the ticket master

[allcomplete]

Clarity writes up the events of the defeat and reform of Nightmare Moon, including the fact that her crown is apparently continuing to exist, and makes two copies - the original in personal notebook stash, one tucked into the back of "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide", and one sent to Princess Celestia via mailing spell with the suggestion that it could be published in its own volume especially if either Princess would care to add notes on the parts Clarity didn't personally witness.

And she sets about settling into Ponyville.

She learns her way around - here's where she can buy carrots and bunched dandelions and clover sprouts; here's where she can get a case for her crown and cases for everpony else's necklace so they don't have to wear them or leave them lying around loose; here's a shortcut between Guiding's house and the tower the twins live in together. This is when this little town wakes up in the morning and this is when everything closes at night. This is what her friends do all day: Cherry Cordial farms and looks after critters. Brightblaze tinkers with gadgets kind of singlemindedly (though she also flies). Silver Streak plays violin and and reads and wanders around looking at things. Guiding Star does fortune-telling for spare bits and belongs to a dance group and volunteers for anything going on in town that could use amateur decorating (Joy is often with her when she does this). Joy also wanders around being sociable and helpful and cooks, itinerantly, for anypony who'll spare him kitchen space.

And Clarity learns the organizational system of the library, with Blueberry's considerable help, and she studies and explores.

And when she's been in residence for just shy of a week, she gets a letter from the Princess, which contains six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. Aww, that's thoughtful. Clarity's never been before.

She goes out to see which of her friends she'll run into first if she takes a meandering path through town.

Comments

[allcomplete]

"Sounds like a plan!"

Clarity's cake is gone now. She clinks some bits onto the table.

[joyfulnoise]

Joy produces some bits mysteriously from behind his back to cover his half of the meal.

[allcomplete]

"I'll go write to my parents and see what I have in the way of a library budget now, I think. Then reading. Thanks for the restaurant pointer!"

[joyfulnoise]

"No problem!"

[allcomplete]

And off Clarity trots. She writes to her parents and magics the letter away, and writes to the mayor to ask what kind of Ponyville funding she has to work with as the Princess-appointed librarian, and then she settles in for a re-read of a favorite historical fiction about Starswirl the Bearded.

When she gets up in the morning, she decides to wander through a part of town she has not visited yet.

Ponyville isn't that big, but it's big enough to become lost in. Drat.

[clearthestorm]

A pegasus drops out of the sky and lands neatly beside her.

"You are lost," Silver Streak observes. "Where did you mean to go?"

[allcomplete]

"I was just exploring, but now I've lost track of where I am relative to anything I've already got understood," sighs Clarity. "How could you tell I was lost?" She hadn't been exactly panicking.

[clearthestorm]

"You were walking and looking around you in a way that I recognized as lost. If you walk between those buildings there, continue on for a while, and then turn right after you pass the cafe, you'll find yourself in sight of the main street," she says.

[allcomplete]

"Do you just sort of watch everypony all the time in case somepony makes a wrong turn?" asks Clarity, noting the directions.

[clearthestorm]

"I watch everything all the time, to see what I find out. Sometimes what I find out is that somepony is lost."

[allcomplete]

"...Should I let you get back to it? I'm still figuring out how much of other ponies' time it's okay to take up."

[clearthestorm]

"It's not what I'd call an urgent task. I do not mind spending some time with you."

[allcomplete]

"Okay, cool." Clarity starts in the indicated direction, taking careful note of landmarks. "What other kinds of things do you notice? I bet ponies who've lived here for a long time tend not to get lost, and I think that's most of the ponies here."

[clearthestorm]

"I notice who is in the market and what they are buying or selling. I notice how the plants in town are faring and which ones could use more sun or more water. I notice who is out and about and what they are doing."

[allcomplete]

"I can guess what you do about the plants, but what about the rest of it?"

[clearthestorm]

"Sometimes nothing. The things I find out are not always useful. But perhaps I see somepony who is disappointed that the asparagus stall sold out before they arrived, and I can tell them that a different stall is also selling asparagus that day. Or perhaps I see somepony who is debating whether or not to bring their umbrella on a walk, and I can land and ask their route and tell them the immediate schedule for those areas."

[allcomplete]

"You can tell if somepony's trying to decide about an umbrella from up in the air?"

[clearthestorm]

"Perhaps not with perfect reliability, but yes."

[allcomplete]

"How do you do it? This sounds awesome. Even if I don't get the aerial vantage point, I like knowing things."

[clearthestorm]

She smiles slightly. "Well - it's really just looking at things," she says. "Seeing them properly. And then drawing conclusions from what I see. If somepony is fretting indecisively in their doorway and scanning the sky for clouds, and I see an umbrella behind them, it's likely that they are trying to decide whether or not they need it. If two ponies are approaching the same crossroads from different directions and neither is looking where they are going, I should land and warn one."

[allcomplete]

"Huh. I'm usually thinking about other things too much to figure them out like that - I'll be walking down the street trying to compose a report on friendship for Celestia, I should send the first one in soon, or I'm trying to learn my way around and can't interpret things like that at the same time. That's impressive multitasking."

[clearthestorm]

"I have considerable practice," she says. "I'm curious about your report on friendship. What notes have you gathered so far?"

[allcomplete]

"Well, I'm hoping to stick to more or less one theme per letter, in case the rate of new observations drops off after a while and she expects the reports to keep up a the same frequency, but possible topics include the one I just mentioned - that is, how much time ponies should spend with their friends and how to ask about it - and something about what friends do together, and something about how talking about past history can make them feel closer, and something about presents in general like the tickets or how Cordy always winds up feeding me something, and I might have a couple other things written down but I don't have the right notebook with me."

[clearthestorm]

"Cordy likes to distribute food," she says. "I have noticed that. She once told me that it's because it's a simple friendly gesture she happens to be well placed to make."

[allcomplete]

"It's nice of her. It makes me think of tasty things whenever I think of her."