The light of a new day shone in through the window. Libel was already on her hooves, two hooves. She was performing squats as music played from a phonograph nearby, filling the room with upbeat and vigorous music for her to move in the tempo with.
"Nine..." She imagined a life where doing some daily exercises was the height of her problems. "Ten." She clopped her hooves with satisfaction even as she fell forward, catching herself at the last moment, then flopping on her side. The next part had less to show externally as she tried to work those internal muscles. She just had to imagine holding back the great floods.
She would hold them back like any other pony would. She would walk funny, but not make a mess, all the way to the bathroom. "Two..." It was actually a little refreshing, she decided. Getting up and immediately throwing herself into physical motion like that. Sleep fell away with effort, she found, and it wasn't a bad effect. "Four..."
It hadn't helped, yet... But she had just started. She wasn't ready to call it quits just yet. "Five." She rolled up onto her hooves. "Yeah." She felt ready to tackle the day. She trotted over to her kitchen, grabbing a slice of bread with a wing and dropping it in her toaster. "Today's going to be a good day," she told herself with a little smile.
Day Dreamer pulled a key free of his pocket and slipped it into the door, twisting his head to unlock and open the door in one motion. "Hey, Color; I have great news for you." He put the key away and walked inside at his placid rate, looking around. "Color?" But there was no sign of the unicorn anyway.
He wasn't hiding behind his easel.
He wasn't hiding behind the couch.
He wasn't even hiding in the fridge, though there was some tasty leftovers in there that Day took a break to enjoy, mmm... "You're a good cook, bro..."
Day climbed the stairs up to the second floor and casually slipped through an open window, flopping out onto a ledge. Turning and climbing once more got him onto the roof of the house, but Color wasn't even there. "Bummer..." He had a letter for his eyes, and his eyes were absent for enjoying it.
He sat down on the roof and looked up at the sky. The clouds were making nice patterns, he decided. He slowly settled down. He would be ready when Color showed up. First, a little nap. He faded off beneath the warm rays of the sun, reasonably content with the world.
Color stepped off the train, one more unicorn among a crowd of so many others. It was a curious feeling. There weren't nearly so many back home, and there he was, surrounded by points on all ends. Part of him wanted to pause and pull out his paints. The framing of a scene was powerful in his mind and his muse demanded it be paid attention to. "No," he told himself, keeping himself moving straight. "I have to talk to her."
But where was she?
His letter hadn't had an address, coming or going. How had he not thought of that before?! He clopped a hoof against his face. "Right..." He had to approach it logically... "She's an editor..." He looked around, wandering the wide avenues of the city before his target came into view. As he veered towards it, he was cut off by a family of unicorns that peered at him oddly.
He shook his head, moving past once they were gone. "What's their problem?" Sure, he wasn't as fancily dressed... at all... but he was a unicorn, just like them. He strode up into the library with a hopeful little smile. "Excuse me?" His voice echoed off distant halls. The building was large and cavernous, filled with books and studying ponies. the latter hissed at him loudly.
He blushed and went silent, hurrying towards what appeared to be the front desk. "Excuse me," he repeated much more quietly. "I'm trying to find something by a particular writer?"
The librarian looked up past her half-rim glasses. "Hm? Oh, I'd be delighted to help." She pressed her forehooves together lightly. "What is their pen name?"
"Uh, Libelous Word?"
"Ooo, the Words." Her eyes fell as she turned to a filing cabinet that she began to search through. "Very famous, those ponies. What is it Libelous writes..." She frowned a little, a minute passing without results, only increasingly frustrated noises. "I can't seem... to... ah!" Her horn glowed as she pushed herself with magic to the next cabinet. "She isn't a writer, I imagine." She began flipping quickly. "And... mmmm." She searched busily, but seemed to still be having trouble. "She's not a producer, so..." She moved to the next cabinet.
"I feel confident now..." She resumed the search eagerly. "Here we are!" She plucked out a folder and her magic nudged her chair back over towards Color. "She's an editor." She set the folder down in front of him. "Feel free to browse, but that has to stay here; Library policy."
Color nodded as he lifted the folder in his magic. "Thank you. I'll be right there." He pointed to a nearby table. "If that's alright?"
"Go ahead." She smiled a little and looked to the next pony in line.
He walked over to the table and sat down at one of its wide-bottomed chairs, setting the folder in front of him. "There has to be a clue in here." He flipped it open and saw Libelous Word, Editor. There was a list of credits and other things she'd been involved with. It seemed she had written a few things before and he smiled.
