, even giving Ahuizotl puppy dog eyes.

"Yay, just a few more minutes." A white-furred and black maned earth pony stallion begged, putting two hooves together as did.

And with that, the rest of Ahuizotl's newly found fan club began begging for Ahuizotl, or Mr. Loati in this case, to continue reading the story.

The desperate beggings of his audience left Ahuizotl absolutely stupefied. In all the years he'd lived, he had never left someone wanting anything more than to get away from him. He found himself yearning to answer their pleas, but in the end...he knew he couldn't evade the inevitable.

"As much as I'd like to keep reading until we reach the end, I'm afraid I can't," he said to them sadly, before brightening up for them. "But if you really want to know what happens next, take a look in the copies you have and you will find out. If you don't have a copy yet, though..."

He suddenly looked down to the ground.

"Well, if you don't have a copy yet, you'll just have to wait until the bookstore opens in the morning to find out." He finished.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence amongst the creatures in the bookstore. Ahuizotl continually looked down at the ground, and he expected the audience to quietly leave due to him letting them down.

"Mr. Loati." A mare's voice said to him, drawing his attention away from the floor and towards a yellow mare with a pear-green mane.

As expected, he saw the mare's disappointed look, much like the others were giving him.

But then...

Her expression changed to a grateful smile. It was something that caught Ahuizotl completely by surprise.

"Thank you," the mare said to him with a nod, "thank you for sharing this story with us, with the whole world even. Ahuizotl may not be a real character, but I don't think I'm ever going to look at him as anything other than how I see him now. Your book is even better than the books by A.K. Yearling and Mr. Martingale."