The clock on the mantelpiece chimed eleven as Peacock Poppycock swept into the lounge and beamed at her friends. “Big day tomorrow!”
Five ponies blinked at her, blankly.
Peacock sauntered to the middle of the room and casually slipped an open magazine onto the coffee table. “Oh my, what’s this? An article about a limited edition set of signed Daring Do novels? Why, this says that a few are going to be sold off in this very town at noon, today! And a steal for only forty bits!”
Five ponies took in the magazine, and then blinked at her.
Peacock smiles sweetly and backed out of the room. “Well, I’m sure at least one of you has a lot to do today. I’ll just leave you to it!”
Five ponies watched her go, blinking.
Home Body flicked his newspaper to a new page. “You’ve all forgotten to get her a birthday present, haven’t you?”
Five ponies leapt to their feet and bid their host hasty excuses as they raced to their rooms.
“I’ve got to get her those books!” Colonel H. Mustard said, scrounging through his trunk to find his coin bag. “Let’s see, looks like I’ve got fifty bits, so I’ve got plenty to spare. It’ll only take me five minutes to fly to the bookshop. I’ll have one of Mrs. White’s fine lunches and leave at eleven forty-five, leaving me plenty of time if there’s a crowd!”
Green Mail appraised his finances with a critical eye. “Only twenty bits, eh? Well, I know a few ponies who owe me enough to cover the difference. I’ll have a quick lunch and leave at eleven thirty. It’ll only take ten minutes to walk to town in this nice weather, which gives me twenty minutes to, ahem, ‘scrounge up’ the funds. This will be a snap!”
Scarlet Letter slipped on her favorite ruby saddlebag and touched up her hair in the mirror. “I doubt those book sets are going to sell that quickly. I mean, they’re just for foals, after all. I’ll leave for Ponyville at around eleven fifteen and have a nice meal at that darling café. I’ve got seventy-five bits on me, so I’m sure to have enough for one of those little sets when I’m finished.”
Professor Plum Pudding threw clothing, books, and half-finished experiments around his room with his magic. “Thirty-five bits,” he muttered, frantically looking all over his cluttered room, “I’ve only got thirty-five bits! I could have sworn I had more somewhere. I suppose I could sell this set of crystals to the jewelry store… but I was using them for resonance research.” He bit his lip and looked around his cluttered belongings. “Hmm… I’ll keep looking for as long as I can, just in case. If I haven’t found any more bits by eleven forty-five, I’ll teleport to the jewelry store. At least that will give me time to have some lunch first…”
“I’m doing the shopping!” White Wash shouted from the kitchen, pulling a heavy cloth bag out of a cupboard and dropping it into an extra-large saddlebag. I’m a genius! If I scrimp on the weekly grocery budget, I’ll be able to get the forty bits for Poppycock’s gift without having to pay a single bit of my own! I’d better hurry to the market, the longer I wait the higher the prices will get.
As she ran out of the kitchen, she slapped a note on the door before dashing out of the mansion. The note read ‘Buying food because you all eat so much, leftover sandwiches in the fridge”.
Fifteen minutes later, Scarlet strolled out the front door, adjusting her hat against the bright sun’s glare. Fifteen minutes after that, an irked Green strode purposely down the road to town. Fifteen minutes after that, an upset Mustard flew out the front door and there was a flash of magic light from Plum’s room as he teleported away.
Unfortunately, Plum was a bit out of practice with teleporting and overshot his target. He appeared in an alleyway a few streets down, right in front of a large red stallion pulling a cart of apples. His sudden appearance caused the stallion to jerk in surprise, overturning the cart and spilling apples all over the alley. Apologizing profusely, Plum spent five minutes helping him recover his spilled produce.
Mustard had only been flying for five minutes when a rainbow-colored blur nearly knocked him from the air. “-gottabuyitgottabuyitIcan’tbelieveIdidn’thearaboutthissoonergottabuyit-” the blur said as it shot further into town.
“Watch where you’re going!” Mustard shouted irritably, before noting with shock that he’d dropped his money pouch and it had spilled his coins everywhere. He flew down to recover his money.
Scarlet batted her lips with her napkin and sighed contently. The walk into town had only taken ten minutes and due to the café’s excellent service, she’d finished eating in twenty minutes. She left ten bits on the table for the bill, along with five more as tip, and sauntered towards the shops.
“Pleasure talking with you, Davenport!” Green Mail called over his shoulder as he left Quills and Sofas. The shop owner waved him out the door with a smile that was nearly a wince. Green hummed a happy tune as his considered his next move. The walk into town had taken exactly as long as he’d expected, and after spending ten minutes convincing Davenport to extend an ‘advance’ on a loan he’d owed Green, his finances had already doubled.
“Cinnamon nuts!” a rather large and bulky pegasus shouted from a cart along the side of the street. The enticing aroma reminded Green Mail that he hadn’t had much of a lunch, as those sandwiches had been a little on the stale side. Deciding to treat himself, he spent five minutes waiting in line for a five-bit bag of nuts.
