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// Chapter 4: Voices From the Past 
// Story: Looking For Trouble 
// by CoffeeMinion 
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Miss Ditzy and I sat down at her dining room table. It was wood, and circle-shaped, and she’d set a single candle in a saucer in the middle of it. Darn thing guttered pretty badly in the drafts that blew through. The light looked real pretty on her hair and eyes, though. And on her smile.

“So, what brings you by the old place?” she asked.

I bit my lip and watched the light play across her golden eyes a bit longer than I probably should’ve. After a while she gave a musical little laugh, and all at once I felt like I could wait forever to say anything if only she’d continue.

“Cat got your tongue?” she asked, winking.

“Powerful sorry, ma’am,” I said, shaking myself. “Seems like all the words I wanted to say just turned into a ten car pileup in my head.”

She giggled. “I don’t think we’ve had ten working cars in Canterlot since…” Her smile faltered. “Sorry. Sometimes it still doesn’t seem real, even though I was right there when it all happened.”

I raised my eyebrows, and I asked, “You were?”

And she nodded, saying: “It was during a school event called ‘The Friendship Games.’ It was just supposed to be a fun time for us. We’d seen a little bit of magic earlier that school year, but we never knew what it really could do. What someone was planning to do. If it wasn’t for Sunset, I can’t imagine how much worse things might’ve been.”

I nodded, then scratched my chin. “So this Sunset played a role in stopping the demon-girl I’ve heard about? I mean, was there even a demon-girl, or an angel?”

I remember her nodding. Then she said: “Yeah, Sunset is our angel. Was, at least. She saved me and some others who were close to the fight.”

“Well I’ll be darned,” I said. “I ‘spose it’s for the best that she saved a teacher, then; reckon there are lots of places that could use a good one.”

She shook her head. “No, I was a student back then. Berry’s older sister, Miss Cheerilee, was our teacher for a long time, until…” And Miss Ditzy trailed off, frowning, and it was a few moments before she spoke again. “After she died, Canterlot needed a teacher. And after I had Dinky, I needed a job. And the one bright spot in everything that happened around that time was finding out how much I love kids!”

And she gave me a lil’ smile, and I nodded some more, and I felt like we was really starting to make a connection, so I went for broke: “Well, to give you the whole story, I’m just in town looking for a man who might’ve been through here some time back. Fella had a strong build, white skin, blond hair, square jaw, and a compass rose tattoo.”

Now, as Harmony is my witness, she started shaking right then and there. I stopped talking in a hurry, then leaned close to her and put a hand on her arm and asked if she was all right. “No,” she said, pulling away. “I don’t know what happened to… that man. I’m sorry.” And she said it with a little pause in there and everything.

That little pause spoke volumes for me.

“Look,” I said, “the truth is that I've been told not to talk to you. I don’t rightly know why, but given that there might be someone dangerous involved, I gotta take everything suspicious into account. And folks telling me I absolutely ought not talk to you after finding out who I’m looking for is powerful suspicious, when you couple it with how you seem to feel about Mr. Blueblood…”

She stood up, making her chair squeak against the wood floor. Then she turned away from me, still shaking. “I’ll thank you to go now, Mr. Clyde,” she said.

And truthfully, under the circumstances, what else could I do? I tipped my hat, left her a few bits for the window, and made my way outside. I was pretty flustered, though. I felt as though I’d done wrong by a good woman, and done my usual job of ruining my prospects with a pretty woman. And worst of all, I didn’t feel my hunch had brought me any closer to Blueblood, or to what he stole.

It took me a good ten or fifteen minutes of wandering and feeling sorry for myself before I realized that I had learned one thing: Miss Berry had had a sister, who was now deceased. And as I got to thinking about it, Miss Ditzy Doo and Berry had both reacted to Blueblood’s name. I got to wondering if Miss Berry’s scars might be a link between the whole thing… like maybe Blueblood did some right ungentlemanly things to Miss Ditzy and Miss Cheerilee, and Miss Berry got hurt trying to put a stop to ‘em.

But then there was what Miss Berry had said about Sunset. I’ll tell ya, it changed my whole conception of Canterlot to realize that the angel-girl who tried to save the world was still hanging around, trying to keep her town orderly. But if there was one thing I could tell about Blueblood, it’s that he wasn’t gonna mix too well with “orderly.” Figured he and Sunset would’ve had words with each other, if he passed through. And that got me wondering where she might hang out. Figured maybe if she stuck around out of a sense of guilt, or duty, or what have you… she’d be in the middle of it. The place where it all began.

Canterlot High.

Now findin’ it was easy enough, since every passerby knew just where it was. Though with all due respect, after I made my way over there, it struck me that the place is less to look at than I’d expected. For somewhere that a demon fought an angel and magic’s still supposed to run wild, I wouldn’t figure it would just look like any other broken-down ol’ building with a big, sandy crater on one end. I’ll at least say someone’s put some effort into building that nice ranch house next to the ruins, though.

The little house’s curtains were closed, but its lights were on. And of course, one real nice thing about ranch houses is that there’s only the single floor, so it’s not too hard even for a klutz like me to get right up next to a window and just listen. The insulation must’ve been pretty good though, all things considered, ‘cause I still couldn’t hear much more than hints of voices. I heard one of a woman that I didn’t recognize straight off. But then imagine my surprise when I heard another that I did recognize—and it was Berry’s!

I figured we had to be in the middle of her watering hole’s peak nighttime hours, and it’d be costing her an arm and a leg for every minute she was closed. Didn’t she care about the money? Or maybe with the booze stockpile she’s got, she’d be just fine making everybody wait a night to get their fix?

I didn’t have much time to think about it, because just then, I heard something that made the hair on my arms stand right up on end. Suddenly there was a third voice, this one male.

I wanted to look. I didn’t dare, though, with three people in there who might well peek back. So I just strained hard listening for details while they talked. It struck me as odd that the women never talked around the same time as the man, though it seemed like everyone got to have their say. I heard a couple things that sounded like landmarks, and I heard the word “grave” come up more’n a couple times. I didn’t want to push my luck, though, so I made sure that I was good and hidden ‘round the back side of the house once it sounded like the conversation was winding down.

I held my breath as I heard the front door click and footsteps crunch out on the little gravel path to the house. I did at least risk peeking my head around and taking a gander. I half wondered—more’n half hoped—that it’d be the man I’d heard. But just my luck, it was Miss Berry. She didn’t look too pleased, what with her hands stuffed in her pockets and her marching off with great big steps. But she was going, and that left me with one less person I might have to deal with in the house.

I listened for a while longer, wondering just what the other woman and the man might get up to. You understand… I just mean as two persons of interest. But there was nothing; just stone cold silence. I waited out there ‘til I couldn’t wait no more, then took a breath and gave a really quick look through the window. I made out a woman sitting at a table with a bottle and a shot glass in front of her. I squinted, trying to make out any details about her, but all I could make out was long hair with some decent volume, and shoulders that looked padded, like maybe she was wearing a leather jacket or something. There was no sign of the man, though.

It was getting pretty late by that point. I figured that whoever else was left inside the house, they’d been there, right in town. And unless they felt the urge to bolt yet in the middle of the night, I reckoned I might do a better job of sleuthin’ with a bit of sleep…