It looked like she even tried writing a single bit of fiction, but most of her work was decidedly non-fiction. And most of those, in turn, she had editing credits for. There was a news clipping stuck in there, with another writer calling her praises. "Without her, I would have been lost in the third chapter. She set my words straight and fixed my head while she was at it. I would be nothing without my editor!"
He smiled a little, imagining a pony hugging Libelous thankfully. "Aw, you've made friends." He willed the paper aside to look on. Ah ha! "Current occupation, head editor of the Canterlot Canter." Jackpot! He pumped a hoof quietly, lest he bother the library attendants. It was scary, in a way, being famous enough that any random pony could check who you were and where you lived.
He snorted at the thought. Maybe, one day, his art would be so popular he'd be found in some filing cabinet somewhere for any random pony to look up. That'd be something... He picked up the folder and returned it to to the front counter. "Thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome." She took it in her own magic, returning it to its home. "Have a nice day."
Color turned, just to pause. "Oh, um... Do you know where the Canterlot Canter's office is?"
She hiked a brow, then pointed a hoof. He followed the hoof to see she was pointing at a phone book. "Oh." He flipped open the book and got to flipping through it quickly. Eventually he found a half-page ad advertising the Canterlot Canter, and it had an address on it! You were supposed to write to it to get a subscription, but it was an address and a clue. With a big grin, Color fled the library at a spirited trot.
He moved through the streets, dodging and bobbing around other ponies. How did ponies live so close together?! He didn't grasp it, but he had a mission and he meant to fulfill it. He ducked under a pane of glass two ponies were carrying as if they were just waiting for someone to crash into it. How anyone survived, he did not know.
He passed a store that emitted enticing smells. He hadn't had lunch, but shook his head. He had a mission, and he pressed onwards past it. "Just you wait..."
The crowd began to thin as he went. He was pushing towards a very nice part of town, but also very businessy. He guessed the ponies were all inside the large buildings, working. Towering walls and fine gates kept those that belonged inside and safe and those that did not belong out and away.
He was one of those that did not belong. He peered at the gate in his way. A plaque announced it was the home of Canterlot Canter, or something close enough to it? Maybe some kind of holding company? Whatever it was, he was sure it was the target. He walked up to the gate slowly, hoping quietly someone would just emerge at that time and give him someone to explain himself to.
"Can I help you?" asked a voice without an obvious source, seeming to come from somewhere in the iron bars itself.
Color reared back in surprise. "Oh! Um..." What was he there for? What did he say?! "Is Libel in? I mean, Libelous. Libelous Word."
"Do you have an appointment?" asked the voice, unsympathetic and slightly uninterested.
Did he? Of course he did not! "Um, It will just take a moment. I'm very sorry to take up your time."
A heavy sigh echoed over whatever spell was being used. "Do you have a name?"
He perked his ears at the gate. Name. Yes, he had one of those. "Color Splash. Um, tell her I'm just here to say a quick thing."
There was quiet.
Libel tapped quickly at her typewriter. She was feeling energized and in control. Sure, she still had a problem, but she was facing it. She'd conquer it! First, she'd conquer that prose. As if passive sentence structure would be allowed to stand in her presence. She laughed at the pitiable fate of the words she harshly edited. "You know better than this," she chastised the writer who wasn't there. She knew the stallion, good pony, but didn't learn from his writing edits very quickly.
She pushed the typewriter back to the start of the next line. "Interesting article at least." She didn't often have time to actually read as she edited, focusing on where things fell apart rather than absorbing the material itself. That time she had the chance. She blamed it on feeling in the zone. The words flowed and were shaped at her hooves and wings. "One of your better pieces."
"Miss Word," spoke an intercom just to her right.
"Yes?" She glanced over towards it. "Did I forget an appointment?" She couldn't remember a reason her secretary would need to interrupt her.
"You have a guest at the gates."
Her typing stopped and her brows came down. "Is it that slow earth pony? Day Dreamer or whatever?"
"That would be nice," sighed out the secretary. "No. Doormare says he's a unicorn. Color Splash? Do you know them?"
Her hooves fell and her heart thumped in her chest. Why was he there?! She had written him a nice letter. It was a perfectly good letter that explained, succinctly, that there were no hard feelings and she remembered him well and to not come! And yet, there he was... "Celestia..." She bonked her desk with her forehead, flopping bonelessly a moment. "Alright, I have this. I can handle this..."
"Ma'am, you're still holding the button down. Do you need me to tell them to send him away?" There was a brief pause that Libel jumped on.
"No!" She bounced to her hooves and stormed out of her back office to where her secretary was. "No! No more running from my problems." She took a slow breath. "Cancel any appointments I have in the next few hours. I have a ghost from the past to face." Libel dared a little smile. "Who knows, maybe it won't be so bad?"