White slipped the bundle of asparagus into her bulging saddle bag and consulted her list with a satisfied smile. Ten minutes to walk into town and forty-five minutes spent getting the groceries, but she’d somehow managed to haggle well enough to have exactly fifty-five bits leftover.
“And Home Body’ll never know the difference!” she gloated, before her stomach gave a loud rumble. Deciding she had enough to cover her skipped lunch, she ducked into the nearby Hayburger for a quick bite. She spent ten bits on a complete meal and took a leisurely ten minutes to enjoy it.
Plum spent ten minutes negotiating with the salespony at the jewelry store and left ten bits richer. Leaving the building, he ran into an adorable little filly collecting for the Filly Guides. Unable to say no, the Professor dropped five bits into her collection box.
Mustard stood up with a grunt and stretched a kink out of his back. Ten minutes of searching, and he was still five bits short of his original total. Now thoroughly annoyed, sweaty, and hungry from having skipped over those unappetizing leftovers, he stomped over to the nearest café and ordered a tall glass of fruit juice and a carrot dog, which ran him another ten bits. He sat at a table with an umbrella for five minutes, sipping his drink and cooling his temper.
On the way to the bookstore, Scarlet’s attention was arrested by a beautiful rose-colored hat in a display window. “Why, that would look simply ravishing on me!” she exclaimed, skipping into the store. Completely distracted, she spent twenty minutes perusing the shop’s other wares.
“Try your luck, sir?” a mare in a barker’s cap and coat asked Green as he was passing by her makeshift stand by the side of the lane. She waved her hoof at a tub filled with popsicle sticks buried standing up in sand. “Pick a stick with a heart on it, get double your money back. Find a star, and win ten times the cost to play. Five bits a go, give it a try!”
“Why not?” he said, handing over the fee. He picked a stick and frowned at its blank end. The mare was quite sympathetic until he started pestering her to get his money back. The two of them argued for ten minutes, during which Green was somehow convinced to buy a second stick, which was also a loser.
White Wash was just stepping out of the Hayburger when a trio of fillies dashed across her path from out of nowhere. The yellow earth pony of the trio banged into her and knocked the heavy bag from her back, and a sharp cracking sound heralded a jar of pickles breaking. Furious, White spent the next ten minutes lecturing the apologetic fillies.
Plum munched on his five-bit bag of cinnamon nuts as he walked. The five minute long line might have deterred him any other day, but the smell had simply been too much for his empty stomach. Looking up, he saw Green Mail stomping angrily away from a booth. Curious, he stepped up to see what they were selling.
After hearing the rules of the contest, he happily passed over five bits and pulled out a stick. His eyes widened at the bright little star on the end and then they widened further at the hefty bag of coins the gamespony plopped before him. A small crowd gathered to cheer as he spent twenty minutes celebrating his good fortune.
“Watch out!” somepony shouted, and Mustard jumped aside just in time to avoid a crate falling from the sky. “Hey buddy, can you help us out?”
Looking up, Mustard saw a team of pegasus trying to support a tilting moving van in midair. He hefted the box and flew it up to the team, who asked if he had the time to help them out. He agreed and helped them fly fifteen minutes to their drop-off, pocketing twenty bits for his trouble. Deciding that he’d had enough close calls for the day, he flew double speed back to the shops and managed to shave five minutes off the return trip.
Scarlet emerged from the clothing store wearing her new hat, which had ran her twice as much as the cost of her lunch. She sauntered around the other clothing stores for another ten minutes before heading directly to the bookshop. Along the way, she dropped five bits into the collection box of a charming little Filly Guide.
Green was just about to walk into the book store when another pony walked out of it with a certain box set under his foreleg. “Filthy Rich!” Green exclaimed, instantly recovering from his bad mood as he greeted his good friend. The two of them spent fifteen minutes catching up on business tips, recent deals, and the state of their various investments. In exchange for some inside info, Filthy slipped Green an extra fifteen bits.
White huffed her way towards the bookstore, very annoyed. The detour to get new pickles had cost her ten minutes and the same in bits, so the crowd blocking the road didn’t do her mood any favors. She peered over heads and realized that all this commotion was for somepony who’d won big at a lottery game.
“So you actually can win at these games…” White mused, jangling her less-than-full coin purse. She stepped into the long line of ponies waiting for their chance at the game, but it was worth the wait five minutes later when she pulled a heart for second place.
Dusty Shelves hummed to herself as she cleaned up after the rush. She’d been amazed that her little bookstore had gotten ten of those Daring Do box sets, and they’d been snapped up just as fast as she’d expected. In fact, she only had one left. It had been her most profitable day all month, and it was still the middle of the day.
The chime over her door rang as a pony ran in. “Do you have any more of those… yes!” the pony said, snatching up the last box. But when they brought it to the register and counted their money, they didn’t have enough to afford it. The customer left, muttering to themselves about where their money had gone.
Five minutes later, another pony showed up looking for the box set. And this time they did have enough money.
Who bought the books?
And here's a map if you need it.
